Tutmoses II's tomb discovered after centuries of mystery
- Christelle Delli
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Exactly a year ago, an extraordinary discovery was made in Egypt.
For the first time in over 100 years, archaeologists discovered a new royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
It was the long-lost tomb of Thutmose II, a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt’s 18th Dynasty whose burial place had remained a mystery for centuries.
That dynasty includes some of the most famous rulers in history:
Hatshepsut, the bold female pharaoh who ruled as king (and wore a fake beard) and reshaped Egypt’s monuments
Akhenaten, the revolutionary who challenged Egypt’s gods
Tutankhamun, the boy king whose tomb stunned the world in 1922
And so until February 2025, Thutmose II’s tomb had never been found, leaving a gap in Egypt’s royal story.
What makes this discovery even more interesting is where it was found.
The tomb was uncovered in the western Theban mountains near Luxor, in an area traditionally reserved for the burials of royal women and children, not kings. Known as Tomb C4, its entrance was first spotted in October 2022, beneath the cliff tomb of Neferura, Thutmose II’s daughter.
At first, archaeologists assumed they had found a queen’s tomb.
But then the clues didn’t add up:
A wide staircase
A large descending corridor
Architecture far grander than expected
But more importantly, archaeologists found fragments of a blue-painted ceiling scattered inside the chamber, once studded with yellow stars. In ancient Egypt, this star-filled ceiling symbolised the night sky and the pharaoh’s transformation into a divine being who would travel with the sun god. Crucially, blue ceilings covered in golden stars were only ever used in kings’ tombs.
The walls revealed even more. They were decorated with scenes from the Amduat, a sacred funerary text describing Ra’s dangerous journey through the underworld during the twelve hours of night, knowledge reserved exclusively for pharaohs.
Together, these details left no doubt: this was not a queen’s tomb, but the burial place of a king.
But which one?
The answer came from alabaster jar fragments inscribed with the names of Thutmose II and his wife, Hatshepsut.
Interestingly, Thutmose II’s mummy was not in the tomb. His preserved body had been discovered much earlier, in 1881, hidden in the Deir el-Bahari royal mummy cache (DB320), a secret site used by ancient priests to protect royal mummies from tomb robbers. Today, his mummy is part of Egypt’s national collections.
Archaeologists believe the tomb was damaged by flooding, possibly prompting ancient priests to relocate his body.
But here’s the plot twist: the archaeologists now believe they may have identified a second burial location nearby, possibly containing the actual resting place of Thutmose II and his actual remains! If confirmed, it could still hold undisturbed funerary objects or new clues about how Egypt’s kings were protected after death.
This discovery finally fills a missing chapter of the 18th Dynasty, the same royal line that would one day produce Tutankhamun.
Now, as one mystery is solved, new questions arise: what else remains buried beneath the Theban mountains?
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