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KV6 — The KV6 tomb of Ramesses IX .

Hypogeum (rock-cut)

KV6

Egypt

DatedEst. 3600–2500 BCE

Where it standsSources

Photo Luigi Rosa · CC BY-SA 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons

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About this site

What the sources say

Tomb KV6 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings is the final resting place of the 20th-Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses IX. However, the archaeological evidence and the quality of decoration it contains indicates that the tomb was not finished in time for Ramesses's death but was hastily rushed through to completion, many corners being cut, following his demise.

It is located in the central part of the Valley. Its unusually wide entrance stands between, and slightly above, those of two other tombs: KV5 and KV55. Running 105 metres into the hillside, the tomb begins with a gate and a shallow descending ramp followed by three successive stretches of corridor. The first of these has four side chambers – two on each side – but none of these are decorated or finished.

At the end of the corridors come three chambers. The first of these is decorated with the Opening of the mouth ritual, and it is possible that a well shaft would have been dug here had the builders been afforded more time. The second chamber contains four large columns, but neither the cutting nor the decoration work were completed. At the far end of this chamber, a ramp slopes down to the burial chamber, where the pharaoh's sarcophagus was placed (the floor has a rectangular section carved out to accommodate it). The ceiling is vaulted, and is decorated with splendid pictures of the goddess Nut. The side walls show scenes from the Book of Caverns and the Book of the Earth.

The far wall depicts Ramesses on his barque, surrounded by a host of gods. The yellows, dark blues, and blacks used to decorate this chamber are visually striking and unusual among the tomb decorations in the Valley. While the sarcophagus itself has long since vanished, Ramesses IX's mummy was one of those found in the Deir el-Bahri cache (DB320) in 1881.

KV6 has been open since antiquity, as can be seen by the graffiti left on its walls by Roman and Coptic visitors.

Read on Wikipedia4 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.

  1. Göbekli Tepe9600 BCE
  2. First farming9500 BCE
  3. Avebury2600 BCE
  4. Great Pyramid of Giza2560 BCE
  5. Stonehenge2500 BCE
  6. Bronze Age collapse1200 BCE
  7. Rome founded753 BCE
  8. Parthenon447 BCE
  9. Hadrian's Wall122 CE
  10. Machu Picchu built1450 CE
12,000 BCE8,000 BCE4,000 BCE1 CE1,500 CE
This site

Est. 3600–2500 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical for this type

The published range for this kind of monument in this region. It is not a date for this site.
Source for this date

The full article

KV6: the whole story

4 min read687 wordsRead on Wikipedia

In brief

Sources for this section

Tomb KV6, in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, is the final resting place of the 20th-Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses IX. The archaeological evidence and the quality of its decoration indicate that the tomb was not finished in time for his death but was hastily rushed through to completion afterwards, with many corners cut.

It is located in the central part of the Valley, with an unusually wide entrance that stands between, and slightly above, those of two other tombs, KV5 and KV55. Running 105 metres into the hillside, it begins with a gate and a shallow descending ramp followed by three successive stretches of corridor. The first has four side chambers, two on each side, but none of these are decorated or finished.

At the end of the corridors come three chambers. The first is decorated with the Opening of the mouth ritual, and a well shaft might have been dug here had the builders had more time. The second contains four large columns, but neither the cutting nor the decoration was completed. A ramp slopes down from its far end to the burial chamber, where the floor has a rectangular section carved out to hold the pharaoh's sarcophagus.

The burial chamber has a vaulted ceiling decorated with splendid pictures of the goddess Nut, and its side walls show scenes from the Book of Caverns and the Book of the Earth. The far wall depicts Ramesses on his barque, surrounded by a host of gods. The yellows, dark blues and blacks used here are visually striking and unusual among the tomb decorations in the Valley.

The sarcophagus has long since vanished, but Ramesses IX's mummy was one of those found in the Deir el-Bahri cache (DB320) in 1881. KV6 has been open since antiquity, as shown by the graffiti left on its walls by Roman and Coptic visitors.

How this page was made

Sources for this section

The summary at the top of this page was written by Claude Sonnet 5.5 (2026-11-06) from the cited Wikipedia article “KV6”. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.