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The Valley of the Kings
Hidden behind the Theban Hills, on the West Bank of the Nile, lies the Valley of the Kings (Wadi el-Muluk in Arabic), a limestone valley where tombs were built for the Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom during the 18-21st Dynasties. It was chosen as the burial place for most of Egypt's New Kingdom rulers for several reasons. As the crow flies, the Valley is very close to the cultivated banks of the river. It is small, surrounded by steep cliffs, and easily guarded. The local limestone, cut millions of years ago by torrential rains to form the Valley, is of good quality. And towering above the Valley is a mountain, al-Qurn (the horn in Arabic), whose shape may have reminded the ancient Egyptians of a pyramid, and is dedicated to the goddess Meretseger. The valley is separated into the East and West Valleys, with most of the important tombs in the East Valley, but as yet to date, not all the tombs in the Valley have been fully excavated.
Important tombs The tombs are numbered in the order of 'discovery' from Ramesses VII (KV1) to the recently discovered KV63, although some of the tombs have been open since antiquity, and KV5 has only recently been rediscovered. A number of the tombs are unoccupied, the owners of others remain unknown, and some are merely pits used for storage.
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, whilst kings ruling from Tanis controlled Lower Egypt. The Valley began to be heavily plundered, so in response to this 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-Bahri (see below). During the later Third Intermediate Period and later periods, intrusive burials were introduced into many of the open tombs. Tomb robbers Almost all of the tombs have been
ransacked, including Tutankhamun's, though in his case, it seems that the
robbers were interrupted, so very little was removed. There are several
archaeological projects currently at work in the Valley of the Kings.
Christian Leblanc is excavating the tomb of Rameses II (KV 7) for the CNRS,
while across the road, the Theban Mapping Project (TMP) is excavating,
recording and conserving KV 5 (the sons of Rameses II). The tomb of
Amenmeses (KV 10) is being cleared by the Memphis University mission led
by Otto Schaden. Elina Paulin-Grothe is directing a project of the
Ägyptologische Seminar der Universität Basel, clearing and documenting in
the tombs of Rameses X (KV 18), Siptah (KV 47), and Tiaa (KV32). Rather intriguingly, and contrary to original expert opinion that the valley had yielded all of its tombs, the valley continues to "throw up" surprises! This latest happens to be the suspected finding of yet another tomb; this in the vicinity of KV62 (Tutankhamun), preliminary called KV64 ... Information courtesy of the Theban Mapping Project and Wikpaedia
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