KV5

KV5 Tomb of several sons of Ramses II

KV5 is an ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings, which was created as a grave for some sons of Pharaoh Ramses II. The discovery of the grave system and its scope provoked astonishment, it is nevertheless the largest and most important in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Research

The grave was visited several times and examined. The first expedition was launched in 1825 with James Burton, then later in 1902 under Howard Carter, who KV5 but only used as a dumping ground. However, both expedition groups were not able to penetrate further into the interior and consequently saw nothing that would have been unusual for the grave.

In the Theban Mapping Project, under the direction of Kent Weeks, the grave should be vacated because you wanted to see if there would be damage when near anything would be built. From 1987 to 1994 the workers and Kent Weeks were unaware of what was really in the grave system.

The cleanup work on the plant in 1995 showed that there were still many other passages. Until that time, they found a total of 70 chambers. This was a discovery that surprised the world and aroused great interest in Egyptology. To date, more explorations have produced thousands of vases broken, Uschebti, faience, ostraca with hieratic writing, glass vials, inlays and even a large statue of Osiris. From at least six sons of Ramses is known that they were buried in KV5, but suggest more than 20 representations of sons out that the number was probably larger.

Further excavations have shown that the grave is even greater than initially suspected. Until 2006 121 rooms and chambers were discovered. Due to the symmetrical structure but 150 or more chambers are expected. This is KV5 the largest grave in the Valley of the Kings. The exploration of the tomb is still continued.

Architecture

KV5 has a unique structure for an Egyptian grave. Kent Weeks believed that the system of the tomb was started in the late 18th dynasty. At this time, it still consisted of two chambers and a transverse space with four pillars. Ramses II, it seems to have usurped and then to let the transverse space to expand to a large square hall with 4 × 4 pillars. The 15 × 15 meters large hall is the center of the grave complex and is unique both in its size and in the number of piers in the Valley of the Kings. From this walk from many other secondary chambers. Some have a typical for the Ramesside vaulted ceiling.

East of the colonnade, a long T-shaped extension joins, which contains many smaller side chambers. In the middle of the T a representation of the god of the dead Osiris is cut into the rock, the left and right lead two 20 -meter-long corridor from which contain more chambers. Each of the chambers is about 3 x 3 meters in size, it can be found on each side of T- 16 pieces, making a total of 48 side chambers are thus available in this area. Since the doorways were too narrow to accommodate the stone sarcophagi, they were not likely to be as grave chambers - as is often mistakenly assumed - but probably as a sacrifice chambers. At the ends of the sloping side corridors lead has not yet been definitively exposed stairs presumably to other rooms on lower level.

On the west side of the portico, two additional passages were discovered in the fall of 1996, which included more chambers and lead down at an angle of 35 ° in the direction of the tomb of Ramses II. Multi-layer plaster floors in the portico and a northern side chamber indicate the existence of several rooms underneath.