Ancient Egypt TombsVery 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 K ings. 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.