Hearing the question "The most grandiose cemetery in the world? ", Domestic tourists who have long been chosen by Egypt as a modern" all-Russian health resort "will not be puzzled and will answer:" The Valley of the Kings ". And this will be true truth. For more than five centuries the Egyptians buried their pharaohs here.
On the left bank of the Nile River is the so-called City of the Dead - a huge necropolis of pharaohs with funerary temples. The valley of the pharaohs is precisely the so-called burial place of the Egyptian rulers. It is interesting that archaeological excavations are still being carried out in this valley. Scientists to this day open new tombs, and how many of them still will be openly unknown.
Today, more than 50 tombs have been unearthed, in some of which even two pharaohs are buried - a predecessor and a successor. The Valley of the Kings was lost among the rocks near the ancient city with the name Luxor - an impressive, sun-scorched desert that was as if created to become a burial place for pharaohs.
A paragraph of history
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 established far from the centuries themselves. This practice of burial was applied for five centuries.
| Over the Valley of the Kings |
Now everyone who has visited Luxor and the Valley of the Kings knows that this has not helped and many tombs have been plundered, and the robbery of graves since the XIII century. BC. e. became a kind of profession passed from father to son.
In 1922, in the Valley of the Pharaohs Howard Carter found the grave of Tutankhamun .The tomb was made of two hundred kilograms of gold and precious stones .In it were personal belongings of the pharaoh adornments, 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 by another fact .Near the mummy lay 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 .
A little aside from the Valley of the Pharaohs is the Valley of the Queens, where members of the families of the Egyptian rulers were buried. It should be noted that the tombs of the wives, daughters and sons of the pharaohs were much poorer and more modest than the graves of the kings.
What to see
The Valley of the Kings is divided into the Eastern and Western parts .Most of the tombs are concentrated in the Eastern Valley .Here, in Luxor, there are 64 tombs, almost all royal .All the tombs of the Valley of the Kings have a similar layout - first a long corridor, going with a slope and extending 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 the rooms are decorated with colorful drawings illustrating the life and exploits of the buried ruler and have not lost their brightness to this day .Of the several dozen tombs discovered to date, the most notable are tombs of Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Tutankhamun and four Ramzesov .
Today the Valley of the Kings is not a quiet place, hidden from prying eyes. Thousands of tourists each year rush to Luxor to visit the places where the pharaohs were buried. But the truly popular Valley of the Kings became after the sensational story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922
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 times.
Do not miss one of the most beautiful tombs of the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of Thutmose III, the most complex in the construction of the tomb of Seti I, consisting of many ladders and galleries, the tomb of Ramses II with its magnificently painted ceiling, which depicts two celestial hemispheres and star gods marching behind the solar boats , floating on the heavenly Nile.
Undoubtedly, the tombs of the Valley of the Kings are the highest examples of world art, today they are on the list of World Heritage treasures. But today the mummies are not kept in tombs - they are in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, in the mummies hall. The only mummy that rests on the site of its burial is already about three and a half thousand years old, it's the mummy of Tutankhamun.
| View of the Hatshepsut temple |
| Beautiful valley of the Kings |
| Spice trading in the Valley of the Kings |