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Where was the Golden Pharaoh's Tutankhamun Wife Buried?


Tue 12 Feb 2019 | 12:14 PM
Ali Abu Dashish

By Ali Abo Dashish and Nawal Sayed

CAIRO, Feb. 12 (SEE) – Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said that he and his team began to search for the mummy of Queen Ankhesenamun, a wife of the golden Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

"We believe that the mummy in the tomb number 21 in the Valley of Kings in Luxor belongs to Queen Ankhesenamun; she is sadly headless! So we started to think about searching for this queen's tomb," Hawass added.

Queen Ankhesenamun was born in Tal al-Amarna, a sister of five daughters of Queen Nefertiti and her husband was Akhenaten.

King Tutankhamun was also born in Tal al-Amarna. He was named Ankh Es In Aton, the son of King Akhenaten from another wife.

Prince Tutankhamun married Princess Ankhesenamun, while he was still nine years old and became king of Egypt.

Some rumors state that he took up the throne after his father's death. His mother-in-law ruled Egypt for a few months, before deleting her name from documents at Akhenaten's era. Therefore, some speculations alleged that she shared the rule with Akhenaten and changed her name.

After Akhenaten's death, she became the only ruler of Egypt and changed, likely, her name to be Smenkhkare.

Therefore, the last period of the rule of Akhenaten and before taking over the Tutankhamun rule still need many studies, especially because it is a mysterious period.

Ankhesenamun lived in Amarna before getting married to Tutankhamun. Then, she moved to live inside the royal palace in Memphis. She and her husband used to go to Tiba during private religious ceremonies.

Hawass asserted that she was buried next to her second husband King Ay at the Temple of Kings "where I search for her tomb."

"After the death of the golden pharaoh Tutankhamun, she sent a letter to the king of the Hittites saying in the introduction that she is unhappy and does not like that man who proposed to her only for the throne's sake," Hawass revealed.

We know that this queen after the death of the golden pharaoh Tutankhamun sent a letter to the king of the Hittites saying in the introduction that she is unhappy. Or not consent to marry that man who wants to marry her to take the legitimacy to sit on the throne of Egypt.

She definitely was against that marriage as it was discovered that she sent another letter to the king of the Hittites asking him to send his son to marry her and become Egypt's new king.

The Hittites' king did not believe her demand because it was known that Egyptian pharaohs don not marry foreigners, so he sent a messenger to confirm her demand.

The messenger came to Egypt and confirmed that the Egyptian Queen was the mentioned letter's sender. Therefore, the Hittites' king immediately his son to marry the queen and become king of Egypt.

However, the leader Hur Muhb saved the country and killed the Hitti prince before reaching the borders of Egypt.

Hawass believes that Queen Ankhesenamun had no choice so she made her decision to marry Ay because King Tutankhamun did not have a son to rule the country at that time.

"I believe the queen may be buried in the Western Valley, where I'm digging now," Hawass noted.