Who is Queen Meres Ankh|||?
She is the daughter of Prince Kawaab, the eldest son of Khufu and the high priest, kawaab was going to succeed khufu in the throne, but he died before he could reach that. while her mother Is Queen HetepHeres II“Htp.hr.s”, Meres Ankh is the granddaughter of King Khufu, “The owner of the Great Pyramid”. She got married from King Khafrea, “the owner of the second pyramid”, she gave birth to 5 children these included a daughter named shepsetkau and four sons ”Duaenre – Nobhotep –niuserre and khenterka”. Queen Meres Ankh died suddenly and was buried 272 days after her death, according to the inscriptions on the entrance to her tomb as shown in the archaeological description.
Her titles on the walls of her tomb:
- King's daughter
- King's wife
As shown in hieroglyphs.
- Where is the location of the tomb?
It is located In the Giza plateau in the eastern cemetery of the
Great Pyramid as shown in the picture. And this is in contrast to the graves of her relatives.
Photo 1 explain the tomb location |
The story of the tomb discovery.
When was the tomb discovered?
It was Discovered on April 23, 1927 AD.
Who discovered and how?
The British Archaeologist George Reisner discovered it.
By British archaeologist “Reisner "when the gangs was cleaning the third mastaba in the fifth row from the west. At the last day of the season, we suddenly discovered an entrance under the entrance wall of this mastaba later we discovered two steps leading to the entrance level, it was at a depth of two meters. We found inscriptions on the entrance with the titles of Queen meres ankh, then we removed the debris in the entrance and entered our heads one after another inside the tomb but we could not enter the main room because of the sand.
Architectural description of the tomb:
The tomb has a benk formed shape called mastaba, the tradition of old kingdom tombs. It consists of an entrance that leads us to the main room and it has two entrances to the north hall which has 10 statues, another entrance leads us to the west hall and we find in the west room an imaginary door in front of it a 5-meter long shaft that leads us to the underground burial chamber. The burial chamber is empty and consists of 4 walls that housed the burial coffin of Queen Meres Ankh|||.
Writings and scenes a visitor can see when visiting the tomb:
Photo 2 explain the inscriptions |
Looking at the entrance of the tomb, we find some inscriptions as mentioned in our definition of Meres Ankh. These inscriptions indicate the date of death and burial of the queen. On the right side is the date of death, which is the first year, the first month of The third season "summer” is on the 21th, but on the left side we find the date of burial, which is the second year, the second month of the second season "winter”, on the 18th. This indicates that the time between her death and burial was 272 days.
The main room:
photo 3 explain khufu's names |
When we enter the main room, we find in the northern wall some beautiful inscriptions, the first thing that must be clarified is to mention the name of King Khufu, the owner of the Great Pyramid, which is shown in pictures, while we find the largest Inscription of a figure Inside the tomb, which is the Inscription of her father, Prince Kawaab standing and wearing a white priestly scarf.
He looks at the room of statues of his daughter and wife, perhaps the purpose of which was to direct him to perform their own rites as high priest.
Photo 4 explain inscription's of prince kawaab |
Next to Prince Kawaab we find the inscription of Queen Hetepheres|| and her daughter Meres Ankh sailing and collecting papyrus plants to present to the goddess “Hathur”. Next to them we find inscriptions expressing Bearers of various things of meat, fruit and some activities of daily life.
photo 5 meres and her mother sailing |
On the opposite wall she and her mother and her eldest son are shown, her mother wearing a queen’s dress with the dress shoulder like a pyramid. While her son wears the scarf of priests like his grandfather.
Photo 6 explain meres,her mother and her eldest son |
On the south wall of the room are the offerings, clothing and furniture that the queen needs in the other world. We also find statues of unnamed men.
Photo 7 explain the south wall |
Also in this wall we find inscription of the artist drawing himself while carving the statue.
photo 8 the artisit drawing himself |
The northern room:
When we enter the northern room, we find 10 statues standing next to each other in the wall, a unique and untraditional in the old kingdom. Because it was a society dominated by men. These statues may illustrate the placement of Meres Ankh among her relatives.
Photo 9 explain 10 statues |
The west room:
Photo 10 explain meres and her mother  |
It was considered the main room of Meres Ankh for performing rituals, an unfinished room with intertwined statues of Meres Ankh and her mother to express the extent of affection and love. We see an imaginary door facing a 5-meter shaft leading to the burial chamber.
On the north wall in the western room we find inscriptions of daily works that were practiced, people dancing and some doing trade.
photo 11 explain people dancing  |
Photo 12 explain trade activity  |
Burial chamber:
Photo 13 explain the burial chamber  |
It is a simple chamber consisting of four walls in which there was the queen's burial coffin, which was made of black Granite. It measures 2.16 x 0.87 x 0.80m in height, with a 0.18m thick lid. There was also her own skeleton, our source of information about her age at death comes from her skeleton that was found in the burial chamber. From examining and scanning the skeleton we knew that she was 1.54 m and died between 50 and 55 years old, the coffin and skeleton are archives In the Egyptian Museum.
The room also contained some canopic jars that were used to preserve the internal organs of the deceased, and are now preserved In the Museum of Fine Arts In Boston.
Finally:
In our article, we talked about Queen Meres Ankh III and her great tomb, which many do not know about, we explained who Is Meres Ankh||| and her family, the location of the tomb, the date of its discovery, and who discovered It. Architectural and archaeological description of the tomb.