Photo by maud on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 18 February 2025, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that tomb C4, in the hills about 2.4 kilometers west of the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, belonged to King Thutmose II. A joint mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the British-based New Kingdom Research Foundation made the find.
Key facts
The team found the tomb's entrance and main passage in October 2022 and first thought it belonged to a royal wife.
Fragments of alabaster jars naming Thutmose II as the 'deceased king', alongside his wife Hatshepsut, settled who it was built for.
It is the first royal tomb discovered in Egypt since Tutankhamun's in 1922.
Surviving decoration includes blue inscriptions, yellow stars and passages from the funerary text known as the Amduat.
Why it matters
Thutmose II was an 18th-Dynasty king and the husband of Hatshepsut, one of Egypt's most famous rulers. His tomb was the last lost royal tomb of that dynasty, and it has yielded the first funerary objects ever linked to him.
Worth noting
Floods damaged the tomb soon after the king's death, and it was found largely empty. The team believes its contents were moved elsewhere in ancient times, so the original burial goods have not been found.