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Hearing the question “The most grandiose cemetery in the world?”, Most tourists will answer: “Valley of the Kings.” And that will be the true truth. For more than five centuries, the Egyptians buried their pharaohs here.
Burials in the Valley of the Kings were carried out from about the 16th to the 11th century BC – during this time the Egyptians managed to create a real City of the Dead.
On the left bank of the Nile River is the so-called City of the Dead – a huge necropolis of the pharaohs with funerary temples. Valley of the Pharaohs – this is the name of the burial place of the Egyptian rulers. Interestingly, archaeological excavations are still underway in this valley. Scientists to this day open new tombs, and how many of them will still be openly unknown.
Hearing the question “The most grandiose cemetery in the world?”, Domestic tourists who have long chosen Egypt as a modern “all-Russian health resort” will not be at a loss and will answer: “Valley of the Kings.” And that will be the true truth. For more than five centuries, the Egyptians buried their pharaohs here.
Burials in the Valley of the Kings were carried out from about the 16th to the 11th century BC – during this time the Egyptians managed to create a real City of the Dead.
On the left bank of the Nile River is the so-called City of the Dead – a huge necropolis of the pharaohs with funerary temples. Valley of the Pharaohs – this is the name of the burial place of the Egyptian rulers. Interestingly, archaeological excavations are still underway in this valley. Scientists to this day open new tombs, and how many of them will still be openly unknown.
Today, more than 50 tombs have already been excavated, in some of which even two pharaohs are buried – a predecessor and a successor. The Valley of the Kings is lost among the rocks near the ancient city with the name Luxor – an impressive desert, scorched by the sun, which was created to become the burial place of the pharaohs.The Valley of the Pharaohs in Luxor was a favorite place for robbers. There were entire settlements, the inhabitants of which were engaged exclusively in the theft of valuables from tombs and the subsequent sale of historical values.
Once Pharaoh Thutmose the First made an unexpected decision – to make his tomb not in the temple, but in some other secret place in order to protect the place of his burial from plunder. Moreover, in order to mislead the robbers, the temples of the dead were specially installed away from the centuries themselves. This burial practice has been used for five centuries.
Now everyone who has visited Luxor and the Valley of the Kings knows that this did not help, and many tombs were plundered, and the robbery of graves from the 13th century. BC e. became a kind of profession, passed from father to son.Today, the tombs of the Valley of the Kings are magnificent examples of world art and are considered World Heritage treasures.
In 1922, Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Pharaohs. The tomb was made of two hundred kilograms of gold and precious stones. It contained Pharaoh’s personal items, jewelry, chariots, dishes, weapons and much more. Of course, the scientist was very pleased with his discovery, but even more he and his colleagues were surprised at another fact. Next to the mummy was a small bunch of dried flowers, which, it would seem, was completely out of place in this case, given the rich decoration of the grave. Scientists suggest that the flowers were left by the widow of Tutankhamun.
The tomb of Tutankhamun and now excites the minds of scientists and travelers. It is still unknown whether the so-called curse of the pharaoh or the sudden death of the participants in the opening of the tomb is valid can be considered a simple coincidence.
A little away from the Valley of the Pharaohs is the Valley of the Queens, where members of the families of Egyptian rulers were buried. It is worth noting that the tombs of the wives, daughters and sons of the pharaohs were much poorer and more modest than the tombs of the kings.
Valley of the Kings is divided into Eastern and Western parts. Most of the tombs are concentrated in the Eastern Valley. Here in Luxor, there are 64 tombs, almost all royal ones. All tombs of the Valley of the Kings have a similar layout – first a long corridor, going with an inclination and going to a depth of 100 meters, and three or four rooms at the end of the corridor. The ceilings and walls of the corridors and rooms are decorated with color drawings illustrating the life and exploits of the buried ruler and have not lost their brightness to this day. Of the dozens of tombs discovered to date, the most notable are the tombs of Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Tutankhamun and the four Ramses.
Another advantage of the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, and indeed all of Egypt for our tourists is the absolute absence of a language barrier. Here, except that the mummies do not speak Russian.
Today, the Valley of the Kings is far from a quiet place hidden from prying eyes. Thousands of tourists flock to Luxor every year to visit where the pharaohs were buried. But the Valley of the Kings became really popular after the sensational story about the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
After the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun, which, by the way, was simply overflowed with gold and is still considered the richest tomb, all archaeologists who were engaged in its excavation died under strange circumstances. It was then that they started talking about the “curse of the pharaohs.”
After visiting Luxor, of course, look at the tomb of Tutankhamun with its frescoes and a golden sarcophagus, which is considered one of the masterpieces of jewelry art of all time.
The height of the sarcophagus is almost two meters, weight 200 kg of gold. It is inlaid with lapis lazuli, turquoise and carnelian.
Do not miss one of the most beautiful tombs of the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of Thutmose III, the most complex tomb of Set I, consisting of many stairs and galleries, the tomb of Ramesses II with its beautifully painted ceiling, which depicts two celestial hemispheres and star gods, marching behind the sun’s rooks floating on the heavenly Nile.
Undoubtedly, the tombs of the Valley of the Kings are the highest examples of world art, today they are included in the list of World Heritage treasures. But today, mummies are not stored in tombs – they are in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo , in the hall of mummies. The only mummy that has been resting at the place of its burial for about three and a half thousand years is the mummy of Tutankhamun.
