i want to go to the valley of the kings: this is the location of all the new kingdom pharaohs' tombs. this includes ramses the great and king tut (who was actually a miniscule king and is only one of the most well-known because his tomb was found intact and untouched by graverobbers... because it was an attachment to another pharaoh's tomb. he didn't warrant a big tomb to himself because he didn't play a huge role in egyptian history).
pyramids were stricly old kingdom (obviously, i'd love to see those, too) and were replaced with rock cut tombs/cliffside burials. the interior space of these was completely carved out of the bedrock. what's really cool is that the bodies found in the tombs can actually be scanned and their cause of deaths can be determined with some certainty! they think that king tut died of a gangrenous broken leg. removing the bodies is actually kind of disrespectful if you think about it... the egyptians had very strict rules concerning the afterlife and their bodies...
i'd also love to go to amarna. this is where the amarna revolution took place under king akhenaton. he completely changed the egyptian religion and made worshipping the different gods illegal. it was only lawful to worship one god: aton. akhenaton made himself a prophet and got rid of the idea of the afterlife. in turn, this drastically changed the art style. the art style changed from idealistic to naturalistic. this was HUGE. egyptians were now focusing on the here and now as opposed to the prime of one's life. art in this period was heavily relaxed.
king tut came after akhenaton and he changed everything back to the old style/religion.
ok. sorry. enough about egypt. i could honestly go on for a lot longer, but i won't. i didn't even mention king hatshepsut! who was actually a woman who declared herself king/pharaoh! in sculpture she was portrayed manly. cleopatra who?
ps- lost in 30 minutes! stoked...
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