The construction of rock tombs for the pharaohs and the elite is one of the innovations of the New Kingdom period.

Pharaoh Amenhotep I abandons the pyramid around 1500 BCE in favor of a rock-hewn tomb in the crags of western Thebes (present-day Luxor).

His example is followed by his successors, who for the next four centuries will cut their tombs in the Valley of the Kings and build their mortuary temples on the plain below.

Other wadis or river valleys will subsequently be used for the tombs of queens and princes.