Valley Of The Kings

The Valley of the Kings was the royal cemetery for 62 Pharaohs, and is located on the west bank at Luxor. The only entrance to this place was a long narrow winding path. This was a secret place, where sentries were placed at the entrance of the Valley, as well as along the top of the hills, in the hopes of discouraging tomb robbers, who had in the past plundered all royal tombs, including the treasures of the Pyramids! Some thefts were probably carefully planned, but others were spur of the moment, as when an earlier tomb was accidentally discovered while cutting a new one and workmen took advantage of the opportunity. This may have happened when KV 46 was found during the cutting of KV 4 or KV 3 nearby. The tombs in the Valley range from a simple pit (e.g. KV 54), to a tomb with over 121 chambers and corridors (KV 5)
 

John Gardiner Wilkinson first established the present numbering system, in 1827, as part of his preparation of a map of Thebes. Wilkinson painted the numbers 1 through 21 at the entrances of the tombs that were then visible. The numbers were assigned geographically, from the entrance to the Valley southward. Since Wilkinson's day, tomb numbers have been assigned in chronological order of discovery, KV 62 (Tutankhamen) being the most recent. Wilkinson's is not the only system of tomb designation that has been used in the Valley though. Several explorers assigned numbers, letters or descriptive labels to the tombs, as the accompanying chart indicates, but Wilkinson's is the only system that is still in use. There are two main wings to the Valley of the Kings, west and east! You will find that eastern side has the majority of the tombs, the western part having very few, but including the tombs of Amenhotep III and Ay.

A list of the KV's discovered (so far!)

The earliest known tomb of the New Kingdom within the Valley of the Kings, is that of Tuthmoses I, who started to use the valley as a royal burial site. It is located in a desolate part of the valley, which is supposed to add greater protection as it was small enough to be closely guarded. The good quality of the stones gave the ancient Egyptians the chance to cut many tombs close to each other.
Most of the tombs were found already plundered! A few, like the tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62) or that of Yuya and Thuyu (KV 46), contained thousands of precious artefacts. Some tombs have been accessible since antiquity, as Greek and Latin graffiti will attest. Some were used as dwellings, or as churches during the Greco-Roman and Byzantine Periods. Most of them have been discovered in the past two hundred years.

Some, like KV 5, had been "lost," and their locations only recently rediscovered. The very well known Egyptologist, Kent Weeks, who is still working in the valley, on many projects, among them the Theban mapping project ,  Kent spent more than 6 years exploring and trying to uncover the secrets of this massive tomb. KV5 is the largest tomb ever found in the valley! Re-excavated in 1995, it contains at least 121 chambers and corridors! Mr Weeks believes that it was built for the children of Ramses II. If you wish to see KV5’s location (it is closed to the public!), on your way to the inner side of the valley, if you look to your left you will see "a sketch Plan of KV5" as well as the locked, gated entrance to the tomb.
 

Since 1922, and Howard Carter’s discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62), there had been no new tombs discovered in the valley until, on February 9, 2006, the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt announced the discovery of a new tomb. Designated the number KV63, it was discovered by a joint effort between the University of Memphis (in the USA) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt. This is one of the smaller tombs that have been found, consisting of a vertical shaft with an adjacent chamber at the bottom. Some artefacts have been found, but as this is an ongoing project, the details are still to be released
 

• Presently, there are several archaeological projects currently at work in the Valley of the Kings.

        To visit the Valley of the Kings you should be aware of the following:

• Your entrance ticket to the valley costs 55 LE (The ticket office is located at the entrance to the valley, at the end of the car park) and gives you access to three tombs of your choice.
• Cameras are allowed into the valley area but you are not allowed to use them inside the tombs, you can only take pictures on the outside of the tombs.
• Video cameras are not allowed into the valley at all! You will have to check-in your video camera at the entrance.
• Guides / lecturers are not allowed into the tombs. Your guide will give you a full description of the tomb from the outside and will also recommend which tombs to visit.
• If you wish to go inside the tomb of King Tutankhamen (KV62), you will need a separate ticket (70LE) which you can buy at the ticket office.
• Please don't touch the walls of the tombs you are visiting.

Advice for the best tombs to visit now:

• Tomb of Ramses IX (KV 6); both have very fine relief’s and very elegant ceilings, with the scenes of the Goddess Nut, Goddess of the sky (Closed for refurbishment)

• Tomb of Mernpatah (KV 8); the largest in the valley (Open, at the present)

• Tomb of Ramses VI (KV 9); (Closed for refurbishment)

• Tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35); where the best representation of the “Book of the Dead” can be seen (Closed for refurbishment)

• Tomb of Thutmose (KV 34); it has full details of the “Book of the Dead”, and represents the standard form for 18th Dynasty royal tombs (Open, at the present moment)

• Tomb of Ramses VII (KV1); (Open, at the present moment)

• Tomb of Ramses I (KV16); (Open, at the present moment)

• My Favourite Tombs:

  Tomb of Amonhotep II (KV35)

  It is considered as one of the best-completed tombs in the valley. The tomb is full of religious scenes depicting full chapter so the Egyptian book of the dead. Victor Loret discovered the tomb when he was antiquities director in 1897; it was the only tomb beside the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamen where we found the mummy of king intact in its sarcophagus.

  Back in 1897 We  have discovered into the tomb, a cache of another 11 mummies of kings and queens together with many funerary objects.  Upon the discovery of these mummies, many were taken to the Egyptian museum and three unknown mummies where left behind together with many funerary objects.

  Unfortunately later some of these pieces have disappeared or perhaps stolen! Among these pieces where a 3500 years old boat made of cedar wood and it was 4 M long! No one knows what happen to it!

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  Tomb of Seti I (KV 17)

  It is considered the longest tomb in the valley as it extends to more than 120 M inside the solid rock. The tomb was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni n 1817. It has a complete record of the book of the dead and characterized by it is bas-relief on the walls and the amazing painting of high quality especially at the burial chamber. The tomb consists of seven corridors and ten champers all painted and decorated with the Litany of Ra (Book of the Dead, Im-dwat, Book of Gates Opening of the Mouth ritual, astronomical scenes)

  There we found many Tomb equipment including, writing equipment and Vessels etc.

  Into the burial chamber a magnificent sarcophagus made of the finest alabaster was found, it was later transferred by Giovanni Belzoni to the U.K and was sold to the Sir John Sonne at the sum of 2000 English pounds. Today you can still see it in Sir John Sonne museum in London.