The Valley of the Kings Trivia Quiz

Answer: Luxor

Luxor, a modern metropolis with a population of almost half a million, stands on the site of the ancient city of Thebes. Luxor is located in southern Egypt; the other choices are all located in the north. In addition to the Valley of the Kings, Luxor has many other ancient attractions, and is a popular tourist destination for those visiting Egypt.

Answer: West

Since the Nile flows northward, there are no north or south banks. The Valley of the Kings lies on the west bank, while the city of Thebes was located on the east bank. Since the sun sets in the west, that direction is associated with death in many cultures.

Answer: By date of discovery

The tombs are numbered in sequence by the date they were discovered. This system was started in 1821 by the British archaeologist, John Gardner Wilkinson. At that time, 21 tombs were known to exist. Since then, each newly discovered tomb is assigned a number based on the date it is discovered.

For example, the tomb of the pharaoh Horemheb was discovered by Edward Ayrton in 1908. Since it was the fifty-seventh tomb to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings, it is known as KV57.

Answer: Thutmose I

The first pharaoh we know who was definitely buried in the Valley of the Kings was Thutmose I, the third king of Egypt's 18th dynasty. Thutmose I ruled Egypt from about 1506 - 1493 BC, although these dates are not absolutely certain. It is thought that he was originally buried in KV20, and later his body was removed to a new tomb, KV38, by his grandson, Thutmose III.

Some believe that the father of Thutmose I, Amenhotep I, was the first to be buried here, in KV39, but it is more likely he was buried elsewhere. Even after hundreds of years of excavations and study, there is still much we do not know about the Valley of the Kings!

Answer: Almost 400 years

The first pharaoh believed to be buried here died around 1493 BC; the last was Ramses X who died in 1107 BC. Ramses XI (died around 1077 BC) began a tomb here, but it was never used. Almost all of the pharaohs of Egypt's 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties were buried in the Valley of the Kings.

Answer: False

Of the 64 tombs discovered so far, only 22 have definitely been identified as king's burials. Many of the tombs were used as burial sites for other members of the royal family, such as KV5, which was built for the sons of Ramses II, or KV19, which was built for Prince Montuherkhepeshef, a son of Ramses IX.

But many were built for non-royals, including nobles and high-ranking government officials. An example of a famous non-royal tomb is KV36, which belonged to a Nubian named Maiherperi; his name means "the lion of the battlefield," so he may have been a high-ranking officer in the Egyptian army.

Although his tomb had been robbed in antiquity, it still remained relatively intact. Many of the small, undecorated tombs that have been discovered in the Valley of the Kings were probably non-royal burials.

Answer: Tomb robbing

One reason that the Valley of the Kings was chosen as a royal burial site is that it is easily guarded. By the 12th century BC, however, civil authority in Egypt was beginning to break down, and corruption became rampant. Tomb robbers were able to bribe officials to look the other way and allow them to plunder the dead with impunity. We know from a surviving papyrus that Ramses IX appointed a commission to inspect the royal tombs around 1100 BC; all but one of the royal burials were still intact at this time, but the tombs of the priests and nobles had all been robbed.

In the century that followed, even the royal tombs were targeted. Sometime between 1000 BC and 950 BC the priests removed most of the royal mummies from their tombs, rewrapped them, and reburied them in caches where they thought they would be safe.

Answer: 1922

Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's tomb on November 4, 1922. It took several years to excavate. Tut's tomb is famous because it was the only royal tomb found relatively intact up to that time, and because it contained many gold objects, including a solid gold death mask and gold inner coffin. Although Tutankhamun's tomb had been robbed at least twice during antiquity, the robbers had not penetrated as far as the burial chamber. The most likely reason that Tutankhamun's tomb survived relatively intact is that its entrance was covered by stone chips when workmen quarried out the tomb of Ramses VI, which was located above almost directly above it. In addition, Tutankhamun was the son of the heretic pharaoh, Akhenaton, and was not included on the official "Kings Lists" kept by Egyptian priests who cleared the tombs later on.

Despite being the most famous tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Tutankhamun's tomb is one of the smallest and least impressive of all the royal tombs. Many believe that it was originally built for Tutankhamun's successor, Ay.

Answer: True

Not all of the tombs are open to visitors, but many of them are. A small admission fee is required. Some tombs require payment of an additional fee to tour them; this money is used to preserve these fascinating treasures from the past. Tours of the Valley of the Kings are a very popular tourist attraction.

Answer: Yes

In 1912, the American archeologist, Theodore M. Davis, wrote, "I fear that the Valley of the Kings is now exhausted." Time has certainly proved Davis wrong, and archeologists are unanimous in the opinion that the Valley of the Kings still has many secrets and treasures to reveal.

In 2007, one of two female mummies found in KV60 was identified as that of the famous female pharaoh, Hatshepsut. KV5, an old tomb that was lost and then rediscovered, is still being excavated, a process that will take many decades; as late as 2011, a previously unknown 18th dynasty tomb, KV64, was discovered, along with the mummy of a woman named Nehmes Bastet, a singer in the temple of Amun.

There are many New Kingdom pharaohs whose tombs have been found, but whose mummies are missing. Is there another cache of royal mummies waiting to be discovered? One thing is certain: the Valley of the Kings will likely be a source of new and fascinating finds for many years to come!