Egyptian Tombs :: World History Essays

Egyptian TombsEgyptologists had lost interest in the target of grave accent 5, which hadbeen explored and looted decades ago. Therefore, they treasured to give wayto a put lot. However, no one would have ever known the treasure thatlay tho 200 ft. from King Tuts resting place which was beyond a few rubble strewn rooms that previous excavators had used to hold theirdebris.Dr. Kent Weeks, an Egyptologist with the American University inCairo, wanted to be sure the new parking facility wouldnt destroyanything important. Thus, Dr. weeks embarked in 1988 on one finalexploration of the old turding ground. at unyielding last he was able to pry opena door obstruct for thousands of years, and announced the discovery of alife time. We erect ourselves in a corridor, he remembers. On each sidewere 10 doors and at pole there was a statue of Osiris, the god of theafterlife.The tomb is mostly unexcavated and the chambers atomic number 18 choked withdebris, Weeks is convinced that there a re more rooms on a lower level,bringing the total number to more than 100. That would ready tomb 5 thebiggest and most complex tomb ever found in Egypt, and quite conceivablethe resting place of up to 50 sons of Ramesses II, peradventure the best knownof all the pharaohs, the ruler believed to have been Moses nemesis inthe book of Exodus.The Valley of the Kings, in which Tomb 5 is located, is just crossways the Nile River from Luxor, Egypt. It is never exactly been off thebeaten track. Tourism has been brisk in the valley for millenniumsgraffiti scrawled on tomb walls proves that Greek and Roman travelers halt here to gaze at the wall paintings and hieroglyphics that werealready old long before the birth of Christ. Archaeologists have beencoming for centuries too. Napoleon brought his own team up of excavators whenhe invaded in 1798, and a series of expeditions in 19th and archeozoic 20thcenturies uncovered one tomb after another. A total of 61 burial spots hadbeen found by th e time the British explorer Howard Carter opened thetreasure-laden tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922.Britains James Burton had burrowed into the site of Tomb 5 in1820, and decided that there was nothing inside. A dismissive Carter usedits entryway as a place to dump the debris he was hauling out of Tutstomb.In the late 1980s, came the proposed parking area and Weeksconcern. His 1988 foray made it clear that the tomb wasnt dull as Burtonsaid. Elaborate carvings covered walls and referred to Ramesses II, whose