The unfinished tomb of Ramesses IX

Nestled in the central part of the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses IX remains unfinished, a fact that becomes apparent as you venture deeper beneath the desert sands. Tomb KV6, as it is known, was not completed in time for Ramesses’s death and was hastily rushed through to completion, leaving behind corners cut and important decorative work incomplete. Its unusually wide entrance stands between, and slightly above, those of two other tombs: KV5 and KV55.

The tomb runs 105 metres into the hillside and begins with a gate and a shallow descending ramp followed by three successive stretches of corridor. The first of these has four side chambers - two on each side - but none of these are decorated or finished. At the end of the corridors come three chambers. The first of these is decorated with the Opening of the mouth ritual, and the second chamber contains four large columns, but neither the cutting nor the decoration work were completed.

At the far end of this chamber, a ramp slopes down to the burial chamber, where the pharaoh's sarcophagus was placed - the floor has a rectangular section carved out to accommodate it. The ceiling is vaulted, and is decorated with splendid pictures of the goddess Nut. The side walls show scenes from the Book of Caverns and the Book of the Earth. The far wall depicts Ramesses on his barque, surrounded by a host of gods. The yellows, dark blues, and blacks used to decorate this chamber are visually striking and unusual among the tomb decorations in the Valley.

While the sarcophagus itself has long since vanished, Ramesses IX's mummy was one of those found in the Deir el-Bahri cache (DB320) in 1881. KV6 has been open since antiquity, as can be seen by the graffiti left on its walls by Roman and Coptic visitors.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons