The Egyptian antiquities authority announced the discovery of King Thutmose II's tomb near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, marking the first royal burial found since Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. Thutmose II, an 18th dynasty king who lived approximately 3,500 years ago, was an ancestor of Tutankhamun, and his half-sister and queen consort was Pharaoh Hatshepsut.
The tomb's entrance was located already in 2022 in the Luxor mountains, west of the Valley of the Kings. Initially, it was believed to lead to the tomb of a royal wife. However, fragments of alabaster jars inscribed with the name of Pharaoh Thutmose II, identified as the 'deceased king', and inscriptions bearing the name of Queen Hatshepsut confirmed its identity.
The tomb, excavated by a joint Egyptian-British mission led by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the New Kingdom Research Foundation, revealed that the burial chamber had been flooded shortly after the king's burial, damaging the interior. Fragments of plaster bearing parts of the Book of Amduat, an ancient mortuary text on the underworld, were found. Funerary furniture belonging to Thutmose II was also recovered. Dr. Piers Litherland, the mission chief, stated that the team will continue its work in the area to find the tomb's original contents.