Nile River Cruise: The Valley of the Kings, Part 1

The Valley of the Kings is just that - a valley in which many kings (and a few queens) are buried.

The weather was quickly rising, having reached about 85 degrees by 8 a.m., and since no photography was allowed inside, there was really very little to show for the trip. The buses stop at a special area, and a tram takes tourists to the gates, through the metal detector into the valley. There are 62 tombs, and one new discovery - however they are not sure if the new discovery is a tomb per-se, or just a store-house since undisturbed jars, sarcophagi with several meters of linen and random cartouches are all that has been found so far.

Inside the tombs, however, is like an exercise in reconstructing Pharaonic death, burial and plunder. The illustrations are wonderful for the most part, yet the evidence of thieves and later vandals are omnipresent; from chiseled-out faces, to missing "squares" of the tombs, to evidence of stone being burst asunder using the high-heat/rapid cool technique, and the occasional Coptic cross or illustration of Monks reading the Bible to counter-act the "Evils" of the Pharaonic idolaters, tomb after tomb is in various states of splendor.

The temple of Hatshepsut, however, is the exact opposite. Though the inside is destroyed by later Christians who converted the temple to a church, the outside is immensely impressive, with its long ramped stairway, it's eight remaining full statues, and the hieroglyphics (particularly of Horus) that adorn the walls and pillars is amazing. The colors, hardly faded in the intervening 3000-odd years, are as vibrant and breath-taking as any thing I had seen so far. The most amazing is that the temple is considered destroyed, yet it "feels" more like ancient Egypt than the Valley of the Kings.

The colossi are just a bit down the road from Hatshepsut's temple, and are defaced; again by Christians who didn't want the natives worshiping the false god of the pharaohs. There are two statues; one made of a single piece of granite, the other made from sixteen blocks of limestone. The second statue USED to "talk" to those who stood before it under certain conditions. The wind would be caught by the tiny spaces between the blocks, making a moaning sound. This so impressed most passers-by (like the Greeks and later the Romans) that entire mythologies of slain heroes or murdered nobles inhabiting the statue until resurrection sprung up. Twenty-Seven years ago, an earthquake toppled the three-thousand year old statue and in an effort to reassemble the statue, they silenced its eternal voice forever.

The temple of Karnak is, by far, THE most impressive structure I have ever laid eyes on, more so than the pyramids, more so than the Roman/Greek fortifications, and even the mosques and churches. Columns of stone rising 40 or more meters into the sky, row upon row of marching statues, cartouche after cartouche of kingly names and exalted deeds all stand in immutable testament to the power and majesty of the New Kingdom of Pharoanic Egypt. Walking on this sacred ground, touching the statues and the stones of granite, limestone and sandstone leave one with the sense that a small, infinitesimal part of your spirit has traveled through time to touch the hands of supplicants, the robes of priests, the tools of the artisans and one is left humbled.

The temple of Luxor is much smaller than the Temple of Karnak (the former being over 60 acres of land, while the latter only a dozen) and evidence of the passage of time is even more prevalent than in other temples. First, the temple itself is in the center of the city, surrounded by the houses and businesses of Luxor, and a Mosque riding astride it. From west one enters the temple portion built by the prolific Ramses II, but afterward, the later temple periods are as telltale as watermarks; the late Pharoahnic gives way to Ptolemaic, with Roman period following, and finally, Christian period when the temple was converted to a Church.

Even sand plays its part, burying the Temple for a period of time and wicking water into it, destroying many of the reliefs and sculptures which are themselves made of sandstone in the latter period. Alexander the Great is likewise depicted as becoming a son of a God, and left his stamp by re-arranging portions of the temple to fit with his particular beliefs.