MAP OF EGYPT
From Treasures of Tutankhamun, Ballantine Books, NY

The Valley of the Kings, the royal necropolis, had been part of ancient Thebes, the capital from which the Egyptian empire was ruled at the zenith of its power. The Valley lay just a few miles away from the west bank of the Nile, opposite Karnak and Luxor and more than 400 miles south of present-day Cairo.