Exploration of the Valley of the Kings Exploration of the Valley of the Kings 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 (especially during Roman times). This area illustrates the changes in the study of ancient Egypt. Starting as antiquity hunting, and ending as scientific excavation of the whole Theban Necropolis. Despite the exploration and investigation noted below, only eleven of the tombs have actually been completely recorded. The Greek writers Strabo (1st century BC) and Diodorus Siculus (1st
Minor tombs in the Valley of the Kings into a pillared chamber, again with partially finished side chambers, which in its turn gives access to three consecutive smaller rooms the first two of which have vaulted ceilings. The tomb has decoration in its corridor, depicting Ramesses III followed by a prince, while Carl Richard Lepsius, who visited the tomb in the mid-19th century, also mentions decoration elsewhere in the tomb which is now lost. It has been suggested that KV3 is the tomb mentioned on an ostracon dating from year 28 of Ramesses III, a tomb which was to be quarried in the valley for one of Ramesses's