Pyramid built for Queen Neith at Saqqarah, near Cairo, Egypt
Credit: © Zahi Hawass

In a trove of amazing discoveries at Saqqarah, a previously unknown queen has rewritten history. Saqqarah, also spelled Saqqara, was an ancient Egyptian necropolis (burial ground) near the city of Memphis, not far from Cairo. A pyramid excavated there belonged to ancient Egyptian Queen Neith.

Memphis served as Egypt’s capital from the time it was founded, around 3000 B.C., and later remained a religious center and the residence of Egyptian pharaohs (kings). Archaeologists investigating Saqqarah have discovered many antiquities that provide information about life in ancient Egypt. Inside, they have found human mummies, ceramic amulets and jars, and writing implements.

In the past two years, archaeologists digging at Saqqarah encountered coffins, mummies, tombs, and a number of connected tunnels. They first explored the pyramid of Teti, a pharaoh during Dynasty VI of the Old Kingdom period and later a god during the New Kingdom. The Old Kingdom lasted from about 2650 to 2150 B.C., included Dynasties III through VIII. The New Kingdom began around 1539 B.C., with Dynasty XVIII, until about 1075 B.C., when Dynasty XX ended.

Beside Teti’s pyramid is the pyramid of Queen Neith. It was first excavated by archaeologists in 2010, though it was thought to belong to the mother or a wife of King Teti, as a name wasn’t found. A nearby funerary temple was found in early 2021, containing Queen Neith’s sarcophagus (stone coffin). A carving on the wall identified her name as Queen Neith, the wife of King Teti. A fallen obelisk at the temple entrance is also inscribed with the name Queen Neith. Queen Neith died about 4,200 years ago, during the period of the Old Kingdom.

In Egyptian mythology, Neith was the goddess of creation, war, weaving, and wisdom. She was also the patron of the city of Sais. Some accounts say she was the mother of the sun god Re. Others claim she was the mother of the crocodile god Sobek.

The 22 connected tunnels found are 30 to 60 feet (9 to 18 meters) deep. The tunnels contained 300 wood coffins of the New Kingdom period, which had been uncommon at Saqqarah. Some may contain close generals and advisors of King Tutankhamun. Each coffin is decorated with a unique face, name, and scenes from the Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead is a collection of texts containing prayers, hymns, spells, and other information to guide souls through the afterlife, protect them from evil, and provide for their needs. Egyptians had passages from such texts carved or written on walls inside their tombs or had a copy of a text placed in their tombs. Mummification preserved the more than 100 bodies fairly well over the centuries. Statues of gods, games, and a 13-foot (4-meter) papyrus inscribed with Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead were found in the burial shafts.

Millions of animal mummies have also been found at Saqqarah. Animal embalming was a vast industry in ancient Egypt. Such animals as baboons, cobras, crocodiles, falcons, ibises, and mice were commonly mummified. Animal statues and mummies were seen as physical manifestations of gods, and they were included in burials for companionship, protection, or religious offerings in the afterlife. In 2015, archaeologists discovered a Saqqarah tomb complex dedicated to Anubis, the jackal-headed god of mummification. The chamber was found stuffed with nearly 8 million animal mummies—most of them dogs.

Archaeologists also found dozens of mummified cats and scarab beetles in another Saqqarah tomb. Some of the mummified cats may have been treasured pets. Several gilded (golden) wooden cat statues were also found in the tombs, along with a bronze statue of Bastet, an ancient Egyptian cat goddess. Bastet had a large and widespread cult (group of worshipers) in ancient Egypt. The preserved scarab beetles were wrapped in linen inside small decorated limestone sarcophagi. Some ancient Egyptians worshiped Khepri, who had the form of a scarab beetle. Khepri was a god of resurrection and immortality. Khepri was a relatively obscure god in the ancient Egyptian pantheon.

A procession of 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies (18 kings and 4 queens) leave the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square and are driven to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, in Cairo, Egypt, on April 3, 2021.
Credit: © Abaca Press/Alamy Images

Last month, Egyptian royals paraded through downtown Cairo. Called the Pharaoh’s Golden Parade, the procession included 18 kings and 4 queens. The royals traveled from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. As they made the 3-mile (5-kilometer) journey, they were met with cheers from adoring fans. Although the fans were lively, the royals were quite reserved. In fact, the royals had been dead for hundreds of years.

The Pharaoh’s Golden Parade marked the relocation of 22 ancient Egyptian mummies. Mummy is a body that has been preserved through natural or artificial means.

The royal mummies were very fragile. Vehicles designed for the event cradled the mummies on their trip. The roads were even repaved to ensure that the kings and queens had a smooth ride. For protection, the bodies were placed in nitrogen-filled boxes. (Pure nitrogen gas is used as a “blanket” to keep away oxygen, which can further degrade the already-ancient corpses.)

Egyptians mummified their dead because they believed the body had to be preserved for use in the afterlife. The earliest Egyptian mummies were naturally preserved by being buried in the hot and dry desert sand. By about 3500 B.C., the Egyptians had developed an elaborate process of preparing mummies. Ancient texts indicate that the process took 70 days to complete. In this process, the stomach, liver, lungs, and intestines were removed from the body through an incision on the left side of the abdomen. The heart, which the Egyptians considered the center of reasoning, was usually left in place. In some cases, embalmers removed the brain with a hook through a hole pierced through the nose.

After the body was dried, it was treated with perfumes and resins that helped seal out moisture. The body could be stuffed with straw, linen, moss, or other material to give it a more lifelike appearance. The body was then wrapped in a great number of linen bandages. Mummies were usually placed in a coffin or a series of coffins, one inside the other.

Wealthy people could afford more elaborately prepared mummies than could the poor. The ancient Egyptians also mummified animals, including baboons, cats, jackals, and rams, which were associated with various Egyptian gods and cults. Pet cats and dogs were sometimes mummified as well. The ancient Egyptians practiced mummification until about A.D. 300, when it was replaced by simple burials following the introduction of Christianity.

Mummies were also made in other parts of the world. In China, some bodies were preserved using mercury salts. Among the Inca of South America, mummies were preserved through the use of smoke and resins. The dry climate of the Andes Mountains aided the preservation of the bodies. The people of the Aleutian Islands and the Ancestral Pueblo people (once called the Anasazi) of the American Southwest also mummified their dead. Mummification is still practiced today in the form of embalming. Among the most famous modern mummies are those of the Communist leaders V. I. Lenin of Russia and Mao Zedong of China.