Massive Tunnels And Royal Tombs in the Valley Of The Kings In Egypt

you can see, complex. Of course the Valley of the Kings was chosen as a royal burial place because of its incredible dryness and the fact that the temperature inside of the tombs is naturally climate controlled. But the biggest mystery that we're going to explore is the fact that I find it highly unlikely that the Dynastical Egyptians carved these huge gallery spaces in the limestone bedrock. I

think they were an inheritance from a much older technologically advanced civilization. Because how you could possibly hack these out by hand, I have no idea whatsoever. So the main thing to look at is the sheer size of these galleries and these tunnels and passageways in the limestone bedrock. And you can see the surfaces are covered with hieroglyphs and the surfaces are incredibly flat. Another thing is

there are depressions in the walls and rooms off to the sides and they're almost always, if not always, bilaterally symmetrical. So here you see a niche on one side and a niche on the other side in exactly the same position. Unfortunately I know nothing about hieroglyphs themselves and my fascination is not so much with the Dynastic people, though I very much respect their brilliant history. It's

these strange out-of-place objects and just the galleries themselves. Now here is a massive granite box with crude hieroglyphics carved on the surface and compare it into the box itself. And how was that box created? The granite for the box almost undoubtedly came from Aswan, which is to the south. And I would estimate that that box by itself weighs approximately 60 tons. Also there is catastrophic damage

to each of the boxes that we looked at. This is the result simply of tomb robbers or something more catastrophic that happened in pre-Dynastic times. The evidence of which we see in places like Karnak and Tess. Pannas and Ramaceum and other locations. So once again it's the sheer sense of scale of these massive tunnel systems that go into the bedrock in the valley of the kings.

And of course all of the valley of the queens as well. And we've recently learned that the valley of the kings and valley of the queens are connected by series of tunnels. If you want to you can pay an optional fee and go see the Tugan Commons burial which is actually quite small. But it's these massive ones that I find particularly fascinating. Just the sheer volume

and sense of scale. Now technically photographs were not allowed inside these chambers and tunnels until quite recently. So now simply what you do is you buy a separate photo ticket and that is what allowed me to film in 4K video. So that's one of the wonderful things about present day Egypt is that places that used to be forbidden access are now open. Now there you can

see an interesting niche and that niche area was stopped in terms of construction. And instead they had to go to the right because supposedly they knew that there was another tunnel system right behind that niche. So in order to create a separate tomb area they had to make a jog to the right. And again the great thing in recent times places that were forbidden access to

are now being opened such as the Osiris shaft which I will be making a video about. And the fact that you could film and take photographs inside the valley of the kings in these massive chamber systems which is excellent. Because what's the point? Even visiting these if you're not allowed to take photos in video. And how far does this tunnel system go? Here's my question. We

weren't given access to the entire system. But some of these are much more extensive than even what I have been able to film here is what you're looking at. There is some sit on the ceiling probably from dynastic or later times from people living inside or maybe tomb robbers being in there. Beautiful bright colors. Most of these colors are the original from dynastic times. They haven't

been retouched but they're still brilliant. And here we are slowly walking out of one of these massive tombs. Incredibly impressive. Accessible with the standard feet that you pay when you go into the valley of the kings. This is Merrim Pataz tomb. And it is hundreds of feet long carved into the bedrock of limestone. Exploring. We just keep descending and descending and descending into the valley. Merrim

Pataz tomb. And further down. And then we have rooms off to the left and right-hand side. It's a very complex tomb structure. And down and down we go. Hundreds of feet. Again, how these possibly could have been made by dynastic people with adses and chisels and picks and shovels. I don't believe it. I think this is a much older inheritance. There is a massive rented box

lid. And going past there. We go even further down. Where there are the remains of a giant box. Again, having catastrophic damage to it. Most people would think the damage was done by tomb robbers. But we also see strange discoloration. You see the darker tones on the surface of the stone there. And this box is very strange. So called sarcophagus. And then this magnificent sarcophagus made

a granite. It's slightly rough and rough. It's very rough and rough and rough. It's very rough and rough and rough and rough and rough. And then this magnificent sarcophagus made a granite. It's slightly rough and rough in terms of texture. It could be that it was never completed. But it doesn't have a high polish of many of the other giant granite statues which are located in

Egypt. It's a beautiful, beautiful functional sculpture. And once again, the strange discoloration that you see. It's much more extensive on some of the other boxes located in other tombs. Also, you can pay an extra fee and you get access to other of these tunnel systems used as tombs. But I'm simply highlighting the ones that we were able to access with the standard fee that you pay

along with a special ticket that allowed me to do this 4K video for the first time. I have taken photographs and short video clips in the past. But that was done in a clandestine. It's a great picture and it's wonderful now that you can do it freely simply by paying a fee. I think it was approximately $15 US dollars. So again, the main part of this

video is simply to show you the sense of scale of these huge tunnel systems in the Valley of the Kings.