The valley of the Kings

by Jean Smith, the President of the Egyptian Society of South Africa in Cape Town.

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Most of the kings of the new kingdom are buried in the Valley of the Kings on the West bank of the Nile; this is the realm of the dead, the kingdom of Osiris god of the dead.

These New Kingdom Pharoahs had elaborate tombs cut in to the limestone cliffs; the reasons for choosing this places is not only the remoteness of the valley but also the presence of a geographical feature – a pyramid shaped peak called Ta-dehenet.

Some Tombs in the Valley of the Kings

Rameses III - This tomb was first explored in the 18th Century by Scottish explorer, James Bruce, who called it the ‘tomb of the harpists’ because of a beautiful relief in one of the side chambers that shows two blind harpists playing to the gods. Three of the four corridors are decorated with scenes from two of the Ancient Egyptian funerary books. An interesting feature in the second corridor are eight small side chambers depicting variously, food preparation, funerary furniture, weaponry, food offerings to the river god, Hapy, and the famous two blind harpists; they sing the praises of the king to the gods Atum, Shu and Anhur (Onuris).

A sudden sharp change of direction was necessitated by the ancient workmen coming across the earlier tomb of a king named Amenmessu. Further into the tomb is a four-pillared hall where there is depicted a representation of the known human races as well as scenes of offerings to the solar gods Ra-harakhty, Khepri and Atum. In the last part of the tomb that is open to the public, Rameses III faces the god Osiris who offers him the feather that symbolizes order and justice – known as Maat.

The tomb then continues to a 4th corridor and into the burial chamber where the mummified body of the Pharaoh once lay in a red quartzite sarcophagus; this was sold many years ago to the king of France and is now in the Louvre; it’s lid however is in the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge in the UK. The mummy of the Pharaoh was part of the great mummy cache found at Deir el Medina in the late 19th century and can be viewed in the ‘old’ mummy room at the Cairo Museum.

Rameses VI - This tomb, while architecturally simpler than that of Rameses III, is decorated with scenes of great complexity. The wall paintings have retained their beautiful colours of red and yellow, but the meanings are obscure. According to one scholar, they appear to be an analysis of the origins of the heavens, the earth and the creation of the sun. In the first three corridors are scenes and texts from two of the funerary books as well as a collection of texts that deal with the geography of the Afterlife and with the caverns the sun has to cross during it’s nightly journey through the Underworld. In the fourth and fifth corridor are more passages from funerary books. The burial chamber is decorated with scenes and texts from a funerary book called The Book of the Earth or The Book of Aker and deals with the theme of the creation of the sun disc. On the ceiling is a very good double representation of the sky goddess Nut (Noot); this depicts the solar religious belief in the goddess who swallows the sun at evening; during the night, it travels through her body and in the morning is reborn; in this way she assumes the role of a life-giving force that shines onto the dead Pharaoh; he is assimilated with the god Ra and shares his daily rebirth with him.

The mummy of Rameses VI was discovered in 1898 in the tomb of the 18th dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep II; he can be viewed in the ‘old’ mummy room at the Cairo museum.

Rameses IX - This tomb is slightly smaller than the previous two and is interesting because of the subjects of the wall paintings, because they take up again some of the themes of the previously mentioned tomb of Rameses VI. There are more funerary compositions but these celebrate the sun god in seventy-five transformations during his nightly journey and morning rebirth. The Pharaoh is identified with the rebirth of the sun. There are also representations of some underworld gods. The ceilings of this corridor and vestibule have astronomical scenes, however they are not thought to contain enough detail. The vestibule leads into a four-pillar hall and thence into the burial chamber. The chamber has a vaulted ceiling with a double representation of the sky goddess Nut, very similar to that of Rameses VI. The mummy of the Pharaoh can be viewed in the ‘old’ mummy hall at the Cairo Museum.

	Depiction of the different nations
Tomb of Ramses II

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