Tutankhamen’s Dynasty in the Valley of Kings

Asharq Alawsat (Zahi Hawass)

The press conference held at the Egyptian Museum last week is still being discussed not only among scientists and Egyptologists but also among lovers of ancient Egyptian civilization, especially as the conference highlighted new scientific discoveries that revealed a great deal about the golden pharaoh Tutankhamen and his dynasty.

We all know that several unknown mummies are believed to have belonged to the royal dynasty. Last week, we wrote about King Akhenaten’s mummy which was proven to have not suffered the deformities shown by his statues. The other significant discovery was Queen Tiye’s mummy, a powerful and dominating figure who married King Amenhotep III or the “Pasha of all pharaohs.” She made the king have sculptures of her made equal in size to those of the king, and he even constructed a luxurious palace dedicated to her in a district called Malqata in western Luxor with an artificial lake for her to walk along with its own boat made especially for her.

It is well known that by using her power and influence, Queen Tiye managed to obtain a royal decree to have her father, Yuya, and mother, Thuya, buried in the Valley of Kings, a place designated to kings alone. The tomb was discovered almost untouched and we managed to obtain DNA samples from the mummies of Yuya and Thuya.