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Hatchepsut, the female pharaoh & Queens Valley
Hatchepsut, the female pharaoh… If I say pharaoh, you surely picture a nice good looking topless man, wearing a stylish beard and a white linen loincloth. His eyes are circled with khôl, a gorgeous gold and lapis lazuli pectoral around his neck. On his shaved head, the characteristic red and white Egyptian crown and in his hands the sceptre and a whip. It is very unlikely you would picture a woman, nor associate a woman with the role of pharaoh. This makes Hatchepsut a very interesting pharaoh. I knew her mortuary temple from pictures on travel websites. But I had no notions of who she was, of how unusual she…
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Inside Luxor temple and the tombs in the Valley of Kings
Luxor and Karnak are among the biggest temples of Ancient Egypt. Both temples are located in Thebes, the former capital of the empire, now called Luxor. The scale of the constructions here is incredible. Not only did the Egyptians build these wonders out of the ground. They also constructed inside the surrounding mountains the greatest royal necropolis. At least 150 kings and queens are buried in the region. Empires rise and fall. So did the empire of pharaohs. After 30 centuries of domination, the rule of pharaohs declined. A new power emerged with the development of the Roman empire and then the birth of Islam. Yet, Ancient Egypt remains one…
