Tomb KV4, located in the Valley of the Kings on the
West Bank
at Luxor (ancient Thebes) has been known and open since
antiquity (though not open to the public now), and it received
many ancient tourists, as evidenced by the Demotic Egyptian,
Greek , Latin, Coptic and later, French and English graffiti
on its walls, and was noted by the French expedition to Egypt
in the late 18th century. It was used as a workshop during the
21st Dynasty by Pinudjem for the purpose of stripping the
funerary equipment from KV20
(Hatshepsut),
KV34
(Tuthmosis
III) and KV38
(Tuthmosis
I) during the process of moving the
mummies to the other locations such as KV35's mummy cache. At
this time, Egypt's economy was failing and apparently the
valuable gold and other materials were needed to bolster its
treasuries. During the Christian
period, it became a residence
and a stable, as did other tombs in the valley. Later, Howard
Carter used the tomb as a storeroom and dining hall while he
worked to clear the tomb of
Tutankhamen. However, it was only
cleared in 1979 by John Romer for the Brooklyn Museum. More
recently, Richard Wilkinson and his University of Arizona team
completed an epigraphic and iconographic recording of this
tomb, as well as others in the Valley.
 Though there is no evidence of any flooding within this
tomb, KV4 has a crack between the columns and the roof of the
burial chamber that was probably the result of the dessication
of the limestone. Also, an apparent ancient repair was made to
the lower edge of the overhand at the end of the entry
approach. Here several beams had been placed to help support
the ceiling, as evidenced by their holes. A substantial
vertical crack zigzags through the center of the overhand and
displacement slippage is readily evident. There are large
cracks also in the walls of the upper corridors, that have
resulted in the loss of plaster and the wall surfaces,
particularly within the entrance and the first
corridor.
It would seem that while tomb KV4, located just outside the
main eastern group of tombs and a little further up a narrow
wadi beyond the tomb of Yula and
Tuya, was dug for Ramesses
XI, who was the last ruler of Egypt's 20th
Dynasty, it was abandoned
without ever being used for this king's burial (though it is
relatively complete in the basic architectural elements of
this period for tombs). In fact, the first pillared hall and
burial chamber were left unfinished, with the decorative theme
only reaching the first of the corridors. Were this tomb open
to the public, it would be of little interest, its main
attraction simply being that it was the last of the Royal
tombs to be built in the Valley of the Kings.
 The tomb consists of an initial entrance, a first corridor
followed by a relatively sharp descending ramp, with a second,
and then a third corridor prior to reaching the undecorated
and undug ritual well room. The entrance and first two
corridors have a shallow slope, and in the second corridor we
find a pair of rectangular niches in the usual positions, near
the corridor's entrance, on the north and south walls. The
unfinished pillared hall follows, after which a ramp leads
into the unfinished burial chamber with a deep burial shaft in
its center. Interestingly, within the burial chamber the
pillars are rectangular rather then square. The ceiling is
vaulted. While there were no barriers in this tomb, pivot
holes for door leafs were present in most of the inner
corridors and chambers.
The shaft within the burial chamber was an unusual feature,
leading John Romer to believe there might have been additional
chambers below. He stated:
"Ramesses (XI)'s tomb had one feature which
intrigued us: in the splendid vaulted burial chamber....,
more than 250 ft. into the cliff face there was, instead of
the usual granite sarcophagus...., a vast shaft, some 14 ft.
by 10 ft., which dropped straight down into pitch
darkness....
To clear it out was going to be an awkward job. But
once we had done it, what might we not find? A hidden door
to another corridor, and other chambers?"
 Obviously, Romer was disappointed that the shaft led only
down to its floor below, with no mysteries left to be
found.
The only decorations discovered within the tomb were on the
doorway between the entrance and the first corridor, and at
the beginning of the first corridor. In the doorway lintel
between the entrance and the first corridor, we find Ramesses
XI kneeling between two goddess flanked by the sun disk, Atem.
We also find the king's name on the door jamb.
Within the first corridor, which was plastered over with a
thick, yellowish coating, only preliminary sketches in red are
present. Here, the king is found before gods on either side
near  the corridor's entrance. On the south wall, the king
faces Amun-Re
Horakhty, who has four ram heads, and the
Goddess of the West. On the north side the king stand before a
hawk-headed Amun Re Horakhty. Part of this scene was repaired
by Pinudjem, who was a High Priest of Amun. In the scene,
Pinudjem substituted his own name for that of the king. It
would seem that Pinudjem had thought to be buried here
himself, but like Ramesses XI, he also ended up rejecting the
idea.
Related to Ramesses XI, the major artifact finds in this
tomb consisted of three foundation deposits inscribed with his
name that were unearthed at the mouth of the burial shaft deep
within the tomb. Other items included limestone chips left by
the tomb builders, and small fragments of faience, gold gesso
and cedar wood, mostly found on the floors of the inner
corridors and chambers. However, due to the work of Pinudjem,
intrusive items were also found. These items included a two
large fragments of a blue faience vessel inscribed with the
Horus name of Tuthmosis I and
Ramesses II (though which king
it belonged to is unknown), gilded gesso from the coffin of
Tuthmosis III, as well as some chopped up funerary statuettes
from that king's tomb, who of which bore hieroglyphs
incorporating Tuthmosis III's throne name, fragments of the
coffin of Queen Hatshepsut and a crude and three "lost
contour" calcite shabtis of Ramesses
IV. We are also told
that a beeswax figure, basically a sculptor's model, of
Ramesses XI standing before the goddess Ma'at was also found
in KV4, though the references on this are scant.
There were also intrusive burials within the tomb,
evidenced by 22nd Dynasty remains of a wooden coffin and the
bones of as many as three bodies. They were found in the shaft
of the burial chamber. Evidencing the Coptic occupation of the
tomb were a mud floor between the second and third corridors
and a stone wall between the well shaft and the pillared hall.
Currently, we do not know the location of Ramesses XI's
actual burial, but it has been suggested that he may have been
laid to rest somewhere in Northern Egypt.
General Site Information
- Structure: KV 4
- Location: Valley of the Kings, East Valley, Thebes West Bank, Thebes
- Owner: Rameses XI
- Other designations: 2e Tombeau à l'est [Description], 4 [Hay], 4
[Lepsius], 6 [Champollion], Q [Burton]
- Site type: Tomb
Orientation
- Axis in degrees: 68.23
- Axis orientation: East
Site Location
- Latitude: 25.44 N
- Longitude: 32.36 E
- Elevation: 168.921 msl
- North: 99,677.341
- East: 94,170.809
- JOG map reference: NG 36-10
- Modern governorate: Qena (Qina)
- Ancient nome: 4th Upper Egypt
- Surveyed by TMP: Yes
Measurements
- Maximum height: 5.01 m
- Minimum width: 2.75 m
- Maximum width: 11.3 m
- Total length: 104.09 m
- Total area: 503.5 m²
- Total volume: 1682.19 m³
Additional Tomb Information
- Entrance location: Base of sloping hill
- Owner type: King
- Entrance type: Ramp
- Interior layout: Corridors and chambers
- Axis type: Straight
Decoration
Categories of Objects Recovered
- Architectural elements
- Sculpture
- Tomb equipment
- Vessels
- Written documents
Dating:
History of Exploration
- Pococke, Richard (1737-1738): Mapping/planning (but not numbered)
- Napoleonic Expedition (1799): Mapping/planning
- Burton, James (1825): Mapping/planning
- Lane, Edward William (1826-1827): Mapping/planning
- Lepsius, Carl Richard (1844-1845): Epigraphy
- Carter, Howard (1923): Visit (used tomb as storeroom and dining area)
- Romer, John (1978-1980): Excavation (clearance of rear chambers and shaft in burial
chamber for Brooklyn Museum)
- Ciccarello, Mark (1979): Epigraphy
- Romer, John (1979): Epigraphy
References:
Archives
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