The Tomb of Ramses 111 (KV11) - The treacherous journey through the hours of the Night in the Underworld

 KV 11 is the tomb of Ramses 111  Usermaatre-Meryamun, who was considered to be Egypt's last great Pharaoh, Ramses brought stability back to Egypt when the country was plunged into chaos when the Sea People tried to invade his country.  before Egypt was plunged into chaos, the battles are carved onto his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu he led his troops to the delta and repelled the foreign invaders 

His tomb has been open since antiquity, and among various other names, has been referred to as Bruce’s Tomb (after Scottish traveler and travel writer James Bruce whom entered the tomb in 1768) and Harper’s Tomb, due to a wall mural featuring two blind harpers in one of the small annexes off the first corridor symbolizing the musicians the pharaoh would be bringing with him into the afterlife. Rameses III’s mummy  was discovered among a cache of other royal mummies in 1881 by a tomb-robber named Abd el-Rassul near the site of Deir el-Bahri. Along with over forty other royal members Ramses was taken to the museum at Cairo

This long tomb is beautifully decorated, The second corridor is decorated with the Litany of Re, which praises the God Amun in all his known names, it invokes the sun, Ra, in 75 different forms. The Litany of Re is also known as  'Book of Praying to Re in the West, Praying to the United One in the West' and was an important ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom period, and could only be used by Pharaohs or very high ranking nobles

 At the end of this corridor the axis of the tomb shifts. This third corridor is decorated with the Book of Gates which explains the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world,  each hour of the night he must pass through a new gate, to which he must no the necessary greeting for the guardian at the gate to be able to pass through,  The text implies that some people will pass through unharmed, but that others will suffer torment in a lake of fire.

The Amduat has a depiction of  a goddess with the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, standing in front of a guardian serpent with four legs and a human head, The Amuduat was reserved only for pharaohs, its meaning is 'That Which Is In the Afterworld', also translated as 'Text of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld, It tells the story of Ra, the Egyptian sun god who travels through the underworld, from the time when the sun sets in the west and rises again in the east. It is said that the dead Pharaoh is taking this same journey, ultimately to become one with Ra and live forever.

The underworld is divided into twelve hours of the night, each representing different allies and enemies for the Pharaoh and the sun god to encounter. The Amduat names all of these gods and monsters. The main purpose of the Amduat is to give the names of these gods and monsters to the spirit of the dead Pharaoh, so he can call upon them for help or use their name to defeat them.

The journey hour by hour through the subterranean tomb :

In hour 1 the sun god enters the western horizon (akhet) which is a transition between day and night.

In hours 2 and 3 he passes through an abundant watery world called 'Wernes' and the 'Waters of Osiris'.

In hour 4 he reaches Imhet the difficult sandy realm of Seker, the underworld hawk deity, where he encounters dark zig zag pathways which he has to negotiate, being dragged on a snake-boat.

In hour 5 he discovers the tomb of Osiris which is an enclosure beneath which is hidden a lake of fire, the tomb is covered by a pyramid like mound (identified with the goddess Isis) and on top of which Isis and Nephthys have alighted in the form of two kites (birds of prey).

In the sixth hour the most significant event in the underworld occurs. The ba (or soul) of Ra unites with his own body, or alternatively with the ba of Osiris within the circle formed by the mehen serpent. This event is the point at which the sun begins its regeneration; it is a moment of great significance, but also danger.

In hour 7 the adversary Apep (Apophis) lies in wait and has to be subdued in chains by the magic of Isis 

In hour 8 the sun god opens the doors of the tomb and Horus calls upon a monstrous serpent with the unquenchable fire to destroy the enemies of his father, Osiris, by burning their corpses and cooking their souls.

In hour 9 they leave the sandy island of Seker by rowing vigorously back into the waters.

In hour 10 the regeneration process continues through immersion in the waters.

In hour 11 the god's eyes (a symbol for his health and well-being) are fully regenerated.

In hour 12 he enters the eastern horizon ready to rise again as the new day's sun.

Once the deceased finished their journey through the underworld, they arrived at the Hall of Maat. Here they would undergo the Weighting of the Heart ceremony where their purity would be the determining factor in whether they would be allowed to enter the Kingdom of Osiris.

Ramses quartz sarcophagus was removed by the Italian explorer and former circus performer Giovanni Belzoni, who also found the tomb of Seti 1, he had been sent to Luxor by a man named Salt, to collect a head of Ramses 11 from his mortuary temple, the Rammessium, and once it was on it's way to Cairo, he then went into the Valley of the Kings, the sarcophagus of Ramses 111 is now at the Louvre Museum in Paris, whilst its lid is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridgeshire

Tiy a lower wife of Ramses was found to be the main culprit instigating a death plot to murder Ramses 111, as she wanted her son Pertwere to succeed to the throne.

A  priest who practiced the arts of  magic, created wax figurines potions and wrote magical spells to kill Ramses, In ancient Egypt words were magical, and had the power to evoke the power of life and death. The spells cast against Ramses and the black magic did not kill him and unfortunately for the conspirators of this devious plot, their intentions were considered as deadly and as serious as an actual physical assault on Ramses, the magic invoked was as terrible a threat as trying to cut him down with a sword.

Thirty conspirators of the harem were put on trial, they were sentenced to death and told to commit suicide in front of the court or in their cells, after their trial, ten judges also faced trial for having taken meals with the accused during the trials, they were condemned to have their ears and nose cut off.

Recently Ramses body has been put through a scanner and it was discovered that his throat had been cut.