The Valley of the Kings was the royal cemetery for 62 Pharaohs , and is located on the west bank at Luxor. The only entrance to this place was a long narrow winding path. This was a secret place, where sentries were placed at the entrance of the Valley, as well as along the top of the hills, in the hopes of discouraging tomb robbers, who had in the past plundered all royal tombs, including the treasures of the Pyramids!
Some thefts were probably carefully planned, but others were spur of the moment, as when an earlier tomb was accidentally discovered while cutting a new one and workmen took advantage of the opportunity. This may have happened when KV 46 was found during the cutting of KV 4 or KV 3 nearby. The tombs in the Valley range from a simple pit (e.g. KV 54), to a tomb with over 121 chambers and corridors (KV 5) John Gardiner Wilkinson first established the present numbering system, in 1827, as part of his preparation of a map of Thebes. Wilkinson painted the numbers 1 through 21 at the entrances of the tombs that were then visible. The numbers were assigned geographically, from the entrance to the Valley southward.
Since Wilkinson's day, tomb numbers have been assigned in chronological order of discovery, KV 62 (Tutankhamen) being the most recent. Wilkinson's is not the only system of tomb designation that has been used in the Valley though. Several explorers assigned numbers, letters or descriptive labels to the tombs, as the accompanying chart indicates, but Wilkinson's is the only system that is still in use. There are two main wings to the Valley of the Kings, west and east! You will find that eastern side has the majority of the tombs, the western part having very few, but including the tombs of Amenhotep III and Ay.
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