Egypt+-+Valley+of+The+Kings

The Valley of the Kings

**The Valley of the Kings was used for royal burials from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC, and contains at least 63 tombs, beginning with Thutmose I (or possibly earlier, during the reign of Amenhotep I), and ending with Ramesses X or XI.** **Tutankhamen, whose tomb and treasures were famously discovered in 1922.** **Despite the name, the Valley of the Kings also contains the tombs of favorite nobles as well as the wives and children of both nobles and pharaohs. Around the time of Ramses I (ca. 1301 BC) tomb construction began in the separate Valley of the Queens, although some wives continued to be buried with their husbands in the Valley of the Kings.** **The tombs were constructed and decorated by the workers of the village of Deir el-Medina, located in a small wadi between this valley and the Valley of the Queens, facing Thebes.** **A number of archaeological excavations continue periodically within the Valley of the Kings to the present day. The Theban Mapping Project has been officially granted the permit to map the entire Theban Necropolis, a project now well advanced.**

Alessandro Proietti - Elisabetta Rosignoli