THE TOMBS OF THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS
Egypt

Click here for Episode 13

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Pyramids made for dramatic graves for Egypt's pharaohs, but they weren't exactly secret. Grave robbers could, and did, make quick work of them, threatening the pharaoh's places in the afterlife.  So by the New Kingdom, the pharaohs, their families and other nobles began to dig their tombs in sheltered valleys across the Nile from their capital in Thebes.

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One of the pharaohs not buried in the Valley is Akhenaten, who tried to change Egyptian religion and society in dramatic ways.  His successor, Tutankhamun, would restore the old ways, yet his intact tomb in the Valley would make him a modern legend.

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Dominic Perry of the History of Egypt podcast appears to discuss Akhenaten and also his favorite tombs, like the stick-figure brilliance of Thutmose III's, while Lantern Jack of the Ancient Greece Declassified podcast talks about his own travels in the area. 

 

In this episode, we discuss Tut and Akhenaten. Plus pigeons! While exploring the various tombs, try a unique Egyptian soup: molokhia.

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Sources:

Hodel-Hoenes, Sigrid. Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Scenes from Private Tombs in New Kingdom Thebes

The Lonely Planet Guide to Egypt

Meyerson, Daniel. In the Valley of the Kings: Howard Carter and the Mystery of King Tutankhamun's Tomb

Romer, John.  Valley of the Kings

Strudwick, Nigel. Thebes in Egypt: a Guide to the Tombs and Temples of Ancient Luxor

Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt

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Photo by ovedc on wikicommons

 

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