Day 8 - Return to the West Bank

Today we returned to the West Valley (Valley of the Kings). We started by driving to the site of Deir el-Bahri. This is the site where they found the royal cache of mummies, which are now in the Egyptian Museum. The primary structure here is the Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, the first woman king of Egypt. There is a long, stone stairway that leads up to the impressive temple site. There are many columns on the front of the temple with Hatshepsut’s head on the top. Some of these are ruined. Egyptologists think it was done by either the Christians or more likely, by her stepson, Tuthmosis III, or even by later Egyptians who did not like the fact that a woman ruled Egypt. The very back of the temple is where the tomb actually was and is called the Holy of Holies and is closed to the public.




**Note: We just met our new guide, an Egyptologist, who happened to discuss Hatshepsut with us on the boat. He told us that 4 weeks ago, the government got back the results of the DNA analysis from a tooth that they found in what they thought was the mummy of Hatshepsut. It was confirmed that this was true. With the mummy, they found many papyri that told the story of how well she and Tuthmosis III got along and how good he treated her. This has led to the belief that she was not defaced by Tuthmosis III but probably just by the Christians who later occupied the site. This is a very good example of how different pieces of evidence can lead Egyptologists to different conclusions.

We then drove to visit the Valley of the Queens.
The most famous tomb is of Nefertari but that tomb has been closed for a few years due to the damage being caused by tourists. The vibrations of walking, the flashes from cameras and the carbon monoxide from our breathing causes damage. It is interesting that the Valley of the Queens does not just contain Queens. There are a few tombs for sons of the kings also. Again, we could not take any photos. I did film looking up towards the tomb entrances.


We also visited the Tombs of the Nobles. These were built in an area where the limestone was of a little less quality than the Valley of the Kings. Because of this and because of the expense, the walls in these tombs were covered with white plaster and the scenes were painted versus carved. There are more than 400 tombs of Theban nobles and high officials, mainly from the New Kingdom.


Next, we went to Deir al-Medina. This place is where all of the workers for the Valley of the Queens and the Kings lived while building them. You can see the structures of where they lived. It is a bit ruined and the wooden roofs are missing. Each structure has one room plus a kitchen and bath area.

The last stop was at the Colossi of Memnon. These are two gigantic statues of Amenhotep III. They are 59 feet high and about 15 feet wide. They originally guarded Amenhotep’s mortuary temple – thought to have been the largest ever built in Egypt. It was plundered for building material by later pharaohs and gradually destroyed by the annual floods. During the Roman period the northernmost statue became a popular tourist attraction as it was heard to “sing” at sunrise. The “singing” sounds were caused by gases, which were heated by the rising sun, being forced through the crevices in the rock. After the statues were repaired in 199 AD by the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, the singing stopped.


All of these sites were about 5 minutes apart. It took about 30 minutes to drive to the first site. We left at 8am and finished about 1pm. It was a long, hot day. Our driver and tour guide dropped us off in front of our Nile cruise boat. We now sleep on the boat for the next few nights. And, yes, we think we will enjoy this part of the trip. Tomorrow is a completely free day where we sail all day long!!