Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Luxor Archaeological Heritage Foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at providing financial support for the Dutch archaeological expedition to the Theban Necropolis. The team is directed by Dr. Carina van den Hoven (The Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden University) and undertakes research and fieldwork in the area of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the west bank of the Nile, opposite modern Luxor.

The necropolis of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna forms part of the Theban necropolis, a unique UNESCO world heritage site: this was Egypt’s main royal and elite cemetery for half a millennium from 1550 BCE onwards. The site shows complex developments in monumental construction and reuse and comprises numerous monuments, including the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, but also hundreds of private elite tombs, as well as memorial temples, and remains of royal palaces and domestic communities. The tombs in the area where we are working, at Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, are decorated with vivid, detailed wall paintings and reliefs depicting all kinds of daily activities, such as farming, fishing, hunting, banquets with music and dancing, family interactions, crafts, administration, religious rituals, etc. As such, these monuments provide us with invaluable details about ancient Egyptian culture and society and the daily life of the non-royal people.  

The fieldwork and research project was launched by Dr. Carina van den Hoven in 2018 with Theban Tomb 45 as its starting point. Since 2025 we are carrying out research and fieldwork in a large area of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, which comprises Theban Tombs 45, 133, 136, and 137, as well as several hitherto unidentified structures which are numbered -290-, -528-, -529-, -530-, and -531-. The main aims of the research and fieldwork project are to implement an extensive preventive conservation and risk management programme, and at the same time to archaeologically study this area. Due to their position at the foothills of the Theban mountain, the monuments in this area are extremely vulnerable to flash flooding as a result of intense bursts of rainfall, which occurs roughly every 20 years in the area of Luxor. The tombs already show evidence of previous flooding and resulting damage. Flooding of these tombs poses a risk not only to their fragile decoration, but – given the marl content of the tomb structures – also to the stability of the tombs themselves. As a result of climate change, the frequency and intensity of most types of extreme events, such as flash flooding, is expected to increase significantly. For this reason, our conservation programme for the tombs focuses not only on the conservation of the fragile decoration inside the tombs, but also on preventive conservation measures and risk management activities in the area surrounding the tombs, with the aim of protecting these monuments against flash flooding. This means that we are carrying out research on the geomorphology and hydrology of the area, based on which we are partially relandscaping the area surrounding the tombs in order to incorporate practical flood prevention measures. At the same time, this work offers us the unique opportunity to conduct modern archaeological research for the first time in the necropolis of Lower Sheikh ʿAbd el-Qurna, about which almost nothing is known to date. Our fieldwork and research project will enable us to reconstruct the historical and cultural development of this area for the first time, while at the same time effectively protecting the monuments in this area from flash flooding.  

The project is carried out in close collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and with our colleagues of the Luxor and Qurna Inspectorates of Antiquities, as we are working together in documenting, studying, and preserving Egypt’s cultural heritage for future generations. The fieldwork project is funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. A proof of concept study on the digital documentation and material analysis of the painted wall decoration of Theban Tomb 45 is sponsored by the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (Leiden University), and the Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities. We thank all the team members and project partners for their expertise, advice, and support. We also thank our colleagues at the Department of Egyptology, Leiden University and at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo for their academic, administrative, and logistic support.

Support the project

If you wish to support the project and join us in preserving Egypt's heritage for future generations, make a donation or become a sponsor!