The Tomb of Vizier Ramose

Tomb TT55 is located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, part of the Theban Necropolis on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor. It is the burial place of the ancient Egyptian Vizier Ramose. The tomb is notable for the high quality decorations in both the traditional and Amarna styles. It has been open to the public since 2007 as part of a three tomb group with TT56 Userhet and TT57 Khaemhet.

The main body of the tomb is entered from the east facing open court into a large columned hall with four rows of eight columns. On the east wall, there are 'traditional' unpainted reliefs showing Ramose, his wife, and others including his brother Amenhotep and his wife May. The south wall has painted funerary scenes in two registers, showing the beginning of the evolution of the Amarna art style. The upper registers seem to show the actual procession, with the coffin on a boat being dragged along with a sledge.

The west wall has two scenes showing Akhenaten, labelled as Amenhotep IV, showing how early this tomb is in his reign. The left side shows the king seated under a canopy with Ma'at seated beside him, while the right side shows Akhenaten and Nefertiti seated on a balcony rewarding Ramose with gold. In the far right of the west wall, Ramose is depicted leaving the palace and being congratulated by the people. Further into the tomb, an undecorated corridor leads from the centre of the west wall to a chapel with three niches.

The actual burial chamber is entered via a steeply sloping corridor in the south-west corner. This leads to a four-pillared room, which is undecorated and seemingly unused, and contains an urn and an embalmed skull. There are traces of blue paint above the portal opposing the entrance.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons