Taylor Valley is the southernmost of the three large Dry Valleys in the Transantarctic Mountains, Victoria Land, located west of McMurdo Sound at approximately 77°37′S 163°00′E / 77.617°S 163.000°E. The valley extends from Taylor Glacier in the west to McMurdo Sound at Explorers Cove at the northwest head of New Harbour in the east and is about 29 kilometres (18 mi) long. It was once occupied by the receding Taylor Glacier, from which it derives its name. Taylor Valley contains Lake Bonney in the west (inward), and Lake Fryxell in the east (coastward), and Lake Hoare, Lake Chad, Lake Popplewell, Mummy Pond and Parera Pond close together between the two. Further east of Lake Bonney is Pearse Valley. Taylor Valley is separated from Wright Valley in the north by Asgard Range, and from Ferrar Glacier in the south by Kukri Hills.
Taylor Valley was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901–04), it was more fully explored by the BrAE (1907–09) and the BrAE (1910–13), and named after Australian Geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor.