Luxor is separated by the Nile River into the East Bank and the West Bank. As the sun rises on the East Bank, it was believed by the Ancient Egyptians to be the side of the living. As the sun sets on the West Bank, it was the side of the dead. It follows that the cult temples built to honor and worship specific gods like Temple of Karnak and Luxor Temple were built on the East Bank while the tombs and necropolis like the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens were built on the West Bank.
In planning our activities in Luxor, we had to be careful to not overlap with the sites that would be included in the Nile Cruise itinerary. Since the cruise covered the most popular temples on both the East and West banks, we chose some of the slightly less popular sites to visit before we boarded the cruise – Valley of the Queens, Medinet Habu and Howard Carter House on the West Bank. On the East Bank, we visited the Luxor Museum which will be covered in the next blog post (Exploring Luxor’s West Bank – Luxor Musuem).
Valley of the Queens
Valley of the Queens is the site where members of the royal family (except kings) including queens, princes and princesses were buried. Kings of course, were buried in the Valley of the Kings. In addition to royalty, some high-ranking officials were also buried in the valley. The area was used as a burial ground during the 18th to 20th dynasties during the New Kingdom and subsequently, some tombs were reused as shared tombs. Prior to burying queens in the valley, queens were customarily buried alongside their husbands. Discovered in 1904 by the Italian Egyptologist Ernest Schiaperelli, over 90 tombs have been found in the Valley of the Queens to date. Due to excavations and discoveries made by Italian teams, many of the plaques around the valley are in Italian.
Our guide to the Valley of the Queens, Muhammed was a free-lance guide who could speak Chinese. To be more precise, he was learning to speak Chinese so he could guide Chinese tour groups. He practiced some of his Chinese on us and it sounded pretty good.
Despite it being well into the Fall season and closer to winter, it was still quite hot when we arrived. After purchasing the ticket, we approached the tombs on foot under the unrelenting sun. It is easy to see why the tombs went undiscovered for thousands of years until the early 1900s. The entire area is surrounded by the sun-baked, rocky desert and before it was excavated, the area was completely buried by the rock and sand. The surrounding color palette of the desert is monochromatic and even with the entrances clearly laid out with signs, it is easily camouflaged by the surrounding environment. The tombs are directly cut into the rock, hence are called rock cut tombs. Each tomb typically consists of a long corridor that leads to the burial chamber and smaller side chambers.
The walls of the tombs were typically adorned with scenes from the deceased person’s life, religious rituals and their journey into the afterlife guided oftentimes by the pharoah and their encounters with different gods. The most vivid colors that can be seen are white, red, blue, yellow and green.
The ticket to Valley of the Queens includes entry to three tombs – Tomb of Prince Amenherkhepshef, Tomb of Queen Titi and Tomb of Prince Khaemwaset.
Prince Amenherkhepshef was one of the sons of King Rameses III who died when he was about 15 years old. Vivid colors are still visible on the wall reliefs. The stone sarcophagus is still in its original location. There is a detailed description of the tomb here.
Queen Titi’s identity, lineage and age at death are unknown. Experts speculate she could have been the wife or daughter of Rameses III. There is a detailed description of the tomb here.
Prince Khaemwaset was believed to be the oldest son of King Rameses III, though he never became King because his uncle ascended the throne. The inside of this tomb is probably the most well preserved, with the least visible damage, of the three that we visited. The wall reliefs are shielded by glass walls to protect it from deterioration caused by the humidity, fungus and the careless touching of thousands of visitors each year. There is a detailed description of the tomb here.
In the Valley of the Queens, it is possible to visit the tomb of Queen Nefertari with the purchase of an additional ticket. Queen Nefertari was the favorite wife of King Ramses II and because we will be seeing a temple dedicated to her when we visit Abu Simbel, we decided to skip the tomb visit.
Howard Carter House
When I taught Year 3 (2nd Grade) in Shanghai, one of my favorite units of study in Topic (Social Studies) was Ancient Egypt. I taught my students about the lives of Ancient Egyptians, their beliefs and practices and the pharaohs who ruled. For the same reason that the world fell in love with King Tutankhamen when his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, the kids in my class were fascinated by this pharaoh in particular because of the irresistible visual allure of the treasures found in his largely intact tomb. The story of the discovery possessed all of components to feed the imagination of a classroom full of 7 year-olds – the characters, the suspense, the discovery, the treasures and the curse.
Howard Carter House presented us with the opportunity to look into the private home of the famed archaeologist who discovered King Tut’s tomb and uttered upon first glance into the tomb that it contained, “wonderful things.” In my class, we studied Howard Carter’s accomplishments and discussed the character traits that allowed him to make such an important discovery – perseverance, patience, determination, courage, etc. Beyond his achievements and our conjectures about his character, I really didn’t know much about Howard Carter, the man.
I imagine that behind the public persona of famous and accomplished people, there is always a private side to them that is hidden from the rest of the world. They must have a quiet place where they can think, reflect, read, plan and fulfill physical necessities like eating and sleeping. When Howard Carter wasn’t at his excavation site in the Valley of the Kings, he was probably at home. A person’s home can reveal a lot about that person. I wanted to see what his home looked like and get a sense of how he lived. As an added bonus, the museum includes a replica of King Tut’s tomb.
For many years after Howard Carter’s death in 1939, the home stood empty and was sometimes used as temporary accommodations for inspectors who were passing through. It wasn’t until 2009 that it was restored and turned into a museum. The exact replica of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, just beside the house, was opened in 2014.
Howard Carter House is located quite close to the Valley of the Kings and apart from the immediate area surrounding the home, is located along a sandy, dusty road. The home is constructed of mud bricks and can be recognized from a large dome on the ceiling. It was larger than I expected with multiple rooms and it looked like a comfortable home with a feeling of permanence. The inside of the home contains old furniture, books, maps, excavation tools and some personal items, including notes and photos belonging to Howard Carter. There is even a small dark room where he developed his photos.
Outside of the house and through the garden is an exact replica of King Tut’s tomb created by scanning the walls of the actual tomb. According to experts, the replica is exact down to the chisel marks and dust. There is some debate in Egypt over the pros and cons of creating a replica of important archaeological sites. King Tut’s tomb was the first replica to be created but many more are planned for the future. There are some purists who argue that a replica can never offer the same authentic feeling as being inside the actual site. From our experience that day, I believe a replica can offer us the absence of crowds and the luxury of time and space to explore and observe at our own pace. That day, we had the whole place to ourselves and could leisurely read each placard and study the wall reliefs to our heart’s content. The replica seemed like a hybrid between a museum exhibit and the actual site as there was space to provide information and photos of the discovery and the tomb, which added valuable context and understanding for all of us.
Medinet Habu - Rameses III Mortuary Temple
Medinet Habu is the name of a village where Rameses III built his mortuary temple during his reign. According to ancient beliefs, this was the place where Amun, the god of creation, first appeared. Before Rameses III built his massive mortuary temple at this site, Queen Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III had already built smaller temples dedicated to Amun.
Besides holding Rameses III’s mortuary temple, Medinet Habu was once the administrative and economic center of Thebes. Within the outer wall built by Rameses III, it contains smaller temples dedicated to Amun, a royal palace, dwellings for priests, storage rooms, workshops and administrative buildings.
Medinet Habu isn’t included on the itinerary of most Nile cruise tours so it is often overlooked by visitors. It was the first major temple that we visited in Thebes and it lived up to its reputation as the most under-rated site in all of Luxor. We arrived at Rameses III’s mortuary temple in the late afternoon, just before 4 pm. Besides a handful of other visitors wrapping up their visit, we basically had the whole temple to ourselves. It seemed to be the perfect time to visit as we could wander around in total peace as the soft afternoon light shone tenderly on the temple.
The entire temple is surrounded by a fortified enclosure wall. When approaching the temple, we were completely overwhelmed by the height and size of the front face, whose design was inspired by a Syrian Migdol fortress. There is a prominent statue of Sekhmet near the front of the temple. Sekhmet is a powerful warrior goddess and is depicted with the head of a lion and body of a woman. Sometimes she has a sun disc atop her head.
The inside walls are filled with scenes of Rameses III defeating his enemies including the Libyans, Nubians and the Sea People. Scribes meticulously record the number of enemies killed by counting the pile of severed hands and other body parts.
We took our time as our guide Mohammed explained some of the statues, reliefs and hieroglyphics throughout the temple. We were a little rushed at the end as the caretaker was eager to close up before 5 pm. For us, this was a once in a lifetime experience that we wanted to imprint upon our memories and savor to the last drop. For him, it was just another day on the job at the great mortuary temple of Rameses III.
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11/15 盧克索/底比斯 （wp）
埃及古城跨兩岸，渡船單程七塊半。
東岸繁華有神廟，西岸陵墓好壯觀。
日升東方生之讚，日落西邊死亡闇。
東建神廟西陵墓，死後重生來世盼。
拉美西斯III陵廟，哈布城牆深浮雕。
精美壁畫象形文，廊柱石刻氣勢驕。