The Returns of Ramses

An Egyptian mummy, which is probably pharaoh Ramses I who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, returned home on October 25 from a U.S. museum after a journey that began with a 19th century grave robbery.

The body, which like that of other ancient Egyptian rulers would originally have been laid in a decorated tomb, was flown into Cairo airport carefully packed in a plain wooden crate.

The Michael C. Carlos Museum in the U.S. city of Atlanta acquired the mummy in 1999 but offered to return it after studies by Egyptologists helped by hi-tech scanning equipment indicated it was probably Ramses I.

Ramses I was originally a military commander and is thought to have become a pharaoh around 1290 B.C. He ruled for just two years but founded Egypt's 19th dynasty, which included Ramses II, who was on the throne for several decades.

The mummy -- which bears striking facial resemblances to Seti I and Ramses II, Ramses I's immediate successors -- was acquired by the U.S. museum from a museum at Niagara Falls on the U.S.-Canadian border, the Carlos Museum Web site said.

It said a Canadian collector probably bought the corpse around 1860 for the Niagara Falls institution from an Egyptian family who had stumbled on a tomb filled with royal mummies around Deir el-Bahri, an ancient site near Luxor.

The Abdel-Rassul family sold treasures from the site for several years until they were discovered and the tomb officially revealed in 1881. The remaining cache included the empty coffin bearing the name of Ramses I.

It was not the first time Ramses I's body was disturbed.

He was originally buried in the nearby Valley of Kings, but tomb raiders emptied that grave in ancient times. Priests of a later pharaonic dynasty reburied Ramses I near Deir el-Bahri with the bodies of other rulers whose graves were pillaged.

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Khorsheed.com – Nov, Dec 2003