Friday, May 23, 2008

Spain, Egypt to investigate 19th century shipwreck

Ria Novosti

Spain and Egypt will start a project later this year to investigate the 19th century sinking of a ship that some believe contained the mummy of a Fourth Dynasty pharaoh, news agency MENA said.

MENA cited Egyptian Ambassador to Spain Yasser Murad as saying the countries would first hold consultations and compare historical records, and attempt to establish the location of the shipwreck.

Khafre, who ruled Egypt more than 2,500 years ago, is known for building the second largest of the three great pyramids at Giza, and may have overseen the creation of the nearby Sphinx.

A ship carrying ancient artifacts from Egypt to Britain that sank off the Spanish coast in the first half of the 19th century is believed by some Egyptologists to have contained Khafre's mummy.


Apparently there is more in Russian from a link on the above page. I'm afraid that my twenty year old GCE o-level in Russian has, over time, left me equipped with little more than the ability to say "I am English". If anyone who understands the article can precis it for me to post I would be most grateful. This is one of those brief posts that raises far more questions than it answers. Very frustrating! Hopefully other online publications will pick up on the story soon - perhaps in Spain first. I'll keep you informed if I find out anything else.

2 comments:

Vincent said...

Hi Andie, as I suggested on my blog yesterday, I think they've confused Khafre with Menkaure. Khafre's body was never found and his black granite sarcophagus is still inside his pyramid.

It was actually Menkaure's sarcophagus that was put onto a ship (the Beatrice) to be transported back to England in 1838 but it sank somewhere between Cartagena and Malta. I believe it is this sarcophagus that they are searching for. Even so, when first found by Howard Vyse the sarcophagus was empty and missing its lid.

Andie said...

Thanks Vincent - much appreciated.