Amenophis II's
tomb is an architectural delight. Designated KV 35, it was located by
Victor Loret on the slope opposite of the Valley of the King's main wadi
in March of 1898. Like most all of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, it had been extensively looted, though there were a few surprises.
This is a large tomb with complex architecture, though very similar in many respects to the tomb of Tuthmosis III.
Like other tombs in the valley, there are two sets of stairways and two
corridors prior to the ritual shaft. New for this tomb are decorations
depicting the king performing ritual acts before Osiris, Anubis and Hathor.
From the ritual shaft, the tomb takes a 90 degree turn into the two
pillared vestibule. Wide flight of stairs leads out of the vestibule
into a third corridor and then into a large, six pillared room. This
room has images of the king in the presence of various deities.
At the back (south) of the six pillared room beyond the last set of
pillars is the burial chamber. The burial chamber contains the kings red
quartzite sarcophagus and until 1928, the mummy of the king. The mummy
was transferred to the Cairo Museum
at that time. However, this is one of the surprises in this tomb, for
unlike other tombs in the valley, Amenophis II's mummy was found intact,
with a garland of mimosa flowers at his neck, though the coffin he was
laid in was perhaps a replacement. Normally, tomb robbers would search
the mummies for gold amulets and other valuable objects, but for some
reason they ignored the mummy of this king.
There is one annex to either side of the six pillared room, and two
more annexes, one one each side of the burial chamber. The burial
chamber includes the complete text of the Book of Amduat,
including the corresponding illustrations. The whole text is laid out
as though on a huge papyrus. This text, in simple paint (no reliefs), is
in cursive hieroglyphs. On the ceiling is the familiar pattern of gold
stars on a dark blue background.
Within the the western lateral annex, which was enclosed by a stone
wall, Loret found his second surprise, for here he found the sarcophagi
and mummies of nine other royal burials, as well as his son, Webensenu,
and probably his mother, Hatshepsut-Meryetre. These included Tuthmosis
IV, Amenophis III, Merneptah, Sethos II, Siptah, Setenakhte, Ramesses IV, Ramesses V and Ramesses VI.
In all, he found remains of 17 royal burials in the cache. This cache
was likewise note violated. Hence, Loret's discovery of this tomb ranks
high in the annuls of Egypotology.
We believe it was the high priest Pinudjem I
(1070-1037 BC) who had these mummies stored in Amenophis II's tomb at
the beginning of the 21st Dynasty, just as Pinudjem II (990-969 BC)
transferred the mummies found in the Deir el-Bahri cache.
Though the tomb had been robbed, perhaps more than once in antiquity,
there were a number of items found within the tomb by Loret. These
objects ranged from the magical to the mundane. Some of these included:
- A papyrus with extracts from the Book of Caverns
- Emblems in wood
- A broken Osiris bed
- At least one large wooden funerary couch
- Large wooden figure of serpent found near the entrance to the antechamber
- Three barues
- Large wooden Sekhmet figure that was made for the kings son, Webensenu
- Almost life-size cow head statue found in the sepulchral hall
- Vases of green porcelian (faience)
- Resin-coated wooden panther
- 30 empty storage jars
- Miniature wooden coffins
However, Loret found hundreds of other objects and considerable debris.
General Site Information
- Structure: KV 35
- Location: Valley of the Kings, East Valley, Thebes West Bank, Thebes
- Owner: Amenhotep II
- Other designations:
- Site type: Tomb
Orientation
- Axis in degrees: 289.09
- Axis orientation: West
Site Location
- Latitude: 25.44 N
- Longitude: 32.36 E
- Elevation: 185.5 msl
- North: 99,499.394
- East: 93,969.126
- JOG map reference: NG 36-10
- Modern governorate: Qena (Qina)
- Ancient nome: 4th Upper Egypt
- Surveyed by TMP: Yes
Measurements
- Maximum height: 3.44 m
- Minimum width: 0.94 m
- Maximum width: 10.15 m
- Total length: 91.87 m
- Total area: 362.85 m²
- Total volume: 852.21 m³
Additional Tomb Information
- Entrance location: Cliff face
- Owner type: King
- Entrance type: Staircase
- Interior layout: Corridors and chambers
- Axis type: Bent
Decoration
- Painting
Categories of Objects Recovered
- Accessories
- Architectural elements
- Clothing
- Food
- Human mummies
- Jewelry
- Models
- Sculpture
- Tomb equipment
- Vegetal remains
- Vessels
- Warfare and hunting equipment
- Written documents
Dating:
- New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Amenhotep II
- Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 21
History of Exploration
- Loret, Victor (1898): Discovery (made for the Service des Antiquités)
- Bucher, Paul (1932): Photography
- Hornung, Erik (1982-1992): Epigraphy
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