Books of the Dead

I was sitting on the hotel roof terrace looking through my notes and trying to make sense of the scenes I had spent my time looking at in the tombs. It was useful to have visited the royal tombs in chronological order as I could now list the progression of the funerary art. When I first came to Egypt, like many tourists, I had assumed that the ancient Egyptians were obsessed by death, often spending much of their life building a last resting place for themselves and their families and preserving their bodies in a state of everlasting eternity. I gradually came to realise that it was not death itself that they were so engrossed in, but a complex belief system which provided a place for them in the afterlife – what we in the west would perhaps think of as Heaven. Having spent most of the past two weeks in tombs, I had begun to build up a clearer picture of this belief system, which differed quite a lot between the royal tombs, the nobles tombs and those of lesser mortals.

The earliest of the texts relating to the afterlife appear in the Old Kingdom and can be see in some of the earliest pyramids (Unas, Teti etc.) which I had not yet visited. These are known to us as the ‘Pyramid Texts’. After this period, parts of the funerary writings began to appear on private coffins, on papyri and on the walls of private tombs and these became known as ‘Coffin Texts’ and were a distillation of the ‘Pyramid Texts’. They were basically a guide book for the deceased and could have been entitled, ‘What to do When you Die’….  Sometime during the Second Intermediate Period (around 1650-1550 BC), the ‘Book of the Dead’ appeared, consisting of about 200 spells (or chapters) which were gleaned mostly from the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts along with other funerary instructions and the whole collection became known as the ‘Amduat’. By the New Kingdom, most of the funerary books were virtually confined to the walls of royal tombs, just as they had decorated the pyramid walls for the pharaohs centuries before and it was these texts we had been studying in the Valley of the Kings. Following is a potted description of New Kingdom royal tomb decoration. Unfortunately there are several gaps in the chronological order as these were only the tombs that were open.

The Tomb of Tuthmose III
Here the complete stick-man version of the ‘Amduat’ was laid out in all its glory. It depicted the King’s journey from the point of death, through the twelve hours of darkness in the barque of Re, up to his rebirth in the realm of the gods. We also saw here the ‘Litany of Re’ on the pillars, which shows the King’s eventual union with the sun god and other deities.

The Tomb of Amenhotep II
This tomb was similar to that of his predecessor with the same deep blue starry ceiling and the same stick figures of the ‘Amduat’. But there was progress too, in that for the first time some of the figures were fully drawn, depicting the King performing rituals before the gods.

The Tomb of Tuthmose IV
Only parts of the well-room and antechamber here were decorated with fully-drawn figures of the King before deities. The goddesses all looked identical except for different and often beautiful and intricate designs on their dresses, so it was difficult to tell them apart without reading the hieroglyphs. Due to the hasty completion of the tomb however, the burial chamber was left undecorated and there were no funerary books we could follow.

The Tomb of Tutankhamun
I found this tomb very different to all the other royal tombs, in that the pictures in the sunken burial chamber were almost life-sized and drawn to a different proportion. (The Canon of Proportion relates to the size of the grid square used in sketching figures during different periods). The walls of the burial chamber show the King before the gods and the only passing nod to the funerary books is on the west wall which shows the baboons from the first hour of the ‘Amduat’.

The Tomb of Ay
The successor to Tutankhamun, Ay, was buried in the Western Valley. While the structure is larger than Tutankhamun’s tomb, the decoration is similar with several identical scenes, possibly done by the same artists. Again, only the burial chamber was decorated, with the same solid golden background and the baboons representing the ‘Amduat’. The main difference in this tomb is a large scene on the east wall depicting hunting and fishing in the marshes – a scene unique in royal tombs and more often encountered in private tombs.

The Tomb of Rameses I
This king had a very short reign and his tomb reflects this in its size, much smaller and simpler compared to other Ramesside tombs. Once more, only the burial chamber was decorated but had lovely saturated colours on a grey background. The predecessor of Rameses I was Horemheb (whose tomb was closed for restoration) and it was there that the ‘Book of Gates’ first appeared. The complete ‘Amduat’ had been dispensed with and the burial chamber of Rameses I displayed instead the twelve hours of the night, now referred to as the twelve ‘Gates’. The ‘Book of Gates’ was actually part of the collective ‘Amduat’. On a large scene on the west wall, the king stands before Osiris and a scarab-headed aspect of the sun god, Khepri. The placing of this scene in the burial chamber is significant, as in later tombs it usually appears at the entrance to the tomb.

The Tomb of Merenptah
We had to skip a couple of generations as the tombs of Seti I and Rameses II were not open and we were now looking at the tomb of Merenptah, son and successor to Rameses II. Extensive flooding over the centuries has destroyed much of the painting here but we could see that the tomb had been completely decorated. The first three corridors contained passages from the ‘Litany of Re’, a hymn to the sun god, as was first portrayed on the pillars in the tomb of Tuthmose III. This was followed by selected texts and images from the ‘Amduat’. In the four-pillared hall, the familiar ‘Amduat’ was replaced by scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’, which we also saw in the burial chamber. The ‘Book of Gates’ lists the magical formulae needed to enter each of the twelve gates of the underworld. A vestibule before the burial chamber was a new addition to Ramesside tomb plans and here we saw scenes from the ‘Book of the Dead’ for the first time. These texts, more accurately called the ‘Spell for Coming Forth by Day’, were a collection of spells which were first used by commoners and taken mostly from the earlier Pyramid and Coffin Texts. The best known scene from these texts is the judgement scene in which the deceased appears before Osiris and 42 assessors representing aspects of ma’at (divine order). The heart of the deceased is weighed against a feather (again representing ma’at). Questions are asked of the deceased and the answers are known as the ‘negative confession’. If the deceased is found lacking, he is gobbled up by the demon, Ammut the Devourer. Needless to say the pictures in the judgement scene always show a favourable outcome. The purpose of including the ‘Book of the Dead’ in tombs and coffins was so that the deceased would not need to memorise the correct formula for the answers to the 42 questions. Traditional ‘Amduat’ scenes in the burial chamber were replaced by solar imagery from the ‘Book of Caverns’.

The Tomb of Seti II
The first corridor in the tomb of Seti II showed the ‘Litany of Re’ in both raised and sunk relief of a superb quality, a departure in Ramesside tomb decoration so far. Going deeper into the tomb the paintings were less skilfully done but here we saw passages from the ‘Amduat’ and in the well-room, in another departure from traditional decoration there were pictures of funerary objects. The pillared hall contained the usual scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’ but on the pillars there were scenes as well as figures of the King, a style which was used in successive tomb decoration. The burial chamber contained more scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’ and had the goddess Nut with outstretched arms on the ceiling.

The Tomb of Siptah
The upper passages in the tomb of Siptah contained scenes from the ‘Litany of Re’ and the ‘Amduat’ and the ceilings were painted with flying vultures. It followed a similar plan to previous Ramesside tombs, but was a little more elaborate in architecture, even though all of the lower corridors, the well-room, antechamber and burial chamber remained undecorated.

The Tomb of Tawosret and Sethnakht
Queen Tawosret, wife of Seti II, reigned briefly as pharaoh after the death of her son Siptah. Tawosret’s tomb, next to that of her husband, was usurped and completed by the first king of he 20th Dynasty, Sethnakht. It is one of the largest tombs in the Kings Valley and its various stages of completion were reflected in its decoration, although of all the funerary texts, only the ‘Book of Gates’ and the ‘Book of Coming Forth by Day’ were represented here.

The Tomb of Rameses III
The tomb of Rameses III is another very large tomb and has some unusual and beautiful decoration. Side chambers off the upper corridors contain paintings of secular scenes including objects from the treasury, boats, various pots and vessels and the famous blind harpists. All four of the funerary books we had seen so far (‘Amduat’, ‘Litany of Re’, ‘Book of Gates’ and ‘Book of the Dead’) are represented here as well as, in the burial chamber, sections from the ‘Book of the Divine Cow’ and the ‘Book of the Earth’. The ‘Book of the Divine Cow’ is part of a collection of late New Kingdom texts known as the ‘Books of the Heavens’ which describe the sun’s passage through the daytime sky. The ‘Book of the Earth’ is a 20th Dynasty funerary text describing the sun’s nocturnal journey through the underworld.

The Tomb of Rameses IV
A less elaborately constructed tomb, but with some new elements. The wide upper corridors depict traditional scenes from the ‘Litany of Re’. The third corridor has a new text however, depicting scenes from the first and second divisions of the ‘Book of Caverns’, which is about the punishments metered out to the demons of the underworld, conquered by the sun god. An antechamber shows sections from the ‘Book of the Dead’, including the Negative Confession and in the burial chamber there are the traditional scenes from the ‘Amduat’ and ‘Book of Gates’ as well as parts of another newer text, the ‘Books of the Heavens’ on the ceiling. A short passage behind the burial chamber again contains initial scenes from the ‘Book of Caverns’ as well as images of the king (or his ushabtis) and funerary objects – a couch, a chest and canopic jars.

The Tomb of Rameses V & VI
This tomb was begun by Rameses V and completed by Rameses VI and the decoration throughout is in sunk relief with well-preserved painted scenes on a creamy background. In the upper corridors we see sections from both the ‘Book of Gates’ and the ‘Book of Caverns’ while an astronomical ceiling in the long sloping passage contains scenes from the ‘Book of Night’ and the ‘Book of Day’, which are parts of the ‘Books of the Heavens’. The lower corridors contain scenes from the ‘Amduat’ and again the ‘Books of the Heavens’ on the ceiling. In the burial chamber the ‘Book of the Earth’ occurs in a more complete form. This text (also called the ‘Book of Aker’), deals with the mystery of the creation of the solar disc and the god’s (and hence the king’s) journey out into the light. A double image of the goddess Nut on the ceiling represents her nocturnal and diurnal aspects and the part she plays in the ‘Book of the Day’ and ‘Book of the Night’.

The Tomb of Rameses VII
The decoration in the small tomb of Rameses VII follows that of Rameses VI but has only a single wide sloping corridor containing scenes from the first division of the ‘Book of Gates’ on the left. The initial scenes from the ‘Book of Caverns’ on the right, depicts divinities paying homage to the dying sun god Re. On either side the king is depicted as an Osiris, a strong theme in this tomb. The burial chamber again contains scenes from the ‘Book of the Earth’ (‘Book of Aker’) and a double-Nut ceiling.

The Tomb of Rameses IX
The final open royal tomb in the King’s Valley was that of Rameses IX and the decoration here contained scenes from many of the funerary books we had previously seen in other Ramesside tombs. The decoration in first corridor goes back to the traditional ‘Litany of Re’ (representing the resurrection of the pharaoh) for the first time since the tomb of Rameses IV, but also with parts of the ‘Book of Caverns’ too. Other corridors contain scenes from the ‘Book of the Dead’, the ‘Book of Caverns’ and the ‘Amduat’ and lovely astronomical ceilings. In the third corridor there are depictions of the King as an Osiris as well as some cryptographic details from a previously unknown funerary book. On the vaulted ceiling of the burial chamber we saw again the beautiful double representation of Nut from the ‘Books of the Heavens’ and on the walls, scenes from the ‘Book of Caverns’, ‘Book of the Earth’ and the ‘Amduat‘.

Phew… The King had quite a way to travel once he was dead and on a long arduous journey which got more complicated and convoluted as time went on. The later Ramesside tombs were very beautiful and in some, the quality of workmanship was superb. The structures themselves generally got larger and more complex too. But most of all I loved the earlier tombs for their simplicity. I felt the difference was like comparing a small country church to a huge gothic cathedral. I was overawed in the later tombs. Even more, I loved the nobles tombs scattered everywhere about the West Bank. But that’s another story!

Tombs of Rameses VII & IX

Journal: Sunday 15 March 1998

Robin was staying here another week but I was due to return home next day, so we needed to go to the King’s Valley to visit the last two open tombs we had not yet seen and to complete our study. These were the tombs of Rameses VII and Rameses IX. When we arrived at the ticket office our friend Inspector Hamdi was nowhere to be seen, as he wasn’t expecting us, but he turned up after a few minutes – someone must have told him we were there.

The tomb of Rameses VII (KV1) is right at the entrance to the King’s Valley a little way back from the road and like some of the other Ramesside tombs it has been open since antiquity. Although it is Ramesside in plan, and similar in decoration to that of Rameses VI, it is a much smaller tomb than those of the king’s recent ancestors, consisting of only one corridor and a burial chamber. The outer lintel, similar to the other tombs, was decorated with the traditional sundisc and scarab, flanked by Isis and Nephthys below the king’s names. In the wide corridor, the fine quality relief decoration is unusual – in place of the Litany of Re there are two scenes. On the left-hand side, the king is seen before an altar offering to the falcon-headed solar god Re-Horakhty-Atum-Khepri, and on the right before Ptah-Sokar-Osiris with a hymn to the gods of the Underworld. Further along, the initial scene and first division from the ‘Book of Gates’ (the barque of Re being pulled through the Underworld) can be seen on the left, with the first scenes from the ‘Book of Caverns’ (the divinities paying homage to the dying sun-god) on the right. On either side the king is depicted as an Osiris, being purified by the Iun-Mutef priest. The ceiling of the corridor is decorated with vultures and the king’s cartouches.
 
There is no well-room or antechamber and the corridor leads straight into a sarcophagus hall. The entrance wall illustrates two goddesses; on the right a composite goddess Sekhmet-Bubastis-Wert-Hekau and on the left, Wert-Hekau (‘Great of Magic’) each facing the doorway. Scenes from the ‘Book of Aker’ (the double-headed lion which symbolises the horizon) and the ‘Book of the Earth’ appear on the walls and the north wall also depicts Osiris as ‘Chief of the Westerners’. An astronomical ceiling features the goddess Nut stretching across the heavens with the decans and constellations. Beyond the burial chamber is another small chamber with a niche. It’s outer walls show the king facing the doorway on each side and offering to aspects of Osiris on the inner walls. The wall above the niche illustrates the barque of the sun containing baboons from the ‘Book of Gates’ supported by djed-pillars on the sides of the niche. The sarcophagus itself was cut directly into the floor of the tomb and over this hollow was placed a massive stone covering, decorated with the usual incised figures of Isis, Nephthys, Selkis and the Four Sons of Horus. This is still in place, with an opening at its foot where the body of the king was removed. The mummy of Rameses VII has not yet been found.

The larger tomb of Rameses IX (KV6) was found opposite the tomb of Rameses II near the entrance to the main part of the Valley. This has also been open since antiquity. It continues the Ramesside style although some of the decoration is not completely traditional. Even though the king reigned for 18 years, only the first corridor was completely decorated by the time of the pharaoh’s death and the corridor beyond the pillared hall was hastily enlarged to house the king’s sarcophagus. The first corridor is very similar to the previous tomb with the usual decoration that has become familiar in tombs of this period, but on the south wall the king is in a kiosk, in an unconventional scene offering to a form of Amun-Re-Horakhty with four rams heads and to Meretseger, the goddess of the Western Mountain. The first division of the ‘Book of Caverns’ is illustrated on this wall. There are four niches off the first corridor which show the king’s names on the jambs and the first one of these on the right may have been cut short because it ran into KV55 next to it. The ceiling is decorated with vultures and the king’s names. The second corridor depicts scenes from the ‘Litanies of Re’, the ‘Book of the Dead’ and the ‘Book of Caverns’. An astronomical ceiling shows constellations and decans lists. In the third corridor the south wall has scenes from the ‘Amduat’ with representations of Underworld deities and some hieratic graffiti. On the opposite wall are scenes of the king offering to Ma’at, Ptah and the king as Osiris, with more hieratic graffiti. The astronomical ceiling shows pictures of divine barques and processions of gods in yellow on a dark blue background. This tomb, unlike that of Rameses VII, contains a well room which  illustrates priests officiating in the ritual of the ‘Opening of the Mouth’. There is a winged disc and the king’s names on the outer lintel of the four-pillared hall, but it was otherwise left undecorated.

The tomb of Rameses IX extends beyond the pillared hall with a corridor which was turned into the burial chamber at the king’s death and which depicts, on the south and north walls, scenes from the ‘Book of Caverns’, ‘Book of the Earth’ and the ‘Amduat’. The ceiling is similar to that in the burial chamber of Rameses VI, showing Nut swallowing the sun in a double scene of the ‘Book of the Night’. The divine barque is pulled by jackals. The floor of the burial chamber was cut to contain the king’s coffin though no traces of a lid has been found. The mummy of Rameses IX was found in the Deir el-Bahri cache (DB320) in 1881, still with its floral garlands in a re-used coffin.

There were still very few other tourists coming to the Valley and during the three hours or so we spent in these two tombs I hadn’t seen another soul. It was so quiet and peaceful due to the tragic events of November 1997 and I knew I would never see the King’s Valley so empty again. After we had finished in the tombs we took Hamdi to the resthouse for a drink and to thank him properly for all his invaluable help and interest. It had been a wonderful opportunity to have him all to ourselves and to share our discussions actually in situ. I sat there with a Coke and wondered how I would ever afford to develop the 35 films I had taken over the past couple of weeks, mostly pictures from the Kings’ tombs. It was a sad moment when we finally said goodbye but we all promised to keep in touch and meet again next time.

I spent the afternoon visiting the good friends I had made in several Egyptian families, saying goodbye and wishing everyone a better year than the past one. It had been a very sad few months for my friends on the West Bank with so few tourists here and times were hard for everyone. My gloomy mood was not improved by the dense cloud which was covering the sun today, it looked like we could be in for another sandstorm. In the evening, Robin and I celebrated my last night here with a meal at the Tutankhamun restaurant, which is always so enjoyable and I went off early to bed after promising to come back soon.

Rameses V & VI Tombs

Journal: Wednesday 11 March 1998

After Abydos, we had a slow and lazy start to the day, but by lunchtime Robin and I were once more in the Valley of the Kings ready to get back to our self-imposed study of the tombs. We were now into the Rameside tombs of Dynasty 20 and today it was to be the joint tomb of the kings Rameses V and VI. KV9, situated just behind the tomb of Tutankhamun, was open from antiquity and known to the Romans as the Tomb of Memnon –  Memnonia being the name the Graeco-Romans gave to the whole West Bank monument area and a large amount of early graffiti was left in the tomb by those early tourists. The mound of rubble from the clearance of this tomb was what prevented Tutankhamun’s tomb being discovered earlier, because the debris actually covered the entrance.

The decoration from the entrance as far as the well-room was done for Rameses V but we don’t know for certain whether the pharaoh, who ruled for only four years, was ever buried in the tomb. It was completed by his successor Rameses VI whose sarcophagus fragments were found in the burial chamber. Here again at the entrance we saw the traditional scene of Isis and Nephthys kneeling at either side of the sun disc. The decoration throughout the tomb is in sunk relief with lovely well-preserved painted scenes on a creamy background. The corridors are wide and gently sloping, without the staircases and ramps of earlier tombs. The left-hand side of the first corridor shows the figure of Rameses V (usurped by his brother Rameses VI) before Re-Horakhty and Osiris, and the now-familiar scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’. On the right-hand side is a similar portrait of the king and scenes from the ‘Book of Caverns’. An astronomical ceiling contains scenes from the ‘Book of Night’ and the ‘Book of Day’. The second and third corridors are similarly painted with the ‘Book of Gates’ and ‘Book of Caverns’, with the addition of the ‘Book of the Divine Cow’ (part of the ‘Books of the Heavens’) on the left wall in the third corridor.

A well-room leads to a pillared hall, perhaps intended as a ‘false burial chamber’, cut and decorated by Rameses VI. The four pillars show scenes of the king offering to various deities. Here are scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’ and the ‘Book of Caverns’, with Rameses VI before Osiris (identified with the sun-god Re) in a double scene on the lintel over the descending passage. The astronomical ceiling continues from the well-room with constellations, decans list and the ‘Book of the Heavens’. A steeper descent leads to the fourth corridor which has depictions of Nekhbet and Meretseger as serpent goddesses and scenes from the ‘Amduat’ on the walls. The ‘Amduat’ is also featured in the next corridor. Here the tomb builders had to drop the level of the floor to avoid cutting in to KV12 above it, which resulted in the unique feature of having a sloping floor combined with a horizontal ceiling. An antechamber, with walls illustrating scenes from the ‘Book of the Dead’ and a ceiling describing the resurrection of Osiris, leads to the burial chamber of Rameses VI.

The walls of the burial chamber show various scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’ and the ‘Book of Aker’ (a new one for us) which deals with creation and the journey of the solar disc. This was the first appearance of ‘Book of the Earth’ in a royal burial chamber. The king offers to the gods on each of the sides of the two pillars. A superb vaulted astronomical ceiling is illustrated by a double image of Nut with the ‘Book of Night’ and the ‘Book of Day’ (‘Books of the Heavens’), showing the mystery of the daily regeneration of the solar disc. In the burial chamber is also the broken remains of a large granite outer sarcophagus of Rameses VI. Both of the mummies of Rameses V and VI were found with other royal mummies in the KV35 cache in 1898.

We had been in the tomb for a couple of hours and our friend Inspector Hamdi had caught up with us, so we had a lively discussion of the wide variety of funerary books here. He then suggested we went to look at the tomb of Mentuherkhopshef. A son of Rameses IX, this was the only prince’s tomb in the King’s Valley, in the eastern branch of the wadi near KV43. This was very different to the long Ramesside king’s tombs and seemed little more than a wide corridor, but is well worth visiting for it’s delicate paintings and beautiful soft colours on a white plastered background behind the glass-covered walls. I thought it was one of the most beautiful I had seen, depicting the young prince with his forelock of youth and wearing various very detailed costumes. The quarrying of the tomb was apparently abandoned and its original dedication texts show that it was first intended for a Prince Setherkhepshef and was later taken over for Mentuherkhopshef.

So, another really nice afternoon and Robin and I both felt that we had learned much more today about the funerary books because of the excellent illustrations in the Ramesside tomb. We had dinner at the Tutankhamun Restaurant down by the ferry. This is one of my favourite eating places in Luxor with superb food. Hag Mahmoud, the charming owner, prides himself on his delicious food and the dishes of soup, rice, and many and varied vegetables just kept appearing in front of us. There was actually much more than we could eat. Afterwards we had fruit and lovely ‘Ahwa Nobi‘ (Nubian’ coffee), while sitting on the restaurant roof looking across the colourful river to a brightly lit Luxor Temple.

Rameses IV and Afternoon Tea

Journal: Sunday 8 March 1998

Robin and I spent a lazy morning reading on the hotel roof. We had had a late night and couldn’t stir ourselves to do very much this morning so we put the time to good use writing up our notes and discussing the kings tombs we had seen so far. But of course before long this inspired us to get back to the Valley. Inspector Hamdi wasn’t around when we first got there so we went into KV2, the tomb of Rameses IV and the next on our list.

The tomb of Rameses IV is close to the entrance to the King’s Valley and has been open since antiquity. It has a large courtyard in front of it and is very long and straight, though thought not to have reached its intended length, as there is an architect’s original plan of this tomb drawn on Papyrus in Turin Museum, indicating that it should have been longer. Close to the entrance there are Coptic crosses drawn on the walls, suggesting that this tomb was once used as an early Christian church or perhaps a hermit’s dwelling. Otherwise it is fairly typical of later Ramesside tombs with a staircase and several long corridors. I saw again the familiar disc containing a scarab and ram-headed god Amun, flanked by Isis and Nephthys on the lintel as well as on the wall of the first corridor. Funerary texts in the tomb consist of the ‘Litany of Re’, the ‘Amduat’ and the ‘Book of Gates’ that we had seen in other tombs but also, for the first time was part of the ‘Book of Caverns’ which represents the perils of the sun god in the underworld and emphasises afterlife rewards and punishments. There were also sections from another set of funerary texts, the ‘Books of the Heavens’ which depict the Sun’s journey through the sky and replace some of the older astronomical texts. The tomb of Rameses IV has a warm feel, its colours of orange and gold formed the basis of elaborately carved and painted scenes.

The sarcophagus chamber was probably originally intended to be a pillared hall which would have preceded the actual burial chamber. Because the plan was abbreviated, no pillars were cut and a sarcophagus ‘pit’ was sunk into the floor. The massive red granite outer sarcophagus which was found in the tomb, was broken in antiquity, but has been restored and can be seen in the burial chamber. A further corridor beyond the burial chamber has the initial texts from the ‘Book of Caverns’ on its walls, but this is more crudely painted. This chamber opens into three annexes. The walls in the rooms to the south and north have mummiform depictions of the king, perhaps illustrating his ushabtis, while the room at the end of the corridor show other funerary objects (couch, chests and canopic jars). The body of Rameses IV was found among those royal mummies in KV35.

Back outside in the sunshine we met up with Hamdi and he invited us to his house for tea. It wasn’t far to go, so we all piled into the front of a service car for the short drive. Hamdi introduced us to his young wife, who was soon due to have their first child and we met his mother and also his brother Mohammed again. We were seated in the guest parlour which had been beautifully painted by Hamdi with hearts and flowers around the centre of the walls. A tray of sweet strong tea was brought in and placed before us. Mohammed is a stone carver and he showed us some of his lovely work and he gave us a demonstration of carving intricate hieroglyphs onto a scarab. We could see that these were the real thing and not the meaningless cursive strokes you sometimes see on souvenirs. They are a lovely family and I really enjoyed my time spent with them.

A Tomb and a Disco

Journal: Friday 6 March 1998

The morning dawned clear again, last night’s wind and sand had disappeared, leaving a thick dust on the balcony and piles of rubbish in corners of the street. In England I’m hopeless at getting up in the morning, but here in Egypt I feel like I don’t want to miss a minute of the day. This morning I was woken early by dogs barking nearby. It sounded like the whole village of dogs had urgent communications to make with each other. Then the gas-man came by, bringing his cart-load of bottled gas cylinders and beating them with a stick to advertise his presence. Robin and I had a quite lazy morning, crossing over to Luxor on the ferry to go and change some money and then to visit Gaddi’s bookshop. Hmm.. maybe I should have gone to the bookshop before I changed money, as I ended up buying several books. I would regret this later when I came to pack my suitcase to go home.

In the afternoon we were back in the King’s Valley with our faithful inspector, Hamdi and this time his brother Mohammed too. We went into the tomb of Rameses III (KV11), the 19th Dynasty king who had built his temple at Medinet Habu. The tomb is in the central part of the Valley, is very large, long and straight and was begun by his predecessor Setnakht, before he abandoned it to usurp another tomb. It is sometimes called ‘Bruce’s Tomb’, after the modern explorer, or the ‘Tomb of the Harpists’ because of it’s lovely relief of two blind harpists and has been open since antiquity. The design and decoration is fairly typical of the later Ramesside tombs but it has some interesting variations.

The entrance at the bottom of a steep staircase has the usual sun disc with scarab and ram-headed god on the lintel and inside the first corridor. Also in the entrance are two cow-headed pilasters on either side (which seem to be unique to this tomb). Texts from the ‘Litany of Re’ are depicted in the first corridor along with the usual scenes of the king before Re-Horakhty. Two niches or side-chambers open off the middle of the first corridor, uniquely decorated with pictures of bakers, cooks, butchers, brewers and a leather-worker in the east chamber, and pictures of sailing boats in the west chamber. The first three corridors were originally decorated for Sethnakht. The second corridor also depicts characters taken from the ‘Litany of Re’, with Anubis, Isis and Nephthys. There are eight side-rooms along the length of this corridor and each one is decorated with interesting and unusual pictures, including the famous blind harpists (for some reason harpists were often blind). The end of the second corridor turns a sharp right bend, where Sethnakht abandoned the tomb because he ran into the roof of the adjoining tomb of Amenmesse (KV10). Rameses relocated the axis to run parallel with the original and carried on further into the hillside.

The third corridor, decorated by Rameses III shows scenes from the ‘Amduat‘ and the ‘Book of Gates’ and leads into a ritual well-room before entering a hall with four pillars and a sloping floor. On the east side of the pillared hall are scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’ and representations of the four human races. The western side of this hall opens into an annex with scenes of Rameses being led by Thoth and Horus and being offered the feather of Ma’at by Osiris. Neith and Selket can be seen in the doorway. A barrier closes off  the entrance to the fourth corridor which descends further into the tomb towards a vestibule and the burial chamber, but we could see scenes from the ‘Opening of the Mouth Ritual’ and the king before various deities. The decoration of the eight-pillared burial chamber has suffered from severe flood damage but was evidently decorated with scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’ and the ‘Book of the Earth’. There is no astronomical ceiling. Side-chambers contain extracts from the ‘Book of the Divine Cow’ the ‘Book of Aker’ and the ‘Fields of Iaru’. At the end of the burial chamber is an extension of several further annexes. The red granite sarcophagus of Rameses III was sold to the King of France and is now in the Louvre. It’s lid, which was found by Belzoni was sold to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the mummy of the king is now in Cairo Museum. I loved the brightly coloured paintings in this tomb – there was so much to look at and so many funerary books to work out that we stayed most of the afternoon and felt that I could have spent even longer. I would have to come back!

Although it was late afternoon, Robin and I decided in a wild fit of energy that we would walk back over the mountain to Deir el-Bahri as we hadn’t arranged a taxi back today. We climbed the steep narrow path from the end of the King’s Valley up to the top of the mountain, hoping we wouldn’t get lost. The view from the top was truly spectacular, with the sun setting behind us and the cultivated area turning a bright gold. It was well worth the climb, even though someone tried to sell us ‘genuine antiquities’ while we were there admiring the view. The young man had materialised from behind a rock and we had to laugh as we didn’t imagine he’d find much trade up there, but maybe he was just on his way home. We were too late to visit Hatshepsut’s temple but walked down the mountain path and across Deir el-Bahri causeway to Asasif where we met a guard who showed us down into the massive tomb of Mentuemhet. This tomb was not open as it was being consolidated, but the courtyard was very large and fitting for this important character, a mayor of Thebes during the 25-26th Dynasties. By now it was almost dark so we walked down to the road and hopped on a passing arabeya back to Gezira.

In the evening we were invited to a party at the Novatel in Luxor by some of the staff at el-Gezira and we enjoyed an evening of Egyptian music and watched brilliant dancing by some young guys down from Cairo, which made a big contrast to spending so much time recently in tombs. Evening entertainment in Egypt never begins until about 10.30pm, so it was not until 4.00am that we finally got to bed, exhausted but happy.

Tombs of Merenptah & Siptah

Journal: Thursday 5 March 1998

Today, just for a change, Robin and I went to the King’s Valley in the morning instead of the afternoon. There were a few people around, but you could easily miss them among the cliffs and little hidden wadis. Hamdi the inspector met us again at the gate and knew that we wanted to see the next chronological tombs – those of 19th Dynasty pharaohs, Merenptah and Siptah. The tombs of Horemheb, Seti I and Rameses II were not open.

We found the tomb of Merenptah (KV8), a son of Rameses II, at the head of a branch of the King’s Valley which opens out behind his father’s burial place. It is a large but simply constructed tomb with a staircase and three descending corridors leading down from the entrance as far as the well room. In the entrance on the outer lintel a sun disc flanked by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys contain a ram-headed god and the Khepri beetle, and on the architrave the god Heh is seen kneeling with Isis and Hathor. The walls of the corridors show scenes from the ‘Litany of Re’, the Amduat, the ‘Book of Gates’ and the ‘Book of the Dead’ and the ceilings depict astronomical scenes. The painted reliefs in the first corridor are beautiful, but sadly they have been damaged by flooding. The well room contains pictures of the king before various deities. A pillared hall which surrounds the second staircase is decorated with scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’ with a winged Ma’at on the lintel above and an annex leads off to one side with some lovely well-preserved paintings. The tomb has been open since antiquity and on a pillar here there are Greek and Roman graffito left by early visitors. After another two corridors and a vestibule we came to the burial chamber, with its huge red granite sarcophagus lid. This is the second of four sarcophagi and another huge sarcophagus lid lies in the vestibule. The lid of the sarcophagus in the burial chamber is beautiful, showing the king lying with his crook and flail, a similar pose to knights tombs in English churches. As we progressed down the corridors we listed the funerary books, first the ‘Litany of Re’ then the ‘Amduat’. As we went deeper the ‘Amduat’ was replaced by the ‘Book of Gates’ and the ‘Book of the Dead’, while in the burial chamber itself were more scenes from the ‘Book of Gates’. This title refers to the twelve gates which divide the hours of the night. It was interesting to note the progression of the texts, with the solar texts nearer to the tomb entrance, then the king’s transformation and journey on the solar barque and in the deeper recesses of the tomb, Osiris, god of the Underworld was more in evidence. The ‘Opening of the Mouth’ ceremony was depicted in the lower corridors leading to the burial chamber. We also noticed that while the wall decoration near the tomb entrance was very well carved and painted, it seemed to get less sophisticated the deeper we went into the tomb. Perhaps this was because the King, who was quite elderly when he came to the throne, was in a hurry to complete his tomb before his death.

The tomb of Siptah (KV47) is in the south-west branch of the Valley. It is a long straight tomb with wide corridors like the later Ramesside tombs and like the previous tomb of Merenptah, it has a lovely relief of a youthful king with Re-Horakhty near the entrance, along with the sun-disc and scarab between Isis and Nephthys which was becoming a familiar motif. We saw again the ‘Litany of Re’ in the first corridor and a ceiling decorated with flying vultures and serpents. In another corridor there was a lovely scene of Isis and Nephthys with Anubis leaning over the bier of Osiris. The rest of the tomb was badly damaged by flooding both in antiquity and recently and most of the decoration is now gone, although fragments of paint still appear here and there, as well as masons guide-lines in red paint presumably for work which was never completed. At the end of the tomb is a transverse burial chamber, rough and undecorated, but still containing the red granite cartouche-shaped outer sarcophagus of the king. Vertical masons’ marks on the north wall reflect the row of four pillars along the south wall as though it was intended that more pillars were to be cut. It has been interesting to follow the chronological progression of decoration in the tombs, but we were a little disappointed that this one was undecorated in the lower parts.

After five hours spent in only two tombs, we were ready for a drink in the resthouse while we waited for Tayib, our taxi driver, to arrive. We went back to the el-Gezira Hotel for a late lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon writing up notes and discussing what we had learned. Robin and I agreed that this intensive study of the kings’ tombs in situ was much more fun than studying from books back home in England.

In the evening we met up with our English friend David and the three of us went for a meal at a new West Bank restaurant we had not tried before. On the way back the wind was very strong with dust blowing high into the air and into our eyes. After a very warm day it is surprising how cold the nights can be here in early spring and even in the relatively warm wind we were all bundled up in jackets and scarves as we walked down the deserted road. This was the season of the Khamseen, the ‘fifty day wind’ which always comes at this time of year. It is a wind that blows intermittently straight off the Sahara Desert in little puffs and gusts to begin with, then sometimes turns into full-blown sandstorms. The sand gets everywhere and dries and cracks everything it reaches. Tonight was not too bad, but we were glad to get back into the shelter of the hotel. There was no point in sitting up on the roof in this wind as the sky was veiled with grey dust, instead of the deep black star-studded heavens we were used to seeing.

Back to The Valley

Journal: Wednesday 4 March 1998

Staying on the West Bank is very convenient – except there is always the occasion when you want to pop over to Luxor, which Robin and I did this morning on the public ferry. We met up with our English friend David and Delia, a friend of his, who both have homes in Egypt. Lunch at the Amoun Cafe near the bazaar is always a delight and today we sat outside and chatted to several ex-pats who seem to congregate here once or twice a week. Other than David, none of them seemed to be particularly interested in the monuments, more in swapping recipes or complaining about the weather, which seemed perfect to me. However, this was a nice interlude and it was good to make some new friends. We didn’t stay on the East Bank very long, as we needed our daily dose of monuments.

We were soon in Tayib’s taxi on our way back to the King’s Valley, where Hamdi the antiquities inspector was waiting at the ticket office for us. This afternoon the Valley was again completely empty and I must say we felt rather honoured to have our own inspector to fend off the tomb guards. Today we wanted to see the next three open tombs in the sequence – Tuthmose IV, Tutankhamun and Rameses I.

Tuthmose IV, whose throne name was Menkheperure, sited his tomb high in the southern cliff of the Kings Valley. Found in 1903 by Howard Carter, it is numbered KV43 in the sequence of discovery. We walked up the steep path which led right up to the base of the gebel and descended down into the depths of the tomb, down two flights of stairs and corridors until we came to the well-shaft, decorated with lovely painted scenes on the yellow walls, of Tuthmose before Osiris, Anubis and Hathor. These figures were much more rounded and lifelike than those in the tomb of Tuthmose III, though still quite crude, but the paint looked fresh and brightly coloured. Also this tomb was an entirely different shape. Looking up we saw again the deep blue ceiling painted with tiny yellow stars. A chamber set at right-angles to the well-chamber contained two square pillars but the walls were left unfinished, showing only the guidelines for the decoration, which I found interesting.

Down another staircase and a sloping corridor and we came to an antechamber with two of its walls painted in a similar style to the well chamber but there were also some interesting cursive hieroglyphs, ancient grafitti by Maya ‘Overseer of the Treasury’, and Djutmose, ‘Steward of Thebes’, that was a restoration text from the time of Horemheb. The burial chamber beyond was quite large with six pillars and several storage chambers leading off it. We were a little disappointed that it was undecorated, but the King’s lovely quartzite sarcophagus, in a sunken pit, made up for this, with the white-painted figures of Isis and Nephthys at either end. Hamdi pointed out to us that this burial chamber contained the first example of ‘magical niches’ in the Valley. We also saw a mummified body propped up against the wall of a side chamber, looking like it was waiting for someone to notice it. We were told that this is the deepest tomb in the King’s valley, (or was it the one with the most stairs?). As we began to climb back up the winding steps and corridors I could well believe it.

Next stop Tutankhamun, probably the most famous tomb in Egypt and also the most disappointing at first glance. I had seen the fabulous treasures in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and had been very impressed. I had grown up with a poster of Tut’s golden mask on my bedroom wall and poured over books about the Valley of the King’s since I was a young girl, but I had never yet been into his tomb. The place that had been so evocative for me all my life was tiny and in a terrible state of preservation. It didn’t even feel like it was underground. There was a short corridor, a small undecorated antechamber and the sunken burial chamber, which we could not go into. A Procession of Gods and important figures paraded around the walls in the funerary procession on a drab golden background. Even the ‘Amduat’ was represented by only the baboons from the First Hour. The artistic style is very similar to the Tomb of Ay in the Western Valley. The King’s mummy was still in situ, displayed in the centre of the burial chamber in a gilded wooden coffin inside his sandstone sarcophagus. I was even disappointed by this as I don’t like to see mummies displayed. I kept trying to think about Howard Carter’s  sensational discovery, the gilded shrines and the room full of treasures, but all I saw was this sad little tomb. I’ve been into the tomb several times since then and can now appreciate it much more. There are very many interesting points to be considered in both the decoration, which was unusually drawn to Amarna-style proportions, and the significance of the figures with the procession. But at the time I was ready to move on.

The next tomb we visited was that of the founder of the 19th Dynasty, Rameses I, which we found in a small branch off the main part of the Valley. Because the king’s reign was less than two years, this tomb was quite small for the Ramesside period with only two staircases and a descending corridor leading directly to the burial chamber and no well-room or antechambers. Much of the burial chamber was taken up with the king’s huge red quartzite sarcophagus, still in situ, and was the only area of the tomb which was decorated. The King obviously died before his tomb was anywhere near completion. The quality of decoration in Rameses’ tomb, however, made up for its abbreviated size with brightly coloured figures painted on a blue-grey background. I loved what little decoration there was. The goddess Ma’at flanked each side of the staircase doorway and beyond this the king was depicted before Ptah and a djed-pillar. On the south wall Rameses is welcomed into the Underworld by Anubis and Harsiesi, and scenes from the third division of the ‘Book of Gates’, the only funerary book depicted here. The wall behind the sarcophagus shows the king led by a priest to Osiris where he consecrates four boxes of coloured cloth (representing the funerary wrappings of Osiris) before Atum-Re-Khepri (the beetle-headed god who represents the transformation of the reborn sun). There were more passages from the ‘Book of Gates’ on the north wall showing the solar-barque’s journey through the hours of the night and the god Atum fighting the evil serpent Apothis. We spent quite a lot of time looking at the paintings and discussing hieroglyphs with Hamdi – we were impressed by how much he knew and I think he was a little impressed by our interest too. It had been very enjoyable.

We all went back to the cafeteria for a cold drink. We tried to offer Hamdi some baksheesh for all his trouble but he would not hear of it, only insisting that we come again next day as we had fully intended to do. An opportunity to see the king’s tombs empty and at our leisure and with the help of a tame inspector would never come again. We intended to make the most of it. It was almost dusk and our taxi driver Tayib was waiting in the car park to take us back to our hotel. It had been another lovely day.