Egypt Guide
The Nile Valley
The Theban Necropolis
Across the Nile from Luxor, the Theban Necropolis testifies to the same obsession with death and resurrection that produced the Pyramids. Mindful of how these had failed to protect the mummies of the Old Kingdom pharaohs, later rulers opted for concealment, sinking their tombs in the arid Theban Hills while perpetuating their memory with gigantic mortuary temples on the plain below. The Necropolis straddled the border between the lands of the living and the dead, verdant flood plain giving way to boundless desert, echoing the path of the dead "going west" to meet Osiris as the sun set over the mountains and descended into the underworld.
Though stripped of its treasures over millennia, the Necropolis retains a peerless array of funerary monuments. The grandest of its tombs are in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, but there's also a wealth of vivid detail in the smaller Tombs of the Nobles. Equally amazing are the mortuary temples which enshrined the deceased pharaoh's cult: among these, Deir el-Bahri is timelessly magnificent and Medinet Habu rivals Karnak for grandeur, while the shattered Ramesseum and Colossi of Memnon mock the pretensions of their founders. On a humbler level are the ruins of their homes at Deir el-Medina.
Spread acorss wadis and hills beyond the edge of the cultivated plain, the Theban Necropolis is too diffuse and complex to take in on a single visit. Even limiting yourself to the Valley of the Kings, Deir el-Bahri and one or other of the major sites, you're likely to feel overwhelmed by the end of the day. Most people favour a series of visits, taking into account the climate and crowds. The opening hours of the sites may change with the season and security restrictions, but are generally from 7am to 5pm daily, except for the Valley of the Kings, which opens at 6am year round, and closes at 4pm in the winter. Making a full tour of the Necropolis is expensive - though a student card entitles you to a fifty percent discount.