Valley of the Kings

A 2008 Nation Geographic History Documentary narrated by Mark Halliley.

Unlike the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom, most pharaohs of the New Kingdom did not build pyramids as their tombs. Between circa 1539 BC and 1708 BC, the majority of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings. The pharaohs believed that this valley was the ideal burial ground since the primary peak had a pyramidal shape and the valley had only one entrance, which could easily be guarded. Unfortunately, despite the pharaoh’s hopes, tomb robbers had managed to ransack most of the tombs before archaeologists began to excavate in the early 1800s. Since that excavation, 62 tombs, most belonging to royalty, have been discovered.

At that time in Egypt's history, the memory of dead pharaohs was sustained by funerary cults. However, members of the cults did not celebrate at the tombs, but at the pharaoh's royal temple, located between the Nile and the Valley of the Kings. United, the tombs and temples created a type of city of the dead.