Anatomy of a Tomb: Ancient and Modern Designations for Chambers and Features
What was in a royal tomb?
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Tomb
- KV 1: Rameses VII
- KV 7: Rameses II
- KV 11: Rameses III
- KV 17: Sety I
- KV 2: Rameses IV
- KV 6: Rameses IX
- KV 8: Merenptah
- KV 9: Rameses V and Rameses VI
- KV 10: Amenmeses
- KV 20: Thutmes I and Hatshepsut
- KV 22: Amenhetep III
- KV 34: Thutmes III
- KV 35: Amenhetep II
- KV 47: Siptah
- KV 4: Rameses XI
- KV 57: Horemheb
- KV 13: Bay
- KV 14: Tausert and Setnakht
- KV 15: Sety II
- KV 23: Ay
- KV 25: Unknown
- KV 3: Son of Rameses III
- KV 01: Rameses VII
- KV 16: Rameses I
- KV 19: Mentuherkhepeshef
- KV 24: Unknown
- KV 37: Unknown
- KV 38: Thutmes I
- KV 44: Unknown
- KV 45: Userhat
- KV 55: Tiye (?) or Akhenaten (?)
- KV 62: Tutankhamen
- KV 12: Unknown
- KV 18: Rameses X
- KV 21: Unknown
- KV 26: Unknown
- KV 27: Unknown
- KV 28: Unknown
- KV 29: Unknown
- KV 30: Unknown
- KV 31: Unknown
- KV 32: Tia'a
- KV 33: Unknown
- KV 36: Maiherperi
- KV 39: Amenhetep I (?)
- KV 40: Unknown
- KV 41: Unknown
- KV 42: Hatshepsut-Meryet-Ra
- KV 43: Thutmes IV
- KV 46: Yuya and Thuyu
- KV 48: Amenemipet
- KV 49: Unknown
- KV 50: Unknown
- KV 51: Unknown
- KV 52: Unknown
- KV 53: Unknown
- KV 54: Tutankhamen cache
- KV 56: Unknown
- KV 58: Unknown
- KV 59: Unknown
- KV 5: Sons of Rameses II
- KV 60: Sit-Ra, called In (?)
- KV 61: Unknown
Period
Ownership
- Rameses VII
- Rameses II
- Merenptah
- Rameses III
- Rameses IV
- Rameses IX
- Rameses V and Rameses VI
- Sety I
- Amenhetep II
- Amenhetep III
- Amenmeses
- Horemheb
- Rameses XI
- Siptah
- Thutmes I and Hatshepsut
- Thutmes III
- Unknown
- Ay
- Bay
- Sety II
- Son of Rameses III
- Tausert and Setnakht
- Mentuherkhepeshef
- Rameses I
- Thutmes I
- Tiye (?) or Akhenaten (?)
- Tutankhamen
- Userhat
- Amenemipet
- Amenhetep I (?)
- Hatshepsut-Meryet-Ra
- Maiherperi
- Rameses X
- Sit-Ra, called In (?)
- Sons of Rameses II
- Thutmes IV
- Tia'a
- Tutankhamen cache
- Yuya and Thuyu
Decoration
Brock, Edwin C. The Clearance of the Tomb of Rameses VII. In: Richard H. Wilkinson (ed.). Valley of the Sun Kings: New Explorations in the Tombs of the Pharaohs. Tucson: University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition, 1995. Pp. 47-63.
Appears in:
Cauville, Sylvie and Mohammed Ibrahim Ali. La Vallée des Rois: Itinéraire du Visiteur. Leuven: Peeters, 2014. Pp. 205-221.
Appears in:
Dodson, Aidan. Royal Tombs in the Twentieth Dynasty. In: Richard H. Wilkinson and Kent R. Weeks (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. 218-229.
Appears in:
Engelbach, Reginald. Notes of Inspection April 1921. Annales du Service des Antiquités égyptiennes 21 (1921): 188-196.
Appears in:
Funerary Compositions
From the end of Dynasty 5 onward, religious texts were inscribed in the burial chambers of royal tombs.
Geography and Geology of the Valley
The Valley of the Kings actually consists of two valleys that run northeast from the slopes of a prominent ridge along a high plateau into the Western Desert.
Historical Development of the Valley of the Kings
The reasons New Kingdom kings chose the East Valley of the Kings for their burials are unclear.
History of the Valley of the Kings: Third Intermediate Period to the Byzantine Period
At the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt entered a period of political and economic decline.
Hornung, Erik. Das Buch von den Pforten des Jenseits: Nach den Versionen des Neuen Reiches. Aegyptiaca Helvetica. Basel: Agyptologisches Seminar 7/8 (1979-1980).
Appears in:
Hornung, Erik. Zum Grab Ramses VII. Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 11 (1984): 419-424.
Appears in:
Lefebvre, Eugene. Les hypogée royaux de Thèbes, seconde division: Notes des hypogées. (= Mémoires publiés par les members de la Mission archéologique française au Caire 3, 1). Paris, 1889.
Appears in:
Piankoff, Alexandre. Vallée des Rois à Thebes-Ouest : La tombe de Ramses VII. Annales du Service des Antiquités égyptiennes 55 (1958) : 145-156.
Appears in:
Piankoff, Alexandre. La Création du Disc solaire (= Bibliothèque égyptologique, 19) Paris, 1953.
Appears in:
Reeves, Nicholas and Richard Wilkinson. The Complete Valley of the Kings. London: Thames and Hudson, and Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1996. Pp. 166-167 et passim.
Appears in:
Thomas, Elizabeth. The Royal Necropoleis of Thebes. Princeton : privately printed, 1966. Pp. 130-131 et passim.
Appears in:
Tomb Robberies
From the day they were first sealed in antiquity, treasure-filled tombs in the Valley of the Kings were potential targets for theft.