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I know that Voldemort thought that he was the only one to find the Room of Requirement...

As for the school: He alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place...

but why didn't he use the Chamber of Secrets instead? It is both grandiose and more secure, requiring Parseltongue to enter and yet again underscoring his claim as the Heir of Slytherin, like the diary.

Harry: "The diary wasn't that special." Dumbledore: "The diary, as you have said yourself, was proof that he was the Heir of Slytherin; I am sure that Voldemort considered it of stupendous importance."

— Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 23: Horcruxes

Is there any mention of why he didn't hide the Horcrux in the Chamber instead of the Room of Requirement?

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    I'm imaging him doing this before/after asking Dumbledore for the DADA position, and then running into Dumbledore on the way out of Myrtle's bathroom. "What're you doing there, Tom?" "Ummm....." – Jason Baker Sep 12 '16 at 20:23
  • Because Voldermort became stupidly over-confident. Instead of hiding his Horcruxes, he exposed most of them. Only the diadem was properly hidden. – Oriol Sep 19 '16 at 22:14
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    @Oriol - I think you're underestimating just how much personal capital Dumbledore invested in uncovering the location of the Horcruxes. He literally did a walkthrough of Riddle's entire life, pausing periodically to memory-scrub everyone who'd ever met him. – Valorum Sep 19 '16 at 22:23
  • @Oriol : hiding a horcrux properly would mean creating it out of an ordinary pebble and throwing it into a desert. Another could be made out of a piece of lead and dropped into a volcano, to let it sink into the Earth's mantle (it would be invulnerable to non-magical damage anyway). Another great horcrux would have been the Pioneer plaque. – vsz Jun 12 at 6:19
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Well, mostly because he wanted the Chamber opened. He wanted to get someone into that place, he wanted to give them the diary that would take them into it.

'[...] What intrigued and alarmed me most was that that diary had been intended as a weapon as much as a safeguard.'

'I still don't understand,' said Harry.

'Well, it worked as a Horcrux is supposed to work - in other words, the fragment of soul concealed inside it was kept safe and had undoubtedly played its part in preventing the death of its owner. But there could be no doubt that Riddle really wanted that diary read, wanted the piece of his soul to inhabit or possess somebody else, so that Slytherin's monster would be unleashed again.'

'Well, he didn't want his hard work to be wasted,' said Harry. 'He wanted people to know he was Slytherin's heir, because he couldn't take credit at the time.'

'Quite correct,' said Dumbledore, nodding.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - p.468 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 23, Horcruxes

It's not much of a hiding place, if you yourself are going to give some future student the keys.

Second, you need to appreciate that Voldemort is convinced that he alone knows of the Room of Hidden Things. He is the heir of Slytherin, he believes Hogwarts is his birthright and that he alone knows its secrets, that to him alone has Hogwarts revealed its secrets. He is arrogant enough to believe that nobody else could have found the Room of Hidden Things and isolated enough never to have heard others mention it.

As for the school: he alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place ...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - p.444 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 27, The Final Hiding Place

Again:

Tom Riddle, who confided in no one and operated alone, might have been arrogant enough to assume that he, and only he, had penetrated the deepest mysteries of Hogwarts Castle. Of course, Dumbledore and Flitwick, those model pupils, had never set foot in that particular place, but he, Harry, had strayed off the beaten track in his time at school - here at last was a secret he and Voldemort knew, that Dumbledore had never discovered -

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - pp.498-9 - Bloomsbury - Chapter 31, The Battle of Hogwarts

Finally, it seems to me that it may never have occurred to him to do so. That Chamber was great-great-great-...-great granddad Salazar's place. It had his statue, it housed his monster and it was about his plans for the school. Voldemort was proud of his ancestry and keen to reopen the Chamber and realise his great ancestor's plans. But it may not have occurred to him as the right place for his Horcruxes.

And hey, with Voldemort in charge and Hogwarts as it should be, the Chamber of Secrets would have no need of secrecy. He might even want to open the place up. Voldemort made his Horcruxes in order to realise plans for the wizarding world and Hogwarts school.

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  • +1 For wanting the Chamber opened. That would have made it more dangerous, even beyond the readily available basilisk fangs. He was leading people into the Chamber but "no one" knew about the Room of Requirement. – Bishop Sep 27 '16 at 18:55
  • I do disagree with the idea that Voldemort wouldn't have wanted to use it because it was Slytherin's place. He used Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup and Ravenclaw's diadem. That seems like MORE of a reason to keep it there. – Bishop Sep 27 '16 at 18:58
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I’m not aware of any mention of it in the book, but my guess is:

  1. He had already hidden one Horcrux in Hogwarts - Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem hidden in Room of Requirements. It was safe to not keep two Horcruxes in school.
  2. Remember that basilisks fangs were able to destroy Horcruxes. Maybe he thought that the Chamber was not a safe place with Basilisk in it.
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    +1 for not wanting a basilisk next to a horcrux. At best, your enemy has the means to destroy the horcrux in the same room. At worst, the basilisk gets curious looking for food and accidentally bites your horcrux, destroying it instantly. – Thunderforge Sep 13 '16 at 4:27
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    These are good points. I had meant why didn't he use the Chamber instead of the Room of Requirement. I realize that was unclear and have updated the question. Definitely +1 for the basilisk fangs. – Bishop Sep 19 '16 at 19:51
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well, he thought he was the only one who knew about room of requirement. where as chamber of secrets is history(though a myth) and any parseltongue like him could reach it who could pose a threat to his horcrux. Oh wait! I just had an idea, voldemort will only think only he knew about ROQ if there was nothing else hidden there unlike when harry found the room. so does that mean nobody before him found it or if it was made for him? or maybe he made it! ok ill stop the silly questions. so my point is, its safer to hide in a place which nobody knows it exists than a place known to all however mythically or difficult to reach.

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