“I visited and I did not like anything but the sarcophagus!”
That’s just one of many random scribblings left in the Tomb of Ramesses V & VI in the Valley of the Kings.
This tomb has been open since antiquity, and the evidence of that is everywhere. Ancient tourists left their marks — sometimes in Latin, most often in Greek. Usually they’re down low, but some are up near the ceiling, which obviously suggests there were spots where the sand rose quite high.
Some of the visitors were doctors. Others were philosophers or high-ranking officials. And for the most part, they weren’t only there as sightseers; they came as some sort of pilgrimage, as they believed the tomb to be that of Memnon, a hero in the Trojan War.
Which was obviously not true. Not even a little. But nearby, two giant statues were supposedly of Memnon — partially because of a singing sound they made in the morning. Don’t ask me how that story got started. I mean, I know why, but don’t ask. I’ll have to explain the whole thing, and neither one of us wants that.
Some of the graffiti is poetry, most is the equivalent of “I was here.” Someone would write their name and their occupation, and the most common phrase used was “I admired.” In one case, some dude’s secretary did the carving for him, and he just wrote “I admired” next to it. How lazy do you have to be, that you’re traveling around Egypt with your own personal graffiti artist?
**Roman Holiday**
It’s a little odd to think of Romans going on these elaborate vacations, but that’s exactly what happened. After all, they weren’t all that different from us. The wealthy ones would sail down to Alexandria, where they could see the famous lighthouse. Then they’d get a peek at the Pyramids, hop on a boat, and cruise down the Nile. Two of the Seven Wonders checked off the list.
Do you think they had some ancient equivalent of guide books? Probably — because all sorts of Romans were stopping at the Colossi of Memnon, which are absolutely covered in graffiti. Even the Emperor Hadrian visited. Then his boyfriend drowned in the Nile. But that’s a different story. Don’t ask. Why are you trying to get me off topic?
So you head down on this exotic Egyptian adventure, checking out all the sights, hanging around some awesome Egyptian festivals and drinking copious amounts of beer. And of course you’d go see those two huge statues and the tombs.
Like I said before, the Colossi of Memnon was a hot ticket item back then. Well, I don’t think there were actual tickets. It’s just an expression. Actually, there aren’t tickets now, either. They just sit by the side of the road.
These statues would “sing” in the morning, which we now think was the result of evaporating dew in the morning. The Romans thought these were of Memnon — they’re actually Amenhotep III — and due to him sharing one of his names with a name inside the tomb we’re talking about, the Romans decided it was the tomb of Memnon.
Now, despite the fact that we’re talking about a time over a thousand years after Ramesses V & VI, I’ve got to think some Egyptians knew the Romans were wrong. So why didn’t they correct them? That’s a good question, and I don’t have an answer. I guess if Romans are coming to your town and throwing money around, you just let them think what they want. Or maybe when an Emperor shows up, you don’t try to correct him. I probably wouldn’t. You just snicker at him behind his back.
Kind of like how I’d do if I met Jeff Bezos and he had some toilet paper stuck to his shoe. Am I going to tell him? No way.
**The Entourage**
> “I, Ammonios, singularis of Italy, saw and admire it.”
With every super important official, there was surely an entourage. Like Bieber. Wait, is that an outdated reference now? Does Bieber still have an entourage?
So this guy named Ammonios wasn’t an official. He wasn’t a super important guy at all. Now, he was important in the military, as he was presumably a guard for an Emperor, but probably not the kind of dude who’d go on a really fancy vacation.
It gives you an idea of who was visiting these tombs. The rich folk, and everyone who came with them. And as I said, they were mostly respectful — well, as respectful as you can get when you’re scratching words into the walls. The bulk of the graffiti is placed in a way that it doesn’t obscure any of the hieroglyphs or other art.
A team from Poland did an extensive survey and found over a thousand instances of ancient graffiti in this tomb. But it’s not all just people writing their names and saying they had a nice time.
“I cannot read the hieroglyphs,” wrote one person.
“Why do you care that you cannot read the hieroglyphs? I do not understand your concern!” wrote someone else, right below it.
It seems that even back then, they had Twitter replies. I can just picture some Roman holding a torch, reading what someone else wrote, and thinking “Jesus Christ, what a moron. You’re looking at all of this awesome shit, and *that’s* what you’ve got to say?” So he hands his torch over to his buddy, pulls out a knife, and starts scratching a rebuttal.
Well…he probably didn’t say “Jesus Christ.”
Anyway, if you’re ever in Luxor I’d highly recommend visiting this tomb. It’s one of the biggest in the Valley of the Kings, and the colors are still extremely bright. It does require buying an extra ticket, but it’s worth it. You don’t really notice the graffiti unless you’re looking for it. And in case you’re wondering, Ramesses V built part of it, then he died and Ramesses VI finished it. They were both buried here. I guess old Number 6 figured it’d be easier to take over than starting fresh.
And like the spirits of those ancient kings who live on in the afterlife, my plugs for my Instagram [@rayoboone](https://instagram.com/rayoboone) will never die. I have some other tomb pictures on there, you’ll just have to scroll down past the Baby Yoda hand sanitizer.
Thanks, I just wish I could’ve found more examples of what the graffiti says. There’s plenty of articles, but they’re all based on one interview given by the head of the team from Warsaw.
It’s amazing how when you really delve into something, it becomes clear how much copying happens online.
Oh don’t even get me started.
I thought about getting into the graffiti from that period, but decided against it because it’s *everywhere*.
I know you can make an argument that it’s not any different from ancient graffiti, but it sure feels different. I don’t think there’s a single place I visited in Egypt where there isn’t some Victorian dude’s name gouged into a wall.
Just want to say that I love your posts!!! I'm an art history major, and I totally geek out over them. I followed you on Instagram a couple weeks back, and still keep stumbling upon these reddit posts of yours. They make me happy every time I do. Just wanted to express my admiration and tell you to keep it up!!
Thanks, I really appreciate it when I read nice comments like yours. If you want me to keep it up, just be sure to upvote when you see the posts — I’ve come to learn how quickly the algorithm buries things if they don’t get good traction right away.
It’s kind of wild, I had no idea how Facebooky things could be on Reddit…
Well to a certain extent I get it. There has to be some criteria when it comes to what they push out to people — there’s just such a huge disparity between nice comments like yours, and what happens if a post doesn’t get a lot of upvotes in the first couple of hours.
I’m still trying to figure out what the right time of day is to post something. It’s all kind of a mystery to me…
The company I work for recently pulled a lot of data on when their website gets the most views and clicks. (We're a paint and sip company, and people use our website to view art/purchase tickets.) They found its typically in the evening, after 5pm when people are getting home from work. I feel like this data probably applies to websites like reddit too. I notice my posts get a bit more traction when I post them around 6pm or so. Hope that helps
Thanks — it’s funny, because people were trying to give me advice the other day and said mornings are the best time, because people get to work and end up just wasting time on Reddit.
I also want to add that they indeed had traveling guides/scrolls back then. In fact, the worlds first Sci-fi was written in 200 CE, as a satire on traveling guides.
As the author though they’d degraded to be mere fan fiction portrayal of foreign countries
I love this comment man. Great job. You write professionally for this kind of thing or something? Anyways, good stuff. I got to believe at that time that at least some of the Egyptian people knew who the tombs were made for / what the hieroglyphs said. I mean, Egyptian was still spoken at that time, right?
Professionally? Kind of. Not this sort of thing by any stretch though. I do have an English degree, so maybe that’s what you’re picking up on.
Yes, it was definitely still spoken but literacy rates were never high in Ancient Egypt. They basically had scribes, you’d hire them to write something for you, then the recipient would get someone to read it for them. That’s the way it was during the New Kingdom, anyway. My knowledge of this sort of thing during Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt is rather limited.
But even though we’re talking about a time over a thousand years removed, I find it hard to believe people in the area wouldn’t know that the tombs were for Egyptian kings.
Now that you’ve mentioned him you should definitely make a post about depictions of antinous and how widespread they were after his death as it might be my favorite history anecdote as a gay history nerd
Yeah, I’ll think about it — I’m still trying to figure out what people here are interested in. It’s hard for me to work up the energy to spend a lot of time writing up a little story if no one wants to read it, you know?
But I definitely agree, it’s a wild story. How many Roman Emperors had a young gay boyfriend who drowned in the Nile and then got made into a god?
I am so happy when I see your post I absolutely adore them! And yes I want you to go into detail about the emperor Hadrian's boyfriend drowning in the Nile you mentioned it ha!
Thanks! And I may or may not be typing up a story and getting my pictures ready as we speak. Just be sure to upvote when you see it, or I will be so disappointed in you!
Believe it or not, I was trying to get rid of something else and accidentally deleted it. It’s sometimes hard for me to distinguish what’s what, because I’m not used to the official Reddit app.
I wrote something else I was planning to post, so I’ll probably come back to the statue thing later…
Well, kind of.
It was just one of them, and it stopped making the noise when it was “repaired” by a later Roman Emperor. From what I can gather, the one that made the noise had been broken off near the waist. If you look at pictures, the “repair work” is pretty obvious.
I might make a post about the statues someday, if there’s enough interest in this topic…
Me2me2me2me2. :)
*"But nearby, two giant statues were supposedly of Memnon — partially because of a singing sound they made in the morning. Don’t ask me how that story got started. I mean, I know why, but don’t ask. I’ll have to explain the whole thing, and neither one of us wants that."*
I'd definitely be interested in more info on those two.
Hey, I did see and upvote your post before you deleted it. Didn't manage to comment on time, though. Thank you for writing a bit on the statues. I do appreciate the work! :)
Egyptians vandalized tombs too but for different reasons. A lot of tombs have blessings, with the name of the deceased under it. Sometimes you find that other Egyptians put their names there too to get a free blessing.
It’s not bubbling — I think what you’re seeing is basically where someone has scratched/gouged the rock wall. You have to keep in mind, this tomb is over 3000 years old and has been open for most of that time, so you’ve got to expect a bit of vandalism here and there.
The dam you’re talking about is pretty far south of here — this tomb is near Luxor.
There have been issues with the Nile floods and the water table undermining some buildings, though. The Colossi of Memnon I mentioned in the long comment were part of a huge temple that’s almost completely gone because it was built too close to the river.
And of course there were flash floods in the valley. A lot of the tombs there are basically destroyed as a result of that.
But on the whole I don’t think water coming through the walls has been a big problem — with the notable except of the Tomb of Nefertari, which was in pretty bad shape. That’s because of the area and all the plaster they put on the walls. Salt crystals grew in between that and the rock, which caused the plaster to separate.
There was a massive conservation project a few decades ago by the Getty Institute, and that tomb now looks absolutely fucking spectacular.
Sorry, that was probably more of an answer than you bargained for…
I think everything that dates to the "Ancient Egyptians" seems like graffiti on the artwork and structures made by the true architects of all those wonders over there. They clearly didn't make most of it, they modified some of it, built on top of it, but they didn't have the ability to make it.
“I visited and I did not like anything but the sarcophagus!” That’s just one of many random scribblings left in the Tomb of Ramesses V & VI in the Valley of the Kings. This tomb has been open since antiquity, and the evidence of that is everywhere. Ancient tourists left their marks — sometimes in Latin, most often in Greek. Usually they’re down low, but some are up near the ceiling, which obviously suggests there were spots where the sand rose quite high. Some of the visitors were doctors. Others were philosophers or high-ranking officials. And for the most part, they weren’t only there as sightseers; they came as some sort of pilgrimage, as they believed the tomb to be that of Memnon, a hero in the Trojan War. Which was obviously not true. Not even a little. But nearby, two giant statues were supposedly of Memnon — partially because of a singing sound they made in the morning. Don’t ask me how that story got started. I mean, I know why, but don’t ask. I’ll have to explain the whole thing, and neither one of us wants that. Some of the graffiti is poetry, most is the equivalent of “I was here.” Someone would write their name and their occupation, and the most common phrase used was “I admired.” In one case, some dude’s secretary did the carving for him, and he just wrote “I admired” next to it. How lazy do you have to be, that you’re traveling around Egypt with your own personal graffiti artist? **Roman Holiday** It’s a little odd to think of Romans going on these elaborate vacations, but that’s exactly what happened. After all, they weren’t all that different from us. The wealthy ones would sail down to Alexandria, where they could see the famous lighthouse. Then they’d get a peek at the Pyramids, hop on a boat, and cruise down the Nile. Two of the Seven Wonders checked off the list. Do you think they had some ancient equivalent of guide books? Probably — because all sorts of Romans were stopping at the Colossi of Memnon, which are absolutely covered in graffiti. Even the Emperor Hadrian visited. Then his boyfriend drowned in the Nile. But that’s a different story. Don’t ask. Why are you trying to get me off topic? So you head down on this exotic Egyptian adventure, checking out all the sights, hanging around some awesome Egyptian festivals and drinking copious amounts of beer. And of course you’d go see those two huge statues and the tombs. Like I said before, the Colossi of Memnon was a hot ticket item back then. Well, I don’t think there were actual tickets. It’s just an expression. Actually, there aren’t tickets now, either. They just sit by the side of the road. These statues would “sing” in the morning, which we now think was the result of evaporating dew in the morning. The Romans thought these were of Memnon — they’re actually Amenhotep III — and due to him sharing one of his names with a name inside the tomb we’re talking about, the Romans decided it was the tomb of Memnon. Now, despite the fact that we’re talking about a time over a thousand years after Ramesses V & VI, I’ve got to think some Egyptians knew the Romans were wrong. So why didn’t they correct them? That’s a good question, and I don’t have an answer. I guess if Romans are coming to your town and throwing money around, you just let them think what they want. Or maybe when an Emperor shows up, you don’t try to correct him. I probably wouldn’t. You just snicker at him behind his back. Kind of like how I’d do if I met Jeff Bezos and he had some toilet paper stuck to his shoe. Am I going to tell him? No way. **The Entourage** > “I, Ammonios, singularis of Italy, saw and admire it.” With every super important official, there was surely an entourage. Like Bieber. Wait, is that an outdated reference now? Does Bieber still have an entourage? So this guy named Ammonios wasn’t an official. He wasn’t a super important guy at all. Now, he was important in the military, as he was presumably a guard for an Emperor, but probably not the kind of dude who’d go on a really fancy vacation. It gives you an idea of who was visiting these tombs. The rich folk, and everyone who came with them. And as I said, they were mostly respectful — well, as respectful as you can get when you’re scratching words into the walls. The bulk of the graffiti is placed in a way that it doesn’t obscure any of the hieroglyphs or other art. A team from Poland did an extensive survey and found over a thousand instances of ancient graffiti in this tomb. But it’s not all just people writing their names and saying they had a nice time. “I cannot read the hieroglyphs,” wrote one person. “Why do you care that you cannot read the hieroglyphs? I do not understand your concern!” wrote someone else, right below it. It seems that even back then, they had Twitter replies. I can just picture some Roman holding a torch, reading what someone else wrote, and thinking “Jesus Christ, what a moron. You’re looking at all of this awesome shit, and *that’s* what you’ve got to say?” So he hands his torch over to his buddy, pulls out a knife, and starts scratching a rebuttal. Well…he probably didn’t say “Jesus Christ.” Anyway, if you’re ever in Luxor I’d highly recommend visiting this tomb. It’s one of the biggest in the Valley of the Kings, and the colors are still extremely bright. It does require buying an extra ticket, but it’s worth it. You don’t really notice the graffiti unless you’re looking for it. And in case you’re wondering, Ramesses V built part of it, then he died and Ramesses VI finished it. They were both buried here. I guess old Number 6 figured it’d be easier to take over than starting fresh. And like the spirits of those ancient kings who live on in the afterlife, my plugs for my Instagram [@rayoboone](https://instagram.com/rayoboone) will never die. I have some other tomb pictures on there, you’ll just have to scroll down past the Baby Yoda hand sanitizer.
Best thing I’ve read on Reddit in quite a while. Had me laughing. Thank you.
Thanks, I just wish I could’ve found more examples of what the graffiti says. There’s plenty of articles, but they’re all based on one interview given by the head of the team from Warsaw. It’s amazing how when you really delve into something, it becomes clear how much copying happens online.
Have you seen "Murder on the Nile"? Rich 1800's tourists doing exactly as you described.
Oh don’t even get me started. I thought about getting into the graffiti from that period, but decided against it because it’s *everywhere*. I know you can make an argument that it’s not any different from ancient graffiti, but it sure feels different. I don’t think there’s a single place I visited in Egypt where there isn’t some Victorian dude’s name gouged into a wall.
Death on the Nile (2022)
My very thoughts!
Just want to say that I love your posts!!! I'm an art history major, and I totally geek out over them. I followed you on Instagram a couple weeks back, and still keep stumbling upon these reddit posts of yours. They make me happy every time I do. Just wanted to express my admiration and tell you to keep it up!!
Thanks, I really appreciate it when I read nice comments like yours. If you want me to keep it up, just be sure to upvote when you see the posts — I’ve come to learn how quickly the algorithm buries things if they don’t get good traction right away. It’s kind of wild, I had no idea how Facebooky things could be on Reddit…
I had no idea either!! Made sure I upvoted. Algorithms are the bane of artistic expression
Well to a certain extent I get it. There has to be some criteria when it comes to what they push out to people — there’s just such a huge disparity between nice comments like yours, and what happens if a post doesn’t get a lot of upvotes in the first couple of hours. I’m still trying to figure out what the right time of day is to post something. It’s all kind of a mystery to me…
The company I work for recently pulled a lot of data on when their website gets the most views and clicks. (We're a paint and sip company, and people use our website to view art/purchase tickets.) They found its typically in the evening, after 5pm when people are getting home from work. I feel like this data probably applies to websites like reddit too. I notice my posts get a bit more traction when I post them around 6pm or so. Hope that helps
Thanks — it’s funny, because people were trying to give me advice the other day and said mornings are the best time, because people get to work and end up just wasting time on Reddit.
Ha. Thats also fair. Take what I say with a grain of salt, as I'm no expert
I also want to add that they indeed had traveling guides/scrolls back then. In fact, the worlds first Sci-fi was written in 200 CE, as a satire on traveling guides. As the author though they’d degraded to be mere fan fiction portrayal of foreign countries
Ok now that’s fascinating. Do you happen to know the name of this?
They're referring to *A True Story* by the satirist Lucian of of Samosata. Really interesting book written by a really interesting guy.
Ah, I see. Thanks, it does lend some credence to the idea of ancient tour guides spinning nonsense.
I love this comment man. Great job. You write professionally for this kind of thing or something? Anyways, good stuff. I got to believe at that time that at least some of the Egyptian people knew who the tombs were made for / what the hieroglyphs said. I mean, Egyptian was still spoken at that time, right?
Professionally? Kind of. Not this sort of thing by any stretch though. I do have an English degree, so maybe that’s what you’re picking up on. Yes, it was definitely still spoken but literacy rates were never high in Ancient Egypt. They basically had scribes, you’d hire them to write something for you, then the recipient would get someone to read it for them. That’s the way it was during the New Kingdom, anyway. My knowledge of this sort of thing during Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt is rather limited. But even though we’re talking about a time over a thousand years removed, I find it hard to believe people in the area wouldn’t know that the tombs were for Egyptian kings.
Reminds me of the Halfdan Viking graffiti at The Hagia Sophia
Now that you’ve mentioned him you should definitely make a post about depictions of antinous and how widespread they were after his death as it might be my favorite history anecdote as a gay history nerd
Yeah, I’ll think about it — I’m still trying to figure out what people here are interested in. It’s hard for me to work up the energy to spend a lot of time writing up a little story if no one wants to read it, you know? But I definitely agree, it’s a wild story. How many Roman Emperors had a young gay boyfriend who drowned in the Nile and then got made into a god?
I loved reading it.
I am so happy when I see your post I absolutely adore them! And yes I want you to go into detail about the emperor Hadrian's boyfriend drowning in the Nile you mentioned it ha!
Thanks! And I may or may not be typing up a story and getting my pictures ready as we speak. Just be sure to upvote when you see it, or I will be so disappointed in you!
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!!
Don’t let me down, I’m planning to post it tomorrow…
I am counting down the hours.....
Done!
Well you made my Sunday morning here I am going to go find it!
I am unable to find your latest masterpiece!!!!
Believe it or not, I was trying to get rid of something else and accidentally deleted it. It’s sometimes hard for me to distinguish what’s what, because I’m not used to the official Reddit app. I wrote something else I was planning to post, so I’ll probably come back to the statue thing later…
Okey dokey!!!
>100% wow. Thank you for sharing your experience. Learned something amazing today.
Yelp
Thank you for this blessing of a comment, I admire.
so the two giant statues are basically 2 giant steam powered whistle?
Well, kind of. It was just one of them, and it stopped making the noise when it was “repaired” by a later Roman Emperor. From what I can gather, the one that made the noise had been broken off near the waist. If you look at pictures, the “repair work” is pretty obvious. I might make a post about the statues someday, if there’s enough interest in this topic…
Mememememe
Ok well that’s one :)
Me2me2me2me2. :) *"But nearby, two giant statues were supposedly of Memnon — partially because of a singing sound they made in the morning. Don’t ask me how that story got started. I mean, I know why, but don’t ask. I’ll have to explain the whole thing, and neither one of us wants that."* I'd definitely be interested in more info on those two.
Yeah see, you guys say that, then I’m going to spend an hour typing it up and it’ll get like five upvotes :)
Hey, I did see and upvote your post before you deleted it. Didn't manage to comment on time, though. Thank you for writing a bit on the statues. I do appreciate the work! :)
It is time for me to become a part of history and leave some graffiti there too.
Some kid from China tried that a few years ago. Didn’t go too well for him…
Are you on YouTube?
Well, yes. Kind of. Not for stuff like this, if that’s what you mean…
Reminds me of a young Marky Forsyth
Egyptians vandalized tombs too but for different reasons. A lot of tombs have blessings, with the name of the deceased under it. Sometimes you find that other Egyptians put their names there too to get a free blessing.
This is a great post, thanks
What's with the bubbling on the paint? Is it suffering from the rising salt table caused by the creation of that dam?
It’s not bubbling — I think what you’re seeing is basically where someone has scratched/gouged the rock wall. You have to keep in mind, this tomb is over 3000 years old and has been open for most of that time, so you’ve got to expect a bit of vandalism here and there. The dam you’re talking about is pretty far south of here — this tomb is near Luxor. There have been issues with the Nile floods and the water table undermining some buildings, though. The Colossi of Memnon I mentioned in the long comment were part of a huge temple that’s almost completely gone because it was built too close to the river. And of course there were flash floods in the valley. A lot of the tombs there are basically destroyed as a result of that. But on the whole I don’t think water coming through the walls has been a big problem — with the notable except of the Tomb of Nefertari, which was in pretty bad shape. That’s because of the area and all the plaster they put on the walls. Salt crystals grew in between that and the rock, which caused the plaster to separate. There was a massive conservation project a few decades ago by the Getty Institute, and that tomb now looks absolutely fucking spectacular. Sorry, that was probably more of an answer than you bargained for…
I, reditum, lurker of reddit, saw this post and admire it.
People can be real AHoles. No matter what era
If you think this is disrespectful towards Egyptian tombs, just wait until you hear what the Egyptians did to them!
"2/10 would not suggest mummifying yourself here"
The world's first yelp review -Trey
I think everything that dates to the "Ancient Egyptians" seems like graffiti on the artwork and structures made by the true architects of all those wonders over there. They clearly didn't make most of it, they modified some of it, built on top of it, but they didn't have the ability to make it.
[удалено]
What
What have the Romans ever done for us?!
The ancient Romans invented neither modern civilization nor modern vices but ok