KV10, the Tomb of Amenmesse

Feel the heat rising from the pale limestone under your feet. The Valley of the Kings holds the sun like an oven, and the air here is dry and still. Around you, steep cliffs of cream and honey-coloured rock close in on every side. The only sounds are footsteps on gravel, the murmur of guides, and perhaps the call of a bird far above. In front of you is a doorway cut into the hillside. Its official name is just a code: KV10.

That code is part of a simple system. KV stands for King's Valley, and the number shows the order in which the tombs were recorded. KV10 was one of the earliest on the list. Its door has stood open since ancient times, and early European travellers sketched it long before modern archaeology began. But an open door does not mean an easy story. This tomb belongs to one of the most puzzling kings in Egyptian history.

His name was Amenmesse, sometimes written Amenmose. He ruled during the Nineteenth Dynasty, the royal family of the great Ramesses the Second. This was the late thirteenth century before Christ. His reign was short, only a few years. Historians still argue about who he was. Many scholars think he was a son of the pharaoh Merneptah. Others suggest he was a rival who seized power, at least in southern Egypt, around Thebes, the ancient city we now call Luxor.

The key to the puzzle is another king, Seti the Second. Both men seem to have claimed the throne in the same troubled period. The order of their reigns is debated. Did Amenmesse interrupt Seti's rule, or did he come first? Scholars have defended both views. What seems clear is that someone wanted Amenmesse forgotten. In many places across Egypt, his name was cut out of the stone. Here, in his own tomb, that hostility left a very visible mark.

As you look into the entrance, notice the shape of the tomb. It runs straight into the hill, along one line. Corridors lead down, one after another, toward a hall with pillars. This straight plan was typical for royal tombs of this period. Earlier kings often built tombs with a sharp bend in the corridor. By the Nineteenth Dynasty, architects preferred this direct, axial design. It is a long, deliberate path into the dark, meant to carry the king toward the underworld.

Once, these walls carried painted and carved scenes. Kings were shown with gods, and long texts guided the dead through the night. In KV10, most of the original decoration of Amenmesse was deliberately removed. His figures and names were scraped away. Today, the surfaces show rough patches and gouges where images once stood. It is a quiet but powerful sight. The damage is not only the work of time. Much of it was the work of people.

Here is the first surprise. The tomb did not stay empty after Amenmesse lost his place in history. Later, it seems to have been reused. Over some of the damaged walls, new images appeared. They show royal women, including a queen named Takhat and another called Baketwerel. Some scholars think Takhat may have been the mother of Amenmesse, but this is not certain. Baketwerel remains even more mysterious. A tomb made for one ruler became a home for others.

Nature added its own damage. The Valley of the Kings looks dry, but rare, violent rainstorms do strike here. Over many centuries, floods carried mud, stones and debris down the slopes and into open tombs. KV10 was filled deep with this hardened material. Much of what you can see today exists only because archaeologists dug it out, slowly, by hand. Look at the floors and lower walls. The flood layers left cracks, stains and broken edges in the soft rock.

That clearing work was led for many years by the American archaeologist Otto Schaden. His team, working with the University of Memphis, began excavating the tomb in the early 1990s. It was patient, unglamorous work. They removed tonnes of debris, recorded fragments, and studied the scraps of later burials. They found no royal mummy of Amenmesse here. Where his body ended up, if it survived at all, is still unknown. That absence is part of the tomb's character.

Now the second surprise, and it happened just a few steps from where you stand. While working around KV10, Schaden's team noticed something unusual nearby. In the mid-2000s, this led them to a shaft that no one had recorded. It became known as KV63, the first new chamber found in the valley since Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. It held coffins and storage jars, not a king. Still, the discovery showed that this famous valley can still keep secrets.

Take a moment to look at the neighbouring tombs. KV10 sits close to some of the most visited tombs in the valley. Large groups flow past toward the bigger, brightly painted tombs. Many visitors walk by this doorway without a second look. That is part of its value. Here you can think about what the valley really was. It was a working royal cemetery, full of politics, rivalries, reused spaces, theft and repair, not only perfect paintings.

The rock itself tells part of the story too. This is limestone, a soft stone that is easy to cut but quick to crack. In some places, the ancient workers met layers of weaker rock, called shale, that swell when wet. This made floods even more destructive. Notice the colour changes in the cliff and around the entrance. Warm cream, grey and brown bands show the different layers that the stone cutters faced, with only copper tools and great patience.

Before you move on, stand still for a moment at this doorway. Feel the change in the air between the bright valley and the cool shade inside. Look at the scraped walls and imagine the colours that once covered them. Somewhere in this silence is a king who nearly vanished from history. As you walk back along the path, look again at the cliffs. Every dark opening in the rock holds its own unfinished story, waiting for patient hands.