T H E R E B I R T H
F T H E S U N

Mortuary Art and Architecture

in the Royal Tombs of
New Kingdom Egypt
by j os hua rob ers on

The towering peak of el-Gurn rises as a natural pyramid over

the entire Valley of the Kings, linking the Underworld of the
subterranean tombs with the Heavens.
Joshua Roberson

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 mages and texts found in ancient Egyptian burials

I present a highly complex vision of the afterlife. In par-

ticular, the specialized decoration employed in royal
tombs provides unparalleled insight into the Egyptian
understanding of death as an interface between the
human and divine worlds.
The Valley of the Kings—located on the west bank of the
Nile River at Thebes near modern Luxor—was the site of
Egypt’s royal necropolis during the New Kingdom (ca.
Tomb KV 57 (top)—built for the last king of the 18th Dynasty, Horemheb
1569–1081 BCE). Containing the tombs of almost every (ca. 1343–1315 BCE)—exhibits two linear axes offset slightly at the mid-
pharaoh of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Dynasties, it appears to point of the structure. This hybrid form would re-appear later in the
have been chosen, at least in part, for certain geographical tombs of Seti I (19th Dynasty, ca. 1314–1304 BCE) and Ramesses III
(20th Dynasty, ca. 1198–1166 BCE). Virtually all of the remaining kings of
peculiarities that held specific religious significance for the the later New Kingdom employed a strictly linear axis as, for example, in
ancient Egyptians. A great peak—known in modern Arabic as the plan of KV 2 (bottom), constructed for Ramesses IV (20th Dynasty,
el-Gurn (“the horn”)—dominates the eastern approach to the ca. 1166–1160 BCE). Copyright, Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.

Valley and serves as a natural pyramid for the many tombs

below. At the same time, the sides of the Valley, when viewed (although carved gateways were eventually added after the
from the east, recall the twin hills employed in the Egyptian 18th Dynasty). Their essential features include paired statue
hieroglyph representing the akhet, , the point at which the niches near the beginning of the tomb entrance, a series of
sun enters and exits the visible sky and which may be trans- sloping corridors connected by short stairways, a deep “well
lated loosely as “horizon.” Given that the daily rising and set- shaft,” and pillared sarcophagus hall.
ting of the sun served as the model for the king’s own resurrec- While the earlier 18th Dynasty royal tombs followed dis-
tion, the akhet-shaped cliffs combined with the natural pyra- tinctively curved axes, after the reign of Hatshepsut (ca.
mid of the Gurn made the Valley an ideal place for the estab- 1502–1482 BCE), the structures began to adopt more angular,
lishment of a new royal burial site. bent forms. These bent axes, in turn, gave way to a linear axis
All of the Valley’s tombs are rock-cut, subterranean monu- during the reign of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten (ca.
ments that lack substantial aboveground superstructures 1372–1355 BCE), who constructed his tomb outside the Valley
of the Kings, near his new capital of Akhetaten. But whereas
subsequent kings returned to the Valley, variations on the
older bent axis only re-appeared twice more—first, in the
hastily prepared tomb of Tutankhamun (ca. 1346 BCE) and
later in that of Ramesses II (ca. 1237 BCE). All of the remain-
ing pharaohs of the later New Kingdom employed predomi-
nantly linear tomb designs.

The Amduat Tomb

Royal tomb architecture and decoration was connected inti-

mately with the Egyptian conception of the Duat, a mytholog-
ical region understood during the New Kingdom as a subter-
Tomb KV 20 (left)—constructed for Thutmose ranean “Underworld.” Our principal source of knowledge
I and Hatshepsut—displays the most concerning the Underworld during the 18th Dynasty is a cos-
extensively curved axis of any tomb in the
Valley of the Kings. KV 43 (right)—built for
mographic treatise known to the Egyptians as the “Writing of
Thutmose IV—shows the more angular, the Hidden Chamber” and referred to most often in modern
bent axis, characteristic of tombs from the literature by the more generic Egyptian title of Amduat (liter-
second half of the 18th Dynasty. Copyright,
Griffith Institute, University of Oxford.
ally, “What is in the Underworld”). This book consisted of a

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 The seventh hour of the Amduat, from the tomb of Thutmose III, depicts the ram-headed sun god and his entourage in the night-boat (center
register, left), as they confront the demonic chaos-serpent Apep, whose body is pierced by knives and bound by the goddess Selket. In the
upper register, groups of the damned are alternately beheaded and bound with ropes before the enthroned figure of Osiris. In the lower register,
the personified hours of the night, crowned with stars, stand before the enthroned god Horus.

series of vignettes and texts arranged in linear fashion to shaft” with the “Cavern of Sokar” described in the Amduat’s
depict the 12 regions of the Duat, which the sun god Re tra- fifth hour.
versed during each corresponding hour of the night, prior to Of course, the most important chamber was that which
his rebirth at dawn from the eastern horizon. housed the physical corpse of the king––the sarcophagus
The curved and bent axes employed in royal tombs hall—that the Egyptians designated “the House of Gold in
through most of the 18th Dynasty were probably intended to which One Rests.” In the New Kingdom, this chamber always
reflect the tortuous, serpentine paths of the Underworld occurred at or near the end of the tomb. Prior to the reign
itself. This equation is implicit, for instance, in the technical of Amenhotep II (ca. 1454–1419 BCE), such chambers
term, “god’s passage,” that Egyptian architects used to exhibited a semi-ovoid, or “cartouche-shaped,” design.
describe a tomb’s sloping corridors, drawing upon stock Egyptologist Erik Hornung has suggested that this shape
phraseology employed in texts like the Amduat with reference might reflect the similarly curved concluding representation
to the sun’s travels through the Underworld. In addition, found at the end of the Amduat.
however, individual tomb chambers might also represent In this regard, it becomes significant that sarcophagi dur-
more specific regions within the Duat. For example, scholars ing the 18th Dynasty tended to be placed at the rear of the
David P. Silverman

such as Friedrich Abitz have associated the deeply cut “well chamber, near the center of the back wall. As a result, the

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 The Amduat concluding representation depicts the solar barge (center register, left) as it is towed through the body of a serpent, toward the
moment of rebirth from the great, curving arc of the eastern horizon. As the sun approaches the horizon, which separates the Underworld from
the visible sky, he sheds his nocturnal, ram-headed form and transforms into the rejuvenated, morning sun as the scarab beetle Khepri (center
register, right).

king’s corpse rested within the 3-dimensional sarcophagus assume in its mature, daytime form, even as the king awaits
hall at a position corresponding to that of the rejuvenated sun his own rebirth as a manifestation of the god within the sar-
as found in the 2-dimensional Amduat concluding scene. cophagus itself.
The ideal placement of the Amduat itself on the walls
surrounding the sarcophagus chamber would have further The Ramessid Tomb Plan
reinforced this association. Thus, in the tomb of Thutmose
III (ca. 1452 BCE), the book’s concluding representation The development of the New Kingdom royal tombs from the
terminates at the curved juncture of the rear and right-hand 18th Dynasty into the following Ramessid Period (19th and
walls, kitty-corner to the king’s nearby sarcophagus, at a 20th Dynasties; ca. 1315–1081 BCE) suggests a trend toward
position designated explicitly in the text as the “eastern side of increasing schematization whereby the structures progress
the Hidden Chamber in the Duat.” Here, even the red from more literal cosmographic models of the Underworld
coloration of the quartzite sarcophagus mimics the red of to increasingly abstract architectural metaphors.
the nocturnal solar disc in the Amduat’s conclusion. At the While the earlier 18th Dynasty “Amduat-style” tombs
George B. Johnson

same time, the lighter yellow within the stone, visible in the exhibited cartouche-shaped (semi-ovoid) burial chambers
incised hieroglyphs, hints at the color that the reborn sun will and curved axes, by the second half of that Dynasty, oblique

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 George B. Johnson

The tomb of Thutmose III (KV 34) represents the ideal organization of an “Amduat-style” burial chamber with its placement of the sarcophagus
near the curved, terminal end of the hall, adjacent to the correctly positioned final hour of the Amduat itself.

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David P. Silverman, Joshua Roberson (inset)

Later Underworld compositions such as the “Book of Gates” and the “Book of Caverns” (inset) elaborated upon themes present already in the
Amduat. The “Book of Gates” takes its modern name from the towering gateways guarded by fire-spitting serpents that separate the divisions
of the Underworld. The central image from the “Book of Caverns,” shown here in its earliest known version from the cenotaph of Seti I at
Abydos, depicts the rebirth of the god Osiris beneath the double-headed sphinx Aker.

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 The organization of the “Books of the Earth” was highly variable, with no fixed number or order of scenes and texts. The version of Tawosret
(above; left half pictured) represents one of the shortest, while. . .

and, later, right angles came to dominate the entire structure. rooms remained essentially unaltered, preserving the relative
During this transition, the basic, 4-room ground plan was order of their presumed mythological counterparts in
doubled, creating a “fossilized” sequence of corridors, the Underworld.
antechamber, and pillared hall, followed by a second set of
corridors, the well shaft, and pillared sarcophagus chamber. The Later Books of the Underworld
The bent axis of the later 18th Dynasty tombs commenced
from the first pillared hall, creating a vaguely L-shaped con- In terms of wall decoration, the Amduat continued to appear
figuration that served to differentiate the initial, fossilized in the Ramessid Period tombs, although it was no longer
sequence of rooms from the second half of the tomb. reserved for the sarcophagus hall and now appeared fre-
By contrast, nearly all of the kings of the following quently in the preceding corridors. In addition, a number of
Ramessid Period employed some form of linear tomb axis. new “Underworld Books,” such as the “Book of Gates” and
The disappearance of the older, bent shape eliminated any the “Book of Caverns,” began to appear at this same time,
overt architectural reference to the twisting labyrinth of the offering alternate, yet largely complimentary, representations
Duat. However, the sequence of individual corridors and of the sun’s linear progress through the Duat.
Joshua Roberson

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 . . . that of Ramesses VI (above; right half pictured) is the longest, after A. Piankoff. 1954. The Tomb of Ramesses VI, pl. 113, reproduced
by courtesy of Princeton University Press.

In the 18th Dynasty, decoration of the rooms preceding

the sarcophagus chamber was limited mostly to representa-
tions of the king and certain deities. From the 19th Dynasty
onward, once the Underworld Books began to appear
outside of the burial chamber, the entire tomb became a
canvas for representations of the mythological regions
of the hereafter. Significantly, this development took place
only after the abandonment of the bent axis in favor
of more linear tomb designs. By including explicit
Underworld imagery throughout the descending corridors
Joshua Roberson (bottom image only)

and other rooms, the Ramessid architects effectively labeled The ideal organization of the Amduat along the walls of the 18th Dynasty
the entire structure as “the Underworld,” without the neces- sarcophagus chamber created a closed circuit that replicated the nocturnal
journey of the sun (equated with the deceased in his or her sarcophagus)
sity of replicating its serpentine course in the axis of the around the room’s perimeter and diagonally across its center––probably, as
tomb itself. Erik Hornung suggests, for the purpose of linking the middle of the book
with its conclusion.

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 David P. Silverman

From the sarcophagus chamber of Ramesses VI, the “Book of the Day”—with the “Book of the Night” visible just above—represents the sky
as the body of the goddess Nut, who gives birth to the sun in the form of a winged scarab in the morning (above). . .

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 . . . before swallowing him again in the evening (above).

Architectural Development of the

“Akhet-Style” Burial Chamber

The extension of the Underworld Books beyond the sar-

cophagus hall also coincided with a re-configuration of
that room’s architecture, apparently intended to emphasize
its role as the deceased king’s personal horizon.
David P. Silverman (top), Joshua Roberson (bottom)

During the 18th and early 19th Dynasties, the burial

chamber ran lengthwise along the major axis of the tomb,
with the sarcophagus placed off-center near the rear of the
hall, beneath a flat ceiling. The ceiling was decorated with a In the royal tombs of the 19th and 20th Dynasties, the arched sidewalls and
centrally placed depression for the royal sarcophagus created an architectur-
simple field of stars on a dark blue background, while the al analog for the Egyptian hieroglyph representing the horizon, or akhet. The
primary wall decoration consisted of the Amduat, which texts and decoration of the “akhet-style” burial chamber followed the
ideally (although rarely in practice) reproduced the 12 course of the sun from night to day, sidewalls to ceiling, around the long
axis of the burial chamber, perpendicular to the major axis of the tomb.
divisions of the Underworld in a specific sequence around

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 From the tomb of Ramesses IV, the sun god appears in his barge atop the double-headed sphinx Aker. This excerpt from the “Book of the Earth”
was employed here as a self-contained summary representation of the solar cycle. The left and right heads of the double sphinx are identified in
the hieroglyphic captions as “perfect entrance” and “perfect emergence,” representing the western (sunset) and eastern (sunrise) mountains of
the horizon, respectively. The cyclical rebirth of the sun, as mediated by the akhet, provided the ideological framework for the construction of the
royal sarcophagus chamber and the blueprint for the king’s own resurrection in the later New Kingdom.

the chamber’s circumference, re-creating the circuit of the Ramessid sarcophagus chambers rarely employed the
sun’s nocturnal voyage. Amduat as a major component in the room’s decoration.
This design changed during the reign of Seti I (ca. Instead, many 19th and 20th Dynasty tombs included a new
1314–1304 BCE), the second king of the 19th Dynasty. From type of Underworld composition, which modern scholars
this point, the architects regularly rotated the rectangular have designated the “Book of the Earth.” Scenes from this
burial chamber perpendicular to the major axis of the tomb, composition appeared already in the cenotaph of the god
while the sarcophagus was moved to a sunken depression at Osiris built by Seti I at Abydos, but it was Seti’s grandson,
the center of the chamber. In addition, the sidewalls acquired Merneptah (ca. 1237–1226 BCE), who first adapted the book
an arched shape, creating a curved vault in place of the flat for use in a royal tomb.
ceiling found in the “Amduat-style” burial chamber. Unlike almost all of the other Underworld Books, the
By placing the king’s body in a central depression between “Book of the Earth” had no fixed content or order—scenes
symmetrically paired and arching sidewalls, the architects were drawn from a common pool of stock imagery and
evoked the hieroglyphic image of the akhet, the stylized pair selected on a more-or-less ad hoc basis to suit the require-
of hills flanking the solar disc, , which constituted the ments of a particular tomb owner. The principal organiza-
quintessential symbol of solar rebirth. The incorporation of tional feature linking the various “Books of the Earth” was
this symbol into the architecture of the sarcophagus cham- their consistent division into two symmetrical halves, suitable
ber—the site of the king’s own resurrection—served to mag- for decorating the symmetrically paired, arching sidewalls of
ically equate the nightly rejuvenation of the sun god Re with the new “akhet-style” burial chambers. Because the internal
the transfiguration of the deceased king and his ultimate structure of the “Book of the Earth” was fundamentally
rebirth as a solar deity. mutable, it was probably not conceived as a “map” of the
Underworld. Rather, individual elements appear to have been
The Decorative Program in the selected as characteristic examples representing a range of
Late Ramessid Sarcophagus Hall possible locations and beings that the sun god might
encounter during his nocturnal journey from the western
New decorative programs employed in the “akhet-style” bur- mountain of the horizon at sunset to the eastern mountain at
ial chamber further emphasized the form and function of the sunrise. Thus, while the architecture of the room physically
Joshua Roberson

room as a horizon. Unlike the 18th Dynasty royal tombs, replicated the shape of the akhet hieroglyph, the “Book of the

24 vo lum e 50 , n u m b er 2 expe d i t i on
 Earth” served as a magical catalyst to turn the structure “on,” pied the central position as the sun itself. The cyclical solar
transforming it into a functional, personalized horizon from journey represented in the “akhet-style” burial chamber ran
which the king might affect his solar rebirth. perpendicular to the major, linear axis of the tomb. One is
However, such horizon symbolism was not limited to wall tempted to see in the intersection of these two axes a reflec-
decoration. Whereas the characteristically arched sidewalls tion of the ancient Egyptian conception of the duality of
suggest the domes of paired mountains in the horizon hiero- time. On the one hand, neheh (“eternal recurrence”) was
glyph, they also lend the ceiling a distinctively curved, vaulted associated with the sun god Re and his cyclical rising and set-
shape. This shape reflected the Egyptian understanding of ting. On the other hand, djet (“eternal sameness”) was asso-
the sky, conceptualized in the hieroglyphic script as a vaulted ciated with the god of the Dead, Osiris. As a result of the
expanse supported by downward curving posts, ,a nightly union of these two deities, the sun was able to be
form that was often personified in representational art as the reborn each morning. Through the rhythm of this daily
arched body of the sky goddess Nut, . In the 18th Dynasty cycle, time in both its cyclical and linear aspects was perpetu-
“Amduat-style” burial chambers, the flat ceiling had been ated and the order of the cosmos maintained. By placing his
adorned with generic representations of the sky—yellow corpse within the tomb at the intersection of these compli-
stars on a dark blue background. By contrast, every com- mentary aspects of the divine, the king assured his own
pleted “akhet-style” sarcophagus hall from the 19th and 20th rebirth, rising like the sun from his personal horizon to take
Dynasties included much more detailed representations of his place in the solar entourage and maintain order in the
the heavens, exploiting fully the mythological significance of Egyptian cosmos.
the vaulted ceiling as a medium for decoration.
Earlier examples of “akhet-style” burial chambers— j o s hua ro b e r s o n , a Lecturer in
including those from the tombs of Seti I, Merneptah, Egyptian Language and Culture at
Tawosret, and Ramesses III—employed so-called astronomi- the University of Pennsylvania,
cal ceilings that depicted the northern and southern heavens received his Ph.D. in Egyptology
from Penn’s Department of Near
and the personified constellations of the Egyptian “zodiac.”
Eastern Languages and Civilization
In these representations, the two halves of the sky were sepa- in 2007.
rated merely by two non-descript yellow bands. Later exam-
ples—including those from the tombs of Ramesses VI, For Further Reading
Ramesses VII, and Ramesses IX—represent the double sky
anthropomorphically as the twin bodies of the goddess Nut, Abt, T., and E. Hornung. Knowledge for
the Afterlife. The Egyptian Amduat—A
which were associated explicitly with the day and the night.
Quest for Immortality. Zurich: Living Human Heritage, 2003.
As the mother of the sun god Re, Nut’s feet stood ideally
atop the side wall corresponding to the eastern mountain of Carter, H., and A. Gardiner. “The Tomb of Ramesses IV and the Turin
the horizon. From this position, the newborn sun would Plan of a Royal Tomb.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 4
(1917):130-58.
enter the visible sky—simultaneously exiting the
Underworld and emerging from the thighs of his celestial Cerný, J. The Valley of the Kings: Fragments d'un Manuscrit
mother. The course of the sun through the heavens then fol- Inachevé. Bibliothèque d’Étude, vol. 61. Cairo: IFAO, 1973.
lowed Nut’s body across the ceiling, from “east” to “west,” Hornung, E. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Translated
toward the moment of sunset. At this point, Nut swallowed by David Lorton. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
the now-aged sun as he once more entered the western Hornung, E. The Valley of the Kings. Translated by David Warburton.
mountain of the horizon. The ensuing nocturnal journey New York: Timken, 1990.
back through the Duat from “west” to “east” was envisioned
Roberson, J. “The Book of the Earth: A Study of Ancient Egyptian
both as a passage through the body of the sky goddess and
Symbol-Systems and the Evolution of New Kingdom Cosmographic
through the subterranean Underworld. Models.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 2007.
The combination of the various “Books of the Earth” on
Wilkinson, R. “Symbolic Location and Alignment in New Kingdom
the arching sidewalls and the celestial representations on the
Royal Tombs and their Decoration” Journal of the American
vaulted ceiling created a powerful image of solar rebirth from
Tracy Musacchio

Research Center in Egypt 31(1994):79-86.

the horizon, in which the corpse of the deceased king occu-

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