IMPORTANT DISCOVERY AT THEBES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 136, 10 June 1898, Page 3

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY AT THEBES.

MUMMIES OP EIGHT KINGS

FOUND,

For the following details I am i» debted (says a correspondent) to Sir K. Garatin, Under-Secretary of State fo* Public Works, who entered the tomn described below immediately after its discovery about three weeks ago. As a sequel to his discovery of King Thothmea 111. at Thebes, M. Loret, DirectorGeneral of tho Antiquities Department, has discovered and opened the tomb of Amenophis 11., a king of the 18th dynasty, who relgened some 1500 years B.C. The find is among the moat interesting ever made in Egypt,, as, althougn the .jewellery, etc., were rifled from tha tomb probably during the 20th dynasty, tho mummies of Amenophis and of seven other kings are intact. The tomb la entered by v steep Inclined gallery, which terminates in a well of some w feet la depth, and this obstacle surmounted ~Il?M?n,i a? Ce,u° lho knte"s sepulchre is reached. Jn the first chamber the boay of a man Is found bound on to a richly painted boat, his arms and feet tied with cords, a piece of cloth stuffed as t, n %t% M»to his mouth, and marks of wounds on the breast and head. In the next cha Her are laid out the bodies o£ a man, i. woman, and a boy h.ii£ no. °'i ll ie four b0(llcs has been embalmed, but owing to the drvnesa of the atmosphere they are all In the most COMPLETE STATE OF PRESERVATION.

and the features resemble to a markea golden stars, a nd the walls aro entirely S d n wlUl PainUngß, the colours o£ saw? r t 2?^jf as£3g sarcophagus Is of sanduton* artificial^ coloured a bright rose hue, and contain tho mummy intact, with cnaplets of flowers round the feet and neck In * small chamber to the right are

NINE MUMMIES, two of them bearing no name, and the and Ramoses VIII., who all rXed be" tweafi about 1500 and 1150 B O Th« mmmm flr«f till can 1)G ImaGined. For th<£ romnvn w' R °yal M™f e h a df be«m Tn? Hafotv^ 1? t?? Ir tt mh* and secrete* lerod victims in a klnsj'a tomb hrow some light upon the vS n S