17/10/22 : LUXOR VALLEY OF KINGS / TEMPLE OF HATSHEPSUT - HURGHADA

17/10/22 : Valley of Kings / Temple of Hatshepsut

Total we disembarked the cruise at Luxor.  Bus was waiting for us to take us to the Valley of Kings, ancient burial ground of many Egypt New Kingdom rulers.  Since they found tombs inside Pyramid was vandalised in Cairo, they planned to bury  their Pharoahs in the tombs carved inside the Hills.    The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, rock-cut tombs were excavated for the pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom. The Valley of the Kings  has 63 magnificent royal tombs from the New Kingdom period (1550–1069 BC), all very different from each others and still more to discover.  They showed us three tombs. 

The most famous tomb in the Valley of the Kings is that of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, sometimes called King Tut. 

We visited tomb of Pharaoh Merenpteh belonging Dynasty 19. The Upper chambers open since antiquity. The lower chamber use of four sacrophagi door jambs cut away and replaced beam hole for installation of sacrophagi.  On the walls inscribed here King with Gods, the Book of Gates, the Litany of Ra, the Book of the Earth and of the Dead.  The paintings were still intact.

The carvings on the walls was so beautiful and colours are intact.

The scrophages  and tombs were empty.

We visited the tomb of Tausert (female Pharoah) and Setnakht,  is surely one of the most unusual tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It is also one of the largest tombs in the Valley, encompassing two complete burial chambers. The tomb has been open and known since antiquity. Tomb KV14 is a joint tomb, used originally by Tausert and then reused and extended by Setnakht.  

The walls of the Tausert tomb is colourful and intact,

while the walls of the tomb of Pharaoh Setnakht was blank or without colour.

The images of Tausert before the deities were at one point changed to show a king rather than the queen. These images are believed to be the only ones where changes were made for Setnakht, the decorative plan of the tomb otherwise remained unchanged. The only exception was placed where the queen’s name appeared where the same was plastered and repainted to show Setnakht’s name and image.  The Chamber of Tausert so beautiful and colourfully inscribed in blue and red and it is intact, while the chamber of Setnakht has reused tomb of Tausert and walls are blank or without colour images.

Tomb of King Ramessess VI (KV9)  : This tomb was begun by King Ramesses V (c.1147–1143 BC) of the Twentieth Dynasty. Although it is uncertain whether he was ultimately buried here, it is clear that his uncle Ramesses VI (c.1143–1136 BC) enlarged the tomb and used it for his burial.

 

The tomb’s decorative programme consists of various funerary texts to help the king in his successful transition to the afterlife. The first descending passages are decorated with the Book of Gates, Book of Caverns, and Books of the Heavens. The passages beyond bear scenes from the Amduat, the Book of the Dead, and the Books of the Heavens, and scenes from the Book of the Earth adorn the burial chamber. All ceilings are decorated with astronomical scenes and texts. Some of these funerary texts are collections of spells, and others are maps of the underworld, describing the sun god’s daily nocturnal journey through it. Through them, just like the sun god, the king could achieve a glorious rebirth in the eastern horizon at dawn.  From here we travel to the Temple of Hatshepsut, a massive complex.

Temple of Hatshepsut /Thutmose III 

The Temple was built to commemorate the achievements of the great Queen Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty), and as a funerary Temple for her, as well as a sanctuary of the god, Amon Ra.The sculpture was created between 1479 and 1458 BC for the funerary temple of Hatshepsut, the most successful female pharaoh of ancient Egypt. Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh who had herself represented pictorially as a male. She served as co-regent with her nephew Thutmose III.   After the introduction of Christianity, Hatshepsut's temple was used as a monastery, hence its modern name, Deir el-Bahri, Arabic for "Northern Monastery."    

Hatshepsut  was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, after Sobekneferu. Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC.^[7] As the principal wife of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut initially ruled as regent to Thutmose III, a son of Thutmose II by another wife and the first male heir. While Thutmose III had inherited the throne at about two years old, Hatshepsut continued to rule by asserting her lineage as the daughter and only child of Thutmose I and his primary wife, Ahmose.

Her husband Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and a secondary wife named Mutnofret, who carried the title 'King's daughter' and was probably a child of Ahmose I. Hatshepsut and Thutmose II had a daughter named Neferure. Thutmose II with Iset, a secondary wife, would father Thutmose III, who would succeed Hatshepsut as pharaoh.

 Her temple was decorated with scenes from her reign and housed shrines to Anubis, god of the dead; Hathor, goddess of fertility; Amun, king of gods; and Re, god of the sun.  After the queen's death, her successor, Thutmose III, destroyed her statues to obliterate her memory.

Hatshepsut decided to build this temple, she had more than one reason in mind. She wanted it to be the "paradise of Amon" which was dedicated to him but like other temples in Egypt it has a collection of other gods as well so there was a chapel for "Anubis" and for "Hathor". The third most important reason for building this temple, is that Hatshepsut wanted to emphasis her legitimate right in claiming the throne by creating that theory of her divine birth, and choosing ofcourse the patron-god of Thebes and the growing empire "Amon Ra" to be her father.

The room where the light appears on top of the head (Pharoah) where he announces to his royal subjects and priests, his subjects are not allowed inside but wait in the courtyard to place their offerings.

The southern colonnaded court is in a bit better state of reservation. It is having some remains of the scene of the transportation of the two Obelisks of Hatshepsut from Aswan to Karnak.

The obelisks are placed base to base on the deck of a great barge which is towed by boats. At the middle of the line Thutmose III is dancing before Amon min. These scenes if it remained it would have been a fine piece of the ancient art, but it was destroyed.

Quite tired of walking, we were glad to jump into the bus, which took us on a long ride to Hurghada.   Hurghada is a city in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt. It is one of the country's main tourist centres located on the Red Sea coast.  We checked into a beautiful resort, just to spend the night but did not get chance to enjoy the facility.