By Zahi Hawass Everyone remembers the story of Dina and the curse, which touched the hearts of people everywhere. I published this story in my children's book, The Curse of the Pharaohs: My Adventure with Mummies, and I put a photograph of Dina and me in the book. Dina came to Cairo again for a short visit, and she was lucky because at the time of her arrival we were planning to open an intact coffin at Saqqara. I sent my Jeep to pick her up and bring her to Saqqara. The discovery which Dina was going to witness came to light through the routine cleaning of the Late Period levels near the mastaba of Akhethetep, to the north of the causeway of the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara. The French archaeological mission of the Louvre Museum under the direction of Christiane Ziegler had unearthed three burial shafts leading to several intact tombs. Before Dina arrived, I looked at the site and saw three shafts going down about 60 feet each. First I took Dina to visit the smallest of the three. I held her hand and we went down where we faced a limestone sarcophagus. I explained to Dina the date and the history of the sarcophagus, and showed her that it was sealed some 2,500 years ago. I also told her that we could expect to find a mummy inside it. She looked at me with a smile and asked, "can we open it now?", "wait," I said. "Let's see the rest." We descended for another 10 feet under the ground and saw another sealed and decorated coffin. I explained to Dina that the coffin dated to the XXVIth Dynasty, and that we knew this because of the name of the deceased, the style of the wooden coffin and the names of the gods and goddesses that the deceased would meet in the Netherworld. His name was Iah-Ahmose son of Psamtik. and the coffin contained the hieroglyphic inscription from the Book of the Dead that helps the deceased travel to the afterlife. I told Dina that I had a surprise for her and that we were going to move to another shaft. We entered the shaft with Madame Ziegler, and saw a coffin made of wood with an anthropoid face. We began to prepare the opening of the coffin, which had been completely sealed for 2,600 years. I explained to Dina what would happen. "Now, we are going to open the coffin." Dina asked, "what is inside?" I told her we would have to wait and see what secrets were hidden inside this coffin. I could see the fear in her eyes. What Dina did not know was that times like these are the most important moments in my life. I was filled with excitement and anticipation, and I became very quiet and could hear my heart beating as we began slowly to open the coffin. We found that the wood was interlocked, and we had to open it from all four sides. Carefully we began to lift the lid to reveal what was inside, and finally we saw a mummy. Dina screamed, "MUMMY... MUMMY!" The mummy was covered with linen and the face was not visible. We all became silent and I started to see a smile slowly appear on Dina's face. She sat beside me, looking at the mummy as if she knew her, and began to ask me about what was inside. I explained that everywhere between the body and the linen covering the Egyptians hid amulets, such as scarabs and the Djed pillar of Osiris, and that they covered every open area of the mummy with gold. I told her that we would see all of these treasures through a scanning machine. At that moment, I went to another shaft. It descended for about 30 metres and it was impossible for Dina to come with me. I told her, "we will put you in a basket and lower you down slowly with ropes," but she was scared. I went down with a rope and saw that the shaft held hundreds of mummies stacked on top of one another. This was a sight that I shall never forget. I then left the shaft to explain to Dina about the magic of mummies. I told her, "let us go now because I will take you to see the oldest mummy found in Egypt inside the tomb of Nefer." We went to the south, to the other side of the causeway of Unas, and especially for Dina we opened the tomb of Nefer, who was the overseer of singers in the reign of the Pharaoh Niuserre of the Vth Dynasty. This tomb is beautifully decorated with scenes of daily life. Dina was very impressed by the vibrant colours, which are still so clear they appear to have been painted yesterday. I took Dina down about 10 feet into a shaft and showed her a mummy that was about 4,200 years old. She could see the body and the face. I saw Dina looking at the mummy; she wanted to scream but she put her hand over her mouth and closed her eyes and said, "is this the same mummy that I saw in the movie The Mummy ?" I said, "what you see now is a real mummy. and it is the oldest complete mummy to be discovered in Egypt." Dina slowly opened her eyes and looked at the face of the mummy and smiled in fear and wonder.
