Egypt to announce important find regarding Queen Hatshepsut's mummy

Egypt is to announce on Wednesday an important find regarding the identification of ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut's mummy, Egypt's most famous female pharaoh.

Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass will announce the find, which is "the most important find in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since the discovery of Tutankhamun" in 1922 at a press conference to be held Wednesday at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the council's press office confirmed to Xinhua.

The find might end the centuries-old search for the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to have reigned as a pharaoh in Egypt.

In 1903, archaeologist Howard Carter, who became famous for his discovery of Tutankhamun, discovered two sarcophagi in a tomb known as KV60 in the Theban necropolis, the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

One apparently contained the mummy of Hatshepsut's wet nurse Sitre In and the other of an unknown female.

Later in 1920, he found the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut but the two sarcophagi it contained were empty.

Egyptologists have speculated over the years that the one of the two mummies could be that of the queen because the positioning of the right arm over the woman's chest suggested royalty.

After the death of the queen, her mummy may have been hidden in the tomb for safekeeping because her stepson and successor, Tuthmosis III, tried to obliterate her memory.

The U.S.-based Discovery Channel, which is to air a documentary about the find, said Hawass was able to narrow the search for Hatshepsut down to the two mummies discovered by Carter in 1903.

Discovery said a team of archaeologists would now carry out DNA testing on the 3,000-year-old mummy to confirm her identity.

Hatshepsut, daughter of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I who ruled from 1504 to 1484 BC, was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt.

After the death of her husband-brother Tuthmosis II, she reigned as regent for his son by a concubine, Tuthmosis III.

But Hatshepsut, which means Foremost of Noble Ladies, soon declared herself as pharaoh, donning royal headdress and a false beard.

However, after the death of the powerful queen, Hatshepsut's monuments and tomb were demolished by her jealous successor Tuthmosis III and her mummy was thought to have been lost forever.

Hatshepsut, believed to have served as a co-regent from about 1479 to 1458 BC and reigned longer than any other female ruler of an indigenous dynasty, is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful female pharaohs of Egypt.

Source: Xinhua