Discovery of the Tomb of King Thutmose II, the Last Lost Tomb of the Kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt - The tomb is the first royal tomb to be found since the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922 The joint Egyptian-British archaeological mission between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the New State Research Foundation was able to discover the tomb of King Thutmose II, the last lost tomb of the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt, during excavations and archaeological studies of Tomb No. C4, whose entrance and main passage were found in 2022 in the Wadi C area of ​​​​Mount Thebes, west of Luxor, which is located about 2.4 kilometers west of the Valley of the Kings area, where evidence was found that clearly indicates that it belongs to King Thutmose II. Mr. Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, praised the archaeological excavations taking place in the area, which have revealed more secrets and treasures of the ancient Egyptian civilization, as this tomb is the first royal tomb to be found since the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that when the mission found the entrance to the tomb and its main passage in October 2022, the work team believed that it might be the tomb of the wife of one of the kings of the Tamsi, given its proximity to the tomb of the wives of King Thutmose III, and its proximity to the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, which was prepared for her as a royal wife before she assumed the reins of rule of the country as king and was buried in the Valley of the Kings.

However, with the completion of excavation work, during this season, the mission discovered new archaeological evidence that identified the owner of the tomb, King Thutmose II, and that the one who took over the burial procedures was Queen Hatshepsut, as his wife and half-sister.

He stressed that the parts of the alabaster vessels found in the tomb had inscriptions bearing the name of King Thutmose II as the "deceased king", along with the name of his main royal wife Hatshepsut, confirming the identity of the owner of the tomb. The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities described this discovery as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent years, as the artifacts discovered there are an important addition to the history of the archaeological area and the reign of King Thutmose II, as the funerary furniture of this king was found for the first time, for whom there is no funerary furniture in museums around the world.

For his part, Professor Mohamed Abdel Badie, Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities and Head of the Mission from the Egyptian side, indicated that the tomb was found in a poor state of preservation due to its exposure to floods shortly after the king's death, as the water flooded the tomb, which required the archaeological team to recover the fallen pieces of mortar and restore it, noting that initial studies indicate that the contents of the main tomb were moved to another place after being exposed to floods during the ancient Egyptian era.

He added that the discovered parts of the mortar contain remnants of blue inscriptions and yellow sky stars, as well as decorations and paragraphs from the book "Emi Duat", which is considered one of the most important religious books that were specific to the tombs of the kings in ancient Egypt. Dr. Piers Liserland, head of the archaeological mission from the English side, said that the tomb is characterized by a simple architectural design that was the nucleus of the tombs of the successive rulers of Egypt after Thutmose II during the Eighteenth Dynasty. The tomb includes a corridor covered with a layer of white plaster, leading to the burial chamber in the main corridor of the tomb, where the floor level is about 1.4 meters higher than the floor of the chamber itself. It is believed that it was used to transport the contents of the main tomb, including the body of Thutmose II, after it was flooded by flood waters.