Valley of the Kings

For five centuries the New Kingdom pharaohs abandoned pyramids and cut their tombs into a remote valley behind the Theban hills. Sixty-three tombs and chambers have been found. A standard ticket admits you to three, chosen from those open on the day.

The paintings are the point. Ceilings of astronomical charts, the Book of Gates and the Amduat running the length of corridors, and colour that reads as barely aged. Ramses VI, Merenptah and Ramses III are the usual standouts; Seti I and Nefertari require separate premium tickets and are worth every dollar.

In use from about 1539 to 1075 BC. Tutankhamun's tomb, found intact by Howard Carter in November 1922, was the only royal burial to survive substantially unrobbed, and its comparative poverty tells you what the great tombs must have held.