Exploration of the Valley of the Kings 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 re-discovered and explored tomb KV5, which has since been discovered to be probably the largest in the valley (having at least 120 rooms) and was either a cenotaph or real 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 the area around KV55 and KV62, the Amarna
Valley of the Kings ancient times was "The Great and Majestic Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh, Life, Strength, Health in The West of Thebes" (see below for the hieroglyphic spelling), or "Ta-sekhet-ma'at" (the Great Field). G41-G1-Aa1:D21-O1-O29:Y1-A50-s-Z4:Y1-G7-N35-C11-Z2:N35-M4-M4-M4-t:Z2:N35-O29:O1*O1-G7-S34-U28-s-D2:Z1-R14-t:t-N23*Z1:N35-R19-t:O49-G7 At the start of the Eighteenth Dynasty, only kings were buried within the valley in large tombs. When a non-royal person was buried, it was in a small rock cut chamber, close to the tomb of their master. Amenhotep III's tomb was constructed in the Western Valley, and while his son Akhenaten moved his tomb's construction to Amarna, it is thought that the unfinished