Episode notes
New Kingdom pharaohs abandoned the pyramid and hid their tombs in a remote wadi on the west bank of the Nile, beneath the peak of al-Qurn, a mountain shaped naturally like a pyramid. The valley's layers of limestone, marl, and shale made it a treacherous place to dig: when rain reached the shale it swelled and sheared the rock apart, and Setnakht's crews tunneled into an older tomb by accident. The workers who carved these tombs lived at Deir el-Medina, where state records tracked their tools, sick days, and disputes, and around 1159 BC, under Ramesses III, they staged what may be the first recorded labor strike when their grain rations stopped.
Security failed anyway. Papyrus Mayer B, from around 1118 BC, records the confession of a thief named Nesamun who spent four days inside the tomb of Ramesses VI and argued with his crew over bronze bowls and a cauldron. As the state collapsed under Ramesses XI, officials joined the looting, and 21st dynasty priests of Amun secretly moved royal mummies, stripped their gold, and hid them in caches such as the one at Deir el-Bahari. Centuries of flood debris buried the lower entrances, which is why Giovanni Belzoni and Theodore Davis both declared the valley exhausted, and why Howard Carter could still find Tutankhamun in 1922.
- How flash floods raised the valley floor by up to five meters and sealed tomb doors under cement-like scree
- The shift from bent-axis tombs like Thutmose IV's to the straight corridors of Ramesses III and IX, and the well shafts that turned from flood barriers into magical ones
- The Amduat, the Book of Gates, and the Book of Caverns as step-by-step guides through the twelve hours of night
- Why spoil dumped while cutting the tomb of Ramesses VI hid Tutankhamun's entrance from ancient robbers and modern explorers alike
- Ground-penetrating radar from the Amarna Royal Tombs Project, and the discoveries of KV63 in 2005 and KV64 in 2011