Mummies
French and Egyptian archaeologists said on Monday they had found more than 50 mummies buried in deep shafts south of Cairo and dating from the first millennium BC. Some of the mummies, wrapped in linen and sealed inside stone or wooden sarcophagi, are in an excellent state of preservation for the period, said Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Antiquities Council. Hawass said Egyptians had used the network of shafts and corridors over several centuries, starting from the 26th dynasty (664-525 BC) and continuing into the Ptolemaic period, which ended with the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC. "It's a maze of corridors with mummies everywhere, right and left, up and down. When people came, there was no more space so they put the coffins in the wall, or they cut another shaft, or they put a mummy above a mummy," he told Reuters. - Stay tuned.

Princesses
To see a photo of the Archaic necropolis at Sakkara, where a number of 2nd Dynasty princesses were buried, see KMT, Vol. 15, Summer 2004, p. 48. About some starkley pagan practices it is stated that, "Other consorts were buried in some of the small tombs that surround the kings tombs. ... whether the tomb's occupants were killed or committed suicide so as to accompany the deceased ruler in the next world. These small tombs were equipped with stelae giving the names and titles of the deceased, and among them those with more humble titles are a number with contemporary royal wives' designations. One (Nakhtneith) was found in the complex of the Horus Djer, with three in the subsidiary tombs of the Horus Den."

Abusir
For images and close up maps of the area surrounding Abusir see the article `The Fifth Dynasty's Mysterious Sun Temples' by Miroslav Werner in KMT, Spring 2003, Vol. 14, p. 44ff. This source shows the plan of Abusir, the temple and pyramid of Sahure and its pyramidion. 5th dynasty, remains of the sun temple of Userkaf, the likeness of Userkaf and his pyramid, hieroglyphic determinatives for the temple and interpretatons of the site, the possible site of the pyramid of 4th dynasty Shepseskare, the sun temple of Niuserre at Abu Ghurab and the "Re" offering table.
Just west and in between Abusir and the Saqqara Plateau is the Serapeum located, a little further south of Saqqara the Djoser and Sekhemkhet complex; the Gisr el-Mudir is west of the latter. [JEA, Vol. 85, 1999.]

Events and their Sources
In 1869 the British prince (son of Q Victoria & Pr. Albert) and (daughter of Danish K Christian IX) princess of Wales visited Egypt ruled by the Khedive Ismail. Starting from Alexandria on February 3, 1869 they voyaged to Cairo and later from there to Luxor (465 miles from Cairo), by donkey to the Valley of the Kings, the (Bruce's, found 1769) tomb of Ramses III, Wadi Half in Nubia, some 1000 miles away, using 6 luxurious steamers, and 2 Nubian boats called `dahabiyas.' [See KMT, Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 66-75.]