Beyond Montet: New discoveries in the royal necropolis of Tanis
Following Aidan Dodson’s history of the Libyan pharaohs of Egypt in the last issue, Roger Forshaw explores the latest discoveries from the site of Tanis, their capital city.
pharaohs
Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold
A glittering exhibition at Battersea Power Station in London explores the life and legacy of one of ancient Egypt’s most famous rulers. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
Amenemhat IV and Sobeknefru
In the last of his series of articles on the Twelfth Dynasty, Wolfram Grajetzki investigates the reigns of Amenemhat IV, and Sobeknefru, Egypt’s first female king.
Senusret II
Continuing his series focusing on the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty, Wolfram Grajetzki explores the reign and innovations of Khakheperra Senusret II.
Win a copy of Ancient Egypt: a photographic history by Nigel Fletcher-Jones, published by Amber Books
Where is this? If you know, email the Editor peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com before 31 August with your answer, giving your full name, address, and a contact phone number. One lucky reader will have their name selected at random from all the correct…
Bust of Ankhhaf
An unusually lifelike piece of sculpture, supposedly depicting an important Old Kingdom official, is analysed by Campbell Price.
Tutankhamun: The immersive exhibition
A recently opened experience in London is using virtual-reality technology to explore the life and times of one of ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaohs, as Carly Hilts reports.
Win a copy of The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome by Guy de la Bédoyère, published by Yale University Press
Where is this? If you know, email the Editor peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com before 30 June with your answer, giving your full name, address, and a contact phone number. One lucky reader will have their name selected at random from all the correct…
Tomb of Thutmose II
The discovery of a new Egyptian royal tomb in Western Valley C (adjacent to the Valley of the Kings) has been confirmed.
Senusret I: The Twelfth Dynasty king who transformed Egypt
Wolfram Grajetzki explores the life, reign, and legacy
of one of Egypt’s lesser-known pharaohs.
The rediscovery of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut
Aidan Dodson retraces the very first discoveries and excavations that restored these two New Kingdom pharaohs to their place in ancient Egyptian history.
The silver pharaohs: The treasures of Tanis
Roger Forshaw describes the discovery of the first intact royal tombs in Egypt and explains the importance of the treasures discovered there by French Egyptologist Pierre Montet.
The piety of Ramesses III: Personal religion in ancient Egypt
Diana Liesegang shows us a lesser-known side to the great warrior king of the Twentieth Dynasty.
From fragment to scene: The reliefs from the funerary complex of Mentuhotep II
Maarten Praet is on a mission to track down and document the few surviving painted fragments that once adorned the innovative Middle Kingdom temple at Deir el-Bahri.
Sarcophagus of Ramesses II
A fragment of inscribed granite found at Abydos in 2009 belonged to the sarcophagus of Ramesses II, according to new research published in Revue d’Égyptologie. The piece was found beneath the floor of a Coptic monastery and identified (Damrani and…
Statuette of Khufu
Dr Campbell Price describes the unique statuette of one of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs.
The treasure of Tanis: A discovery rivalling that of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Situated in the north-eastern part of the Nile Delta, ancient Djanet (Tanis) was the residence and burial place of the kings of the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasties. In the late 1930s and early ’40s, a complex of royal tombs was…
The great of dread in the foreign lands: Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III
Robert G Morkot tells us about the life and achievements of one of the most remarkable and influential characters of the New Kingdom.
Breaking Ma’at: Akhenaten and the battle for Egyptian tradition and identity
Jason S Whitmarsh explores the revolutionary impact of Egypt’s so called ‘heretic king’.
The Royal Road to Meroë
Karl Harris continues his journey through Sudan, retracing one of the overland routes taken by the Meroitic rulers of Kush.
Cartouches: Field Guide and Identification Key
REVIEW BY SG Being able to identify the kings by name can unlock the mysteries of monumental inscriptions and scenes. Thus a handy reference to help the beginner identify kings by their cartouches would be really useful. There are such…
Ramesses The Great: Egypt’s Kings of Kings
REVIEW BY CATHIE BRYAN Ramesses II is notorious for his self-promotion and propaganda, rather than being famous for his many achievements and cultural advances. To adjust the balance, Wilkinson addresses what Ramesses, the only king of Egypt known as ‘the…
The lost mansion of the Golden Pharaoh
Dylan Bickerstaffe investigates the evidence for Tutankhamun’s long-lost mortuary temple.
Tutankhamun’s face
Tutankhamun’s face has been recreated by researchers from Australia, Italy, and Brazil to demonstrate a new modelling technique based on the use of digitised graphic information. Although the team did not have access to the king’s actual remains, they were…
Win a copy of The Oldest Book in the World by Bill Manley
Do you recognise this object?
Ramesses II, Egypt’s ultimate pharaoh?
REVIEW BY SG Ramesses II is known as ‘the Great’, yet there are far fewer volumes dedicated to his reign than to earlier New Kingdom kings, such as Akhenaten and, of course, Tutankhamun. So this is a timely publication –…
Heliopolis finds
The joint German-Egyptian mission at Heliopolis, excavating the area surrounding the Obelisk Open-air Museum, has discovered a series of stone fragments from statues depicting Ramesses II, Ramesses IX, Horemheb, and Psamtek II. The finds include heads belonging to sphinxes that…
Win a copy of ‘The Story of Tutankhamun’
Do you recognise where in Egypt this photograph was taken?
This week: Pharaohs
For almost 200 years, visitors to the British Museum have stood in awe in front of the statue known as the Younger Memnon – one of two colossal granite heads which originally flanked the entrance to the Ramesseum mortuary temple…
Pharaohs Quiz
A bite from which creature is thought to have killed the boy king Tutankhamun?
The Temple of Mentuhotep II at Deir el-Bahri
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith explores the innovative Middle Kingdom monument that inspired Hatshepsut’s famous Deir el-Bahri temple.
Records of the pyramid builders: discovering eye-witness accounts of a legendary construction project
How did Egypt build the pyramids? It is a question that has excited the imagination of scholars and visitors for millennia. Now papyri documenting work on the Great Pyramid are revealing fresh insights into construction work. Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner told Matthew Symonds how combining text and archaeology can expose the secrets of an extraordinary building project.
Egypt’s golden couple: a family affair
John Coleman and Colleen Darnell present new interpretations of the imagery from the fascinating reign of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
The face of Ramesses II
A team from the Liverpool John Moores University ‘Face Lab’ and the University of Cairo have created reconstructions of the face of Ramesses II at the ages of 45 and 90. The images were created using computed tomography (CT) data,…
Face of Ramesses II reconstructed
3D reconstruction work has enabled researchers to put a face to Rameses II, one of Egpyt's most powerful pharaohs, 3,300 years after his death.
Chariot kings: the image of the pharaohs
From Ahmose I to Horemheb, the depiction of kings in Egypt’s 18th Dynasty was a tale of tradition and innovation. Even as the image of the chariot-riding warrior pharaoh became entrenched, there were more radical changes to come with the Amarna style of Akhenaten, as Guy de la Bédoyère explains.