“Our perception of the world and the ancient Egyptians’ perception of the world differ greatly, including their attitudes towards death. For the ancient Egyptians, there was only one life. It was the life of the soul, which, through many earthly lives, came to understand and realize its immortality. In the afterlife, the soul was as close as it could express and live in this world. Thus, for the Egyptians, both life and death were stages of the soul’s journey.
Therefore, it is not surprising that on the western bank of the Nile, where the sun sets, directly opposite Thebes, the City of the Living, the city of temples, libraries, sanctuaries, and schools, there existed the City of the Dead – the Valley of the Kings or Ta Set Mat, which translates to the Place of Truth.
In the Valley of the Kings, pharaohs and high-ranking officials from the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties, or the New Kingdom period between the 16th and 11th century BC, were buried. This period coincides with the reign of the most famous and glorious pharaohs.
Other high-ranking officials were also buried there…
The members of the XIX and XX dynasties, as well as Egyptian queens and the children of some pharaohs, were buried in the Valley of the Queens, several kilometers to the south, where over ninety tombs have been discovered so far.
The first pharaoh to be buried in the Valley of the Kings was Thutmose I of the XVIII dynasty.
Unfortunately, out of the 63 tombs of various sizes and states of preservation found so far, many have been looted and destroyed, and it is still unknown to whom they belong. However, archaeologists and historians are able to reconstruct the everyday life of the ancient Egyptians from the 16th to the 11th century BC based on the remains, as well as understand what they lived and died for.
The Valley of the Kings gained great popularity with the discovery of the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun, which was the only untouched pharaoh’s tomb when it was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.
This site has been under the protection of UNESCO since 1979, and research is still ongoing.
It is hard to believe, at the entrance to the Valley of the Kings, that beneath the sandy hills, a majestic underground world awaits. There is something that could attract our attention. Riding small open buses to the tombs, disbelief still lingers. The entrances to each tomb are similar: plain doors and stairs that descend without promising much, everything is quite ordinary, gray, stony, and dark. Then there are smaller or larger halls with painted walls. In some, the colors are so vivid, as if they were applied yesterday. In some, there are sarcophagi and objects that inspire respect for this mysterious civilization. And the multitude of symbols and religious texts on the walls and ceilings tell stories of a long journey…
TUTMOZIS III.
During the XVIII dynasty, Egypt was at the peak of its economic and military power. This dynasty begins with Pharaoh Ahmose I and ends with Horemheb. Thutmose (Toth is born) III, a great military leader and conqueror, probably ruled from 1490 to 1436 BC, although various sources indicate different periods.
He was born in 1481 BC, and as a child Even at a young age, he was left without a father, Pharaoh Thutmose II, who was succeeded by his wife, Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut ruled as regent on behalf of Thutmose III, the sole legitimate heir, who was likely around ten years old at the time. Some sources claim that she ruled for four years and proclaimed herself pharaoh to protect the throne. Various theories exist about the relationship between Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, ranging from those supporting their hostility towards each other to those stating that they respected and lived in harmony for the greater unity of the Egyptian state.
As a young man, Thutmose III attended military schools and acquired military skills. He was extremely successful in everything he undertook, had a strong charisma, and possessed good rhetorical abilities. During his reign, a strong navy was established. He built an obelisk in Karnak and the Temple of the Sun God in Heliopolis. The details of his conquests are recorded on the walls of the Temple of Amun in Karnak. Under his reign, Egypt experienced its greatest expansion, making Thutmose III one of the most notable pharaohs in history. Tmozisa III is referred to as the Napoleon of ancient Egypt in contemporary scientific texts.
With Hatšepsut-Meryetre, he had a son and heir, Amenofis II.
His tomb, identified as KV34, is located in a narrow gorge at the bottom of the Valley of the Kings. It is buried thirty meters below the surface. Nevertheless, it is believed that the tomb was looted even in ancient times, and everything of any material value was taken from it. It is considered one of the most impressive tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It was discovered in 1889 by the French Egyptologist Victor Loret. Inside, he found only a few wooden funerary items, several wooden statues of pharaohs and deities, pottery, and the bones of a bull and baboons.
From the antechamber, one enters the burial chamber where the sarcophagus is located. It also contains two pillars and four side chambers. The burial chamber itself is oval.
The quite damaged mummy of Tutmosis III was found in the area of the Valley of the Kings and the temple complex along with the mummies of other pharaohs from the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties of the Egyptian state. It is now located in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, along with nineteen other mummies of Egyptian pharaohs. who found their final refuge in the state they lived in and ruled.
HOREMHEB
Pharaoh Horemheb or Haremhab, meaning Horus in celebration, likely ruled for twenty-seven years, from 1319 to 1292 BC, as the last pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.
He came to power during a crucial and tumultuous period of the New Kingdom, when the crisis caused by the reign of Amenhotep IV, who proclaimed himself as Akhenaten, needed to be overcome. Akhenaten replaced the state’s traditional religion of worshipping the sun god Amun-Ra, the Spirit of the Sun, with the worship of Aten – the visible sun disk. Akhenaten demolished and altered temples and symbols of the god Amun, replacing them with Aten. He abandoned Thebes and established a new city, Tel-el-Amarna, as the new religious center. This strong departure from tradition caused upheavals in the state and religious structures of the kingdom. After his death, there were brief reigns of Smenkhkare, then Tutankhamun, and then Ay, who was succeeded by Horemheb. The leader of Tutankhamun’s army.
Horemheb’s primary goal was to restore order and harmony in Egypt, as they were during the reign of Amenhotep III. Since he had no biological heir, he appointed his vizier and former comrade, Paramessu, who took the name Ramesses I, to the throne and established the XIX Dynasty of Egypt.
Interestingly, Horemheb had two tombs. One was located in Saqqara near Memphis, and the other, where he was buried, was in the Valley of the Kings. It is presumed that he had the first one built without anticipating that he would become a pharaoh and gain the right to be buried in the Valley of the Kings. He had two wives, and both were buried in his tomb in Saqqara.
Horemheb’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings is marked as tomb KV57 and was discovered in 1908 by Edward Ayrton, an English Egyptologist and archaeologist, along with Theodore M. Davis and other researchers. Upon entering it, they found broken objects, walls, and statues. The tomb had already been looted and was in poor condition.
This tomb is named after the architect who designed it. The number of religious artifacts is unknown.
The largest object found in the tomb was Pharaoh’s sarcophagus made of red granite, with a broken lid adorned with depictions of Isis and Nephthys. Davis described it as one of the most beautiful ever found. It’s possible that the sarcophagus was supported by six wooden deity figures placed in niches in the floor.
It contained a skull and bones. More human remains were found in the side chambers. However, there was a note-like graffiti in the tomb stating that the mummy had been removed for restoration and transferred to the tomb of Tausert and Setnakht. Tomb raiders often discovered tombs in the Valley of the Kings before experts, and would then sell all the valuables, including the mummies. The mummy of Horemheb was not found in the tomb of Tausert and Setnakht, and its whereabouts are unknown.
RAMSES I.
Ramesses I was the founder of the 19th Dynasty. The exact dates of his reign are uncertain, but it was most likely from 1292 to 1290 BC. His This name means “Ra shaped him”.
The pharaoh, whose real name was Paramessu, was not of royal lineage. He was born into a prominent family whose roots traced back to Avaris, the former capital of the Hyksos. He was a professional soldier. Pharaoh Horemheb appointed him as the prince regent during his lifetime. As such, he held several important titles: Lord of Horses, Commander of the Fortress, Supervisor of the Nile Delta, Royal Ambassador to foreign lands, Royal Scribe, General of the Lord of the Two Lands. He was undoubtedly a person of strong character and firm morals for Horemheb to place such trust in him.
Like Horemheb, he advocated for the revival of the traditional religion dedicated to the god Amun.
He appointed his son Seti I. as his vizier, who would later succeed him. While Seti I. planned campaigns in Syria to reclaim the former Egyptian territories under pharaoh’s rule, Ramesses I. focused on construction projects.
According to records, he ruled for less than two years, more specifically one year and Four months. His tomb, KV16, was discovered in 1817 by Giovanni Belzoni, one of the first recognized Egyptologists, an adventurer, Italian engineer, and inventor. He made a significant contribution not only to the discovery of the tomb of Ramesses I but also to many others, of which the most significant is the tomb of Seti I.
The tomb of Ramesses I itself is one of the smaller ones and gives the impression that it was finished in a hurry. It is 29 meters long and consists of a short corridor that ends in the burial chamber. When Belzoni discovered it, the king’s mummy was no longer inside. It seems that a British consular agent bought it from tomb raiders and, by a twist of fate, it ended up in a small Canadian museum next to Niagara Falls. However, in 2003, it was returned to Egypt and is now on display in the Luxor Museum.
The tomb is descended by steep stairs, and unlike some other tombs, the walls of this corridor are not painted. The first thing you come across is a granite sarcophagus with Isis with outspread wings. Joyce Tyldesley, a British Egyptologist,
Belzoni recorded the following: Continuing through a passage thirty-two meters long and eight meters wide, I descended a staircase of nine meters and reached a fairly large and well-painted burial chamber… We found a granite sarcophagus with two mummies inside it, and in the corner, a statue standing upright, about 2.2 meters tall, beautifully carved from plane wood: everything on it is almost perfect except for the nose… In the chamber to our right, we found another statue similar to the first one, but not as perfect. Undoubtedly, there must have been one on each side of the sarcophagus, holding. Holding a lantern or some other offering in their hands, with one hand extended in the appropriate position for it, while the other hangs down. The sarcophagus was covered in hieroglyphs that were either painted or outlined, and it was facing southeast.
The wooden statue found in the tomb is now on display at the British Museum in London. The royal insignia was not recognized on the mummified bodies found in the sarcophagus when the tomb was discovered.
The restoration of this tomb was completed in early 2021.
1 The last one was found in 2005.
2 1549 – 1292 BC.
3 Ancient Egyptian funerary text from the New Kingdom.
Usually translated as “What is in the afterlife,” “The text of the hidden chamber that is underground.”
4 An oval frame on which the names of pharaohs were inscribed on Ancient Egyptian monuments.