Tomb Ramesses 1024x451, Flyover Zone

Alongside the Giza Plateau, the most famous archaeological site in Egypt is the Valley of the Kings, the royal cemetery during the New Kingdom.
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Alongside the Giza Plateau, the most famous archaeological site in Egypt is the Valley of the Kings, the royal cemetery during the New Kingdom. Among the two dozen royal tombs discovered here to date, one of the largest and most significant is the Tomb of Ramesses VI, the fifth pharaoh of the 20th Dynasty, who reigned between approximately 1156 and 1149 BCE. The tomb’s ten corridors stretching more than 100 meters into the bedrock are covered from floor to ceiling with images and passages from funerary texts such as “The Book of the Day,” “The Book of the Night,” “The Book of Gates,” and “The Book of Caverns.” These images and passages describe the ancient Egyptian belief in the divinity of the pharaoh through his relationship with the sun-god Ra, the lord of the Netherworld Osiris, and Osiris’ son Horus. With the kind permission of Princeton University Press, the main study of this tomb, written in the mid-twentieth century by the famed Franco-Russian Egyptologist Alexandre Piankoff, becomes the source of a virtual tour that takes you deep into the Valley of the Kings and the ancient Egyptian conception of death and the afterlife.

Audio: English

Subtitles: Arabic, English, Spanish

Project Manager:
Hesham Hussein

Producer:
Bernard Frischer

Tour Guide/Narration:
Alberto Prieto

Script:
Hesham Hussein
Bernard Frischer
Alberto Prieto

3D Modeling:
Mohamed Abdelaziz
Devin Good

Art Direction:
Mohamed Abdelaziz
Devin Good

Contributor:
Stephen Vinson

Captions:
Nancy Peniche May (Spanish)
Hesham Hussein (Arabic)

Image Credits:
360Cities
EgyptVR
Innovision
Odyssey Visual Media
Virtual Egypt

Created By:
Flyover Zone

Special Thanks:
Flyover Zone thanks Princeton University Press for permission to use A. Piankoff’s monograph on KV9 as the main source for this virtual tour.

This virtual tour is dedicated to the memory of Alexandre Piankoff (1897-1966).

  • J. M. Bunbury, “Geology of the Valley of the Kings,” in R.H. Wilkinson and K.R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 15-22.
  • S. W. Cross. “The Search for Other Tombs,” in R.H. Wilkinson and K.R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 517-527.
  • J. C. Darnell, The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity: Cryptographic Compositions in the Tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramesses VI and Ramesses IV (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 198). Fribourg and Göttingen: Academic Press and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2004.
  • J. C. Darnell and C.M. Darnell, The Ancient Egyptian Netherworld Books. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2018.
  • A. Dorn, “The Hydrology of the Valley of the Kings,” in R.H. Wilkinson and K. R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 30-40.
  • A. Dodson, “Royal Tombs of the Twentieth Dynasty,” in R. H. Wilkinson and K. R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 220-223.
  • L. Gahlin, Egypt. Gods, Myths and Religion. London: Hermes House, 2014.
  • E. Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. (Trans. D. Lorton.) Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
  • T. E. Peet, “Fresh Light on the Tomb Robberies of the Twentieth Dynasty at Thebes: Some New Papyri in London and Turin.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 11.1/2 (1925): 37-55.
  • A. Piankoff, The Tomb of Ramesses VI. 2 vols. (Bollingen Series XL.1.) Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954.
  • N. Reeves and R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings. Tombs and Treasures of Egypt’s Greatest Pharaohs. New York, Thames & Hudson, 1996.
  • B. A. Richter, “The Amduat and Its Relationship to the Architecture of Early 18th Dynasty Royal Burial Chambers.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 44 (2008): 73-104.
  • D. P. Silverman, “Cryptographic Writing in the Tomb of Tutankhamun.” Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 8 (1980): 233-236.
  • S. Vinson, “Ramses VI,” in D.B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 120–121.
  • K.R. Weeks and N. J. Hetherington, The Valley of the Kings: A Site Management Handbook. Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2014.
  • K. R. Weeks, “The Component Parts of KV Royal Tombs,” in R. H. Wilkinson and K. R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 98-116.
  • R. H. Wilkinson, Reading Egyptian Art. A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture. London: Thames & Hudson, 1994.
  • R. H. Wilkinson and K. R. Weeks, “Introduction,” in R. H. Wilkinson and K. R. Weeks (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 3-12.

Highlights

  • Guided Tour

    Explore 20 stops along a tour of the Pantheon

  • Time Warp

    Travel to 320 AD and see the Pantheon restored

  • Expert Commentary

    Listen to expert commentary on each stop

Preview in 3D

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