KV34 (Kings’ Valley no. 34) is the rock-cut tomb of the ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) Thutmose III and is one of the early tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes West from the 18th Dynasty (New Kingdom) that still has a bent tomb axis.
Discovery of KV34
Workers under the direction of Victor Loret, then Director General of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, discovered the tomb on February 12, 1898. Loret arrived a few days later, and shortly thereafter, the tomb of Thutmose III’s son and successor Amenhotep II (KV35) was also discovered.
Location of KV34
The entrance to the tomb is located at the upper end of a narrow gorge. It is the southernmost wadi in the Valley of the Kings. The rock cliffs above the tomb have been washed out by water over time.
Paths still lead from the cliffs above the tomb to the ancient Egyptian workers’ village of Deir el-Medina.
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Interpretation of the Bent Pyramid
The bent form of the ground plan and the oval burial chamber, like all early tombs in the Valley of the Kings, reflect the curved spaces of the subterranean afterlife.
This afterlife image began under Sesostris II when the straight, north-facing corridor of the pyramid was replaced by a maze-like system of passages, thus finally shifting the accents of Egyptian afterlife beliefs from heaven to the underworld (Duat).
The winding paths of the afterlife are cartographically recorded in the Book of the Two Ways, and “Amduat” shows especially in the fourth and fifth night hours these zigzagging paths of the Sokar-land and gives the whole underworld an oval, curved conclusion, which can also be found in many scenes of the sun’s course.
Through this concept, Osiris and his mythical fate gained more positive aspects. Instead of mistrust of the dark depths, there gradually emerges a gratifying insight into the necessity of constant regeneration, which is only possible there.
Overall View KV34
Accessing the tomb from the north, one enters the first corridor, which leads through a “rhythmic alternation of stairs and corridors” to a first chamber with a central ramp.
This is followed by a second corridor and a shaft leading to the trapezoidal upper pillared hall, which bends at an angle of 72.64 degrees along its axis and descends via a staircase to the burial chamber.
The burial chamber in turn has four side chambers. As in all tombs of the 18th Dynasty, the corridors and stairways were left undecorated.
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The Shaft in KV34
A new element of tomb architecture is the six-meter-deep shaft, whose significance is not yet fully understood and which remained an element of the royal tomb until the end of the 19th Dynasty.
It is interpreted as an obstacle for grave robbers, but could also have served as a catchment basin in rare but heavy rain showers.
Erik Hornung also clearly assigns it a religious significance:
“… as a direct access to the underworld and cave of the god Sokar”
The walls are only decorated with a decorative frieze of colorful reed bundles (Cheker frieze) and the sky sign, and the ceiling with yellow stars on a blue background.
The walls are not yet painted with scenes of gods, as in later tombs with such a shaft, but the framework for these scenes is already given and made it “a place where the deceased pharaoh enters the world of the gods”, and thus a place of transition from the here to the afterlife, which serves the resurrection of the dead.
Chamber of Two Pillars
A further innovation in architecture is the trapezoidal Chamber of Two Pillars. The two pillars are undecorated but covered with a square grid.
The ceiling is decorated with yellow stars on a blue background, and the upper part of the walls is adorned with a checkerboard frieze.
The walls display a catalog of 741 deities (excluding the hostile beings) from the Amduat, which is unparalleled. The figures are drawn only in outline and each is supplemented with a star (ancient Egyptian dw3 – Dua), an incense burner, and a sign for the Ba-soul.
Burial chamber of Thutmose III
The rectangular burial chamber, measuring 14.6 × 8.5 m, has rounded corners and resembles a cartouche in its overall shape.
The walls are decorated with the twelve night hours of the Amduat, their arrangement being oriented to the real directions of the heavens and the notes in the text.
However, this ideal could not always be maintained, and due to lack of space, certain rearrangements and omissions had to be made.
The figures are painted in black and red line drawings, the texts in cursive hieroglyphs, and the background is in a light yellow-red tone. This creates the impression of a monumental papyrus.
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The upper end of the walls is decorated with a checkerboard frieze. The ceiling, on the other hand, is painted with yellow stars on a blue background, representing the celestial afterlife that is open to the deceased’s Ba-soul.
Two sides of the two pillars contain a summary of the Amduat book as a kind of table of contents. 76 figures of the litany of the sun are depicted on four pages.
Another scene on a pillar shows Thutmose III with his mother Isis in a boat, accompanied by family members.
In addition, an unusual and well-known scene is sketched fleetingly: A stylized tree offers the king its breast. It bears the inscription: “he sucks at (the breast) of his mother Isis”.
Since Thutmosis’ mother was actually called Isis, the scene could be interpreted superficially as the king’s return to his mother and rejuvenation, but the tree points to a goddess who otherwise grows out of the tree in the tomb officials’ graves as Nut or Hathor and offers the deceased cool water and sacrificial offerings with his bird-shaped Ba.
The fact that Isis is called here instead is certainly due to the name of the earthly mother and the myth according to which the king represents the role of the god Horus on earth and returns to the protection of his divine mother Isis, who cares for and protects him.
Discoveries in the Tomb of Thutmose III
Besides the empty sarcophagus, Loret discovered in the Tomb of Thutmose III only a few fragments of artifacts left behind by tomb robbers, including the remains of a baboon and a bull, wooden statues of the king, as well as faience, glass, and ceramic vessels.
The royal sarcophagus is shaped like a cartouche and can still be seen in the tomb today.
The mummy of Thutmose III was discovered in 1881 in the cachette of Deir el-Bahari, wrapped in a shroud with the text of the Litany of the Sun God.
At the head and foot of the sarcophagus, representations of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys are carved, kneeling on symbols of gold.
On the sides are Anubis and the four sons of Horus. The inside and outside of the lid are decorated with the goddess Nut, and the bottom and inner walls of the tub are decorated with the Western Goddess, Selket.
In 1921, Howard Carter discovered the foundation deposits of Thutmose III while clearing away debris deposited by floods.