The first tomb in the Valley of the Kings that we visited was the tomb of Ramses IV. It is not considered one of the great tombs, but it has its points that our guide felt were important to see. Ramses IV (1153 – 1147 BC.) died before his tomb was completed and its pillared hall was hastily converted into a burial chamber. It was the second tomb discovered and has graffiti on the walls that dates to 278 BC. (now that’s ancient graffiti) It was also on the roomy side compared to the pyramids. The main hall was maybe 12 feet wide and the ceiling maybe 15-18 feet high. If you look at the first picture, you can see the layout on the sign-board outside of the tomb entrance. We were going down hill the whole time as we progressed further into the tomb.

Ramses IV’s tomb had many snakes carved into the walls. The sarcophagus was very large, like eight feet by fifteen feet and made from red granite. Most of the ceiling was painted blue and had stars all over it, just like in the picture that I included from Karnak.

I had a major problem in this tomb. Our guide told us that we could take pictures in here as long as we didn’t use a flash. But after I took a couple of photos (along with a whole bunch of other people), a guard grabbed my camera away from me before I even saw him (while taking the third photo). We got into quite a brouhaha before our guide came to my rescue and got my camera back. It would not have been a problem if I had simply paid the guard a bribe, but by this time, I was done paying bribes. So I have included a couple of bribe-free photos from inside of the tomb of Ramses IV.

The second picture included is the text of the Book of Nut (pronounced newet). Nut was the sky goddess. I don’t know what it says or how you read it, but I liked the color and the figures and I thought it looked pretty good for being painted in something like 1147 BC.

The third photo is also inside this tomb. This picture is the goddess Nut herself. I took this picture on the ceiling over the sarcophagus.