Tomb KV3, located in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, was intended for the burial of an unidentified son of Pharaoh Ramesses III during the early part of the Twentieth Dynasty. It is designed similarly to this dynasty’s “straight axis” tombs. An ostracon written in hieratic script from the time of Ramesses III mentions the founding of a burial for a royal prince, likely this tomb. The unfinished state of a couple of rooms in the tomb and scant archaeological evidence suggest that the tomb was never used. Some have suggested that it was initially intended for use by the prince regent who would succeed as Ramesses IV and started building his grave (KV2) soon after he came to the throne.
Tomb KV3 description
In terms of design, it closely follows that used for tombs in the Valley of the Queens, and its size reflects the effort that would have gone into burying a member of the royal family.
The tomb is on the main path, close to the entrance to the Valley. Past the entrance to the tomb, KV3 barely descends any further, a particular feature for other tombs built for other sons of Ramesses III in the Valley of the Queens. There are two corridors (labelled “A” and “B”) which lead from the opening to the tomb, with the second passage flanked near the end by two chambers. Of these two chambers, only the one facing south (“Bb”) was finished; the other one (“Ba”) had only just begun when work on the tomb was abandoned.
A larger room (“F”) is past the second corridor with four pillars flanked by two smaller rooms. Only the side chamber to the north (“Fa”) was finished, with work on the second one (“Fb”) only just begun when work stopped. Past this room and running along the same axis as the corridor are three different rooms (“G”, “H”, and “I”), the first two of which have vaulted ceilings. One of these final vaulted chambers was likely intended as a burial chamber. The tomb is on the main path, close to the entrance to the Valley.
Decoration
The surviving tomb decoration can be found only along the length and flanking gates on either end of corridor B. It is thought that more decoration once existed since Karl Lepsius noted traces of paint on the vaulted chambers and mentioned cartouches and images of Ramesses III in the first corridor when he visited the tomb in the 1840s. These show Rameses III, followed by an unnamed prince, attended by various gods and goddesses.
Evidence shows that the tomb was a Christian chapel in the Byzantine period.
Though open since Ancient times, the tomb was only adequately excavated in 1912 by archaeologist Harry Burton, funded by the wealthy American lawyer Theodore M. Davis. It was one of the last excavations funded by Davis, and no report of this excavation work was published.
