When archeologists opened a coffin in the famous Valley of the Kings in Egypt, they expected to find a mummy. Instead, they got flowers.
Indeed, the quest for the mother of the young Egyptian King Tutankhamun or King Tut ended on a bizarre note as the 3,000-year-old coffin - the last sarcophagus at the site - was filled with garlands of ancient flowers that researchers had never seen before.
They believe the dehydrated flowers were worn by ancient Egyptian royalty who were buried in different places there. Historically, the desert region was used as a royal burial ground.
"I prayed to find a mummy, but when I saw this, I said it's better - it's really beautiful," said Nadia Lokma, the chief curator of Cairo's Egyptian Museum.
"It's very rare - there's nothing like it in any museum. We've seen things like it in drawings, but we've never seen this before in real life. It's magnificent," he added.
The tomb, which archaeologists call KV63, is believed to be part of a secret hiding place for materials used in embalming members of the royalty. Aside from the flowers, researchers also uncovered embalming materials, pottery and fabric.
Stephen Harvey, assistant professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at the University of Chicago in Illinois, said the ancient Egyptians apparently made a lot of preparations prior to embalming members of royalty.
"It's just a wonderful kind of human moment - a window into this very intimate process," he said.
King Tut reigned for nine years and died at the age of 19 supposedly of gangrene after breaking his leg in an accident. He is responsible, among others, of lifting the ban on the old Egyptian gods and their temples and moving the Egyptian capital back to Thebes. The discovery of his intact tomb in 1922 led to renewed interest in ancient Egypt.
"King Tutankhamun still rests in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, in a temperature-controlled glass case. On November 4, 2007, 85 years to the day since Howard Carter's discovery, the actual face of the 19-year-old pharaoh was put on view in his underground tomb at Luxor, when the linen-wrapped mummy was removed from its golden sarcophagus for display in a climate-controlled glass box. This was done to prevent the heightened rate of decomposition caused by the humidity and warmth from tourists visiting the tomb," said the editors of Wikipedia.
Obviously, the ancient Egyptians valued flowers just as we do today. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a world without flowers, especially since the latter are used to express a variety of emotions and feelings. - 15437
Indeed, the quest for the mother of the young Egyptian King Tutankhamun or King Tut ended on a bizarre note as the 3,000-year-old coffin - the last sarcophagus at the site - was filled with garlands of ancient flowers that researchers had never seen before.
They believe the dehydrated flowers were worn by ancient Egyptian royalty who were buried in different places there. Historically, the desert region was used as a royal burial ground.
"I prayed to find a mummy, but when I saw this, I said it's better - it's really beautiful," said Nadia Lokma, the chief curator of Cairo's Egyptian Museum.
"It's very rare - there's nothing like it in any museum. We've seen things like it in drawings, but we've never seen this before in real life. It's magnificent," he added.
The tomb, which archaeologists call KV63, is believed to be part of a secret hiding place for materials used in embalming members of the royalty. Aside from the flowers, researchers also uncovered embalming materials, pottery and fabric.
Stephen Harvey, assistant professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at the University of Chicago in Illinois, said the ancient Egyptians apparently made a lot of preparations prior to embalming members of royalty.
"It's just a wonderful kind of human moment - a window into this very intimate process," he said.
King Tut reigned for nine years and died at the age of 19 supposedly of gangrene after breaking his leg in an accident. He is responsible, among others, of lifting the ban on the old Egyptian gods and their temples and moving the Egyptian capital back to Thebes. The discovery of his intact tomb in 1922 led to renewed interest in ancient Egypt.
"King Tutankhamun still rests in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, in a temperature-controlled glass case. On November 4, 2007, 85 years to the day since Howard Carter's discovery, the actual face of the 19-year-old pharaoh was put on view in his underground tomb at Luxor, when the linen-wrapped mummy was removed from its golden sarcophagus for display in a climate-controlled glass box. This was done to prevent the heightened rate of decomposition caused by the humidity and warmth from tourists visiting the tomb," said the editors of Wikipedia.
Obviously, the ancient Egyptians valued flowers just as we do today. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a world without flowers, especially since the latter are used to express a variety of emotions and feelings. - 15437
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