Potential discovery of second tomb in Luxor

By Eleni Poulios

Merely a few days after the discovery of the tomb of Thutmose II, British archaeologist Piers Litherland believes that he and his team may have found a second tomb belonging to the former Egyptian King.

Litherland expressed that he suspects that in this second tomb they will find the mummified body of Thutmose II.

The archaeologists believe that the tomb was relocated into the second one because of flooding, as its location had been behind a waterfall. 

This belief stems from the fact that when Egyptologists were searching for the initial tomb, an inscription was found which indicated that Thutmose II’s wife Hatshepsut had moved it to a different location not far away.

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Hidden tomb

Mr. Litherland believes the second tomb lies below a 23-metre man-made pile of limestone, seemingly designed by the ancient Egyptians to make it look like part of a mountain in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis near the city of Luxor, where the first tomb was also discovered.

After attempting to tunnel into the second tomb, this endeavour was deemed too dangerous and therefore, the excavation team has decided to uncover the tomb by hand. 

Mr. Litherland believes they will be able to do so within a month.

The first tomb of Thutmose II was discovered in an area which is known to be associated with the resting places of royal women.

However, when the archaeologists reached the burial chamber, they found decorations consistent with those typically found in pharaohs tombs. 

Mr. Litherland says that a part of the ceiling was still intact and painted blue with yellow stars on them. 

According to him, this is only known to be the case in kings’ tombs.

He expressed how overwhelmed and emotional he felt by this extraordinary and very unexpected find.

“The emotion of getting into these things is just one of extraordinary bewilderment because when you come across something you’re not expecting to find, it’s emotionally extremely turbulent really,” he said.

Who was King Thutmose II?

King Thutmose II is most widely known as the husband of Queen Hatshepsut who was regarded as one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs and one of the few females to have ruled in their own right. 

He was also an ancestor of Tutankhamun who likely reigned from approximately 1493 to 1479 BC. 

Tutankhamun’s tomb was found by British archaeologists in 1922. 

The discovery of Thutmose II’s tomb has been the first tomb of a pharaoh to have been found in over a century and moreover, it also represents the last undiscovered tomb of the 18th Egyptian dynasty.

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