Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings, burial site used by Egyptian rulers of the New Kingdom period (1550-1070 bc). It is located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the modern town of Luxor. Although only a few kilometers west of the riverbank, the valley is concealed by high cliffs and a long, narrow, and winding entranceway. Before the New Kingdom period, the kings of Egypt had built mortuary complexes consisting of pyramid-tombs and accompanying temples. In the 18th Dynasty, King Amenhotep I (reigned 1525-1504 bc) departed from tradition, building his temple closer to the riverbank and concealing his tomb farther north and west, in the cliffs. His successors continued this practice of separation, but they located their tombs within the valley. In all likelihood this move was an attempt to circumvent robbing of the royal tombs. Although no longer marked by a pyramid constructed of millions of carved blocks, the tombs stand below a pyramidal mountain called today The Horn (Arabic Al Qurn). See also Ancient Egypt.

The Valley of the Kings has revealed thus far more than 80 tombs and pits within its eastern and western sections. By the end of the 20th century, 62 numbered royal and private tombs had been discovered, beginning with that of Seti I, which was found by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni in 1817. The actual body of Seti and 39 other royal mummies that had been moved from their original resting places were discovered in one great burial chamber on the Nile side of the cliffs in 1881. Most of the tombs were carved deep into solid bedrock. They contain a multitude of rooms with carved and painted hieroglyphic texts and magical and symbolic scenes. For more than 80 years, KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun of the 18th Dynasty, had the distinction of being the last tomb discovered in the Valley. In 1922 British archaeologist Howard Carter and his sponsor Lord Carnavon located the burial place of the boy king, known in modern times as 'King Tut.' In 2006 American archaeologists from The University of Memphis in Tennessee and the University of Ohio at Akron, working under the auspices of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, reported the discovery of a new tomb, also from the 18th Dynasty. It was not a royal tomb and had no interior decoration. Intact, it contained five mummies, each within a painted wooden coffin, and several large pottery storage jars that still had their original seals. The excavators discovered it across a pathway from Tutankhamun's tomb.

Tutankhamun's tomb was the only royal tomb in the valley that survived wholesale looting in ancient times. Although robbed at least twice not long after it was sealed, it still contained more than 5,000 items buried with the young king when Carter discovered it. Except for the wife of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut, who was a ruler in her own right, most royal wives of the New Kingdom were buried several kilometers south in the Valley of the Queens.