Ancient Egyptian tombs

1. Ancient Egypt Tombs
Very few royal tombs of the period following the new kingdom have been preserved or excavated. We can gain a good idea of their appearance from accounts in classical antiquity and from
comparison with the tombs of other members of the royal house.
Royal Tombs
At the beginnings of the third intermediate period, a completely new form of royal burial was introduced and remained in
use until Ptolemaic times: the tomb was a chapel within the temple precinct. In both this choice of location and their
situation and structure, the royal tombs no longer obeyed the familiar traditions of the pyramid tombs of the Old and
Middle Kingdoms or the rock-cut tombs of the New Kingdom in the Valley of the Kings. One reason that the necropolis in
the Valley of the Kings was abandoned at the end of the New kingdom may have been the increasing insecurity of the
Thebes; tomb robbery was frequent, and even the royal tombs were not spared.
Late Period of Royal Tombs
It includes their placement in the courtyard of a god’s temple, the chapel-like form of their superstructures, and the spatial proximity of the cult area and the tomb itself.
By comparison with private tombs and their superstructures are quite small. Their importance lay less in the architectural execution of their layout than in the sanctity of
the location and possible historical precedent.
The Tombs of Private individuals
Total Protection from tomb robbers was the prime consideration and an ingenious security system was devised. The sarcophagus lay at the bottom of a vertical shaft,
sometimes more than 30 m in depth, inside a walled burial chamber with skylights. The shaft was filled with sand, and the burial itself took place through a narrow vertical
side shaft linked to the main shaft by a short brick vault. Finally, the skylights of the burial chamber were opened for sand to be poured in.
Tombs of extraordinary riches
They are found in the middle of the village of Bawiti. Two-the tombs of Djed-Ammon-ef-ankh and his son Bannentui who were probably rich landowners and
adorned with pictures. It is not finished and was reused during the Roman period, the tombs of Bannentui is the best preserved and most spectacular: the gods
Thoth and Horus, represented in almost human dimensions, frame the entrance, pouring streams of purificatory water. They invite the visitor to join the funeral
procession that progresses along the walls and columns, sometimes against a bright yellow background that throws the colors of each divinity into relief.