Valley of the Kings to the public. Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings ( ; ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, rock cut tombs were excavated for the pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom (the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt). The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes (modern Luxor), within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East
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