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Tomb of Horemheb (KV 57): plan
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Plan of the Tomb of Horemheb (after Theban Mapping Project)
The tomb of Horemheb (KV 57), shown in this plan, was about 110 m long. The floor of the Sarcophagus Chamber is located 30 m below that of the entry. The tomb progresses almost due north from the entry stairs to the Burial Chamber, deviating slightly only at the stairwell in the two-pillared hall just beyond the Well Chamber
Tomb decoration, which includes painted and raised relief work, is of a high quality but unfinished, the only completed areas being the Well Chamber and the Antechamber. The Burial chamber, left unfinished, has walls decorated with the "Book of Gates", where monumental gates mark every hour of the night on the nocturnal or underworld journey of the sun. The tomb's incomplete state may be due to a sudden death of Horemheb, who may have been about 80 at his death. The lower levels of the tomb were not even cleared of building debris before Horemheb was placed in the coffin.
Tomb robbers had broken into the tomb in antiquity. After digging through the filled-in upper corridors and stairways leading to the Well Chamber, the robbers also broke through the far wall of this room, gaining access to the lower portion of the tomb.
On its discovery the tomb still contained the red granite sarcophagus and a calcite canopic chest, along with several life-size wood statues of the king. The excavators discovered the bones of two women and a man in the Sarcophagus Chamber. In the sarcophagus itself were found unidentified remains of a man or a woman. The mummy of Horemheb has still not been found.
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