The hidden tomb of a ‘brutal’ Egyptian pharaoh has been discovered 3,500 years since his death.
Archaeologists revealed the inside of King Thutmose II’s tomb, the primary burial site to be unearthed since Tutankhamun’s in 1922.
The location was unearthed in west Luxor, over a mile from the Valley of the Kings where Tutankhamun was buried.
Thutmose II ruled sometime between 2000 and 1001 BCE, together with his reign famous for a savage order to kill the male children of the revolting Kush people.
The Egyptian ruler’s mummy was present in the nineteenth century not removed from west Luxor, however the burial chamber had eluded archaeologists for hundreds of years.
His tomb was finally stumbled across in 2022, when Egyptologists believed it belonged to a Pharaoh’s wife.
The Egyptian-British team used the fragments of alabaster jars to disclose the tomb actually belonged to Thutmose II himself.
Experts now say Queen Hatshepsut, the king’s wife and half-sister, oversaw his burial.
The tomb was present in a poor state of preservation attributable to its exposure to floods shortly after the king’s death.
Much of the mortar had fallen from the inside, while many of the original content contained in the chamber was removed during precedent days.
Archaeologists did discover the stays of blue inscriptions and yellow sky stars, in addition to extracts from the religious book ‘IImydwat’ that was placed within the tomb of kings.
(Picture: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities)
Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said: ‘That is the primary time funerary furniture belonging to Thutmose II has been discovered, as no such items exist in museums worldwide.’
King Thutmose II’s reign is shrouded in mystery and debate.
He was the fourth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, and ruled for as little as three years from around 1482 to 1479 BC or so long as 13 years 1493 to 1479 BC.
Certainly one of the principal records of his time in command of Ancient Egpyt is the Aswan Inscription, from the primary 12 months of Thutmose II’s reign, which records a southern campaign against the Kush people, in keeping with the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology.
The ‘brutal’ inscription reads: ‘As I live, as Ra loves me, as my father lord of the gods praises me, I won’t leave a male alive,’ referring to the killing of male children.
Thutmose II’s tomb was the ultimate considered one of the Eighteenth Dynasty Kings to be discovered.
His reign was seen as less necessary in comparison with his father, Thutmose I, son, Thutmose III, and wife, Queen Hatshepsut.
Thutmose III became referred to as ‘the Napoleon of Egypt’ for his violent conquests and expansion across north east Africa.
The invention was made by a joint team from Brit Piers Litherland’s Recent Kingdom Research Foundation and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
They’ve previously excavated 54 tombs in the world and determined the identities of greater than 30 royal wives and court women.
The invention marks the last major royal excavation for the reason that steps to Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in November 1922.
The next 12 months, Carter got to the burial chamber and located the boy King’s iconic sarcophagus.
Tutankhamun ruled between 1332 BC and 1323 BC before dying on the age of 19.
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