Adventures Inside the Pyramids and with the Mummies with my Students

Adventures Inside the Pyramids and with the Mummies with my Students Zahi Hawass

I taught last semester Old Kingdom pyramids at the American University in Cairo January 2001 - May 2001.
We did a field trip with 14 students from different universities in the states. We first went to Bahriya Oasis and the students visited the Valley of the Golden Mummies and participated in the excavation. They worked in the discovery in one tomb that contained 11 mummies but all the mummies were found headless. We also found this year maybe the best eleven mummies ever found, all had beautiful masks. Mona Lisa Mona Lisa is the name we chose for a mummy of a young lady about 18 years old. She has a beautiful face, so much so that I thought the original Mona Lisa was coming back!
The Crying Baby Also, we found a mummy of a child. The artist made tears to come out of his eyes on his mask. I called it the crying baby. Until now, we have found about 234 mummies in the Valley of the Golden Mummies. I also took the students to see the excavation of the family of the governor of Bahriya. The students also excavated on this site and Marli Hope recorded our trip with her digital camera.
Last year we found 4 tombs of the family of the governor of Bahriya, Djed-Khonsu-eup-ankh and this year we found the tomb of his wife Naesa II and beside her mummy found 203 pieces of gold and other amulets made of precious stones. Also found this year was the tomb of his father Badi-Iset and beside the anthropoid sarcophagus we found 30 beautiful shawbtis (Statuettes left beside the deceased to answer the questions in the afterlife.) Beside him was the tomb of his wife, Naesa I. Next season in October we will excavate under the houses of the town El Bawiti to look for the other 8 members of the family who ruled Bahriya in the 26th Dynasty during the reign of King Apris and Ahmosis II (500 BC) and we'll also continue in October to excavate at the Valley of the Golden Mummies.
We also entered inside the Great Pyramid and the students visited the five relieving chambers above the King's Chamber. We also entered inside the south tomb art Saqqara.

Inlaid Faience tiles in the South Tomb of Djoser at Saqqara
Also the Bent Pyramid and the pyramid of Sesostris III at Dahshur:
The lower chamber of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur	The burial Chamber in the Pyramid of Unas
Excavation at Giza We will continue in September to excavate in the tombs of the pyramid builders and also to the south of the causeway of Menkaure. We are excavating now in the Western Cemetery, west of the pyramid of Khufu restoring the tombs and assigning a number to each tomb that is written in Porter and Moss. We finished about 62 tombs and we also finished about 32 tombs in the area south of the causeway of Khafre.
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