Nov 5: Valley of the Kings and Karnak/Luxor Temples

Some of our group (Jerry, Steve and Sarah Howell, and "Doc" (sight-impaired)) got up around at 4am to take hot air balloon rides and watch sunrise  over the Valley of the Kings west of Luxor, Egypt.  That was too early for us, so the rest of us traveled by boat to the west bank of the Nile and went by bus to the Valley of the Kings.  This was a place I was supposed to visit in March 2020 as part of my cruise with Jerry from India to Italy but cancelled due to COVID.   For 500 years from about 1600BC to 1100BC (1000 years after the building of the pyramids), the pharaohs and nobles of Egypt had tombs instead of pyramids built for themselves as they passed from mortal life to eternal life.  Tomb robberies occurred even in ancient times, so the isolated nature of this desert valley on the west side of the Nile river was selected for hidden underground tombs.

Here is a 3D model of the valley and maybe you can see below the terrain how the tomb chambers extended into the surrounding areas. 

 The limestone and other materials were deposited there 50 million years ago when the Mediterranean  Sea extended this far south.  Here are some of the ongoing digs in the hillsides.  Countries such as Germany and France have missions here to conduct the digs...they typically work during the winter months, since summertime can reach over 120 degrees.

There have been over 60 tombs discovered so far over the centuries, with some on top of others, and digs and new discoveries are continuing to happen. Here is what a typical entryway into a tomb looks like (this is our tour director Walid):

 

Perhaps the most famous tomb is that of King Tutankhamun (King Tut) (you recall that we saw his display at the Cairo museum several days ago)

Here are the actual remains of King Tut, who died at age 19.

Here is the sarcophagus 

Behind these walls, they think there may be the treasures of Queen Nefertiti.  The investigations of many of the tombs is ongoing, there may be a lot more to discover!

Here is some of what was found when the King Tut tomb was originally opened:

We visited various other tombs (Ramses III, VI, IX) here, I will include various photos (all underground) and not try to interpret all the stories and events they represent, it was almost overwhelming:

 

Here is the valley where most of the interesting tombs have been found

Next we visited an alabaster shop...alabaster is mined nearby, here are workers processing it by hand to create items such as bowls

Nearby is the Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple, which was impressive because of its size

After lunch, we drove thru the city of Luxor to the famous temples of Karnak and Luxor. Karnak is huge (here is a model)

Many ram-headed sphinxes

The walls are immense...these were originally 30% taller

Elaborate columns probably 10 feet in diameter

Obelisks

We then moved on to Luxor Temple. 

 

They are preparing for a big ceremony next week in which a procession will go from Karnak to Luxor, so a lot of construction and painting was going on.  The path between the 2 temples is being lined by hundreds of human-headed sphinxes.  We'll have to watch for the procession in the news.

 

Luxor is considered to be the "world's greatest open-air museum" and you can see why!

That evening was the farewell dinner on the ship, with the waiters white-gloved and serving special food

It was followed up by some twirly Egyptian dancing then belly dancing (which I thought was not so good)