The Egypt Valley of the Kings is located on the western bank of the Nile in Luxor, behind “Deir el Behari”. It is one of the most famous mortuary sites in Egypt. The valley houses the tombs of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom.
In the New Kingdom, the tombs were separated from the royal certain sites, unlike the earlier times of Ancient Egypt. At this time, pyramid-like tombs were also not built, but rock tombs, cut into the walls of the mountains.
These rock tombs were magnificently decorated and colorful. In the Valley of the Kings, 64 tombs were found, all opened and robbed, except one, the tomb of Tutankh Amun.
All the walls of the burial chambers, the corridors, and the chimneys are inscribed with texts and pictures, individual scenes, of the literature of the dead. Strangely enough, the individual texts and scenes do not reveal how the ancient Egyptians imagined the underworld.
Secret, important information between the priests was cited instead. Those texts were intended only for kings, only in 1 BC did they become accessible to non-royals.
The tombs between the 18th dynasty to the late 20th dynasty were built larger than the tombs was the earlier dynasties.
It is not much more than a sun-drenched canyon of red rock, but beneath the ground hide the tombs of nearly 70 pharaohs. Excavations are underway in some of them, but many are open to visitors on a rotating schedule to allow for restoration.
Even in the hottest months, it is worthwhile to see the ornate decorations on the walls of these tombs and imagine the painstaking process of making them.
Remember that Tutankhamun was a relatively minor pharaoh, made famous by the fact that his tomb is the only valley discovered with its contents still inside, not by the size of his tomb compared to the others. These contents are now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Building tombs was part of the ancient Egyptians’ belief in the afterlife and their preparations for the next world. Ancient Egyptians firmly believed in the afterlife, where they were promised to continue their lives, and the pharaohs were promised to ally with the gods.
The process of mummification was fundamentally important to preserve the body of the deceased so that his eternal soul could wake him up in the afterlife. Ancient tombs also held all the possessions of the deceased, as it was believed they might need them in the afterlife.
Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo and a National Geographic fellow, said ancient Egyptian pharaohs would have included so many things in their tombs, including furniture, clothing, and jewelry. What remains a mystery, however, is that they didn’t have books with them.
Important facts about the Valley of the Kings
Once called the Great Necropolis of Millions of Years of the Pharaohs, or Place of Truth, the Valley of the Kings contains 63 magnificent royal tombs from the New Empire period (1550-1069 BC), all very different from each other. The western bank had been a royal cemetery from the First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BC).
At least three rulers of the 11th Dynasty built their tombs near the present-day village of Taref, northeast of the Valley of the Kings. However, the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty chose the remote valley dominated by the pyramidal summit of al-Quran (The Horn).
The solitary site where the Valley of the Kings is located is surrounded by cliffs that were easy to survey and, when viewed from the Theban plain, appears to be the place where the sun sets, something the ancient Egyptians associated with the afterlife.
The Valley of the Kings Tombs
The tombs have suffered extensive damage from treasure hunters, floods, and, in recent years, mass tourism: the carbon dioxide, friction, and humidity produced by the 2.8 g of sweat left by each visitor on average have affected the reliefs and pigments of the wall paintings.
Each tomb in the valley has a number representing the order in which it was discovered. Among the tombs found are Ramses II, Ramses VII, the famous tomb of Tutankhamun, Thutmose I, Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Seti I, among other tombs.
Tutankhamun’s tomb is perhaps the least impressive of all the royal tombs but famous for its treasure, most of which is in the Cairo Museum.
The greatest find since Tutankhamun occurred in May 1995, when American archaeologist Kent Weeks announced to the world the discovery of the largest tomb ever found in Egypt, where the many sons of Ramses II were supposedly buried.
Gate 2 Egypt accompanies you, through a professional guide in English, to know the West Bank of Luxor. There you will be able to know all the wonders that this place keeps. Do not miss it!
