Land of the Pharaohs

       (continued)

            Photography by Roy Slovenko

The west bank of Thebes, opposite the temples of Luxor and Karmak of the east bank, was the necropolis.  Here, in the
Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, were hidden the burial crypts of kings and other high-ranking nobility. Standing in the open, however, was the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut
(at right), the reconstructed part of a huge necropolis developed over a 500-year period.

At one end of the structure is a small temple to the goddess
Hathor, whose image decorates these columns (left).

These are the homes of the common folk who now live in the neighborhood. Despite all efforts of the pharaohs to hide their tombs in this remote desert, grave-robbers broke into the tombs soon after they were sealed, and stole the treasures buried with the kings' remains.

The "low-rent district" of the Valley of the Kings