205: The Finest Tomb

Entryway: The ancients called the royal tomb entrance pa setja netjer en wat shu, “The God’s Passage on the Way of Shu,” referencing the god of the air and light.  It can also be the “God’s Passage on the Way of the Sun.”

First Corridor: The first passage was called pa setja netjer nety r meh 2, or “the Second God’s Passage Which is Behind [the First].” It is decorated with the Book of Praising Ra in the West, aka the Litany of Ra (Darnell and Manassa 2018). The ceiling has images of Nekhbet, the vulture, with cartouches of Sety I. NOTE: In the tomb (and other monuments connected with Usir / Osiris), Sety’s cartouches don’t have the “Seth” hieroglyph. Instead, they substitute it with the hieroglyph of Usir. This was presumably done to avoid representing Seth directly in the kingdom of his brother, whom he murdered.

First Staircase: This is called the pa setja netjer nety r meh 3, or “The Third God’s Passage.” To either side it has shelves / recesses, called the nakh khemy nety hetepu na netjeru, “The Recesses in Which the Gods Reside.” The walls are decorated with the Litany of Ra. The lintel has images of Ma’at protecting Sety’s cartouches.

Second Corridor: This was called the setja-netjer nety r meh 4, or “The Fourth God’s Passage.” The names will get more interesting as we go. It is decorated with the Book of the Hidden Chamber, also known as the Amduat. Specifically, it has Hour 4 (right/west wall) and Hour 5 (left/east wall), in which the sun god enters the desert and cavern of Sokar.

Well Shaft: This is ta weskhet iseq, or “The Hall of Waiting.” It has images of Sety (walking towards the tomb) receiving welcome from deities like Hathor-Imentet, Anpu (Anubis), Horus-Son-of-Aset (Isis), and Usir (Osiris).

First Pillared Hall: This was ta weskhet merchet, or “The Chariot Hall.” It could also be called ta weskhet der sebiu, or “The Hall of Repelling the Rebels.” It is decorated with the Book of Gates, Hour 5 (left/east wall) and Hour 6 (right/west wall), in which the gods organise the world and its peoples, and defeat Apep (Apophis).

Second Pillared Hall: This room (unnamed) has the Amduat, Hours 9 to 11.

Descending Corridors: Descending towards the burial halls, this corridor is called setja netjer ker tepy en wepet, or “The First God’s Passage of the Opening.” It is decorated with images of Sety receiving offerings, and priests performing the Opening of the Mouth on statues of the king.

Antechamber: This is ta weskhet Ma’at, or “The Hall of Ma’at.” It is decorated with images of the King approaching deities like Hathor-Imentet, Anpu (Anubis), Ptah, and Usir (Osiris).

Burial Chamber: This was the ta weskhet nety hetep-tu em-im, or “The Hall in Which One Rests.” It is also known as the per-nebu, “House of Gold.” It is divided in two sections, with side rooms. The first section is decorated with the Book of Gates, Hours 2, 3, and 5. The pillars show the King before male deities. The second section is where Sety’s sarcophagus lay. The walls have the Amduat, Hours 1, 2, and 3. The ceiling is adorned with constellations and decans (10-day groups of stars).

The Tunnel: Below the sarcophagus area, a tunnel continues further into the mountain. It has been explored repeatedly since 1817. The most recent excavation (2007 to 2010) reached the end, about 174m from its entrance. Apart from a few fragmentary items (like shabtis, beads, and bits of wood) there were no major finds. The tunnel’s purpose is debatable: it might be an attempt to reach groundwater, and the “Underworld;” or it may be a revival of the South Tomb idea from the Old Kingdom, where statues/symbolic burials of the kings accompanied their main pyramid monuments.

Side Chambers: Five small rooms radiate off the main Burial Hall. Three of them are decorated (left of the entrance; left of the sarcophagus space; right of the entrance). In order, these rooms are decorated with the Book of Gates, Hour 4; the Amduat Hours 7 and 9; and the Book of the Sky Cow (the first time this text appeared on the walls of a tomb).

Burial goods: Only a few fragments of Sety’s original burial survive. Several shabtis, now in various museums; a wooden statue coated with resin; and the King’s stone coffin / sarcophagus (now in the Soane Museum, London). Sety’s mummy, along with a coffin (repurposed from an 18th Dynasty original) were in the Deir el-Bahari cache, discovered in 1881.

Afterlife: When discovered, Sety’s tomb was probably as beautiful as that of Nefertari. Unfortunately, flooding and destructive tourism in the 1800s (including the use of “squeezes” to remove paint from the walls) have severely damaged its imagery. Still, given the size of the monument, the quality of its carving, and the complexity of its imagery, the tomb remains the finest in the Valley of the Kings.