Valley of the Kings :
For about 500 years from the 18th to the 20th dynasty, from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC. , the Kings Valley in the West bank of Luxor was the official tombs for most of the Pharaohs of the new kingdom.
The valley contains right now 64 tombs of pharaohs and some nobles choose the kings valley to make them tombs, but sure the archeologist continue the excavations to discover new tombs, maybe no one discovers it yet.
Why the ancient Egyptian chose this location to bury their bodies?
The first pharao has chosen this location ” The Mountain of Qurna ” in the west bank of Luxor was Thutmose I, he asked his minister and architects “ININI” to find a secret place no one can reach it to make his tomb.
kings valleyININI has chosen this location for 3 reasons:
1- The mountain of limestone, so will be easy carve it and Digg it
2- The valley in a hidden place behind the mountain of Qurna
3- The top of the Mountain looks like the pyramid, the sacred shape the ancient Egyptian need it to be beside their tombs so they will not have wast time to build a pyramid.
Why the west bank to make the tombs for the ancient Egyptians?
The ancient Egyptian believed in Resurrection they get the idea of resurrection from the SUN.
Sunrise -Sunset – Sunrise again, so the circle of life for them will be the same life -death-life again.
So they considered the east bank that’s the life side because of the sunrise from this side and the west bank the land of death because of the sunset behind the mountain of the west bank.
What the ancient Egyptians believe After death?
After death for them its a journey in the underworld, start from the west bank to the next life to the eternity.
The underworld journey 12 hours in the darkness around you bad gods, snakes, demons and evil spirits tried not let you bath to your paradise.
The ancient Egyptians described to dead men this journey in many books, The book of Dead, the book of Imeduat , the book of the caves …etc
Book of the Dead:
The book of dead developed from the pyramids texts in the old kingdom which were found for the first time in the pyramid of Unas in Saqqara necropolis 5th dynasty.
In the middle kingdom, the pyramids developed to be coffin texts, later in the new kingdom became the book of the dead.