In a discovery that adds new chapters to Egypt’s ancient history, archaeologists have unearthed the burial chamber of an unknown pharaoh who ruled southern Egypt approximately 3,600 years ago.
A joint Egyptian-American archaeological team made the discovery at the Mount Anubis necropolis in Abydos, about 300 miles south of Cairo. The tomb dates to the Second Intermediate Period (1630-1540 BCE), a time when Egypt was politically fragmented with the northern regions controlled by foreign Hyksos rulers while various Egyptian kings governed the south.
“The royal tomb in Abydos provides new scientific evidence on the development of royal tombs in the Anubis Mountain necropolis,” said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The discovery adds “new information about the kings of this dynasty and a deeper understanding of the complex political history of the Second Intermediate Period in Egypt.”
Located more than 20 feet below ground, the limestone burial chamber features vaulted arches formed of mud bricks that originally stood approximately 16 feet high. The tomb is significantly larger than others previously discovered from the Abydos Dynasty, a royal lineage whose very existence was once doubted by some archaeologists.
Both sides of the tomb’s entrance bear inscriptions dedicated to the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, sisters commonly associated with death and resurrection in ancient Egyptian mythology. The king’s name would have been recorded in painted scenes that decorated the underground entrance, but the hieroglyphic texts were damaged by tomb robbers and erosion over the millennia.
Josef Wegner, an Egyptologist from the University of Pennsylvania who led the American portion of the excavation, noted the historical significance of the find. “It’s a new chapter in investigating this dynasty,” Wegner told The New York Times. Although the tomb was looted in antiquity, with the pharaoh’s mummy and sarcophagus removed, Wegner remains optimistic about future discoveries in the area. “It’s always our dream to find one that’s intact or partially intact. There may yet be tombs like that.”
Experts believe the tomb may have belonged to a predecessor of King Senebkay, whose burial chamber was discovered at the same site in 2014 by Wegner’s team. That earlier discovery was instrumental in confirming the existence of the Abydos Dynasty.
Professor Anna-Latifa Mourad-Cizek, an archaeologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the excavation, described the find as “highly significant” for understanding “a fascinating period when Egypt was controlled by competing powers.”
The Mount Anubis necropolis, named for its natural pyramid-shaped mountain, is considered one of ancient Egypt’s most sacred burial sites. The landmark reportedly inspired later pharaohs, including Senwosret III, to build their tombs beneath its peak.
In a separate discovery announced simultaneously, archaeologists unveiled a pottery and glass workshop in the village of Banawit, north of Abydos. Dating to the Roman era (30 BCE to 642 CE), the facility contains multiple kilns and extensive storage areas, suggesting it was one of the region’s largest manufacturing centers.
The workshop site yielded more than 30 pottery fragments inscribed with Greek and Demotic text detailing tax payments and commercial exchanges. Between the seventh and fourteenth centuries CE, the area was repurposed as a cemetery, with archaeologists finding family burials including the mummified remains of a child wearing a colorful cap.
These discoveries come just weeks after archaeologists identified the tomb of Pharaoh Thutmose II near the Valley of the Kings, marking 2025 as an extraordinary year for Egyptian archaeology. Prior to that February announcement, no royal tomb had been discovered in the region since Howard Carter’s famous 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.
