Mystery of the unbreached burial chamber Inside the little-known Dahshur pyramid in Egypt

The enduring mysteries of ancient Egypt keep fascinating archaeologists, historians, and the public alike. The Land of the Pharaohs refuses to give up its secrets, and despite countless magnificent archaeological finds, we tend to encounter riddles all over Egypt. Buried beneath the sands lie the tremendous treasure of one of the most powerful ancient civilizations of all time, the ancient Egyptians.

Sometimes archaeologists arrive too late at the site, leaving us with ancient mysteries that may never be solved. That is the beauty but tragedy of ancient Egyptian history. Magnificent ancient tombs have long been looted, and we may never know to whom the burial places belonged.

Located about 15 miles south of Cario, the Dahshur complex is famous for its incredible structures constructed during the era of the Old Kingdom. Dahshur there a series of pyramids, mortuary temples, and other buildings that still remain unexplored.

Archaeologists have long argued that sites such as Dahshur, along with Giza, Lisht, Meidum, and Saqqara are significant as archaeological findings made there “would confirm or adjust the entire time frame of the extraordinary developmental phase of Egyptian civilization that saw the biggest pyramids built, the nomes (administrative districts) organized, and the hinterlands internally colonized – that is, the first consolidation of the Egyptian nation state.”

In addition to this information, the results of such excavation projects would naturally also fill in the historical gaps and provide a more comprehensive picture of the life and deaths of pharaohs and ordinary people in ancient Egypt.

Many ancient Egyptian pyramids have been destroyed, but several are hidden beneath the sands awaiting scientific exploration. One such intriguing ancient structure is the newly-discovered pyramid in Dahshur, a previously inaccessible site relatively unknown to the public.

Dahshur is an ancient necropolis known mainly for several pyramids, two of which are among the oldest, largest, and best-preserved in Egypt, built from 2613–2589 BC. Two of the Dahshur Pyramids, the Bent Pyramid, and the Red Pyramid, were constructed during the reign of Pharaoh Sneferu (2613-2589 BC).

The Bent Pyramid was the first attempt at a smooth-sided pyramid, but it was not a successful achievement, and Sneferu decided to build another called the Red Pyramid. Several other pyramids of the 13th Dynasty were built at Dahshur, but many are covered by sand, almost impossible to detect.

In 2017, Dr Chris Naunton, President of the International Association of Egyptologists, traveled to Dahshur together with the crew of the Smithsonian Channel and documented the exciting findings of one particular pyramid.

What the team discovered is a bit like an ancient detective story. Local archaeologists had found heavy blocks of finely cut limestone buried deep in the sand. Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquity was informed about the discovery, and archaeologists were sent to the site to excavate.

Having worked long and hard, archaeologists finally uncovered a previously unknown pyramid. Still, the most exciting part was the discovery of a secret passage that led from the pyramid’s entrance to an underground complex at the very heart of the pyramid. The chamber was protected by heavy and huge limestone blocks ensuring no one could pass easily and explore whatever was hidden inside the mysterious ancient pyramid.

The obstacles did not discourage archeologists successfully after some days of work managed to enter the interior of the pyramid. Everything seemed to indicate the unknown pyramid at Dahshur contained ancient treasures and most likely a mummy.

When scientists found themselves inside the burial chamber they were astounded to see someone had visited this ancient place long before them. The Dahshur pyramid had been robbed about 4,000 years ago. Looting of pyramids in the past was quite common, and the Dahshur pyramid was one of many victims of robbery.

One can understand Dr. Naunton’s disappointment when he glanced into the empty burial chamber, but the fact remains this discovery is intriguing and raises specific questions.

“There are two questions here that we need to start trying to answer. One is who was buried here? Who was this pyramid built for? And then secondly, how is it that an apparently completely sealed, unbreached burial chamber comes to have been disturbed?” Dr. Nauton says.

Was a mummy stolen from the Dahshur pyramid? How did looters get past the untouched seal? Did the original ancient builders plunder the burial chamber before they sealed it? These are some of the many questions this ancient Egyptian mystery pose.

Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II’s ‘handsome’ face revealed in striking reconstruction

The face of the ancient Egyptian ruler Ramesses II — possibly the pharaoh of the biblical Book of Exodus who persecuted Moses and the Israelites — has been reconstructed from his mummified remains. And although the pharaoh died in his 90s, his visage has been “reverse aged” by several decades to show him in his prime, at about age 45. 

“We carried a three-dimensional age regression process to remove some of the signs of ageing in order to depict him in his middle-age, at the peak of his power,” Caroline Wilkinson, director of the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, told Live Science in an email. 

The result is a portrait of the pharaoh Ramesses II described as “handsome” by Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at Cairo University in Egypt and the leader of the project.

“King Ramesses II was a great warrior who ruled Egypt for 66 years,” Saleem told the radiology magazine AuntMinnieEurope.com. (An “Aunt Minnie” is a radiological term for an unquestionable diagnosis “Bringing Ramesses’ face to life in his old age and as a young man reminds the world of his legendary status,” she said.

Mummy scan

The mummy of Ramesses II is now in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo. It was discovered in 1881 near Luxor in southern Egypt, and at some point after that, it was partially unwrapped to show the pharaoh’s mummified features.

For the latest facial reconstruction, Saleem made a three-dimensional virtual model of the pharaoh’s head and skull from new CT scan data — effectively, thousands of X-rays assembled into a 3D image — which Wilkinson then used to reconstruct his face with computer software used in criminal investigations. 

Next, Wilkinson used computer-generated imagery (CGI) techniques to add skin, eye and hair textures, based on what Saleem reported would have been common among Egyptians at the time — which showed what the pharaoh may have looked like when he died — and finally used the age regression software to show how he had likely appeared decades earlier. “The age regression was challenging, as this was in 3D,” she said.

Wilkinson explained that the field of estimating the face of someone from their skull is dominated by two approaches: “facial approximation,” which uses average data, templates and biological profiles to produce an “average” face, which might result from several different skulls; and “facial reconstruction,” a more detailed attempt to determine what a particular person looked like, based on anatomical standards, measurements and morphological analysis. A related term is “facial depiction,” which adds colors and textures, she said. 

In this case, the team used the more detailed approach. “The face of Rameses II was produced using 3D facial reconstruction and then a 3D facial depiction process,” Wilkinson said.

Famous pharaoh

The pharaoh who is said to have persecuted Moses and the Israelites in the story of Exodus is never named in the Bible, but several historians think his depiction most closely resembles Ramesses II, who was a celebrated ruler at a height of Egyptian power in the 13th century B.C.

As a result, Ramesses II — also called Ramses II or Ramesses the Great — has often been depicted in literary and film adaptations of Exodus, including in the 1956 movie “The Ten Commandments.”

However, American historians Megan Bishop Moore and Brad Kelle wrote in “Biblical History and Israel’s Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History” (Eerdmans, 2011) that no archaeological evidence has been found to support the idea that the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, nor for any of the other events described in Exodus, including the destruction of the pharaoh’s army as it pursued the Israelites across the Red Sea.

Historical records attest that Ramesses II was born in about 1303 B.C. into the family of the pharaoh Seti I and that he became pharaoh when his father died in about 1279 B.C.

During his reign, Ramesses II expanded the Egyptian empire as far north as modern-day Syria and built many monumental structures, including the expansion of the Karnak Temple. He died in about 1213 B.C. 

Ramesses II also influenced later culture: he was the inspiration for the 1818 poem “Ozymandias” by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who had seen a huge broken statue of Ramesses II — known as Ozymandias in Greek — in the British Museum in London, leading him to pen the words “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Fragments of Crocodile Skulls Found in Ancient Egyptian Tombs

Polish archaeologists working in the North Asasif necropolis (West Thebes) near the Temple of Hatshepsut discovered 9 crocodile heads deposited in two elite tombs.

“This is a unique discovery, because until now no graves containing crocodiles were known in Egypt. Mummies of these dangerous reptiles have so far been discovered in temples,” Dr. Patryk Chudzik, head of the research project from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw told PAP. 

The finds come from two tombs: of Cheti, one of the most important officials during the reign of pharaoh Mentuhotep II (reign: 2055-2002 BC), and in another anonymous tomb, probably of a vizier at the court of the same ruler.

Egyptologists compare the position to today’s prime minister. The tombs are located in the North Asasif necropolis near the Temple of Hatshepsut. They have been the target of research by Polish archaeologists since 2013.

The archaeologist emphasised that the crocodile heads discovered by his team had not been mummified, only wrapped in a fabric. They had not been subjected to any additional treatment.

He said: “Our discoveries show that the remains of crocodiles were part of funerary equipment, and therefore had a magical meaning.”

He added that they were supposed to assist the deceased on his journey in the afterlife.

Crocodiles lived in Egypt until around the middle of the 20th century, when the Great Aswan Dam was built in the south of the country. In ancient Egypt they were worshipped and feared, because they liked to bask on the sandy banks of the Nile. They also preyed on victims in the Nile canals.

The ancient Egyptian deity Sobek was depicted as a crocodile or a man with a crocodile head. He gained a high rank in the pantheon thanks to Egyptian syncretism. He was sometimes called Sobek-Ra, which made him a solar deity. Ra was one of the most important Egyptian gods.

Referring to the ancient spells recorded in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts – a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells from the times of the Old and Middle Kingdom, Dr. Chudzik said: “The soul of the deceased whose tomb contained crocodile heads was protected by Sobek and the fusion form Sobek-Ra. It could take the form of a god, and thus take over his powers, which also protected her from the dangers of the afterlife.”

Chudzik’s team found crocodile skulls not in tombs, but in heaps left by their first explorer, Herbert Winlock from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the US, who worked there 100 years ago.

Researchers at the time paid little attention to animal remains. They focused on acquiring artefacts they considered valuable: jewellery, sculptures and everyday objects. The rest, like in this case, would end up on a heap.

According to Dr. Chudzik, the practice of placing crocodile heads in ancient Egyptian tombs certainly was no exception. Earlier researchers simply got rid of such finds, unattractive from the antiquarian point of view.

Chudzik believes that crocodile heads were placed in at least some of the richest tombs, but it was not a rule. This is confirmed by the latest discoveries in the North Asasif necropolis, where more remains of these Nile reptiles were found in a third tomb.

The skulls from the tombs studied by Polish archaeologists belonged to young and adult individuals. Their average length was from 2 to 3-4 m. Only fragments of skulls and mandibles have survived so experts are unable to say how the decapitation was done.

Discovery of 60 mummies in Egyptian city of Luxor points to elaborate burial ground

A team of Spanish archaeologists have discovered tombs housing around 60 mummies in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, according to Spanish press reports.

The Spanish news agency Efe posted a video on YouTube, describing how the Spanish archaeological mission known as the Vizier Amenhotep Huy Project discovered the tombs late last year in the southern Egyptian city.

The mission was led by Francisco Martin-Valentin, director of the Madrid-based Institute of Ancient Egyptian Studies, and the institute’s co-director Teresa Bedman.

The Institute of Ancient Egyptian Studies also posted a corresponding article on Twitter from Efe.

#ENTREVISTASIEAE🎙

Compartimos con vosotros una interesante entrevista realizada a nuestros directores, el Dr. Francisco Martín-Valentín y Teresa Bedman, en donde hablaron sobre el «Proyecto Visir Amen-Hotep Huy».

✅Puedes leerla aquí: https://t.co/4z9hkaXuGd

— FUNDACIÓN I.E.A.E. (@IEAEAntiguoEgip) December 29, 2022

Martin-Valentin says that the two tombs were built after the 18th dynasty (1550-1292 BC) and are linked to Amenhotep-Huy who served as vizier (high-ranking official) under pharaoh Amenhotep III.

Two chambers connect the newly discovered tombs to the vizier’s tomb, a chapel comprising 30 columns.

Martin-Valentin tells The Art Newspaper: “In the excavations of two secondary tombs existing in the courtyard of the main tomb of the Vizier Amen-Hotep Huy (Asasif nº -28) have been found stripped mummies—more or less complete—and parts of mummies, which testify after the examination of our anthropologists to belong to about 60 individuals, originally buried in these tombs.”

Martin-Valentin adds that the new findings are “evidence that the vizier’s tomb at some point became a necropolis”. He tells us: “From the archaeological context we can affirm that the individuals found, belong to family groups of, or linked to, the medium-high clergy of Amun of Karnak.”

Items from the vizier’s tomb, including a sarcophagus adorned with the god Amun, are currently on display in an exhibition at the Luxor Museum.

Martin-Valentin says that the archaeological mission will resume at the end of September, when the vizier’s chapel will be restored with the reconstruction of six columns.

U.S. Museum Repatriates Sarcophagus to Egypt

An ancient wooden sarcophagus that was displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science has been returned to Egypt after US authorities determined it was looted years ago.

The repatriation was part of Egyptian government efforts to stop the trafficking of its stolen antiquities. In 2021, authorities in Cairo succeeded in getting 5,300 stolen artefacts returned to Egypt from across the world.

Mostafa Waziri, the top official at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the sarcophagus dates back to the late dynastic period of ancient Egypt, an era that spanned the last of the Pharaonic rulers from 664BC until Alexander the Great’s campaign in 332BC.

The sarcophagus, almost 3 metres (9.5 ft) tall with a brightly painted top surface, may have belonged to an ancient priest named Ankhenmaat, though some of the inscription on it has been erased, Waziri said.

It was symbolically handed over at a ceremony on Monday in Cairo by Daniel Rubinstein, the US chargé d’affaires in Egypt.

The handover came more than three months after the Manhattan district attorney’s office determined the sarcophagus was looted from Abu Sir Necropolis, north of Cairo.

It was smuggled through Germany into the US in 2008, according to Manhattan district attorney Alvin L Bragg.

“This stunning coffin was trafficked by a well-organised network that has looted countless antiquities from the region,” Bragg said at the time. “We are pleased that this object will be returned to Egypt, where it rightfully belongs.”

Bragg said the same network had smuggled a gilded coffin out of Egypt that was featured at New York’s Metropolitan Museum.

The Met bought the piece from a Paris art dealer in 2017 for about $4m (£3.35). It was returned to Egypt in 2019.

Researchers identify bird species depicted in ancient, finely detailed Egyptian painting

A masterpiece of ancient Egyptian art found in a palace is so finely detailed that researchers have been able to pinpoint the bird species it depicts. These images of the natural world likely created a space for relaxation and recreation in the palace.

The artwork was discovered at Amarna, the location of the capital city of Pharaoh Akhenaten (1347–1332 BC). Excavations in 1924 uncovered a palace belonging to Meritaten, daughter of the pharaoh and Nefertiti, with several lavishly decorated rooms.

One of these, the so-called Green Room, has a rare depiction of birds in a wild papyrus marsh with no signs of human activity.

“They have since come to be regarded as masterpieces of ancient Egyptian art,” said Dr. Christopher Stimpson and Professor Barry Kemp, “Featured in these paintings are some of the most skilfully rendered and naturalistic images of birds known from Dynastic Egypt.”

Despite the quality of these images, they have received relatively little attention. As such, not all the bird species in the art had been identified in the nearly 100 years since it was found.

“The art of the Green Room has not received as much attention as you would perhaps expect. This may have been because the original plaster panels did not survive well,” said Dr. Stimpson, an honorary associate of Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Attempts at conserving the painting in 1926 accidentally damaged and discolored the artwork.

So Dr. Stimpson and Professor Kemp set out to identify the birds of the Green Room.

The pair consulted modern ornithological data and a high-quality copy of the artwork made in 1924 by Nina de Garis Davies to identify the birds. Their work is published in Antiquity.

The researchers were ultimately able to identify several species, including shrikes and wagtails. These join the kingfishers and pigeons identified by previous work.

They also found that the artists may have included hints for ancient birdwatchers: Migrant birds are annotated with a triangle, perhaps indicating a seasonal element in the art.

The artwork also may show an ancient Egyptian pigeon problem. Rock pigeons are depicted but are not native to the papyrus marshes, instead being associated with nearby desert cliffs.

Perhaps, like in modern cities, pigeons were attracted to the area by human activity.

While the researchers cannot rule this out, they think the artists instead may have included these birds to make the scene seem wilder and untamed—an atmosphere the realistic artwork appears designed to create.

The team suggests these images of the natural world have made the Green Room a relaxing place.

“No one knows for sure, although the Green Room was most likely a place of rest and relaxation. Illustrations in rock tombs at Amarna possibly show similar settings where women relax, socialize and play music,” said Dr. Stimpson, “In the Green Room, the atmosphere was likely enhanced by the visions of nature.

The calming effects of the natural world were as important then, as they are (more than ever) today.”

Additional Mummies Uncovered Near Vizier’s Tomb in Luxor

A group of Egyptologists from Spain have discovered two tombs that housed almost 60 mummies at site in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor.

“The most important thing this year is the discovery of two tombs, almost six meters deep,” made up of “two chambers each and housing around 60 mummies and remains of mummies,” Francisco J. Martin, the president of the Vizier Amenhotep Huy Project, told Efe.

Martín, who leads a team of 22 Spanish Egyptologists and eight Egyptian experts, said the tombs were dated after Vizier Amenhotep-Huy’s tomb (18th dynasty).

The site is a rich example of the architectural style and “evidence that the vizier’s tomb at some point became a necropolis,” the expert added.

The two secondary tombs are connected via two burial chambers and are characterized by a lack of epigraphs that were found in Vizier Amenhotep Huy’s tomb, which is a chapel that contains 30 columns with epigraphs, according to Martín.

“They began to build other tombs from different dynasties within the vizier’s tomb, since the place was sacred,” Martín continued from the mission’s headquarters in the southern city of Luxor. “It is a very rich site and we are discovering many things.”

Amenhotep Huy was vizier to pharaoh Amenhotep III during the last third of his reign.

He was originally from northern Egypt and was considered the “opposition leader” amid new religious trends promoted by Akhenaten, the Pharaoh’s son and heir.

“He is a very important person,” Martín added.

Teresa Bedman, co-director of the project, told Efe that, so far, all mummies buried in the area “were senior officials of the clergy of Amun of Thebes.”

Because the bodies were mummified, experts can be sure they belonged to “higher social classes,” according to Bedman.

Once the vizier died and was martyred, his burial site became a prestigious one where many others wanted to be buried: “a necropolis inside the vizier’s tomb,” Bedman added.

The Spanish mission has launched an exhibition of the contents of the vizier’s necropolis with the Luxor museum which will continue into 2023.

A vast tunnel found beneath an ancient Egyptian temple

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a vast tunnel beneath a temple in the ancient city of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria. 

The 4,281-foot-long (1,305 meters) tunnel, which brought water to thousands of people in its heyday, was discovered by an Egyptian-Dominican Republic archaeological team, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement.

Ancient Egyptian builders constructed the  6.6-foot-high (2 m) tunnel at a depth of about 65 feet (20 m) beneath the ground, Kathleen Martínez, a Dominican archaeologist and director of the team that discovered the tunnel, told Live Science in an email. “

It is an exact replica of the Eupalinos Tunnel in Greece, which is considered one of the most important engineering achievements of antiquity,” Martinez said.

The Eupalinos tunnel, in Samos, a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, also carried water.

The archaeology of the Taposiris Magna temple is complex. Parts of it are submerged under water and the temple has been hit by numerous earthquakes over the history of its existence, causing extensive damage. The tunnel at Taposiris Magna dates to the Ptolemaic period (304 B.C. to  30 B.C.), a time when Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of kings descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals. 

Finds within the tunnel included two alabaster heads: one of which likely depicts a king, and the other represents another high-ranking person, Martinez said.

Their exact identities are unknown. Coins and the remains of statues of Egyptian deities were also found in the tunnel, Martinez said. 

At the time the tunnel was built, Taposiris Magna had a population of between 15,000 and 20,000 people, Martinez said.

The tunnel was built beneath a temple that honored Osiris, an ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, and Isis, an Egyptian goddess who was Osiris’s wife. 

Previous work in the temple uncovered a hoard of coins minted with the face of Cleopatra VII. Excavations at Taposiris Magna and analysis of artifacts from the site are ongoing.