The long-lost coffin of Ramesses II, ancient Egypt’s most powerful pharaoh, has been found more than 3,000 years after his death.
Archaeologists have re-examined a mysterious granite tomb found under the floor of a religious center in east-central Egypt and discovered it belonged to Ramesses II.
Known as Ramses the Great, his reign from 1279 to 1213 BC saw colossal statues and buildings erected in what was to be the final zenith of Egypt’s imperial power.
The remains of a high priest were originally found in a sarcophagus, but the new discovery suggests he removed the pharaoh’s mummy and coffin to reuse the burial.
Egyptologist Frédéric Payraudeau — a teacher and researcher at Sorbonne University in France — made the discovery this month after re-examining a piece of granite discovered in Abydos in 2009.
He determined that the stone, which is 1.5 meters long and 7.6 centimeters thick, has an omitted inscription that reads “by Ramses II himself,” according to a translated statement from France’s National Center for Scientific Research.
“When I read these results, I was overcome with doubt. I asked my American colleague if I could study the file again, and he agreed because of the complexity of the case.
My colleagues believe that the ‘cartouche’ (an oval-shaped drawing with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the accompanying text contains a royal name) before the word ‘king’ refers to the high priest Menkheperre – who ruled southern Egypt around 1000 BC,” Payraudeau said.
The mummy of Ramses II was discovered in 1818 along with other royal mummies in the Deir el Bahari hideout.
“However, the ink on the inscription actually dates from an earlier inscription and therefore points to its original owner,” the researcher added.
He went on to explain that inscriptions of the Book of Doors – an initiation story dedicated to kings in the time of Ramses – were also engraved on the sarcophagus.
“The royal cartouche bears the coronation name of Ramesses II, dedicated to him, but this was hidden by the stone and by a second inscription, added during the reuse process,” Payraudeau said.
The missing inscriptions reveal Ramses II’s coronation name, but are obscured by the stone. Researchers have created a rendering of the original inscriptions
Archaeologists have long known that Ramses II was buried in a gold sarcophagus, which was stolen in the Classical period and moved to an alabaster sarcophagus, which was later destroyed.
Thousands of pieces were placed inside the large granite sarcophagus, which was stolen by Menkheperrê 200 years later for reuse.
“This discovery is new evidence that at this time the Valley of the Kings was not only the subject of looting, but also a place where subsequent kings reused funerary objects,” Payraudeau said.
Known as Ramesses the Great, his reign from 1279 to 1213 BC saw the construction of colossal statues and buildings in what is considered the final zenith of Egypt’s imperial power
Ramsses II was ancient Egypt’s most powerful and famous ruler. Known to his successors as the “Great Ancestor”, he led several military expeditions and expanded the Egyptian Empire, stretching from Syria in the east to Nubia in the south. He was the third pharaoh of Egypt’s 19th Dynasty.
Scientists from Egypt and Britain reconstructed Ramesses II’s face in 2022, using a 3D model of his skull to reconstruct his features.
They then reversed the aging process, turning back the clock by nearly half a century to reveal his face at the height of his power.
Ramses II was famous for building colossal statues of himself
The result is the first “scientific facial reconstruction” of the pharaoh based on CT scans of his skull.
Sahar Saleem of Cairo University, who created the 3D model of the skull, said the results showed a “very handsome” ruler.
“My image of Ramesses II’s face was influenced by his mother’s face,” Saleem said.
However, the facial reconstruction helped bring the mummy to life.
I found the reconstructed face to be a very handsome Egyptian with the typical facial features of Ramesses II – a well-defined nose and a strong jawline.”
Scientists from Egypt and the UK reconstructed the face of Ramses II in 2022, using a 3D model of his skull to reconstruct his features
Caroline Wilkinson, director of the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University, which reconstructed the pharaoh’s face, described the scientific process.
She said: “We take a CT scan of the skull, which gives us a 3D shape of the skull that we can feed into our computer system.
We then have a database of pre-modelled facial anatomy that we import and then modify to fit the skull.
So we’re essentially building a face, from the surface of the skull to the surface of the face, through the muscle structure and the fat layers, and finally the skin.”
Sahar Saleem of Cairo University, who created the 3D model of the skull, said the results showed a “very handsome” ruler.
The project is the second of its kind that Sahar has overseen in recent years, after royal sculptor Christian Corbet completed a scientific reconstruction of Tutankhamun’s face.
“Putting a face on the king’s mummy would humanize him and create a sense of belonging, as well as restore his legacy,” Caroline said.
King Ramesses II was a great warrior who ruled Egypt for 66 years and initiated the world’s first treaty.
