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A project of the American Research Center in Egypt

Latest Discovery in Wadi C (2022)

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Entrance to the new royal tomb discovered in Wadi C.
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"The New Kingdom Research Foundation mission, which is affiliated to the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University, has been working in joint-venture with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the Western Wadis, the Wadi Bairiya, the Wadi el-Agaala and Wadi 300 for ten years.

In October, 2022, the mission discovered, in an unexpected location in the Wadi Gabbanat el-Qurud in the Western Wadis, a previously unknown and large royal tomb apparently containing multiple burials. Partial inscriptions and ceramic evidence suggest this was constructed during the joint-reign of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. The architecture, as currently understood, indicates the tomb was altered several times shortly after it was first constructed.

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Entrance to the new royal tomb discovered in Wadi C.

The tomb seems not to have been entered since the Third Intermediate Period but repeated flooding has completely filled the main axis of the tomb with concrete-hard debris and has caused the ceilings of the tomb to weaken and collapse.

Surviving decoration and the size of the few accessible chambers currently point to a royal burial of some importance, most likely, given the location, the burial of a great royal wife and several children of a Thutmosid king. Work in this tomb is of a difficulty comparable to that in KV 5 in the Valley of the Kings and it will take several seasons to clear the chambers and make the tomb safe."

-Direct quote from the New Kingdom Research Foundation and Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities