Researchers Find First Royal Tombs in 100 Years

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Last week, a long-lost tomb belonging to King Thutmose II, the last undiscovered royal burial of Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, was discovered by researchers, marking the first find of its kind since King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. A short while later, another potential tomb, thought to house Thutmose II’s mummy, was also unearthed.

A British-Egyptian team, under the guidance of Piers Litherland, unearthed their first discovery a few kilometers west of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, nestled within the Theban mountains of Luxor. Initially, it was assumed that this tomb belonged to Queen Hatshepsut, a renowned female pharaoh known for her greatness and success. However, upon closer examination, the painted blue ceiling adorned with yellow stars indicated that it actually belonged to a king, and an alabaster vessel bearing his name as the “deceased” further confirmed this revelation.

Beneath a cascading waterfall, the tomb was constructed, and it required several months to remove the accumulated flood debris. After several months of digging, the team discovered that most of its contents had been moved to another location around six years following the pharaoh’s death in 1479 BC. Although the funerary items were found in less than ideal condition, Mohamed Ismail Khaled, the secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, deemed it “one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in recent years.” Archaeologists are currently manually excavating the second tomb, as initial attempts into the tunnel were considered too risky.

It was quite unexpected for several reasons that a mummy, allegedly of Pharaoh Thutmose II, is now being exhibited at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Yet, some Egyptologists have voiced doubts about the identification of the body, claiming that the 30-year-old’s remains found in Deir el-Bahari are too old to be consistent with the pharaoh. Litherland and his team now suspect that a second tomb could house the real mummy of the king.

As time went on, Litherland mused: “You often imagine scenarios like this. Yet, just as with winning the lottery, it’s hard to truly believe it could ever be your reality.

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2025-02-24 23:56