Tomb of Ay

Looking back from the entrance to the tomb of Ay you can see the terrain is quite rugged. This modern, though un-surfaced road, winds for over two kilometres before it reaches the Valley of the Kings and the road back to Luxor.

It is thought that this tomb, which was used for Ay, was in fact intended for Tutankhamun but that it could not be finished within the required seventy days after the boy king's untimely death.

This is the plan of Ay's tomb and shows you where the pictures were taken from.

This is the burial chamber of Ay with his extremely large red quartzite sarcophagus in the centre.

This tomb was looted in antiquity and know by the locals as the "tomb of the baboons" in the "Valley of the Monkeys". Belzoni rediscovered it in 1869 and carved his name and the date on a rock by the entrance.

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This should give you a good idea of the size of Ay's sarcophagus which was extensively damaged by tomb robbers, so much so that it was just a pile of rubble when Belzoni found it. The body of Ay has never been found.

On each corner is carved a different deity - Isis, Nephthys, Selkis and Neith.

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This wall of Ay's tomb shows passages from the "Book of Amduat"

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Just above the entrance to a small square room with plain walls is this scene. There is a feast on the table and the figures wear the crowns of upper Egypt on the left and lower Egypt on the right.

We have read that these are the four sons of Horus but remain unsure about this.

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These figures are all about life size and are painted so that you have to look up to them.

Ay is shown taking the journey to the afterlife and finally meeting with Osiris, the god of gods, on the far right.

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There are twelve baboons, one for each hour of the night. This is very similar to scenes depicted in the tomb of Tutankhamun.

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A common scene in the tombs of the nobles but this is the only tomb of a pharaoh that has a hunting scene depicted on the wall. Though badly damaged this is still impressive as the figure is painted life size.

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