Valley of the Kings, western Thebes
Cut high in a cleft of the cliffs and reached by a steep stair, KV34 was designed to be hidden. Its oval burial chamber is painted with the complete Amduat, the guide to the sun god’s night journey, drawn in stick-like figures as if on papyrus.
The king’s quartzite sarcophagus remains in the chamber; his mummy had been moved in antiquity to the royal cache at Deir el-Bahari.
Documentary · 24 min · 13 Sept 2026 · 9 chapters
Every royal pyramid was broken open and emptied. Nine hundred years of pyramid building treated as an engineering programme — and why it was shut down.
Playlist: Ancient Engineering
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KV43
Thutmose IV, father of Amenhotep III, was buried in a tomb whose axis bends twice at right angles, a layout typical of the mid 18th Dynasty. Only two rooms were painted: the well…
KV62
Small for a royal tomb, KV62 may originally have been prepared for someone else and adapted after the king's early death. Only the burial chamber is decorated, with scenes…
KV17
Seti I, father of Ramesses II, commissioned the most ambitious tomb in the valley. The Theban Mapping Project describes it as the longest and deepest tomb in the valley, and…
KV7
One of the largest tombs in the valley, KV7 was visible in antiquity but has been repeatedly flooded, leaving its decoration badly damaged. A French mission led by Christian…
