KV7 | |
---|---|
Burial site of Ramesses II | |
Coordinates | 25°44′26.3″N32°36′5.61″E / 25.740639°N 32.6015583°E |
Location | East Valley of the Kings |
Discovered | Open in antiquity |
Excavated by | Henry Salt Jean-François Champollion (1829) Carl Lepsius (1844-45) Theodore Davis and Harry Burton (1913–14) Howard Carter (1917–1921) Christian Leblanc (1991) |
Decoration | Book of Gates Book of the Heavenly Cow Amduat Litany of Ra Book of the Dead Opening of the Mouth [1] |
Tomb KV7 was the tomb of Ramesses II ("Ramesses the Great"), an ancient Egyptian pharaoh during the Nineteenth Dynasty.
It is located in the Valley of the Kings opposite the tomb of his sons, KV5, and near to the tomb of his son and successor Merenptah, KV8.
KV7 follows the bent-axis plan of tombs of the earlier Eighteenth Dynasty: the entrance to the tomb is dug into the Theban limestone hillside near the valley floor. The first gate, Gate B, has decorations on the lintel "of the solid disk flanked by Nephthys and Isis, representations of Ma'at kneeling above the heraldic plants of Lower and Upper Egypt, and door jambs contain[ing] the names and epithets of the King." [2]
"The passage descends for about 58 meters (190 feet) into the bedrock at an angle that varies between 12 and 22 degrees." [3] Gates C and D are painted with texts from the Litany of Re and images of the four sons of Horus respectively. [4]
The passage opens into a small well chamber, then into a pillared chamber designated F. F has two directions. Turning right, are two more chambers. Going straight, the passage "continues approximately level for another 12 meters (39 feet), then turns to the right and terminates in the burial chamber J, which is partly carved in a layer of Esna shale." [5] J has four doorways leading to two small (Ja and Jb) and two larger rooms (Jc and Jd), the last of these having two offshoots of its own. [6]
Other decorations in the tomb include images of funerary objects intended to help the pharaoh in the afterlife; and scenes and passages from the Book of Gates , the Book of the Dead , the Book of the Heavenly Cow , the Amduat, the Litany of Re and the Opening of the Mouth. [7] [8] Unlike other tombs in the area, Tomb KV7 was placed in an unusual location [9] and has been badly damaged by the flash floods that periodically sweep through the valley. Because of this, much of the decoration has been damaged beyond repair. [10] [11]
Christian Leblanc, as part of a joint Franco-Egyptian mission in 1991, determined that construction of the tomb was begun before the end of Ramesses II's second year on the throne [12] and took no more than ten or twelve years to complete. [13]
After the tomb was almost broken into, as depicted in the Strike Papyrus of the 29th year of Ramesses III, Ramesses II's mummy was moved to the tomb of his father Seti I, then to the mummy cache in DB320. [14]
Tourists during the Third Intermediate and Roman periods left "abundant quantities" of potsherds in the burial chamber and nearby antechamber. Greek tourists, like "Herakleos, Echeboulos of Rhodes, Deilos and a certain Se(l)aminion of Cyprus", carved their names into the first corridor. [15]
The British consul Henry Salt and, in 1829, Champollion both worked to clear earth that had filled in the tomb. [16]
It was still only by crawling that Richard Lepsius was able to reach the end of the tomb in 1844–1845, exploring the accessible rooms and planning the underground complex, the walls of which, he noted, had been badly damaged by silt and gravel. Lepsius not only provided the first precise plan of the tomb but also guessed the existence, to the east of the pillared chamber (F), of two rooms which are still inaccessible. Only much later was Lepsius' plan revised by the team of the Theban Mapping Project of the University of Berkeley.
When Theodore Davis obtained the concession for the Valley of the Kings, he and Harry Burton undertook excavations of the tomb (1913–1914), the work renewed by Howard Carter (1917–1921), not only inside but also outside the tomb. It was during these undertakings that the first remains of the royal funerary furniture were revealed, notably those pieces now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum." [17]
Tomb KV5 is a subterranean, rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings. It belonged to the sons of Ramesses II. Though KV5 was partially excavated as early as 1825, its true extent was discovered in 1995 by Kent R. Weeks and his exploration team. The tomb is now known to be the largest in the Valley of the Kings. Weeks' discovery is widely considered the most dramatic in the valley since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
Usermaatre Akhenamun Ramesses VIII or Ramesses Sethherkhepshef Meryamun, was the seventh Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was the 9th of the 10 sons of Ramesses III.
The Valley of the Queens is a site in Egypt, where the wives of pharaohs were buried in ancient times. It was known then as Ta-Set-Neferu, meaning "the place of beauty". It was most famous for being the burial site of many wives of pharaohs. Pharaohs themselves were buried in the Valley of the Kings.
Sitre or Tia-Sitre, was the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses I of Egypt and mother of Seti I.
Tomb KV17, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, is the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I of the Nineteenth Dynasty. It is also known by the names "Belzoni's tomb", "the Tomb of Apis", and "the Tomb of Psammis, son of Nechois". It is one of the most decorated tombs in the valley, and is one of the largest and deepest tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It was uncovered by Italian archaeologist and explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni on 16 October 1817.
Tomb KV2, found in the Valley of the Kings, is the tomb of Ramesses IV, and is located low in the main valley, between KV7 and KV1. It has been open since antiquity and contains a large amount of graffiti.
Tomb KV11 is the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses III. It is located in the main valley of the Valley of the Kings. The tomb was originally started by Setnakhte, but abandoned when it unintentionally broke into the earlier tomb of Amenmesse (KV10). Setnakhte was buried in KV14. The tomb KV11 was later restarted and extended and on a different axis for Ramesses III.
The area of the Valley of the Kings, in Luxor, Egypt, has been a major area of modern Egyptological exploration for the last two centuries. Before this, the area was a site for tourism in antiquity. This area illustrates the changes in the study of ancient Egypt, beginning as antiquity hunting and ending with the scientific excavation of the whole Theban Necropolis. Despite the exploration and investigation noted below, only eleven of the tombs have actually been completely recorded.
Tomb KV1, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was used for the burial of Pharaoh Ramesses VII of the Twentieth Dynasty. Although it has been open since antiquity, it was only properly investigated and cleared by Edwin Brock in 1984 and 1985. The single corridor tomb is located in Luxor's West Bank, and is small in comparison to other tombs of the Twentieth Dynasty.
Tomb KV3, located in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, was intended for the burial of an unidentified son of Pharaoh Ramesses III during the early part of the Twentieth Dynasty. It is similar in design to the "straight axis" tombs typical of this dynasty, and an ostracon written in hieratic script from the time of Ramesses III mentions the founding of a tomb for a royal prince, likely this tomb. The unfinished state of a couple of rooms in the tomb along with scant archeological evidence suggests that the tomb was never used. Some have suggested that it was originally intended for use by the prince regent who would succeed as Ramesses IV, and who started building his own tomb (KV2) soon after he came to the throne.
KV4 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (Egypt). The tomb was initiated for the burial of Ramesses XI but it is likely that its construction was abandoned and it was not used for Ramesses's interment. It also seems likely that Pinedjem I intended to usurp this tomb for his own burial, but that he too abandoned the plan. KV4 is notable for being the last royal tomb that was quarried in the Valley and because it has been interpreted as being a workshop used during the official dismantling of the royal necropolis in the early Third Intermediate Period.
The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
The Book of Caverns is an important ancient Egyptian netherworld book of the New Kingdom. Like all other netherworld books, it is also attested on the inside of kings’ tombs for the benefit of the deceased. It describes the journey of the sun god Ra through the six caverns of the underworld, focusing on the interaction between the sun god and the inhabitants of the netherworld, including rewards for the righteous and punishments for the enemies of the worldly order, those who fail their judgment in the afterlife. The Book of Caverns is one of the best sources of information about the Egyptian concept of hell.
Iset Ta-Hemdjert or Isis Ta-Hemdjert, simply called Isis in her tomb, was an ancient Egyptian queen of the Twentieth Dynasty; the Great Royal Wife of Ramesses III and the Royal Mother of Ramesses VI.
The majority of the 65 numbered tombs in the Valley of the Kings can be considered minor tombs, either because at present they have yielded little information or because the results of their investigation was only poorly recorded by their explorers, while some have received very little attention or were only cursorily noted. Most of these tombs are small, often only consisting of a single burial chamber accessed by means of a shaft or a staircase with a corridor or a series of corridors leading to the chamber, but some are larger, multiple chambered tombs. These minor tombs served various purposes, some were intended for burials of lesser royalty or for private burials, some contained animal burials and others apparently never received a primary burial. In many cases these tombs also served secondary functions and later intrusive material has been found related to these secondary activities. While some of these tombs have been open since antiquity, the majority were discovered in the 19th and early 20th centuries during the height of exploration in the valley.
Tyti was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 20th Dynasty. A wife and sister of Ramesses III and possibly the mother of Ramesses IV.
QV60 is the tomb of Nebettawy, the daughter and Great Wife of Ramesses II, in Egypt's Valley of the Queens. It was mentioned by Champollion and Lepsius, and later excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli.
QV75 is the tomb of Henutmire, likely the daughter and Great Wife of Ramesses II, in Egypt's Valley of the Queens. It was mentioned by Champollion and Lepsius.
Tanedjemet or more accurately Tanedjemy or Tanodjmy (tʒnḏmy) is a King's Daughter (sʒt-nsw), King's Wife (ḥmt-nsw), and Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt from the New Kingdom period, only known from her tomb in the Valley of the Queens. While her identity and connections are unstated by any surviving sources, the circumstantial evidence has been interpreted to show that she was almost certainly a wife of Seti I and probably a daughter of Horemheb.
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