The mummies of Egyptian pharaohs were placed in sealed stone sarcophagi deep inside purpose-built tombs, almost always on the west bank of the Nile. The exact type of tomb changed dramatically over Egypt’s 3,000-year history, from mud-brick boxes to massive pyramids to hidden underground chambers carved into desert cliffs. Many of those mummies were later moved by ancient priests trying to protect them from looters, and today 20 royal mummies are displayed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
Why the West Bank of the Nile
Egyptian theology tied the direction west to death and rebirth. The sun set in the west each evening and was believed to travel through the underworld before rising again. Burial grounds were placed on the western bank of the Nile whenever possible, making “the West” both a cardinal direction and a synonym for the afterlife itself. The goddess Amentet personified this concept, and Osiris, the god of the dead, carried the title “Foremost of the Westerners” and “Bull of the West.” For pharaohs, being buried on the west bank was not just tradition but a theological requirement linking their death to the solar cycle of renewal.
Mastabas: The Earliest Royal Tombs
In Egypt’s earliest dynasties, pharaohs were buried in mastabas, rectangular structures built from mud brick (and later stone) with sloping walls and flat roofs. A deep vertical shaft descended from the structure down to an underground burial chamber where the mummy was placed. These were the standard tomb form for both royals and elites for centuries.
To keep the burial chamber sealed, builders lowered heavy stone slabs called portcullis stones into grooves that blocked the passageway. This method had a short effective lifespan. Robberies often occurred soon after burial, which eventually led builders to replace horizontal blocking systems with deeper vertical shafts in private tombs. Royal burials, however, kept using portcullis stones for much longer.
Pyramids: Old and Middle Kingdom
The leap from mastaba to pyramid happened under King Djoser, the second ruler of the 3rd dynasty (around 2670 BCE). His tomb at Saqqara started as a mastaba but was expanded into six stacked stages of decreasing size, creating Egypt’s first step pyramid. The mummy was placed in a granite-lined chamber at the bottom of a deep central shaft beneath the stone mass above.
By the 4th dynasty, the design had evolved into the true smooth-sided pyramid. The finest examples are at Giza, where the Great Pyramid of Khufu contains three known internal chambers. The pharaoh’s granite sarcophagus sits in the uppermost of these, called the King’s Chamber, positioned roughly in the center of the pyramid’s mass. That sarcophagus has been empty for over 4,500 years. The sheer volume of stone was itself a security measure, with passageways sealed by granite plugs and portcullis blocks.
Pyramids continued through the Middle Kingdom but grew smaller and were often built with mudbrick cores rather than solid stone, making them far less durable.
The Valley of the Kings: New Kingdom
By the New Kingdom (starting around 1550 BCE), pharaohs abandoned pyramids entirely. The new strategy was concealment rather than monumental scale. Rulers carved their tombs into the limestone cliffs of a remote desert valley on the west bank at Thebes (modern Luxor), now known as the Valley of the Kings. The valley contains over 60 cataloged tombs plus about 20 unfinished pits.
These rock-cut tombs descended through long corridors, sometimes with false passages and deep wells designed to mislead robbers, before reaching the burial chamber. The pharaoh’s mummy was placed inside nested layers of protection. Tutankhamun’s tomb provides the best-preserved example: a stone sarcophagus held three coffins nested inside one another. The outer two were wood covered in gold and inlaid with semiprecious stones like lapis lazuli and turquoise. The innermost coffin was solid gold, weighing about 110 kilograms, and held the mummy directly.
One notable exception to the Theban location came during the reign of Akhenaten, who moved his capital to a new city called Amarna in Middle Egypt. His Royal Tomb was carved into a narrow side valley about 6 kilometers from the main wadi. Its basic design and proportions closely resembled the royal tombs at Thebes, but it included additional burial chambers because it was intended for multiple family members.
The Royal Caches: Moved for Safety
Despite all the engineering, tomb robbery was relentless. By the time of the 21st dynasty (roughly 1077 to 950 BCE), Egypt was in political decline and the state could no longer guard the Valley of the Kings effectively. Priests documented widespread looting of royal tombs and took drastic action: they gathered the mummies of their ancestors, rewrapped many of them, and relocated them to hidden secondary tombs.
The primary hiding place was a tomb at Deir el-Bahri, near the temple of Hatshepsut, originally built for a high priest. Designated DB320, this single chamber eventually held dozens of royal mummies stacked together. When it reached capacity, a second cache was established in tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings itself. These caches preserved mummies that would almost certainly have been destroyed otherwise, though the pharaohs ended up far from the elaborately decorated tombs built specifically for them.
Where the Mummies Are Today
Most of the famous royal mummies were discovered in those two caches during the 19th century. For over a hundred years, they were displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Cairo. In April 2021, 22 royal mummies were transported across the city in a televised procession called the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade, moving to their new permanent home at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in the Fustat district of Cairo.
The museum’s Royal Mummies’ Hall now displays 20 royal mummies, 18 kings and 2 queens, spanning the 17th through the 20th dynasties. Among the most famous are Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, and Seqenenre Taa II, a 17th-dynasty king whose mummy bears dramatic head wounds likely sustained in battle. A handful of other royal mummies remain at various institutions, but the NMEC collection represents the largest and most significant group of pharaonic mummies anywhere in the world.