Valley of the Kings, Tombs and the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III in Luxor, Egypt

After seeing Memphis and Saqqara, we took a flight to Luxor. The most awful thing was waking up at three in the night and leaving the hotel at half past three. Our plane was taking off at half past five in the morning. This is precisely why I never liked organized tours. First of all, they think about organizing everyone and squeezing everything promised into the schedule. Whereas we of course, wanted to sleep and seek comfort. This was probably the earliest wakeup call I have ever experienced on a vacation.

The journey to Luxor took only one hour and we headed to the boat. We went on a cruise on the Nile. When I first boarded the ship, I was a bit scared. Spending a few days in such a place felt intimidating. Yet, the interior design of our ship was in a European style, very simple and calm.

All the ships here were connected to each other, meaning they were moored one after another. To get to your own ship, you had to cross one, two or even three ships. Since all the cruises departing from Luxor gathered here, their number was quite high at that time.

We got off the plane and settled into our ship, but the cabins were not ready yet and our guide immediately took us to the Valley of the Kings. We had woken up at two in the night and we set off saying that next time we will definitely choose an individual tour.

The Valley of the Kings was one of the most mysterious places. For five centuries the pharaohs of Thebes were buried right here. What we call Thebes is the exact present day Luxor. While the age of some tombs here reaches three and a half thousand years, that of others barely exceeds three thousand years.

This valley consisted of about sixty tombs hidden so that the pharaoh's treasures would not be searched for. All these tombs had been robbed and everything was stripped away and carried off. The longer a pharaoh reigned, the more magnificent his tomb was. For example, the tomb of Tutankhamun, which is the most famous tomb, was quite simple like life itself.

Tutankhamun had died at an age not older than nineteen years, but everyone knows him. Because Tutankhamun had treasures that gained fame all over the world. These treasures were found by the famous archaeologist Carter, who was actually not even an archaeologist. He was an ordinary painter who came here to paint watercolor pictures. During his researches, he had accidentally found this unique tomb. In fact thieves had also entered Tutankhamun's tomb, but they could only take the gold and carry it away. The pharaoh's mummy was in such a small room that the thieves could not open the lid of the sarcophagus and so everything remained intact.

After the first robbery, Carter had found around five thousand unimaginable artifacts here. The interesting part of the business was that everyone had searched for this tomb, but no one could find it. Because the tomb was hidden right under the barracks of the workers carrying out the excavation work. Carter's story was quite intriguing because he had no money and was receiving funding from England. After the first World War, just as the person providing the funding was about to lose both his money and his faith and quit the researches, Carter had finally discovered this tomb. He had dug everywhere here, only these worker barracks were left and he had saved them for last. Thus he had lost a full four years. Then history had shaped in such a way that the most famous find was brought to light not by an archeologist, but by an ordinary painter who had guided travelers like himself here for years.

We walked towards the tomb of Ramesses the Fourth. At one time there was even a Coptic Christian church here. you can see the Coptic Cross inscription at the top and the signature of an Italian who had lived here. So this place was once used sort of like a hotel. The figures depict the pharaoh presenting offerings to his sun god. Of course, in Ancient Egypt everything was painted, so the paint remnants we can see are completely original.

You can see an incredible amount of hieroglyphs in the corridor here. Here, there are questions asked to the soul at the moment the heart is weighed. And there are also correct answers. For example, Did you respect the River Nile, did you pollute the Nile? or Did you look at someone else's women? The answer was of course "no", because the pharaoh thought that all women in his own kingdom belonged to him. What was forbidden was looking at women belonging to someone else.

If we see a pedestal or cartouche around the hieroglyphic writings, this indicates that we are facing a pharaoh's name. This was the main tomb and the entrance was skillfully hidden for centuries so that no one would plunder it. But we of course found it and I think the biggest treasure was the incredible drawings here. In Ancient Egypt everything was colorful but unfortunately paints did not survive tothe present day everywere. It is even possible to touch here, but we definitely did not do this. We enjoyed that moment and got to see these places before they completely turned into an object of mass tourism.

The Egyptians believed that the afterlife should also be located in the west because the sun set in the west. And this choice was quite convenient because this whole valley was surrounded by mountains on all sides. Here it is possible to see the pyramid like mountain which was a sacred symbol for the Egyptians. And it was far from the floods of the Nile. So the location was not chosen randomly.

We proceeded to the tomb of Ramesses the First. Ramesses the First had come to power as a result of a military coup and already in an elderly state. The artisans knew very well that they would not have time to finish the decorations here and in order to decorate the tomb somehow as soon as possible, they painted everything exclusively with frescoes instead of reliefs. So from a cultural perspective, there are tremendous frescoes here.

Egyptians believed that the human soul consisted of several elements. Ka, which is the life force and human double. Ba, the spiritual essence possessing the ability to leave the body. Akh, the enlightened spirit of the deceased person, the shadow and the heart of the person. The heart was the place where the soul was kept and never removed from the mummy.If it was removed, it was definitely put back. The person's name was also very important because the destruction of the name would end his existence. Furthermore, the mummified body served as a home for Ka and the place where Ba would return. Relatives had to regularly make offerings and pronounce the name of the deceased person. This ensured the continuation of his existence in the afterlife.

Then we went to the tomb of Ramesses the Third. There were many more people here now because this is the longest tomb. Everything is put behind glass. It is very easy to recognize this pharaoh. The one next to him is a priest and he has cobras on his head as a symbol of authority, because the priests had quite a large power in these lands and at a certain period even owned fifty percent of the lands.

There is still a massive amount of tombs waiting to be discovered around this valley. The local people living here had built their houses just so they could carry out excavation work under these houses. Many things still remain hidden from our eyes and are sold in illegal markets.

They brought us to a touristic place where alabaster is processed.

On the other side of the Nile were the funerary temples. We went to see the temple of Ramesses the Third and standing before us was the best preserved Ancient Egyptian temple in the world, the Temple of Ramesses the Third.

At the entrance goddess Sekhmet naturally greets us. There used to be dozens of such statues here, but all of them were moved to Europe. This temple is almost thirty two hundred years old. It is a full fledged chant temple fulfilling both religious functions and palace functions, yet no one has ever lived here. All of this was for the pharaoh's soul to be more comfortable.

While the pharaoh's tomb was hidden deep within the Valley of the Kings, his temple was positioned right on the edge of the valley like an outpost between the world of the living and the dead. This was the thought of the ancient Egyptians, while his body rested in the hidden tomb, his soul would receive oferings in the amazing temple and continue to exist.

Every morning when the first rays of the sun touched the stone walls of Medinet Habu, the priests would begin their rituals. They believed that the soul of Ramesses the Third traveled between his tomb deep in the valley and this temple, accepting offerings and maintaining order in both the world of the living and the dead. So they needed this too.

Ramesses the Third was the last great pharaoh of Ancient Egypt who had reigned for more than thirty years. He had established a strong navy organized long distance trade expeditions and built many temples. Yet even his glory could not protect him from a conspiracy. He was killed with his throat slit at the hands of his own wife and son.

Its walls, seven stories high, witnessed the most important events of the period. Unique historical chronicles, such as scenes where he kills his enemies for the glory of God, are engraved upon them. In addition, here you can also find unique reliefs depicting the sea peoples about whom we know nothing. Who knows, maybe they were the Etruscans or immigrants coming from the Aegean islands?

It was right across the throne room and the banquet room and you can guess what the pharaoh needed after the banquet, to go to the toilet. The pharaoh had a private toilet. You know this is a somewhat village style story, meaning it didn't have a seat here but he could do his business. These were not like the marble thrones used by Roman emperors, but I think it was a great achievement for that period.

Even though there are mostly battle scenes here, the enemies hands are tied behind their backs, so you can easily spot them, there are countless prisoners here. Cartouches without pedestals represent the names of these prisoners.

An interesting detail the pharaoh had promised a reward to every single soldier in his army for every enemy hand he cut off. You can see the soldiers cutting these hands, of course some were cutting both the left and right hand to get a bigger reward. Later on this practice was abandoned and it was asked that organs, namely phalluses, be brought instead of hands. Yes phalluses. And these were not just counted, but it was also examined whether they were circumcised or not. While Egyptians were already using the circumcision practice at that time, the Medes were not using it yet. And the main enemies were precisely the Medes.

All the frescoes and reliefs here are in extremely well preserved condition and have definitely not been restored. The reason is that a church was established here and the people who built the church covered all these reliefs with plaster and made their own frescoes. The church was inside this open part, whereas only priests could enter the innermost parts of the tempel.

According to the frescoes, a priest was burning a censer in front of the pharaoh because it was believed that incense drove away evil spirits. Incense is also used precisely during all official ceremonies in the church. Incense used to be brought from the south, which is why it was very important to establish trade routes including southern African countries around three thousand five hundred years bce.

In ancient times there were much larger temples than this. For example, like the funerary temple of Amenhotep the Third, of which only two colossal statues remain today.

On the next day of our Valley of the Kings trip we woke up before dawn again, but this time it was definitely worth it. We were going to ride hot air balloons. I will continue with our balloon adventure in my next post. Thanks for reading.