Valley of the Kings (film) Valley of the Kings (film) Valley of the Kings is a 1954 Eastmancolor adventure film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was written and directed by Robert Pirosh from a screenplay by Robert Pirosh and Karl Tunberg, "suggested by historical data" in the book "Gods, Graves and Scholars" by C. W. Ceram. The music was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography by Robert Surtees. The title of the film refers to the valley on the west bank of the Nile River in Egypt, where the tombs of the Ancient Egyptian kings are located. The film was based on an original story by
Exploration of the Valley of the Kings original tomb owners. In tomb KV17, they removed wall decorations, which are now on display in the Louvre in Paris. In 1845-1846 the valley was explored by Karl Richard Lepsius's expedition; they explored and documented twenty-five in the main valley and four in the west. The second half of the century saw a more concerted effort to preserve rather than simply gathering 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 in 1898 to 1899. Loret added a further