KV34 – Tomb of Tuthmosis III .. Part ( 18 )

The tomb of the great conqueror is situated in a lonely and remote revine at the south-east corner of the main valley . The path to it turns south after leaving the centre of the valley, and the tombs of Setnakht, Siptah, Tuthmosis I and Seti II are left on the right hand after we have taken the left-hand turning at the parting of the path .

The tomb is accessible, through a staircase starting from the ground of the valley, and ends at the entrance of the tomb . Its entrance is high up and impressive . It was discovered and excavated in 12 February, 1898 by Victor Loret, and was Excavated by Georges Daressy in 1899 . The tomb was attacked by the robbers in antiquity .

The entrance corridor slopes steeply downwards, and is succeeded by a flight of steps . Another short corridor then brings us to a pit or well ( E ), 22 feet deep, probably designed, as we have seen, for the double purpose of bewildering robbers, and catching rain-water . This is now crossed by a bridge . The ceiling here has yellow stars on a blue ground, and a kheker-frieze at the top of its walls . In 1994, the water entered into the tomb in the flooding of this year and gathered in the bottom of the well, where it was absorbed by uncleaned debris, thus increasing the humidity in the tomb .

The entrance corridor ( B ), the stairwell ( C ), and the short corridor ( D ) are undecorated .

We now enter irregularly-shaped room ( F ) with two pillars . The walls have a long list of seven hundred and forty-one gods and supernatural beings, and the roof has yellow stars on a blue ground . This room was adorned with painted figures and text of The Book of Amduat on a plaster floor, and the walls covered with a pattern of stars .

In the left corner of this room is a flight of steps, once concealed, which lead to the cartouche-shaped burial-hall .

The burial chamber ( J ) has also two pillars, and behind these the sarcophagus, of yellow quartzite and in cartouche-shaped, is seen . It was empty when first discovered, the royal coffin and mummy having been removed to El-Deir el-Bahari, where they were found in 1881 .

The inner and outer surfaces of the sarcophagus are in red, with figures and texts in yellow . The outer decoration contains a representations of Nephthys and Isis kneeling on the symbols of gold at the head and foot end in arrangement . On the two sides are Anubis and the four sons of Horus, Anubis, Imsety and Duamutef are in the side, and the other side are Anubis, Qebehsenuef and Hapi . A figure of the goddess Nut inscribed in both of the inside and the outside of the lid, and also at the bottom of the sarcophagus . In the middle of one side of the sarcophagus, we see a pair of Wadjet-eyes to let the king's mummy to look out .

The walls of the hall are covered with outline illustrations and texts from The Book of That which is in the Underworld, the first stage towards the elaborate-coloured relief-sculptures which we meet in the later work, such as that of the tomb of Seti I . These outline sketches are in admirable preservation . The scenes on the pillars should be noticed .

On the left face of the nearer pillar is a scene of Tuthmosis being suckled by his mother Eset ( Isis ), who appears as a tree-goddess, growing out of the trunk of a tree . Above this scene is another in which Tuthmosis sails with his mother in a boat through the underworld . As Isis was not of royal blood, it would appear as if the king here definitely decided to give her the prominence which her birth would have denied her .

Four small annexes open off the hall . They contained funerary objects which are now at Egyptian Museum in Cairo , are closed now .

Part ( 19 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....

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