The area of the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, has been a significant area of modern Egyptological exploration for the last two centuries. Before this, the place was a site for tourism in antiquity (especially during Roman times). This area illustrates the changes in the study of ancient Egypt. They start as antiquity hunting and end with the scientific excavation of the whole Theban Necropolis. Despite the exploration and investigation noted below, only eleven of the tombs have been entirely recorded.
The Greek writers Strabo (1st century BC) and Diodorus Siculus (1st century AD) reported that the total number of Theban royal tombs was 47, which, at the time, only 17 were believed to be undestroyed. Pausanias and other ancient writers remarked on the pipe-like corridors of the Valley, meaning the tombs.
Others have also visited the Valley these days; many tombs have graffiti written by these ancient tourists. Jules Baillet located over 2100 Greek and Latin graffiti, with a smaller number in Phoenician, Cypriot, Lycian, Coptic, and other languages. Most ancient graffiti is found in KV9, containing just under a thousand. The earliest positively dated graffiti dates to 278 BC.
Eighteenth-century Exploration of the Valley of the Kings
Before the 19th century, travel from Europe to Thebes (and indeed anywhere in Egypt) was difficult, time-consuming and expensive; only the hardiest of European travellers visited—before the travels of Father Claude Sicard in 1726, it was unclear just where Thebes was. It was known to be on the Nile but often confused with Memphis and several other sites. Frederic Louis Norden, a Danish adventurer and artist, was one of the first travellers to record what he saw at Thebes. He was followed by Richard Pococke, who published the first modern map of the Valley in 1743.
French Expedition of the Valley of the Kings
In 1799, Napoleon’s expedition (especially Dominique Vivant) drew maps and plans of the known tombs and, for the first time, noted the Western Valley (where Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage located the tomb of Amenhotep III, WV22). The Description de l’Égypte contains two volumes (out of 24) around Thebes.
Nineteenth-century exploration
European exploration continued around Thebes during the 19th century, boosted by Champollion’s translation of hieroglyphs early in the century. Belzoni, working for Henry Salt, visited the area earlier in the century. He discovered several tombs, including Ay‘s in the West Valley (WV23) in 1816 and Seti I (KV17) the following year. Working at the same time (and a great rival of Belzoni and Salt) was Bernardino Drovetti, the French Consul-General. At the end of his visits, Belzoni declared that all the tombs had been found, and nothing of note remained.
In 1827, John Gardiner Wilkinson was assigned to paint the entry of every tomb, giving them each a designation that is still in use today—they were numbered from KV1 to KV21, with KV standing for King’s Valley (although the maps show 28 entrances, some of which were unexplored). These paintings and maps were later published in The Topography of Thebes and General Survey of Egypt in 1830. At the same time, James Burton explored the Valley. His works included making KV17 safer from flooding, although he is better known for entering KV5.
Champollion, Ippolito Rosellini, and Nestor L’Hôte visited the Valley in the Franco-Tuscan Expedition of 1829. The expedition spent two months studying the open tombs, visiting about 16. They copied the inscriptions and identified the original tomb owners. In tomb KV17, they removed wall decorations, now displayed in the Louvre in Paris.
In 1845–1846, the Valley was explored by Karl Richard Lepsius’s expedition; they studied and documented twenty-five in the Central Valley and four in the West.
The second half of the century saw a more concerted effort to preserve rather than gather antiquities. Auguste Mariette’s Egyptian Antiquities Service started to explore the Valley, first with Eugène Lefébure in 1883, then Jules Baillet and Georges Bénédite in early 1888, and finally Victor Loret from 1898 to 1899. Loret added 16 tombs to the list and explored several previously discovered tombs. During this time, Georges Daressy studied KV9.
When Gaston Maspero was reappointed to head the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the nature of the exploration of the Valley changed again. Maspero appointed Howard Carter as the Chief Inspector of Upper Egypt, and the young man discovered several new tombs and explored several others, clearing KV42 and KV20.
Twentieth-century exploration
Around the turn of the 20th century, the American Theodore M. Davis had an excavation permit in the Valley. His team (led mainly by Edward R. Ayrton) discovered several royal and non-royal tombs (including KV43, KV46 and KV57). In 1907, they discovered the possible Amarna Period cache in KV55. Finding what they thought was all that remained of the burial of Tutankhamun (items recovered from KV54 and KV58), it was announced that the Valley was explored entirely and no further burials were to be found, in Davis’s 1912 publication, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou; the book closes with the comment, “I fear that the Valley of Kings is now exhausted.”
After Davis’s death early in 1915, Lord Carnarvon acquired the concession to excavate the Valley and employed Carter to explore it. After a systematic search, they discovered the actual tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) in November 1922.
At the end of the century, the Theban Mapping Project discovered and explored tomb KV5, which has since been found to be probably the largest in the Valley (having at least 120 rooms) and was either a cenotaph or actual burial for the sons of Ramesses II. Elsewhere in the eastern and western branches of the Valley, several other expeditions cleared and studied other tombs. Until 2002, the Amarna Royal Tombs Project explored around KV55 and KV62, the Amarna Period tombs in the Central Valley.
Twenty-first-century Discoveries
Various expeditions have continued to explore the Valley, significantly adding to the area’s knowledge. In 2001, the Theban Mapping Project designed new signs for the tombs, providing information and plans for the open tombs.
On February 8, 2006, the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that an American team led by the University of Memphis had uncovered a pharaonic-era tomb (KV63), the first discovered there since King Tutankhamun‘s in 1922. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five intact sarcophagi with coloured funerary masks and 28 large storage jars with pharaonic seals. It is located close to Tutankhamun’s tomb. KV63, as it is known, appears to be a single chamber with seven sarcophagi and about 20 large funerary jars. The room is from the 18th dynasty and seems to have been a deposit of funerary preparation materials rather than a tomb. No mummies have been discovered in the sarcophagi, which is now thought of as a mummification chamber rather than a tomb.
On July 31, 2006, Nicholas Reeves announced that analysis of ground penetrating radar for the autumn of 2000 showed a sub-surface anomaly in KV62 and KV63. He has tentatively labelled this anomaly “KV64”. This has caused some controversy, as only Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities can officially designate the name of a new tomb; the anomaly may not be a tomb, and because Reeves had reported the finding to the press first, instead of a scientific paper.
In May 2008, Zahi Hawass announced that an Egyptian team had been looking for the tomb of Ramesses VIII, concentrating on the tombs of Merenptah and Ramesses II. In August 2008, it was announced that two different tomb entrances had been located, and these would be investigated in October 2008. At the same time, clearance of the descending tunnel in KV17 has started.
