Tombs - a visit to the underworld

Everybody who goes to a graveyard anywhere in Europe he normally shows some respect. In front of tombs of relatives or friends he will take some minutes in silence rembering the dead people. A cemetery is a place of peace and calm. Very different you will find it on the West Bank. Especially when hords of tourists arrive. A lot of visitors who were badly informed in advance look to the (under-)world like to an ancient Egyptian Disney land.

It was an ordaniry morning in October 2002 within the Valley of the Kings (in Arabic: "biban el muluk"). Coaches from Hurghada had just arrived driving in line. Tourists, at first interested in beach, pool and sun, do their cultural duty. One day Luxor is a must. A part of this is, to spend a short time in the Valley of the Kings. Groups from different countries push themselves down the ways of the tombs. They are laughing, they sweat, they gabble. Mostly they don’t have a real look to the reliefs of the tomb, the guide just explains, tired fighting against the voices and the volume of his and other groups. From time to time a flashlight flickers through the tomb. According to the principle: I was there (but where I was, I will never know sometimes later). Again there is a pushing and shoving. Everybody likes to see a sarcophagus (which one? It doesn’t matter). And again everybody is pushing each other. Let’s go, go out! All in a hurry.

Another scene. The morning of New Year's day in 1996. We started at 6 p.m. to visit the tomb of Queen Nefertari (picture below: the beautiful favorite wife of pharaoh Rameses II., as the artists portrayed her in the wall paintings of her tomb in the Valley of the Queens), which was just opened to the public after restoration some months ago. With us was an elderly man, who had introduced himself to us as an expert in Egypt, particulary in archaeology before and had told us everything, we didn’t like to listen (because we knew all this). With him was his son, 15 years old, whom he introduced to the land of mysteries. All the time he advised the poor boy with rules of etiquette. When we arrived in the tomb - where to speak is fordbidden to protect it from humidity - he started to explain his son every relief screaming on the top of his voice. He ignored the kindly expressed protest of the guardian. But then he started to shout in protest, when the guardian asked us to leave the tomb after the allowed ten minutes inside. Even we had an overtime in there. So far we can tell you about experts of Egypt.

Of course, the tombs dated back to the New Kingdom (ca. 1570 - 1070 BC) are one of the most famous attractions of the world. But they are also imperilled. Since some years there are discussions to protect the tombs, to build replicas. But the first step means since November 2002 some restrictions for tourists.

Since this time in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings and the one of the Queens, as well as in Deir El Medina for the guides it is strictly fordbidden to give any explanation inside the tombs. "So we like to shorten the visiting time of the tourists inside the tombs to protect them from humidity, salt and so on," says Mohamed El Bialy, Director of Antiquities in Upper Egypt. Okay, the officials reached their target. We saw groups of tourists hurrying through the tombs while their guide was waiting for them outside. But: is a tourist, who has no real idea of Egyptology and the ancient world of gods, kings, and religious rites, able to identify all the pictures without seeing them outside the tomb as a photo or a painting? We don’t think so.Many visitors, we think, will feel to be lost in a world they don’t understand.

 

 

 

 

 

A good description of the new situation is done by the German language tour guide Abdul Moneim. "Before the new rules I needed in the Valley of the Kings with groups about three hours to visit three tombs. Now all is done within one hour. But latest when the tourists leave the valley they forgot everything I explained to them!"

But there are also other restrictions. In Deir El Medina (picture left: the tomb hill of the artists and workers with a tomb topped by a small pyramid) it is officially allowed to visit a tomb for groups only up to eight persons. Only six persons per group are allowed to visit the tombs of Roy and Shu Roy in Dra Abu Naga. And always the time is limited. Some tombs are closed in a rhythm. Like now Sety I., Rameses VI. and Horemhab in the Valley of the Kings. They will be opened again? "Not yet," answers El Bialy like an oracle. And added that the tomb of Amenhotep II. is closed too.

 

Closed tombs, restrictions, all this seems to be necessary to protect the incomparable heritage from the kings of ancient Egypt. But many people, they are really interested in history, will go home unsatisfied. How to find a solution for both parties? That’s a big problem. Because some of the discussed solutions like video-screens in front of the most important tombs are too expensive, need to much maintenance.

So it is no wonder, that especially Egyptian Egyptologists focused on Cairo always initiate plans to build up replicas of the most impressive tombs like Nefertari, Sety I. and Rameses VI. in the area of the new planed Egyptian Museum in Giza. But there are also some scholars who fight against these ideas. They are talking about a changing of Egypt to a "pharaonic Disney land". Everything should be shown in the place, where it belongs to, like the tombs belong to Thebes West. It seems to become an endless discussion.

So the only way for tourists seems to be, to inform themselves in advance by reading good books. Then a guide will tell them the last details. However, inside the tombs the tourists have to find out everything alone. The chatting groups from Hurghada will pass the houses of the dead more quickly and without a real understanding. We were there but - where we were exactly?

Step by step we like to introduce you to tombs off the regular tourist track (pictures above: wall paintings and sarcophagus in the tomb of Ay in the western valley), and also some which, so far, are not open for the public. Our advice: In general you have to buy all tickets for visiting the monuments of the West Bank at the same day at the Ticket Office. The only exception is the Valley of the Kings. You can buy your tickets at the main entrance of the valley (LE 20 for three tombs of your choice without Tutankhamen). Information about which tombs are open you find only ont the map of the valley just behind the main entrance, all other maps distributed in several places, don’t include this information. (Text and Fotos Antje and Wolfgang Sliwka)