The mystery of ‘The Screaming Mummy’ is finally revealed, and it’s chilling

He’s back. Prince Pentawere, a man who tried (probably successfully) to murder his own father, Pharaoh Ramesses III, and later took his own life after he was put on trial, is now on public display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Pentawere’s mummy, popularly known as the “screaming mummy,” was not properly mummified. No embalming fluid was used, and his body was allowed to naturally mummify, with his mouth agape and his facial muscles strained in order to make it appear as if the mummy were screaming.

Whether he died screaming or whether he was made to look like that after death is unclear.

Those burying him then wrapped his body in sheepskin, a material the ancient Egyptians considered to be ritually impure.

Eventually, someone placed Pentawere’s mummy in a cache of other mummies in a tomb at Deir el-Bahari.

The prince can take solace in the fact that his assassination attempt appears to have been successful. In 2012, a team of scientists studying the mummy of Ramesses III (reign 1184-1155 B.C.) found that Ramesses III died after his throat was slashed, likely in the assassination attempt that Pentawere helped to orchestrate.

The scientists also performed genetic analysis, which confirmed that the “screaming mummy” was a son of Ramesses III. And, based on the mummy’s unusual burial treatment, the researchers confirmed that it is likely Pentawere’s mummy. 

To kill a pharaoh

The Judicial Papyrus of Turin, as modern-day scholars call it, is a manuscript that documents the trials that occurred after Pentawere’s apparently successful attempt at killing his father in 1155 B.C.

A group of butlers who remained loyal to Ramesses III — and his successor, Ramesses IV — oversaw the trial of a vast number of people who had allegedly aided Pentawere, condemning them to death or mutilation.

These conspirators included military and civil officials, women in the royal harem (where the murder of Ramesses III may have happened), and a number of men who were in charge of the royal harem.

Prince Pentawere was allegedly assisted by his mother, a woman named Tiye (no relation to King Tutankhamun), who was one of Ramesses III’s wives.

The judicial papyrus says that Prince Pentawere “was brought in because he had been in collusion with Tiye, his mother, when she had plotted the matters with the women of the harem” (translation by A. de Buck).

Pentawere “was placed before the butlers in order to be examined; they found him guilty; they left him where he was; he took his own life,” the papyrus says.

How exactly Pentawere killed himself is a matter of debate among scholars, with poisoning and hanging (or a combination of the two) generally regarded as being the most likely methods.

While the dead Pharaoh Ramesses III was initially buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, his mummy was moved after the robbery of his tomb. Interestingly, his mummy was dumped in the same mummy cache at Deir el-Bahari as Pentawere’s.

The mummies of the murdered father and his killer son rested together until the family of a man named Abd el-Rassul found the cache in the 19th century.

The screaming mummy is only being displayed temporarily. The display of the mummy has received widespread media attention and it is not clear how long it will be displayed.

43 million year old fossil of previously unknown four legged whale found in Egypt

Scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered the 43 million-year-old fossil of a previously unknown amphibious four-legged whale species in Egypt that helps trace the transition of whales from land to sea.

The newly discovered whale belongs to the Protocetidae, a group of extinct whales that falls in the middle of that transition, the Egyptian-led team of researchers said in a statement.

Its fossil was unearthed from middle Eocene rocks in the Fayum Depression in Egypt’s the Western Desert — an area once covered by the sea that has provided a rich seam of discoveries showing the evolution of whales — before being studied at Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre (MUVP).

The new whale, named Phiomicetus Anubis, had an estimated body length of some three meters (10 feet) and a body mass of about 600 kg (1,300 lb), and was likely a top predator, the researchers said. Its partial skeleton revealed it as the most primitive protocetid whale known from Africa.

“Phiomicetus Anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African palaeontology,” said Abdullah Gohar of MUVP, lead author of a paper on the discovery published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The whale’s genus name honours the Fayum Depression and the species name refers to Anubis, the ancient canine-headed Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife.

Despite recent fossil discoveries, the big picture of early whale evolution in Africa has largely remained a mystery, the researchers said.

Work in the region had the potential to reveal new details about the evolutionary transition from amphibious to fully aquatic whales.

With rocks covering about 12 million years, discoveries in the Fayum Depression “range from semiaquatic crocodile-like whales to giant fully aquatic whales”, said Mohamed Sameh of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, a co-author.

The new whale has raised questions about ancient ecosystems and pointed research towards questions such as the origin and coexistence of ancient whales in Egypt, said Hesham Sellam, founder of the MUVP and another co-author.

Egypt’s secrets revealed: Possibly a second Sphinx & mysterious hidden chambers??

According to Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa’s 2007 study, there was a “second sphinx” on the Pyramids Plateau. El Shammaa said the famous half-lion, the half-man statue was an Egyptian deity constructed close to another Sphinx that has since been vanished without a trace.

Today, our attention is focused on the most recent attempt to discover the true ancient story of an advanced civilization that left us with great wonders above and below the Giza plateau sands.

Ancient lost city unearthed in Egypt

The earliest reports of a “Secret City” appeared in the World Press in the first week of March 1935. Many more were discovered in July of that year, and the Sunday Express carried an article by Edward Armytage, who had just returned from Egypt to England, where he had witnessed the excavation of an ancient Egyptian metropolis thought to date back 4,000 years.

Following then, there was stillness, as if every Egyptologist alive had lost interest in this fantastic underground metropolis. Throughout the years that followed, all of his articles focused on tombs of queens and arrows. Surprisingly, at one point, such a massive find of an entire underground metropolis dating back at least 4,000 years was completely ignored.

Denial of previous findings

However, he retains his power – and it is not a little one. Much has been written about the Egyptian ‘Indiana Jones’ (Zahi Hawass), who smiles large one moment and goes crimson with rage the next when he is questioned. This aspect of his personality is widely chronicled in the book “Breaking the Mirror of Heaven” by Robert Bauval and Ahmed Osman.

However, such attitude does not explain why Zahi Hawass has publicly said that there is nothing beneath the Sphinx, no tunnel, or a single chamber, despite several photographs of him entering the lowering pits of the Sphinx’s head and another in the rear of the body the lion. Should we ignore what we’ve seen several times before and accept such denials without question?

Statements contradict photographic evidence

He appears to have ignored queries concerning underground tunnels underneath the Giza plateau and chambers beneath the Sphinx, claiming that it was impossible to investigate deeper since the rooms were either sealed or filled with water. This might be true, however, we can see in one of the images of a posterior axis descending on the Sphinx’s side that the ground is extremely dry.

We know that Hawass climbed the steps from the Sphinx’s rear entrance, into a deep room, and then farther down to a lower chamber containing a very big sarcophagus and filled with water; these events are all seen in a documentary made by Fox. It’s difficult to conceive how he could subsequently refute what he’d said and done.

A hole in the Sphinx’s head

Vivant Denon made a sketch of the Sphinx in 1798, although he didn’t replicate it perfectly. He must have known there was a hole in the top of his head since he had sketched the image of a guy being dragged out.

A drawing is hardly evidence, but an aerial shot of the sphinx taken from a hot air balloon in the 1920s revealed that there is such an opening at the top of its head.

The Sphinx’s head puzzle

According to Tony Bushby in his ” The Secret in The Bible”, a fragmented Sumerian cylinder tells a story that could easily be interpreted as having taken place in Giza, involving a beast that had a lion’s head with a tunnel entrance hidden by the sand.

A new study now points out that the Sphinx’s body was carved from natural stone when there was frequent heavy rain and this takes us back to the same time that Robert Bauval and Robert Schoch calculated the construction of the Pyramids of the ‘Belt of Orion’, ie, about 10,450 BC.

The second Sphinx

The Giza complex (the ancient Egyptian term Gisa meaning “Stone Hewn”) has been sketched since 1665, and some depict two heads ‘peering’ out of the sand, one with female characters, possibly the second Sphinx.

It was an ancient Egyptian custom to enlist two lions, known as Akerw, outside their doorways for heavenly protection, which would take us the right to a mystery mound near the sphinx, which Gerry Cannon (Book: The Giza Plateau Secrets and a Second Sphinx Revealed) identified and measured. Is it possible that this mound contains the buried body of a second sphinx?

One would have thought that this mysterious, large, covered shape so close to the sphinx would have been greeted with great enthusiasm by the Egyptian authorities, but Hawass and Mark Lehner didn’t want to hear or pay attention to it, according to one source.

Gerry had contacted someone at a renowned institute in Cairo who had equipment that could detect objects under the sand. This person asked the Supreme Council of Antiquities for permission to investigate the mound, but they did not respond. Apparently, no one else was allowed to investigate the specific area of the mound where we believe a Second Sphinx could be unearthed. No doubt they had a reason for this!

Why the denial?

Why would those two Egyptologists be so concerned about the possibility of discovering something that had been lost for centuries? Is it conceivable they don’t want to expose what’s behind that mound? It is illogical to oppose any type of probe or even a simple aerial image being taken, which may lead to the discovery of yet another great wonder of the world, attracting many thousands of more tourists to Egypt.

They don’t even admit to have inspected the mystery mound, and if they had, they would have been the first to admit it. Zahi Hawass appears to have an agenda, which is to maintain the conventional view of ancient Egyptian history (to not allow anything to disrupt the path of conventional history), regardless of how many new findings contradict what is now considered to be true.

Gerry Cannon has previously hinted at a timetable for constructing the three great pyramids, as well as the Sphinx, which is many thousands of years older than most of us assume. He also identified an undiscovered mound on the Giza plateau, where another sphinx is most likely hidden, based on ancient documents and data he presented.

The mysterious Egyptian tablet that is similar to an aircraft control panel

Some Egyptologists and theorists believe that this is a replica of a much earlier but far more advanced object used by Gods and Demi-Gods of Egypt.

After just a few seconds of staring at this mysterious object, we get the unmistakable feeling that it was an OOPArt artefact, which is when something literally does not belong to the time it is dated.

The enigmatic table from Ancient Egypt is about 49 cm in diameter and 13 cm in height, weighing as much as 75 kg and was meticulously moulded in alabaster, a material that only exists in this region and was frequently used for decorating of various sites, including sarcophagi.

But this incredible artefact is absolutely unlike anything that was produced in this ancient time (nothing similar has been found to this day), as it features circular openings and basically undecipherable reliefs that specialists and scholars cannot interpret even after years of study.

These characteristics that we can observe, make the object resemble a control table of a modern aeroplane.

Some Egyptologists and theorists assume that this is a copy of a much older object, made of different, less weather-resistant, but considerably more advanced materials used by Gods and Demigods – perhaps a reproduction of the extraterrestrial technology observed in the past by the ancients.

This artefact was acquired by the Dutch museum in 1828, which is very interesting information about it. However, it is unknown which temple, tomb, or even where it was discovered.

As with many ancient Egyptian items, its provenance (from where it was recovered) is frequently forgotten, but its authenticity can still be confirmed. At the moment, the artefact is in the Leiden Museum of Antiquities.

Its authenticity was validated by specialists in the area after many investigations and assessments.

The strange contraption was discovered over 4,500 years ago and instantly connected with Egypt’s fifth dynasty of pharaohs.

Only a small portion of its possible history can be deduced from the hieroglyphics found on its surface.

This tablet, according to one interpretation (there are others, all quite different), was used for the libation of deceased members of the highest Egyptian hierarchy in order for them to successfully enter the underworld.

Regardless of what the object is, its resemblance to modern equipment continues to perplex even the most sceptics and experts who have been unable to come up with a solid explanation for the find.

Egypt pharaoh’s ‘solar boat’ moved to Giza museum

King Khufu’s Boat, an ancient vessel that is the oldest and largest wooden boat discovered in Egypt, has been painstakingly moved from its longstanding home next to the Giza pyramids to a nearby giant museum, officials said on Saturday.

The 4,600-year-old vessel, also known as the Solar Boat, was moved to the nearby Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), due to be inaugurated later this year.

“The aim of the transportation project is to protect and preserve the biggest and oldest organic artefact made of wood in the history of humanity for the future generations,” the tourism and antiquities ministry said in a statement.

It took 48 hours to transport the cedarwood boat, which is 42 metres (138 feet) long and weighs 20 tons, to its new home. It arrived at the GEM in the early hours of Saturday, the ministry said.

The boat was transported as a single piece inside a metal cage carried on a remote-controlled vehicle imported especially for the operation, said Atef Moftah, supervisor general of the GEM project.

The vessel, discovered in 1954 at the southern corner of the Great Pyramid, has been exhibited for decades at a museum bearing its name at Giza Plateau.

Egypt says the Grand Egyptian Museum, which has been under construction intermittently for 17 years, will contain more than 100,000 artefacts when it opens.

Robotic Arms, Solar Winds

The solar boat is not only the oldest but also the largest wooden boat ever discovered in ancient Egypt. 

Measuring 42 meters (138 feet) in length, this 20-ton vessel was carved from cedarwood. One of the major concerns for Egyptian authorities, somewhat ironically, was figuring out how to move the ancient vessel.  

The Egyptian ministry explained in their press release that the primary goal of the transportation project was to “protect and preserve the biggest and oldest organic artefact made of wood in the history of humanity for the future generations.” 

It was eventually moved to its new home in  Cairo within a secure metal cage, “on a remote-controlled vehicle,” that was custom built for the job in Belgium.

According to the  BBC, the Egyptian ministry said the relocation operation began late Friday night and that it took “10 hours” to install the iconic ancient artwork in its new home.  

Nothing New Under The Sun?

The Kings of Ancient Egypt were buried within royal burial chambers, and solar boats such as this one were entombed with their ruler and were thought of as functioning, magically-powered devices that were essential for safely transporting that ruler’s soul in the afterlife. 

While Egyptian rituals were complex and multi-faceted, changing from one Kingdom to the next, the solar boat represented the fundamental concept that the King “was” the Sun’s actual divine consort on Earth. The cycle of the  Sun, therefore, was a highly visible manifestation of the power of the ruler, without which it was feared new plant, animal and human life couldn’t exist. 

While this example of a solar boat was commissioned by a Fourth Dynasty monarch who ruled during the Egyptian “Old Kingdom”, the concept of a “Sun vessel” is not unique to that culture. The idea of a “solar barge” or “Sun boat,” carrying the Sun across the sky appears in many polytheistic religions. 

And what is perhaps “coolest” about ancient solar boats is that, in a quirk of history which  Elon Musk  would love, they reflect the modern concept of electrically powered transportation, being powered by clean solar energy. 

A New Egyptian Vision

The Grand Egyptian Museum, where the boat is now permanently located alongside many of the ancient king’s artefacts, will be inaugurated later this year after over 17 years in construction.

Planned to contain more than 100,000 artefacts when completed, the GEM, which is located just outside of Cairo on the Giza Plateau, is being hailed as “the new crown jewel of  Egypt.”  

While the GEM might be a jewel in Egypt’s crown, it also represents the largest and most modern museum experience in the world. Thus, this splendid new structure will hold deep appeal and attract history lovers from all over the planet. When it opens it will, without doubt, become the next “ancient must-see,” and you can learn more about the journey of the GEM, from conception to near completion,  here. 

2,400-year-old fruit baskets from Thonis-Heracleion found off the coast of Egypt

Wicker baskets filled with fruit that have survived from the 4th century BC and hundreds of ancient ceramic artefacts and bronze treasures have been discovered in the submerged ruins of the near-legendary city of Thonis-Heracleion off the coast of Egypt.

They have lain untouched since the city disappeared beneath the waves in the second century BC, then sank further in the eighth century AD, following cataclysmic natural disasters, including an earthquake and tidal waves.

Thonis-Heracleion – the city’s Egyptian and Greek names – was for centuries Egypt’s largest port on the Mediterranean before Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331BC.

But the vast site in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria has been forgotten until its re-discovery by the French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio two decades ago, in one of the greatest archaeological finds of recent times.

Colossal statues were among treasures from an opulent civilisation frozen in time. Some of the discoveries were shown in a major exhibition at the British Museum in 2016.

Goddio has been taken aback by the latest discoveries. He told the Guardian that the fruit baskets were “incredible”, having been untouched for more than 2,000 years.

They were still filled with doum, the fruit of an African palm tree that was sacred for the ancient Egyptians, as well as grape-seeds.

“Nothing was disturbed,” he said. “It was very striking to see baskets of fruits.”

One explanation for their survival may be that they were placed within an underground room, Goddio said, noting a possible funerary connotation.

It is within an area where Goddio and his team of archaeologists have discovered a sizeable tumulus (a mound raised over graves) – about 60 metres long by 8 metres wide – and sumptuous Greek funerary offerings.

They date from the early fourth century BC when Greek merchants and mercenaries lived in Thonis-Heracleion. The city controlled the entrance to Egypt at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the Nile. The Greeks were allowed to settle there during the late Pharaonic period, constructing their own sanctuaries.

Goddio said of the tumulus: “It is a kind of island surrounded by channels. In those channels, we found an unbelievable amount of deposits made of bronze, including a lot of statuettes of Osiris.

“On that island, something totally different. We found hundreds of deposits made of ceramic. One above the other. These are imported ceramic, red on black figures from Attic.”

The finds are all the more intriguing because there were vast quantities of miniature ceramics – high-quality Ancient Greek examples, including amphorae– under the tumulus. Bronze artefacts were around the tumulus, including mirrors and statuettes.

Goddio also found extensive evidence of burning, suggesting a “spectacular” ceremony that led to people being barred from entering this site again. It appears to have been sealed for hundreds of years as none of the artefacts found was from later than the early fourth century, even though the city lived on for several hundred years.

“There’s something very strange here,” he said. “That site has been used maybe one time, never touched before, never touched after, for a reason that we cannot understand for the time being. It’s a big mystery.”

He hopes to find answers within some of the treasures, which include the well-preserved remains of a wooden sofa for banquets, a large Attic vase and a gold amulet of “exquisite quality”.

About 350 metres away, the archaeologists also found a unique Ptolemaic galley, 25 metres in length. While built in the classical tradition, with mortise-and-tenon joints, it also contains features of ancient Egyptian construction, with a flat-bottomed design that would have been perfect for navigation on the Nile and in the delta.

The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, led by Goddio, works in close cooperation with Egypt’s ministry of tourism and antiquities and with the support of the Hilti Foundation. The finds will be studied and preserved before being put on display in museums.

The potential for further discoveries is tantalising. Even after conducting repeated excavations over the past two decades, Goddio estimates that only about 3% of the area has been explored so far.

Egypt Reveals “History-Changing” Discovery of 3,000-Year Old Mummies, Temple and Book of the Dead at Saqqara

As early as January, Egypt has already announced the first major discovery of the year in the ancient treasure throve we know as the Saqqara necropolis.

We all remember October and November last year when more than 150 ancient coffins were discovered in the necropolis. This was the largest discovery of 2020 and in 2021, I believe Saqqara will once again top this archaeological list.

The focal point of this new wave of discoveries has to be the funerary temple of Queen Nearit. Although parts of the temple were already discovered years ago, this can be considered the official reveal as most of the territory has now been excavated.

Next, the archaeological team unearthed 52 burial shafts that contained more than 50 sarcophagi dating back to the New Kingdom of Egypt, approximately 1570 – 1069 BC.

This marks the first discovery of artefacts from 3000 BC or earlier on the territory of the Saqqara necropolis. In all previous cases, the coffins, sarcophagi, and all other precious artefacts were from around 500 BC.

Among the coffins and the temple, archaeologists found a plethora of other artefacts from the period of the New Kingdom including statues of deities, toys, ancient games, and many others.

Perhaps the most curious item, at least to me, is the 4-meter long papyrus discovered in one of the shafts. What makes it so special and rare is what is written on it. It represents Chapter 17 of the mythical ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, and unlike most cases, it also came with the owner’s name.

Reference: The Book of the Dead is a collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts and hymns. The ancient Egyptians placed copies of it in tombs because they believed that it would help the deceased find prosperity in the afterlife. Discovering parts of it in a tomb is an incredibly rare find.

According to Dr. Zahi Hawass, the legendary Egyptian archaeologist, these discoveries will rewrite the history of the New Kingdom and especially on life in the region of Saqqara.

Of course, excavations in Saqqara will undoubtedly continue for decades and we can expect countless other major discoveries.

For instance, Dr. Hawass also revealed the discovery of a one-of-a-kind mud-brick shrine that is yet to be excavated. Initial calculations revealed that it is at least 24 meters deep and there should be a burial chamber beneath it. We will surely hear more about it soon enough.

There is no doubt now that in the future, Saqqara will become a major tourist destination in Egypt, given the endless stream of discoveries that are being made. If only we could fast-forward ahead in time instead of waiting for the next big reveal.

In the middle of Egypt’s desert, there is a Valley of Whales which is millions of years old

There is an ancient Egyptian desert, once a vast ocean, that guards the secret of one of the most remarkable transformations in the evolution of life on planet Earth. Egypt is known as the land of Pyramids, Pharaohs, and golden sands. Countless jewels have been excavated from beneath Egypt’s sands, revealing a treasure trove of a time long gone. Archaeologists have discovered pyramids, temples, entire cities, and finds whose value is incalculable.

But there’s more to Egypt than the Sphinx, the Pharaohs, and its incredible pyramids, and there is more to this wonderful land than the Valley of Kings. Some 160 kilometres southwest of the Pyramids at the Giza plateau is a treasure trove of history. There aren’t any pyramids, temples, or mummies buried there, but it is a site of great importance. In fact, Wadi El Hitan was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

The reason? Hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whales, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales), lie buried beneath the desert sand.

The story of Wadi Al Hitan is worthy of the most impressive tales. Some 40 million years ago (give or take a few), massive beasts swam in the vast prehistoric Tethys ocean. It was home to numerous creatures that have long since been forgotten. One of these massive animals, over 50 feet long, had massive jaws and jagged teeth. It looked unlike anything living inside Earth’s oceans today. The creatures eventually died, sinking to the prehistoric ocean seafloor. Tens of thousands of years went by, and a fine protective mantle of sediment eventually built up over the beasts’ bones.

The prehistoric sea receded. The former seabed transformed into a vast desert as powerful winds armed with fine grains of sand began covering the surface little by little, eventually preserving the whales that would remain hidden for time to come. Eventually, it became another one of the many secrets hidden beneath the golden sands of Egypt. Time passed by, and the planet’s geology and geography warped. The planet’s crust smashed India into Asia, giving birth to the breathtaking Himalayas.

Humankind came into existence, and Africa saw the first humans stand straight, evolve, and eventually build a civilization that would forever become imprinted in history. The mighty Kings of Egypt build incredible mastabas, which evolved into massive pyramids. Egypt flourished and fell, and the land of Pharaohs was no more.

Then, more than one hundred years ago, massive fossils of long-gone beasts were revealed by the wind, which delicately preserved and revealed the fossils since time immemorial.

The site is so important that scientists argue the site reveals evidence for the history of one of the greatest mysteries in the evolution of whales: the species’ appearance as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. Today, the site is a desert covered with geological features that make it even more unique. But in the distant past, Wadi El Hitan was a massive ocean where whales swam, hunted, and reproduced.

As the site is dubbed, the Valley of the Whales is the most important site in the world to demonstrate the above-mentioned evolutionary process. The way of life of these mammals is accurately portrayed during their evolution.  The number, concentration, and quality of fossils are unique to Wadi El Hitan, a time capsule providing evidence of millions of years of coastal marine life and evolution. These remains show these animals losing their hind limbs, hydrodynamic bodies (like those of modern whales) while presenting primitive bone structure aspects. Other fossil materials found at the site allow reconstructing the environment and the ecological conditions of the time.

Wadi el Hitan portrays the form and way of life during the transition from land animals to ocean-going mammals.

Although the fossils discovered at the site may not be the oldest, their great density in the area and the quality of their preservation is to the degree that even some stomach contents have remained intact.

Thanks to the discovery of fossils of other early animals like sharks, crocodiles, sawfish, turtles, and rays, scientists have been able to reconstruct the environmental and ecological conditions of the site accurately.

The site and the first fossil skeletons of whales were discovered at the Valley of Whales in 1903. But for more than 80 years, the site was forgotten, mostly due to the difficulty of accessing the site.

However, in the late 1980s, as all-wheel-drive- vehicles become widely available, people started visiting and documenting the site. Eventually, the Valley of Whales would attract scholars, fossil collectors, and even tourists. People would go there and collect fossils without properly documenting or conserving the fossils. This led to the disappearance of many fossils from the site, prompting warnings for the site to be adequately conserved.

One of the most important discoveries at the site was the largest fossil discovered there, with 21 meters in length. The fossil showed clear traces of five-fingered flippers on its forelimbs and an unexpected existence of hind legs, feet, and toes, features that were precisely unknown in an archaeoceti. The site exceeds the values of different similar sites in terms of the number, concentration, quality of its fossils, and their accessibility, found in an attractive and protected landscape.

The site includes an impressive assemblage of fossilized skeletons of Archaeoceti (primitive whales documenting cetacean transition to marine life), sirenians. It also includes well-preserved fossils of reptiles and shark teeth that date back to around 40 million years ago. Scientists have identified the fossils of crocodiles, sea turtles, and the fossilized remains of sea snakes at the site. Many species of bony fish, sharks, and rays are represented at the site, but the largest number of fossils are isolated small teeth, which are often inconspicuous. There are also larger fish fossils, including the rostra and pegs of sawfish. In fact, the site features a sawfish rostrum of 1.8 meters long.

Wadi El Hitan is also home to a wide variety of fossilized shells and disc-shaped nummulite fossils. According to scientists, the strata in Wadi Al Hitan belong to Middle Eocene, and it includes a vast mass of vertebrate fossils within 200 km2 of the desert. While researchers have identified many whale fossils, they have also catalogued and reported sea cows’ fossils, among over one hundred different fossils. Scientists were able to reconstruct their origin and conclude their form was serpentine, and the animals were carnivorous.

The site has been found to feature typical streamlined bodies from modern whales and shows us clear evidence of some of the primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure. In other words, the valley of Whales in Egypt is a unique site not only because of its diverse fossil library but because of the examples of fossils and their respective age.

The site has managed to remain well-protected because not many people access it. In fact, it is believed that between 1500 and 2000, tourists venture out and visit the site, which is accessible through unpaved and unmarked desert roads. The tourists who decide and come to the site are mostly foreigners who then camp in the valley.  Wadi El Hitan lies within the Wadi El Rayan Protected area, but part of the site has been turned into a tourist venue, and there are walkways placed in between the main fossils. Small shelters were also built at the site.

In addition to its vast collection of fossilized remains, Wadi El Hitan is home to more than 15 different species of desert places and 15 different types of mammals, including the red fox and the Egyptian mongoose. The site is mostly frequented by the Gennec Foxes, who tend to visit the campsite at night searching for food.