CAIRO: Egypt's Minister of State for Antiquities Zahi Hawass will open 7 tombs in the New Kingdom Cemetery in South Saqqara for tourism for the first time on Monday. The site contains the famous tomb of Maya, who was the treasurer of King Tut, as well as the tomb of Horemheb, the general of King Tut who later became king. According to a ministry statement, they are in the process of developing a management plan for the Saqqara site. The goal is to create value for the site as a possible tourism destination through visibility of signs and the promotion of local communities in the area as well as bolstering security for the new site. “Maya and Horhemb, were very important men during one of Egypt's most tumultuous periods, the Amarna Period,” the ministry said in a press statement. “During this time, the pharaoh Akhenaten closed Egypt's most important temples in Luxor and moved the capitol to a site in the middle of the desert called Akhetaten or Tell el-Amarna. He even changed the principal state god from Amun to the sun-disk, called Aten. “When Akhenaten died, his son, one of the most famous kings of Egypt, Tutankhamen, became king. King Tut decided that he would restore order to Egypt by moving the religious capitol back to Luxor, reinstating the god Amun and abandoning Tell el-Amarna. In order to make all of these changes, King Tut needed the assistance of his treasurer and his general,” it added. Maya was King Tut's treasurer and was part of the process of restoring Egypt to her pre-Amarna status. “He helped the King to reopen the temples in Luxor as well as build new temples and shrines to Amun to show that King Tut was dedicated to restoring order to Egypt,” said the ministry. The tombs were first discovered in 1843 by Richard Lepsius, but were not fully excavated until an Anglo-Dutch mission began excavating in 1975. Currently, a Dutch team from Leiden University, led by Geoffrey Martian, excavates at the site and are rediscovering and restoring these amazing tombs. BM
