28th April 2013
Padiamenope Tomb TT33 - Asasif - West Bank
Padiamenope Tomb TT33 - Asasif - West Bank
There was a documentary made about this tomb and it has been on YouTube. The tomb had been closed for well over a hundred years and no one knows why. When it was opened they found inside many pots belonging to Tutankhamun, apparently stored there. Inside the entrance there was a sealed doorway, no one knew why it was sealed. It has been suggested that it was bricked up to prevent bats getting in. When they knocked there way through this sealed up entrance in the presence of Zahi Hawass, they found yet another sealed doorway.
I am uncertain as to whether this tomb is still being worked on. I have been told that they were there in 2012 reading and recording the Hieroglyphs. I did notice on my last visit that there are mud bricks now piled up in front of a different metal door than my first visit. It now has a wire fronting, this gave me the chance to take a few pictures of the inside through the wire mesh. So the fact that the door has been changed, I guess means that they are still working in this tomb and possibly it was changed to allow fresh air to get in and to help overcome the ammonia problem.
Some History
Padiamenope (Petamenophis) (Pediamenopet) was Prophet and Chief Lector Priest during the 26th Dynasty. He served one or more pharaohs during the 25th to 26th dynasty time period, and amassed enough wealth and power to build a labyrinthine tomb covered with hundreds of metres of frescoes and hieroglyphics. The tomb was and still remains the largest known non-royal site in the necropolis as of 2008. TT33 consists of multiple rooms, reached by flights of steps, ramps and vertical shafts.
This tomb had a maze of corridors and chambers that have remained hidden for a thousand years. Tomb 33 is hailed by archaeologists as the greatest mystery of this sacred land. The last attempted excavation occurred over a hundred years ago, when a number of archaeologists went down and never returned; so the record says. So what secrets lurk in Tomb 33?
Tomb 33 is located on the West bank of Luxor at the Asasif. The tomb’s size is awe-inspiring. Comprised of twenty-two chambers connected by long corridors, it spreads over four levels reaching down more than twenty meters. It is more imposing than most Pharaohs’ tombs. Yet Tomb 33 was not built for a Pharaoh, or even a Royal family member. This was the tomb of Padiamenope (Petamenophis), a scholar and priest. “There is a sort of Myth to Tomb 33”, excavator Claude Traunecker explains. “It is quite amazing because it does not look like any other tomb. We do not understand it.”
Johannes Dueminchen, the first researcher of this tomb, established through script on the tomb walls that Padiamenope was a high-ranking priest and Master of Rituals, “He who has been initiated in the mysteries of the sacred text”. Since then the tomb has been regarded as an archaeological mystery. To the frustration of the archaeological community the Egyptian government sealed off the tomb a century ago and have refused to allow further excavations. Then in 2006 the government finally invited a team of French and Egyptian Egyptologists to re-open and excavate Tomb 33.
Leading the excavation is Professor of Egyptology Claude Traunecker and his colleague Annie Schweizer. For Professor Trauecker excavating Tomb 33 is the realisation of his childhood ambitions. After reading the comic book The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, Traunecker decided to one day excavate tombs in Egypt. Working as a chemist in the textile industry, Traunecker eventually landed a job on the excavations of the Egyptian temple of Karnak through sheer persistence, and began a second career as an Egyptologist.
As the walls sealing the Tomb are broken for the first time, the archaeologists are awe-struck. The team enters a maze-like underground network of spectacular corridors and chambers entirely covered in frescoes and hieroglyphs. “It was worth getting the willies for this”, Annie Schweizer laughs. However, the mysterious grandeur of the priest’s tomb perplexes the archaeologists. “I have mixed feelings”, Traunecker explains, “All in all, Tomb 33 could be regarded as a vain or even foolish project. I’m very shocked by our visit”. Padiamenope built a monument for posterity and time, the professor points out, but posterity has looted and time has defaced Tomb 33.
Yet as the excavation continues Padiamenope’s intentions come to fascinate the team. The walls contain an encyclopaedic depiction of the times and funeral rites of the later era of ancient Egypt, preserving a snapshot of a dwindling culture. Through hieroglyphic texts Padiamenope himself speaks to the archeologists. “Those who will yet be born”, reads one message, “may they enter the tomb and see what is inside. You who enter this tomb, look and try to understand, read and restore these inscriptions”. The archaeologists begin to develop an astonishing explanation for Padiamenope’s grandiose monument to posterity.
The domed ceiling looks amazing and is at the entrance of the tomb complex.
This photo was taken in 2008
2013
You can see that this tomb now has a different door. I know that when they went into it the last time that it was almost impossible to be inside for any length of time due to the ammonia build up from bat droppings. Now that it has an open bar and mesh door, perhaps it can ventilate.
There are in the courtyard area of this tomb, what looks like several other tombs; they have the usual numbering. It certainly looks as if at some time, that this area was under ground.
I love the idea of a mystery, even if it's not true.