The Valley of the Kings

Visiting Luxor today, it’s tempting to see the East Bank, with Karnak and Luxor temples as the main historic area, with mostly burial grounds on the West Bank.  During the New Kingdom when Waset, as the Egyptians knew Luxor, was at its heyday things were quite different. 

On the West Bank, between the green fertile strip of arable land watered by the annual inundation, and the Theban Hills, there was a strip of arid land which was home to many mortuary temples and the royal palaces of Malqata.  Today other than Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri and the Colossi of Memnon, most tourists would be unable to name these lost complexes.   Many were built of mud brick and soon vanished; others were quarried for stone. 

Initially the royal tombs were in the front slopes of the Theban Hills facing the Nile such as Deir el-Bahri, right behind these temples and obvious to all residents of Waset but after a while pharaohs chose to hide their tombs out of sight one valley back from the Nile, in the Valley of the Kings behind Hatshepsut’s temple.  Quite which pharaoh was responsible for this innovation is uncertain.  It is usually thought to be the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep I but his tomb has never been found so it could have been Tuthmosis I who was buried in the tomb designed by the his architect Ineni  and which we now know as KV20.  The last dedicated tomb was for Ramses XI, the final pharaoh of the 20th Dynasty, although there were some later intrusive burials.  

One of the first maps of the Valley of the Kings was compiled by James Gardner Wilkinson in the 1820s.  During this time he visited all known tombs and painted a number at the entrance – the origin of the numbering system we have today. 

Some of the tombs have stood open for centuries.  Several of the tombs from the 19th and 20th Dynasties have Greek and Roman graffiti throughout and were clearly open and known from antiquity.   Wilkinson numbered 21 tombs in the main Eastern Valley, 4 in the Western Valley and recorded one more tomb (now labelled KV29) without numbering it.  When Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, it became the 62nd numbered tomb.  Many people then assumed that the Valley of the Kings  had yielded all of its secrets but in 2005 Otto Schaden discovered an embalmers’ cache which has been numbered KV63.

Three tombs stand out in terms of finds: the almost intact tomb of Tutankhamun discovered by Howard Carter in 1922 and the previously discovered tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu (KV46) which had been robbed on a number of occasions but still revealed some amazing finds such as wooden chariots.  Thirdly, in 1898 Victor Loret discovered a cache of 13 royal mummies in tomb KV35 including Merenptah and Amenhotep II and III.  Most tombs have revealed significantly lesser finds.

Other tombs are notable for other reasons.  KV17 (the Tomb of Seti I) has a reputation as the most beautifully decorated tomb in the Valley of the Kings.  KV17 is also the longest by virtue of a strange tunnel beyond the burial chamber which is still being dug by archaeologists.  The biggest tomb is a surprisingly recent discovery. 

KV5 was first mapped in 1825 and believed to contain nine chambers.  Howard Carter visited the tomb in 1902 which was then lost before being rediscovered in 1987 by Kent Weeks.  Ongoing clearance of the tomb has so far revealed at least 150 chambers and the tomb is now known to be the burial place of at least six of the sons of Ramses II, and possibly as many as twenty. 

KV5 (Sons of Ramses II) and KV46 (Yuya and Tjuyu) illustrate forcibly that while all kings between Tuthmosis I and Ramses XI were buried in the Valley of the Kings (with the possible exception of Akhenaten), the tombs were not exclusively reserved for kings. 

Other royalty such as princes and favoured wives, and even some nobles, were accorded the honour of a tomb in the Valley.  Many other prince and queens were, however, relegated to the Valley of the Queens which is the next valley roughly south of the Valley of the Kings.  In fact, the Valley of the Kings is itself actually two separate valleys.  Most of the 63 principal tombs are in the Eastern Valley but four for unknown reasons are situated in a separate Western Valley almost ½km further from the Nile.

There are tombs remaining to be found.  The tombs and mummies of Pharaoh Ramses VIII and one of Ramses II queens (Isisnofret) have never been found so their tombs may be substantially intact.  In terms of disturbed royal tombs, the resting place of Amenhotep I has not been firmly identified, although his mummy has been found in the Deir el-Bahri mummy cache. The mummy in KV55 may be Tutankhamun’s predecessor Smenkhare but if it isn’t then his tomb may await discovery.  It is also though that Nefertiti and other Amarnan queens and princesses were reburied in the Valley of the Kings by Tutankhamun.  Excavations have been ongoing over the winter of 2008/9 (this article was written in April 2009) and there is much speculation that a new tomb (KV64) has been found. 

Perhaps the biggest mystery is what happened when many of the tombs were cleared in the 21st dynasty, probably under the direction of Herihor.  The mummies were consolidated in a two main caches, but without their burial treasures.  Did Herihor acquire many of these treasures for his own tomb and does that also remain to be found in the Valley of the Kings?   The story of the Valley of the Kings will probably continue to surprise and thrill us for many years to come. 

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