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WV22
Tomb WV22, also known as KV22, was the burial place of Amenhotep III, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, in the western arm of the Valley of the Kings. The tomb is unique in that it has two subsidiary burial chambers for the pharaoh's wives Tiye and Sitamen (who was also his daughter). It was officially discovered in August 1799 by Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, engineers with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt but had probably been open for some time. The tomb was first excavated in the early 1900s by Theodore M. Davis; the details of this are lost. The first documented clearance was carried out by Howard Carter in 1915. Since 1989, a Japanese team from Waseda University led by Sakuji Yoshimura and Jiro Kondo has excavated and conserved the tomb. The sarcophagus trough is missing from the tomb, but the lid was reconstructed from shattered fragments. The tomb's layout and decoration follow the tombs of the king's predecessors, Amenhotep II (KV35) and Thutmose IV (KV43); however, the decoration is much finer in quality. Several images of the pharaoh's head were cut out in 1828 and can be seen today in the Louvre. The tomb was opened to visitors on October 4, 2025, having previously been closed for restoration.
The tomb is situated in a bay on the east side of the wadi, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the entrance to the Western Valley. Unlike earlier tombs, it is not cut into the solid rock at the cliff base but in the talus slope away from it. 60 metres (200 ft) south of the tomb is WVA which, based on jar sealings and the types of pottery found there, likely functioned as a storeroom for overflow from WV22.
The tomb was first noted in August 1799 by Édouard de Villiers du Terrage and Prosper Jollois, engineers in Napoleon's expedition; it is possible it was known to the traveler William George Browne several years earlier. They mapped the tomb and made drawings of some of the artefacts (ushabti) found which were published in Description de l'Egypte. The tomb was visited in 1804 by a John Gordon who carved his name at the entrance. Jean-François Champollion and L'Hôte visited in 1828 as part of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition of 1828–1829, leaving graffiti to that effect in chamber I; Champollion was the first to identify the owner of the tomb as Amenhotep III. Karl Richard Lepsius visited in 1849 and copied parts of the Amduat in the burial chamber. The tomb was visited by countless tourists during the nineteenth century, many of whom carried off souvenirs of their visit; at some point between 1828 and 1829, several portraits of the king were cut from the walls by the Franco-Tuscan Expedition and are now in the Louvre.
The tomb is 85 metres (279 ft) long and generally follows the same layout as KV43, the tomb of Amenhotep's father Thutmose IV, although it does exhibit some changes to this basic design.
The layout consists of two descending corridors separated by stairs, leading to a well chamber, the shaft of which is 7.5 metres (25 ft) deep. A well chamber opens to the west from the base of the shaft. The room seems to have been expanded to the west as the chisel marks in this section are different to those elsewhere in the chamber. On the other side of the well chamber a pillared hall leads to another descending passageway and stair. Uniquely there is no doorway separating these elements. The passage was likely planned to be the same scale as its equivalent in KV43 but was altered during construction. This made the angle of the steps steep, resulting in chiseling above the doorway to the antechamber, likely to allow passage of the sarcophagus.
The square antechamber leads onto the pillared burial chamber with sarcophagus emplacement; a rectangular pit, likely for the king's canopic equipment, is present at the southern end of the chamber. There are three small side rooms leading off the burial chamber and two larger chambers with a single pillar; each has an additional side chamber. One of these suites seems to have always been intended for the burial of a queen, while the other seems to have been a fourth side chamber and only enlarged after the fact, based on chisel marks and the position of the magical niches. The expansion is presumably due to Sitamun's elevation to Great Royal Wife late in Amenhotep III's reign. This situation is paralleled at Malkata, where Sitamun's rooms were squeezed in between those of her parents.
The burial chamber itself has eleven magical niches, five of which are cut into the walls and columns surrounding the sarcophagus emplacement. Two of the niches were found with half of a wood panel that originally sealed them still in place. They would have contained protective figures similar to those discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The first excavation of the tomb was carried out on behalf of Theodore M. Davis sometime between 1905 and 1914 but the details of this clearance are unknown.
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WV22
Tomb WV22, also known as KV22, was the burial place of Amenhotep III, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, in the western arm of the Valley of the Kings. The tomb is unique in that it has two subsidiary burial chambers for the pharaoh's wives Tiye and Sitamen (who was also his daughter). It was officially discovered in August 1799 by Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, engineers with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt but had probably been open for some time. The tomb was first excavated in the early 1900s by Theodore M. Davis; the details of this are lost. The first documented clearance was carried out by Howard Carter in 1915. Since 1989, a Japanese team from Waseda University led by Sakuji Yoshimura and Jiro Kondo has excavated and conserved the tomb. The sarcophagus trough is missing from the tomb, but the lid was reconstructed from shattered fragments. The tomb's layout and decoration follow the tombs of the king's predecessors, Amenhotep II (KV35) and Thutmose IV (KV43); however, the decoration is much finer in quality. Several images of the pharaoh's head were cut out in 1828 and can be seen today in the Louvre. The tomb was opened to visitors on October 4, 2025, having previously been closed for restoration.
The tomb is situated in a bay on the east side of the wadi, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the entrance to the Western Valley. Unlike earlier tombs, it is not cut into the solid rock at the cliff base but in the talus slope away from it. 60 metres (200 ft) south of the tomb is WVA which, based on jar sealings and the types of pottery found there, likely functioned as a storeroom for overflow from WV22.
The tomb was first noted in August 1799 by Édouard de Villiers du Terrage and Prosper Jollois, engineers in Napoleon's expedition; it is possible it was known to the traveler William George Browne several years earlier. They mapped the tomb and made drawings of some of the artefacts (ushabti) found which were published in Description de l'Egypte. The tomb was visited in 1804 by a John Gordon who carved his name at the entrance. Jean-François Champollion and L'Hôte visited in 1828 as part of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition of 1828–1829, leaving graffiti to that effect in chamber I; Champollion was the first to identify the owner of the tomb as Amenhotep III. Karl Richard Lepsius visited in 1849 and copied parts of the Amduat in the burial chamber. The tomb was visited by countless tourists during the nineteenth century, many of whom carried off souvenirs of their visit; at some point between 1828 and 1829, several portraits of the king were cut from the walls by the Franco-Tuscan Expedition and are now in the Louvre.
The tomb is 85 metres (279 ft) long and generally follows the same layout as KV43, the tomb of Amenhotep's father Thutmose IV, although it does exhibit some changes to this basic design.
The layout consists of two descending corridors separated by stairs, leading to a well chamber, the shaft of which is 7.5 metres (25 ft) deep. A well chamber opens to the west from the base of the shaft. The room seems to have been expanded to the west as the chisel marks in this section are different to those elsewhere in the chamber. On the other side of the well chamber a pillared hall leads to another descending passageway and stair. Uniquely there is no doorway separating these elements. The passage was likely planned to be the same scale as its equivalent in KV43 but was altered during construction. This made the angle of the steps steep, resulting in chiseling above the doorway to the antechamber, likely to allow passage of the sarcophagus.
The square antechamber leads onto the pillared burial chamber with sarcophagus emplacement; a rectangular pit, likely for the king's canopic equipment, is present at the southern end of the chamber. There are three small side rooms leading off the burial chamber and two larger chambers with a single pillar; each has an additional side chamber. One of these suites seems to have always been intended for the burial of a queen, while the other seems to have been a fourth side chamber and only enlarged after the fact, based on chisel marks and the position of the magical niches. The expansion is presumably due to Sitamun's elevation to Great Royal Wife late in Amenhotep III's reign. This situation is paralleled at Malkata, where Sitamun's rooms were squeezed in between those of her parents.
The burial chamber itself has eleven magical niches, five of which are cut into the walls and columns surrounding the sarcophagus emplacement. Two of the niches were found with half of a wood panel that originally sealed them still in place. They would have contained protective figures similar to those discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The first excavation of the tomb was carried out on behalf of Theodore M. Davis sometime between 1905 and 1914 but the details of this clearance are unknown.