6/28/2023 0 Comments The high king's tombA few tombs have been “discovered” only in the past hundred years or so (KV 62: Tutankhamen KV 46: Yuya and Thuya KV 36: Maiherperi KV 5: Sons of Rameses II ), but most had been opened - and plundered - long ago, some in antiquity, shortly after they were first sealed, others in Graeco-Roman and Byzantine (Coptic) times. There are 64* numbered royal and private tombs in KV, ranging from small, pit tombs (KV 54) to huge labyrinths with over 120 corridors and chambers (KV 5). On the West Bank of the Nile across from modern Luxor, cut into the Theban Hills, lies the Valley of the Kings (KV). Chosen as the burial-place for most of Egypt’s New Kingdom rulers, it was selected for several reasons. It lies only a kilometer or so west of the temples and villages of the Theban people, it is a small valley surrounded by steep cliffs and is easily guarded, the bedrock in which it was cut by torrential rains millions of years ago is limestone of generally good quality, and towering above it is a mountain known today as the Qurn (meaning “the horn” in Arabic). The shape of the Qurn may have reminded the Egyptians of a pyramid, a shape associated with the sun god, Re, and long associated with royal burials.
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