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 or "WV" (for West Valley) designation in the order of their discovery. Besides these numbered tombs there is also a series of pits and possible tomb commencements, ordered in an alphabetical sequence from WVA (actually a small tomb) to KVT although the exact number of these pits, and in many cases their location, is not known. The assignment of this alphabetical sequence has been done by more recent researchers, often on the basis of cursory references in older reports or field notes. KV3 is located in a side wadi of the main valley, adjacent to KV46 and KV4. Although it