The splendid ancient Egyptian civilization has always given people unlimited reverie
Among the luxurious pharaonic tombs in Egypt, the Tutankhamun Mausoleum is second to none. In this burial chamber with an area of less than 300 square meters, as many as 5,000 pieces of various precious cultural relics have been found, of which Tutankhamun's golden mask is even more valuable. In 2015, a British heritage expert, while 3D scanning tutankhamun's mausoleum, accidentally found a wall next to its main burial chamber, suspected of having another chamber. Today we will talk about this mysterious pharaonic chamber and the possible owners behind it.
The tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs are mostly magnificent
We know that ancient Egypt has thousands of years of splendid culture and history, and has experienced a total of 21 dynasties before and after, with a total of 171 pharaohs. After their deaths, they would build magnificent mausoleums. The male pharaohs of the 18th to 20th dynasties of ancient Egypt would build mausoleums in a place called the "Valley of the Kings", which was the largest group of tombs of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. Female pharaohs, princesses and princesses are buried in a place called the Valley of the Queens, 1.5 kilometers from the Valley of the Kings. Whether it is the "Valley of the Kings" or the "Valley of the Queens", almost all the pharaonic tombs buried here have been stolen and excavated.
These grave robbers are a team of professionals
The tomb robbers who excavated the tombs of these emperors were not small thieves, but a professional team of archaeologists, geologists, and adventurous merchants. Merchants pay for tomb robbery, archaeologists come to find the mausoleum, and then the tomb robbers excavate the mausoleum, and finally divide the stolen cultural relics and take what they need.
The pharaonic tombs were too concentrated, giving tomb robbers many opportunities
The reason why these professional tomb robber gangs can be so easy to get their hands on is that the pharaoh's tombs are too concentrated, and many of them are next to each other. For example, if a pharaoh is buried, his son's tomb is usually built next door. Another is that the ancient Egyptian literature records the pharaohs in great detail, and through the study of these documents, the approximate scope of their tombs can be determined, which can be said to be a quasi-excavation.
But a pharaoh named Tutankhamun, whose mausoleum has never been found. His reign was short, only nine years, and he died suddenly at the age of eighteen. Curiously, however, there is little documentation about the pharaoh in Egyptian history, as if someone had deliberately erased Tutankhamun's lineage, which led to the fact that the tomb robbers could not find Tutankhamun's mausoleum. At that time, it was agreed that the pharaoh Tutankhamun either did not exist at all or did not build a mausoleum.
Beginning in the 19th century, Britain became a protectorate of Egypt
Howard. Carter
From the 19th century onwards, Egypt was occupied by the British. One named Howard. Carter, a British archaeologist, was appointed inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Administration. He has been working in the Valley of the Kings since 1899, mainly restoring the tombs of the pharaohs. But he had been determined to find the legendary Tutankhamun Mausoleum, but for many years there had been no progress. It was not until 1914 that a British nobleman, Lord Caernarfon, received a concession to excavate the Valley of the Kings. Lord Carnarphon, like Carter, was searching for Tutankhamun's mausoleum. Carter was appointed as the tour leader to systematically search for any locations that might have been missing before.
But not long after the work began, a world war broke out. It was not until the end of World War I in 1917 that the search resumed. However, this search lasted for five years, but not even the shadow of Tutankhamun's mausoleum was found. Lord Kanaphon also became increasingly dissatisfied and began to consider divestment. Carter was lost, and he returned to a location they had abandoned before, where they had built a row of log cabins, where the staff had suddenly tripped over a rock while demolishing them. It turned out that under these wooden houses was a section of stone steps, and Carter dug out all of this steps, and actually dug up a gate with a seal, and the seal on the gate with hieroglyphs had not yet been opened, which made Carter ecstatic.
Howard. Carter
He immediately sent an urgent telegram to Lord Kanafon of England explaining the discovery. When Lord Kanafon and his daughter arrived here, it was already night, and Carter took a candle and looked into the crack in the door, and Lord Kanafon asked eagerly: What did you see? Carter responded: I saw the most wonderful thing in the world. So that night, without any Egyptian antiquities officials present, they eagerly opened the gate and entered the burial chamber. Then it was determined that this was the legendary Tomb of Tutankhamun.
It was not until the next day that they informed Egyptian antiquities officials and counted the large number of items inside, including various gilded artifacts, treasure chests, thrones, idols of gods, and the huge gilded coffin. Then it was the opening of the coffin, and after the people opened the coffin layer after layer, they found that this was the mummy of Tutankhamun. Unlike all the mummies of the pharaohs found, Tutankhamun's mummies are covered with an exquisitely crafted gold mask, a relic that has caused a sensation in the world, and Tutankhamun's mausoleum is the only pharaonic tomb found in thousands of years that has not been stolen and excavated.
The Tutankhamun Mausoleum was discovered to have caused a sensation in the world
From these exquisitely crafted artifacts, we see a powerful ancient Egyptian civilization, which is just a Tutankhamun that has not left much written record. If it were Ramses II, the greatest in the history of ancient Egypt, or the most powerful Thutmose III, or the most legendary and beautiful Cleopatra VII, that is, Cleopatra, how spectacular their tombs would have been if they had not been stolen and excavated. This also leaves us with unlimited room for reverie.
Structural drawing of Tutankhamun Mausoleum
In 2015, the British Egyptologist Nicholas A. Rivers was allowed to perform a 3D scan of Tutankhamun's mausoleum. While inspecting Tutankhamun's main burial chamber using advanced ground-penetrating radar, he accidentally discovered what appeared to be a hollow structure behind the wall. He immediately made a bold conjecture that behind the tomb of Tutankhamun was the mausoleum of the most important queen in Egyptian history, naphtiti, which the world's archaeology community had painstakingly searched for.
Naftiti's avatar and a computer-based restoration
Legend has it that she not only possessed stunning beauty, but was also one of the most powerful and powerful women in the history of ancient Egypt. However, in the Valley of the Queens, which has been excavated, no trace of Naftiti's mausoleum has been found. So Nicholas speculated that since Nefertiti was Tutankhamun's mother (stepmother), there was a good chance that he was buried next to Tutankhamun. Why? First of all, As the queen of Pharaoh Akhenaten, Naphtiti's greatest achievement was to assist her husband in eradicating the Egyptian sacrificial faction that was increasingly powerful and threatened the imperial power at that time. Nefertiti and Akhenaten founded the Sun Cult, revered the sun god Aden, and moved the capital to Armana, attracting the Egyptian people to follow, and later established a powerful kingdom. Eventually she and her husband, Akhenaten, worked together as regents.
After her husband's death, the young Tutankhamun became pharaoh with the support of Naftiti, who regarded him as his own and promised him his third daughter. From this point of view, it is very likely that Naftiti's mausoleum appears next to Tutankhamun's mausoleum.
In addition, let's look at the structure of Tutankhamun's mausoleum, in general, the pharaoh's mausoleum is very large, never only a few hundred square meters. Moreover, the male pharaoh's burial chamber is located on the left side of the tomb passage, the female pharaoh's burial chamber is located on the right side of the tomb passage, and Tutankhamun's burial chamber is located exactly on the right side of the tomb passage. This shows that this mausoleum was originally designed for female pharaohs. In the 18th to 20th dynasties, which woman dared to build her mausoleum in the Valley of the Kings, which was exclusive to the male pharaohs, I am afraid that only Nefertiti was there.
Tutankhamun Mausoleum is located on the right side of the tomb passage, with a chamber behind the wall
Because Oftiti's reforms weakened the egyptian sacrificial faction, they were bound to be hated by them. Women in power are also what they do not want to see. So in order to rest in peace behind her, Naftiti may have secretly built the mausoleum in the Valley of the Kings, and it was built so hidden. But before the mausoleum was completed, Tutankhamun died suddenly at the age of 18.
Naftiti was very sad, so she secretly buried Tutankhamun in the mausoleum that was originally for herself, and also put in all the more than 5,000 objects that Tutankhamun used during his lifetime, which is why so many artifacts were piled up in such a small mausoleum, and it was piled up in a hurry. Later, in order to prevent future generations from finding Tutankhamun's mausoleum, Naftiti ordered the destruction of all Tutankhamun documents. This is to protect Tutankhamun and at the same time to protect herself, because after her death she was also buried in Tutankhamun's burial chamber, that is, in the back chamber, because this was her mausoleum. Of course all this is a conjecture.
Just after Nicholas gave his opinion in 2015, Egypt's then-minister of antiquities said that Egypt had not found any space behind Tutankhamun's burial chamber after using ground-penetrating radar. In this regard, Nicholas still insisted on his conjecture and research results.
Tutankhamun's thigh was severed
So why did Tutankhamun die violently at the age of 18, and was he killed? An answer was given by a radiologist involved in studying Tutankhamun's mausoleum, who took out Tutankhamun's mummy and performed advanced CAT scans to create comprehensive 3D data. First, they discovered a secret that Tutankhamun's thigh had been severed. At first they thought it might be that Tutankhamun was killed before his death, but later discovered that the cut was due to Howard, who was the first to discover Tutankhamun's mausoleum in 1922. Carter, who was unable to remove the mummy from the coffin, cut it off before removing it. And in order to remove Tutankhamun's golden mask, brute force was used to cause the mummy to appear hundreds of fragments, and then they put the mummy back and sealed it. The secret wasn't discovered until 2015.
Previously, it was suspected that Tutankhamun was struck to death by someone with a blunt object, but through careful study of Tutankhamun's mummy, it was found that he did not have the blunt weapon damage that appeared before his death, that is, he did not die due to external forces. Through the digital reconstruction of Tutankhamun's mummy, his original appearance was restored, and this physical appearance was close to ninety-five percent of the real Tutankhamun.
What we see is an image of a woman with slightly raised breasts, high and low legs, and lame feet with fat buttocks. This shows that Tutankhamun suffered from physical illness during his lifetime, he had to be on crutches all his life, he also suffered from severe congenital malformations of the foot, and through DNA comparison, it was found that Akhenaten was indeed Tutankhamun's biological father. In the Akhenaten Mausoleum, a female mummy was found, which was supposed to be Tutankhamun's biological mother. By contrast, this woman turned out to be brother and sister with Akhenaten, which shows that intermarriage between the close relatives of the nobles in ancient Egypt was a common phenomenon. Tutankhamun was the tragedy of this marriage, so at the age of 18, he died quickly after complications caused by a fall.
And the well-known Nafertititi head, if you look closely, will find that her right eyeball has been gouged out. At first, it was thought that Nafertiti suffered from an eye disease during her lifetime, so the statue of her was made with one less eyeball. After careful examination of the statue, it was found that this eyeball was deliberately dug up, which shows that nafertiti was hated by many people after her death, so she chose to quietly build her mausoleum in the Valley of the Kings, and the construction was so hidden, just to prevent retaliation from future generations.
Of course, this will not be known until the tomb of Nafertiti is actually found. Since the Egyptian government today, no excavation of the Valley of the Kings is allowed. So behind this chamber of secrets, what secrets are hidden, only waiting time to tell us the answer. If this chamber of secrets is really the tomb of Nafertiti, when the chamber is opened, it must be a more brilliant scene than the tomb of Tutankhamun.