An Egyptian-British team has found the tomb of an ancient pharaoh near the Valley of the Kings. This discovery marks the first pharaoh’s tomb found since 1922, when King Tutankhamun’s tomb was uncovered, reported The Washington Post.
The tomb belongs to King Thutmose II, who ruled nearly 3,500 years ago.
“It was through sifting through tonnes of limestone in the chamber that they found fragments of alabaster jars, which bore the inscriptions of the names of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut,” reported BBC.
Around 500 years after Thutmose II‘s burial, ancient Egyptian officials realized his tomb had been damaged by flooding and gained attraction of tomb robbers. In response, they moved the mummies and valuable belongings kept within the burial sites to a secret location, per The Independent.
Though King Thutmose II’s mummy was discovered two centuries ago, his burial site remained unknown. Findings show his tomb was built under a waterfall, according to BBC.
The tomb was discovered in an area linked to the burial sites of royal women. Upon entering the chamber, Egyptologists found walls painted blue with yellow stars, a decoration only found in the burial sites of kings, according to Dr. Piers Litherland, the field director of the mission.
“The emotion of getting into these things is just one of extraordinary bewilderment because when you come across something you’re not expecting to find, it’s emotionally extremely turbulent really,” Litherland told BBC. “And when I came out, my wife was waiting outside and the only thing I could do was burst into tears.”
Dr. Litherland and his team have excavated 54 tombs near Luxor and uncovered the identities of more than 30 royal wives and court women prior to the unearthing of Thutmose II’s tomb.
The entrance to the burial site was uncovered in 2022 west of the city of Luxor, a city built on the ancient city of Thebes. Most pharaoh’s tombs were discovered in the 19th century, according to The Washington Post.
“King Thutmose II’s tomb was the last undiscovered royal tomb of the 18th Egyptian dynasty.” said BBC.
Who is King Thutmose II?
Thutmose II was an ancestor of Tutankhamun and was the fourth ruler of “the ancient Egyptian 18th dynasty,” per the Independent.
He died around the age of 30 and ruled for half a decade, according to The Washington Post.
Thutmose II did not have the most memorable rein and is best remembered by being the husband and half-brother of Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled after his death for 15 years. Queen Hatshepsut is “regarded as one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs and one of the few female pharaohs who ruled in her own right.” reported BBC.
Hatshepsut is known for her artistic, architectural and economic achievements, The Washington Post reported. Her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri remains a lasting wonder in the architectural world.
“In the reign of Thutmosis III, all mentions of her name were erased and all representations of her female figure were replaced by images of a male king, her deceased husband Thutmosis II,” Egypt’s antiquities ministry said in a press release, the article said.
The mummy of King Thutmose II and Queen Hatshepsut are kept and on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.