Discover a 3,000-year-old Egyptian tomb near Luxor before floods ruin it

An international team of archaeologists working near Luxor, Egypt, accidentally discovered a tomb about 3,000 years old while trying to protect other monuments from sudden floods. The finding occurred in the necropolis of Lower Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, a UNESCO World Heritage site located at the foothills of the Theban mountain.

The main objective of the project was not to discover new tombs, but to clear debris and redirect rainwater to prevent damage to ancient structures. In that area, heavy rains cause floods that threaten to destroy paintings, walls, and ceilings. By excavating everything with careful archaeological methods, this unknown burial site emerged.

The tomb has the typical design of elite burials from the New Kingdom, approximately between 1550 and 1069 BC. It includes an outer courtyard, a rock-cut chapel, and underground burial chambers. The courtyard retains an adobe platform with a niche for a stela and a staircase with ramps on the sides.

Upon entering the chapel, the researchers saw walls decorated with still vivid paintings. These depict the main owner of the tomb worshiping various deities within shrines, and also sitting next to his wife in front of a table filled with bread, beer, fruits, meat, and flowers.

Who was the owner of the tomb

Based on the style of the images and the iconography, the team dated the tomb to the Ramesside period, between 1292 and 1069 BC. This historical moment is characterized by the numerous pharaohs named Ramses. The paintings provide valuable information about daily life, beliefs, and the social status of the owner.

An initial analysis identified the main owner as an official named Paser. The walls still have a layer of dirt, so when conservation specialists clean them, more information is expected to be obtained about him, his family, and possible later reutilizations of the tomb.

The Theban necropolis, about 10 square kilometers, was the main royal and elite cemetery for half a millennium starting from 1550 BC. It is located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite ancient Thebes, and contains famous sites such as the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, as well as hundreds of private tombs and remnants of temples and palaces.

The team has been working in the area since 2018 in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. One of the central questions of the research is why, during the Ramesside period, officials like Paser preferred to reuse or build tombs next to monuments of the previous dynasty instead of erecting completely new burial sites.

A race against time

The work is being done urgently because climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of sudden floods. Water can activate salt crystals, erase paintings, and even cause the collapse of structures. Therefore, the project combines preventive conservation with archaeological exploration of a sector that has so far been little studied.

Unlike well-known sites like the Valley of the Kings or the great temples of Luxor and Karnak, Lower Sheikh Abd el-Qurna holds rich and still underexplored archaeological material. The decorated tombs that are emerging allow for the reconstruction of the life, funerary beliefs, and art of officials and common people over several centuries.

The team director, Carina van den Hoven, from the Netherlands Institute for the Near East at Leiden University, describes the excitement and tension of the first moment one looks inside a newly discovered tomb: it is unknown whether the ceiling has collapsed, if it has been looted, or if it remains intact. In this case, the surprise was finding a remarkably well-preserved burial site.