A wonderful tour in

Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt 2

It is a valley in Egypt that was over 500 years during the period between the sixteenth and eleventh centuries BC to be a complex of tombs of the pharaohs and nobles of the modern state extending during the eras of the eighteenth dynasties to the twentieth dynasty in ancient Egypt.

The valley is located on the west bank of the Nile River in the face of Thebes, now known as Luxor, in the heart of the ancient funerary city of Thebes. On the eastern side, it faces the Karnak temples, which are about three kilometres away.

Geographically, it is a shallow trench surrounded by heights and resembles a large irregular-shaped crater in the middle of the heights of the western edge of the plateau.

The Valley of the Kings is divided into two valleys: The Eastern Valley (where most of the royal tombs are located) and the Western Valley.

With the discovery of a Burial chamber in 2006 known as (Cemetery 63), in addition to the discovery of two other entrances to the same chamber during 2008, and the matter continued until the last tomb discovered by the Swiss mission in 2011, which is the number 64, and the number of graves discovered so far has reached 64 graves of varying sizes. They range from a small hole to a complex cemetery containing more than 120 burial chambers inside, of which 26 are tombs for kings, and the rest are for high officials and some members of the royal families and priests. The ancient Egyptians called it the great cemetery of high standing. The pharaohs of the modern state chose this valley for its ease of access to the Nile Valley and ease of guarding it because it is located between the high hills and the limestone mountains. Archaeological missions are still researching to this day to discover other tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

These tombs consist of narrow corridors and corridors. It is likely that King Tuthmosis the First was the first Pharaonic king to be buried in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, as he mentioned that his tomb was built on an invisible and unheard of people in an unknown area, as Thutmose I wanted (1540 – 1501 BC) The third of the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaohs, to choose his grave in a secluded valley behind a fine rock to preserve his body and protect him from being extended by thieves ‘ hands, so he entrusted the engineer Anini to choose this place for him.

In the hieroglyphic texts he wrote down on his tomAnnieni referred to this task assigned to him by his king, saying: “I alone supervised the selection of the rocky tomb of His Majesty King Thutmose I, without anyone seeing or hearing me.”

The last king buried in these tombs was likely was the Pharaonic king Ramesses the Eleventh, the last king of the Twentieth Dynasty.

These tombs were rich in the contents inside them, which were all the deceased’s needs that would enable him to have a comfortable life in the hereafter according to their beliefs. The tombs also included many magical condolences, such as the shabti and the statues of the gods taken by the pharaohs according to their beliefs. The tombs also contained some of the king’s possessions In his first life (as a pair of slippers belonging to Tutankhamun), along with some specially designed items to be buried with the king.

With the development of time and the weakness of the Egyptian state in the Twentieth Dynasty and its inability to guard the tombs of the kings, it ordered the collection of all the royal mummies in its lair, which is called the hideout of the Abdul Rasul family, because the Abdel Rasoul family in Upper Egypt were the first to discover them. They smuggled antiquities abroad before Troubles arise between them and their matter is revealed, and these mummies are currently preserved in the Royal Mummies Room in the Egyptian Museum.

All tombs have been looted since ancient times, which is confirmed by many papyri that have been found, which contain facts of trials of tomb robbers, dating back to the era of the Twentieth Dynasty, including the papyrus known as (Meyer Papyrus, which includes A description of the confessions of those accused of stealing the tomb of Ramses VThis papyrus was likely was written in the ninth year of the reign of King Ramses IX.

The Valley of the Kings became famous after discovering the tomb of King Tutankhamun in full and the gossip surrounding it regarding the curse of the Pharaohs. Kings So far, a tourist centre has recently been opened there.

The Valley of the Kings comes on top of the tourism programs in Luxor before the Karnak Temples Complex, or the Temple of Deir al-Bahri, and the number of its visitors daily reached between 8 thousand and 15 thousand tourists. Still, due to the current conditions of Corona, the number is less.

The magnificence of colourful inscriptions and drawings on the walls of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings will bring you a feeling of astonishment at the greatness that ancient Egyptiansans who excelled in engraving on the rock walls and murals whole colours or still retain their brilliance despite thousands of years; What patience did they have in engraving those rocks at the bottom of the mountain ?! And what tools were they using ?! How many years did that take ?! The signs inscribed in ancient Greek, Syriac and Coptic, and the markers marking the cut-off areas that thieves made during attempts to steal the walls … all raise more questions for you, as is the case for all visitors …..

For information and clarification:

Some may ask why the tombs of the ancient Egyptians are so wonderful, whether in design, inscriptions, or treasures, and whether these tombs were pyramids or chambers?

Answer: The ancient Egyptians believed in the idea of ​​resurrection after death and eternity in eternal life, and their way to achieve this was to take care of the affairs of their dead and prepare places for them to be buried and put themselves to the effort in choosing them, and they spared no effort in bringing huge coffin stones from far away.

From ancient times, until the pre-dynastic era, the ancient Egyptians chose their tombs at the edge of the desert away from the agricultural valley land that is flooded floodwaters annually, or on the slopes of rocky hills so that they are out of reach of thieves and desponders, as well as to be far from the natural factors of annihilation such as humidity. That decompose and destroy bodies.

With the start of the rule of the pharaohs, the same method of burial continued without much change. Hence, the burial was at the sandy edge at the foot of the mountainous places, but after the size of the cemetery grew somewhat, it ranged between seven meters in length and five in width, and the depth of the pit became three met…

They also built the sides of the pit with mud bricks, then covered with beams of timber, supported by other beams of wood as well, and they did to avoid collapsing sand.

As for the kings, their tombs did not differ from the graves of individuals except in the large size and building the floor of the pit with mud bricks, the establishment of a staircase connecting the floor of the cemetery and the surface of the earth, and the spread of side rooms as storerooms for storing food, funeral furniture, decorative tools, hunting and fighting weapons. Buried in it.

As the ancient Egyptians cemetery was a microcosm of the other world, whether it was dug in the sand or built with mud bricks or stones or carved in deaf rock, and the purpose of its preparation was to achieve a religious idea, which is that the deceased undertakes his funeral journey with the solar deity in the boat that It leads him to the other world.

As a result, the cemetery was closed tightly and never opened after the corpse had passed away and the burial ceremony had been completed. Therefore, debris, dust and stones were pouring out at the entrance to the cemetery to hide them completely.

For this same reason, drawings and inscriptions related to the other world in all its parts and its inhabitants were painted on the cemetery’s walls, starting from its entrance, its vaults, corridors and the burial hall.