Luxor Part 1 – the Valley of the Kings

The next part of our trip involved a plane ride and then my first riverboat trip. We took a plane from Cairo to Luxor. Our guide said that once you check in with an airline in Egypt, the plane won’t leave without you. We made it to our gate early so didn’t test that. Flying in other countries is definitely less stressful than the US!

We arrived at the Luxor airport and the next destination (the Valley of the Kings) was on the far side of the river. Remember, people live on the east bank, and they are buried on the West Bank of the Nile. The airport is on the east bank, and it’s far quicker to take a small taxi boat across the river than to drive to the West Bank (we were told). So there was lots of boat shuttling when we did most things in this area! We took a bus to the shuttle boat and our luggage was put onto the large riverboat we would be taking down to Aswan.

Luxor was one of the capitals in ancient Egypt. There are 22+ archeological areas found on the West Bank here (tomb areas and temples).

Our first stop was at the Valley of the Kings, where many royal kings and pharaohs were buried in often extravagant tombs. Some tombs were raided early on, even by other kings, while others are still waiting to be found today. Some of the tombs were accessible to people throughout antiquity, and Coptic Christians used them as living spaces while hiding from the Romans. While they lived in these tombs (and also temples we’d later visit), they saw the drawings of gods and humans on the walls as spirits to destroy, in a sense. Often they chipped away at carvings and paintings to take away the gods’ powers. Faces were destroyed, as well as ‘cutting off’ legs so they couldn’t move (chipping through the legs so feet weren’t attached to the bodies). Often there doesn’t seem to be certain rhyme or reason to what areas are destroyed, some carvings and paintings may be intact on the same wall as ones that are destroyed.

The Valley of the Kings

This is where many royal tombs have been found. It is downhill from a natural rock (limestone) pyramid, which made it easy guard from the summit. There are 65 tombs and counting. The tomb numbers are numbered by the order they are discovered in, KV being before all tombs found in the Valley of the Kings. In the 18th dynasty, a dog-leg plan was used for the tomb shape, and by the 19th dynasty, they used a straight axis plan. In this rendition, an entrance was cut into rock, then a corridor, hall, antechamber and finally a burial chamber. They used hammer and chisel to cut out the rock, then put plaster or stucco on the tomb walls. Next black and red sketches were drawn to show what would later be carved and lastly painted with colors. The people who did these jobs were professionals. They had little lighting with castor oil lamps. We can see different points in the process in different tombs because some kings died ‘before their time’ and the tombs weren’t finished by the time they were mummified and buried. With the soft limestone, even large tombs could be dug and decorated in just a few years. There is a western valley off of this called the Valley of the Dogs where 3 tombs have been found (one is non-royal). Up a side trail we weren’t allowed on was the tomb of Hatshepsut, the famous woman Pharaoh.

Tombs owners were determined by whose cartouches are written on the walls, not where a mummy was found (as robbers moved items around ‘in antiquity’ as they say.) The sometimes steep and usually deep entrances were not to deter robbers, but had a funerary function. Tombs would have originally had mummies (in sarcophagi and granite boxes); canonic jars with the mummy’s internal organs (with their stoppers carved with the heads of the sons of Horus: Imsety (human-headed) protected the liver, Duamutef (jackal-headed) protected the stomach, Hapy (ape-headed) protected the lungs, Qubehseneuf (falcon -headed) protected the intestines); statuettes to wait on them in the afterlife; wooden boat models to transport to the afterlife; statuettes of the king; wooden furniture; containers with food, wine, perfume and more for the afterlife; linen clothes including underwear, sandals and wigs; and jewelry.

Our ticket included 3 tombs (we had about six to choose from, not too many are open). We chose ones that sounded like the most beautiful or unique. You do have to pay extra to visit three additional ones (which are not included in your three entry ticket choices) – Tutankhamun (300 EGP), Seti I (1,000 EGP) and Ramses V and VI (300 EGP). We did visit all of those tombs as well, so I visited 6 total at this site. We didn’t have to wait in line at all; it sounds typical during a normal tourist season to have to wait to get especially into the famous tombs.

Tomb of Rameses V/VI (KV 9)/(Dynasty 20, reigned 1149-1145 BCE and 1145-1236 BCE) – This tomb was started for Rameses V and completed for Rameses VI. The sarcophagus of Rameses VI was reconstructed in 2003 from shattered pieces in this tombs and others in the valley. The original face of the lid has been in the British Museum since 1823. Pieces of the granite box the sarcophagus would have been laid in are also on display in the tomb. The paintings in this tomb are not the best preserved.

Tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62)/(Dynasty 18, reigned 1332-1323 BCE) – King Tutankhamen was actually not a highly revered pharaoh… he died at about 19, and it’s only in the last century that he’s been well known because of the finding of his tomb by Howard Carter in 1922. It was a small tomb, the paintings were definitely vibrant. They restrict the number of visitors, as the quality of the paintings can deteriorate with so much dust and moisture carried in by all the visitors (remember these tombs were not made for visitors but to be closed off to the living world forever). It is the only nearly intact royal tomb in so far found in the Valley of the Kings. His mummy is still on display in the tomb (his remains were not well preserved). So while he wasn’t anything special before, that could be what made him special in our day?

Tomb of Sety I (KV 17)/(Dynasty 19, reigned 1290-1279 BCE) – this tomb is the other one ‘discovered’ recently – by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817 (the rest we visited have been open ‘since antiquity). This is one of the deepest tombs in the valley and has beautiful paintings in the burial chamber. Closer to the entrance, the paintings are a bit faded. There is a second chamber that wasn’t finished that has excellent examples of the preliminary sketching stage of the artwork. Some drawings have red outlines and others are made more solid with black outlines (the second step).

Tomb of Siptah (KV 47)/(Dynasty 19, reigned 1197-1191 BCE) – this tomb was pretty long and while the front area was finished, the walls in the back hadn’t even been smoothed out yet. While this one was being dug, they ran into KV 32; the digging was then rerouted.

Tombs of Tausert and Setnakht (KV14)/(Dynasties 19/20, she reigned 1192-1189 BCE, he reigned 1289-1186 BCE) – This entrance leads to two tombs. Tausert’s tomb was taken over as Setnackt’s tomb and expanded to be one of the deepest tombs in the valley. Tausert was first a queen and then pharaoh. This one was largely unfinished near the tomb, and we could see crude carvings as well as unplastered walls.

Tomb of Rameses IV (KV 2)/(Dynasty 20, reigned 1155-1149 BCE) – this tomb was the closest to the entrance of the valley, and after the rest was a bit more underwhelming. There is a decent amount of Coptic graffiti in this tomb, though the paint colors are still brilliant where they are not chipped off.

While we are on tombs, it’s an appropriate time to mention some of the beliefs about the present and afterlives. It was believed that the good and honest people would make it back to the east, from their burial on the West Bank. The underworld was dangerous with snakes and robbers.

Each day, the sun god used one boat to sail across the sky from east to west, and then another boat to sail across the underworld from west to east. Another representation of day, the scarab-faced god (Khepri) was associated with the sun and rebirth, rolling the sun (instead of the earthly dung ball) across the sky. The scarab beetle pushes the sun out of the darkness (birth) and there are 12 sun discs.

Each day has 24 sections in it, 12 during the day and 12 at night. This means that each of the 24 time sections changes over the year, unlike our exactly timed hours of today. There are 12 gates in the afterlife where there are two knives, and a password must be given at each. The gate opens if you have the right password, and if you have it wrong, you are cut up by the knives.

Each person is made of seven elements. Two are the akh (spirit that survived death and mingled with the gods) and ka (a person’s spiritual double, which is separated from them at death – food and drink were left in a tomb for the ka to consume in the next life, and it is depicted and a person with two arms up). An intact body and tomb were needed for the akh and ka to continue to exist. The ba is a third element, which was depicted as a human-headed bird hovering over the deceased or was written into hieroglyphics as exiting the tomb. The ba could go between the living and the dead. Ma’at was the god of Truth, Justice, and Balance and took the form of an ostrich feather. At judgement, Ma’at weighed a person’s heart against the feather of truth and justice. If you didn’t measure up, you would be eaten by a crocodile and hippo.

In the Book of Life (aka the Book of the Dead in some translations) the wealthy could buy lines in the book to be added into it. Many tombs had ‘books’ depicted or written in them. Common ones included the Book of Gates, the Book of Day, the Book of Night, the Book of Earth, the Book of the Dead, the Book of Caverns as well as different stories of gods.

This all barely scratches the surface of anything. One professor took 4 years just learning about the third hour of night in ancient Egypt!

You can find mapping for the tombs here: https://thebanmappingproject.com.