Turning back on our tracks from the tomb of Amen(hir)khopshef, and
taking the right-hand track at the fork of the paths, we pass two unnamed
tombs, 54 and 53, and on our right hand we see the tomb No. 52, the tomb of
Queen Titi, or Teyet or Tyti .
This tomb has been known for more than many years, and was for a time
supposed to be that of Tiy, the famous queen of Amenhotep III, and mother of
Akhenaten . It belongs, however, to a much later date, and, though we know
nothing of the personality of Queen Titi, she appears to have been a queen of
the later Ramesside period . She had, at all events, every possible title to
royal honours, as she is described as royal daughter, royal wife, and royal
mother, which means that she was the daughter of a Pharaoh, married another (
if she did not marry her own father, an alliance not unknown ), and was mother
of a third Pharaoh .
Her tomb has at one time been a fine piece of work, but is now much
damaged . It consists of an antechamber, a long corridor, with two side-rooms,
and the burial-chamber . The paintings in the first corridor have suffered
considerably, but their purport can still be made out .
Beginning with the left hand of the doorway, we have the figure of Maet
kneeling with outspread wings . Then the figure of the queen, looking inwards,
adores Ptah in his shrine . Unfortunately the heads of the queen's figures here
and elsewhere have been destroyed, perhaps maliciously, to prejudice her
chances of immortality . Next she adores to the god Harakhte, and shakes two
sistra before him ; while still farther on she is met by Imseti, Duamutef and
Isis .
On the right hand of the doorway, Maet appears again . Then the queen
faces Thoth, who wears the moon-disk with the crescent . Next she shakes her
sistra before Atûm, and is met by Hapi and Qebhsnewef, with Nephthys, one wall
thus exactly balancing the other .
On the left and right of the doorway into the burial-chamber are the
goddesses Neith and Selqet .
Entering the main chamber, we have on the left a white jackal, Anubis,
couching on his shrine, with a white lion posed beneath . Anubis, of course, is
the god of the dead ; the lion is either Yesterday or Tomorrow .
On the walls to right and left are figures of spirits of the underworld
and demi-gods, dog-headed apes, monkeys, etc. .
On the end-wall, the queen, elaborately garbed, worships the four
Children of Horus, who are here represented, not with their typical heads, but
simply as human-headed .
The small chamber on the left is the mummy-chamber, with the burial-pit
. Its figures are much destroyed, but there are again scenes of the queen
worshipping the Children of Horus, who in one instance have their
characteristic heads, and in the other are human-headed .
In the right-hand small chamber are various scenes of the Duat or the
Underworld ; and the rear wall of the room has a scene of the queen adoring the
divine cow Hathor, who comes out from the western hills . Queen Titi, in this
scene, wears a white dress edged with blue, a green wig, and a vulture
headdress, with uraeus, and stands before the sacred sycamore, catching in her
two hands the water of life which Hathor, this time as a woman standing within
the sacred tree, pours out of two jars .
In the niche at the back of the main hall Osiris is enthroned, with Isis
and Thoth behind him, and Neith and Selqet before him ; while on the side-walls
the queen worships sixteen seated gods .
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