Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in a humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites, starting on Tuesday.

Carter’s body was transferred in a grand and solemn military ceremony to the US Capitol, where it will lie in state until a national funeral on Thursday.

Carter, who died on December 29 at the age of 100, served a single term from 1977-1981 and was widely praised for his post-presidential humanitarian efforts, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Having been flown to Washington aboard a presidential US Air Force jet, his flag-draped casket was carried atop a gun carriage in a funeral procession from the US Navy Memorial – an ode to his military service on submarines – to Capitol Hill, tracing the opposite route he took during his inauguration parade.

Hundreds of US service members accompanied the procession down Pennsylvania Avenue, which was cleared of snow from a recent winter storm that has prompted federal office and school closures in the area.

Military pallbearers then carried his casket up to the Capitol Rotunda where a short service was held, with Carter's family, members of Congress and other dignitaries including Chief Justice John Roberts and Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance.

Carter is the 13th former US president to lie in state in the Capitol. Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, was the first.

A state funeral service is to be held Thursday at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in Washington that also hosted funerals for former presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George HW Bush.

Current President Joe Biden is to deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat. Biden has declared Thursday a national day of mourning, with federal government offices to be closed for the day. (Agencies)