Ancient Egypt – Burial of the Kings

The Kings of ancient Egypt were understandably buried with more grandeur than the average man however the way in which they were buried changed throughout the ages.

Pre-dynastic Egypt

Technically the title ‘pharaoh’ did not exist in Pre-dynastic Egypt because until the country was unified at the beginning of the first dynasty every separate nome, or district, had their own leader or King. These Kings were buried in the same manner as everybody else; that is in a shallow pit grave at the edge of the desert. The difference was that they were normally wrapped in an animal skin or a length of reed matting as opposed to just a simple cloth wrapping and they would have had many more funerary objects placed in the pit grave with them. The funerary objects were believed to travel to the Afterlife with the dead person’s spirit where they could be used to aid them in eternal life.

Mastaba Tombs

The first and second dynasties saw a development from the simple pit grave. Now the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were buried in an underground room or even a complex of rooms with a bench-like square, stone structure marking the spot above ground. This type of tomb was called a Mastaba and it had the actual burial chamber at the heart of the structure with several rooms around it that served as store rooms for the mass of funerary goods.

The King’s body would have been placed in a wooden coffin rather than on the floor and the first attempts at mummification would have been apparent. Unfortunately many of the Mastaba tombs were plundered shortly after they were sealed and so the next set of pharaohs tried to make the structures safer.

The Pyramids

The Step Pyramid of King Djoser is one of the earliest known pyramids. It was formed by building six Mastaba superstructures one on top of the other. King Djoser thought this huge structure would deter tomb robbers from trying to plunder his tomb but he was wrong. When the pyramid complex was excavated nothing of value was found and so it would seem that the Step Pyramid was not as impenetrable as Djoser thought it was. The pyramid did reveal his sarcophagus and from this it could be deduced that the art of mummification was certainly being developed by that time.

The true pyramids of ancient Egypt were the natural development of the Step Pyramid. As well as acting as a burial tomb for the pharaohs that built them, it is thought that they symbolised the ascent to the Afterlife that the Kings spirit would travel along in order to join the gods. The mummies of the pharaohs that commissioned the pyramid tombs were not actually found in the pyramids themselves and so some experts argue that the pyramids were not true burial tombs but were just a visual representation of the King’s uniqueness and his intended path that would take him to the Afterlife.

Rock-cut Tombs

Although the subterranean chambers of both Mastaba tombs and the pyramids were cut into rock the best-known real rock-cut tombs are found in the famous Valley of the Kings. This major royal burial site is situated on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes (modern day Luxor) and contains the tombs of some of ancient Egypt’s most legendary Kings. The tombs themselves are all quite similar in design in that they travel backwards and downwards into the rock. Some of the tombs have a relatively simple design, such as that of Tutankhamun, whereas others like tomb KV55 are a mass of interconnecting corridors with a multitude of chambers at seemingly random spots.

Many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings have yielded coffins, sarcophagi and even the mummified bodies of some pharaohs and their close family members. Recently a new tomb has been discovered in the valley close to the position of Tutankhamun’s tomb. It, along with other sections of the valley is presently being excavated in an attempt to uncover the bodies of the Kings of ancient Egypt that unfortunately remain hidden.

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