Keep a little mystery in your trip planning: Explorer Picture Mode shows a stylized version of every place instead of the real photo, so you can go by the description and reviews first and picture it your own way -- reveal the real photo any time by flipping the switch off, or just for one place at a time from its own page.
Create a free account to pick your own style (Vintage, Oil Painting, Black & White) and have it remembered next time you visit.
The Valley of the Kings is a region of Egypt located on the western bank of the Nile near Thebes (now Luxor). The valley is formed by a fault in the Libyan chain that leads into the Nile Valley. Its Arabic name (وادي بيبان الملوك / wādī bībān al-mulūk) means 'valley of the two gates of the kings', referring to the gates that once closed the tombs.
The Valley of the Kings is known to contain the hypogeums of many New Kingdom pharaohs, but it also contains the tombs of some of the pharaohs' wives and children, as well as those of nobles whose valor the pharaohs wanted to reward. The Valley of the Queens is used from the period of the reign of Rameses I onwards, although some wives are still buried with their husbands afterwards.
The earliest known tomb on the site is that of Thutmes I, and from Thutmes III onwards, with the exception of Akhenaten, all the pharaohs of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties were buried there (approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC). The last known tomb of a pharaoh is that of Ramses XI.
The last tomb discovered is the tomb of a singer of Amun from Karnak Temple who lived during Dynasty XXII.