Egyptologists have offered several explanations for its presence . One is that it was meant to thwart tomb robbers . Upon entering the tomb , thieves would encounter the deep well and see that the wall beyond it was sealed with stone and plaster . They would assume that the tomb was unfinished and contained nothing worth stealing and they would leave . If this is correct the ruse never worked .
Thieves seemed to know from the outset that tombs continued beyond the well chamber . Another theory is that the well was intended to trap floodwaters from torrential rainstorms and prevent water from reaching the chamber and damaging the mummy and funerary equipment . This Explanation , too , is unconvincing . A third explanation is that the shaft was the symbolic burial place of god Osiris , the quintessential god of the afterlife . In some tombs , KV 35 for example , well shafts had chambers cut at their base , a feature that lends support to this theory and seems to invalidate the first two .
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