_-_2025-12-10_-_48.jpg/1920px-Vall%C3%A9e_Rois_-_Louxor_(EG)_-_2025-12-10_-_48.jpg 1920w)
Overview
About this site
Overview
Tomb KV29 is a rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings, in the Theban Necropolis of Egypt. It is thought to date to the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty on account of its proximity to tombs of that date. Only its entrance shaft and the top of one room have been investigated, and the rest of the tomb is filled with debris and its layout is unknown.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
KV29
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): KV29CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): KV29CC BY-SA 4.0
KV29 lies in a small side valley that leads towards the tomb of Thutmose III (KV34), and close to other tombs of similar date, including KV32 (Tiaa, the mother of Thutmose IV), KV42 (Merytre-Hatshepsut) and KV34. It has a simple layout consisting of a vertical shaft and a single chamber.
The tomb was known since the 1830s, when its location was noted by the early Egyptologists James Burton and John Gardiner Wilkinson.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): KV29CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): KV29CC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb was known since the 1830s, when its location was noted by the early Egyptologists James Burton and John Gardiner Wilkinson. Eugène Lefébure mentioned it again in the 1880s, and it was assigned the number KV29 in 1899. No records of an earlier excavation exist. The Theban Mapping Project planned the entrance shaft in the 1990s.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): KV29CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): KV29CC BY-SA 4.0
The University of Basel King's Valley Project began excavating the shaft in January 2011. Half of its depth proved to be flood debris from the 1994 flood and modern debris from the 1960s onwards, and the rest contained clean fill washed in during earlier floods. The final 3 metres (9.8 ft) of debris in the shaft, which is 9 metres (30 ft) deep, consisted of hard packed limestone chips; fragmentary ceramics and four pieces of an alabaster jar were recovered from this layer. The shaft was capped with an iron door at the conclusion of the 2011 season.
Excavation resumed in 2016. The shaft was found to open to the west onto a room that was also filled with debris. Its extent was investigated using a telescoping camera and flashlights. The architectural layout of the room is unknown, as it is so full of debris that any possible side chamber doorways are obscured.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Rock-cut tombs of Egypt
Egypt has some of the best-known rock-cut tombs in the world. In the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile opposite Thebes, tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Dynasty. The valley has two main sections, the East Valley where most royal tombs lie and the West Valley, known as the Valley of the Monkeys, and it is known to contain 65 tombs and chambers. It gained great attention after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 with the rest of the Theban Necropolis.
Much earlier, Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt is an ancient funerary site cut into the limestone cliffs on the east bank of the Nile about 20 kilometres south of Minya. In the Middle Kingdom it was the principal cemetery of the sixteenth nome of Upper Egypt, the Oryx nome, and its monumental tombs were cut roughly halfway up the cliff, overlooking the valley. Rock-cut tombs are also found at Deir el-Medina, between the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.
The mastaba is a different tradition: a flat-roofed rectangular tomb with sloping sides, built of mudbrick or limestone, which marked the burial sites of eminent Egyptians in the Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom. The mastaba was built above ground and the rock-cut tomb into the cliff.
Egyptian tombs are among the best dated monuments in the Atlas, because the dynasty or reign of the king or noble who owned them is known.
When visiting, remember that access to many tombs is limited.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Valley of the Kings, Wikipedia: Beni Hasan, Wikipedia: Rock-cut tomb, Wikipedia: Mastaba · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1899
The tomb was known since the 1830s and given the number KV29 in 1899 but no records of an earlier excavation exist.
Source - 1899
It was mentioned again in the 1880s by Eugène Lefébure and assigned a tomb number in 1899. In the 1990s the shaft was mapped by the Theban Mapping Project.
Source - 2011
The tomb was first excavated by the University of Basel King's Valley Project in 2011. Excavation continued in 2016 but the rest of the tomb is filled with debris and its layout is unknown.
Source - 2011
Excavation of the shaft began in January 2011; half the depth proved to be flood debris from the 1994 flood and modern debris from the 1960s onwards.
Source - 2011
The shaft was capped with an iron door at the conclusion of the 2011 season.
Source - 2016
Excavation resumed in 2016. The shaft was found to open to the west onto a room, also filled with debris.
Source
Photographs
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 1539–1075 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for hypogeums in Egypt; this site has not been dated itself. The Valley was used for primary burials from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Egypt
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 25°44′27″ N, 32°36′08″ EFor a GPS or map app: 25.74083, 32.60222
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
_-_2025-12-10_-_48.jpg){kind=link}
_-_2025-12-10_-_47.jpg){kind=link}
_-_2025-12-10_-_30.jpg){kind=link}
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
3 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q2128037wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
- 03Wikipedia: KV29en.wikipedia.org
Image files
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "KV29" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): KV29CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q2128037CC0