Egypt Centre Collection Blog: The Architecture of the Tombs in the Valley of the Kings

The blog post for this week is written by Yvonne Buskens-Frenken, from the Netherlands. She is a member of the Dutch Egyptology society Mehen and a former student of Egyptology at Manchester University (Certificate 2015 and Diploma 2017). While Yvonne has never been to the Egypt Centre before, she hopes to visit in the near future, perhaps with other Mehen members.

Last week’s session of the Valley of the Kings course was about the architectural development of the tombs in this royal necropolis (fig. 1). Primarily, a tomb had two main functions. First it had to provide a permanent protected resting place for the body, and secondly it was a cult place for performing the ritual acts to ensure eternal life. Hardedef, who lived in the Old Kingdom, already stated in his Instructions: “Furnish your house in the graveyard and enrich your place in the west…the house of death is for life”. The resting places were therefore called “Houses of Eternity” by the ancient Egyptians as they wanted to continue their accustomed lifestyle into the afterlife. The resting places were usually built close to their homes in life. Religious ideas about the afterlife changed over time and would have impacted on architecture and iconography. This was the case for the tombs of the New Kingdom kings. By the time of the New Kingdom, the kings did not want their tombs to be visible for the public. The king’s chamber had to be, as was stated in the Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom known as the Amduat, a “hidden” chamber, away from plain sight, not accessible for the secular, non-religious eyes. These religious ideas were now reflected in the architectural form and iconography of the tombs which replicated the path of the sun during its nocturnal journey beneath the earth. On that journey, the king identified himself with the sun god and wanted, just like the deity, to experience a rebirth. Additionally, as a result of the fact that these tombs were supposed to be hidden, the cult practices or offerings would have been done elsewhere at a mortuary temple (known as a “Temple of Millions of Years”). Although the original tombs of the first four kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty are not yet securely identified, the tomb of Hatshepsut (KV 20) marks the first separation of the burial place for a king and the building of a cult centre elsewhere.

Fig. 1: Path leading to KV 20, 19, 43, and 18 (Theban Mapping Project)

When you visit the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, you may notice that they are not all the same; the architectural features vary a lot. There are small ones with just a few compartments or corridors, or some large ones with many side rooms. Some tombs have long sloping corridors, and some have a bended axis. A few are not even finished. There was, as far as we know, no standard blueprint for the building of a tomb, although workmen would have access to a sort of “building plan”—nineteen papyri and ostraca describe the architecture of various Theban royal tombs. One famous example is Turin Papyrus 1885 (fig. 2), which shows the building plan of Ramesses IV (KV 2). The text in hieratic provides us with the names of the tomb components and a plan of the decoration which gives us some clues as to function. The plan is drawn at a scale of 1:28, but it is not entirely accurate in proportion (for instance the size of the doorways).

Fig. 2: Turin Papyrus 1885 (Theban Mapping Project)

In its most complete form, a tomb could have thirteen elements in total, for convenience now numbered A to M by Egyptologists. The tomb of Seti I (KV 17) is known for having all of them, with element M being the long tunnel extending beyond Chamber J (fig. 3) One of the smallest tombs in the Valley is KV 1 of Ramesses VII with only four elements (A, B, J and K). All of these elements (A–M) actually have an ancient Egyptian name. For instance the burial chamber, J, is called “The Hall in which One Rests” or “The House of Gold”. I would like to discuss here some architectural elements and features, which are sometimes overlooked because visitors are often overwhelmed by and drawn to the fantastic iconography, and so pay less attention to its architecture.

Fig. 3: Plan of the tomb of Seti I (Theban Mapping Project)

The beginning of things is always important, and that is also the case for the tombs discussed here: The Entrance Doorway/Corridor (element A). It has a suitable name: “Passage of the Way of Shu or “The Open air corridor”. This element dates from the time of Ramesses II (KV 7) to that of Ramesses XI (KV 4). It is decorated with a lintel depicting the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, each flanking and adoring the yellow morning sun disk, which encircles Atum and Khepri. It summarises what was the initial idea of the tomb: the deceased kings’ nocturnal journey through the netherworld and his rebirth.

We now skip B and move to Corridor C. This corridor is found in all of the Valley tombs except KV 1 (Ramesses VII). KV 20 (Hatshepsut) has two corridor Cs! This part of the tomb was called “The Third God’s Passage [of Re]” or “The Hall Wherein They Rest”. But who were “they”? Maybe the recesses of corridor C, an easily overlooked feature, provide us some clues. A good example occurs in KV 2 (Ramesses IV) (fig. 4). These recesses (sometimes translated as sanctuaries) are called: “The Recesses in which the Gods of the East/West Reside”. Not all tombs had these recesses, and they could vary in measurements. Maybe the open spaces offered room for statues/statuettes of the Gods of the east/west?

Fig. 4: Corridor C in the tomb of Ramesses IV (Theban Mapping Project)

In Corridor D, “The Fourth God’s Passage [of Re]” we encounter a similar architectural feature as the recesses in C. These niches are called in ancient Egyptian “The Two Doorkeepers’ Rooms”. The name suggest that two guardians were here symbolically posted to block further access into the tomb (fig. 5). The two guardians from the tomb of Tutankhamun come to mind. It has been suggested that Corridor D marked the beginning of the most sacred part of the tomb and was officially sealed with stone and plaster after the burial had been installed.

Fig. 5: Niche for “doorkeepers” (Theban Mapping Project)

We move to Hall F. It is the second hall in line and is called “The Chariot Hall” or “Another Hall of Repelling the Rebels” or “What is in it [Chamber F]: four pillars”. In the tombs of Seti I and Amenhotep III, some remnants of chariots were indeed found. The pillars must have played a role in this room, either functional or symbolic, although this not exactly clear to us. There were not always four pillars by the way, some tombs had two and other had even six pillars. It is typical for hall F that there is:

in the earliest Eighteenth Dynasty tombs a ninety degree shift in its axis,
in the lateEighteenth/earlyNineteenth Dynasty, the tombs axis jogged left in F, with a staircase leading down to the feature G,
in the lateNineteenth/earlyTwentieth Dynasty, F had a central ramp/stairway,
in the late Twentieth Dynasty there were sloping floors without steps.

Hall F brings us to another interesting architectural feature; the side rooms. Only six tombs in the Valley had a F hall had side rooms, called usually Fa, Fb, etc, and they are typically dating to the lateNineteenth orTwentieth Dynasty tombs. Some side rooms had pillars, some were not finished or uncompleted but they have all in common being cut on the right sight of F except for KV 17 (Seti I) which was cut through the rear wall.

The most important chamber of the tomb was the Burial Chamber J: “The Hall in which One Rests” referring to the body and “The House of Gold” probably referring to the golden shrines that surrounded the body as one can see on the plan of the Turin papyri mentioned earlier in this blogpost. You would expect all tombs had one, but KV 10 of Amenmesse and KV 18 of Ramesses X had none for the simple reason that both tombs were never finished.

Fig. 6: Osiris in the niche in the tomb of Horemheb (Theban Mapping Project)

Chamber J often had additional rooms, sometimes multiple ones but from lateTwentieth Dynasty onwards they were no longer included. They are labelled J-a/J-d and are associated with Osiris, who is often represented in the niches (fig. 6). The most important side room seems to be labelled J-a, as all in situ sarcophagi from earlyEighteenth until the early Nineteenth Dynasty were orientated towards the entrance to this room. According to Thomas (1966, 279), the contents of this room was “intended to facilitate the king’s journey through the underworld and his successful transformation into Osiris”.

Fig. 7: Beam being used to lower the sarcophagus (Theban Mapping Project)

Another architectural element apart from the elements A–M that is easily overlooked when visiting the tombs are the technical features such as the beam holes. Recesses were cut in pairs in corridor walls opposite each other, one square and the other rectangular. Wooden beams would be inserted into the holes and ropes attached to the beam and sarcophagus to facilitate its descent into the tomb (fig. 7). Speaking of the latter, have you ever noticed how the sarcophagus is placed on the floors? It could be positioned in various ways; on the floor itself, on a plinth, or even set into the floor like the sarcophagus of Ramesses VII in KV 1 (fig. 8).