Egypt Ultimate Guideline
The best place to visit in Egypt?
No one can tell you the best place to visit in Egypt because there is way more than one place to visit with all the great history and sites you should never miss and the diversity of monuments and cultures you will be amazed from the various eras combined together, you will find an ancient Egyptian temple with a church and mosque inside it, ancient Egyptian feasts be celebrated by Egyptians until now and the hospitality of the people welcoming you.
The famous Pyramids of Giza:
Pyramids of Giza with no doubts the most famous and first place to visit in Egypt with its great history.
The great pyramid of Cheops, the last one of the old seven wonders in the world, the mysterious structure everyone talking about and the method of its building you will find yourself in front of the proof of the greatness and intelligence of ancient Egyptians in building such a huge structure with the simple tools of that time and even in pleasure, there was not slavery in building pyramids; in ancient Egypt specially in old kingdom the king was regarded as a god so when you build or do something to the king you was doing it for the god and you will have the honor to do so and even may have a modest tomb in the same area, as a result it was a national project.
Surprisingly the workers only work on this project three months a year, in the time they were waiting for the crops to grow after the flood of the Nile, the main transportation tool in the building process.
The other two pyramids are obviously less great in size but not in perfection, this decline in size was due to the decline of the resources in the country with ending of this Kingdom.
Luxor the biggest open air museum in world:
Luxor, the greatest capital of Egypt in old times while being the famous and rich in history nowadays.
City of Amen Re the chief god of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis who became the main god of Luxor in the Middle Kingdom till the entry of the Christianity Egypt. Luxor once had many names in ancient Egyptian era was called “Waset” the city of the scepter, in Greco-Roman era was Thebes and in Islamic era was called Al-Uqsur which means the palaces which became Luxor nowadays.
City of Luxor is divided by the Nile River to East bank and West bank, the Western bank has all the necropolises while the Eastern bank has the city and agricultural lands.
Hidden Valley of the Kings:
In Western bank you will visit the necropolises area, the so called Land of the Dead according to their thoughts that the sun die in the western land so they start to bury in this land and live in the Eastern land. The Western bank includes valley of Kings, the hidden valley in the heart of the mountain intentionally to protect their kings’ tombs from being robbed. In old kingdom the tombs used to be robbed right away after burying the king mummy and leave as it was huge and known for everyone with all the funerary complex elements gathered together, the robbers were punished in cruel way to prevent this from happening again but the treasures never came back. So in New Kingdom the burying place was unknown and also the workers have their own city beside the site to prevent the spreading of the information which is known as Dier Al-Medina the city of workers.
The tombs of Valley of the Kings had its own deity “Meryt Sgr” or Meretseger “The Beloved of Silence” the protector goddess of the valley.
The valley has the most beautiful tombs that you can see and visit like the tomb of king Ramses V (KV 9) the king of the 20th Dynasty son of King Ramses IV. The tomb has beautiful colorful astronomical scenes as tall as the tomb itself and some scenes from their religious books (Book of Gates, Book of Caverns, Book of Day and Book of Night) later his uncle Ramses VI used the tomb for himself and placed Ramses V mummy in the tomb of Amenhotep II (The Royal Cache KV 35).
The tomb of king Seti I also a good example of the astronomical scenes and religious books as (Litany of Re, Book of the Dead, Imydwat, Book of the Heavenly Cow) as also scenes of the royal blue sky with golden sky resembling the real sky and specially scenes of Opening The Mouse Ceremony (the priests doing special rituals to the mummy of the king with a scepter moving it on the king’s organs to work probably in afterlife).
Valley of the Queens:
The Kings can’t be buried without their Queens so the Valley of the Queens is only mile away from the Valley of the Kings.
The most beautiful tomb is the tomb of Queen Nefertari; wife of King Ramses II. She was his beloved wife so he made for her Temple of Hathor beside Abu Simbel Temple and her stunning tomb in the Valley of Queens (QV 66). The colors of the tomb still as if it was painted yesterday having the scenes of the Queen offering to the gods and scenes from religious books beside of course the royal blue sky with golden stars imitating the real night sky.
Eastern bank of Luxor:
Moving to the eastern bank you will visit the glamorous Karnak Temples, Yes Temples the Karnak is not one temple it is a group of temple was built through 2000 years from the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Era.
This great edifice was built and dedicated to the triad of Thebes (Amen, Mut AND Khonsu) and from the time of king Senurest I every king succeed add part in this edifice like Hatshepsut adding a chapel called the Red Chapel where the scenes of her divine birth myth were dedicated on the wall of this chapel to one of the earliest examples about this myth.
