Valley of the Queens

...then?~

The Valley of the Queens is the burial site for the Queens & children of the Pharaohs of the 18th, 19th & 20th dynasties (1550 - 1070BC). It is said that there are about 70 (some claim as many as 85) different burial sites in the area.

Probably the most famous tomb here is that of Queen Nefertari*, which is the largest and most spectacular in the valley. Unfortunately, this tomb is now no longer open, we were ...
...there~

The Valley of the Queens is a short distance from the Valley of the Kings, just the other side of Queen Hatshepsut's Burial Temple (see my last review Queen of Hats & Cheap Suits). Getting there would generally be by coach or taxi and it is probably about 20 mins from Luxor.

As this site was included as part of our trip, we took the coach from Queen Hatshepsut's temple to the Valley of the Queens, this took us ... more

Day 1 in Egypt, site number 2 (and it is only 09:30), so let's do away with the babble and launch right in....

~What's this place all about then?~

The Valley of the Queens is the burial site for the Queens & children of the Pharaohs of the 18th, 19th & 20th dynasties (1550 - 1070BC). It is said that there are about 70 (some claim as many as 85) different burial sites in the area.

Probably the most famous tomb here is that of Queen Nefertari*, which is the largest and most spectacular in the valley. Unfortunately, this tomb is now no longer open, we were told by our guide that a couple of years ago there was some rain in the valley, which caused some damage to Nefertari's tomb. The Egyptian Government went about restoring the damage, and spent roughly a cool million on it. To recuperate the funds they opened the tomb, but charged around £100 (Stirling) to enter for about 10 mins. Apparently people queued every morning for these tickets and after a year the money was back in the pockets of the rich officials, so they once again closed it.

• Queen Nefertari, the Great Royal Wife of Ramasses the Great, not to be confused with Queen Nefertiti**. Nefertari was one of Ramasses' eight wives, but by taking the title of Great Royal Wife, this indicated that she was his "favourite", writings on the walls of her burial chamber indicate that these marriages were not purely for convenience, but that some sort of emotion was involved - "My love is unique-no one can rival her, for she is the most beautiful woman alive. Just by passing, she has stolen away my heart."
• *Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep IV & the mother-in-law or stepmother of Tutankhamun.
  I am now announcing my name change to Nefertiti (the beautiful (or perfect) woman has come).

~Getting there~

The Valley of the Queens is a short distance from the Valley of the Kings, just the other side of Queen Hatshepsut's Burial Temple (see my last review Queen of Hats & Cheap Suits). Getting there would generally be by coach or taxi and it is probably about 20 mins from Luxor.

As this site was included as part of our trip, we took the coach from Queen Hatshepsut's temple to the Valley of the Queens, this took us all of about 10 mins and again, we arrived in yet another coach park and had to run the gauntlet of the mini market & souvenirs.

~I'm going in~

We get to the gates to go through to the valley and hand our little tickets over, and make our way along the dusty path (it looks exactly like the one in the picture above). To the left and right hand side of the paths there are lots of small openings in the ground. Our guide explains that there are so many tombs here that people just dig into the mountain, and if they hit a void, they have probably found a tomb, so apply for permission to excavate.

After a leisurely walk (about 5 mins from the entrance gate) we stop outside our first tomb - Queen Tyti's tomb, and our guide gives us a bit of a run down on the history of the Valley & about who is buried here, Queen Tyti & the next tomb we are about to see - The Tomb of Amenherkhepshef, a son of Ramesses III.

~Tomb of Queen Tyti~

I was very excited about going into my first ever tomb, and couldn't wait - so in through the small opening we go (see pic below) and into the entrance corridor, all the walls have got a pane of glass between them and you, to prevent any damage. I can't believe that the colours are so bright and vivid, especially after the disappointment at Queen Hatsheput's Temple, there are even paintings on the ceiling!

After going through the entrance corridor, you enter into the burial chamber, which is actually very small, once a sarcophagus was in place, I doubt that there would be much space round the edges. From the Burial chamber, there are 3 other small rooms, when I say rooms, I have a bigger wardrobe than this at home!

You can enter the side chamber to your right hand side and the rear annex, but the side chamber to the left has a massive hole in the floor, so for obvious reasons you can't go in. I was not really sure what that was about, but it looked like a little tunnel going somewhere.

Not much is known about Queen Tyti, all that can be confirmed about her is that she was one of the wives of Ramesses III and possibly, also his daughter, some texts insinuate that she may also have been the mother of Ramesses IV and the mother of Amenkherkhepshef (second tomb that we visit).

~Tomb of Amenherkhepshef~

Now this tomb was really interesting, after going into Queen Tyti's tomb, I was getting over the disappointment of Queen Hatsheputs temple and starting to get really excited.

This tomb is bigger than that of Queen Tyti's and the colours are even brighter, we are only allowed in about 15 at a time, so standing anxiously outside sort of added to the suspense.

Finally inside the images are magnificent and the colours are bold and bright, no cameras are allowed in the tombs anymore, but I did find some pictures off tint-ernet for you (below). We were told that the sarcophagus was still in the back tomb, but had been moved from the burial chamber to the back, which indeed it had. Also in the far right hand corner, near the sarcophagus is a glass cabinet with a mummified foetus in it.

There are lots of stories floating around about how the foetus came to be in the tomb, one story is that the Prince's mother was so devastated at her young son's death that she miscarried and the foetus was buried with her son. Another tall tale was that the wife of a tomb builder miscarried whilst the tomb was being built, and they believed that putting a mummified foetus in the tomb would ensure that the God of death would come and collect the soul etc etc. The truth is that the foetus was placed in the tomb by an archaeologist who had found it some way away, but had no where to lay it to rest.

We are also told by our guide that when the tomb was first discovered, there was a lot of confusion over who was actually buried in the tomb, as the writings on the wall pointed to that of a young prince, however the sarcophagus found inside the tomb was that of a queens. It turns out that the Prince died very young and his mother gave up her coffin for her son. However whilst doing a bit of research for this review, I came across a page that stated that nobody was ever buried here as the sarcophagus is unfinished & that the sarcophagus of another queen was altered and discovered elsewhere.

~Would I recommend going~

Yes I most certainly would, this was really interesting, I would definitely recommend coming here before going to the Valley of the Kings. If you went to the Valley of the Kings first, you probably would not be as impressed by the tombs.

This is a very small area, to be honest I assumed it would be much bigger, I think that this site is fine for those who are not that fit or mobile. There were a couple of ladies on our trip, over the age of 80 and had no problems.

I have tried to find my entrance ticket and see how much a trip costs - our ticket entitled us to see two tombs (I have a feeling only two tombs are actually open), unfortunately I can't find it anywhere, I would guess that entry would be somewhere around the £4 (sterling) mark as Queen Hatshepsut's Temple was 25LE (£2.50) and the Valley of the Kings was 70LE (£7). Again, as I said in my last review, there are different prices for tourists & locals.

As with my last review, the little drop down boxes are filled in roughly - I guess the place is family friendly, if your kids are into culture stuff, as with the last site, I can't comment on prices as ours was part of our whole holiday & as for transport links there were a lot of coachs, which seem to be the main method of transport - booking your excursions either through your hotel or an agent.

*Tazzy Tangent*
I am now announcing my name change to Nefertiti (the beautiful (or perfect) woman has come). Please take this review as my official re-naming, I would also like it if you could all now refer to me as Nefertiti (or your highness will be fine) when addressing me in the future :P

Thanks for reading, and as with my last review, ancient history is pretty sketchy, so please do not hesitate to leave me a message if I have any facts in this review that are a bit off, and I will happily correct! xxx  

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