Discovery of Egyptian 4,000-Year-Old Queen Behenu's Burial Chamber W/ 2 Walls of Green Hieroglyphics

Egypt. March 3, 2010. The Old Kingdom burial chamber of Queen Behenu from 4,000 years ago was discovered on Wednesday by the French team of archaeologists, headed by Philippe Collombert, who excavated the queen's petite pyramid in the area of el-Shawaf at South Saqqara, twenty miles south of Cairo. Saqqara covers 4.4miles x 1mile (7km x 1.5km) of ancient burial ground for the Ancient Egyptian capital Memphis. Collombert's French team is one of ten teams working in Saqqara.

Inside the 33'x16' burial chamber is Queen Behenu's granite sarcophagus, which is intact. The distintegrated mummy of Queen Behenu lies within. The granite is engraved with her various titles but does not name a husband. Collombert described the queen as mysterious since she may have been married to either King Pepi I or King Pepi II, who each ruled during 6th dynasty circa 2232-2283 BC and 2278-2184 BC respectively. Queen Behenu's pyramid lies west of King Pepi I's.

Since 1989, seven Old Kingdom pyramids in the necropolis Saqqara have been unearthed. Queen Behenu's pyramid, which is 27 yards (25m) long, is the seventh. The other six queens' pyramids are those of Inenek, Nubunet, Meretites II, Ankhespepy III, Miha, and a mystery queen.

The 2010 discovery of Queen Behenu's burial chamber is excitingly notable- secondarily for its intact sarcophagus and primarily for the two intact walls of engraved Pyramid Texts in green hieroglyphics. The undamaged texts are Old Kingdom religious spells for protecting and resurrecting the mummified body- and helping the dead royal personage to ascend to heaven for his glorious afterlife.

The Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, broadcast the Queen Behenu find. Hawass is an Egyptian archeologist and Egyptologist who is particularly known for discovering the pyramid of Queen Sesheshet.

While ancient Egypt was sometimes ruled by a woman, it was more often ruled by a man. The most notable female ruler was Hatsheput, who was the highly-accomplished fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty and whose successful 22-year rule began in 1479BC. Other dynasties that are known to have had female pharaohs are the 1st, 3rd, and 12th. However, the 6th-dynasty regents seem to have all been men. Most of those regents had queens. But there is no 6th-dynasty queen known to have become a regent or pharaoh. Still, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt was a woman- Cleopatra VII.

Sources: heritage-key; discovery; huffingtonpost; wikipedia; ancient-egypt