Valley of Kings

Valley of Queens

We did visit the Valley of the Queens but it was not allowed to take any photos.

The tombs are constructed following a fixed design: first a tunnel leading to a treasure room with jewelry, furniture and vehicles, which the deseased might need in the afterlife. Deeper into the mountain a central room was created for the sarcophagus with the body of the deseased. The most famous one is without a doubt the sarcophagus of Tut-ankh-Amun.

KV62 - Tut-ankh-Amun

KV11 - Ramses III

KV6 - Ramses IX

KV2 - Ramses IV

Due to the early demise of Tut, his tomb ended up being small and with very limited decorations. All movable objects have been relocated to the Museum of Egypt. The tomb can be labelled as uninspiring and therefore it was no problem at all that cameras were not allowed in.

The chaos in one of the chambers of King Tut proofs that the tomb has been broken into after which hastely most artifacts have been put back and the tomb has been sealed off again. Howard Carter was convinced of the existence of King Tut's grave based on amulets that were found in other graves but clearly belonged to King Tut. Howard Carter searched for the grave for 5 years; a quest that paid off by the discovery of the tumb on November 4, 1922.

King Tut's body was buried in four chests with each one having its own sarcophagus. The most inner one is of pure gold and weighs almost 19 stone. The other sarcophagi (from the outside in) were made of sandstone and twice of wood with gold paint.

The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt close to the historic city Thebes on the west bank of the River Nile where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, rock cut tombs were excavated for the pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom.

The tomb of King Tut consists of four chambers in which 3,500 objectes were found. (Tombes of other kings could easily consist of 20 chambers which gives some idea how many objects could have been found if tomb raiders had not robbed the place empty.)

The tumb of Tut is the only one found more or less undisturbed. All other 61 tombs and all pyramids found until today have been raided.