Site Management: An Application to Wadilmeluk (the Valley of the Kings)

Abstract

‘Value has always been the reason underlying heritage conservation. It is self‐evident that no society makes an effort to conserve what it does not value.’ ¹ However, assessing the value of a cultural heritage asset as a representative sample of our tangible and intangible heritage for present and future generations is a difficult concept to deal with. It is, therefore, the aim of the researchers to help the conservation decision process by attempting to make an assessment of the values attributed to the cultural heritage assets of one of the most notable heritage sites in Egypt: the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

Keywords:

• Site Management
• Cultural Heritage Values
• Valley of the Kings
• Egypt

Notes

1. de la Torre and Mason, Assessing the Values of Cultural Heritage, 3–4.

2. Smith, ‘An Assessment of Structural Deterioration of Ancient Egyptian Monuments and Tombs in Thebes’, 503–10.

3. Siliotti, Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples.

4. Reeves and Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings.

5. The first official ticket to visit the Valley of the Kings was sold in 1948.

6. The category of values was adopted from Feilden and Jokilehto, Management Guidelines for World Cultural Heritage Sites.

7. The data used to fill in the data collection form were partly retrieved 12 August 2004 from Sites in the Valley of the Kings, available from http://www.thebanmappingproject.com/sites/

8. Almost all tombs in the Valley of the Kings are royal tombs belonging to the New Kingdom.

9. For example, the discovery of Tut Ankh Amun’s tomb represented an important point in archaeological history.

10. For those interested, the completed data collection forms can be obtained by contacting the authors.