The Colossi Of Memnon, The Valley Of The Kings, Hatchepsut Temple, Aswan & A Nubian Dinner
We awoke after only 4 hour's sleep, attempted to wake up with cold showers & struggled into a new set of clothes. We both acknowledged having some very strange dreams while sleeping in the bed.
The breakfast buffet was extravagant, though we were still half asleep & lacking an appetite, I slipped a few chocolate cookies & croissants into my hat to eat on the road.
Our first stop of the day was the Colossi Of Memnon! 2 giant statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, they are located near the modern day city of Luxor on the west side of the Nile & have stood guard of the Theban Necropolis since 1350 BC, which is a crazy 3,400 years! Luxor, was once known as Thebes and was used during the pharaonic period, especially the New Kingdom, for ritual burials.
Memnon is actually a greek name & he was a hero of the Trojan war, At one point the Theban necropolis became known as Memnonium.
The twin statues show Amenhotep III sitting on his throne with his hands resting on his knees, facing East towards the river, standing guard at the entrance to the Temple of Amenhotep. Sadly the temple is no longer in existence, but was said to have been one of the biggest of its time & used to worship the Pharaoh Amenhotep during and after his lifetime. The statues are made from huge slabs of quartzite sandstone that were transported 675kilometres by land to Thebes, another impressive stunt from an ancient civilisation. They stand at 18 metres tall & weigh an estimated 720 tons each, sadly they have suffered significant damage during their time, but are still a formidable sight that Im sure would have made ancient tomb robbers hesitate.
The temple of Queen Hatshepsut, or Hatchepsut, was the first Ancient Egyptian temple we would walk into & even though a lot of it had already been renovated & large sections still remained in disrepair, it did not disappoint. She was the 5th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty & the 2nd confirmed female pharaoh. She was the chief wife of Thutmose the II & officially was a joint ruler with her child Thutmose III who ascended the throne after his father at the age of 2. She ruled during the years of 1479 to 1458 BC, creating much speculation within the early scholary circles that she was a joint ruler, today's egyptologist's have come to a generalised consensus that she was actually the only ruler and assumed the position as pharaoh. She is considered by many historians to be one of the 'first great women of history' a rather grand & aspiring title, I'm sure she would be very proud of. During her reign she was responsible for the erection of some grand monuments including her temple at Luxor as well as establishing vast international trade routes. She was successful in warfare very early in her reign, though after this Egypt was very peaceful, wealthy & prosperous under her long 20 year reign. She was truly special, but not exceptional as a female ruler of Egypt and pre dating her are many examples of female rulers and co-regents, with records as far back as the 1st dynasty. She did however claim the divine right to rule the country, a claim given to her by the god Amun. Very interestingly she is depicted in statues as a traditional male pharaoh wearing the headress, the fake beard & standing like a man, as well as herself in a more natural feminine position.
She died at the approximate age of 50, with no official reason recorded, however medical analysis of the mummy shows very convincing evidence that she had advanced periodontal disease, osteoarthritis, was overweight, had diabetes & the cause of death is most likely malignant neoplastic disease of the bone. After her death, her son Thutmose III took control of the throne and towards the end of his reign is thought to have had a significant role in the inhalation of his mothers historical records as pharaoh. He did this in the most crude way possible that can still be seen today, he simply ordered her cartouches and images to be chiselled off the walls & her statues to be pulled down, defaced & buried under the sand. After Thutmose III came his son Amenhotep II who was also responsible for further destruction to Hatshepsut's name. It is not clear why this happened, we can only suspect the typical reasons of self promotion and resentment that he would have had against his mother for ruling. Amenhotep II was thought to have done this as well as trying to break the royal lineage to try and strengthen his own claim to the throne which was not very strong. He was also known to have intentionally not recorded the names of his queens and to have made redundant the roles & titles of important women. The nearly successful attempt at removing Hatshepsut's name from history did leave egyptologists from the early 19th & 20th century with a complexing puzzle. They couldn't interpret the texts from her temples to make any sense of who they were about, the translations were of feminine nouns & verbs, while the pictures were conflicting & showed a man with feminine features & a women in the same reference, as if it was the same person. The problem was so big it caused many academic feuds in the field from experts who could not figure it out. In the late 20th century evidence was slowly starting to be uncovered which shed some much needed light on who this ruler and supposed Queen was. Thankfully by the time we got to Egypt the mystery has all but been solved, leaving us with a clear picture of who and what happened & a name to admire.
What a woman!
Next stop was The Valley Of The Kings!!!! Something we were both super keen to see. I was nearly too excited to listen & absorb the information Sam was telling us before he set us free to explore. The only downside to this was the fact that the initial entry ticket only allowed entrance into 3 tombs, you had to pay extra to take your camera & you had to pay extra to go into Tutenkhamun's tomb, which had a strict no photography policy. After asking Sam for his expert opinion, we decided not to see Tutenkhamun's Mummy & tomb, because it was a small tomb & rather boring in comparison to the others, his mummy was not the most fantastically preserved, his gold mask's & sarcophagus was in the museum & because we couldn't take photos. After speaking to the people who did buy the extra ticket, I dont think we missed out & we don't regret our decision.
The first tomb we went into was that of King Ramesses III, which was the 11th tomb to be discovered in the valley, it is one of the longest tomb's at 188 metres in length. He is estimated to have ruled over Egypt during the New Kingdom from 1186 to 1155 BC and is thought to be the last monarch of the New Kingdom & the second ruler of the twentieth dynasty. He ruled for a long time & unfortunately was alive to see the decline of the Egyptian Kingdom from border invasions & internal political schemes. King Ramses III died in 1155 BC after he was assassinated by conspirators within his inner circle, including his secondary Queen Tiye, and their son, Prince Pentawere, who was found guilty at trial and took his own life. Researchers have done CT scans of Rameses' mummy & have discovered a serious wound in his neck that would have been done with a knife or another sharp object, consistent with having his throat slit. The wound would have served his oesophagus, trachea & jugulars, killing him nearly instantly. The scans show embalming material that has seeped down into the wound and bones, preserving the evidence. The scans also showed an amulet depicting Horus, that the embalmers inserted in the throat wound.
The tomb was exceptionally well preserved, grandly decorated and everything you would expect to see in a royal burial chamber. It's amazing that after all this time, the structure, engraving's, paint & statues have stood the test of time, though not that surprising. The Egyptians were advanced & brilliant artists, architects, engineers & the craftsmanship seen here today is a true credit to this statement. With every temple we see & every fact I learn from our tour guide Sam, the more impressed I am with this ancient civilisation that were anything but primitive.
The next tomb we entered was the one that belonged to Pharaoh Merenptah or Merneptah, who ruled Egypt from 1213 BC – 1203 BC, it was the 8th tomb to be discovered in the valley. He was the 4th ruler of the 9th dynasty of ancient Egypt & ascended the throne when he was nearly 60 years old as the 13th son of Ramesses II & the next in line following his older brothers who had all ruled and died. Scans of Merenptah's mummy show that he was an elderly man who suffered from osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis, who supposedly died of natural causes, perhaps a progression of the atherosclerosis resulting in a stroke or heart disease. We walked through his tomb, again marvelling at the detail and ancient beauty, it was sad to learn that his mummy had been buried here but it was moved at some point. It was later found in 1898, with another 18 mummies, 13 of which were royalty, in the tomb of Amenhotep II, who was the great great grandfather of the well known King Tutenkhamun. Amenhotep's tomb was tomb number 35 to be found in the valley of the kings & was lavish & large, even by Egyptian royalty standards & for this reason became the hiding place for 18 mummies in an attempt to save & preserve their bodies while their own tombs were plundered by grave robbers. It's a sad fact of ancient history that so much was destroyed, but there is hope that an estimated 70% of Ancient Egypt is still buried in the sand, yet to be discovered.
Between the 2nd & 3rd tomb we stopped at a sign and got a brief education about the Pharaoh Ramesses II, who's tomb was discovered 5th and so far boasts the largest tomb in the valley with heavy & unusual emphasis on being a family mausoleum. The complex is absolutely huge & for good reason, Ramesses is fondly nicknamed Ramessex, due to his large number of children which is estimated to be 50 son's and 53 daughters. Sadly this tomb was not open for us to explore, given the chance, I would pitch a tent in the valley and spend an unnatural amount of time exploring all the tombs until I had memorised the exact location of every hieroglyph in every tomb.
The last tomb we went into was the 2nd one to be discovered in the valley & belong to Ramesses IV, who was the 3rd pharaoh to rule in the 20th dynasty of the new kingdom, Ancient Egypt.
Ramesses IV only ruled the throne for a short period between 1155-1149 BC and ascended the throne directly after his father Ramesses III was assassinated. Ramesses IV was responsible for his fathers conspirators & murderers involved in the scandal known as the 'Royal Harem Conspiracy against Ramesses III' to be arrested, put on trial & executed. We saw Ramesses IV depicted in a temple in Karnak, he was one of the last new Kingdom rulers to commission large scale monuments & temple work. Sadly, like the Pharaoh Merenptah, his mummy was also hidden and found outside it's intended tomb, with the cache of 18 mummies in Amenhotep II's tomb. I can't seem to find any reference to the cause of his death, only that he was estimated to be about 50 years of age when he died.
After the valley of the Kings it was surprisingly late, despite the early start & time for a buffet lunch. After lunch it was off to a local alabaster factory to learn about the ancient technique of moulding alabaster to create statues and utensils that were used in the ancient Egyptians daily life & are continued to be used to this day. The ancient technique still supersedes the many attempts to have machines make alabaster statues.
We then all piled onto the bus for a 3.5 hour journey to the ancient & modern day oasis known as Aswan! We were exhausted from the late night, early start & from stretching the absorptive capabilities of our brains. There was so much to process from such a big day of ancient history, but it wasn't over yet!
Once we arrived at Aswan, we checked in and had about 45 minutes to 'freshen up' which meant dumping our bags in our room, very briefly admiring the view across the nile and running down to the pool for a quick dip.
After we had freshened up, we hoped onto the bus and drove about 3 minutes down the road, before hopping onto a traditional sailing boat (only this one had a motor) and going down the river for 30 minutes to dock up at a Nubian Village.
The Nubian people are the indigenous people who are from the ancient times of Southern Egypt & present day Sudan, who continue a very traditional life living on the nile. The house that we were welcomed into by a Nubian family was quite large, had a palm tree & thatch roof, with a tall ceiling and brightly painted walls of blue and pink. This was explained to us as a very traditional and typical Nubian family house. There was a cage of budgies, a cage of very small hatchling crocodiles & one large crocodile in a tiled, very small enclosure that made me cringe & a cat. We were given a very basic history on their origins, culture and the individual roles of the family members before dinner was brought out. A few dishes of soup, rice, meat in pies & salad were brought out, after our big day exploring Egypt, the food didn't last very long. Afterwards some of the girls got some henna tattoos & the rest of us drunk beers on the roof before walking back down to the river and departing on the same boat. Once we were out in the middle of the Nile, the motor was stopped and the 4 Nubian men were suddenly holding drums and began a traditional song and dance. I'm not exactly sure how long we all danced and sung, maybe 30 minutes, but I dont think my hands have ever hurt so much from clapping or that my cheeks have ever hurt so much from smiling.
By the time we got back tot he hotel it was just past 10pm & we rushed up to our hotel room & bed.
- Alli
We awoke after only 4 hour's sleep, attempted to wake up with cold showers & struggled into a new set of clothes. We both acknowledged having some very strange dreams while sleeping in the bed.
The breakfast buffet was extravagant, though we were still half asleep & lacking an appetite, I slipped a few chocolate cookies & croissants into my hat to eat on the road.
Our first stop of the day was the Colossi Of Memnon! 2 giant statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, they are located near the modern day city of Luxor on the west side of the Nile & have stood guard of the Theban Necropolis since 1350 BC, which is a crazy 3,400 years! Luxor, was once known as Thebes and was used during the pharaonic period, especially the New Kingdom, for ritual burials.
Memnon is actually a greek name & he was a hero of the Trojan war, At one point the Theban necropolis became known as Memnonium.
The twin statues show Amenhotep III sitting on his throne with his hands resting on his knees, facing East towards the river, standing guard at the entrance to the Temple of Amenhotep. Sadly the temple is no longer in existence, but was said to have been one of the biggest of its time & used to worship the Pharaoh Amenhotep during and after his lifetime. The statues are made from huge slabs of quartzite sandstone that were transported 675kilometres by land to Thebes, another impressive stunt from an ancient civilisation. They stand at 18 metres tall & weigh an estimated 720 tons each, sadly they have suffered significant damage during their time, but are still a formidable sight that Im sure would have made ancient tomb robbers hesitate.
The temple of Queen Hatshepsut, or Hatchepsut, was the first Ancient Egyptian temple we would walk into & even though a lot of it had already been renovated & large sections still remained in disrepair, it did not disappoint. She was the 5th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty & the 2nd confirmed female pharaoh. She was the chief wife of Thutmose the II & officially was a joint ruler with her child Thutmose III who ascended the throne after his father at the age of 2. She ruled during the years of 1479 to 1458 BC, creating much speculation within the early scholary circles that she was a joint ruler, today's egyptologist's have come to a generalised consensus that she was actually the only ruler and assumed the position as pharaoh. She is considered by many historians to be one of the 'first great women of history' a rather grand & aspiring title, I'm sure she would be very proud of. During her reign she was responsible for the erection of some grand monuments including her temple at Luxor as well as establishing vast international trade routes. She was successful in warfare very early in her reign, though after this Egypt was very peaceful, wealthy & prosperous under her long 20 year reign. She was truly special, but not exceptional as a female ruler of Egypt and pre dating her are many examples of female rulers and co-regents, with records as far back as the 1st dynasty. She did however claim the divine right to rule the country, a claim given to her by the god Amun. Very interestingly she is depicted in statues as a traditional male pharaoh wearing the headress, the fake beard & standing like a man, as well as herself in a more natural feminine position.
She died at the approximate age of 50, with no official reason recorded, however medical analysis of the mummy shows very convincing evidence that she had advanced periodontal disease, osteoarthritis, was overweight, had diabetes & the cause of death is most likely malignant neoplastic disease of the bone. After her death, her son Thutmose III took control of the throne and towards the end of his reign is thought to have had a significant role in the inhalation of his mothers historical records as pharaoh. He did this in the most crude way possible that can still be seen today, he simply ordered her cartouches and images to be chiselled off the walls & her statues to be pulled down, defaced & buried under the sand. After Thutmose III came his son Amenhotep II who was also responsible for further destruction to Hatshepsut's name. It is not clear why this happened, we can only suspect the typical reasons of self promotion and resentment that he would have had against his mother for ruling. Amenhotep II was thought to have done this as well as trying to break the royal lineage to try and strengthen his own claim to the throne which was not very strong. He was also known to have intentionally not recorded the names of his queens and to have made redundant the roles & titles of important women. The nearly successful attempt at removing Hatshepsut's name from history did leave egyptologists from the early 19th & 20th century with a complexing puzzle. They couldn't interpret the texts from her temples to make any sense of who they were about, the translations were of feminine nouns & verbs, while the pictures were conflicting & showed a man with feminine features & a women in the same reference, as if it was the same person. The problem was so big it caused many academic feuds in the field from experts who could not figure it out. In the late 20th century evidence was slowly starting to be uncovered which shed some much needed light on who this ruler and supposed Queen was. Thankfully by the time we got to Egypt the mystery has all but been solved, leaving us with a clear picture of who and what happened & a name to admire.
What a woman!
Next stop was The Valley Of The Kings!!!! Something we were both super keen to see. I was nearly too excited to listen & absorb the information Sam was telling us before he set us free to explore. The only downside to this was the fact that the initial entry ticket only allowed entrance into 3 tombs, you had to pay extra to take your camera & you had to pay extra to go into Tutenkhamun's tomb, which had a strict no photography policy. After asking Sam for his expert opinion, we decided not to see Tutenkhamun's Mummy & tomb, because it was a small tomb & rather boring in comparison to the others, his mummy was not the most fantastically preserved, his gold mask's & sarcophagus was in the museum & because we couldn't take photos. After speaking to the people who did buy the extra ticket, I dont think we missed out & we don't regret our decision.
The first tomb we went into was that of King Ramesses III, which was the 11th tomb to be discovered in the valley, it is one of the longest tomb's at 188 metres in length. He is estimated to have ruled over Egypt during the New Kingdom from 1186 to 1155 BC and is thought to be the last monarch of the New Kingdom & the second ruler of the twentieth dynasty. He ruled for a long time & unfortunately was alive to see the decline of the Egyptian Kingdom from border invasions & internal political schemes. King Ramses III died in 1155 BC after he was assassinated by conspirators within his inner circle, including his secondary Queen Tiye, and their son, Prince Pentawere, who was found guilty at trial and took his own life. Researchers have done CT scans of Rameses' mummy & have discovered a serious wound in his neck that would have been done with a knife or another sharp object, consistent with having his throat slit. The wound would have served his oesophagus, trachea & jugulars, killing him nearly instantly. The scans show embalming material that has seeped down into the wound and bones, preserving the evidence. The scans also showed an amulet depicting Horus, that the embalmers inserted in the throat wound.
The next tomb we entered was the one that belonged to Pharaoh Merenptah or Merneptah, who ruled Egypt from 1213 BC – 1203 BC, it was the 8th tomb to be discovered in the valley. He was the 4th ruler of the 9th dynasty of ancient Egypt & ascended the throne when he was nearly 60 years old as the 13th son of Ramesses II & the next in line following his older brothers who had all ruled and died. Scans of Merenptah's mummy show that he was an elderly man who suffered from osteoarthritis and atherosclerosis, who supposedly died of natural causes, perhaps a progression of the atherosclerosis resulting in a stroke or heart disease. We walked through his tomb, again marvelling at the detail and ancient beauty, it was sad to learn that his mummy had been buried here but it was moved at some point. It was later found in 1898, with another 18 mummies, 13 of which were royalty, in the tomb of Amenhotep II, who was the great great grandfather of the well known King Tutenkhamun. Amenhotep's tomb was tomb number 35 to be found in the valley of the kings & was lavish & large, even by Egyptian royalty standards & for this reason became the hiding place for 18 mummies in an attempt to save & preserve their bodies while their own tombs were plundered by grave robbers. It's a sad fact of ancient history that so much was destroyed, but there is hope that an estimated 70% of Ancient Egypt is still buried in the sand, yet to be discovered.
Between the 2nd & 3rd tomb we stopped at a sign and got a brief education about the Pharaoh Ramesses II, who's tomb was discovered 5th and so far boasts the largest tomb in the valley with heavy & unusual emphasis on being a family mausoleum. The complex is absolutely huge & for good reason, Ramesses is fondly nicknamed Ramessex, due to his large number of children which is estimated to be 50 son's and 53 daughters. Sadly this tomb was not open for us to explore, given the chance, I would pitch a tent in the valley and spend an unnatural amount of time exploring all the tombs until I had memorised the exact location of every hieroglyph in every tomb.
Ramesses IV only ruled the throne for a short period between 1155-1149 BC and ascended the throne directly after his father Ramesses III was assassinated. Ramesses IV was responsible for his fathers conspirators & murderers involved in the scandal known as the 'Royal Harem Conspiracy against Ramesses III' to be arrested, put on trial & executed. We saw Ramesses IV depicted in a temple in Karnak, he was one of the last new Kingdom rulers to commission large scale monuments & temple work. Sadly, like the Pharaoh Merenptah, his mummy was also hidden and found outside it's intended tomb, with the cache of 18 mummies in Amenhotep II's tomb. I can't seem to find any reference to the cause of his death, only that he was estimated to be about 50 years of age when he died.
After we had freshened up, we hoped onto the bus and drove about 3 minutes down the road, before hopping onto a traditional sailing boat (only this one had a motor) and going down the river for 30 minutes to dock up at a Nubian Village.
The Nubian people are the indigenous people who are from the ancient times of Southern Egypt & present day Sudan, who continue a very traditional life living on the nile. The house that we were welcomed into by a Nubian family was quite large, had a palm tree & thatch roof, with a tall ceiling and brightly painted walls of blue and pink. This was explained to us as a very traditional and typical Nubian family house. There was a cage of budgies, a cage of very small hatchling crocodiles & one large crocodile in a tiled, very small enclosure that made me cringe & a cat. We were given a very basic history on their origins, culture and the individual roles of the family members before dinner was brought out. A few dishes of soup, rice, meat in pies & salad were brought out, after our big day exploring Egypt, the food didn't last very long. Afterwards some of the girls got some henna tattoos & the rest of us drunk beers on the roof before walking back down to the river and departing on the same boat. Once we were out in the middle of the Nile, the motor was stopped and the 4 Nubian men were suddenly holding drums and began a traditional song and dance. I'm not exactly sure how long we all danced and sung, maybe 30 minutes, but I dont think my hands have ever hurt so much from clapping or that my cheeks have ever hurt so much from smiling.
By the time we got back tot he hotel it was just past 10pm & we rushed up to our hotel room & bed.
- Alli
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