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107-829: The hotel was built by Benjamin Herbst in the Upper Egypt Hotels Co, an enterprise founded in 1905 by Cairo hoteliers Charles Baehler and George Nungovich in collaboration with Thomas Cook & Son (Egypt). It was inaugurated on Saturday 19 January 1907, with a picnic at the Valley of the Kings followed by dinner at the hotel and speeches. The architect was Leon Stienon, the Italian construction company G.GAROZZO & Figli Costruzioni in Cemento Armato, Sistema SIACCI brevettato. During World War I

214-452: A complete account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, whereas the earliest periods of time were linear. Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat ,

321-627: A further 16 tombs to the list, and explored several tombs that had already been discovered. During this time Georges Daressy explored KV9 . When Gaston Maspero was reappointed as head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the nature of the exploration of the valley changed again. Maspero appointed English archaeologist Howard Carter as the Chief Inspector of Upper Egypt, and the young man discovered several new tombs and explored several others, clearing KV42 and KV20 . Around

428-447: A mythical family, the Ennead , that was said to have created the world. It included the most important deities of the time but gave primacy to Atum and Ra. The Egyptians also overlaid old religious ideas with new ones. For instance, the god Ptah , whose cult was centered at Memphis , was also said to be the creator of the world. Ptah's creation myth incorporates older myths by saying that it

535-512: A relatively minor king, and other burials probably had more numerous treasures. In the same central area as KV62 and KV63, is "KV64" , a radar anomaly believed to be a tomb or chamber announced on 28 July 2006. It was not an official designation, and the actual existence of a tomb at all was dismissed by the Supreme Council of Antiquities , prior to finally excavating and describing it during 2011–2012. The nearby tomb of Horemheb , ( KV57 )

642-404: A single, canonical version of any myth, the Egyptians adapted the broad traditions of myth to fit the varied purposes of their writings. Most Egyptians were illiterate and may therefore have had an elaborate oral tradition that transmitted myths through spoken storytelling. Susanne Bickel suggests that the existence of this tradition helps explain why many texts related to myth give little detail:

749-449: A subsidiary of Talaat Moustafa Group , acquired 51% of Legacy Hotels Company, which owns the hotel. The Hotel is featured on the exclusive Palace Hotels of the World. The Winter Palace has 5 restaurants. The 1886 Restaurant (French cuisine), and the la Corniche Restaurant (international cuisine), are both located in the historic Palace wing. The Bougainvilliers (international cuisine)

856-600: A systematic search, they discovered the actual tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) in November 1922. Various expeditions have continued to explore the valley, adding greatly to the knowledge of the area. In 2001 the Theban Mapping Project designed new signs for the tombs, providing information and plans of the open tombs. A map of the Valley of the Kings with locations of tombs marked The earliest tombs were located in cliffs at

963-474: A thousand of them. The earliest positively dated graffiti dates to 278 BC. In 1799, members of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt (especially Vivant Denon ) drew maps and plans of the known tombs, and for the first time noted the Western Valley (where Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage located the tomb of Amenhotep III , WV22 ). The Description de l'Égypte contains two volumes (out of

1070-465: A total of 24) on the area around Thebes. European exploration continued in the area around Thebes during the nineteenth century. Early in the century, the area was visited by Giovanni Belzoni , working for Henry Salt , who discovered several tombs, including those of Ay in the West Valley ( WV23 ) in 1816 and Seti I ( KV17 ) the following year. At the end of his visits, Belzoni declared that all of

1177-465: A total of 61 sepulchers being known by the start of the 20th century. KV5 was only rediscovered in the 1990s after being dismissed as unimportant by previous investigators. Some of the tombs are unoccupied, others remain unidentifiable as regards to their owners, and still others are merely pits used for storage. Most of the open tombs in the Valley of the Kings are located in the East Valley, and this

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1284-455: Is KV54 to the complex tomb that is KV5 , which alone has over 120 chambers for the sons of Ramesses II . It was the principal burial place for the New Kingdom's major royal figures as well as a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with traditional scenes from Egyptian mythology and reveal clues to the period's funerary practices and afterlife beliefs . Almost all of

1391-447: Is a low-lying structure that has been particularly prone to the flash floods that sometimes hit the area. Tonnes of debris and material has washed in over the centuries, ultimately concealing its vast size. It is not currently open to the public. Egyptian mythology This is an accepted version of this page B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Egyptian mythology

1498-402: Is a tomb commencement that is thought to have been started for Akhenaten , but it is no more than a gateway and a series of steps. The tomb of Ay , Tutankhamun 's successor is close by. It is likely that this tomb was started for Tutankhamun (its decoration is of a similar style), but later usurped for Ay's burial. This would mean that KV62 may have been Ay's original tomb, which would explain

1605-481: Is always one self-generated creator god that emerges from the eternal watery darkness Nun , for example, the creator god in different times and places had been identified separately as Ptah , Ra , Amun , Atum , or Khnum . The Egyptian word written m3ˁt, often rendered maat or ma'at, refers to the fundamental order of the universe in Egyptian belief. Established at the creation of the world, maat distinguishes

1712-401: Is analogous to ancient near eastern cosmology, early Greek cosmology , and other cosmological systems, which may be collectively labelled as adhering to a "cradle cosmology" model insofar as they share a cluster of common features, including a flat earth surfaced by a solid firmament , a primordial watery chaos, a cosmic center, a rotating sky above the earth, an Ocean located at and surrounding

1819-564: Is difficult to determine whether a culture's myths developed before rituals or vice versa. Questions about this relationship between myth and ritual have spawned much discussion among Egyptologists and scholars of comparative religion in general. In ancient Egypt, the earliest evidence of religious practices predates written myths. Rituals early in Egyptian history included only a few motifs from myth. For these reasons, some scholars have argued that, in Egypt, rituals emerged before myths. But because

1926-761: Is in the Pavilion wing, while the Palmetto (Italian cuisine and snacks) and the El Tarboush (Egyptian cuisine) are in the garden close to the swimming pool. In 2004, it was used as a filming location for Death on the Nile , an episode of the popular ITV TV series Agatha Christie's Poirot . Violaine Vanoyeke wrote in the Winter Palace few books about the Egypt 25°41′49″N 32°38′11″E  /  25.6969°N 32.6365°E  / 25.6969; 32.6365 Valley of

2033-416: Is little more than a truncated descending corridor and a burial chamber. However, KV16 has vibrant decoration and still contains the sarcophagus of the king. Its central location makes it one of the more frequently visited tombs. It shows the development of the tomb entrance and passage and of decoration. His son and successor, Seti I 's tomb KV17 (also known as Belzoni's tomb , the tomb of Apis , or

2140-405: Is not needed for myth, any statement that conveys an idea about the nature or actions of a god can be called "mythic". Like myths in many other cultures, Egyptian myths serve to justify human traditions and to address fundamental questions about the world, such as the nature of disorder and the ultimate fate of the universe . The Egyptians explained these profound issues through statements about

2247-405: Is rarely open to visitors, but it has many unique features and is extensively decorated. The decoration shows a transition from the pre-Amarna tombs to those of the 19th dynasty tombs that followed. The Nineteenth Dynasty saw a further standardisation of tomb layout and decoration. The tomb of the first king of the dynasty, Ramesses I , was hurriedly finished due to the early death of the king and

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2354-459: Is that religious ideas differed over time and in different regions. The local cults of various deities developed theologies centered on their own patron gods. As the influence of different cults shifted, some mythological systems attained national dominance. In the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) the most important of these systems was the cults of Ra and Atum, centered at Heliopolis . They formed

2461-506: Is the Ennead who carry out Ptah's creative commands. Thus, the myth makes Ptah older and greater than the Ennead. Many scholars have seen this myth as a political attempt to assert the superiority of Memphis' god over those of Heliopolis. By combining concepts in this way, the Egyptians produced an immensely complicated set of deities and myths. Egyptologists in the early twentieth century thought that politically motivated changes like these were

2568-509: Is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt , which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion . Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art , particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns , ritual texts, funerary texts , and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain

2675-401: Is vast in size, about the same length, and a larger area, of the tomb of his father. At the same time, and just opposite his own tomb, Ramesses enlarged the earlier small tomb of an unknown Eighteenth Dynasty noble ( KV5 ) for his numerous sons. With 120 known rooms, and excavation work still underway, it is probably the largest tomb in the valley. Originally opened (and robbed) in antiquity, it

2782-609: Is where most of the tourist facilities are located. The Eighteenth Dynasty tombs within the valley vary quite a bit in decoration, style, and location. It seems that at first there was no fixed plan. The tomb of Hatshepsut has a unique shape, twisting and turning down over 200 metres from the entrance, so that the burial chamber is 97 metres below the surface. The tombs gradually became more regular and formalised, and those of Thutmose III and Thutmose IV , KV34 and KV43 , are good examples of Eighteenth Dynasty tombs, both with their bent axis, and simple decoration. Perhaps

2889-559: The Book of the Heavens , which again describes the sun's journey through the twelve hours of night. Again from Seti I's time, the Litany of Re , a lengthy hymn to the sun god began to appear. Each burial was provided with equipment that would enable a comfortable existence in the afterlife . Also present in the tombs were items used to perform magic rituals, such as shabtis and divine figurines. Some of

2996-744: The Giza Plateau have come to symbolize ancient Egypt , the majority of tombs were cut into rock. Most pyramids and mastabas contain sections which were cut into ground level, and there are full rock-cut tombs in Egypt that date back to the Old Kingdom. After the defeat of the Hyksos and the reunification of Egypt under Ahmose I , the Theban rulers began to construct elaborate tombs that reflected their newfound power. The tombs of Ahmose I and his son Amenhotep I (their exact location remains unknown) were probably in

3103-535: The Greek and Roman eras (332 BC–641 AD), Greco-Roman culture had little influence on Egyptian mythology. Scholars have difficulty defining which ancient Egyptian beliefs are myths . The basic definition of myth suggested by the Egyptologist John Baines is "a sacred or culturally central narrative ". In Egypt, the narratives that are central to culture and religion are almost entirely about events among

3210-468: The Nile flooded , renewing the fertility of the soil and allowing the highly productive farming that sustained Egyptian civilization. Thus the Egyptians saw water and the sun as symbols of life and thought of time as a series of natural cycles. This orderly pattern was at constant risk of disruption: unusually low floods resulted in famine , and high floods destroyed crops and buildings. The hospitable Nile valley

3317-471: The Seventeenth Dynasty necropolis of Dra' Abu el-Naga' . The first royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings were those of Amenhotep I (although this identification is also disputed), and Thutmose I , whose advisor, Ineni , notes in his tomb that he advised the king to place his tomb in the desolate valley (the identity of this actual tomb is unclear, but it is probably KV20 or KV38 ). I saw to

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3424-462: The Turin Strike Papyrus . The valley has been a major focus of modern Egyptological exploration for the last two centuries. Prior to this time, it was a site for tourism in antiquity (especially during Roman times). The area illustrates the changes in the study of ancient Egypt, starting as antiquity hunting, and ending as scientific excavation of the whole Theban Necropolis . Despite

3531-505: The gods . Actual narratives about the gods' actions are rare in Egyptian texts, particularly from early periods, and most references to such events are mere mentions or allusions. Some Egyptologists, like Baines, argue that narratives complete enough to be called "myths" existed in all periods, but that Egyptian tradition did not favor writing them down. Others, like Jan Assmann , have said that true myths were rare in Egypt and may only have emerged partway through its history, developing out of

3638-633: The myth of Osiris . Many of the texts are likely much older than their first known written copies, and they therefore provide clues about the early stages of Egyptian religious belief. During the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), the Pyramid Texts developed into the Coffin Texts , which contain similar material and were available to non-royals. Succeeding funerary texts, like the Book of

3745-516: The Ancient Egyptians as ta dehent , or "The Peak". It has a pyramid-shaped appearance, and it is probable that this echoed the pyramids of the Old Kingdom , more than a thousand years prior to the first royal burials carved here. Its isolated position also resulted in reduced access, and special tomb police (the Medjay ) were able to guard the necropolis. While the iconic pyramid complex of

3852-656: The Dead in the New Kingdom and the Books of Breathing from the Late Period (664–323 BC) and after, developed out of these earlier collections. The New Kingdom also saw the development of another type of funerary text, containing detailed and cohesive descriptions of the nocturnal journey of the sun god. Texts of this type include the Amduat , the Book of Gates , and the Book of Caverns . Temples , whose surviving remains date mostly from

3959-464: The Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes. The development of Egyptian myth is difficult to trace. Egyptologists must make inferences about its earliest phases, based on written sources that appeared much later. One obvious influence on myth is the Egyptians' natural surroundings . Each day the sun rose and set, bringing light to the land and regulating human activity; each year

4066-762: The Kings The Valley of the Kings , also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings , is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty , rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt . It is a wadi sitting on the west bank of the Nile , opposite Thebes (modern-day Luxor ) and within

4173-408: The Kings also contains the tombs of favorite nobles as well as the wives and children of both nobles and pharaohs. Therefore, only about twenty of the tombs actually contain the remains of kings. The remains of nobles and of the royal family, together with unmarked pits and embalming caches, make up the rest. Around the time of Ramesses I (ca. 1301 BC) construction commenced in the separate Valley of

4280-447: The Late and Greco-Roman periods when, according to scholars such as Heike Sternberg, Egyptian myths reached their most fully developed state. The attitudes toward myth in nonreligious Egyptian texts vary greatly. Some stories resemble the narratives from magical texts, while others are more clearly meant as entertainment and even contain humorous episodes. A final source of Egyptian myth is

4387-433: The New Kingdom and later, are another important source of myth. Many temples had a per-ankh , or temple library, storing papyri for rituals and other uses. Some of these papyri contain hymns, which, in praising a god for its actions, often refer to the myths that define those actions. Other temple papyri describe rituals, many of which are based partly on myth. Scattered remnants of these papyrus collections have survived to

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4494-668: The Queens . The official name for the site in ancient times was The Great and Majestic Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh, Life, Strength, Health in The West of Thebes (see below for the hieroglyphic spelling), or Ta-sekhet-ma'at (the Great Field). At the start of the Eighteenth Dynasty , only kings were buried within the valley in large tombs. When a non-royal person was buried, it

4601-416: The West Valley as WV1 through WV4. The tombs in the West Valley were later incorporated into the East Valley numbering system as WV22 through WV25 , and tombs that have been opened since Wilkinson's time have been added to the list. The numbers range from KV1 (Rameses VII) to KV64 (discovered in 2011). Since the early 19th century AD, antiquarians and archaeologists have cleared and recorded tombs, with

4708-496: The beliefs that Egyptians held in some eras of their history are more poorly understood than the beliefs in better documented times. Many gods appear in artwork from the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt's history (c. 3100–2686 BC), but little about the gods' actions can be gleaned from these sources because they include minimal writing. The Egyptians began using writing more extensively in the Old Kingdom, in which appeared

4815-404: The central area of the valley. This central area appears to have been flooded at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty , with several tombs buried under metres of debris. The tombs KV55 , KV62 , and KV63 are dug into the actual wadi bedrock rather than the debris, showing that the level of the valley was five meters below its present level. After this event, later dynasties levelled the floor of

4922-602: The cliffs in the valley and the nearby Deir el-Bahari , interspersed with soft layers of marl . The sedimentary rock was originally deposited between 35 and 56 million years ago during a time when the Mediterranean Sea sometimes extended as far south as Aswan . During the Pleistocene the valley was carved out of the plateau by steady rains. There is now little year-round rain in this part of Egypt, but there are occasional flash floods . These floods dump tons of debris into

5029-659: The cosmos. Therefore, if only narratives are myths, mythology is a major element in Egyptian religious understanding, but not as essential as it is in many other cultures. The true realm of the gods is mysterious and inaccessible to humans. Mythological stories use symbolism to make the events in this realm comprehensible. Not every detail of a mythic account has symbolic significance. Some images and incidents, even in religious texts, are meant simply as visual or dramatic embellishments of broader, more meaningful myths. Few complete stories appear in Egyptian mythological sources. These sources often contain nothing more than allusions to

5136-475: The creation of the world and the movements of the sun occur in Egyptian texts, some very different from each other. The relationships between gods were fluid, so that, for instance, the goddess Hathor could be called the mother, wife, or daughter of the sun god Ra . Separate deities could even be syncretized , or linked, as a single being. Thus the creator god Atum was combined with Ra to form Ra-Atum. One commonly suggested reason for inconsistencies in myth

5243-678: The cultivation facing Thebes . These mortuary temples became places visited during the various festivals held in the Theban necropolis. Most notable is the Beautiful festival of the valley , where the sacred barques of Amun-Re , his consort, Mut , and son, Khonsu , left the temple at Karnak in order to visit the funerary temples of deceased kings on the West Bank and their shrines in the Theban Necropolis . The tombs were constructed and decorated by

5350-418: The descending path of the sun god into the underworld) to the burial chamber. In the earlier tombs, the corridors turn 90 degrees at least once (such as KV43 , the tomb of Thutmose IV ), and the earliest ones had cartouche -shaped burial chambers (for example, KV43 , the tomb of Thutmose IV ). This layout is known as "Bent Axis", After the burial, the upper corridors were meant to be filled with rubble and

5457-503: The early evidence is so sparse, the question may never be resolved for certain. In private rituals, which are often called "magical", the myth and the ritual are particularly closely tied. Many of the myth-like stories that appear in the rituals' texts are not found in other sources. Even the widespread motif of the goddess Isis rescuing her poisoned son Horus appears only in this type of text. The Egyptologist David Frankfurter argues that these rituals adapt basic mythic traditions to fit

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5564-495: The edges of the earth. The study of Egyptian cosmology is, however, done within certain limitations. There are no systematic accounts of creation from ancient Egyptian literature, and so cosmological views are pieced together from a variety of brief references across different texts as well as some pictorial evidence. A second issue is that views of Egyptian cosmology evolved over the long span of Egypt's history, and different regions also had different cosmological systems: while there

5671-471: The entrance to the tomb hidden. After the Amarna Period , the layout gradually straightened, with an intermediate "Jogged Axis" (the tomb of Horemheb , KV57 is typical of this layout and is one of the tombs that is sometimes open to the public), to the generally "Straight Axis" of the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasty tombs ( Ramesses III 's and Ramesses IX 's tombs, KV11 and KV6 respectively). As

5778-553: The essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand. Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians' understanding of the gods and the world. Mythology profoundly influenced Egyptian culture. It inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship. Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, and amulets . In literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that

5885-757: The events to which they relate, and texts that contain actual narratives tell only portions of a larger story. Thus, for any given myth the Egyptians may have had only the general outlines of a story, from which fragments describing particular incidents were drawn. Moreover, the gods are not well-defined characters, and the motivations for their sometimes inconsistent actions are rarely given. Egyptian myths are not, therefore, fully developed tales. Their importance lay in their underlying meaning, not their characteristics as stories. Instead of coalescing into lengthy, fixed narratives, they remained highly flexible and non- dogmatic . So flexible were Egyptian myths that they could seemingly conflict with each other. Many descriptions of

5992-410: The excavation of the rock-tomb of his majesty, alone, no one seeing, no one hearing. The Valley was used for primary burials from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC. It contains at least 63 tombs , beginning with Thutmose I (or possibly earlier, during the reign of Amenhotep I) and ending with Ramesses X or XI , although non-royal burials continued in usurped tombs. Despite its name, the Valley of

6099-536: The exploration and investigation noted below, only eleven of the tombs have actually been completely recorded. Many of the tombs have graffiti written by those ancient tourists. Jules Baillet has located over 2,100 Greek and Latin instances of graffiti, along with a smaller number in Phoenician , Cypriot , Lycian , Coptic , and other languages. The majority of the ancient graffiti is found in KV9, which contains just under

6206-499: The first major source of Egyptian mythology: the Pyramid Texts . These texts are a collection of several hundred incantations inscribed in the interiors of pyramids beginning in the 24th century BC. They were the first Egyptian funerary texts , intended to ensure that the kings buried in the pyramid would pass safely through the afterlife. Many of the incantations allude to myths related to the afterlife, including creation myths and

6313-400: The fragments of narration that appear in the earliest writings. Recently, however, Vincent Arieh Tobin and Susanne Bickel have suggested that lengthy narration was not needed in Egyptian mythology because of its complex and flexible nature. Tobin argues that narrative is even alien to myth, because narratives tend to form a simple and fixed perspective on the events they describe. If narration

6420-506: The fundamental order of the universe. Amongst the most important episodes from the mythic past are the creation myths , in which the gods form the universe out of primordial chaos; the stories of the reign of the sun god Ra upon the earth; and the Osiris myth , concerning the struggles of the gods Osiris , Isis , and Horus against the disruptive god Set . Events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ra's daily journey through

6527-422: The gods at the beginning of time and later passed to the human pharaohs ; warfare originates when humans begin fighting each other after the sun god's withdrawal into the sky. Myths also describe the supposed beginnings of less fundamental traditions. In a minor mythic episode, Horus becomes angry with his mother Isis and cuts off her head. Isis replaces her lost head with that of a cow. This event explains why Isis

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6634-402: The gods. Egyptian deities represent natural phenomena, from physical objects like the earth or the sun to abstract forces like knowledge and creativity. The actions and interactions of the gods, the Egyptians believed, govern the behavior of all of these forces and elements. For the most part, the Egyptians did not describe these mysterious processes in explicit theological writings. Instead,

6741-461: The heart of the Theban Necropolis . There are two main sections: the East Valley, where the majority of the royal tombs are situated; and the West Valley, otherwise known as the Valley of the Monkeys. With the 2005 discovery of a new chamber and the 2008 discovery of two further tomb entrances, the Valley of the Kings is known to contain 65 tombs and chambers, ranging in size from the simple pit that

6848-412: The hotel was temporarily closed to paying guests and employed as a hospice for convalescing soldiers. A regular guest at the hotel from 1907 on was George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon , better known simply as Lord Carnarvon . Carnarvon was the patron of Egyptologist Howard Carter , who in 1922 discovered the intact tomb of Tutankhamun . After the discovery was announced the Winter Palace played host to

6955-446: The ideas that emerged through those changes also have deeper meaning. Multiple versions of the same myth express different aspects of the same phenomenon; different gods that behave in a similar way reflect the close connections between natural forces. The varying symbols of Egyptian mythology express ideas too complex to be seen through a single lens. The sources that are available range from solemn hymns to entertaining stories. Without

7062-537: The international press corps and foreign visitors there to follow the story. Carter used the hotel's noticeboard to deliver occasional news and information on the discovery. In 1975 the complex was expanded with the construction of the New Winter Palace . The addition, classified as a 3-star hotel, was joined by corridors to the original. It was demolished in 2008. In 1996, the Pavillon, a 4-star annex with 116 rooms,

7169-412: The items may have been used by the king during his lifetime ( Tutankhamun 's sandals for example), and some were specially constructed for the burial. The modern abbreviation "KV" stands for "Kings' Valley". In 1827, Wilkinson painted KV numbers over the entrances to the 21 tombs that lay open in the East Valley at that time, beginning at the valley entrance and moving southward, and labeled four tombs in

7276-565: The local deities into a unified national tradition. Geraldine Pinch suggests that early myths may have formed from these relationships. Egyptian sources link the mythical strife between the gods Horus and Set with a conflict between the regions of Upper and Lower Egypt , which may have happened in the late Predynastic era or in the Early Dynastic Period . After these early times, most changes to mythology developed and adapted preexisting concepts rather than creating new ones, although there were exceptions. Many scholars have suggested that

7383-411: The most imposing tomb of this period is that of Amenhotep III , WV22 , located in the West Valley. It was re-investigated in the 1990s by a team from Waseda University , Japan , but it is not open to the public. At the same time, powerful and influential nobles began to be buried with the royal family; the most famous of these tombs is the joint tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu , KV46 . They were possibly

7490-400: The myth of the sun god withdrawing into the sky, leaving humans to fight among themselves, was inspired by the breakdown of royal authority and national unity at the end of the Old Kingdom ( c.  2686 BC  – 2181 BC). In the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC), minor myths developed around deities like Yam and Anat who had been adopted from Canaanite religion . In contrast, during

7597-403: The myths were already known to every Egyptian. Very little evidence of this oral tradition has survived, and modern knowledge of Egyptian myths is drawn from written and pictorial sources. Only a small proportion of these sources has survived to the present, so much of the mythological information that was once written down has been lost. This information is not equally abundant in all periods, so

7704-444: The open tombs. The quality of the rock in the Valley is inconsistent, ranging from finely grained to coarse stone, the latter with the potential to be structurally unsound. The occasional layer of shale also caused construction (and in modern times, conservation) difficulties, as this rock expands in the presence of water, forcing apart the stone surrounding it. It is thought that some tombs were altered in shape and size depending on

7811-410: The parents of Queen Tiy . Until the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, this was the best-preserved of the tombs that had been discovered in the Valley. The return of royal burials to Thebes after the end of the Amarna Period marks a change to the layout of royal burials, with the intermediate 'jogged axis' gradually giving way to the 'straight axis' of later dynasties. In the Western Valley, there

7918-666: The present. It is possible that the collections included more systematic records of myths, but no evidence of such texts has survived. Mythological texts and illustrations, similar to those on temple papyri, also appear in the decoration of the temple buildings. The elaborately decorated and well-preserved temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (305 BC–AD 380) are an especially rich source of myth. The Egyptians also performed rituals for personal goals such as protection from or healing of illness. These rituals are often called "magical" rather than religious, but they were believed to work on

8025-451: The principal reason for the contradictory imagery in Egyptian myth. However, in the 1940s, Henri Frankfort , realizing the symbolic nature of Egyptian mythology, argued that apparently contradictory ideas are part of the "multiplicity of approaches" that the Egyptians used to understand the divine realm. Frankfort's arguments are the basis for much of the more recent analysis of Egyptian beliefs. Political changes affected Egyptian beliefs, but

8132-445: The relationships and interactions of the gods illustrated such processes implicitly. Most of Egypt's gods, including many of the major ones, do not have significant roles in any mythic narratives, although their nature and relationships with other deities are often established in lists or bare statements without narration. For the gods who are deeply involved in narratives, mythic events are very important expressions of their roles in

8239-555: The risk of making such negative events real. The conventions of Egyptian art were also poorly suited for portraying whole narratives, so most myth-related artwork consists of sparse individual scenes. References to myth also appear in non-religious Egyptian literature , beginning in the Middle Kingdom. Many of these references are mere allusions to mythic motifs, but several stories are based entirely on mythic narratives. These more direct renderings of myth are particularly common in

8346-565: The royal necropolis. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties saw an increase in the number of burials (both here and in the Valley of the Queens), with Ramesses II and later Ramesses III each constructing a massive tomb used for the burial of their sons ( KV5 and KV3 respectively). There are some kings that are not buried within the valley or whose tomb has not been located: Thutmose II may have been buried in Dra' Abu el-Naga' (although his mummy

8453-405: The same principles as temple ceremonies, evoking mythical events as the basis for the ritual. Information from religious sources is limited by a system of traditional restrictions on what they could describe and depict. The murder of the god Osiris , for instance, is never explicitly described in Egyptian writings. The Egyptians believed that words and images could affect reality, so they avoided

8560-420: The smaller size and unusual layout for a royal tomb. The other Amarna Period tombs are located in a smaller, central area in the centre of the East Valley, with a possible mummy cache ( KV55 ) that may contain the burials of several Amarna Period royals – Tiy and Smenkhkare or Akhenaten . In close proximity is the burial of Tutankhamun, perhaps the most famous discovery of modern Western archaeology . It

8667-452: The specific ritual, creating elaborate new stories (called historiolas ) based on myth. In contrast, J. F. Borghouts says of magical texts that there is "not a shred of evidence that a specific kind of 'unorthodox' mythology was coined... for this genre." Much of Egyptian mythology consists of origin myths , explaining the beginnings of various elements of the world, including human institutions and natural phenomena. Kingship arises among

8774-477: The start of the 20th century, American explorer Theodore M. Davis held the excavation permit for the valley. His team (led mostly by Edward R. Ayrton ) discovered several royal and non-royal tombs (including KV43 , KV46 and KV57 ). In 1907, they discovered the possible Amarna Period cache in KV55. After finding what they thought was all that remained of the burial of Tutankhamun (items recovered from KV54 and KV58), it

8881-472: The sun god passing through the twelve gates that divide the nighttime and ensures the tomb owner's own safe passage through the night. These earliest tombs were generally sparsely decorated, and those of a non-royal nature were totally undecorated. Late in the Nineteenth Dynasty the Book of Caverns , which divided the underworld into massive caverns containing deities as well as the deceased waiting for

8988-489: The sun to pass through and restore them to life, was placed in the upper parts of tombs. A complete version appears in the tomb of Ramesses VI. The burial of Ramesses III saw the Book of the Earth , where the underworld is divided into four sections, climaxing in the sun disc being pulled from the earth by Naunet . The ceilings of the burial chambers were decorated (from the burial of Seti I onwards) with what became formalised as

9095-548: The tomb of Amenmesse , so construction was abandoned and he instead usurped the tomb of Twosret , KV14 . When looking for a tomb, Ramesses III extended the partly excavated tomb started by his father. The tomb of Ramesses II returned to an early style, with a bent axis, probably due to the quality of the rock being excavated (following the Esna shale). Between 1998 and 2002, the Amarna Royal Tombs Project investigated

9202-508: The tomb of Psammis, son of Necho ), is usually regarded as the finest tomb in the valley. It has extensive relief work and paintings. When it was rediscovered by Belzoni in 1817, he referred to it as "a fortunate day." The son of Seti, Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great), constructed a massive tomb, KV7 , but it is in a ruinous state. It is currently undergoing excavation and conservation by a Franco-Egyptian team led by Christian Leblanc . The tomb

9309-479: The tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1979, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the rest of the Theban Necropolis. Exploration, excavation, and conservation continues in the area and a new tourist centre has recently been opened. The Valley of the Kings is situated over 1,000 feet of limestone and other sedimentary rock, which form

9416-486: The tombs had been located and nothing of note remained to be found. Working at the same time was Bernardino Drovetti , the French Consul-General and a great rival of Belzoni and Salt. John Gardner Wilkinson , who lived in Egypt from 1821 to 1832, copied many of the inscriptions and artwork in the tombs that were open at the time. The decipherment of hieroglyphs , though still incomplete during Wilkinson's stay in

9523-403: The tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of Egypt's pharaohs. This area has been a focus for Egyptologists and archaeological exploration since the end of the 18th century, and its tombs and burials continue to stimulate research and interest. The Valley of the Kings garnered significant attention following the discovery of

9630-414: The tombs' axes straightened, the slopes also lessened. They almost disappeared in the late Twentieth Dynasty. Another feature that is common to most tombs is the "well", which may have originated as an actual barrier intended to stop flood waters from entering the lower parts of the tomb. It seems to have developed a "magical" purpose later as a symbolic shaft. In the later Twentieth Dynasty, the well itself

9737-436: The top of scree slopes, under storm-fed waterfalls ( KV34 and KV43 ). As these locations were filled, burials descended to the valley floor, gradually moving back up the slopes as the valley bottom filled with debris. This explains the location of the tombs KV62 and KV63 buried in the valley floor. The usual tomb plan consisted of a long inclined rock-cut corridor, descending through one or more halls (possibly mirroring

9844-475: The types of rock the builders encountered. Builders took advantage of available geological features when constructing the tombs. Some tombs were quarried out of existing limestone clefts, others behind slopes of scree , and some were at the edge of rock spurs created by ancient flood channels. The problems of tomb construction can be seen with the tombs of Ramesses III and his father Setnakhte . Setnakhte started to excavate KV11 but unintentionally broke into

9951-486: The valley floor using ground-penetrating radar and found that, below the modern surface, the Valley's cliffs descend beneath the scree in a series of abrupt, natural "shelves", arranged one below the other, descending several metres to the bedrock in the valley floor. The area of the Theban hills is subject to infrequent, violent thunderstorms causing flash floods in the valley. Recent studies have shown that there are at least seven active flood stream beds leading down into

10058-559: The valley, enabled him to assemble a chronology of New Kingdom rulers based on the inscriptions in the tombs. He also established the system of tomb numbering that has been in use, with additions, ever since. The second half of the century saw a more concerted effort to preserve, rather than simply gather, 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

10165-473: The valley, making the floods deposit their load further down the valley, and the buried tombs were forgotten and only discovered in the early 20th century. This was the area that was the subject of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project ground-scanning radar investigation, which showed several anomalies, one of which was proved to be KV63. The Theban Hills are dominated by the peak of al-Qurn , known to

10272-426: The workers of the village of Deir el-Medina , located in a small wadi between this valley and the Valley of the Queens , facing Thebes . The workers journeyed to the tombs through various routes over the Theban hills. The daily lives of these workers are quite well known due to their being recorded in tombs and official documents. Amongst the events documented is perhaps the first recorded workers' strike, detailed in

10379-495: The world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat . Recurring themes in these mythic episodes include the conflict between the upholders of maat and the forces of disorder, the importance of the pharaoh in maintaining maat , and the continual death and regeneration of the gods. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another and often seem contradictory. Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating

10486-406: The world from the chaos that preceded and surrounds it. Maat encompasses both the proper behavior of humans and the normal functioning of the forces of nature, both of which make life and happiness possible. Because the actions of the gods govern natural forces and myths express those actions, Egyptian mythology represents the proper functioning of the world and the sustenance of life itself. To

10593-552: The writings of Greek and Roman writers like Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus , who described Egyptian religion in the last centuries of its existence. Prominent among these writers is Plutarch , whose work De Iside et Osiride contains, among other things, the longest ancient account of the myth of Osiris. These authors' knowledge of Egyptian religion was limited because they were excluded from many religious practices, and their statements about Egyptian beliefs are affected by their biases about Egypt's culture. Egyptian cosmology

10700-400: Was announced that the valley was completely explored and that no further burials were to be found. Davis's 1912 publication, The Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatânkhamanou closes with the comment, "I fear that the Valley of Kings is now exhausted." After Davis's death early in 1915, Lord Carnarvon acquired the concession to excavate the valley, and he employed Howard Carter to explore it. After

10807-507: Was built in the rear garden of the Winter Palace, close to the swimming pool. The Pavillon shares many amenities with the Winter Palace, including the gardens, pools, tennis courts, terraces and restaurants. The hotel is owned by the Egyptian General Company for Tourism & Hotels (" EGOTH ") of Egypt and managed by Accor , a French Hotel company, where it is part of the prime division Sofitel , in 20 December 2023, Icon Company,

10914-401: Was discovered by Howard Carter on 4 November 1922, with clearance and conservation work continuing until 1932. This was the first royal tomb to be discovered that was still largely intact, although tomb robbers had entered. Until the excavation of KV63 on 10 March 2005, it was considered the last major discovery in the valley. The opulence of his grave goods notwithstanding, Tutankhamun was

11021-472: Was in a small rock cut chamber, close to the tomb of their master. Amenhotep III 's tomb was constructed in the Western Valley, and while his son Akhenaten moved his tomb's construction to Amarna , it is thought that the unfinished WV25 may have originally been intended for him. With the return to religious orthodoxy at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Tutankhamun , Ay , and Horemheb returned to

11128-512: Was in the Deir el-Bahari tomb cache ), Smenkhkare's burial has never been located, and Ramesses VIII seems to have been buried elsewhere. In the Pyramid Age , the pyramid tomb of a king was associated with a mortuary temple located close to the pyramid. Since the tombs of the kings in the Valley of the Kings were hidden, the kings' mortuary temples were located away from their burial sites, closer to

11235-546: Was sometimes depicted with the horns of a cow as part of her headdress. Some myths may have been inspired by historical events. The unification of Egypt under the pharaohs, at the end of the Predynastic Period around 3100 BC, made the king the focus of Egyptian religion, and thus the ideology of kingship became an important part of mythology. In the wake of unification, gods that were once local patron deities gained national importance, forming new relationships that linked

11342-482: Was sometimes not excavated (by the builders), but the well room was still present. The majority of the royal tombs were decorated with religious texts and images. The early tombs were decorated with scenes from Amduat ('That Which is in the Underworld'), which describes the journey of the sun god through the twelve hours of the night. From the time of Horemheb, tombs were decorated with the Book of Gates , which shows

11449-468: Was surrounded by harsh desert, populated by peoples the Egyptians regarded as uncivilized enemies of order. For these reasons, the Egyptians saw their land as an isolated place of stability, or maat , surrounded and endangered by chaos. These themes—order, chaos, and renewal—appear repeatedly in Egyptian religious thought. Another possible source for mythology is ritual. Many rituals make reference to myths and are sometimes based directly on them. But it

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