Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings, long narrow defile just west of the Nile River in Luxor, was part of the ancient city of Thebes and was the burial site of almost all the kings (pharaohs) of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties (1539-1075 BCE), from Thutmose I to Ramses X. In 1979 UNESCO designated the valley part of the World Heritage site of ancient Thebes, which also includes Luxor, the Valley of the Queens, and Karnak.

The kings of the New Kingdom (c. 1539–1075 bce), fearing for the safety of their rich burials, adopted a new plan of concealing their tombs in a lonely valley in the western hills behind Dayr al-Baḥrī. There, in tombs sunk deep into the heart of the mountain, pharaohs were interred, as were several queens, a few officials of high rank, and the numerous sons of Ramses II. The plan of the tombs varies considerably but consists essentially of a descending corridor interrupted by deep shafts to baffle robbers and by pillared chambers or vestibules. At the farther end of the corridor is a burial chamber with a stone sarcophagus in which the royal mummy was laid and store chambers around which furniture and equipment were stacked for the king’s use in the next world.

The walls were in many cases covered with sculptured and painted scenes depicting the dead king in the presence of deities, especially the gods of the underworld, and with illustrated magical texts. Astronomical figures decorate the ceilings of several burial chambers.

Virtually all the tombs in the valley were cleared out in antiquity. Some had been partially robbed during the New Kingdom, but all were systematically denuded of their contents in the 21st dynasty, in an effort to protect the royal mummies and to recycle the rich funerary goods back into the royal treasury. In the time of Strabo (1st century bce), Greek travelers were able to visit 40 of the tombs. Several tombs were reused by Coptic monks, who left their own inscriptions on the walls. Only the little tomb of Tutankhamun (reigned 1333–23 bce), located on the floor of the valley and protected by a pile of rock chippings thrown down from a later Ramesside tomb, escaped pillage. The wonderful treasures that were exhumed from Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 and that now reside in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The largest and most complex tomb in the Valley of the Kings (number 5) was apparently built to contain the burial chambers of many of the sons of Ramses II (reigned 1279–13), the greatest king of the 19th dynasty. This tomb, which had been previously discovered but dismissed as insignificant, was again located in the late 1980s and partially excavated in the 1990s. The uppermost of the tomb’s two levels contains a central pillared hall and various corridors leading away to dozens of chambers.

References:

• britannica.com

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Luxor, Egypt

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Founded: 16th century BCE
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