Map
A map of the Valley of the Kings with locations of tombs marked
The following is a list of burials in the Valley of the Kings , in Thebes (modern Luxor, Egypt) and nearby areas.
The numbering system was established by John Gardner Wilkinson in 1821. Wilkinson numbered the 21 tombs known to him (some of which had been open since antiquity) according to their location, starting at the entrance to the valley and then moving south and east. Tombs that have been discovered since then have been allocated a sequential KV number (those in the Western Valley are known by the WV equivalent) in the order of their discovery. [1]
Since the mid 20th century, Egyptologists have used the acronym "KV" (standing for Kings' Valley) to designate tombs located in the Valley of the Kings. Additionally, the acronym "WV" is also used to designate tombs located in the West Valley (of the Kings).
A map of the Valley of the Kings with locations of tombs marked
Most of the open tombs in the Valley of the Kings are located in the East Valley, and this is where most tourists can be found.
| Number | Time Period [lower-alpha 2] | Discovered | Intended for | Short summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KV1 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses VII [3] | |
| KV2 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses IV [4] | |
| KV3 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Unidentified [lower-alpha 3] | |
| KV4 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses XI [6] | |
| KV5 | 19th Dynasty | 1825 | Ramesses II (sons) [7] | With 120 known rooms and excavation work still underway, it is probably the largest tomb in the valley. |
| KV6 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses IX | |
| KV7 | 19th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses II [8] | |
| KV8 | 19th Dynasty | Antiquity | Merenptah | |
| KV9 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses V [lower-alpha 4] | Also known as the Tomb of Memnon or La Tombe de la Métempsychose. |
| KV10 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Amenmesse | While intended for him, there is no direct evidence that Amenmesse was ever buried at this tomb. |
| KV11 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses III | Also referred to as Bruce's Tomb, The Harper's Tomb. |
| KV12 | 18th Dynasty | Antiquity | Various | This was possibly used as a family tomb. |
| KV13 | 19th Dynasty | Antiquity | Bay [lower-alpha 5] | |
| KV14 | 19th Dynasty | Antiquity | Twosret [lower-alpha 6] | |
| KV15 | 19th Dynasty | Antiquity | Seti II | |
| KV16 | 19th Dynasty | 1817 | Ramesses I | |
| KV17 | 19th Dynasty | 1817 | Seti I [10] | Also known as Belzoni's tomb, the tomb of Apis, or the tomb of Psammis, son of Necho. |
| KV18 | 20th Dynasty | Antiquity | Ramesses X | While this tomb was intended for the burial of Pharaoh Ramesses X, it was apparently abandoned while still incomplete. |
| KV19 | 20th Dynasty | 1817 | Ramesses VIII [lower-alpha 7] | |
| KV20 | 18th Dynasty | 1799 | Thutmose I [lower-alpha 8] | This tomb has been closed since 1994 due to flooding. |
| KV21 | 18th Dynasty | 1817 | Queen ... [lower-alpha 9] | The original owner of this tomb is unknown, tombs KV22 to KV25 are part of the west valley mentioned below. |
| KV26 | 18th Dynasty | c.1835 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV27 | 18th Dynasty | c.1832 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV28 | 18th Dynasty | c.1832 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV29 | Unknown | c.1832 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV30 | 18th Dynasty | 1817 | Unknown | Known as Lord Belmore's tomb. |
| KV31 | 18th Dynasty | 1817 | Unknown | Excavations which mapped KV31 in 2010 & 2011 found the remains of five mummified elite individuals dating to the Eighteenth Dynasty. |
| KV32 | 18th Dynasty | 1898 | Tia'a | |
| KV33 | 18th Dynasty | 1898 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV34 | 18th Dynasty | 1898 | Thutmose III | |
| KV35 | 18th Dynasty | 1898 | Amenhotep II | During the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt over a dozen mummies were relocated here. Many of these included royalty as indicated by inscriptions on their burial wrappings. This tomb has been closed since 1994 due to flooding. |
| KV36 | 18th Dynasty | 1899 | Maiherpri | A noble from the time of Hatshepsut. |
| KV37 | 18th Dynasty | 1899 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV38 | 18th Dynasty | 1899 | Thutmose I | KV38 was used for the reburial of Pharaoh Thutmose I of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Thutmose I was originally entombed in KV20 before being moved here by Thutmose III. |
| KV39 | 18th Dynasty | 1899 | Amenhotep I [lower-alpha 10] | |
| KV40 | 18th Dynasty | 1899 | Various | Burials date to the time of Amenhotep III. Later intrusive burials from the 22nd Dynasty are also present. [12] |
| KV41 | 18th Dynasty | 1899 | Not used | This has been described as a shaft rather than a tomb possibly belonging to Queen Tetisheri. |
| KV42 | 18th Dynasty | 1900 | Merytre-Hatshepsut | This tomb was originally constructed for Hatshepsut-Meryetre, the wife of Thutmose III. She was never buried here though, and the tomb was later reused by Sennefer (mayor of Thebes during the reign of Amenhotep II). |
| KV43 | 18th Dynasty | 1903 | Thutmose IV | |
| KV44 | 18th Dynasty | 1901 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV45 | 18th Dynasty | 1902 | Userhet | Tomb of a noble |
| KV46 | 18th Dynasty | 1905 | Yuya & Tjuyu | The parents of Queen Tiy. Until the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, this was the best preserved tomb to be found in the Valley. |
| KV47 | 19th Dynasty | 1905 | Siptah | |
| KV48 | 18th Dynasty | 1906 | Amenemipet called Pairy | |
| KV49 | 18th Dynasty | 1906 | Storage [lower-alpha 10] | Tomb was possibly a store room. |
| KV50 | 18th Dynasty | 1906 | Animals (pets) | Tombs contain animal burials, which were possibly the pets of Amenhotep II, whose tomb is nearby. |
| KV51 | 18th Dynasty | 1906 | Animals (pets) | Tombs contain animal burials, which were possibly the pets of Amenhotep II, whose tomb is nearby. |
| KV52 | 18th Dynasty | 1906 | Animals (pets) | Tombs contain animal burials, which were possibly the pets of Amenhotep II, whose tomb is nearby. |
| KV53 | 18th Dynasty | 1906 | Unknown | The original owner of this tomb is unknown. |
| KV54 | 18th Dynasty | 1907 | Embalming cache | This was probably an embalming cache for the tomb of Tutankhamun. |
| KV55 | 18th Dynasty | 1907 | Smenkhkare & Akhenaten | This tomb might be another mummy cache, and once possibly contained the burials of several Amarna Period royals – Tiy and Smenkhkare/Akhenaten. |
| KV56 | 19th Dynasty | 1908 | Unknown | Known as the Gold Tomb, the original owner of this tomb is unknown. Items with names of Ramesses II, Seti II and Twosret were found. |
| KV57 | 18th Dynasty | 1908 | Horemheb [13] | This tomb has been closed since 1994 due to flooding. |
| KV58 | 18th Dynasty | 1909 | Unknown | Known as Chariot Tomb, the original owner of this tomb remains unknown. Gold foil contains names of Tutankhamun and Ay |
| KV59 | Unknown | c.1885 | Not used | This tomb appears to have been unused |
| KV60 | 18th Dynasty | 1903 | Sitre In | KV60 contains the mummy of Sitre In, who was a royal nurse of Hatshepsut. Another mummy was found that could be Hatshepsut herself, this is yet to be proven by DNA. |
| KV61 | Unknown | 1910 | Not used | This tomb appears to have been unused. |
| KV62 | 18th Dynasty | 1922 | Tutankhamun [13] | Perhaps the most famous discovery of modern Western archaeology was made here by Howard Carter on November 4, 1922, with clearance and conservation work continuing until 1932. It was the first royal tomb to be discovered still largely intact (although tomb robbers had entered it), and was for many years the last major discovery in the valley. |
| KV63 | 18th Dynasty | 2005 | Storage | Initially believed to be a royal tomb, it is now believed to have been a storage chamber for the mummification process. [14] |
| KV64 | 18th Dynasty | 2011 | Nehmes-Bastet | The tomb of a priestess, discovered in January 2011. [15] The tomb was excavated in 2012 and was shown to have been used in the 18th as well as in the 22nd dynasty. The Lady Nehmesbastet lived during the 22nd dynasty. [16] |
The numbering the West Valley follows in sequence to that of the East Valley, and there are only five known burials/pits in the valley.
| Number | Time Period [lower-alpha 2] | Discovered | Intended for | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WV22 | 18th Dynasty | 1799 | Amenhotep III | The badly damaged mummy of Amenhotep III was later moved from the tomb, and restored in Year 13 of Smendes, and was ultimately discovered cached in KV35. This tomb was re-excavated in the 1990s, but is not open to the public. |
| WV23 | 18th Dynasty | 1816 | Ay [13] | The contents of KV58 likely originated from WV23, as Ay's name occurs more frequently than that of Tutankhamun. "WV23" is the only tomb open to the public in the West Valley. |
| WV24 | 18th Dynasty | c.1832 | Unknown | "WV24" is an unfinished tomb that may have been intended for a high ranking noble. It could have also been built as a storage chamber for overflow from the royal burial as seen with WV23 and WVA. |
| WV25 | 18th Dynasty | 1817 | Unknown | This tomb may have been started as the Theban burial of Akhenaten, but it was never finished. |
| KV65 | 18th Dynasty | 2018 | Unknown | An unfinished tomb entrance, discovered in 2018 [17] |
| WVA | 18th Dynasty | 1845 | Storage | This was a storage chamber for Amenhotep III's tomb which is located nearby. |
Tomb KV17, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, is the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty. It is also known by the names "Belzoni's tomb", "the Tomb of Apis", and "the Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois". It is one of the most decorated tombs in the valley, and is one of the largest and deepest tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It was uncovered by Italian archaeologist and explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni on 16 October 1817.
Tomb KV9 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings was originally constructed by Pharaoh Ramesses V. He was interred here, but his uncle, Ramesses VI, later reused the tomb as his own. The architectural layout is typical of the 20th Dynasty – the Ramesside period – and is much simpler than that of Ramesses III's tomb (KV11). The workmen accidentally broke into KV12 as they dug one of the corridors. In 2020, the Egyptian Tourism Authority released a full 3D model of the tomb with detailed photography, available online.
KV20 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). It was probably the first royal tomb to be constructed in the valley. KV20 was the original burial place of Thutmose I and later was adapted by his daughter Hatshepsut to accommodate her and her father. The tomb was known to Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition in 1799 and had been visited by several explorers between 1799 and 1903. A full clearance of the tomb was undertaken by Howard Carter in 1903–1904. KV20 is distinguishable from other tombs in the valley, both in its general layout and because of the atypical clockwise curvature of its corridors.
Tomb KV2, found in the Valley of the Kings, is the tomb of Ramesses IV, and is located low in the main valley, between KV7 and KV1. It has been open since antiquity and contains a large amount of graffiti.
Tomb KV7 was the tomb of Ramesses II, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh during the Nineteenth Dynasty.
Tomb KV11 is the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses III. It is located in the main valley of the Valley of the Kings. The tomb was originally started by Setnakhte, but abandoned when it unintentionally broke into the earlier tomb of Amenmesse (KV10). Setnakhte was buried in KV14. The tomb KV11 was later restarted and extended and on a different axis for Ramesses III.
James Burton was an early British Egyptologist, known for his pioneering exploration and mapping of the Valley of the Kings, during which he became the first individual of the modern age to enter KV5; his pioneering excavations at Karnak, during which he discovered the Karnak king list; and his excavations at Medinet Habu, during which he was part of the team that discovered TT391.
The area of the Valley of the Kings, in Luxor, Egypt, has been a major area of modern Egyptological exploration for the last two centuries. Before this, the area was a site for tourism in antiquity. This area illustrates the changes in the study of ancient Egypt, beginning as antiquity hunting and ending with the scientific excavation of the whole Theban Necropolis. Despite the exploration and investigation noted below, only eleven of the tombs have actually been completely recorded.
Tomb KV1, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was used for the burial of Pharaoh Ramesses VII of the Twentieth Dynasty. Although it has been open since antiquity, it was only properly investigated and cleared by Edwin Brock in 1984 and 1985. The single corridor tomb is located in Luxor's West Bank, and is small in comparison to other tombs of the Twentieth Dynasty.
Tomb KV3, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, was intended for the burial of an unidentified son of Pharaoh Ramesses III during the early part of the Twentieth Dynasty. It is similar in design to the "straight axis" tombs typical of this dynasty, and an ostracon written in hieratic script from the time of Ramesses III mentions the founding of a tomb for a royal prince, likely this tomb. The unfinished state of a couple of rooms in the tomb along with scant archeological evidence suggests that the tomb was never used. Some have suggested that it was originally intended for use by the prince regent who would succeed as Ramesses IV, and who started building his own tomb (KV2) soon after he came to the throne.
KV4 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). The tomb was initiated for the burial of Ramesses XI but it is likely that its construction was abandoned and it was not used for Ramesses's interment. It also seems likely that Pinedjem I intended to usurp this tomb for his own burial, but that he too abandoned the plan. KV4 is notable for being the last royal tomb that was quarried in the Valley and because it has been interpreted as being a workshop used during the official dismantling of the royal necropolis in the early Third Intermediate Period.
Tomb KV13, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was cut and decorated for the burial of the noble Bay of the Nineteenth Dynasty. An ostraca published in the French Egyptological journal BIFAO in 2000 records that Chancellor Bay was executed by pharaoh Siptah. Consequently, Bay was never buried in his tomb. Moreover, no funerary goods were found in the tomb belonging to Bay. It was later reused by two princes of the Twentieth Dynasty, Mentuherkhepsef, a son of Ramesses III, and his nephew, Amenherkhepshef, a son of Ramesses VI.
Tomb KV33 is an ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It is located close to the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34. The tomb dates to the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty and was used for the burial of an unknown individual. The layout is simple, consisting of descending steps and a main chamber with two adjoining rooms. KV33 was discovered by Victor Loret in 1898. The small tomb was open to visitors in the early 1900s when it was described in a tourist guidebook. In modern times, a bench was built over the entrance. In 2012 the tomb was excavated for the first time by the University of Basel's Kings' Valley Project.
Tomb KV40 is located in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt. Artifacts from the tomb attribute it to 18th Dynasty royal family members, though human remains from the later 22nd Dynasty were interred. Although the tomb was excavated by Victor Loret in 1899, no report was published.
The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
KV64 is the tomb of an unknown Eighteenth Dynasty individual in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt that was re-used in the Twenty-second Dynasty for the burial of the priestess Nehmes Bastet, who held the office of "chantress" at the temple of Karnak. The tomb is located on the pathway to KV34 in the main Valley of the Kings. KV64 was discovered in 2011 and excavated in 2012 by Susanne Bickel and Elina Paulin-Grothe of the University of Basel.
The majority of the 65 numbered tombs in the Valley of the Kings can be considered minor tombs, either because at present they have yielded little information or because the results of their investigation was only poorly recorded by their explorers, while some have received very little attention or were only cursorily noted. Most of these tombs are small, often only consisting of a single burial chamber accessed by means of a shaft or a staircase with a corridor or a series of corridors leading to the chamber, but some are larger, multiple chambered tombs. These minor tombs served various purposes, some were intended for burials of lesser royalty or for private burials, some contained animal burials and others apparently never received a primary burial. In many cases these tombs also served secondary functions and later intrusive material has been found related to these secondary activities. While some of these tombs have been open since antiquity, the majority were discovered in the 19th and early 20th centuries during the height of exploration in the valley.
The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, also known as the Ramessid dynasty, is classified as the second Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1292 BC to 1189 BC. The 19th Dynasty and the 20th Dynasty furthermore together constitute an era known as the Ramesside period. This Dynasty was founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne.
Susanne Bickel is a Swiss Egyptologist. She studied Egyptology in Geneva and then worked at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo and the Swiss Institute of Egyptian Antiquity. She has worked as an archaeologist on multiple sites in Middle and Upper Egypt. Since 2000 she has been a lecturer at the University of Freiburg and since 2006, professor of Egyptology at the University of Basel where she is an expert on Ancient Egyptian deities and demons. Susanne Bickel's research focuses on religion and Egyptian archaeology, particularly the documentation of Egyptian temples. Bickel is director of the University of Basel Kings' Valley Project and was a member of the team that excavated the KV64 tomb, containing the burial of Nehmes Bastet, in 2011.
Nehmes Bastet or Nehemes-Bastet was an Ancient Egyptian priestess who held the office of "chantress"; she was the daughter of the high priest of Amun. She lived during the Twenty-second Dynasty and was buried in tomb KV64 in the Valley of the Kings. It was excavated in 2012 and discovered to be a reuse of a tomb for the burial of a woman of an earlier dynasty, whose name, as yet, is unknown.
