Valley of the Kings

valley of the Kings is an area of located on Western bank of with the height of (today the modern city of Louxor). The valley is made of a fault in libyque chain who leads to the valley of the Nile.

It is known to shelter the tombs () the many ones of . Oldest fall known on the site is that of Thoutmosis Ier and, from Thoutmosis III, except for, all Pharaons of XVIII^E, XIX^E and XX^E dynasties y will be buried (roughly of 1539 to 1075 before the Christian era). The last one falls known being that from Ramsès XI. The valley of the Kings also shelters the tombs of certain wives and children of Pharaons, as those the noble ones for which the Pharaons wanted to reward the value. It is as from the period of the reign of that valley of the Queens is used, even if some wives are still buried with their husbands thereafter.

Its Arab name of Bibam el-Moulouk mean "the doors of the Kings" in reference to the doors which closed formerly the tombs.

Topology

The quality of the rock in the valley is very variable. Tombs were dug through various layers of stone with each one its own quality. This poses problems for the modern conservatives, like that had to pose some to the original architects. The plans of buildings were probably changed consequently. The most serious problem comes from the layers from schist whose crystals tend to increase volume in contact with water. This damaged many tombs, in particular during the floods.

Plunderers of tomb

All the tombs listed in the valley were plundered as of. As opposed to what one often believes, even it does not have escaped with the plunderers. It is thought indeed that the door of the tomb was forced by twice, but that the plunderers, having been stopped, have pû to carry only one small part of the treasure. The other tombs were not likely to fall into the lapse of memory and the modern archaeologists found often only small objects or estimated vestiges sans.valor by the ancient robbers.

The ostentation of the funerary treasure of the Pharaon , of which all the historians agrees to grant a short and unobtrusive reign to him, shows the possibility for the colossal treasures which were to have of the kings like, for example, . The valley, surrounded by high cliffs which form a natural barrier, was strongly kept by troops of elite (them medjai) since the beginning of the exploitation of the site. It is around 1090 before the Christian era (the year of hyena), under the reign of Ramsès XI, that the collapse of the economy of Egypt and the royal capacity will involve the appearance of the first plunderers of tombs. The tearing of the country which will lead to Intermediate IIIe period will be the occasion of an organized plundering of the richnesses of the valley. Certain documents tend to prove that this plundering would have started under the reign Ramsès XI, perhaps because of not very scrupulous civils servant.

The tombs were opened, all the valuable articles were removed from it and them mummies were gathered in two large hiding places; the very known hiding-place of Deir El-Bahari who did not contain less than forty royal mummies and their coffins, and the other, in the tomb ofAménophis II, which contained sixteen others of them.

Tombs

The 62 tombs of the valley are indexed under the names of KV1 with KV62 (Kv of English Kings' valley). Among these tombs, only 25 were identified as being royal burials, the others do not have either not pû still to be identified, or belong to dignitaries. Among the royal burials, two belong to queens having controlled, Hatshepsout and Taousert.

The largest tomb KV5, of the valley, was built to bury them children of Ramsès II. Recent discoveries make it possible to estimate at 150 the total number of rooms of the burial.

The summit which overhangs the valley of the Kings is the legendary place of residence of the goddess , the protective one of the village of craftsmen of . It is them which will build the tombs of the valley of the Kings. In Arabic, this mount is named Al-Qurn (the horn).

See: tombs of valley of the Kings

Tourism

The tombs were tourist curiosities as of the period of and of .

Nowadays, the majority of the tombs are not accessible to the public for reasons from conservation; it is estimated indeed that a great number of tourists can make double the water content of a tomb. The authorities proceed by bearing by opening the least exposed tombs and that which received installations necessary to their good conservation. low-reliefs certain tombs preserve colors relatively sharp in spite of the devastations of time, the bad weather and the action of the Man.

Surroundings

• valley of the Queens
• valley of the Noble ones
• Deir El-Bahari
• Sheik Abd el-Gourna
• Médinet-Habou

Related articles

External resources

• Theban Mapping Project, detailed charts of all the tombs of the valley and virtual visit in 3d with comments (in English)