What lies beneath

The Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens were two of the most impressive places we visited. To get in the complex’s themselves you had to run the usual gauntlet of stalls selling touristy junk and within the complex’s the crowds made getting around hard. But to see…to actually go down into these tombs and to see the vivid colors still on the walls, to contrast the unfinished caverns with the mirror smooth corridors and to comprehend the amount of work that went into covering every available space with carvings, both stories of life and assistance for the afterlife, was truly awe inspiring.

The valley is all rocks and stone and cliff edges. It’s remote, dry and very dusty. It’s overlooked by the pyramid-like mountain peak of Al-Qurn.

The entrance to the tomb of Ramses 4th (KV2). All the entrances were equally unassuming. Just holes in the ground with no hint of what lies beneath.

The entrance to the tomb of Ramses 9th (KV6). The entrances and corridors were much bigger than I thought they would be. Not like the Pyramids at all. All the corridors and chambers were covered in carvings and paintings, much of which looked as vivid as if they were new.

Digging out the entrance to another tomb. To see the amount of effort it takes just to excavate a tomb puts things into perspective when you try to imagine the scale of work involved in carving a tomb out of the mountain side. I doubt there's any one person today who could inspire so many people to work so hard.

By comparison the Valley of the Queens (above) was dead (excuse the pun!) We were pretty much the only people there, which although nice, made us fair game for the tomb guides who followed us into the tombs explaining the hieroglyphs and holding out their hands for baksheesh!!