As we are all confined to barracks, it is a great opportunity to try new things. How about a virtual tour of a world famous museum or art gallery? Or perhaps a tomb? This one also has lots of art on the walls.
Today’s tour is of the Tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses VI. Wikipedia tells us:
Ramesses VI was buried in the Valley of the Kings, in a tomb now known as KV9. The tomb was first built for Ramesses V, who may have been buried in it for the short period of time necessary for another, likely undecorated tomb, to be cut for him somewhere else in the Valley of Kings and which remains to be discovered. In any case, Ramesses VI commanded that KV9 be entirely refurbished for himself with no space left for Ramesses V’s permanent burial, who was finally led to rest in Ramesses VI’s second year on the throne, possibly because stability had returned to Thebes at the time. The usurpation of Ramesses V’s tomb may be a sign that Ramesses VI did not hold his predecessor in high regard, which would explain why he had Ramesses V’s name obliterated and replaced by his own on more than one occasion. Alternatively it may reflect the king’s pragmatic concern for economical measures.
[…] Once finished, the tomb was 104 m long and included one of only three complete renditions of the Book of Gates known from royal funerary context, as well as a complete version of the Book of Caverns.
Within 20 years of Ramesses VI’s burial, the tomb was most probably desecrated and ransacked by grave robbers, who hacked away at the hands and feet of Ramesses’ mummy to gain access to his jewelry. These events, occurring during the reign of Ramesses XI, are described in the Papyrus Mayer B although the identification of the tomb mentioned in this source is not entirely certain. Ramesses VI’s mummy was subsequently moved to the tomb KV35 of Amenhotep II during the reign of Pinedjem of the early Twenty-First Dynasty, where it was discovered in 1898 by Victor Loret. A medical examination of the mummy revealed that Ramesses VI died aged around forty, and showed severe damage to his body, the head and torso being broken into several pieces by an axe used by the tomb robbers.
Click on the door to see what’s revealed.
