Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. Courtesy of the Egyptian State Tourist Office
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Valley of the Kings
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Daily
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Valley of the Kings
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Egypt's Valley of the Kings is the resting place of dozens of the ancient rulers of the kingdom of the Nile and contains the cursed tomb of the most renowned of all Pharaohs, the boy-king Tutankhamun.
The site has more than 80 tombs and crypts, ranging from plain and undecorated bare rooms to the most astonishingly decorated complex structures, full of hieroglyphs and the ambiance of opulent death. Pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings are too many to list, but include Seti I, the architect of the incredible temple at Abydos, as well as several of the Rameses, Thuthmoses and Amenhoteps who ruled Egypt in their time.
The Valley of the Kings is also where speculation surrounding the "curse of the mummy's tomb" originated. Allegedly the curse struck down all those involved in opening Tutankhamun's grave. Upon Lord Carnarvon's death seven weeks after opening the grave, all the lights of Cairo were said to have gone out at the same time and his dog back in England was said to have started howling and died suddenly. Other members of the expedition were also said to have died like flies.
As the major tourist attraction in Luxor, the Valley of the Kings is still being explored today - who knows how many more monuments may lie still undiscovered among the sands of the region.
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