Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings was the royal cemetery for 62 Pharaohs. It is located on the west bank of Luxor. The only entry to this place was a long narrow winding entrance. This was a secret place, where sentries were placed at the entrance of the Valley 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. There are 62 tombs in the Valley, where they range from a simple pit (as for KV 54), to a tomb with over 121 chambers and corridors (as for KV 5)

The present numbering system for the sixty-two tombs in the Valley of the Kings was first established by John Gardiner Wilkinson 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.

Several explorers assigned numbers, letters or descriptive labels to the tombs, as the accompanying chart indicates, but Wilkinson's is the only system still in use. There are two main wings to the Valley of the Kings -west and east, your will find that eastern side has most of the tombs, the western part you will find tombs of Amenhotep III and Ay.

The earliest known tomb of the New Kingdom within the Valley of the Kings is that of Thutmoses I who started to use the place as a royal burial site. It is located in a dissolute valley that is supposed to add greater protection as it was small enough to be closely guarded, and the good quality of stones gave the ancient Egyptians the chance to cut many tombs close to each other. Most 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 artifacts. Some tombs have been accessible since antiquity, as Greek and Latin graffiti attest. Some were used as dwellings or as a church during the Greco-Roman and Byzantine Periods. Others have been discovered only in the past two hundred years.

Some, like KV 5, had been "lost," and their location rediscovered only recentlyly by the the very well know Egyptologist Kent Weeks, who is still working in the valley in other projects , Mr weeks spent more than 6 years exploring and trying to uncover the secrets of this massive tomb. So far KV5 is considered to be the largest tomb ever found in the valley. in your way to the inner side of the valley if you look to your left you see a sketch plane of KV 5, the latest tomb re-discovered in the valley (re- excavated at 1995, was proved to be the largest tomb in the valley , it contains 105 rooms and is believed to be built for the children of Ramsis II.