The Treasures of Queen Hetepheres I
The date is the 9th of February 1925. It has been three long years since the discovery of the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun. All the attention of the media has moved down to upper Egypt for any news on new discoveries. The Giza Plateau is its normal busy self. Tourist coming to visit the pyramids, Giza locals trying to sell souvenirs, the odd excavation site worker meandering through the crowds. There is absolutely no anticipation that there are any secrets in this part of Egypt to be dicovered. This day proved all the doubters wrong ...
What a surprise it must have been for the photographer of the 23 year running Giza expedition of the combined Harvard and Boston Museum of Fine Arts, when he accidently stumbled upon an anomaly in an area they were busy clearing on the Plateau. He was expecting to see the regular limestone but instead he saw some plaster. He immediately knew that they might be onto something and he send an urgent cable to the expedition leader, George Reisner, who was back in the U.S. at the exact same time.
The team immediately continued with the excavation under Ahmed Said, Reisner's assistant. They removed the plaster and discovered a deep shaft. They explored down the shaft until they reached a masonry wall. Once they cleared through the wall they found themselves looking at a 4400 year old treasure belonging to Queen Hetepheres I. It is suspected that she was the wife of pharaoh Sneferu and she lived in the 4th Dynasty of Egypt. She was the mother of the great pharaoh Khufu who build the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The general opinion is that this was not the original burial site for the Queen and that she was buried originally close to her husband's pyramid at Dahshur. Her grave goods were moved to this tomb, some period after her death due to a grave robbery that also possibly damaged her mummy. No body was found with these treasures.
Some more interesting facts about Egypt
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| Gold Chair found in Hetepheres's Tomb. Image Copyright Wikipedia |
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The view the greeted the team after they broke the masonry wall down.
Image Copyright Wikipedia
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| Original Photo of the Tomb taken in 1925 by Reisner. Image Copyright Wikipedia |
What a surprise it must have been for the photographer of the 23 year running Giza expedition of the combined Harvard and Boston Museum of Fine Arts, when he accidently stumbled upon an anomaly in an area they were busy clearing on the Plateau. He was expecting to see the regular limestone but instead he saw some plaster. He immediately knew that they might be onto something and he send an urgent cable to the expedition leader, George Reisner, who was back in the U.S. at the exact same time.
The team immediately continued with the excavation under Ahmed Said, Reisner's assistant. They removed the plaster and discovered a deep shaft. They explored down the shaft until they reached a masonry wall. Once they cleared through the wall they found themselves looking at a 4400 year old treasure belonging to Queen Hetepheres I. It is suspected that she was the wife of pharaoh Sneferu and she lived in the 4th Dynasty of Egypt. She was the mother of the great pharaoh Khufu who build the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The general opinion is that this was not the original burial site for the Queen and that she was buried originally close to her husband's pyramid at Dahshur. Her grave goods were moved to this tomb, some period after her death due to a grave robbery that also possibly damaged her mummy. No body was found with these treasures.
Some more interesting facts about Egypt
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