AP: Intact tomb found in Egypt's Valley of Kings

[zoony]

Intact tomb found in Egypt's Valley of Kings

First such discovery in the area since Tutankhamun’s in 1922

CAIRO, Egypt - American archaeologists have uncovered a pharaonic-era tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamun’s in 1922, Egypt’s antiquities chief announced.

The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with colored funerary masks along with more than 20 large storage jars still with their with pharaonic seals intact, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement Wednesday.

Still unknown is who was the owner of the tomb. U.S. archaeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the discovery but has seen photographs of the tomb’s interior, said its appearance suggested it did not belong to a king.

...... For Rest of Story Click Here

[iheartskins]

Pretty awesome. Looking forward to seeing more pictures.

[zoony]

And it is worth noting that the team of archealogists are from Tennessee. :cool:

"Moonshine and Ancient Tombs, thats what Tennessee does" :point2sky:

[Cskin]

I too and stoked to see the photos. It's an exciting find. Can we send them to Ashcanistan to find Osama Bin Laden's cave?

[SnyderShrugged]

I think it's cool that it was Americans that made the find. You'd think Egypt would have found it first?

I'm just waiting for protests saying...

"Bush sanctions digging up the dead!"

[jrockster21]

I'm just waiting for protests saying...

"Bush sanctions digging up the dead!"

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

:paranoid:

:phone:

[skinfan133]

this is really cool! i hope none of the artifacts will be lost in translation to the museum, these things should be enjoyed by all! and americans discovered this tomb? thats pretty sweet, you'd think that it was the british or the egyptions who would discover something like that...

[Mooka]

whoa

I didn't think it was possible to find an intact tomb like that. Thought the grave-robbers got em all.

[jpillian]

I'm sure there are still many such tombs that are uncovered throughout Egypt -- the climate is perfect for the preservation of antiquities, and the Egyptians helped matters by being totally fixated on preserving things for perpetuity.

I was reading The Histories by Herodotus the other day, and ran across a very interesting building complex, which as of yet, has not been uncovered. It consisted of a massive labyrinth, pyramids, and a massive manmade lake with 600 ft. pyramids in the middle of it! Pretty mind boggling. Present day archaeologists believe that the whole complex was used as a quary over the several millenia since it's construction -- and therefore it has not been found (for certain).

Enclosed is Herodotus' description of the labyrinth/temple complex (History, 2.148-49):

http://www.catchpenny.org/labyrin.html

Furthermore, they resolved to leave a memorial of themselves in common, and in pursuance of this resolve they made a labyrinth, a little above Lake Moeris, and situated near what is called the City of the Crocodiles. I saw it myself and it is indeed a wonder past words; for if one were to collect together all of the buildings of the Greeks and their most striking works of architecture, they would all clearly be shown to have cost less labor and money than this labyrinth. Yet the temple at Ephesus and that in Samos are surely remarkable. The pyramids, too, were greater than words can tell, and each of them is the equivalent of many of the great works of the Greeks; but the labyrinth surpasses the pyramids also. It has 12 roofed courts, with doors facing one another, 6 to the north and 6 to the south and in a continuous line. There are double sets of chambers in it, some underground and some above, and their number is 3,000; there are 1,500 of each. We ourselves saw the aboveground chambers, for we went through them so we can talk of them, but the underground chambers we can speak of only from hearsay. For the officials of the Egyptians entirely refused to show us these, saying that there were, in them, the coffins of the kings who had built the labyrinth at the beginning and also those of the holy crocodiles. So we speak from hearsay of these underground places; but what we saw aboveground was certainly greater than all human works. The passages through the rooms and the winding goings-in and out through the courts, in their extreme complication, caused us countless marvelings as we went through, from the court into the rooms, and from the rooms into the pillared corridors, and then from these corridors into other rooms again, and from the rooms into other courts afterwards. The roof of the whole is stone, as the walls are, and the walls are full of engraved figures, and each court is set round with pillars of white stone, very exactly fitted. At the corner where the labyrinth ends there is, nearby, a pyramid 240 feet high and engraved with great animals. The road to this is made underground.

Such was the labyrinth; but an even greater marvel is what is called Lake Moeris, beside which the labyrinth was built. The circuit of this lake is a distance of about 420 miles, which is equal to the whole seaboard of Egypt. The length of the lake is north and south, and its depth at the deepest is 50 fathoms [300 feet]. That it is handmade and dug, it itself is the best evidence. For in about the middle of the lake stand 2 pyramids that top the water, each one by 50 fathoms [300 feet], and each built as much again underwater; and on top of each there is a huge stone figure of a man sitting on a throne. So these pyramids are 100 fathoms [600 feet] high, and these 100 fathoms are the equivalent of a 600-foot furlong, the fathom measuring 6 feet, or four cubits (the cubit being six spans). The water in the lake is not fed with natural springs, for the country here is terribly waterless, but it enters the lake from the Nile by a channel; and for 6 months it flows into the lake, and then, another 6, it flows again into the Nile. During the 6 months that it flows out, it brings into the royal treasury each day a silver talent for the fish from it; and when the water flows in, it brings 20 minas a day.