We took our first group tour to the Valley of the Kings (where King
Tutankhamun was found, and one of the most famous archaeological sites
in the world), a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the
16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the Pharaohs and
powerful nobles (and despite the name, the Valley of the Kings also contains the tombs of favorite nobles as
well as the wives and children of both nobles and pharaohs, meaning that
only about 20 of the tombs actually contain the burials of kings.)
The tombs were much larger and longer than we expected, like the tomb of
Hatshepsut (a powerful lady Pheroh), which is over 200 metres from the
entrance and (down a spacious twisting tunnel) the burial chamber is
97 metres below the surface. (These 4 pics from internet as we were asked not to bring in our cameras to help conserve the tombs).
Excavations are still happening today...
After the tombs we saw Habu: the Temple of Rameses III... it was quite large.
Everything there was large.
Along with well-preserved carvings/pictographs of people serving the gods, or playing paddy cake!
Also stone statues, and the image of slaves sacrificing one hand to the King/god. Why one hand? They say it was because you can still work, but you can't easily fight.
Our final stop was to see the Colossi of Memnon.
Wren and I are typically not into group tours, but this one was quite affordable, very easy, and totally awesome!
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