{"id":808,"date":"2023-10-28T10:17:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T10:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/?p=808"},"modified":"2025-11-03T22:17:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T22:17:30","slug":"the-place-of-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/28\/the-place-of-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"The Place of Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The
The first pylon in the mortuary temple at Medinet Habu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our tour of the Theban Necropolis<\/a> continued today with our first stop being the Ramesseum, the funerary temple of Ramses II. In many ways this was like other temples we have visited except this has the remains of a 60+ foot colossal statue of Ramses II. Mohamed told us that this stone had to be transported from Aswan, this type of stone was not available nearby. Weighing more than 1000 tons, the effort to create and move is beyond remarkable. Like I said before Ramses II’s ego must have been off scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ramesseum\"
Ramesseum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"That
That Well of Souls has to be here somewhere…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Remains
Remains of the pylons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Statues
Statues of Ramses II at the entrance to the temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Remains
Remains of the 1000 ton statue of Ramses II.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Illustrations
Illustrations inside the temple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A carving on the temple wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A view back through the temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next we visited the Valley of the Queens where the wives of pharaohs were buried. In ancient times it was known as Ta-Set-Neferu which translates as “the place of beauty.” If that is not diplomacy I don’t know what is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the high-ranking wives of the Pharoahs are buried here, the most famous being Nefertari, first wife of Ramses II. Her tomb is quite striking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Valley
Valley of the Queens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Nefertari’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Nefertari’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Nefertari’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Nefertari’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Nefertari’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We also visited Ramses III’s wife Queen Tyti’s Tomb, hers in worse condition most likely to her being involved in the conspiracy that killed her husband. A betrayer of the throne is not well treated!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Inside
Inside Queen Tyti’s Tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Queen Tyti’s Tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last stop in this valley was in the Amunherkhepeshef’s tomb, a son of Ramses III who passed at a young age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Inside
Inside Amunherkhepeshef’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Amunherkhepeshef’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside Amunherkhepeshef’s tomb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Amunherkhepeshef's
Amunherkhepeshef’s sachophosgus <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A sales person loudly bargaining with another visitor at Valley of the Queens. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our next stop was in the workers village of Deir el-Medina. The craftsmen who worked on the tombs were housed seperately from the rest of the egyptian population for security reasons. Also this allowed for the training of future craftsman by thru keeping the population concentrated. Info on life in the village was well documented by the villagers themselves, many notes (on stone) were found talking about transations that occured, ideas for work and gossip on affairs. Workers were also allowed to build their own tombs nearby and being artisans they are some of the most beautiful found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Deir
Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Tomb
Tomb entrance in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside a tomb in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside a tomb in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside a tomb in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside a tomb in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside a tomb in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside a tomb in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside a tomb in Deir el-Medina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our last stop was at Medinet Habu and the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III. One intersting thing we learned here was Ramesses III not the son of the Ramesses II (who put his name and image everywhere) but were separated by about 100 years. III admired II so took a similar name and his Mortuary Temple resembled the nearby Ramesseum. This temple had somthing we had not seen before, a gate-house known as a migdol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The gatehouse entrance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mohamed
Mohamed walking towards the first pylon in the mortuary temple at Medinet Habu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The second pylon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Art
Art over the entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside the temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"This
This shows how the conquered were handled, in the middle are piles of hands that were removed from enemy soldiers who would not swear loyalty to Egypt. The sausage shaped items to to bottom are other body parts removed from the deceased ones. Accounting at its best!?! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Inside
Inside the temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Columns
Columns in the temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Columns
Columns in the temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In our visits to temples our guide Mohamed pointed out cartouches with Pharoah’s names, telling us that sometimes a newer Pharoah would overwrite the name of a predecessor or even obliterate the older cartouches. He said Ramesses III took note of this practice so when his Mortuary Temple was built his name was carved very deeply into to walls, columns making it impossible to erase. Like in other temples, parts of this one were taken to build other structures later. Too bad but overall a beautiful final stop of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The deep cartouche of Ramses III.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"This
This statue is what Hollywood Oscar statues are based on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The view back from what once was a covered sanctuary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alas our time on the Oberoi Zahra<\/a> and we will miss the crew who took good care of us. We have taken up residence at the Winter Palace Hotel <\/a>in Luxor. Built in 1905 it is a British colonial-era like the Old Cataract with thick walls. No sounds of of the city inside which is nice. Several web sites claim Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile while staying here. The Old Cataract in Aswan claims the same thing… A mystery…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Oberoi Zahra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Winter
Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Atrium
Atrium of the Winter Palace Hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The halls are from The Shining.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One difference here in Luxor is the sellers are a bit more aggressive in trying to get our attention when we step outside. My new super power is ignoring…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Our
Our Nile view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Out
Out for a bite. Just don’t look anyone outside the restaurant in the eye, they will try and sell you a service or somthing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our tour of the Theban Necropolis continued today with our first stop being the Ramesseum, the funerary temple of Ramses II. In many ways this was like other temples we have visited except this has the remains of a 60+ foot colossal statue of Ramses II. Mohamed told us that this stone had to be transported from Aswan, … Continue reading “The Place of Beauty”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,4,41,59,27,53,51,55],"tags":[58,13,42,60,29,54,52,56],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deir-el-medina","category-egypt","category-luxor","category-medinet-habu","category-nile","category-ramesseum","category-theban-necropolis","category-valley-of-the-queens","tag-deir-el-medina","tag-egypt","tag-luxor","tag-medinet-habu","tag-nile","tag-ramesseum","tag-theban-necropolis","tag-valley-of-the-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1037,"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/1037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bastet.tksair.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}