What did the ancient Egyptian pyramids hide?

When he first explored the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter used the phrase “wonderful things” in his report to describe what he saw in the tomb. . This tomb is filled with special treasures, including the golden mask, throne, and precious golden sandals of Tutankhamun. However, not all Egyptian royal tombs contain such luxurious items.

While amazingly ancient monuments, the Great Pyramid of Giza and several other ancient pyramids in Egypt contain modest burial items compared to later built mausoleums. Wolfram Grajetzki, a senior research fellow at the University of London, UK, said: “The largest pyramids are buried with relatively simple burial items. Most of these were plundered centuries ago, but fortunately there are still some relatively intact royal mausoleums, which may allow us to uncover the treasures they hold.”

For example, Princess Neferuptah (who lived around 1800 BC) was buried in a pyramid at Hawara, about 100km south of Cairo. Her burial vault, excavated in 1956, contains pottery, a set of coffins, some gilded personal jewelry and a set of Royal insignias identifying her affiliation with the earthly god Osiris. the other side.

Tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun (Image: Getty Images)

Although buried with such items, the mummy of King Hor (who lived around 1750 BC) was not placed in the pyramid. The body of this king was wrapped in linen and his face was covered with a mummy mask.

Tomb of Queen Hetepheres – mother of Khufu (the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid) is built a little more elaborately with a bed and two chairs decorated with gold, pottery, miniature bronze tools .

At the tomb of King Sekhemkhet (2611 BC – 2605 BC), archaeologists found 21 gold bracelets, a staff and many other gold jewelry. As impressive as it may be, the site is only a fraction of the wealth of burial items found in Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Although not comparable in terms of lavish burial, the older pyramid contains inscriptions that later pyramids did not. These inscriptions are still known collectively as the pyramid inscriptions, which have the function of causing the soul buried in this to become ash – the soul in the afterlife.

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