KV7: The Tomb of Ramesses II

Feel the ground first. The path into the Valley of the Kings is pale, dusty limestone, and it gives off heat even in the early morning. The cliffs rise on both sides in shades of cream and honey. Above them, one peak stands out with a natural pyramid shape. The ancient Egyptians noticed that shape too. Somewhere near the mouth of this valley, close to where you are standing, a doorway cuts into the rock. This is KV7, the tomb of Ramesses the Second.

The name KV7 is simple. KV means Kings' Valley, and seven is the number that early modern surveyors gave this tomb in their list. Behind that plain label is one of the most famous rulers Egypt ever had. Ramesses the Second ruled in the thirteenth century before Christ, during the period historians call the Nineteenth Dynasty. His reign lasted around sixty-six years. Many of his subjects lived their whole lives without knowing any other king.

Think about what that long reign meant for this tomb. Work on a royal tomb usually began early in a king's reign. Builders cut down into the rock, and painters and sculptors followed behind them. For most pharaohs, the work stopped suddenly when the king died. Ramesses lived so long that his workers had decades to dig. The result is one of the largest tombs in the valley. It runs deep into the hillside, with corridors, stairways, and chambers that open one after another.

Now look at the position of the tomb. It sits low, near the entrance to the valley floor. That placement looks prestigious. It was also a problem. Rain is rare here, but when a storm does come, water rushes down from the cliffs and carries stone and mud with it. Over many centuries, flash floods poured into this tomb again and again. They filled the corridors with packed debris and damaged much of the painted plaster on the walls.

This is the first surprise for many visitors. They expect the tomb of Egypt's most famous king to be the most colourful in the valley. It is not. Much of the decoration did not survive the water. Other tombs nearby, including the tomb of his father, Seti the First, kept far more of their paint. Here, you will often see bare rock, broken surfaces, and patches where colour remains. The tomb shows its history openly — the water damage is part of the story.

What was on these walls in the first place? Royal tombs of this period carried religious texts and images. They described the journey of the sun god through the hours of the night. Every evening, the Egyptians believed, the sun entered the underworld. It passed through dangerous regions and was reborn each morning. The king hoped to join that journey and rise again with the sun. As you walk, look for surviving rows of small figures, hieroglyphs, and the outlines of gods.

Pay attention to the direction of the corridors as you go deeper. Earlier royal tombs in this valley did not always run in one straight line. Their axis often turned partway through. Many later tombs ran straight into the cliff. Keep a sense of where the entrance is behind you, and notice whether the path ahead shifts. The plan itself carries ideas about the world of the dead, not only practical choices by the builders.

Here is the second surprise. The king's body was not found in this tomb. Late in the New Kingdom, tomb robbery became a serious problem in the valley. Priests later gathered royal mummies from damaged and plundered tombs and moved them to safer places. Labels written on the coverings recorded some of these transfers. Eventually, Ramesses ended up hidden with many other royal mummies in a cache near Deir el-Bahari. That hiding place was discovered in the late nineteenth century.

The mummy of Ramesses the Second has travelled far since then. In the 1970s, it was taken to Paris for conservation work. Today it rests in Cairo, at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. In 2021, it moved there from the old Egyptian Museum in a public procession through the city, together with other royal mummies. So the king's body lies hundreds of kilometres to the north. You are standing in the home that was prepared for him.

For a long time, this tomb was too full of debris to explore properly. In the 1990s, a French archaeological mission began a long programme of clearing and study. The work was slow. Every bucket of flood debris had to be removed and checked. Fragments of objects and decoration were recorded. Much of what visitors can see today exists because of years of patient effort. Archaeology here often means moving rubble with great care, not uncovering gold.

Now look outside the tomb for a moment. Ramesses did not plan this place in isolation. Nearby is a huge tomb known as KV5, which was used for many of his sons. Not far away is the tomb of Merneptah, one of those sons, who became king after him. Across the river, on the east bank, Luxor Temple carries his statues. On this west bank stands his memorial temple, the Ramesseum. His family and his monuments are spread across the whole landscape.

Inside, the air feels different from the open valley. It can be warm and still, with a faint dusty smell of old stone. Sounds become softer. Footsteps on the walkways echo slightly in the long corridors. Lighting picks out surfaces that were cut more than three thousand years ago. If you stop and look closely, you may see the tool marks of the original workers. They are small, regular scratches, left by people who spent their working lives in this valley.

When you walk back toward the entrance, notice the change in light. The bright rectangle of the doorway grows larger, and the heat returns. Outside, the cliffs still hold the same colours. The peak still rises over the valley. For one of the most powerful kings Egypt ever knew, this is the place he prepared for eternity. It is damaged, emptied, and partly restored. As you step back into the sun, look back once at the doorway, cut into the stone near the valley's mouth.