Tackling the west bank of Luxor is quite an undertaking so I decided to book a tour for this day. After enjoying a nice breakfast and coffee at the Nefertiti I jumped in the tour bus and was off to explore The Valley of the Kings, home of 63 royal tombs, tucked away in the mountains of the west bank. Once there, our guide showed us the layout of the valley, explained why the pharaohs chose this place for the beginning of their journey to the eternal life, described the three tombs that we would explore, and then led us on the walk to into the mountains.
Just being in the valley is impressive, and walking into the tombs themselves is mind blowing, making it almost impossible to fathom the amount of time and effort that went into making each of these 63 tombs. The three tombs that we explored each displayed a different type of architecture for tomb building. The first was very long and ascended up into the mountainside. After making the long trek up the narrow corridor we reached a walkway that continued over a very deep ravine, leading to the antechamber. Here the walls were covered with more than 700 depictions of gods and demigods. Next, was a steep staircase that lead down to the burial chamber itself. The oval shaped burial chamber was again covered with hieroglyphs and at one end the sarcophagus of the king. His mummy is now resting in the Egyptian Museum, and one that I had seen while there. Next tomb we visited was that of Ramses III. This, one of the longest tombs in the valley reaches straight back into the mountain for over 125 meters, and the paintings and hieroglyphs are still very well preserved. Lastly, we explored the tomb of Ramses I. This entryway to this tomb was covered with very bright, well preserved carvings and paintings, but the burial chamber itself was quite bare due to the sudden death of the king, but did still have the beautiful pink granite sarcophagus lying open in the middle of the room. This concluded out tour of the valley of The Kings and from there we headed over to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which the ancient Egyptians referred to as “the most holy of holies”. Here, the temple is cut out of the limestone mountain side and is absolutely stunning. The way the temple melds with the majestic mountain above is truly spectacular.
It must have been even more spectacular when the entryway leading to the temple was lined with sphinxes, exotic plants and trees and a full garden in the courtyard. At the top of the three tiered stairway stood statues to both the left and right almost standing guard over the entry into the upper terrace.
At the rear of the temple was a sanctuary to the god Amun and chapels to Hathor and Anubis on either side. After visiting the temple we headed over to the other side of the valley to briefly view the twin statues of Ramses II, that,
though beautiful, stand seemingly in the middle of nowhere and were a bit worn with time and an earthquake that nearly brought them down. From there it was back to the hotel for a bit of a nap before heading over to the Luxor Temple. It was a Friday night and the town of Luxor was abuzz with both locals and tourists enjoying the pleasant night air. Heading into the temple grounds, for the first time since beginning my journey in Egypt, there seemed to be just as many if not more Egyptians out as there were tourists.
Standing guard at the entry to the temple are two massive statues of Ramses II that lead to the walkway into the temple itself. Once inside there are a row of impressive pillars topped with lotus buds that lead to procession of statues of Ramses II sons.
From there I continued on to the sun court which is again lined with massive pillars adorned with papyrus which reached to the sky.
Beyond this court was a series of very well preserved hieroglyphs, carvings, statues, and sanctuaries that lay about the impressive grounds. Once I had soaked in enough of the temple itself I headed out to the recently discovered Great Avenue of Sphinxes that actually runs three kilometers north all the way to the Temple of Karnak.
The Avenue was used by the Ancient Egyptians to carry the statues of the gods from Karnak to Luxor in celebration of the most important annual religious festival in Egypt, The Festival of Opet. Sitting for about thirty minutes in the avenue I tried to put myself into the ancient times when the high priests would actually carry the statues from one temple to the next. It is so impressive to see today, I can’t imagine what it must have been like to have witnessed it when the temple were in perfect condition and the people were celebrating around it! After I had enough daydreaming and time travel in my head I left the temple and entered the modern courtyard that sits just south of the temple. While sitting there I again enjoyed watching local children play soccer, and also noticed a mosque that sits just inside the temple walls, and a beautiful partially full moon that was rising next to it. All I could think to myself was, could this moment be any more perfect…
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