Tomb of Ay (KV23), Luxor

Ay was the penultimate pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty. He held the throne of Egypt for a brief four-year period (1323–1319 BCE or 1327–1323 BCE, depending on which chronology is followed), although he was a close advisor to two and perhaps three of the pharaohs who ruled before him and is thought to have been the power behind the throne during Tutankhamun's reign. Ay's prenomen or royal name — Kheperkheperure — means "Everlasting are the Manifestations of Ra" while his nomen Ay it-netjer reads as "Ay, Father of the God".

Records and monuments that can be clearly attributed to Ay are rare, not only due to his short length of reign, but also because his successor, Horemheb, instigated a campaign of damnatio memoriae against him and other pharaohs associated with the unpopular Amarna Period.

Discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni in the winter of 1816, its structure is similar to that of the tomb of Akhenaten, with a straight undecorated, descending corridor, leading to a "well chamber" that has no shaft. This leads to the burial chamber, which currently contains the reconstructed sarcophagus. It had originally been found smashed into numerous fragments. The tomb had also been desecrated in history with many depictions of Ay's image or name erased from the tomb wall paintings.

Its decoration is similar in content and colour to that of Tutankhamun (KV62), with a few differences. On the eastern wall there is a depiction of a fishing and fowling scene, which is not shown elsewhere in other Royal tombs, being normally shown in burials of nobility.

Valley of the Kings parking lot The tomb of Ay, KV23, is located part way up the west branch of the main wadi of the West Valley, beyond KV24 and KV25. From the Valley of the Kings parking lot to the tomb of Ay is 1.7 km (1 mi).

Taking the bus to get to the tomb of Ay To get to the tomb of Ay, it takes 9 minutes by bus, 23 minutes on foot. The guard who opens the door and watches the tomb goes with us on the bus.

Entrance to the tomb of Ay In 1816, KV23 was discovered by chance by the Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni. After visiting KV22, the tomb of Amenhotep III, he moved further into the valley "to examine the various places where water descends from the desert into the valleys after rain" and upon finding an isolated pile of stones, probed the depth with his cane. Finding that there was a deep void under the rocks, he hired workmen and returned the following day. The tomb proved to be just below the surface, and within two hours the entrance had been cleared.

Information sign at the entrance to the tomb The tomb consists of an entrance stair, two sloping corridors separated by a set of stairs, and three chambers. The plan of the tomb is more similar to the tomb of Akhenaten at Amarna than it is to any earlier royal tomb; it has a straight axis, a well chamber with no well, and a pillared hall which was used as the burial chamber. The burial chamber is also offset to one side of the axis. Beyond the burial chamber is a small undecorated canopic chamber. The tomb is constructed on a large scale, as corridors are wider than those of the earlier KV22.

Tomb of Ay Plan Plan Legend: Entryway Corridor Stairwell Corridor Chamber Burial chamber Side chamber Ay, accompanied by Tiy, harpooning a hippopotamus Ay fowling in marsh and sailing with his wife Tiy The gods receive the deceased Ay into the underworld First hour of the Book of the Amduat Spells from The Book of the Dead The Mandjet barque and the Mesketet barque Ay and Osiris Ay, Hathor and the royal ka Ay, Nut and the royal ka Ay and Hathor The children (sons) of Horus The Sarcophagus

The Burial Chamber (F) If the usual rules had been respected, this room would have represented the first pillared chamber for the tomb. However, in the end, it became the burial chamber, and had no pillars. Its measurements are 8.89 m (29.1 ft) x 6.46 m (21.2 ft) and 3.92 m (12.8 ft) in height. The four walls of the chamber have been painted but non sculpted. The background colour is yellow, based on the model used for Tutankhamun, but more vibrant. In each of the four walls, at the height of the coloured bands, was dug a small niche destined to receive the protective magic bricks. The representations of Ay and his wife Tiy, as well as their names, have been erased everywhere. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

East wall

This is the wall in which is pierced the entry doorway. The wall to the left of the entry is divided in two parts, which is not evident at first glance, because of the damage. Ay is successively represented on three light skiffs, which float on a blue band containing zigzag marking, representing the water of the Nile.

Scene 1 Ay, accompanied by Tiy, harpooning a hippopotamus. The scene represented Ay, standing on a frail craft of papyrus, throwing his harpoon. According to classic interpretation, he aims at a male hippo which would be at the bottom of the water, before becoming, in the Late Period, an image of the struggle of Horus against Seth. For example in the temple of Edfu, it was already about a struggle against the strength of evil, of which the dangerous hippopotamus is a representation. The king, who accomplishes this ritual, turned toward the entry, thus protects the access of his funeral chamber and the precious sarcophagus. Queen Tiy, very damaged, was situated behind him. Her presence is quite unusual in a royal tomb and invites one to wonder about her affiliation, as much as the desecration which seems to be especially set against her. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 2 Ay fowling in marsh and sailing with his wife Tiy. It is necessary to underline the unique character of the chosen themes: no other royal tomb (of the New Kingdom) contains a hunting scene and fishing in the swamps which, in this time period, existed only in the tombs of private individuals. For a long time described as "terrestrial pleasures which the deceased wished to perpetuate", which is probably partially true, these scenes are now well known for their characteristic and symbollistic portraying of warding off evil, as already seen in numerous other tombs of the private domain. They are appropriate to the rebirth, and possess a strong sexual dimension. This is probably why there are only two representations of queen Tiy here, with only part of her titles remaining intact. The queen has two tall feathers on her head and an uraeus on her forehead. In front of her can be seen, multicoloured, the remains of a symbollic whip of the queens of this period, which she holds in front of her chest The marsh represents the aquatic primordial environment and is likened to Nun, the primordial waters. In this environment which is a reminder of the amniotic fluid, the deceased is going to be born again of his own works, thanks to the feminine principle represented by his wife, likened to the goddess Hathor. It will be necessary to fight the bad strengths which risk to make fail the gestation and which are represented by wild, aquatic animals such as the hippo, or aerial ones like the birds of the marshes. Whilst accomplishing the gesture to harpoon the hippo or to throw his boomerang to hunt the birds, Ay contributes to domesticate, to make acceptable to the Egyptian ideal, this hostile environment: he accomplishes the Ma'at and repulses the Isfet. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 2a The king pulls on a papyrus stem. The rustle of the umbels of papyrus reproduces a sort of rattle noise which is supposed to make the goddess Hathor, mistress of love, go out of the marsh so that she can attract the deceased to her breast (which explains why the priestesses of Hathor shake a sistrum which produces a sound close to the rustling). Here, Ay pulls two-handed on a stem of papyrus, to help propel the boat forwards, because he has neither oars nor a pole. The strange inter-twining of the papyrus stems at the bottom of the undergrowth can also be seen, presenting a reminder of the Gardiner M15 hieroglyph. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 2b The king is hunting the birds of the marshes. The head of Ay has suffered damage, but it can be seen that he wears a white khat (a head cloth worn by the nobility of Ancient Egypt) with an uraeus at the front. He also wears a large usekh-necklace and a long white kilt, which is not usual for the hunt, but once more underlines, the symbolic character of these representations. Ay waves his throwing stick which he gets ready to throw at the ducks: these have probably come from the undergrowth of papyrus situated behind him. The birds are twelve in number, the same as the hours of the day and night, and they don't fly off at random, but are arranged in columns and rows. The fowl which he holds in his other hand, and which try, in vain, to escape, act as decoys. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

North wall

The decoration is a copy of the one of the west wall of the tomb of Tutankhamun, including the imagery and lines extracted of the first hour of the Book of the Amduat (or The Book of that which is in the Afterworld), to such a point that it is likely that it was the same craftsmen who produced it.

This is the hour when the sun becomes no longer visible, but where its final rays illuminate the lands: for the Egyptians, it was the antechamber of the underworld journey of the star.

The book of the Amduat is one of the funerary compositions created in the New Kingdom by the theologians to describe the nocturnal course of the sun during the twelve hours of night, its regeneration and its rebirth in the morning, a destiny which the deceased wishes to share.

Scene 3 - Upper register The gods receive the deceased Ay into the underworld. On the right-hand side is a short text, written in four columns: «This god enters in the form of a ram». A reminder that the ram is called "ba", and that it is one of the possible representations of Ra when he travels in the underworld: "Osiris is the ba of Ra and Ra is the ba of Osiris". In the middle, the solar barque carries the celestial body into the future, in the form of the Khepri scarab, sailing in the nocturnal sky. Khepri is framed by two men in worship, whose divine nature is manifested by their curved beards. Each named "Osiris", they represent Ay Osirified. To the left of the barque are five divinities, the same as in the tomb of Tutankhamun. From left to the right: "Ma'at", "Mistress of the barque", "Horus", "Ka of Shu" and "Nehes". These are the ones who have been chosen by the theologians amongst the hundreds who populate the underworld. They receive the deceased into the underworld. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 4 - Lower register First hour of the Book of the Amduat (or The Book of that which is in the Afterworld). In a large rectangle occupying the whole width of the wall, twelve smaller rectangles are arranged symmetrically, in three rows of four, divided by white lines edged in black. Each contains the representation of a baboon and two names, one in red, the other in black (except one, at the bottom of the second column on the right). Here, the composition is arranged symmetrically, with the baboons of each pair of outer columns facing inwards. The names are curiously almost divided into two, either with the same phonetic spelling (ibn), or with a small difference (djeheh and deheh). Between the two registers, in red hieroglyphs and in retrograde writing, are two short introductions to the representation: «Names of the gods who open (the gates) for the (great) Ba» and «Names of the gods who sing praises to Ra when he enters into the underworld». Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

South wall

This wall is occupied by texts and images from the Book of the Dead, coming from spells 130, 141, 142 and 144. The two registers are, like the north wall, separated by the sky hieroglyph.

Scene 5 - Lower register Spells 130, 141, 142 and 144 from The Book of the Dead. Here the text of the spells are arranged from left to right, in 49 columns. At the moment, no translation of this actual text seems to be available. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 6 - Upper register, left side On the left is found the Mandjet barque, which the solar god uses for his daytime journey, and which he leaves at dusk to board the Mesketet barque. The craft is nearly identical to the next one, except at the level of its prow, where there is a net or a braid mat, surmounted with two hieroglyphic signs of the flame. The text above invokes the keepers of the gates of the underworld. Two standards, each bearing a falcon, stand on the deck. The image corresponds to spell 141 ("That which a man should recite for his father or his son at the festivals of the west") and spell 142 ("To know the names of Osiris in all places in which he can wish to be") of the Book of the Dead. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 6 - Upper register, right side On the right is the Mesketet barque, the night-time barque or «(the) barque of millions (of years)», thus named at the front. This large craft is decorated at the front with an udjat eye and includes two large oars for guidance, but there is no helmsman. This transports the Heliopolitan Ennead with, from front to rear (right to left), as identified in the text above them: "Re Horakhty, the great god", whose name is separated from the others, then "Atum, the Lord of Heliopolis", in the form of a king covered with the pschent. Then comes "Shu", "Tefnut", "Geb", "Nut", "Osiris", "Isis" and finally "Horus", who replaces Seth, who should be in this place. Behind the barque stands "Nephthys". Behind her, can be found a short vertical inscription which proclaims: «They are going to be the protection of this good god (= Ay) for eternity, (spoken) two times». Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

West wall

This includes a scene above the doorway (on the left), which is the entry to the annexe, and four scenes to the right of the doorway, the bulk of the wall. These will be described from right to left. In all instances the face of Ay has been damaged.

Scene 7 Ay and Osiris. The image of Ay is badly damaged by deliberate hammering. Nevertheless it is still possible to see that he wears on his the head the white cloth khat finished with a fastening hanging down the back, with an uraeus on the front. His chin is decorated with a long hooked beard (specific of the living Pharaoh) and a large necklace spreads on his chest. He is clothed of a red garment, with a white and blue pattern, on which is a white kilt with a triangular front-piece. He also wears a green and white belt, with two cobras decorating the end of it. On his feet he has white sandals, because he stands on the bevelled "Ma'at" sign, the sacred ground. The king embraces "Osiris-Wennefer, the great god, master of eternity - djet" represented with green flesh and an atef-crown, a combination of the Hedjet (the crown of Upper Egypt, but here beautifully coloured) and two feathers with, in addition, a frontal uraeus. The god, silent and motionless as always, is seated on a low cubic throne with a small headboard, sheathed in his shroud. He holds in his hands the crook and flail. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 8 Ay, Hathor and the royal ka. As in the following scene, this includes the royal ka, originality found in the tomb of Tutankhamun and in that of his grandfather, Amenhotep III. It has been considered in general by the theologians as a representation of a royal ka and not the ka of Ay in particular. It should also be noted that it has not been hammered out. Ay is received by the goddess Hathor, who wears on her head the hieroglyph of the west; a white banner of mourning encloses her wig. She is clothed in an archaic close-fitting white dress, which fits below her breasts and is supported by straps. She is designated as «Hathor at the head of Thebes, mistress of the west». She takes the king's hand and tells him «I give you life and health, and the gentle breeze for your nostrils», whilst holding towards his nose an ankh sign of life. The king is clothed in a simple kilt, to which is attached a multicoloured belt. In his right hand, dangling down at his side, he also holds an ankh sign of life. The royal ka follows Ay, portayed at the same size as the king. He wears, on his head, a composite emblem, formed of a serekh (a rectangular enclosure) surrounded by the two arms of the ka sign, and surmounted by a falcon wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, at the front of which is a cobra. In the serekh is inscribed the Horus name of the king: "kA nxt, tHn (w) xprw": "Powerful Taurus, the one whose futures radiate". In his right hand, he also holds an ankh sign of life as well as a large feather (possibly relating to Shu or Ma'at). In the left he holds a staff whose pommel is finished with Pharaoh's head, which is more obvious on the ka of the following scene. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 9 Ay, Nut and the royal ka. Further to the left, is again the king and his ka, but this time in front of the goddess «Nut, who brought the gods into the world, mistress of the sky, mistress of the Two Lands. All life and all power, as Ra». On her wig is a headband with the uraeus. In her upwards facing hands are again found the two hieroglyphs of water, and the thus mimed gesture is clarified with: "make nini" (the Goddess stands for the "i"), which means a ritual of welcome and purification. Westendorf, considers the relationship of the nini gesture and the embrace as defining them as a gesture of receipt, translating the union of the celestial mother with her son returning to her. The image of the king is very damaged. The royal Ka, on the contrary, is very well preserved in the form of a magnificent representation of a post-Amarna style. He wears the same emblem on his head. The large feather which he holds in his right hand, at the same time as the ankh, becomes confused with the striped kilt (obviously pleated). The royal head can be recognised as again decorating the pommel of his staff. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 10 Ay and Hathor. Ay, almost totally lost, stands in front of another Hathor, who wears on her head her traditional attributes, a solar disk surrounded with a pair of horns, on a magnificent tripartite wig. She is designated as: «Hathor, mistress of Denderah, mistress of the sky, mistress of all the gods». She is dressed as previously seen in scene 8. She holds, with both hands, the left arm of Ay. Ay wears here the white crown of Upper Egypt. From what remains of his figure, all that can be seen is that he holds an ankh sign of life in his right hand and wears a kilt which extends further at the back. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Scene 11 - Above the entry of the annexe The children (sons) of Horus. The doorway is surrounded, at least down to the height of the dado area, with a border comprised of black and white bands. The wall above this is decorated with a unique scene. In this are found, seated in pairs facing each other, the four sons of Horus, here represented with human heads. They are seated around a central table of offerings, on cubic seats, all resting on two bevelled Ma'at signs, which are themselves placed a reed mat. All are represented Osiriform, with a tight-fitting shroud out of which extend their hands, holding a nekhakha flail. All have a large necklace around their neck and have a false beard. Duamutef and Qebsenuefs are represented on the left and wear the white crown of Upper Egypt, whilst Amsit and Hapy are found on the right with the red crown of Lower Egypt. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

Sarcophagus

At the time of the discovery of the tomb, it had been smashed into a multitude of pieces, without the lid. The reassembled box section was transported to the Cairo museum, but then reintroduced in its original place (but the other way around !) in 1994. Some fragments are still in Berlin or in the British Museum.

The lid was eventually found by Otto Schaden in 1972, buried under the debris of the chamber. It lay face down on the ground and the king's cartouches had not been erased, which was also the case of certain others on the main box, certainly because it was known that this artifact was destined for destruction.

The Sarcophagus (12) The sarcophagus is of red granite and adopts the shape of a shrine of Upper Egypt (pr wr). It measures 2.96 m (9.7 ft) x 1.20 m (3.9 ft) and 1.79 m (5.9 ft) high. The interior of the box is engraved with texts from the Book of the Dead. On the outside face are found, on the corners, the four protective goddesses with extended wings: Isis, Nephthys, Neith and Selkis. On the two long sides are represented two winged solar disks. On the rounded lid is a column of text, in the middle of which is the king's cartouches, which, as already stated, had not been hammered out. Two udjat eyes are visible at the extremity. Photograph copyright www.meretsegerbooks.com.

See also

• Xxxx

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Sources

• Ay - Wikipedia
• WV23 - Wikipedia
• Ay - KV23 - Osirisnet

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Location