…Egypt (10)
Tuesday, may 11th 2010
after a glorious day of doing nothing, we are very ready to see more…
we pack all our stuff and have it stored in the hotel, because tonight we take the plane to Sharm-al-Sheikh and the bus to Dahab. we gather in the lobby early to take the bus.
…as I already mentioned, the pharaos considered the eastbank of the Nile as the side of the living, so that’s where they built there palaces and most of the cities. the westbank was the side of the dead, as the sun sets there. that is why they built their tombs, pyramids and graves there.
now after a period of building pyramids, they realised that creating these immense constructions might have been wise for everyone to find them, but at the same time that also attracted thiefs and robbers. bugger…
so the pharaos started creating their tombs in the valley of the kings, a desolate, mountainous place, where they dug their tombs in the mountains and hiding them by camouflage. now, as you don’t know where your predecessor dug his tomb, it could be, that you strike that tomb. so then you have to go a different way (if you’re nice) or just kick out all of the old stuff and put in your own (‘the king is dead, long live the king’)…
but funny things can happen too… as Tutanchamon was only 9 when he became pharao, he had a highpriest Ay as his righthand. this guy was in his nineties so it was logical to build the tomb for him first… however, Tutanchamon died first of complications of a broken leg and malaria. so then they put his mummy in the grave for the highpriest for Lord Howard Carter (or actually a 12-year old boy, who discovered the lid to the tomb when they were packing up things to leave) to discover in 1922…
we take the bus very early for reasons of heat and tourists (the first of which works, the second doesn’t or maybe it is even much busier later in the day). we arrive at the valley and are guided by Azza, a friend of Jacqueline’s. she takes the time first to explain about the graves and which ones you can visit, as you can only visit three tombs of about 10 that are opened to the public. they say it is to preserve the tombs, but i think it is because of employment reasons. at every tomb there are officials to pierce a hole in your ticket to indicate you have visited one… hm. what is a little annoying, they walk with you inside, indicate amazing spots to take a picture that I really wouldn’t have found myself (yeah, right!), tell you this is an amazing tomb (I saw that myself walking in, thank you) and then, in the end there is that inevitable fingergesture of the middlefinger moving fast under the thumb… now i understand we are rich tourists and i understand where they come from, but i find this a little ridiculous. never mind, i just do my trusted ‘la, shokran’, works every time!
after Azza’s very nice explanations, we start by visiting the furthest one, the grave of Tuthmosis III. good choice, because everyone starts at the beginning, so there is almost no one yet. also, this is one of the most beautiful ones with a lot of hieroglyphics of everyday life and the stairs and corridors to get there. the grave of his successor, the IV is also beautiful and we visit a third one, which wasn’t finished ;-(
then as Azza explained, you could buy an extra ticket to visit either Ramses V/VI or Tutanchamon’s grave. we take Ramses’s as this is one of those examples, where VI stumbled on V’s, because he reigned only very short and decided to use that one, nice! it is beautifully decorated and preserved very nicely.
and indeed, you ask, where are the pictures?
there are none. you cannot take pictures in the valley of the kings, so after some fierce negotiations once again, we have a separate booklet and postcards of the valley, scans of which will follow later…
next on the list is Daya’s tomb, the temple of Hatshepsut. she was considered as the most successful female pharao and reigned a relatively long period. she wanted to be recognized as pharao so much, that she acted as a man in a lot of ways, wanting to be called king and his majesty.
it is an amazing complex built against a huge cliff, but not her idea, however. it was inspired by the smaller temple of Mentuhotep, right next to it… perfect symmetry and yet another example of megalomany by the pharao. personally, i think this was essential to be an accepted ruler in those days…
you can imagine that in those days, it wasn’t easy to get to the valley of the kings. and that that might have become a problem as you do have to build it, right?! so their solution was to build a village called Deir-al-Medina for the artisans and builders of the valley. now, of course this was kind of jynxing your life, right?! I mean, you live on the westbank, for Ra’s sake… well, they just drew a line through the middle of the village to create a west-side and an east-side
(sounds like the FC Deir-al-Medina supporters club)…
don’t get me wrong, the village is nice, but what is really interesting are the tombs they created for themselves. because that was were the artists could really get it on! in the valley, they worked on assignment, but here, do did their own thing. so you see their experiments (i saw pictures where they started to draw abs) and colors that were very new and unusual, beautiful!! also, only since two days a new tomb had opened, where we saw even more unusual and new pictures by the artists, nice!
and sorry for keeping the group waiting, but i wandered off through the village finding the temple of the village behind it, where another official led me around in the temple (‘couldn’t have done it myself’), which had beautiful pictures and hieroglyphs…
back in the bus, we are taken back to the hotel to swim and relax a little more, have something to eat and prepare for the trip to the last stop of our journey, Dahab, a bedouin village with diving and relaxing written all over it…
Tags: egypt
