Archaeologists have discovered the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh at Luxor, which is built on the ancient city of Thebes – the first such find in the area since King Tutankhamun’s resting place was unearthed in 1922.
Inscriptions indicate that the recently unearthed tomb was the burial place of King Thutmose II, who is believed to have ruled for about half a decade some 3,500 years ago, according to a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Preliminary findings suggest his mummy was moved along with some of the tomb’s contents when it flooded shortly after his death.
The Feb. 18 statement from the ministry said the find was the first pharaoh’s tomb discovered since Tutankhamun’s. However, Mohamed Ismail Khaled, the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, clarified Tuesday that it was the first discovered in the area around Luxor, which includes the Valley of the Kings, since that year. Other pharaohs’ tombs have been found in Egypt over the past century.
Khaled said in a phone interview that the discovery was “something extraordinary” that could add to historians’ understanding of the period during which Thutmose II and his family ruled.
Thutmose II is perhaps best known for the events set into motion by his death around the age of 30. Hatshepsut, his wife and half sister, ruled after him – first as regent and then as one of the few female pharaohs, her reign marked by prolific construction as well as artistic, architectural and economic advancement.
The excavation project was undertaken by the council and the New Kingdom Research Foundation, led by British archaeologist Piers Litherland.
“This is the first time funerary furniture belonging to Thutmose II has been discovered, as no such items exist in museums worldwide,” Khaled said in the statement earlier this month.
Items and fragments recovered include alabaster jars bearing the names of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut and plaster decorated with intricate designs such as blue inscriptions, yellow star motifs and elements of the Book of Amduat, a funerary text intended to serve the entombed as a guide to the afterlife, the ministry said.
The entrance to the tomb was discovered in 2022, in mountains west of Luxor at a site about 1½ miles from the Valley of the Kings, but its purpose and importance were revealed only through subsequent investigation.
Aidan Dodson, honorary professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol, confirmed in an email that Thutmose II’s tomb was the first resting place of a pharaoh found at Luxor since 1922.
Other discoveries in Egypt since then include the tombs of several kings, including the treasure-filled tomb of King Psusennes I, at the Tanis archaeological site from about 1939; the pyramid of King Ameny Qemau in the 1950s; and the tomb of King Senebkay about a decade ago.
Many pharaohs’ tombs in Egypt were discovered by Western researchers between the late 1700s and early 1900s, which included periods of French and British colonial occupation.
The tombs of many of the pharaohs who ruled during the New Kingdom – the period that included Thutmose II’s reign – were found in the Valley of the Kings. Tombs from this period include the burial place of Tutankhamun, renowned as the best preserved of the ancient sites. Unlike their Old and Middle Kingdom predecessors, who built pyramids as funerary monuments, New Kingdom rulers preferred more secluded tombs.