Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings is the royal burial ground on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor (ancient Thebes), used for pharaonic tombs from roughly the early Eighteenth Dynasty through the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom.

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Geography and Function

Located within the wider Theban Necropolis on the Nile's west bank, the valley consists of two branches - the larger East Valley, where most royal tombs are concentrated, and the smaller West Valley. More than sixty numbered tombs (the "KV" designations) have been identified, ranging from simple shaft graves to elaborate multi-chambered royal tombs cut directly into the limestone cliffs, replacing the pyramid as the preferred royal burial form of the New Kingdom.

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History and Excavation

The valley served as the primary royal burial site for most New Kingdom pharaohs, including Amenhotep II (KV35). Tomb robbery in antiquity was severe enough that Twenty-first Dynasty priests relocated numerous royal mummies into a small number of tombs used as caches, including KV35 and the Deir el-Bahari cache (DB320), for safekeeping. Systematic modern documentation began with the Napoleonic expedition's survey (1798-1801) and continued through excavators including Giovanni Belzoni and Victor Loret; the Theban Mapping Project has since produced the standard detailed maps and architectural documentation for nearly all known tombs in the valley.

See also: Thebes, Amenhotep II, Victor Loret