During the height of Egypt’s Eighteenth to Twentieth Dynasties, the Valley of the Kings emerged as a consciously chosen burial landscape, reflecting a shift from monumental pyramid structures to hidden tombs hewn into the Theban hillsides. The complex is most famous for its vividly painted tombs and contains some of the most iconic archaeological discoveries, including the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62). Encompassing two separate but related valleys — the Eastern Valley and the Western Valley — this necropolis played a critical role in the religious and political landscape of the New Kingdom.

circa 1500-1100 BCE

The Valley lies at the base of el-Qurn, a prominent pyramidal peak of limestone and marl that rises approximately 420 meters above the Theban plain. The underlying geology is dominated by sedimentary limestone interbedded with marl and chert, which influenced both the preservation of pigments and the architectural integrity of tomb chambers. Intermittent flash floods over millennia have deposited debris into the valley floor, creating alluvial fans that obscure earlier entrances and necessitate careful stratigraphic excavation.

circa 1500-1100 BCE

The Valley was first adopted for royal burials under Thutmose I during the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty and remained in active use through the reign of Ramesses XI in the early Twentieth Dynasty. The shift from pyramid-building to concealed rock-cut tombs was driven by a combination of security concerns and evolving funerary beliefs that emphasized a secretive, subterranean journey into the afterlife. Following the New Kingdom, the valley experienced episodes of reuse and systematic tomb robbing, most notably during the Third Intermediate Period. It was subsequently revered as a sacred landscape in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods before lying largely undisturbed until systematic archaeological exploration began in the early nineteenth century CE.

circa 1500-1100 BCE

The Valley of the Kings is topographically divided into two valleys — the Eastern Valley, which contains most of the royal tombs and visitor infrastructure, and the more remote Western Valley, which houses only a few tombs in a secluded wadi.

Eastern Valley (Main Valley)
The Eastern Valley lies directly north of el-Qurn and consists of a narrow wadi that opens toward the cultivated floodplain of the Nile. This primary branch is accessible via a modern causeway and car park that serve as the tourist entrance. Steep limestone cliffs encircle the valley floor, creating a well-defined basin for the concentration of most of the royal tombs.

The royal tombs in the east valley are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues as to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period. Almost all of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the pharaohs. Among the most celebrated tombs are those of Seti I (KV17), Ramesses VI (KV9), and Tutankhamun (KV62). These tombs feature descending corridors and pillared halls adorned with funerary texts such as the Amduat, the Book of Gates, and the Litany of Ra, together forming a rich visual canon of the royal afterlife.

Excavations in the Eastern Valley began in earnest under Giovanni Battista Belzoni in the early nineteenth century CE and continued under figures like Victor Loret, Howard Carter, and Theodore Davis. Modern work by the Theban Mapping Project and various international teams continues to map, conserve, and manage these monuments, with ongoing surveys employing ground-penetrating radar to identify unlocated tombs.

circa 1500-1100 BCE

Western Valley (Valley of the Monkeys)
The Western Valley lies approximately one kilometre southwest of the Eastern Valley, separated by a rocky ridge. Its isolation and narrower topography contribute to its more remote atmosphere. This branch contains a short wadi that tapers into a quiet amphitheater of cliffs, earning the colloquial name "Valley of the Monkeys", derived from tomb wall decoration in the tomb of Ay (WV23).

The Western Valley contains only a handful of royal tombs, most notably the tomb of Amenhotep III WV22 and the tomb of Ay WV23. Both are of considerable historical and artistic interest: WV22 preserves substantial painted decoration and biographical inscriptions, while WV23 reflects transitional post-Amarna artistic styles.

Formal excavations of the Western Valley began with early European explorers and were followed by more rigorous campaigns under the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Modern archaeological teams have conducted conservation, epigraphic recording, and geophysical surveys, although its relative inaccessibility has left much of its archaeological potential less explored than the Eastern Valley.