Pharaoh: Archaeologists may have found second Thutmose II tomb

A British archaeologist believes his team may have discovered the second tomb of King Thutmose II in Egypt. This potential discovery comes just days after Piers Litherland announced the find, more than a century after the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered, adding excitement to the field of Egyptology.

Mr. Litherland told The Observer that he suspects the second tomb will house the pharaoh's mummy. The Egyptian National Museum of Civilization displays a mummy purported to be that of Thutmose II, but some Egyptologists believe his remains may have been misidentified since the pharaoh's death, leading to ongoing debate among scholars.

Archaeologists believe that the first tomb was emptied due to flooding six years after burial and relocated to the second tomb. Litherland believes the second tomb is located beneath a 23-meter (75-foot) high artificial mound of limestone, ash, rubble, and marl, designed by the ancient Egyptians to appear as part of the western mountain range of the Theban necropolis near the city of Luxor.

It is believed that the first tomb was located behind a waterfall and thus suffered from flooding. As Egyptologists searched for the original tomb, they discovered a posthumous inscription indicating that its contents may have been moved by Thutmose II's wife and half-sister, Hatshepsut, to a nearby second location, highlighting her role in preserving her husband's legacy.

The British-Egyptian team is currently excavating the tomb by hand, after previous attempts to dig a tunnel were deemed "too dangerous." Mr. Litherland said, "We should be able to take the whole thing down in the next month or so," suggesting a significant breakthrough in the near future.

The archaeological team discovered the first tomb in an area associated with royal women's tombs, but when they entered the burial chamber, they found it ornately decorated—a sign of a pharaoh. "Part of the ceiling is still intact: a ceiling painted blue with yellow stars. Ceilings painted blue with yellow stars are only found in the tombs of kings," Litherland said, emphasizing the significance of this finding.

He told a BBC news program earlier this week that he was very shocked by the discovery. "The emotion of entering these things is an extraordinary confusion, because the emotion is actually quite overwhelming when you come across something you weren't expecting to find," he said, conveying the profound impact of the find on the team.

Thutmose II is best known as the husband of Queen Hatshepsut, considered one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs and one of the few female pharaohs to rule in her own name. Thutmose II was an ancestor of Tutankhamun, and his reign is believed to have been approximately from 1493 to 1479 BC. Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by a British archaeologist in 1922.