The early Egyptian pharaohs (kings) were buried in pyramids, but robbers broke into all of them and looted their treasures. To guard against this, later pharaohs built their tombs underground in a remote valley near the city of Thebes. This was the Valley of the Kings. Nearby was the Valley of the Queens, where the pharaohs' wives and children were buried.

Near the Valley of the Kings was Deir el-Medina, a village built especially for the tomb workers. Deir el-Medina was surrounded by a high wall and guarded by a special police force called the Medjay. People were only allowed to leave the village to go to work in the tombs. That way, there would be less chance that outsiders would find out about the riches being buried underground.

Photo of Temple of Ramesses II, Abu Simbel from Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonofgroucho/1053228546 Creative Commons

Above, the temples at Abu Simbel had to be moved when the Aswan High Dam was built to avoid them being submerged. The larger temple is dedicated to Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great). The four seated colossi depict Ramesses at different ages (increasing left to right). They are 20m high.

Despite these precautions, word got out about the Valley of the Kings. Robbers found almost all of the tombs and broke into them. In the process they often destroyed the pharaoh's mummies, depriving them of life in the afterworld. Only one tomb—that of a minor pharaoh named Tutankhamun—was found with its contents virtually intact. Tutankhamun's treasures were spectacular. The tombs of more important pharaohs, like Ramesses II, undoubtedly contained treasures far more spectacular than Tut's, but these tombs were robbed before we could see them.

After 1069 BCE, there were no more burials in the Valley of the Kings. To safeguard the royal mummies, the new kings ordered the priests to remove the royal mummies from their individual tombs and hide them where they could be better protected. In the process, the mummies were stripped of their remaining gold, which was recycled back into the economy. Rewrapped and labelled, the mummies were placed in new or refurbished coffins and reburied in a small, secret cave outside the valley known as Deir el-Bahri. Later pharaohs were buried at Tanis, their capital in the north.