KV20
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KV20 |
|
|---|---|
| place | Valley of the Kings |
| Discovery date | 1799 |
| excavation | Howard Carter |
| Previous KV19 |
The following KV21 |
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The ancient Egyptian tomb KV 20 in the Valley of the Kings was probably the first hypogeum in the ancient necropolis . Today it is considered the original burial place of the Pharaoh Hatshepsut and her father Thutmose I , who had it designed by his architect Ineni. The tomb was discovered in 1799 on the easternmost arm of the valley by the Egyptian expedition Napoléon Bonapartes . In 1817 Giovanni Battista Belzoni mapped the tomb, which was then partially uncovered by James Burton in 1825 . KV20 was first fully and scientifically excavated, however, between 1903 and 1904 by Howard Carter , who ascribed the grave complex to Hatshepsut and her father Thutmose I.
The tomb in ancient times
Carter assumed that what he believed to be the original tomb of Thutmose I ( KV38 ) had been abandoned in favor of KV20. However, the British historian John Romer showed that KV38 is more recent and was out of the question for a first burial of Thutmose I. Instead, it is assumed that at the time of Thutmose I's death, only two thirds of the grave was excavated and then, under the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, it was expanded into a double grave with a descent, another corridor, a burial chamber and three additional side chambers.
The mummy of Thutmose I was later under the rule of Hatshepsut's stepson Thutmose III. possibly reburied to protect against grave robbers after KV38. No remains of Hatshepsut's corpse could be identified in KV20; instead, a mummified liver or spleen was found in the Theban tomb TT320 , the so-called “Cachette of Deir el-Bahari ”, in a box with Hatshepsut's cartridge .
Architecture and equipment
The tomb has an unusual layout for the tombs of the Valley of the Kings . The access is in a difficult-to-access rock wall 200 meters high, the grave itself winds clockwise very deep into the limestone for a total length of about 210 meters, so that the burial chamber is 97 meters below the surface of the earth.
The uniaxial grave complex is initially oriented in an easterly direction, then bends to the south into a long corridor and then flows in an arch to the west into the burial chamber. This course weakens the theory that the tomb was originally designed with an underground connection to Hatshepsut's mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahari .
See also
literature
- Nicholas Reeves , Richard H. Wilkinson : The complete Valley of the Kings: tombs and treasures of Egypt's greatest Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson, London 1996, ISBN 0-500-05080-5 , pp. 91-95.
- Alberto Siliotti: Guide to the Valley of the Kings and to the Theban Necropolises and Temples. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1996, ISBN 0-297-82263-2 .
Web links
Coordinates: 25 ° 44 ′ 22 ″ N , 32 ° 36 ′ 13 ″ E