King Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings, Luxor

For nearly 500 years, from 2100 BCE, the west bank of Luxor was the site of royal burials. There are 63 tombs and we visited five; Tutankhamun, Ramses III, Ramses IV, Ramses VI and Ramses IX.  Of course they were all magnificient and a joy to see!

Most of the treasures discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb are in the Cairo Museum which we were lucky to see back on 18th February.  The four chambers were stuffed with jewellery, furniture, statues, chariots, musical instruments, weapons and food.  Although his tomb is not as impressive as the others in terms of size and decoration the associated history and discovery in 1922 by Howard Carter makes it very interesting. What is still in the tomb today is Tut's mummy and his sarcophagus. The burial chamber walls are decorated with figures of the pharaoh before the gods. The wall at the foot of the saracophagus shows scenes of the funeral. The 12 squatting apes from the Book of Amduat represent the 12 hours of the night. The Book of Amduat tells the story of Ra, the sun god, as he travels through the underworld. It's said the dead pharaoh is taking the same journey to become one with Ra and live forever.

The Tomb of Ramses VI is most impressive with broad corridors, a long entry shaft and fabulous decoration. The walls of the burial chamber are decorated with the Book of Earth. The vaulted ceiling is decorated with 
scences from the Book of Day and Book of Night.

Fragments of a large granite sarcophagus were discovered when Georges Emile Jules Daressy cleared the tomb in 1898. The sarcophagus was reconstructed in 2004 from over 250 fragments found in the tomb.

The two faceless 18 metre statues of Colossi of Memnon represented Pharaoh Amenhotep III are close to the Nile on the west bank. They were each cut from a single block of stone and weigh 1000 tonnes. They are at the entrance to the funerary temple of Amenophis III which is currently being excavated.