IFAO

Rediscovered by James Bruce at the end of the XVIIIth century, the tomb of Ramesses III (KV 11) is one of the most famous and important monuments in the Valley of the Kings. Well known for the design and decoration of the upper part, the tomb is less known for its lower part, which is in very bad condition today. This lower part was still preserved in the XIXth century, but among the travellers and scholars who visited the tomb at that time, very few made descriptions or drawings of the decorations in the lower part. Until now the only two sources of our knowledge were the Notices descriptives of J.-Fr. Champollion and the Notices des hypogées royaux of E. Lefébure; however the unpublished manuscripts of Robert Hay kept in the British Library provide a third source. These important manuscripts contain some folios devoted to the tomb of Ramesses III, which provide crucial information about the decoration now lost. The aim of this paper is to publish this material, which consists of eight pages of hand-written notes (including sketches) and two views of the sarcophagus chamber executed with the help of the camera lucida. After an introduction of Robert Hay and a discussion of his work in Egypt (Part 1), the author gives the transcription of the English text (Part 2) and try to reconstruct the lower part of the decorative programme of KV 11, from the descent to corridor S to the last room Z (Part 3). For the reconstruction, the author collects the information in all three sources (which complement each other well) and take into account, as much as possible, the traces of decoration which remain extant on the walls.