Sounds like an mystery novel? But it’s not.
New analysis suggests that the Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramses III was murdered by having his throat slit by his wife and son. Gruesome, eh?
New CT scans have revealed a deep and wide cut that was hidden by the bandages covering the throat of the mummified king, which could not be removed previously in the interests of preservation.
Albert Zink, a paleopathologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy, which led the investigations, said that “Finally with this study we have solved an important mystery in the history of Ancient Egypt“.
The study, which took place in Cairo, discovered an amulet that had been inserted into the king’s wound which Zink said embalmers placed there in the hope it would heal the cut in the “afterlife”.
Ramses III reigned from around 1186 to 1155 BC and historians have long debated the cause of his death.
In the Egyptian Museum in Turin, one of the world’s leading resources for Ancient Egyptian artifacts and relics, there are papyrus documents that describe a conspiracy by Tiye, one of his wives, to kill the pharaoh so her son Pentawere could take the throne.
During these latest investigations it appears that a previously unidentified mummy also in the burial chamber of Ramses III could possibly be the body of Pentawere. The investigations show he could have been hanged or that he was forced to kill himself as a punishment for the conspiracy.
On your Nile cruise you will be able to visit the tomb of Ramses III in the Valley Of The Kings. His mummy is now on display in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.
