The small entrance corridor

It is bordered by two walls to the right and left which are the only ones of the chapel whose decoration is complete. The two prayers to Aten are recited by May himself and not by the king. But this recitation being essentially a praise to Akhenaten, it was considered acceptable. The same situation can be found in other tombs. It is now known that Akhenaten's statements that he is the only intermediary who can address the Globe were not always respected (Bickel).
On the other hand, May does not present any offerings, in accordance with what had been written in the first statement, on steles X, M and K: "I will do the rites for Aten, my father, in the field of Aten in Akhetaton; and he will not be presented with offerings [by others] in [...] when I am in any other town or city."

Corridor on the north side (left)

( and )

There are two large superimposed registers, of uneven size.

1)- Lower register

May had the text engraved with a long prayer, which is still in very good condition. In contrast, May himself, who was depicted kneeling next to the text, was completely erased, and then the empty space was covered with a coarse plaster. All that can be said is that he had his right hand raised, while his left hand held a fan resting on his shoulder. In the text, May's name was also erased, as well as some of his titles, in particular that of royal scribe.

North wall, lower registerParoi nord, registre inférieur

Text of prayer (after Murnane) :
"Adoration of Horakhty-Aten, given life forever and continually; (and) the King of Upper and Lower Egypt who lives on Maât, Lord of the Two Lands, Neferkheperure-Waenre, the Son of Re who lives on Maat, Lord of Crowns, Akhenaten, long in his lifetime; (and) the King's Chief Wife, his beloved, Lady of the Two Lands, great of love, Neferneferuaton - Nefertiti, may she live forever and ever!
You appear beautifully from the horizon of heaven (you) the living Aten that determines life. For you are risen from the eastern horizon and filled the Two Lands with your beauty; for you are bright, great, shining and high above every land, and your rays encompass lands to the limit of all you have made. For you are in the sun, reaching their limit and subduing them for your beloved son.
Your rays are on your effective image, the ruler of Maât who issued form continuity: may you give to him your lifetime and your years; may you hearken for him to what is in his heart; and may you love him and cause him to be like Aten, your child from your rays, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neferkheperure-Waenre. For you, he has made Akhetaton the great, the big, the beloved, the mistress of favour, rich in possessions, in which is the sustenance of Re. One rejoices in seeing its beauty, fair and lovely. One sees it as if looking at the sky - its limit unreachable - with the Aten rising in it to fill it with his rays and embracing his beloved son, the son of continuity, who issued from Aten and governs the land for the one who placed him on his throne, and who causes the land to exist for the one who made it."

"Every land is festive at his appearance. Their totality is offering to his Ka on behalf of Aten, who rises on the horizon at the start of every dawn. His son is presenting Maât to your handsome face (O Aten) while you exult when you see him. He has issued from you alone: may you grant him eternity as king like the Aten. -Neferkheperure-Waenre, may you live and be healthy like the Aten!"

"The hereditary prince and count, the seal bearer of the king of Lower Egypt, the sole companion [...], the genuine [king's scribe], his beloved; general of the Lord of the Two Lands, the steward of the house "Pacifying Aten" [May]. He says: 'I am a servant of his creating, one who was straight-forward on behalf of the Lord of the Two Lands and effective for his lord, who placed Maât in my body and detestation of falsehood, for I know that the son of the Aten, Neferkheperure-Waenre, rejoices at it. He has doubled my favours for me like grains of sand, for I was the first of officials in front of the subjects, and my lord advanced me so I might execute his teachings: as I listened to his voice without cease. My eyes are seeing your beauty in the course of every day – O my lord, knowledgeable like Aten, content with Maât. How fortunate is the one who listens to your teaching of life, for he shall be sated with seeing you and he shall reach old age!"

Cartouches of the Aten (left) and of Akhenaten and Nefertiti (right) Nom didactique de l'Aten (gauche)
Cartouches d'Akhenaton et Nefertiti (droite)

"May you grant me the good funeral which is your Ka's to give me, in the tomb in which you decreed for me to rest – in the mountain of Akhetaton, the place of the favoured ones. O my millions of Niles flooding daily, Neferkheperure-Waenre, my god who made me, by whose Ka one lives, cause me to be sated with following you without cease, O one whom the Aten fashioned: you are continual! O my millionfold prayer, Waenre: how fortunate is he who follows you, for you cause all he has made to go on existing, being firm continually; for his lord shall bury him, with his mouth full of righteousness".

2)- Top register

This is the main register. It focuses on the image of the Akhenaten-Nefertiti couple, followed by three of their daughters, making offering to Aten. As is often the case in Amarna tombs, the offerings are precisely stacked, with round breads separated from meats in the process of grilling and from containers containing vegetables or fruits. Hands on the end of the Aten's rays touch the food, seeming to take their share directly. Other rays land on the king, censing him, with a censer that has the shape of an arm, and on Queen Nefertiti who performs a lustration with the help of a beaked, handled jug.

Upper part of the upper register highly damaged. Move mouse over image Partie haute du registre supérieur très abimée. Passez la souris sur l'image

Akhenaten and Nefertiti (NE below) are followed by three of their daughters (). Merytaten (ME below) and Meketaten (MA below) stand behind their parents on the lower register, while Ankhsenpaaten (AN below) stands above them. All three hold a sistrum.

Above, the sketches are very damaged, especially the one that represents the princess (red cross), younger sister of Queen Nefertiti. This princess, always accompanied by two dwarfs (green crosses), her ladies of company, deserves to be looked over for a few moments, so see .

Above, almost completely erased, there are fan bearers and, as in almost all Amarna decorated tombs, there are soldiers playing the role of policemen, bent double (even when running!) ().

Corridor on the south side (right)

May plastered and top half of a long prayerMay plâtré et moitié supérieure d'une longue prière

May is kneeling and carries a fan; he is reduced to a silhouette because the representation has been hammered out and then covered with a very adhesive coating. On this side, the incised hieroglyphics were also filled with this coating, which Davies had a hard time removing, making some signs difficult to identify (see ).

The text in front of May is arranged in five columns occupying the entire height of the wall. It recounts the social ascent of the deceased who, starting from nothing but faithful to the teachings of Akhenaten, became a great one of the court:
"Adoration of the Horakhty-Aten, given life everlastingly forever and ever; (and) to the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lives on Maât, the Lord of the Two Lands, Neferkheperure-Waenre, the son of Re, who lives on Maât, Lord of Crowns, [Akhenaten] long in his lifetime, (and) the hereditary princess, she who is great in the palace, fair of face and beautiful in the Two Plumes; she whom the living Aten loves, the king's Chief wife, his beloved, the Lady of the (Two) Lands, Neferneferuaton - Nefertiti, may she live forever continually".

"The fan bearer at the right hand of the king ... whom the king of Upper Egypt advanced and that the king of Lower Egypt promoted, (the one) whose Ka the sovereign made, one beloved of his lord every day, who reached old age as his well-being came and spent lifetime with his limbs healthy; one great of praise and goodly of stride; one who followed his lord, his attendant for a lifetime, while the love of him was enduring. The king's scribe, scribe of recruits, steward of the house "Pacifying Aten". The steward of Waenre in Heliopolis, overseer of the cattle of the House of Re in Heliopolis, overseer of all the works projects of the king, the general of the army of the Lord of the Two lands, May."

"He says:
Hear what I say, everybody, great and small, that I may tell you all the good things that the ruler did for me, so you will say 'How great are the things done for this poor man!' Beseech for him continuity in jubilees and eternity as Lord of the Two Lands, and he will do for you just as he did for me'- the God who gives life!"

"I was a poor man on both my father's and on my mother's side - but the ruler built me up, he caused me to develop, he fed me by means of his Ka when I was without property. He caused me to acquire people in numbers. He caused my brothers and sisters to be many. he caused all my people to assemble for me when I became the master of my town, and he caused me to mingle with officials and courtiers when I was the least of the underlings. He gave me sustenance and food every day when I was begging for the bread which he gives".

Transverse and pillarded hall, not finished, Salle longitudinale à piliers, inachevée

The longitudinal hall

May's TA 14 tomb belongs to the southern group. As like ten of the sixteen tombs in this group, the main hall is rectangular and has columns; its major axis is perpendicular to the entrance axis. A niche, which is in the back wall and in the axis of the entrance, marks the outline of the door planned for an additional room.

Transverse and pilarded hall not finishedSalle longitudinale à piliers, inachevée

• The planned number of columns was 12, but this part was never finished. As usual, only the columns bordering the axis of the west-east central aisle have received their final shape, while the others are at various stages of work, sometimes at the start of roughing out.
• Statues niches are carved at each end of the long room, on north and south walls which are barely roughed out. The north niche contains an outline of a standing statue of May the work is far from completer, but we can guess at his long wig and the fan of office on his right shoulder ().
• Tomb TA 14 obeys the rule that when the major axis of a rectangular room with columns is perpendicular to the axis of the entrance, access to the burial chamber is always via a staircase (and not a shaft). • In these tombs, the finished wall decoration is always limited to the right and left walls of the small entrance hall. Sometimes sketches are added on other walls, as is the case here.

The west wall, south side

In May's tomb, there is at the southern end of the west wall - the only wall sufficiently advanced to receive a decoration - a preliminary sketch made in ink. In addition to its originality, the sketch allows us to observe certain stages of the work.
The draughtsmen intervene after the plasterers and before the engravers. They first sketch the scenes and hieroglyphics is in black ink; the master draftsman then makes the corrections in red.
The scene is only partially preserved, and it is necessary to refer once again to the plates and comments of Norman de Garis Davis.
We find around the painting a large number of thick coloured lines, a frequent feature observed in Amarna tombs, the meaning of which is not clear: how to occupy the space? A new trend? according to some, these would be barriers protecting the city of Amarna ().

The Gold of Reward

The first scene, a classic in Amarna tombs, showed May being rewarded with gold necklaces from the Window of Appearance of the royal palace; the scene has virtually disappeared.

The Amarna river frontage

We can distinguish four themes. The highest located corresponds to the colonnade along the palace. Below is an unusual scene of the riverfront: a sloping path leads down the vegetation-covered bank and a line of moored boats. There are gardeners at work. Below still, sailors clean and store the equipment. The lowest part corresponds to the moored boats. On peut distinguer quatre thèmes. Le plus haut situé correspond à la colonnade longeant le palais. En dessous se trouvent jardins et jardiniers. En dessous encore des marins nettoient et rangent le matériel. Le plus bas correspond aux bateaux amarrés.

It is located on the lower part of the wall and presents a great originality, because the artist, who sought to stick to visual reality - but did not know the perspective - worked on two plans.

The facade of the royal palace

A colonnade, now very difficult to see, runs along one of the walls of the royal palace. You enter the palace through a door crowned with Uraei. From the gate, two diverging paths lead down to the bank where you can see vessels moored to landing stages.

The boats

The two ships of the royal couple are identical, except at the top of the rudder oars where in one case are the effigy of Akhenaten wearing the Atef crown and in the other that of Nefertiti wearing the double feather (). Several other less ornate boats, intended for the royal suite, are moored at another landing stage.

The work of the crew

On the foreshore, crews are busy repairing equipment. On the right, the oars are carefully mounted, the mast, the halyards, the sails... are put back in; one man is making a net, while another, sitting next to him, shapes the handle of a rudder oar that a young boy is holding firmly.

Gardeners Jardiniers

The gardens

Further up the shore - but it is very difficult to see today - gardeners are busy removing the bouquets and foliage they have cut. The strip of land between the palace and the wharf is planted with palm trees, deciduous shrubs, groves of papyrus and flowers.

Underground developments

A crude burial site has been set up in the northeast corner of the long room, hidden between the columns and virtually invisible from the entrance. The lower half of the pilaster was cut away to give a wider passage, which shows that the staircase was not part of the original project. A staircase is dug into the ground and penetrates a short distance under the east wall. At its end, a flat space leaves a space required for a burial, but no burial had ever taken place in tomb TA 14.