The secret of mother of king Khufu by Kyrllos Eskandar
Queen Hetephers one of the most important queens in the ancient Egyptian history, she is mother of the builder of the greatest pyramid in the Egyptian history king Khufu, and wife of king Senefru the founder of the 4th dynasty, and daughter of king Huni the last king of the 3rd dynasty; because of her pure royal blood and her titles as a daughter of the king and a mother of the king and a wife of the king, she should be buried in one of the most prestigious tombs in the history of ancient Egypt,
Surprisingly her tomb was such a humble small shaft known now as “G7000x” hastily dug on the eastern side of Khufu’s pyramid.
Even the remains of her funerary objects were scattered all over the burial chamber, and her sarcophagus was empty when it opened by the Egyptologist Resiner on March 3, 1927.
Here is the question; Why doesn’t she has a prestigious pyramid next to King Khufu like his wives and where is her mummy?!
Many Egyptologists have tried to solve this riddle, and now we have three hypothetical scenarios about the burial of the queen.
First hypothesis by Resiner suggests that the queen died during the first part of the reign of King Khufu, and was originally buried by him at Dahshur complex next to her husband’s pyramid. Sometime afterward, Resiner believed that her tomb violated by the robbers and her mummy was stolen. When Khufu heard that her tomb had been robbed, he took the remaining contents and moved it secretly to Giza where shaft G7000x was hurriedly dug to receive the funerary objects.
Mark Lehner objects to Resiner’s opinion on many important points; for instance how would the robbers have missed easily portable valuables such as the silver bracelets, and where is the original burial of the queen at Dahshur. And it is hard to imagine Khufu allowed his mother to be reburied with broken pottery and violated funerary equipments.
Mark lehner instead has suggested that Hetepheres originally buried in this hastily shaft and this shaft intended to has a superstructure but it abandoned when the plan of the funerary temple of khufu was modified, then he built the three small pyramids and the Queen’s body was taken from G7000x and reburied with new funerary equipment inside one of the three pyramids.
Dr Zahi Hawas doubts the two theories, he raises some questions how could her funerary equipment been moved all the way from Dahshur to Giza secretly and where is her first tomb as Resiner suggested,
And if shaft G7000x was her original burial place as lehner suggested why it left in such disorder?! why the queen would be buried in haste?! Most importantly why they left the Canopic jars of the Queen in this shaft while her body moved to a new burial place?!
Dr Zahi believes Hetephers was originally buried in the northernmost of the small pyramids next to khufu pyramids known now as G1A.
He explains that, during the first intermediate period later after khufu reign there was a considerable amount of vandalism taking place on the giza plateau, and a lot of evidences suggest that much of khufu complex were destroyed during this time. He therefore believes that Hetephers’ burial could have been disturbed at this time, and her body stolen by thieves looking for jewels. He thinks that it is possible that afterwards, priests connected to khufu cult might moved what remained of her burial to hide it from further violation in shaft G7000x.
After all these hypothesises, the fact is that the mystery of the burial of queen hetepheres still unsolved, maybe with further discovery in the future our questions might be answered.
by Kyrllos Eskandar
Tourist guide & Egyptologist
facebook page: Kyrllos Eskandar-Egypt Tourguide
youtube channel: Egypt Mayor of guidance
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