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| Egypt - miSr (in arabic) |
| Valley
of the kings |
| Colossi of Memnon |
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The valley of the
Kings, dominated by the pyramid-shped mountain peak of Al-Qurn
has been a burialplace from the 18th dynasty. It is estimated
that the first one who was buried here was Tuthmosis I
(1504-1492BC) Totally some 62 toms have been excavated. The first
one discovered was the tomb of Ramses VII which was opened since
greek and roman times, while the last one was the tomb of
Tutankamun in 1922. Not all toms are open to public. We visited 3
of them: Ramses IX, Merenptah and Ramses I. The stairs down to
the grave are steep, and two of them were very nicely decorated
at the walls down, while Ramses I's were not much decorated down,
the graveroom were splendedly decorated. We are not allowed to
take pictures there, so I present postcards available.
Colossi of Memnon are the
first sight we meet on entering the valley. They are 18m tall and
built by Amenhotep III as his funerary temple. It used to be
filled with hundreds of statues, includin the huge dyad of
Amenhotep III and Tiy, now citiated in the Egyptian museum. You
can also find some in the British Museum, Turin etc. Have a stop
and a look, it does not take long, but is worth the time.
(Click on the
thumbnails, and you will get a larger version)
| Map of the graves |
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| The
valley of the kings are really in the desert |
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Decorations
in the grave |
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Colossi
of Memnon |
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