Early one morning we were up before sunrise to cross the river in small motorboats. From the other shore some of the group went for a donkey ride and some of us simply took a taxi to the Valley of the Kings. By the time we arrived to the entrance of the valley, the sun had already risen and the heat was beginning to make itself quite noticeable.

Entrance to the Valley of the Kings.

The Valley of the Kings
Once you arrive to the entrance of the valley, you have to leave your bus or taxi - or donkey. The latter will find their way to their resting place all by themselves and will be waiting for you while you visit the tombs, as will the buses and the taxis. Then you have to pass through - guess what - a market. After that you will find out what tombs are open for visitors at this time and so you buy tickets for them at this point. Next you embark on one of those small 'taf-taf trains' which will get you into the valley proper.

The first thing you see when coming to the Valley of the Kings is the mountain top called
'Meretseger', She of the Silence, by the ancients.

Meretseger, the local cobra goddess in the form of this mighty mountain peak, still impressively looms over the valley and is the first magnificent thing you see on your arrival. Her ancient name was 'She of the Silence' which you can understand, for the silence here is probably enormous when all the people is not here.

By the road this sign wants to remind you what we´re here for.

Nowadays guiding inside the tombs have been forbidden, so the guide will tell you about them outside of each one. The most visited tombs are those which are located at the immediate mouth of the valley and a little bit furter on, but there are other ones open which are located a bit further into the valley. Needless to say that these will make a better experience as you can study reliefs, paintings and other features of the tomb in question without unneccessary squeezing together with a long, long row of other visitors, some of them who apparently has not much interest for what they see but chatter along about quite other things all the time.

The entrance to the tomb of Ramesses VI
Further than this no cameras are allowed.

On our first visit we saw three tombs; KV2 -Ramesses IV, KV9 Ramesses V/VI and KV 16 - Ramesses I. We added another three on our second visit; KV14 - Twosret & Setnakht, KV15 - Seti II and KV47 - Siptah. It you are at all interested in the Valley of the Kings, do check out the Theban Mapping Project, it´s a fantastic resource.

What can I say about these tombs... it all makes you a bit moody. So grand, so many hopes for glory in the Afterworld and yet this is all that remains. Long sloping corridors, here and there with fantastic reliefs and paintings, sometimes sadly hacked at by the tooth of time. The burial chamber holds perhaps an empty or broken coffin, all the mummies are elsewhere and all the finds too. You wander through them and are amazed about the wonderful reliefs and the colors, yet you cannot really understand or appreciate the amount or quality in the craftsmanship which have gone into the making of them. I think you would have to spend much more than a few hours there to be able to absorb it and give it its due attention. Your thoughts go to the kings who desired to 'live forever and ever' and to the builders who spent their whole lifes here making these tombs. In a sense they are all living forever as still today you can come here and admire it and speak their names.

In ancient Egypt, someone lived as long as their names were remembered. But for how long? How long will visitors be allowed in there? The breath of all the people works slowly to corrode the paintings and despite the ban against photographing and the use of flashes (since May 15, 2004), some people don´t care. Only in one of the tombs did I see some plexiglass shielding in front of the reliefs. How can it all be preserved in the future? Or will it be like the tomb of Nefertari which is now closed for the general public and opens only for exclusive groups which have to pay dearly, dearly to get in there for a few minutes.

No excavation this but a steady check is being kept at the area.

The heat increases and people are seeking the sunshades. Little old men in their galabayas with buckets filled to the brim with ice cubes into which bottles of mineral water or coke have been stuck, walk around and offer you to buy from them. There is no café or bar function here. Some sellers are sneaking up to you and shake out a string of postcards almost in your face, wanting you to buy. We hear that peddlers are restricted to the market area but this is Egypt - you try to sell your wares whenever and however you see a chance.

Impressive surroundings.

Time is up. Those who came here by doneky will now leave by donkey - via a climb up the mountain side the little animals will take them on a narrow trail to Deir el Medina, the remains of the village where the ancient workers who made these tombs lived with their families. We however, gratefully return to our waiting taxi.