Pillared chamber 3 is the largest chamber found to date in KV 5 and one of the largest known from the Valley of the Kings. Its flat ceiling is supported by sixteen pillars, a number not equalled in any other tomb in the Valley. Seven gates lead through its walls to other chambers and corridors. These gates lie at three different floor levels, evidence of the several architectural changes made to pillared chamber 3, all perhaps during the reign of Rameses II.
It is possible that the front (northwest) half of pillared chamber 3 originally constituted a transverse chamber which, together with chamber 1 and burial chamber 2, formed a Dynasty 18 tomb. The chamber would have had a row of four pillars down its midline and a long, high recess in the center of the rear (southeast) wall. When pillared chamber 3 was enlarged, creating a single chamber with sixteen pillars, the two central pillars 3(f) and 3(g) lay where the recess had been cut and therefore had to have their upper parts constructed of cut blocks.
At some point after gates 4, 5, and 6 were cut, the floor between the chamber's front wall and its first row of pillars was lowered by about 60 cm (2 feet) and gates 12 and 20 were cut. Then the floor was restored to its original height by laying down a thick layer of limestone chips and plastering it over with dark plaster. This raised floor sloped downward to the northeast and southwest, next to gates 12 and 20.
Pillars
Excavated
Cutting finished
Decorated
Decoration damaged
Damaged structurally
Height: 2.63 m Irregular
Width: 15.44 m Irregular
Length: 15.64 m Irregular
Area: 244.16 m²
Volume: 582.94 m³
Orientation: 0° from burial chamber 2
Number of pillars: 16
Average pillar width: 1.05 m
Deceased with deities Front (northwest) face of pillar 3(f)
Deceased with deities Front (northwest) face of pillar 3(b)
Deceased with deities Left (northeast) face of pillar 3(k)
Deceased with deities Left (northeast) face of pillar 3(g)
Deceased with deities Right (southwest) face of pillar 3(e)
Deities: traces of a goddess Right (southwest) wall
Opening of the Mouth ritual: four princes seated before Iwnmutef priest with altar, repeated on both halves of wall Front (northwest) wall
Hieratic text: "Year 19, the continuation [or completion] of the work" [between face of pillars 3(h) and 3(l) and wall] Ceiling
Hieratic text: extremely faint, but apparently reading RA-a Front (northwest) face of pillar 3(g)
Modern European language text: "Burton 1825" [between face of pillars 3(h) and 3(l) and wall] Ceiling
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Printable Tomb Drawings
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