The Tomb Of Horemheb (Kings valley - KV57)

Who was Horemheb?

Horemheb, the successor of Ay, served in the courts of Amenophis IV, Tutankhamun, and Ay. Horemheb reconstructed the military cadres and the provincial administration and was a royal scribe, serving as a general in the army at many times.

The Tomb KV 57

British Egyptologist, Edward Ayrton, discovered the tomb in 1908.  KV 57 is located in Valley of the Kings, located on the west bank of Thebes.

The Uniqueness of the Tomb

The constructed on Horemheb's tomb developed a number of innovations which remained popular in tomb building from the 18th till the 19th dynasty. Also, the right angle, which was present at the end of descending corridors, was missing in this tomb. Painted bas-reliefs were introduced which replaced the earlier simple paintings. Also, inscriptions from the Book of Gates were inscribed in the passages on this tomb. The Book of Gates is a religious composition that is based on the separation of the twelve hours of the night.

Remarkable Features:

The Tomb descends from those that earlier existed in the Valley of the Kings, but some idiosyncrasies remain restricted to this particular tomb...

• A ramp which descended into a set of stairs cut between the burial chambers’ pillars
• Another set of stairs cut near the first
• Both stairs led to the crypt on the lower level
• A lower storeroom beneath the annex of the burial chamber
• KV 57 was the first tomb ever to have inscriptions from Book of Gates
• Decoration in the tomb helped scholars to study the processes dedicated to painted relief preparation

The Construction

Three sloping corridors lead to another chamber with a well and a pillared chamber. Also, a sharp descent is followed by two sloping corridors that give access to the burial chamber. A characteristic of this tomb was the shift from the bent axis plan to the straight axis royal tombs that were constructed during 19th and 20th dynasties. Decoration in the tomb consists of representations of deities and scenes from Book of Gates.

What Remained Within the Tomb

This tomb contained many funeral pieces of equipment and a number of wooden images made out of cedar and acacia. Also, found among the remains were alabaster Canopic jars, whose stoppers were portrait headed, and lion-headed embalming tables, which were four in number. All these along with things like couches, figures, bricks, chairs, boats, rosettes and wooden and stone containers were found in the tomb.

An Interesting Fact

It’s said that during the reign of Horemheb, which lasted for 28 years, the tomb’s construction was never finished completely. The time was enough to construct even the most complex of tombs, but the start and stopping of construction at various stages led to a delay in completion. This, however, proved useful for scholars who got a chance to learn how tombs were built during that era and Egyptologists learned many techniques that the early artists made use of during those times.