It was when British archaeologist Dr Piers Litherland saw that the ceiling of the burial chamber was painted blue with yellow stars that he realised he had just discovered the first tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh to be found in more than a century.
Litherland had been exploring the Valley of the Kings in Egypt for more than a decade when he discovered a staircase that led to the tomb, now known to have belonged to Thutmose II, who reigned from 1493 to 1479BC.
It took months to clear flood debris from the descending corridor and during this time, he and his team assumed the tomb belonged to a royal wife.
But as soon as he saw the ceiling of the burial chamber had been decorated with scenes from the Amduat, a religious text reserved for kings, he knew he had made what has since been hailed as the most significant discovery since Tutankhamun.
Did they happen to find a giant ring-like device?
Nope, just a wooden box covered in good leaf, surrounded by snakes.
Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?
Leave it to the British to yoink a new pharaoh out of the ground. The museum attendance must be down.
Pack it up, boys. It’s all going home to its ancestral homeland…The British Museum!
Except the pharaoh had been moved.
Thank you British! But our Pharaoh is in another tomb!
Thutmose II was basically a figurehead as Hapshepsut actually ran things, and eventually declared herself Pharaoh. So that’s a pretty interesting pharaoh to discover the tomb of.
Too bad it was mostly empty.
