This mysterious Egyptian pharaoh's tomb dates back about 3,600 years, during a period of chaos in Egyptian history.
The University of Pennsylvania Museum and Egyptian archaeologists discovered a tomb at a depth of 7m in the ancient cemetery of Anubis Mountain.
The tomb of this mysterious king was discovered in January 2025 in Abydos - an important city in ancient Egypt located nearly 10km from the Nile River. Inside the empty mausoleum, there is a possibility that the grave had been stolen a long time ago.
The pharaoh's name is buried in the mausoleum and is symbolically engraved at the entrance, along with paintings depicting the two goddesses Isis and Nephthys.
Professor of Egyptian archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania Josef Wegner, one of the people who directed the excavation, said that the name of the pharaoh who owned the mausoleum was included in the engravings but could no longer be read after the tomb thefts.
Some pharaots who are likely to be the owners of the mausoleum include Senaiib and Paentjeni - the pharaots who ruled during this period and whose mausoleums have not yet been found.
The mausoleum dates back to the Second Transitional period of Egypt (from 1640 BC to 1540 BC) which was the transitional period between the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom when the Egyptian pharaohs were the most powerful figures in the region.
During this period, Egypt was divided into 4 rival kings, including the Abydos Dynasty, with the pharaots ruled part of Upper Egypt - the southern part of the Egyptian monarchy.
The mausoleum of the unknown king was built inside the larger mausoleum complex of the powerful pharaoh Neferhotep I.
"This appears to be the largest and earliest tomb of the Abydos Dynasty. There may be other tombs in the same area next to the tomb of Neferhotep I," said Professor of Egyptian Archaeology Josef Wegner of the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Wegner's team also discovered the mausoleum of a Abydos pharaoh, Seneb- Kay, in 2014.
"The tomb of the new king could be the predecessor of Seneb- Kay," Professor Wegner said.
The Second Transitional period of Egypt began nearly a millennium after the construction of the Giza pyramids in the outskirts of Cairo, where the tombs of several Egyptian royal pharaots were located. Many pharacts of the new Dynasty, including Tutankhamun, are buried in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.
This is the second time this year that a tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh has been discovered. On February 18, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that a joint archaeological team of Egypt and the UK had discovered an ancient tomb near Luxor dating back to the 15th century BC, believed to belong to pharaoh Thutmose II of the New Kingdom.
