Wadi A-2
Anonymous (Baraize's Tomb)
Entryway A
See entire tombA pit cut into the platform of a waterworn cleft in a cliff provides access to a stepped entryway leading into the tomb. The original Steps are broken and the ceiling above the steps is eroded.
Burial chamber B
See entire tombThis large chamber lies on axis with the tomb's entrance and is unplastered and undecorated. The center part of the ceiling has collapsed and a shallow recess was cut into the floor of the southwestern corner.
Gate C
See entire tombThis gate is cut into the eastern side of the main chamber and provides access to another chamber. The gate is unplastered and undecorated and the thicknesses are broken. The gate's blocking stones were still present on the floor of the gate when the tomb was surveyed by the TMP.
Chamber C
See entire tombThis rectangular chamber lies perpendicular to the tomb's axis and is unplastered and undecorated. The ceiling has eroded and the floor is uneven.
About
About
Wadi A-2, also known as ‘Baraize’s tomb’ is located approximately 200 m south of Hatshepsut’s Wadi A-1 and is cut into the same line of cliffs that form the eastern border of Wadi A. As with Hatshepsut’s tomb, it is some 70 m above the valley floor and is well hidden, especially as it was cut behind a vertical ridge of rock deep within a water worn cleft. The tomb consists of a very steep stepped entryway (A) opening into a large Burial chamber (B) with a smaller, roughly rectangular chamber (C) lying to the east. In the southern corner of burial chamber B, a shallow rectangular recess was cut into the floor. Piers Litherland has noted that as with Hatshepsut’s Wadi A-1 tomb, Menhet, Menwi and Merti’s tomb (Wadi D-1), and Neferure’s tomb (Wadi C-1), the cliff face below the entrance to Wadi A-2 had been cut back to impede access.
The tomb appears to have been robbed in ancient times. It was rediscovered by locals from the West Bank, who subsequently pointed out its location to Howard Carter (1916-1917), as well as Émile Baraize (1921). Baraize excavated the tomb in 1921, finding a dressed stone block with a layer of mortar at the entrance suggesting that the tomb had been blocked. He also discovered a bit of gold leaf, the neck and stopper of a pottery jug, and fragments of a cosmetic jar’s alabaster lid. While the owner remains anonymous, the tomb’s location within the cliffs, proximity to Hatshepsut’s tomb, and nature of the objects found within the tomb indicate that it most likely belonged to an 18th Dynasty Queen.
Site History
The tomb was constructed in the 18th Dynasty and plundered in antiquity.
Dating
This site was used during the following period(s):
Exploration
Conservation
Site Condition
The tomb was last cleared by the New Kingdom Research Foundation. The ceiling in Chamber B had collapsed, as noted by Baraize in 1921. Due to its distant location and the dangerous nature of its entry, the tomb is not open to public visitation.
Articles
Tomb Numbering Systems in the Valley of the Queens and the Western Wadis
Latest Discovery in Wadi C (2022)
Geography and Geology of the Valley of the Queens and Western Wadis
Bibliography
Baraize, Émile. Rapport sur la Découverte d'un Tombeau de la XVIII Dynastie a Sikket Taget Zayed. Annales du service des Antiquités de L'Egypte 21 (1921): 183-187.
Carter, Howard. A Tomb prepared from Queen Hatshepsut and other Recent Discoveries at Thebes. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 4 no. 2/3 (1917): 107-118.
Lilyquist, Christine with contributions by James E. Hoch and A.J. Peden. The Tomb of Three Foreign Wives of Tuthmosis III. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
Litherland, Piers. The western wadis of the Theban necropolis: a re-examination of the western wadis of the Theban necropolis by the joint-mission of the Cambridge Expedition to the Valley of the Kings and the New Kingdom Research Foundation, 2013-2014. London: New Kingdom Research Foundation, 2014.
Thomas, Elizabeth. The Royal Necropoleis of Thebes. Princeton: privately printed, 1966.
