With the last colossus of Ramses II restored and erected to rejoin its five counterparts at Luxor Temple, ferocious debate on its location and restoration has broken out among Egyptologists. Some oppose the placement of the colossus before the first pylon of the temple. They say the colossus has the Osirian position (crossing the hands on the chest), which contradicts with neighbouring colossi, who have their left legs before the right. Ahmed Arabi, director of Luxor temple and Raymond Johnson, director general of the Chicago House mission, and head of the restorers team, say that the colossus has been placed in the correct location and has the right body position to accord to the original temple layout . Johnson asserted that the outermost colossal statues in red granite on the far eastern and far western sides of the pylons were both part of a revised plan for the pylon façade, and that the reconstruction is correct. Egyptian restorers have done an extraordinary job, he said, and hav...

Egyptologists have known for about fifty years that a woman ruled Egypt in the 14th century BC, between the death of Pharaoh Akhenaten and the accession to the throne of his son, the young Tutankhamun (c. 1345-1327). However, they are divided as to the identity of this mysterious queen. Based on epigraphic and iconographic research, Pr Valérie Angenot, a specialist in ancient Egyptian art at the Université du Québec à Montréal, argues that TWO women, not one, ascended the throne of Egypt after Akhenaten's death. She presented the results of her work at the annual conference of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), held on April 12 in Alexandria (Virginia) under the title "Neferneferuaten - A Semiotic Outline". Currently, two hypotheses are in conflict. Some (the Anglo-Saxons for short) believe that Queen Nefertiti reigned after the death of her husband Akhenaten. Others (the French) see Princess Meritaten, one of the couple's six daughters, on the throne. Valé...

An Egyptian archaeological team working at Dra Abu el-Naga (Luxor's western bank) unearthed, to the north of the tomb TT255 de RoyTT255 of Roy, the biggest 'saff' tomb ever found. The discovery was made after removing the debris that accumulated as a result of successive excavations. The tomb does not belongShedsu-Djehuty, who held many titles including Mayor, Royal Seal Bearer of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Prince. As the team worked to remove the rubble on the site, it came across a complete compartment made of adobe with its well inside the courtyard of the cemetery, probably from the Ramessid period. Moreover, six more tombs have been spotted underneath the courtyard. German archaeologist Frederica Kampp, the go-to person for tomb registration, said a 55-meter-wide courtyard leads to the tomb, which has 18 entrances. It is thus the first tomb discovered in Thebes necropolis to have such a big number of entrances. The tomb has two 11-meter-deep wells to its northern and ...

Archaeologists unveiled near the town of Sohag (Upper Egypt) a well preserved and finely painted tomb thought to be from the early Ptolemaic period. The tomb was built for a man named Tutu and his wife named "(tA-)Srj.t-(n.t-)As.t, i.e. 'The daughter of Isis'" , who was preceded by her titles "sistrum-player", "music priestess of Hathor" . It is one of seven tombs discovered in the area last October, when authorities found smugglers digging illegally for artefacts. The tomb is very small, made up of a central lobby, divided in two, and a burial chamber with two stone coffins . The walls of the lobby have beautiful paintings that still show their vivid colors. They depict funeral processions and images of the owner working in the fields of the Netherworld, as well as his family genealogy written in well drawn hieroglyphics. We can see the owner, Tutu, giving and receiving offerings in front of different gods and goddesses. We can also see Ta-Sheryt-...

A new pyramid at Saqqara of Queen Setibhor The team also investigated a pyramid located beside that of Djedkare Isesi, finding that it belonged to a queen named Setibhor. An inscription found on a column within the pyramid reads: "The one who sees Horus and Seth, the great one of the hetes sceptre, the great of praise, king's wife, his beloved Setibhor" . Queen Setibhor's titles Queen pyramid's complex While archaeologists had known about the existence of that pyramid, until now they hadn't realized it had been built for a queen. The pyramid complex of queen Setibhor represents one of the earliest pyramids built in south Saqqara at the end of the 5th Dynasty, and it is the largest pyramid complex built for a queen during the Old Kingdom. Moreover, her funerary temple incorporated architectural elements and chambers that were otherwise reserved for the king. The large size of the pyramid complex of queen Setibhor and her title of queen's wife indicate per...

Khuwy A new tomb at Saqqara The Czech archeological mission at south Saqqara has found, in the Djedkare-Isesi's pyramid complex area, the tomb of a dignitary named Khuwy who lived at the end of the 5th Dynasty (circa 2465-2323 B.C.). It consists of a superstructure with an L-shaped offering chapel, which was once decorated with reliefs, but only the bottom part of this decoration is preserved. In the north wall of the tomb, the mission found the entrance to a substructure, which is for the first time clearly inspired by the design of the substructures of the royal pyramids of the 5th Dynasty. This part of the tomb started with a descending corridor, which leads to a vestibule. An entranceway in its southern wall gives access to a decorated antechamber. The colors of the tomb's decorations are incredibly well-preserved, despite the passage of over 4 millennia. On the south and north walls, the tomb owner is sitting in front of an offering table. Moreover, an offering list was d...