FEBRUARY 10 - KARNAK, TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT, VALLEY OF THE KINGS
As we mentioned before, we had a very full day getting up at 4 a.m., flying to Luxor and then touring Karnak, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Valley of the Kings, as well as checking in on the Sanctuary Sun Boat IV. A very long but very exciting day!
As we also noted before, our brilliant guide, Ahmed, decided to change things up and instead of going to Luxor after we landed, he decided to take us to Karnak, where less people would be that day. Boats go up and down the Nile and they all seem to dock at the same time and place so many people were expected to be at Luxor first thing in the morning. Not us!
If you want to find out more about this amazing place, you can always click here or here. There's lots to read about if anyone is interested.
Further, Ahmed, is also the author of several books, two of which he graciously gave each of us: The Great Temples of Egypt and The Great Tombs of Egypt, both available on Amazon, if anyone is interested.
Many of the main roads which lead to the temples of Thebes (modern Luxor) used to be continuously lined with sphinxes.Those which flank the entrance to the First Pylon of Karnak Temple combine the body of a lion with the head of a ram. The ram was a symbol of the god Amun, the chief deity worshipped in the Great Temple of Karnak. Each sphinx protects, between its forelegs, a standing statue of the king--originally Ramesses II (c.1279-1213 BC).
Ramsesses II - reigned for over 60 years; had 100 children; died at the age of 90!
Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh of Egypt who reigned from roughly 1479 to 1458
BC. At Karnak she renovated the main sanctuary at Karnak, creating in
its place a “Palace of Ma’at.” She also created a chapel made of red
quartzite to hold the god’s portable bark (boat).
When Hatshepsut’s successor, her stepson, Thutmose III, came to the throne, he ordered the destruction of images of the female pharaoh and had her quartzite chapel destroyed and replaced with one of his own.
The obelisk of Hatshepsut, built in the year 1457 BC, during the XVIII dynasty, is the second biggest of all the ancient Egyptian obelisks. Made of one single piece of pink granite, it has a height of 28.58 meters and its weight is 343 tons. It is located in the Big Temple of Amon, in Karnak.
Karnak Temple Sacred Lake is the largest of its kind and was dug by Tuthmose III (1473-1458 BC). It measures 393 feet by 252 feet and is lined with stone wall and has stairways descending into the water. The lake was used by the priests for ritual washing and ritual navigation. It was also home to the sacred geese of Amun (the goose being another symbol of Amun) and was a symbol of the primeval waters from which life arose in the ancient Egyptian’s idea of creation.
Our Boat was on the other side of the Nile so it was necessary to take a ferry to Karnak and return for lunch before our excursion in the afternoon.
On the way to the Sanctuary Sun Boat IV, we made a quick stop to see the Colossi of Memnon.
I love faces and this man had a very interesting one.
After our tour at Karnak, we were taken to the Sanctuary Sun Boat IV, where we were able to unpack our bags and enjoy lunch.
We were greeted by a welcome Zaffa, with drums and flutes. (We were walking carefully onto the boat so no pictures were taken of the musicians.)
After a quick lunch on the Sanctuary Sun, we headed back out for a visit to the Valley of the Kings, but first stopped at the incredibly modern-looking tomb of Hatshepsut, I found her story to be very compelling, particularly because her stepson, Thutmose III, and successor, tried to erase everything about her. Obviously, we're still talking about her thousands of years later .... so, despite his hatred for her and all his efforts, he failed!
Just a little bit of history from the World History website:
Hatshepsut (r. 1479-1458 BC) was the first female ruler of ancient Egypt to reign as a male with the full authority of pharaoh. Her name means "Foremost of Noble Women" or "She is First Among Noble Women." She began her reign as regent to her stepson Thutmose III (r. 1458-1425 BC) who would succeed her.
Initially, she ruled as a woman as depicted in statuary, but, at around the seventh year of her reign, she chose to be depicted as a male pharaoh in statuary and reliefs though still referring to herself as female in her inscriptions. She was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty during the period known as the New Kingdom (c. 1570 to c. 1069 BC) and regarded as one of the most prosperous and the era of the Egyptian Empire.
Although she is sometimes cited as the first female ruler of Egypt, or the only one, there were women who reigned before her such as Merneith (r. c. 3000 BC) in the Early Dynastic Period (probably as regent) and Sobeknefru (r. c. 1807-1802 BC) in the Middle Kingdom and Twosret (r. 1191-1190 BC) after her toward the end of the 19th Dynasty. Hatshepsut, though not the first or last, is undoubtedly the best-known female ruler of ancient Egypt after Cleopatra VII (r. c. 69-30 BC) and one of the most successful monarchs in Egyptian history.
I really liked this man's dress and face and he was nice enough to pose for a couple of pictures with me.
On we went to the Valley of the Kings, one of our favorite sites of our adventure.
There are at least 63 tombs in the Valley of the Kings and excavations are still going on. As I've said before, God only knows what lies below the sands of the desert.
The first tomb we entered was that of Ramesses IX. For a quick youtube visit to the tomb, click here.
Now I get to write about my two favorite/emotional experiences in Egypt. The first was our visit to the Tomb of Tutankhamen.
Compared to the tombs of the other Pharaohs, King Tutankhamen's was very small. When we walked in, I had an overpoweringly feeling of sadness. There was the mummy of this King - yet his body looked so small - hardly noticeable in the dimmed light, covered in a shroud that did not even delineate any shape of a body at all. His head and his feet were exposed with not a hint of a body beneath.
His smallness was what created this overwhelming feeling of sorrow in me. It was in this spot that this seemingly little person remained - alone - for over 2,000 years. We are so used to seeing the magnificent treasures that were discovered in his tomb in 1922 and here he was today ... all we see is the mummy of this young man. I couldn't help but cry.
If I remember all Ahmed told us, King Tutankhamen is the only Pharaoh that was actually found in his tomb. Many others - and those we saw in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization - were found in a cache put there by grave robbers. That is the reason why the Egyptian authorities decided to keep his mummy there, in the Valley of the Kings, rather than remove him to the NMEC.
So, here is this man, who reigned for a mere ten years (1333-1323 BC), was crippled, walked with a cane, who was overweight, married to his step-sister, and who could not produce an heir, who is probably the most famous of all the Pharaohs. The even more remarkable fact is that he was so insignificant at the time that another tomb was built on top of his that was actually looted. The grave robbers had absolutely no idea that another tomb lie beneath and thus was left alone until discovered by Howard Center in 1922. A truly amazing story!
The last and westernmost wall is covered with twelve baboons that symbolized the twelve hours of the night it took the pharaoh to travel into the afterlife.
And now for the final story of this remarkable day!
When we first booked this trip for 2020, Michael and I began doing research about Egypt and were very excited about all the wondrous things we were hoping to see. While searching online, Michael came across an incredible 3-D virtual video of the Tomb of Rameses V and VI. Unfortunately, that video doesn't seem to be working at this point. (Maybe, it'll be up and running again when I post this blog; the 3-D virtual tour was really fantastic.) There is a pretty good video on youtube.
At the time, I was enjoying my virtual tour and turned a corner in the tomb and started looking at the thousands of hieroglyphs on the walls. Well, I was stunned when I saw this on the ceiling:
(On youtube, you can see the Tomb we're talking about and the corner I turned was at 1:05 in the video.)
Now, you have to know that Michael loves the show "Ancient Aliens" - not because he believes in extra-terrestrial beings, but because the so-called "ancient alien theorists" travel the world and visit unusual places that we generally don't hear about. One of their theories is that men were actually walking the Earth at the time of the dinosaurs. After seeing this on the ceiling of the Tomb of Rameses V and VI, what were we suppose to think? We took a screenshot and actually sent an email to Giorgio Tsoukalos, one of the ancient alien theorists, for his take on this. Well, needless to say, he didn't respond to my email. I put the photo into my Egypt/Jordan/Israel folder and was determined to find out what this creature was when we visited Egypt.
As time past and our trip was further delayed, we continued to watch documentaries, etc. about Egypt and watched a few on Netflix. I can't recall which one it was, but we learned about a "Taweret" which is an ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth, although she was initially a malignant force. The deity is typically depicted as a bipedal female hippopotamus with feline attributes, pendulous female human breasts, the limbs and paws of a lion, and the back and tail of a Nile crocodile. I couldn't believe my eyes! The unknown creature on the ceiling of the Tomb was not a dinosaur but a Taweret! Mystery solved but the story continues....
With photo in my purse, we met Ahmed the day of our private tour to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. While sitting in the restaurant, I mentioned to him the "mystery" creature I had seen on the ceiling of the Tomb and started to pull out the photo to show it to him. He said, "No need, it's what is called a Taweret." Well, of course, according to my own research, he was correct but this only shows the extent of this man's knowledge about Egypt. I was stunned and extremely impressed!
Back at the Valley of the Kings, little did I know that when Ahmed said we were to visit the most beautifully preserved Tombs with the most vibrant colors of any of the Tombs, did I realize we would be visiting the Tomb of Rameses V and VI! I was so excited that I pretty much ran down the ramp to the exact spot where I would turn towards an alcove, look up and find my Taweret exactly where I thought it would be! To say I was actually vibrating is an understatement!
Because this Tomb and its hieroglyphs are so extraordinarily well-preserved, there is a separate charge to enter and this young man sort of sneaked by without paying the extra charge. Ahmed called him back and he looked as if he really didn't realize there was a further charge. He (reluctantly) left. As you will see from the following photos, our little band of six were the only people in the Tomb.
I can still feel the excitement from that moment!
There were many other beautiful things in this Tomb as well:
I would eventually buy my own little Taweret to bring home for a price of $20 (although I'm sure Ahmed would have suggested negotiating for a much lower price).
Back on the Sanctuary Sun Boat IV, we were able to relax a bit, get dressed for dinner and be welcomed by the Hotel Manager and his wonderful staff.
Oh, you saw Hatshepsut's Temple. Were you able to go inside?
ReplyDeleteYes, we did.
DeleteAhmed's book has nice pictures. Incredible how some of the columns (outside) still keep the original colors. I can imagine that ancient Egypt, like Ancient Rome, was very gaudy, with all the excess of colors; but that meant wealth and power... OK, we need a picture of your Taweret!
ReplyDelete