Message #122164

[Bianca]

At the Valley of the Kings on the west bank at Luxor, Egyptian excavators cleaning the corridor of Pharaoh Seti I's tomb unearthed a quartzite ushabti (human representation) figure and the cartouche of Pharaoh Seti I, the second ruler of the 19th Dynasty, while a number of clay vessels were also unearthed along with fragments from the tomb wall paintings that may have become dislodged and fallen off after its discovery.

The length of the corridor was remeasured and found to be 136 metres long, not the 100 metres recorded in the original report by Belzoni, the tomb's discoverer. Geological studies revealed the corridor was not carved inside the tomb as one single piece but was formed of separate parts, each with its own architectural features as if it were a gate leading towards the afterlife. Utensils used by the famous 19th-century tomb robber Abdel-Rassoul and his family were found in the dust, among them a tea caddy, cigarette packets and a fly whisk.