Everything about Valley Of The Kings totally explained
The
Valley of the Kings (
Arabic: وادي الملوك
Wadi Biban el-Muluk; "Gates of the King") is a
valley in
Egypt where for a period of nearly 500 years from the
16th to
11th century BC,
tombs were constructed for the
kings and powerful nobles of the
New Kingdom (the
Eighteenth through
Twentieth Dynasties of
Ancient Egypt).
The valley stands on the west bank of the
Nile, across from
Thebes (modern
Luxor), within the heart of the
Theban Necropolis. The
wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley (where the majority of the royal tombs situated) and West Valley.
The area has been a focus of concentrated
archaeological and
egyptological exploration since the end of the
eighteenth century, and its tombs and burials continue to stimulate research and interest. In modern times the valley has become famous for the discovery of the
tomb of
Tutankhamun (with its rumours of the
Curse of the Pharaohs), and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1979, it became a
World Heritage Site, along with the rest of the Theban Necropolis.
Geology
The types of soil where the Valley of Kings is located are an alternating sandwich of dense
limestone and other sedimentary rock (which form the cliffs in the valley and the nearby
Deir el-Bahri) and soft layers of
marl. The sedimentary rock was originally deposited between 35 - 56 million years ago during a time when the precursor to the
Mediterranean Sea covered an area that extended much further inland than today. During the
Pleistocene the valley was carved out the plateau by steady rains. There is currently little year-round rain in this part of Egypt, but there are occasional
flash floods which hit the valley, dumping tons of debris into the open tombs.
The quality of the rock in the Valley is inconsistent, ranging from finely-grained to coarse stone, the latter with the potential to be structurally unsound. The occasional layer of
shale also caused construction and conservation difficulties, as this rock expands in the presence of water, forcing apart the stone surrounding it. It is thought that some tombs were altered in shape and size depending on the types of the layers of rock the builders encountered. The tomb of Ramesses II returned to an early style, probably due to the quality of the rock being excavated.
Between 1998-2002 the
Amarna Royal Tombs Project investigated the valley floor using
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.
History
The Theban Hills are dominated by the peak of
al-Qurn, known to the Ancient Egyptians as
ta dehent, or 'The Peak'. It has a pyramid shaped appearance, and it's probable that this echoed the pyramids of the
Old Kingdom, more than a thousand years prior to the first royal burials carved here. Its isolated position also resulted in reduced access, and special tomb police (the
Medjay) were able to guard the necropolis.
While the iconic pyramid complexes of the
Giza plateau have come to symbolize ancient Egypt, the majority of tombs were in fact cut into rock. Most pyramids and
mastabas contain sections which are cut into ground level, and there are full rock-cut tombs in Egypt that date back to the Old Kingdom.
After the defeat of the
Hyksos and the reunification of Egypt under
Ahmose I, the
Theban rulers began to construct elaborate tombs that would reflect their new found power. The tombs of Ahmose and his son
Amenhotep I (their exact location remains unknown) were probably in the
Seventeenth Dynasty necropolis of
Dra' Abu el-Naga'. The first royal tomb in the valley were those of
Amenhotep I (although this identification is also disputed), and
Thutmose I, whose advisor
Ineni notes in his tomb that he advised his king to place his tomb in the desolate valley (the identity of this actual tomb is unclear, but it's probably
KV20 or
KV38).}}
The Valley was used for primary burials from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC, and contains at least
63 tombs, beginning with
Thutmose I (or possibly earlier, during the reign of
Amenhotep I), and ending with
Ramesses X or
XI.
Despite the name, the Valley of the Kings also contains the tombs of favorite nobles as well as the wives and children of both nobles and pharaohs. Around the time of
Ramesses I (ca. 1301 BC) construction commenced in the separate
Valley of the Queens, although some wives continued to be buried with their husbands in the Valley of the Kings.
Royal Necropolis
The official name for the site in ancient times 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-G7 With the return to religious orthodoxy at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty,
Tutankhamun,
Ay and then
Horemheb returned to the royal necropolis.
The
Nineteenth and
Twentieth Dynasties saw an increase in the number of burials (both here and in the Valley of the Queens), with
Ramesses II and later
Ramesses III constructing a massive tomb that was used for the burial of his sons (
KV55 and
KV3 respectively). There are some kings that are not buried within the valley or whose tomb hasn't been located,
Thutmose II may have been buried in
Dra' Abu el-Naga' (although his mummy was in the
Deir el-Bahri tomb cache), Smenkhkare's burial has never been located, and
Ramesses VIII seems to have been buried elsewhere.
Deir el-Medina
The tombs were constructed and decorated by the workers of the village of Deir el-Medina, located in a small wadi between this valley and the Valley of the Queens, facing Thebes. The workers journeyed to the tombs via routes over the Theban hills. The daily lives of these workers are quite well known, recorded in tombs and official documents.
Mortuary Temples
In the Pyramid Age the tomb of the king was associated with a mortuary temple located close to the pyramid. As the tomb of the king was hidden, this mortuary temple was located away from the burial, closer to the cultivation facing towards Thebes
Exploration of the valley
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 (1st century BC) and
Diodorus Siculus (1st century AD) 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 other ancient writers remarked on the pipe-like corridors of the Valley, clearly meaning 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 2100 Greek and
Latin graffiti, along with a smaller number in
Phoenician,
Cypriot,
Lycian,
Coptic, and other languages. The majority of the ancient graffiti are found in KV9, containing just under a thousand of them. The earliest positively dated graffiti dates to 278 B.C. 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 (especially Dominique Vivant) 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 24) 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 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. Working at the same time (and a great rival of Belzoni and Salt) was
Bernardino Drovetti, the
French Consul-General.
In 1827
John Gardiner Wilkinson was assigned to paint the entry of every tomb, giving them each a designation that's 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's better known for entering KV5.
Champollion himself visited the valley, along with
Ippolito Rosellini and
Nestor L'Hôte, in the
Franco-Tuscan Expedition of 1829. The expedition spent two months studying the open tombs, visiting about 16 of them. They copied the inscriptions and identified the original tomb owners. In tomb KV17, they removed 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 Antiquities Service started to explore the valley, first with
Eugène Lefébure 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, 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
American 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 (having at least 120 rooms), 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. 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.
On
February 8,
2006, the
Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that an
American team led by the
University of Memphis had uncovered a pharaonic-era tomb (
KV63), the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamun's in 1922. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five intact sarcophagi with coloured funerary masks along 28 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals. It is located close to the tomb of Tutankhamun. KV63, as it's known, appears to be a single chamber with seven sarcophagi and about 20 large funerary jars. The chamber is from the 18th dynasty and it appears to have been a deposit of funerary preparation materials, rather than a tomb. As yet, no mummies have been discovered in the sarcophagi.
On
31 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. He has tentatively labeled this anomaly "KV64". This has caused some controversy, as only Egypt's
Supreme Council of Antiquities can officially designate the name of a new tomb, the anomaly may not in fact be a tomb, and because Reeves had reported the finding to the press first, instead of a scientific paper.
In May 2008,
Zahi Hawass announced that an Egyptian team have been looking for the tomb of
Ramesses VIII, concentrating around the tombs of Merenptah and Ramesses II. At the same time, clearance of the descending tunnel in KV17 has started.), to the burial chamber. In the earlier tombs the corridors turn through 90 degrees at least once (such as
KV43, the tomb of
Thutmose IV), and the earliest had cartouche-shaped burial chambers (
KV43, the tomb of
Thutmose IV). This layout is known as 'Bent Axis', and after the burial the upper corridors were meant to be filled with rubble, and the entrance to the tomb hidden. After the
Amarna period, the layout gradually straightened, with an intermediate 'Jogged Axis' (the tomb of
Horemheb,
KV57 is typical of this, and is one of the tombs that's sometimes open to the public), to the generally 'Straight Axis' of the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasty tombs (
Ramesses III's and
Ramesses IX's tombs,
KV11 and
KV6 respectively). As the tomb's axes straightend, the slope also lessened, and almost disappeared in the late Twentieth Dynasty. Another feature that's common to most tombs is the 'well', which may have originated as an actual barrier intended to stop flood waters entering the lower parts of the tombs. It later seems to have developed a 'magical' purpose as a symbolical shaft. In the later Twentieth Dynasty, the well itself was sometimes not excavated, but the well room was still present.
Decoration
The majority of the royal tombs were decorated with religious texts and images. The early tombs were decorated with scenes from Amduat ('That Which is in the Underworld'), which describes the journey of the sun-god through the twelve hours of the night. From the time of Horemheb, tombs were decorated with the Book of Gates, which shows the sun-god passing through the twelve gates that divide the night time, and ensure the tomb owner's own safe passage through the night.
Late in the Nineteenth Dynasty the Book of Caverns, which divided the underworld into massive caverns containing deities and the deceased waiting for the sun to pass through and restore them to life. The burial of Ramesses III saw the Book of the Earth, where the underworld is divided into 4 sections, climaxing in the sun disc being pulled from the earth by Naunet.
The ceilings of the burial chambers were decorated (from the burial of Seti I onwards) with what become formalised as the Book of the Heavens, which again describe the sun's journey through the twelve hours of night. Again from Seti I's time, the Litany of Re, a lengthy hymn to the sun god.
Tomb equipment
Each burial was provided with equipment that would enable them a continued existence in the afterlife in comfort. Also present in the tombs were ritual magical items, such as Shabti's and divine figurines. Some equipment was that which the king may have used in their lifetime (Tutankhamun's sandals for example), and some was specially constructed for the burial.
Tomb numbering
The modern abbreviation "KV" stands for "Kings' Valley", and the tombs are numbered in the order of 'discovery' from Ramesses VII (KV1) to KV63 (which was discovered in 2005), although many of the tombs have been open since antiquity, and KV5 was only rediscovered in the 1990s (after being dismissed as unimportant by previous investigators). The West Valley tombs often have the "WV" prefix, but follow the same numbering system. A number of the tombs are unoccupied, the owners of others remain unknown, and others are merely pits used for storage. Most of the open tombs in the Valley of the Kings are located in the East Valley, and this is where most tourists and facilities can be found.
Eighteenth Dynasty
The Eighteenth dynasty tombs within the valley vary a good deal in decoration, style and location. At first there seems to have been no fixed plan, indeed the
tomb of
Hatshepsut is of a unique shape, twisting and turning down over 200 metres from the entrance so that the burial chamber is 97 metres below the surface. The tombs gradually became more regular and formalised, and the tombs of
Thutmose III and
Thutmose IV,
KV34 and
KV43 are good examples of Eighteenth Dynasty tombs, both with their bent axis, and simple decoration.
Perhaps the most imposing tomb of this period is that of
Amenhotep III,
WV22 located in the West Valley. It has been re-investigated in 1990s (by a team from
Waseda University,
Japan), but isn't open to the public.
At the same time, powerful and influential nobles started to be buried with the royal family, the most famous of these tombs is the
joint tomb of
Yuya and
Tjuyu,
KV46. They were possibly the parents of Queen
Tiy, and until the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, this was the best preserved tomb to be found in the Valley.
Amarna Period
The return of royal burials to Thebes after the end of Amarna period marks a change to the layout of royal burials, with the intermediate 'jogged axis' gradually giving way to the 'straight axis' of later dynasties. In the Western valley, there's a tomb commencement that's thought to have been started for
Akhenaten, but is no more than a gateway and a series of steps. Close by to this tomb is the tomb of
Ay,
Tutankhamun's successor. It is likely that this tomb was started for Tutankhamun (its decoration is of a similar style), but later usurped for Ay's burial (this would mean that
KV62 may have been Ay's original tomb, which would explain the smaller size and unusual layout for a royal tomb).
The other Amarna period tombs are located in a smaller, central area in the centre of the East Valley, with a possible mummy cache (
KV55) that possibly contains the possible burials of several Amarna Period royals –
Tiy and
Smenkhkare or
Akhenaten.
Close to this is the burial of Tutankhamun, perhaps the most famous discovery of modern Western
archaeology and was made here by
Howard Carter on
November 4,
1922, with clearance and conservation work continuing until 1932. This 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 on
10 March 2005, 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.
In the same central area as KV62 and KV63, is '
KV64' a radar anomaly believed to be a tomb or chamber announced on
28 July 2006. It isn't an official designation, and indeed the actual existence of a tomb at all is dismissed by the
Supreme Council of Antiquities. It is a vast size, being about the same length, and a larger area, of the tomb of his father. Its layout returns to the earlier 'bent axis', maybe due to the poor quality of the rock found during excavation.
At the same time (and just opposite his own tomb), Ramesses enlarged the earlier small tomb of an unknown Eighteenth Dynasty noble (
KV5) for his numerous sons. With 120 known rooms and excavation work still underway, it's probably the largest tomb in the valley. Originally opened (and robbed) in antiquity it's a low-lying structure that has been particularly prone to the flash floods that sometimes hit the area, which washed in tones of debris and material over the centuries, ultimately concealing its vast size. It isn't currently open to the public.
Ramesses II's son and eventual successor,
Merenptah's
tomb has been open since antiquity, it extends 160 metres, ending in a burial chamber that once contained a set of four nested
sarcophagi. Well decorated, it's typically open to the public most years.
The last kings of the dynasty also constructed tombs in the valley, all of which follow the same general pattern of layout and decoration, notable amongst these is the
tomb of
Siptah, which is well decorated, especially the ceiling decoration.
Twentieth Dynasty
The first ruler of the dynasty,
Setnakhte actually had 2 tombs constructed for himself, he started to excavate the eventual tomb of his son,
Ramesses III but broke into another tomb, and abandoned it in order to usurp and complete the
tomb of the Nineteenth dynasty female pharaoh
Twosret. This tomb therefore has two burial chambers, the later extensions making the tomb one of the largest of the Royal tombs, at over 112 metres.
The
tomb of
Ramesses III (known
Bruce's Tomb, The Harper's Tomb) is one of the largest tombs in the valley, and is open to the public, it's located close to the central 'rest–area', and is location and superb decoration usually makes this one of the tombs visited by tourists.
The successors and offspring of
Ramesses III constructed tombs that had straight axes, and were decorated in much the same manner as each other, notable amongst these are
KV2, the tomb of
Ramesses IV, which has been open since antiquity, containing a large amount of
hieratic graffiti. The tomb is mostly intact and is decorated with scenes from several religious texts. The joint tomb of
Ramesses V and
Ramesses VI,
KV9 (also known as the
Tomb of Memnon or
La Tombe de la Métempsychose) is decorated with many sunk-relief carvings, depicting many illustrated scenes from religious texts. Open since antiquity, it contains over a thousand graffiti in ancient Greek, Latin and Coptic. The spoil from the excavation and later clearance of this tomb covered the earlier burial of KV62 and seems to have been what protected that tomb from earlier discovery and looting.
The tomb of
Ramesses IX,
KV6 has been open since antiquity, as can be seen by the graffiti left on its walls by Roman and Coptic visitors. Located in the central part of the Valley, it stands between and slightly above KV5 and KV55. The tomb extends a total distance of 105 metres into the hillside, including extensive side chambers which were neither decorated nor finished. The hasty and incomplete nature of the rock-cutting and decorations within the tomb indicate that the tomb wasn't completed by the time of Ramesses' death.
Another notable tomb from this dynasty is
KV19 the tomb of
Mentuherkhepshef (son of
Ramesses IX). The tomb is small and is really just a converted, unfinished corridor, but the decoration is superb and the tomb has been newly restored and open for visitors.
Twenty-first Dynasty and the decline of the necropolis
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. Some attempt at using the open tombs was made at the start of the Twenty first Dynasty, with the
High Priest of Amun Pinedjem I adding his cartouche to
KV4. The Valley began to be heavily plundered, so during the
21st Dynasty the priests of
Amun 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 (known as
TT320), located in the cliffs overlooking
Hatshepsut's famous temple, this mass reburial contained an astounding number of royal mummies. They were found in a great state of disorder, many placed in other's coffins, and several are still unidentified. Other mummies were moved to the
tomb of
Amenhotep II, where over a dozen mummies, many of them royal, were later relocated here.
During the later
Third Intermediate Period and later periods, intrusive burials were introduced into many of the open tombs. In
Coptic times, some of the tombs were used as churches, stables and even houses.
Tomb robbers
Almost all of the tombs have been ransacked. Several
papyri have been found that describe the trials of tomb robbers, these date mostly from the late Twentieth Dynasty. One of these (Papyrus Mayer B) describes the robbery of the tomb of Ramesses VI and was probably written in Year 9 of Ramesses IX.
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 in the tomb of
Amenhotep II, contained sixteen, and others were hidden within
Amenhotep I's tomb. A few years later most of them were moved to the
Deir el-Bahri cache, contained no less than forty royal mummies and their coffins. Only those tombs whose locations were lost (
KV62,
KV63 and
KV46) were undisturbed in this period.
Tourism
Most of the tombs are not open to the public (16 of the tombs can be opened, but they're 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. 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 minimize 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 nearby
Deir el-Bahri
by Islamist militants from
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. This led to an overall drop in tourism in the area.
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. These levels are expected to rise to 25,000 by 2015. The West Valley is much less visited, as there's only one tomb that's open to the public.
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