A 4000-year-old tomb belonged to the Royal
purification priest named Wahtye, who served during Egypt’s fifth dynasty; from
about 2,500 BC to 2,350 BC, under the reign of king Nefer-Ir-Ka-Re, has
discovered, newly, at the Necropolis complex in Saqqara, on 15 December 2018.
The exceptional unspoiled tomb and mummy which
is being hailed as one of the greatest findings of this decade, grabbed the
attention of all the international media.
Remarkable well-preserved sculptures and
inscriptions 33 feet (10 meters) wide north to south and 10 feet (3 meters)
east to west, all cover its surface.
The tomb’s walls covered with brightly painted
scenes of Wehyte with his mother “Merit Meen”, wife “Weret Ptah” and other
relatives. It, also, contained hieroglyphs and other drawings showed wine and
pottery making, musical performances, sailing, hunting, the manufacture of
funeral furniture and some statues of important priests and his family members.
Wehyte loved his mother very much that he carved her name thousand times on the
tomb’s walls.
The hieroglyphs craved into the stone above the
tomb’s door revealed his titles as a royal purification priest, a royal
supervisor and an inspector of the sacred boat.
The archaeological team found 5 shafts in the
tomb, only one empty shaft was opened and the other sealed will be the next
step in the tomb’s excavations. More excavations will turn up when the digging
resume.
This huge discovery followed the “Tomb of Mehu”
opening for the public for the first time from 78 years of excavations in
September 2018, for this reason Egypt is in the 2nd place in the
CNN’s top 19 places to visit in 2019 list after Christ Church in New Zealand.