Valley of the Kings
|
View over the East Valley |
The
Valley of the Kings, or
Wadi el-Muluk (وادي الملوك) in
Arabic, is a
valley in
Egypt where
tombs were built for the
Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the
New Kingdom, the
Eighteenth through
Twentieth Dynasties of
Ancient Egypt.
The valley is located at . It stands on the west bank of the
Nile, across from
Thebes (modern
Luxor), under the peak of the
pyramid-shaped mountain
Al-Qurn. It is separated into the East and West Valleys, with most of the important tombs in the East Valley. The West Valley has only one tomb open to the public: the tomb of
Ay,
Tutankhamun's successor. There are a number of other important burials there, including that of
Amenhotep III, but these are still being excavated and are not publicly accessible.
The official name for the site was
The Great and Majestic Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh, Life, Strength, Health in The West of Thebes, or more usually,
Ta-sekhet-ma'at (the Great Field).
G41-G1-Aa1:D21-O1-O29:Y1-A50-s-Z4:Y1-G7-N35-C11-Z2:N35-M4-M4-M4-t:Z2:N35-O29:O1*O1-G7-S34-U28-s-D2:Z1-R14-t:t-N23*Z1:N35-R19-t:O49-G7The Valley was used for primary burials from approximately
1539 BC to
1075 BC, and contains some
64 tombs, starting with
Thutmose I and ending with
Ramesses X or
XI.
The Valley of the Kings also had tombs for the favourite nobles and the wives and children of both the nobles and pharaohs. Around the time of
Ramesses I (ca. 1300 BC) the
Valley of the Queens was begun, although some wives were still buried with their husbands.
The quality of the rock in the Valley is very inconsistent. Tombs were built, by cutting through various layers of limestone, each with its own quality. This poses problems for modern day conservators, as it must have to the original
architects. Building plans were probably changed on account of this. The most serious problem are the
shale layers. This fine material expands when it comes into contact with
water. This has damaged many tombs, particularly during
floods.
The investigation of the
Amarna Royal Tombs Project (1998 – 2002) investigated the valley floor with
ground-penetrating radar, and found that below the modern surface the Valley's cliffs descend beneath the scree in a series of abrupt, natural "shelves", arranged one below the other, descending several metres down to the bedrock in the valley floor.
[[1] Amarna Royal Tombs Project]:
See also: List of burials in the Valley of the Kings for full list of burials
The tombs are numbered in the order of 'discovery' from
Ramesses VII (
KV1) to the recently discovered
KV63, although some of the tombs have been open since antiquity, and
KV5 has only recently been rediscovered. The abbreviation "KV" stands for "Kings' Valley". A number of the tombs are unoccupied, the owners of others remain unknown, and some are merely pits used for storage. Only the principal tombs are noted here (these are the publicly accessible or best known tombs).
East Valley
Most of the open tombs in the Valley of the Kings are located in the East Valley, and this is where most tourists can be found.
KV2 – Tomb of Ramesses XI
; KV4 – Tomb of
Ramesses IVKV5 – Tomb of Sons of Ramesses II
The recently rediscovered tomb of some of the sons of
Ramesses II. With 120 known rooms and excavation work still underway, it is probably the largest tomb in the valley. It is not currently open to the public.
KV6 – Tomb of Ramesses IX
;KV7 – Tomb of
Ramesses IIThe ruined tomb of Ramesses the Great is not open to the public, and due to its condition (largely uncleared and still in danger of collapse) it may never be.
; KV8 – Tomb of
MerenptahThe tomb of Merenptah is one of the tombs that can be viewed by the public, although in 2005 it was not open.
; KV9 – Tomb of
Ramesses V and
Ramesses VIAlso known as the
Tomb of Memnon or
La Tombe de la Métempsychose, this is the tomb of Ramesses V and Ramesses VI.
KV11 – Tomb of Ramesses III
The tomb of Ramesses III (or
Bruce's Tomb, The Harper's Tomb) is one of the largest tombs in the valley, and is open to the public, it is located close to the central 'rest–area', and is usually one of the tombs visited by tourists.
; KV14 – Tomb of
Twosret, later reused by
Setnakhte KV15 – Tomb of Seti II
; KV16 – Tomb of
Ramesses IKV17 – Tomb of Seti I
The tomb of
Seti I and is also known as
Belzoni's tomb,
the tomb of Apis, or
the tomb of Psammis, son of Necho.
KV34 – Tomb of Thutmose III
; KV35 – Tomb of
Amenhotep IIThis tomb was originally the tomb of Amenhotep II. Over a dozen mummies, many of them royal, were later relocated here (see
list).
; KV39 – Tomb of
Amenhotep I KV43 – Tomb of Thutmose IV
; KV46 – Tomb of
Yuya and
Tjuyu The tomb of the nobles Yuya and Tjuyu, who were possibly the parents of Queen
Tiy. Until the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, this was the best preserved tomb to be found in the Valley.
; KV47 – Tomb of
Siptah KV55 – Possible Amarna Period Mummy cache
The tomb maybe another mummy cache, and has the possible burials of several Amarna Period royals –
Tiy and
Smenkhkare/
Akhenaten.
; KV57 – Tomb of
HoremhebKV62 – Tomb of Tutankhamun
Perhaps the most famous discovery of modern Western
archaeology was made here by
Howard Carter on
November 4,
1922, with clearance and conservation work continuing until 1932. King Tutankhamun's tomb was the first royal tomb to be discovered that was still largely intact (although tomb robbers had entered it), and was, until the excavation of
KV63 in 2006, considered the last major discovery in the valley. The opulence of his grave goods notwithstanding,
Tutankhamun was a rather minor king and other burials probably had more numerous treasures. Some members of the archaeological teams led by Carter and later archaeologists contracted local lethal
viruses through
food or
animals (particularly
insects), resulting in the infamous "
Curse of the Pharaohs" modern legend.
; KV63 – Unknown tomb discovered on 10 March 2005
[[2] First look - MSNBC article].
KV64 – Radar anomaly believed to be a tomb or chamber announced on 28 July 2006 |
Panoramic view of the Valley |
West Valley
The numbering the West Valley follows in sequence to that of the East Valley, and there are only four known tombs and several pits in this branch of the valley.
; WV22 – Tomb of Amenhotep III
This is the tomb of one the greatest rulers of the
Egyptian New Kingdom,
Amenhotep III. It has recently been re–investigated, but is not open to the public.
; WV23 – Tomb of Ay
The reconstructed tomb of
Ay is the only tomb that is open to the public in the West Valley.
; WV25 – Possible Theban tomb of Akhenaten
This tomb may have been started as the Theban burial of
Akhenaten, but it was never finished.
Deir el-Bahri
; Royal mummy cache
While this tomb is not strictly in the Valley of the Kings, it contained an astounding mummy cache. It is located in the cliffs overlooking
Hatshepsut's famous temple at
Deir el-Bahri, was found to contain many of Egypt's most famous pharaohs. They were found in a great state of disorder, many placed in other people's coffins, and several are still unidentified.
By the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt had entered a long period of political and economic decline. The priests at Thebes grew in power and effectively administered Upper Egypt, while kings ruling from
Tanis controlled Lower Egypt. The Valley began to be heavily plundered, so during the
21st Dynasty the priests of
Amen opened most of the tombs and moved the mummies into three tombs in order to better protect them, even removing most of their treasure in order to further protect the bodies from robbers. Later most of these were moved to a single cache near Deir el-Bari (see below). During the later
Third Intermediate Period and later periods, intrusive burials were introduced into many of the open tombs.
Grave robbers
Almost all of the tombs have been ransacked, including Tutankhamun's, though in his case, it seems that the robbers were interrupted, so very little was removed.
The valley was surrounded by steep cliffs and heavily guarded. In
1090 BC, or
the year of the Hyena, there was a collapse in Egypt's economy leading to the emergence of tomb robbers. Because of this, it was also the last year that the valley was used for burial.
The valley also seems to have suffered an official plundering during the virtual civil war which started in the reign of
Ramesses XI. The tombs were opened, all the valuables removed, and the mummies collected into two large caches. One, the so-called
Deir el-Bahri cache, contained no less than forty royal mummies and their coffins; the other, in the tomb of
Amenhotep II, contained a further sixteen.
The Valley of the Kings has been a major area of modern
Egyptological exploration for the last two centuries. Before this the area was a site for tourism in antiquity (especially during
Roman times). This areas illustrates the changes in the study of ancient Egypt, starting as antiquity hunting, and ending as scientific excavation of the whole
Theban Necropolis. Despite the exploration and investigation noted below, only eleven of the tombs have actually been completely recorded.
Antiquity
The
Greek writers
Strabo and
Diodorus Siculus were able to report that the total number of Theban royal tombs was 47, of which at the time only 17 were believed to be undestroyed.
Pausanias and others wrote of the pipe-like corridors of the Valley – i.e. the tombs.
Clearly others also visited the valley in these times, as many of the tombs have graffiti written by these ancient tourists.
Jules Baillet located over 2000 Greek and
Latin graffiti, along with a smaller number in
Phoenician,
Cypriot,
Lycian,
Coptic, and other languages.
Eighteenth Century
Before the nineteenth century, travel from Europe to
Thebes (and indeed anywhere in
Egypt) was difficult, time-consuming and expensive, and only the hardiest of European travelers visited – before the travels of
Father Claude Sicard in 1726, it was unclear just where Thebes really was. It was known to be on the
Nile, but it was often confused with
Memphis and several other sites. One of the first travelers to record what he saw at Thebes was
Frederic Louis Norden, a
Danish adventurer and artist. He was followed by
Richard Pococke, who published the first modern map of the valley itself, in 1743.
French Expedition
In 1799,
Napoleon's expedition drew maps and plans of the known tombs, and for the first time noted the Western Valley (where
Prosper Jollois and
Édouard de Villiers du Terrage located the tomb of
Amenhotep III,
WV22). The
Description de l'Égypte contains two volumes (out a total of 19) on the area around Thebes.
Nineteenth Century
European exploration continued in the area around Thebes during the Nineteenth Century, boosted by
Champollion's translation of hieroglyphs early in the century. Early in the century, the area was visited by
Belzoni, working for
Henry Salt, who discovered several tombs, including that of those of
Ay in the West Valley (
WV23) in 1816 and
Seti I (
KV17) the next year. At the end of his visits, Belzoni declared that all of the tombs had been found and nothing of note remained to be found.
In 1827
John Gardiner Wilkinson was assigned to paint the entry of every tomb, giving them each a designation that is still in use today – they were numbered from KV1 to KV21 (although the maps show 28 entrances, some of which were unexplored). These paintings and maps were later published in
The Topography of Thebes and General Survey of Egypt, in 1830. At the same time
James Burton explored the valley. His works included making KV17 safer from flooding, but he is more well known for entering KV5.
In 1829, Champollion himself visited the valley, along with
Ippolito Rosellini. The expedition spent two months studying the open tombs, visiting about 16 of them. They copied the inscriptions and identfied the original tomb owners. In tomb KV17, they removed some wall decorations, which are now on display in the
Louvre in
Paris.
In 1845 – 1846 the valley was explored by
Karl Richard Lepsius's expedition, they explored and documented 25 in the main valley and four in the west.
The later half of the century saw a more concerted effort to preserve rather than simply gathering antiquities.
Auguste Mariette's Egyptian Antiqities Service started to explore the valley, first with
Eugéne Lefébre in 1883, then
Jules Baillet and
Georges Bénédite in early 1888 and finally
Victor Loret in 1898 to 1899. During this time
Georges Daressy explored KV9 and KV6.
Loret added a further 16 tombs to the list of tombs, and explored several tombs that had already been discovered.
When
Gaston Maspero was reappointed to head the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the nature of the exploration of the valley changed again, Maspero appointed
Howard Carter as the Chief Inspector of Upper Egypt, and the young man discovered several new tombs and explored several others, clearing KV42 and KV20.
Twentieth century
Around the turn of the Twentieth Century, the
Theodore M. Davis had the excavation permit in the valley, and his team (led mostly by
Edward R. Ayrton) discovered several royal and non-royal tombs (KV43, KV46 & KV57 being the most important). In 1907 they discovered the possible Amarna Period cache in KV55. After finding what they thought was the burial of Tutankhamun (KV61), it was announced that the valley was completely explored and no further burials were to be found.
Howard Carter then acquired the right to explore the valley and after a systematic search discovered the actual tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) in November 1922.
At the end of the century, the
Theban Mapping Project re-discovered and explored tomb KV5, which has since been discovered to be probably the largest in the valley, and was either a cenotaph or real burial for the sons of Ramesses II. Elsewhere in the eastern and western branches of the valley several other expeditions cleared and studied other tombs. Recently (up until 2002) the
Amarna Royal Tombs Project has been exploring the area around KV55 and KV62, the Amarna Period tombs in the main valley.
Twenty-first century
Various expeditions have continued to explore the valley, adding greatly to the knowledge of the area. In 2001 the
Theban Mapping Project designed new signs for the tombs, providing information and plans of the open tombs. A new visitors' centre is currently being planned.
On
February 8,
2006, an team led by the
University of Memphis uncovered a pharaonic-era tomb (
KV63), the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamun's in 1922. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with coloured funerary masks along with more than 20 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals.
On 31st July 2006,
Nicholas Reeves announced that analysis of
ground penetrating radar for the autumn of 2000 showed a sub-surface anomaly in the area of KV62 and KV63
[[3] Another new tomb in the Valley of the Kings: ‘KV64' ][[4] Nicholas Reeves interview].
*
Pets were also buried here. There is a group of three
animal tombs.
* The largest tomb, known as
KV5, was built for the sons of
Ramesses II. It contains at least 67 burial chambers.
*
Graffiti on the walls of some of the tombs indicate that this was an attraction during time of the
ancient Greeks and in
Roman times.
Most of the tombs are not open to the public (16 of the tombs can be open, but they are rarely open at the same time), and officials occasionally close those that are open for restoration work. The number of visitors to
KV62 has led to a separate charge for entry into the tomb. The West Valley has only one open tomb, that of
Ay, and a separate ticket is needed to visit this tomb as well. The tour guides are no longer allowed to lecture inside the tombs and visitors are expected to proceed quietly and in single file through the tombs. This is to minimise time in the tombs, and prevent the crowds from damaging the surfaces of the decoration. Photography is no longer allowed in the tombs.
In
1997, 58 tourists and 4 Egyptians were
massacred at
Deir el-Bahriby Islamist militants from
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, leading to a drop in tourism.
As of 2005, on most days of the week an average of four to five thousand tourists visit the main valley. On the days on which the
Nile Cruises arrive the number can rise to nearly ten thousand
[[5] Projected visitors]. These levels are expected to rise to 25,000 by 2015. The West Valley is much less visited, as there is only one tomb that is open to the public.
In January 2006 it was announced that a new visitors centre is to be constructed
[[6] New visitors centre]. Its planned opening date is March 2007.
*
Theban Mapping Project – Includes detailed maps of most of the tombs.
*
Valley of the Kings photographs on GlobalAmity.net
* John Romer,
Valley of the Kings (Henry Holt, 1981) – Covers the history of the exploration of the Valley in chronological order.
* Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson,
The Complete Valley of the Kings (1996, Thames and Hudson) – Details of all the major tombs, their discovery, art and architecture.
* Alberto Siliotti,
Guide to the Valley of the Kings (Barnes and Noble, 1997) – A good introduction to the valley and surroundings.
*
Kent R. Weeks, Araldo De Luca (photographs),
Valley of the Kings (Friedman/Fairfax, 2001) – Spectacular photography of the best tombs.
* C. N. Reeves,
Valley of the Kings: The Decline of a Royal Necropolis (Keegan Paul, 1990)
* Richard H. Wilkinson (ed.)
Valley of the Sun Kings (University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition, 1994) chapters by archaeologists working in the valley from an international conference on the Valley of the Kings.
