# Ay Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/ay Language: en # Ay The courtier who outlived two kings and then wore the crown himself, briefly. **Reign**: c.1327–1323 BCE **Dynasty**: 18th Dynasty **Period**: New Kingdom **Also written**: Aya · Kheperkheperure Irimaat · أي · خبر خبرو رع ## Who they were A senior official of the Amarna court — one of the largest private tombs at Amarna was cut for him, and the fullest surviving copy of the Great Hymn to the Aten is on its wall — who held the titles of God’s Father and Overseer of All the Horses of His Majesty, and who became king on Tutankhamun’s death, already an old man. He reigned about four years. ## Why they matter He is the hinge between the Amarna court and the reaction against it, and he is standing on the wall of KV62. On its north wall he appears in the leopard skin of a funerary priest, performing the Opening of the Mouth on Tutankhamun’s mummy — and he is wearing the blue khepresh crown, so he is already king. A living king shown burying his predecessor is not how Egyptian tomb decoration normally works, and it is the most-discussed single image in the tomb. ## What happened The reign is short and thinly documented. He continued the restoration of the old cults (the worship and rituals devoted to a deity or royal figure), completed some of Tutankhamun’s unfinished work and put his own name on some of it, and began a mortuary temple (a temple for royal commemoration and divine worship, active during a king’s life and after death) in western Thebes. He was buried in the West Valley of the Valley of the Kings, in a tomb whose burial chamber carries a hunting scene in the marshes that is unique among royal tombs. After his death his monuments were attacked and his names removed, and his mortuary temple was taken over, finished and enlarged by his successor. ## What they built in Luxor A mortuary temple in western Thebes, begun by him and completed by Horemheb, who replaced his name with his own. His tomb, KV23, in the West Valley. He also finished and claimed work that Tutankhamun had left unfinished. ## Where to meet them On the north wall of KV62, in the leopard skin and the blue crown, holding the adze to the face of the mummy. That is the encounter, and it is a strange one: the man who is burying the boy is the man who takes his throne. His own tomb is in the West Valley, a separate branch of the Valley of the Kings reached by a long track. How we label claims ## What is disputed Each claim below carries its evidence class. A claim marked interpretation or uncertain is not a weaker version of a fact — it is a different kind of statement, and the note says why. - Uncertain That he was Nefertiti’s father, or the brother of Queen Tiye. Both connections are frequently stated and neither is documented. They are inferences from his title “God’s Father”, from his prominence at Amarna, and from a shared place of origin, and the title itself has more than one possible sense. - Uncertain That he married Tutankhamun’s widow Ankhesenamun to secure the throne. The evidence is a single finger-ring bearing the two names together. It is not nothing, and it is not much: his queen on the monuments is Tey, and Ankhesenamun disappears from the record. The story is usually told with more confidence than the ring supports. - Uncertain That the Egyptian queen who wrote to the Hittite king asking for a prince to marry was Ankhesenamun. The letters are real and are preserved in the Hittite archives: an Egyptian queen writes that her husband is dead, that she has no son, and that she will not marry a servant. The queen is named only by a title, and both the identification with Ankhesenamun and the placement of the episode after Tutankhamun’s death rather than after Akhenaten’s are argued. Who added what ## Before and after [18th Dynasty **Akhenaten** c.1352–1336 BCE The king who shut the temples — and whose own buildings were used as rubble. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/akhenaten) [18th Dynasty **Tutankhamun** c.1336–1327 BCE A short reign, a remarkable burial and an extraordinary legacy for the study of ancient Egypt. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/tutankhamun) [18th Dynasty **Ay** c.1327–1323 BCE The courtier who outlived two kings and then wore the crown himself, briefly. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/ay) [18th Dynasty **Horemheb** c.1323–1295 BCE The general who took the throne and set about deleting the four reigns before him. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/horemheb) Tomb ## Their tomb No tomb in this directory is recorded to them. [Tomb directory](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/tombs) Continue reading ## Explore the connections 1–1 / 5 [Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Kings The royal burial landscape of the New Kingdom: rock-cut tombs tucked into a desert valley, separate from the kings’ major commemorative temples. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-kings)[God ### Amun The hidden god of Thebes, who became king of the gods and the state god of an empire. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/amun)[God ### Osiris Ruler of the dead, associated with restoration and renewal. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/osiris)[God ### Anubis The black jackal of the cemetery, who does the embalming and guards the burial. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/anubis)[Comparison ### Is Tutankhamun’s Tomb Right for Your Visit? Choose KV62 if seeing Tutankhamun’s burial setting matters to you. It is small and its wall decoration is limited; the famous portable treasures are a separate museum visit. Check current admission before paying for an extra ticket. ](https://luxor101.com/journal/is-tutankhamuns-tomb-worth-the-extra-ticket) Sources & further reading 4 Tier 2 Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation, Aidan Dodson American University in Cairo Press Tier 2 The Complete Valley of the Kings, Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson Thames & Hudson Tier 2 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw Oxford University Press Tier 2 The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton Thames & Hudson Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [Pharaohs](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs)