Question: when were the first tombs built in the valley of the kings
Answer: The Valley of the Kings ( Arabic : وادي الملوك ‎ Wādī al Mulūk , Coptic : ϫⲏⲙⲉ ) , the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( Arabic : وادي ابواب الملوك ‎ Wādī Abwāb al Mulūk ) , is a valley in Egypt where , for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC , rock cut tombs were excavated for the Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom ( the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt ) .