Lost in Time

"You cannot rush perfection. The most beautiful flower takes the longest to bloom."

Valley of the Queens, Egypt

A brush swept past the sand covered wall and revealed the cracks in the edges. The wall was a door. Dr. Zahi Hawass pulled hard on the door with his hand until it gave way. Slowly, it pulled away until he could open it completely. Thousands of years worth of dust poured from the newly opened wall. Dr. Hawass covered his face and waited for the dust to settle and air out. He walked slowly inside and lowered his face scarf. Gold glittered off the sunlight that poured in. Reflected from mirrors in the corners. Light blinded him and he was forced to cover his eyes. After a moment, the glare became bearable and he looked. A richly adorned tomb lay before him. Its ceiling painted with the stars, the walls showing Ra's immensely difficult journey to the underworld. Statues of Isis stood protectively around the sarcophagus. Obviously a royal tomb, fit for a pharaoh.

Dr. Hawass quickly retrieved his camera and began snapping photographs of his newest discovery, unknowing to him just how valuable it truly was.

The next day, Hawass and his team attempted to cut around the sarcophagus. Trying to unseal the lid from the bottom. One tap with the knife and the lid moved. Its seal pre-cut. A look of confusion passed between them. Grave robbers cut the seals to steal jewels from the mummy but what robber would leave behind the vast treasure? Hawass had been the one to find and break the seal to the tomb. Guarded overnight, no one had been allowed in. Only one theory could have been possible. The sarcophagus had not been sealed when it was placed into the tomb. But why?

Dr. Hawass dusted the lid of the sarcophagus to fully reveal a painted head of a woman. Her gold headdress depicting a vulture marked her as a royal wife. It crowned a face more lovely than Nefertiti. The hieroglyphs written below her face translated easily enough; sat nesut en khetef merytef Hetepheres II.( Beloved King's daughter of his body Heterpheres II.)

Hetepheres II was known to be a daughter of Khufu, the pharaoh whom built the great pyramid. The greatest pharaoh of the fourth dynasty. She was the longest lived royal apart from Ramesses the great. Hetepheres's first tomb was to be shared with her first brother- husband, Kawab. Since she outlived him and remarried, her half of the tomb was abandoned. When her second brother Djedefre took the throne after Kawab and Khufu died, she became his wife and therefore queen of Egypt. She outlived him as well and may or may not have married Khafre when he became pharaoh . Records show that she lived into the reign of Menkaure, Khafre's son. Menkaure married the daughter of Hetepheres II and Kawab. It seemed that Meresankh III died suddenly before Menkaure's pyramid was complete. Hetepheres gave up her own tomb in the Valley of the Queens for Meresankh. Sometime after the death of her daughter, she vanishes from history. Her final tomb was lost. Until now.