The Amarna Royal Tombs Project - Dig diary 1998
by Paul Sussman


The Amarna Royal Tombs Project

Today I went up to the Valley of the Kings for the first time. Suddenly the whole expedition seems very real.

Looking down into The Valley of the Kings.
The area we will be digging is just to the left
of the door in the centre of the picture.

Peter Lacovara and Mohsen Kamal have now both arrived from America. Peter had a bit of a nightmare journey-Air France somehow managed to lose both his bags en route, so he hasn't got any spare clothes and has had to borrow some of Nick's. He was remarkably calm about the whole thing. I'd have freaked out.

Nick, Peter, Geoffrey and Mohsen crossed the Nile straight after breakfast (it was wonderful to hear them all talking shop together over their croissants-they were as excited as a group of kids planning a trip to a sweet emporium). I had some things to do, so it was past midday before I finally took a boat over the river and walked the six miles up to the Valley (Don't worry-if you don't fancy walking you can take a taxi, or a bicycle, or even a donkey. I'm just trying to lose some weight).

The Valley, which in Arabic is known as the Biban el Moluk, is hidden behind a dramatic line of cliffs and hills. The road from the river sweeps around the side of these and so brings you up to the Valley entrance without any steep climbs. You can take a short cut, however, by following one of the small tracks that snake directly up and over the hills. Well, I say short cut. It doesn't feel like it by the time you've climbed up there in the blazing midday sun. It's worth it, however, for the views are majestic. On one side of the hills the Theban plain sweeps away to the distant shimmering line of the Nile. On the other you can look down into the Valley of the Kings winding back into the cliffs like a large dusty serpent, the doorways of its many tombs gaping open like huge mouths. It's slightly smaller than I'd imagined, with several lesser valleys running off it, like the tributaries of a river (which is, in fact, what the valley used to be millions of years ago).

Many people mistakenly think that all Egypt's pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings. In fact Egyptian civilisation was already several thousand years old when its rulers first started to use the place as a burial ground. The first pharaoh to be buried there was the 18th Dynasty King Tuthmosis I, who died in about 1492 BC.

No-one knows quite why he broke with tradition and had his tomb dug there, although one theory is that he chose it because of El Qurn, the pyramid-shaped mountain at one end of the Valley. Whatever the case, it was used by almost all his successors of the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties. The last king to be buried there, so far as we know, was Ramesses Xth (1112-1100 BC), although his tomb has never been positively identified. To date there are 62 recognised tombs in the Valley, each designated by a special number (KV1, KV2, KV3 etc.) KV62, the last tomb to have been found in the Valley is, of course, that of Tutankhamun.

The area of ground that Nick and his team will be working on is right in the middle of the Valley, just to the left of the tombs of Ramesses VI and Tutankhamun, as you face them.It's not much to look at-just a steep slope of loose rock and dirt and chippings, not nearly as big as I thought it would be. I still felt a slight shiver down my spine, however, when I finally scrambled down onto the valley floor and stood in front of it for the first time. Who knows what might lie under all that rubble. Could there be a tomb down there, undiscovered for over three thousand years? Or maybe there's nothing, not even a few shards of pottery (a far more likely outcome, insist Nick and his colleagues).

There's no way of knowing until we actually start work. And that we do tomorrow.

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© Amarna Royal Tombs Project, 1998-2002