Why do Egyptologists work on these tombs?

The tombs are an immense source of information for lots of different aspects of the study of Ancient Egypt. There are two major parts to each tomb: a decorated chapel, and a set of underground apartments. The scenes and texts in the chapel, normally painted, tell us a lot about Egyptian art, language, and the approach of the Egyptians to death. From the remains of the burials in the underground chambers, we can learn an immense amount about the funerary customs of the Egyptians.

As so many of these tombs are beautiful monuments, you would think that scholarly studies and publications of them would exist. But this is not always the case; a maximum of 25% of the numbered tombs have perhaps been adequately studied. Thus if some unimaginable disaster were to take place, an enormous amount of cultural history would be lost.

• Earthquakes: Egypt is in an earthquake zone, and it is quite possible that tremors could destroy some tombs
• Theft: there is still much money to be made from stealing antiquities
• Moisture: many readers will have heard of the increase in the water levels in the rocks, which cause salts to form on the surface and damage the decoration
• Tourism: as elsewhere in the world, visitors and ancient monuments don't always mix. The increase in the number of visitors to Egypt over the past 20 years can mean an increase in a level of wear and tear and unintentional damage

Those are some of the more pressing reasons why Egyptologists choose to work in the Tombs of the Nobles. The other thing is that we like it, and we feel it is part of our contribution to helping Egypt deal with its monuments.