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Egypt Week continues. Today's #PhotoTravelMemory is about the Valley of the Kings (Wādī Al-Mulūk). It doesn't look like much. It's hot, rocky, dusty, barren. Completely unremarkable on the surface. Underneath, it's mind-blowing. Pharaohs were buried there for nearly 500 years./1
An entrance ticket to the Valley is cheap, and gives you access to any 3 tombs. At any given day, there are a handful of tombs open to the public, seemingly at random. It's by design. The Egyptian government rotates the openings to preserve the tombs, which are damaged by /2
exposure to CO2 expelled by crowds of visitors. For the same reason, time inside is limited to 10 minutes. On my first visit, I joined a long line of people entering a tomb I don't even remember. The line was moving continuously and it was so hot and stuffy I left in 5 min. /3
Photos inside were not allowed unless you paid for an extra "photo ticket", which was hardly worth it since a) no flash and b) no time to frame or adjust settings. The line keeps moving. The tombs are completely empty, most had been looted and partially damaged in antiquity, /4
making the discovery of KV 62 (Tutankhamen) such a remarkable find. It was the only tomb found intact in the Valley. There are no current excavations, but ground radar revealed several underground spaces that could be undiscovered tombs. Some important pharaohs like /5
Tuthmose II and Ramesses VIII have not been found. Despite my initial experience, no visit to Egypt is complete without the Valley so I went back again, and again. The third time, this past February, was different. First, cell phone photography (without flash) is now permitted /6
and by pure luck, @PenlandKW and I visited on a day when Seti I's tomb was open. It is the most impressive, well-preserved, magnificent tomb of all the ones I've seen in the Valley of the Kings. I was half crying half laughing as we walked in, with a security chaperone. /7
Because we are not the typical tourists (usually rude or indifferent to the locals), Katy and I chatted with the security guy, who in turn let us stay a lot longer than the maximum 10 minutes. It was just us. No other visitors. We did pay extra for that tomb but oh, worth it. /8
This is now my favorite memory of the Valley of the Kings. The tomb of Seti I. Enjoy! /9x
