It is located in the central part of the Valley. Its unusually wide entrance stands between, and slightly above, those of two other particularly interesting tombs: KV5 and KV55.

Architecturally the tomb continues the Ramesside style although some of the decoration is not completely traditional. Even though the king reigned for 18 years only the first corridor was completely decorated by the time of the pharaoh’s death and the corridor beyond the pillared hall was hastily enlarged to house the king’s sarcophagus.

KV6 has been open since antiquity, as can be seen by the graffiti left on its walls by Roman and Coptic visitors. While the sarcophagus itself has long since vanished, Ramesses IX's mummy was one of those found in the Deir el-Bahri cache (DB320) in 1881 CE.

circa 1120 BCE

Running a total distance of 105 metres into the hillside, the tomb begins with a gate and a shallow descending ramp. Following on from the ramp come three successive stretches of corridor. The first of these has four side chambers – two on each side – but none of these are decorated or finished.

At the end of the corridors come three chambers. The first of these is decorated with the Opening of the mouth ritual, and it is possible that a well shaft would have been dug here had the builders been afforded more time. The second chamber contains four large columns, but neither the cutting nor the decoration work were completed.

At the far end of this chamber, a ramp slopes down to the actual burial chamber, where the pharaoh's sarcophagus was placed (the floor has a rectangular section carved out to accommodate it).

circa 1120 BCE

Entryway A
Entryway A measures approximately 3.76 meters in width and extends 16.13 meters in length. The passage is arranged as a divided stairway, indicating a controlled and possibly processional form of access. Notably, two pilasters were begun very close to the entrance gate, though never completed, suggesting either a change in construction plans or an unfinished phase of the fortification program. The placement of these pilasters at the threshold emphasizes the architectural focus on the gateway’s monumental character and controlled transition from exterior to interior space.

Corridor B
The corridor measures 4.47 meters in height, 3.22 meters in width, and 15.33 meters in length. The raised ceiling and level floor at the top of the corridor indicate the presence of a pair of doors that once opened inwards. The passage then drops slightly in level and is decorated on both walls. The ceiling carries motifs of vultures, winged scarabs, and text bands containing the king’s names. Greek graffiti is present on both walls. Two small chambers open on each side of the corridor.

Three of the four side rooms in Corridor B each measure approximately 2.6 meters square with a height of about 2 meters. Their cutting had been completed, but they were left undecorated. The fourth chamber was never finished.

Corridor C
Corridor C measures 4.11 meters in height, 3.22 meters in width, and 9.95 meters in length. Two recesses are set opposite each other, and the walls are decorated with scenes from the Litany of Re, the Book of Caverns, and other traditional vignettes. The ceiling is astronomical in design, bearing representations of constellations, a list of decans, and star tables.

Corridor D
Corridor D measures 3.69 meters in height, 3.2 meters in width, and 11.52 meters in length. At the far end of the corridor, two small recesses are positioned opposite each other low down in the walls. The decoration includes vignettes from the Book of Gates, with Ramesses IX depicted alongside various deities. The ceiling is adorned with material from the Book of the Day and the Book of the Night (collectively known as the Book of the Dead). The walls also preserve multiple examples of graffiti in Greek, Demotic, and Hieratic.

Chamber E
Chamber E measures 3.51 meters in height, 5.25 meters in width, and 4.91 meters in length. It was constructed as a “well chamber”, a feature present in earlier tombs. Such chambers served as obstacles against tomb robbers, could function as reservoirs to collect floodwater, and may have provided civil engineers with information about soil and rock type during excavation. Traditionally, well chambers were square; later Ramesside tombs continued this form but reduced their depth. The walls of these chambers were sealed, plastered, and painted, possibly for symbolic reasons or in the belief that tomb robbers would find themselves in a closed, decorated space. In this instance, only the rear wall of Chamber E was decorated.

Chamber F
Chamber F measures 3.41 meters in height, 8.55 meters in width, and 8.51 meters in length. The chamber was left unfinished and undecorated. Of the four columns planned, the first two were cut successfully, while the second pair remained incomplete. At the center of the chamber, a descending passage was begun. This measures 3.49 meters in height and 3.25 meters in width, sloping at a maximum angle of 21.86 degrees. The passage connects directly to the burial chamber J.

circa 1120 BCE

Burial Chamber J
The burial chamber measures 3.6 meters in height, 5.34 meters in width, and 6.83 meters in length. Two recesses were cut into the chamber floor to house a sarcophagus or coffin. Neither the coffin nor the king’s body was found in situ; however, the mummy was later discovered in the royal cache DB320 in 1881 CE. The Valley of the Kings had been cleared around 1000 BCE, with many royal bodies relocated into several caches. The walls of the chamber are decorated with vignettes from the Book of the Earth, the Book of Caverns, and depictions of various deities. The vaulted ceiling carries images of the goddess Nut. Greek graffiti is also present on the chamber walls.

circa 1120 BCE

The ceiling (inspect) is vaulted, and is decorated with splendid pictures of the goddess Nut. The side walls show scenes from the Book of Caverns and the Book of the Earth. The far wall of the burial chamber depicts Rameses (inspect) on his barque, surrounded by a host of gods. The yellows, dark blues, and blacks used to decorate this chamber are visually striking and unusual among the tomb decorations in the Valley.

On the outer lintel (inspect) is a depiction of a sundisc with scarab, adored by the king with Isis and Nephthys. The north wall of the first corridor shows the king offering before Re-Horakhty and Osiris, scenes from the ‘Book of the Dead’ and an Iun-Mutef priest before Osiris. The south wall shows the king in a kiosk (inspect), in an unconventional scene offering to a form of Amun-Re-Horakhty with four rams heads and to Meretseger, the goddess of the Western Mountain.

The first division of the ‘Book of Caverns’ is illustrated on this wall. There are four niches off the first corridor which show the king’s names on the jambs and the first one of these on the right may have been cut short because it ran into KV55 next to it. The ceiling is decorated with vultures and the king’s names.

The second corridor depicts scenes from the ‘Litanies of Re’, (depicting the sun in its 75 forms throughout its nightly journey), the ‘Book of the Dead’ and the ‘Book of Caverns’. An astronomical ceiling shows constellations and decans lists.

The outer lintel to the third corridor shows a sundisc containing a ram-headed god and a baboon with the king adoring and followed by 5 goddesses on either side. The south wall has scenes from the ‘Amduat’ with representations of Underworld deities and some hieratic graffiti. On the opposite wall are scenes of the king offering to Ma’at, Ptah and the king as Osiris, with more hieratic graffiti. The astronomical ceiling shows pictures of divine barques and processions of gods in yellow on a dark blue background.

The vestibule or well-room illustrates Iun-Mutef priests officiating in the ritual of the ‘Opening of the Mouth’ with a ram-standard on the left of the doorway and an ibis-standard in the right. There is a winged disc and the king’s names on the outer lintel of the four-pillared hall, but it was otherwise left undecorated.

The tomb extends beyond the pillared hall with a corridor which was turned into the burial chamber at the king’s death. In the entrance to the burial chamber, on the soffit, a disc depicts a ram-headed god adored by four baboons. On the inside of the doorway is a goddess with standards on the right and a mummiform Geb on the left. The south and north walls depict scenes from the ‘Book of Caverns’, ‘Book of the Earth’ and the ‘Amduat’. The ceiling is similar to that in the burial chamber of Rameses VI, showing Nut swallowing the sun in a double scene of the ‘Book of the Night’. The divine barque is pulled by jackals.

circa 1120 BCE

Tomb-plan Ostracon
Also known as the Ramesses IX Tomb-plan Ostracon is an Ancient Egyptian ostracon made of pale limestone. It is inscribed with a layout of the tomb of the Pharaoh Ramesses IX in the Valley of the Kings, and dates from the 20th Dynasty (c. 1100 BCE). The ostracon is inscribed on a sherd of approximate dimensions: 0.66 meters long (2/3 meter) by 0.2 meter wide, and was found within his KV6 tomb.

The 'blueprint-like' "tomb-plan" is not a draft plan of the tomb construction, but is a post-construction record. Notes in Hieratic writing system names the rooms, with dimensions. The composition of straight lines, (from a straightedge/device) use mostly 90 degree angles, but the design layout also conforms to the linear shape of the sherd, (thus requiring deviations from the 90 degree right angles).