The day began with an amazing croissant at our hotel in Luxor (I cannot wait to return) and a two-hour bus ride to our first ancient site in the valley. El Kab is a cemetery and temple complex located very near the city of Heirakonpolis. It’s importance lies in the fact that it represents many firsts: the first royal burials, the first large accumulation of temple riches, and one of the first instances of the cult of Horus. The temple we visited (the Hammam) is dedicated to Nekhbet, Thoth, and Horus. Starting out the trip I’m not sure exactly what theme I will be following through the valley, but I know that I am interested in Christian reuse of monuments so I will try and keep my eyes and ears open for that as well as something a little more easily spotted, I loved the ceilings today so that might be an interesting sub-theme. For now I will just make note of what I found interesting and wait a few sites for a pattern to emerge.
We began our visit with the burials of the important citizens of Heirakonpolis – priests, tutors, and warriors. The first tomb we visited was the Tomb of Ahmose with his famous biography of all the wars he participated in. I noticed that his ceiling appeared to have stars on it, but it was explained that the ceiling was made to imitate the cloth of a tent and that perhaps this was to avoid infringing on the star ceilings usually reserved for the pharaohs. The next tomb, the tomb of Ren-Nene, also had the “fake tent” ceiling. Ren-Nene’s tomb also had these amazing “Mu” dancers who were all in dancing poses and wearing really great hats. I’m not entirely sure of their function – I know that they were near the funerary mourners and opening of the mouth ceremony on the wall – but I would love to see more of them and how they develop. We also visited the tomb of Setau high priest of Nekhbet. I noticed in his tomb how absolutely red everything was, especially the very back wall. Setau was interesting because his walls display a journey to the Heb Sed festival which would have been a very important time for all of Egypt and the pharaoh who ruled them. The Tomb of Paheri was the last we visited and having come from such a red tomb I noticed immediately that the color scheme there was very yellow. Paheri had some interesting hacked out areas including a small section with a man holding a rabbit and a man holding a calf that was part of an offering scene. It was unclear why these two men should be singled out and the large depiction of Paheri be left alone.
After the tombs we got back on the bus and headed to the “Hammam”, or Ptolemaic Temple, to see the Chapel to Nekhbet the eye goddess and to Thoth made by the Viceroy of Kush. The Chapel was incredibly small and hot so we didn’t linger, but it was interesting to note how light worked inside. The Ptolemaic Temple itself was excellent and showed many images of Ramses II offering desert animals to Nekhbet which fits right in with her mythology. I loved the Hathor figures depicted along the ceilings, they seem to always look sweet and gentle. There was also a beautiful lion relief that could actually serve the dual purpose of signifying the East and Nekhbet. The ceiling of the temple depicted the goddess in her vulture form and her skin was green, which is interesting to note because the blocks at Amheida also have vultures with green skin.
What I found most interesting about the temple was the graffiti in the kiosk because that was where a small sign of Christian reuse popped up. Walking out we noticed crude etchings of the ancient Gods and very close to these someone had carved two large crosses. It seems like these tombs and the hemispeos temple would have been a very attractive area for local monks.
We finished this excursion and then continued the drive to the hotel where we had a delicious (but slightly overpriced) lunch and then spent the rest of the day on a felucca listening to Christine give the first Valley Seminar presentation.
