Researchers have uncovered significant portions of the foundation wall of Queen Hatshepsut’s valley temple in Luxor, along with the nearby tomb of Queen Teti Sheri. The latter, you might not know, is the grandmother of Ahmose I, Egypt’s first pharaoh of the golden New Kingdom era. This extraordinary discovery was made public by renowned archaeologist and former antiquities minister, Zahi Hawass, on Wednesday. Hawass, who has been leading excavations at the site since 2022, couldn’t contain his excitement, and rightly so. They’ve unearthed over 1,000 decorated stone blocks on the outskirts of Hatshepsut’s funerary temple. That’s not just a good find; it’s monumental.
For those not familiar with Hatshepsut, she was one of the rare women to ever rule Egypt during the 18th Dynasty, around 1458 B.C. Her valley temple, however, met a tragic fate. It was deliberately destroyed centuries after her reign. But, thanks to this discovery, we now have a glimpse of what once stood in all its glory. Hawass remarked, “This is the first time that we discovered 1,500 decorated blocks, the most beautiful scenes I’ve ever seen in my life with the colour.”
Adding to the excitement, a limestone tablet was discovered bearing the name of Hatshepsut’s architect, Senmut, a man whose role in constructing the temple now carries even more historical weight. The fact that such detailed documentation has survived the centuries is nothing short of astonishing.
Not too far from Hatshepsut’s temple, archaeologists also stumbled upon the tomb of Queen Teti Sheri, the grandmother of Ahmose I. Ahmose I, for those who might not remember, was the pharaoh who drove out the Hyksos invaders, marking an important moment in Egyptian history. Teti Sheri, who passed away a century before Hatshepsut, was clearly a key figure, even if history has not been as kind to her memory as it has been to her famous grandson. The tomb, carved in rock, isn’t the fine affair one might expect from royal tombs, but it’s striking in its own understated way. It lies at the end of a mudbrick vaulted chapel adorned with red wall drawings on white mortar.
It’s as if the past is finally saying, “See? We were here, and we left more behind than you ever realized.”
