Egypt 2023 - Day 5 - Valley of the Kings, Et Al

Content Warning for this post: there’s a very long-dead mummy further down.

 Another early morning and another bus trip in the vicinity of Luxor. Today, we went to the famous Valley of the Kings and some of the surrounding monuments and visited a family-run Alabaster factory. This evening on the boat was also “Egyptian Night,” which promised a full buffet of Egyptian food and a “Galabeya Party” with dancing and Egyptian costumes.

Some of the group decided to wake up well before the crack of dawn to see the vicinity of the Valley of the Kings via hot air balloon, which Sean and I opted out of. The day was already going to be pretty packed, and we were both unwilling to sacrifice more sleep for the added adventure. I’ve been on hot air balloons before. They are fun, but it's a process, and I wasn’t keen this time.

Balloons taking off near the Valley of Kings

We collected the wayward balloonists at our first stop - The Colossi of Memnon. Memnon is what the Greeks decided to call Amenhotep III due to the similarity of his name to their own mythical king and their belief that the statues cried as if they’d lost their lover. This is likely due to the wind blowing through cracks in the statues, which have since been sealed, and the crying ceased. The Colossi were once attached to the mummification temple of Amenhotep III, but several earthquakes and the temple’s proximity to the Nile floodplain annihilated the temple itself and left the statues in bad shape. Tourists are not allowed too near the behemoths because they are liable to collapse in the near future.

The Colossi of Memnon

After the Colossi, we bussed our way to the nearby Valley of the Kings, where centuries of tombs lie excavated. There are 64 at the time of this writing, with two more likely on their way to being revealed. The only tomb that contained any artifacts whatsoever upon its excavation was the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamun due to its position directly below the rubble of another tomb, but we’ve talked about that already.

The entrance to the Valley of Kings and the natural Pyramid above it

Walid likes to lecture. He’s a teacher, has three Master’s degrees in history and archaeology, and is currently doing his doctoral thesis, specifically about the journey of the soul through the afterlife in the ancient Egyptian religion. Suffice it to say he was enthusiastic to tell us about the process.

In order to be reborn into eternal life, the soul must undergo a journey through ten gates, which takes said soul a year to accomplish. Each of the gates is represented in the Pharaoh’s tomb, and the actions taken at each gate are depicted between them. I’m sure he could have gone on for hours about the process, but he only focused on a few for his pre-tomb talk.

When a soul presents itself to the first gate of death, it identifies itself by stepping forward with the left foot and presenting the left hand (though I swear every image we saw depicted the Pharaoh extending their right hand.) Once the soul is identified, they proceed to the second gate, where they must tell the great deeds of their life and confess their sins.

Ramses III presenting himself at the first gate to the Afterlife

Then, at gate three, they must toil for an entire year in the afterlife, doing physical labor to prove their strength of character. This may seem like not a very Pharaonic pursuit, so there’s an exception thrown in that you can have another person spend a day toiling for you in your stead. The Pharaohs, being as great as they were, always had enough people to volunteer for this honor, and this was represented by a series of small statues called ushabti, which were placed in niches between the third and fourth gates in the tomb. 

At gate four, all the people who supported you in life ease your journey, and all your enemies resist your passing. The artists of the tombs represented the supporters facing inward towards the door to eternal life and the enemies facing back towards the entrance of the tomb, representing their resistance to the pharaoh’s journey. The enemies were also often shown upside down, or with their heads removed (to prevent their resistance), or both.

The Allies and Enemies of Ramses IX in this Tomb

Gate five usually depicts the journey of the soul on a great golden boat. Walid skipped over gates six through nine, but at some point, of course, the soul’s heart is weighted in the presence of Osiris against a feather to judge whether their sins outweigh their purity. If they are judged worthy, they are allowed to pass through the tenth gate into eternal life in the Field of Reeds.

While researching a bit for this post, I discovered there is a lot more to it than that, but today, we’ll stick with the info shared by our Egyptologist.

There are currently sixty-four unearthed tombs in the Valley of the Kings, but many are not suitable for tourist exploration, and indeed, many more are in bad condition, their paintings long since faded and fallen. The Ministry of Antiquities keeps only eight or nine tombs available to the public at a time, rotating which ones are open every six months.

After the extensive lecture, Walid gave us recommendations as to which tombs to visit and the order in which to do them. To prevent crowding and protect the tombs from excess humidity caused by breath, tourists are only allowed to visit three tombs when they visit the valley, excluding King Tut’s tomb, which has its own ticket. Tour speeches are not permitted in the tombs due to the number of tourists moving in and out of them at any given time, so we were on our own to explore.

Each of the tombs is numbered with a key called the KV number. This number represents what order in which the tombs were discovered. Some examples: KV-1 is the tomb of Ramses VII, the location of which as been known since antiquity but which was only properly excavated in 1985 by explorer Edwin Brock. The famous tomb of King Tutankhamun is KV-62, famously unearthed in 1922 by French archaeologist Howard Carter and initially discovered by a young Egyptian boy digging outside of the prescribed excavation site, whose name is sadly lost to history. 

Only two other tombs have been discovered since the 1922 discovery of Tut’s tomb, but two more are currently being prepared for excavation, bringing the total up to 66.

I won’t go into a lot of detail of our tours of the tombs. They are all quite similar, with varying degrees of wear and fading. We visited the tombs of Ramses III (KV-11), Ramses IX (KV-6), Ramses IV (KV-2), and of course, the tomb of Tutankhamen (KV-64).

Sean and I in front of the burial chamber of Ramses IV

Tut’s tomb was small but was probably not originally planned to be so, as the boy-king died at just nineteen. The painting in the tomb is sparse and rushed, and there are few of the traditional gates to the afterlife represented. The burial chamber is also small, though the decorations have been preserved beautifully. Tut’s mummy is still housed in the tomb and kept under temperature and humidity-controlled glass.

Tutankhamen himself, disturbed from his rest

After exploring the valley, we visited an Alabaster factory nearby. Walid informed us that the family who runs the factory originally had their home directly above the tomb of a priest located outside of the Valley of the Kings, and the government paid for them to be relocated off the tomb and arranged for them to receive a tax discount to run the factory, which of course is also a store. The owner gave us a tour, including some guys at the front who demonstrated the ancient method of creating alabaster vases with augurs and sickle-like chisels. Clearly it’s not the way they do it now, and it felt a little hokey, but they were really happy to pose for pictures (and to pick up the tips on the way out.)

Alabaster Factory worker

Almost everyone we have interacted with outside of the official Uniworld staff has a little hustle to get bakshiish (tips) from tourists. The government actually mandates that all tourist sites have small markets in front of them where the aggressive sellers vie for the eyes and wallets of the visitors after they leave each site. They are aggressive. Their products are generally very cheap and often made in China, with a few exceptions in specific locations known for certain products (like cotton and alabaster in Luxor).

Despite the manager advertising the factory as ‘barter and pressure-free’, after the tour, we had a swarm of salesmen hover around us, waiting for people to express interest in things so they could pop in and show them the more expensive version. I admit to buying some stuff and had my first real bartering experience. Honestly — it wasn’t so bad. Sort of like roleplaying a character in D&D. I got the salesman down to about half the original price for a very nice Alabaster vase and a basalt scarab. I hope I can figure out how to get them back home, as we packed very efficiently and there’s not much room in our luggage for extra stuff. 

The last tour of the day was to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, the Pharaoh in drag. She was definitely straight, as her temple was created by her presumed lover and architect, Senenmut. The temple was discovered in the 15th century, but unfortunately, like many other temples in the area, it was well destroyed by earthquakes. Most of the statuary and reliefs are gone; most of the paintings faded. There were a few highlights, including some cool statues depicting Hatshepsut in her false beard as the King of Upper Egypt and the King of Combined Egypt, and a chapel to Hathor. High on the mountain above the temple is a cave. The cave leads to a tunnel through the mountain, going directly into the tomb of Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Kings, but it is not accessible to tourists.

Hatshepsut as the King of Upper Egypt

After Hatshepsut it was time to return to the ship, and we at last set sail for a longer cruise. From Luxor, we traveled up to Esna, which took several hours. The sunset and the adhan were once again called for the sunset prayer, Maghrib. Muslims do not need to pray exactly when the adhan is called. It simply represents the start of a span of time in which they should do the specific prayer. Many Muslims do take the opportunity to pray at the time of the call, but it’s not required. The sound of the call echoing across the Nile is actually really profound. I’m sure Muslims are so used to it that it's just part of their day, but as a foreigner to both the religion and the region, it’s always spellbinding to me. We sailed through the lock at Esna, where we had to wait in line for a bit before they let us through the 20-minute process of raising us up the cataract so we could continue on to Aswan. Hawkers called their wares from little boats in the lock, and I’m told they threw items up onto the deck to convince people to buy things. We were already in the lounge awaiting our nightly briefing for the following day’s activities.

That evening was Egyptian night on the boat. We were all encouraged to don galabeya, the loose, long shirt that many men and women wear daily. Of course, the on-board shop sells them, but I had enough loose linen clothing that it didn’t seem necessary to buy something I would likely only wear once. A few cruisers certainly did wear the garment, and the entire staff was dressed up for the evening. Our favorite waiter/bartender, Moses, was wearing a scarf with red, green, and gold. When we asked what the significance of the colors was, he said it was because he really likes Bob Marley. When asked why he likes Bob Marley so much, he smiled. Ok, Moses, we see you.

We were treated to an amazing buffet of Egyptian food, including cabbage and eggplant stuffed with spiced rice. A huge array of mezze, a monster of a baked Nile perch that was carved up to order, lamb kofta, Egyptian phyllo pastry stuffed with pistachios and spices, and dozens of other treats. Dessert was a plethora of honey-soaked eclairs, dense coconut cakes, rich almond cookies, om ali bread pudding, baklava, and so on and on and on. Moses made us a house cocktail made with Egyptian rum, orange and mango juice, and fragrant cinnamon. I might have had three of those.

A bevy of Egyptian delights at the Egyptian night on the ship

After dinner, there was a big party, where the staff eagerly danced with the cruisers. I can already hear the disappointment of my mother when I say that I didn’t attend. I’d had enough social interaction for the day.  My husband, however, cannot resist a dance, and based on the encouragement from the staff the next morning, he was the life of the party, which lasted until at least 22:30. I was blissfully asleep by 21:00.

Sean getting down at the Egyptian dance party

Tomorrow is one I am really excited about, as we are going to visit the temple of Kom Ombu, which is dedicated to the Nile crocodile god Sobek. We’ll also do some birdwatching on a felucca and visit the Old Cataract Hotel, featured in Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, who lived at the hotel while she and her jerk of a husband lived in Egypt.