West Bank of Luxor

Day 6 (29/10/08): West Bank of Luxor

Disembarkation after breakfast. Today we'll be out for a tour around the West Bank of Luxor, visiting three main sites: the Valley of the Kings, (skipping the Valley of the Queens because it is a smaller version of Kings without as much to see), the Temple of Queen Hatsheput, as well as the Collosei of Memnon.

Valley of the Kings:

The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom (the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt). The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, across from Thebes (modern Luxor), within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley (where the majority of the royal tombs situated) and West Valley.

With the 2005 discovery of a new chamber, and the 2008 discovery of 2 further tomb entrances, the valley is known to contain 62 tombs and chambers (ranging in size from a simple pit to a complex tomb with over 120 chambers), and was the principal burial place of the major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom, together with those of a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period. All of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the rulers of this time.

One of the ongoing archeological digs right in the middle of the tombs









Alabaster Museum and Demonstration:

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

The Mortuary Temple Of Hatshepsut arose as a necropolis, consecrated to the goddess Hathor in the eleventh dynasty (2120 - 1991 B.C.). It was then abandoned, until queen Hatshepsut took it over some five hundred years later. This became the period of its highest importance. After being abandoned again, it was turned into a monastery. The monastery, "Northern Monastery", whose presence at the temple is the reason for its being so well preserved today, has given the temple its present Arabic name, Deir el-Bahri.

The Hatshepsut Temple is built into the rock, and consists of three terraces. The temple itself is located on the top terrace. It was created by the famous architect Senmut. Queen Hatshepsut is best known as the only woman who actually reigned as a pharaoh - probably to her son Thutmosis III's great annoyance. Hatshepsut took over the rule of Egypt in 1473 B.C. after her husband, Thutmosis II, died. Thutmosis II was incidentally both her husband and her half-brother.

When her son Thutmosis III came of age, she was so unhappy about having to hand over the power to him that she, together with the priests, figured out a way to avoid it. The solution included wearing male clothes, as well as the false beard made of wood and leather worn by all pharaohs. When her son finally did come to power, he seemed to find it necessary to demonstrate to the World that he could rule much better than his mother through great conquests of neighbouring countries that he later become known as "the Napoleon of Egypt".

Us (above) standing at the site of the Luxor massacre, which the tourguides kept bringing up with eerie comfort. The Luxor Massacre took place on 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahri, an archaeological site located across the River Nile from Luxor in Egypt. Deir el-Bahri is one of Egypt's top tourist attractions, most notably for the spectacular mortuary temple of 18th-dynasty female pharaoh Hatshepsut, known as "Djeser-Djeseru."

The attack is thought to have been instigated by exiled Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Group") leaders attempting to undermine the July 1997 "Nonviolence Initiative", an effort to end an Islamist terrorist campaign that had killed hundreds of Egyptians and foreigners since 1992. In the mid-morning attack, terrorists from the Islamic Group and Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest") massacred 63 people at the attraction. The six assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives, and disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45. With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes. The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons - in total 4 Egyptians and 59 tourists were dead.

The attackers then hijacked a bus, but ran into a checkpoint of armed Egyptian tourist police and military forces. One of the terrorists was wounded in the shootout and the rest fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide together.

And apparently they still like to tell this story to tourists.

Collosi of Memnon