The Valley of the Kings (Biban el Moluk) on the western bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes) must be one of the most emotive archaeological sites in the world – it was the burial place of the Egyptian New Kingdom pharaohs of the eighteenth to the twentieth dynasties (1570–1070 bc). Some of the royal tombs have been open and visited since antiquity, as is evidenced by graffiti on their walls; for example, Greek in the tomb of Rameses vi (KV 9) and Coptic in Rameses iv (KV 2). Our Fellow Richard Pococke visited in September 1739, left his graffito and noted ‘signs of about eighteen [tombs] … though now there are only nine that can be enter’d into’. Giovanni Belzoni (who left the Valley in 1819) and Victor Loret in the 1890s found more tombs, and Theodore Davis, after his excavations and finding further tombs, wrote in 1912, ‘I fear that the Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted’ – all were proved wrong in 1922 when Howard Carter found Tutankhamun (KV 62), and two more unidentified tombs (KV 63 and 64) noted here that have been found in more recent years.

There is a vast literature on the Valley, ranging from the popular and highly illustrated to the excavators’ reports and more detailed publications (Reeves Reference Reeves1990; Reeves and Wilkinson Reference Reeves and Wilkinson1996). While this large ‘handbook’ belies that word in its title with its size and 643 pages, it is the most detailed exposition to date of the Valley until further discoveries will certainly be made. Some of the secrets/problems the Valley still hides are the missing tombs of Thutmose ii, Rameses v and viii and Ahmose (whose mummy was found in 1881) and that of Queen Isis, mentioned on an ostrakon. There is also almost certainly a third cache of royal mummies to be found (the other two were in DB 320, in 1881, and KV 35, in 1898) whose tombs are known; for example, Aye (KV 23) and Horemhab (KV 57). Where, for example, and presumably still to be found, is the tomb of Herihor and his mummy – he was responsible for the re-wrapping of many of the royal bodies in the 1881 cache that included his wife Queen Nodjet and their joint Book of the Dead (now in the British Museum). With all these aspects addressed and many intriguing and informative essays, it is unfortunate that this book’s interested readership will be somewhat inhibited by its high price of £97.

Divided into thirteen major sections comprising thirty-eight contributions, this is the most detailed study of the Valley and its many aspects available, written by a total of thirty internationally acknowledged scholars, many providing more than one contribution. The essential element is that this is not a mere catalogue survey tomb by tomb of the Valley; it is seen and cogently presented in the many contexts that affect its origins, its contents and, not least, its interpretation and preservation in a modern world that puts more and more pressure on it – its future, environment and conservation are major concerns that are also most ably examined here.

Each contribution stands alone with an individual bibliography at its end. This leads to a certain duplication of references throughout the book, but it is far more useful than having one giant end bibliography. Some of the contributions are briefer, succinct overviews taken from or based on more-detailed, previously published studies such as Dodson (Reference Dodson1994: no. 17, Canopics) or Van der Spek (Reference Van der Spek2011; no. 38, on the Modern Villagers).

There can be no doubt that this is not only the most objective presentation of the Valley at the present time, but, when further finds and evaluations are made, this will still stand as a bedrock to which future studies will need to refer.