The Royal Mummies Hall
THE ROYAL MUMMIES HALL AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION
The Royal Mummies Hall
Considered the crown jewel of the museum, the Royal Mummies’ Hall is especially
designed to display the mummies of the ancient Kings and Queens of Egypt.
The design aims to give the visitor the feeling of strolling down the Valley of The Kings,
where most of these mummies were initially resting.
The hall includes 20 Royal
mummies, 18 Kings, and 2 Queens from the 17th until the 20th dynasty. The most
famous mummies are Hatshepsut (Maatkare). Thutmose III (Menkheperre), Seqenenre
Taa II.
The discovery of the Royal Mummies of the New Kingdom was one of the greatest and
most unexpected discoveries in the history of archaeology.
On this particular occasion,
the discovery did not involve the usual architectural and artistic masterpieces,
but the
sacred bodies of the builders of Egyptian civilization during the New Kingdom.
These
were the same builders that believed in life after death and devoted a large part of their
wealth to defeat death.
By their beliefs, they preserved their bodies for the sake of their souls.
They constructed their tombs within the cliff of the valley on the West Bank of the Nile,
near their capital at Thebes, and equipped them with all the necessary objects for life
after death.
The tombs’ entrances were then blocked, and the chambers were hidden to allow the mummies to be preserved for eternity and carry out their role as a
home for the soul in the Afterlife.
The Royal Mummies Hall
The Deir el-Bahari cache
In this cache, they had found forty royal mummies,
among them..the most famous kings
of the New Kingdom. Seen in this cache was the mummy of the famous Pharaoh
Segenenre-Taa II,
ruler of the 17th Dynasty (Second Intermediate Period) died
in a battle defending his country against the Hyksos.
The cache also contained the
bodies of Ahmose I(the liberator of Egypt), Amenhotep 1, Thutmose Thutmose II,
Thutmose III, the “Napoleon of the East, Seti L, Ramesses II, the builder of great
monuments such as Abu Simbel, Ramesses III, and Ramesses IX. These kings ruled
during the 17th to 21st Dynasties.
Queens also were found among them, including Ahmose Nefertari (wife of Ahmose I),
Sitkamose, Meryetamon, Nodimet, Maatkare, and Isiemkheb of the Eighteenth through
the Twenty-First Dynasties.
The Royal Mummies Hall
The tomb of King Amenhotep Ii cache (tomb no.35)
Another important cache was to be discovered seventeen years after the store at Deir
el-Bahari.
In 1898, Victor Loret, a French Egyptologist, discovered the tomb of the King.
Amenhotep If in the Valley of the Kings. It had another treasure of royal mummies.
Amenhotep II, a King of the Eighteenth Dynasty, was found resting in his coffin,
and with him lay the famous bow. In another chamber,
which priests of the Twenty-First Dynasty had selected as a hiding place, he found thirteen mummies, including nine kings. Among them were Thutmose IV and Amenhotep Ill of the
Eighteenth Dynasty,
Merenptah, Seti Il, and Siptah of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and
Ramesses IV, V, and VI of the Twentieth Dynasty,
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The Pharaohs’ Golden Parade saw 22 mummies move from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Fustat,
where they were put on display at the NMEC’s Royal Mummies Hall.
After weeks of preparation, the Royal Mummies Hall has opened to the public just in time for World Heritage Day today (April 18th).
While most of the displays for the 18 kings and four queens are complete,
the coffins and artifacts of King Amenhotep II and Thutmose IV will still be added later.
Among the mummies displayed are the mummies of King Ramses II; King Seqenenre Tao; King Thutmose III; King Seti I; Queen Hatshepsut;
and Queen Meritamen, the wife of King Amenhotep I; and Queen Ahmose Nefertari, the wife of King Ahmose I.
After death, Egypt’s pharaohs were usually mummified and buried in elaborate tombs.
Members of the nobility and officials often received the same treatment and occasionally ordinary people. However, the process was an expensive one, beyond the means of many.
The method of embalming or treating the dead body that the ancient Egyptians used is called mummification. Using unique processes, the Egyptians removed all moisture from the body, leaving only a dried form that would not quickly decay.
It was influential in the religion of the Ancient Egyptians to preserve the dead body in as life-like a manner as possible.
So successful were they that today we can view the mummified body of an Egyptian and have a good idea of what they looked like in life 3000 years ago.
The mummification process took seventy days.
Special priests worked as embalmers, treating and wrapping the body.
Beyond knowing the correct rituals and prayers to be performed at various stages, the priests also needed a detailed knowledge of human anatomy.
A ticket to the NMEC will cost EGP 60 for Egyptians, EGP 30 for national students, EGP 200 for foreigners, and EGP 100 for international students. More details can be found here https://nmec.gov.eg/
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