WV25

Tomb WV25 is an unfinished and undecorated tomb in the West Valley of the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. It is the beginning of a royal tomb, and is thought to be the start of Akhenaten's Theban tomb. It was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817; he found eight Third Intermediate Period mummies inside. The tomb was excavated in 1972 by the University of Minnesota's Egyptian Expedition (UMEE) led by Otto Schaden. The project uncovered pieces of the eight mummies, along with artefacts from a late Eighteenth Dynasty royal burial.

==Discovery== The tomb was discovered in 1817 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni during his excavations in the Valley of the Kings. His investigation commenced close to the tomb of Ay (WV23), which he had discovered the previous year. The entrance was buried at a shallow depth and found to be blocked with large rocks. Returning the following day, further digging revealed a "well-built wall of stones of various sizes." Belzoni ordered the construction of a battering-ram, made from a large pole and a palm tree trunk, and used it to breach the blocking. We immediately entered, and found ourselves on a staircase eight feet wide and ten feet high, at the bottom of which were four mummies in their cases, lying flat on the ground with their heads towards the outside. Farther on were four more, lying in the same direction. Belzoni noted that the mummies were much alike in their painted and varnished cases, although one was covered in a pall. Another was wrapped in finer-quality linen and garlands of leaves and flowers; it appeared to be re-wrapped as, upon investigation, all that remained of the mummy was yellow-coloured bones. Two large metal plates, one with wedjat-eyes, and the other in the shape of a winged disc were found in the wrappings.