[MUSIC] In the end, all of the pyramids of both the Old and Middle Kingdoms were robbed. Perhaps because of this situation and other issues related to developing ideologies of the ancient Egyptian underworld, pharaohs of the New Kingdom, and their architects, sought a change in both the location of the royal burials, as well as the external structure and its interior plan. In order to develop these new ideas, those in charge undoubtedly looked into and adapted a concept that had been used in the south. It is best seen in the site of Thebes at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, and it was introduced under the reign of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II on the West Bank of Thebes. This pharaoh did not follow the tradition of most of his Old Kingdom predecessors in building a pyramid. Rather, he made use of the symbolic one. The pyramidal-shaped mountain that dominated the landscape there, and he constructed his tomb deep within it. Innovative in many ways, the new plans proved no more successful at preventing break-ins. Not long after his death Amenemhat I, one of his successors, shifted the royal mortuary center back to the north again, and at the beginning of the 12th Dynasty he built a pyramid at Dahshur. And this tradition of royal burial remained in place, except for a few exceptions, until early in the 18th Dynasty, the dynasty of Tutankhamen. During the Middle Kingdom, however, there were occasional changes in interior arrangements, to help prevent robberies and to accommodate changing religious ideology. As was the case with rulers who arose at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, those kings who came to the throne in the beginning of the New Kingdom were also based in the south of Thebes. Soon they too focused on the west bank of Thebes and the towering pyramidal mountain. They used this for their burial locale. However, they did not choose their predecessor Nebhepetre's location on the eastern front of the cliffs, but opted for an area on the opposite side. It was only accessible through a wadi, a dried up riverbed in a remote valley. Those in charge of tomb building must have thought that since its location was difficult to find, it might prevent robberies. They cut the tombs out of the solid bedrock, sometimes descending several hundred feet into the valley. They lay deep within the craggy walls of a bleak area, well beyond the cultivated fields near the Nile. A mountain now served as a natural pyramid. It was a place where nothing grew. It was literally the land of the dead. For protection within these tombs, the architects utilized false floors, entrapment wells, and other strategies. With these designs, they hoped to foil the plans of would-be robbers. Then priests sealed the tombs for what they thought would be an eternity. Like the earlier pyramid tombs in the north however, almost all of these later burials in the south also experienced considerable robbery. We know some details about this situation, because of the existence of titles and names of the Necropolis guards through letters and other texts, also on statuary and stille. But more importantly, we also have legal documents of the late Ramesside period that represent detailed accounts of the robberies that occurred in both the tombs and temples. They include testimony of the accused and their names and titles. We've learned, that while the majority of the thieves had fairly low status, a few had high ranks. One was even a mayor of Thebes. The Penn papyrus and other documents, record the who, why, what, and where of robbing. The number of surviving texts that have such information and the important details they provide, suggest how widespread this activity was at the time. It is clear that the Valley of the Kings had become the focus of attention for those looking for the treasures of the pharaohs. And most of the time, the thieves did not leave empty handed. They did not seem to fear either the guardians of these cemeteries, nor a harsh judgement that would prevent their own entry into the afterlife. A later royal cemetery at a different location also suffered from the same practice. Even though excavators found Tanis, the burial site of Pharaohs of Dynasty 21 and 22 in the northern delta area nearly intact, they also noticed some evidence of intrusions.