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 many times.
The Tomb KV 57
British Egyptologist Edward Ayrton discovered the tomb in 1908. KV 57 is located in Valley of the Kings, on Thebes's west bank.
The Uniqueness of the Tomb
The construction of Horemheb's tomb developed several innovations that remained popular in tomb building from the 18th to 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, replacing the earlier simple paintings. Also, inscriptions from the Book of Gates, a religious composition based on separating the twelve hours of the night, were inscribed in the passages on this tomb.
Remarkable Features:
Although the tomb descends from those that existed earlier of the Kings, some quiremain restricted to this particular Tomb...
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A ramp th. descended into a set of stairs cut between the burial chambers’ pillars
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Another set of stairs carved near the first
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Both stairs led to the crypt on the lower level
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A lower storeroom beneath the annex of the burial chamber
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KV 57 was the first Tomb ever to have inscriptions from the Book of Gates
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Decoration in the Tomb helped scholars 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 diagonal passages 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 the 19th and 20th dynasties. Decoration in the Tomb consists of representations of deities and scenes from the Book of Gates.
What Remained Within the Tomb
This Tomb contained many funeral equipment pieces and wooden images of cedar and acacia. Also found among the remains were alabaster Canopic jars, whose stoppers were portrait-headed, and four lion-headed embalming tables. In addition to these items, 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. 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. However, this proved helpful for scholars who learned how tombs were built during that era, and Egyptologists learned many techniques that the early artists used during those times.
