Gallery 2 - Valley of the Kings
Part of the ancient city of Thebes, located in the hills behind Dayr al-Bahri. The burial site of the pharaohs of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties (1539–1075 BC), from Thutmose I to Ramses X. , the 62 known tombs exhibit variety both in plan and in decoration.
The plan of the tombs varies but consists mainly of a descending corridor - deep shafts to deter robbers and by pillared chambers or vestibules. At the farther end of the corridor is a burial chamber with a stone sarcophagus in which the royal mummy was laid and store chambers around which furniture and equipment were stacked for use in the next world.
The walls were covered with sculptured and painted scenes , and with illustrated texts, designed to help them on their journey into the next life. Astronomical figures often decorated the ceilings of the burial chambers.
The longest tomb belongs to Queen Hatshepsut (reigned c. 1472–58), whose burial chamber is nearly 700 feet from the entrance and descends 320 feet into the rock.
The largest and most complex tomb in the Valley of the Kings was built to contain the burial chambers of most of the 52 sons of Ramses II (reigned 1279–13), third king of the 19th dynasty of Egypt, whose reign (1279–13 BC) was the second longest in Egyptian history.. This tomb, which had been previously discovered but dismissed as insignificant, was again located in the late 1980s and partially excavated in the 1990s. The uppermost of the tomb's two levels contains a central pillared hall and various corridors leading to dozens of chambers.
For centuries the Valley of the Kings had been pillaged by bandits, and archaeologists did not begin excavating there until the nineteenth century.
The tomb of Tutankhamun is the most famous tomb in the Valley of the Kings, discovered in 1922, by Howard Carter.
The mortuary temple of 18th-dynasty Queen Hatshepsut, who succeeded in ruling ancient Egypt for 22 years , is built into a natural amphitheatre in the cliffs
Read about The Valley of the Kings
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 > |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
©2004