The  Pyramids of Giza and the Nile Delta were the tombs of choice for  pharaohs of Egypt's Old Kingdom. But New Kingdom pharaohs, who wanted to  be closer to the source of their dynastic roots in the south, built  their crypts in the hills of this barren tract west of Luxor, now called  the Valley of the Kings 

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The ancient Egyptians built massive public monuments to their pharaohs. But they also spent time and treasure creating hidden underground mausoleums.

The most famed collection of such elaborate tombs—the Valley of the Kings—lies on the Nile's west bank near Luxor.

During Egypt's New Kingdom (1539-1075 B.C.), the valley became a  royal burial ground for pharaohs such as Tutankhamun, Seti I, and Ramses  II, as well as queens, high priests, and other elites of the 18th,  19th, and 20th dynasties.

The tombs evidence elaborate preparations for the next world, in  which humans were promised continuing life and pharaohs were expected to  become one with the gods. Mummification was used to preserve the body  so that the deceased's eternal soul would be able to reanimate it in the  afterlife.

The underground tombs were also well stocked with all the material  goods a ruler might need in the next world. Treasures—like the golden  masks found with King Tut—are dazzling, but the tombs also contained the more mundane.

source :  vally of the kings