Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Secrets of the Royal Mummies


Fri 30 Nov 2018 | 07:08 AM
Ali Abu Dashish

By: Ali Abu-Dashish and Norhan Mahmoud

CAIRO, Nov. 29 (SEE)- Ancient Egypt is an array of mysteries and conundrums, the 7000-year-old civilizations holds mystique stories that befogs all its fascinators. Although Pharaonic Royals are renowned from east to west, yet up-till now little is known about how they farewelled life.

Dr. Hussein Abdel-Bassir, Director of the Antiquities Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, confirmed the multiplicity of stories about the death of the pharaohs. “There are many legends associated with the end of pharaonic kings and queens!”

The end of Hatshepsut's reign is a mystery; for a while nobody knew how her life ended and why her pictures and names were erased from her belongings.

“Ambiguity hovered around the truth until the modern scientific research by Dr. Zahi Hawass and the Egyptian project team to study the royal mummies on the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut and the effects of her reign unleashed the secrets,” said Abdel-Bassir.

The enigma was solved after studying a tooth found inside the queen's bowel box in the mummies necropolis in ‘Dair El-Bahary’ along all the teeth of other mummies. “After examining the teeth under CT scans, it became clear that there was a part at the top jaw of the mummy that was transferred to the cemetery no. 60 in the Valley of the Kings from the tomb of Queen No. 20 and that tooth belonged to it.”

The team concluded that the mummy in tomb no. 60 was of Queen Hatshepsut. “In fact, Queen Hatshepsut passed away at 50. She was obese, suffered from diabetes and died of cancer.”

Another mystery is that of the world famous Queen Nefertiti, the senior wife of King Akhenaten. Hawass and his team studied the mummies in the tomb no. 21 in the valley of the Kings, that were previously studied and restored by Donald Ryan; one beheaded and and another with head!

The team’s upcoming project is to look for the bones of Queen Mott Negmt, the wife of King Hor Hobb, in order to make comparisons with the mummy at tomb no. 21 to see if this mummy belongs to Queen Nefertiti or not. “So far, the mummy of Queen Nefertiti has not been found.”

Actually, one of the most exciting things about king Tutankhamen is the secret of his death. “In his study of the golden pharaoh’s mummy, Hawass confirmed that the scanning and recent tests revealed that both Tutankhamen's spine and right foot were slightly bent and his left foot was completely distorted. He manifested that the little king was not killed.”

Examinations show no sign that Tut was subjected to any injuries in the head or chest. But, the king had several disturbances in his foot and perhaps his falling of a military vehicle resulted in a broken leg. Tut was also infected with malaria.

“The persistent infections have weakened his immune system causing him to contract with the deadly malaria. None of this alone led to his death but all these disorders and diseases together weakened him. Tut was also subjected to an incident hours before his death,” added Abdel-Bassir.

It is possible that the final incident that occurred while he was hunting wild animals in his military vehicle in the desert near Memphis. Because of his weakness and disabilities, the Golden Pharaoh surrendered to his wounds.

One more riddle is the death of King Ramses III. ‘He had a secondary wife called "T" who plotted against the Pharaoh's life. Recent studies have on the mummy of Ramses III and the ‘Unknown Mummy’ showed that the king’s neck was cut from the back with a sharp knife.”

As for “The Unknown Mummy" or "The Stark Mummy,” it was detected to belong of the son of King Bentawort, who was forced to commit suicide and hang himself with his hand and the death cause was unravelled through the cord marks on his neck. “ This son was arbitrated with the greatest punishment; his body was not embalmed and buried in sheepskin which was considered immoral in ancient Egypt and therefore he will go to hell in the Hereafter,” concluded Abdel-Bassir.

This Pharaonic Egypt is loaded with secrets!