EGYPT has “digitally unwrapped” the mummy of famed Pharaoh Amenhotep I, revealing its secrets for the first time since it was discovered in 1881 without disturbing his funerary mask.

Researchers have unearthed new mummification techniques used for the pharaoh, whose rule dates back more than 1,500 BC, thanks to advanced digital 3D imagery.

Cairo University radiology professor Sahar Saleem and renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, a former antiquities minister, led the research, said the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry today.

“Saleem and Hawass used advanced computer software programmes, advanced X-ray technology and computed tomography scanning to digitally unwrap the mummy of Amenhotep I in a safe, non-invasive method without the need to touch it.

“The Egyptian study revealed for the first time the face of King Amenhotep I, his age, health condition, in addition to many secrets about his unique mummification and reburial.”

Amenhotep I is the first pharaoh to be mummified with arms crossed and the last to not have had his brain removed from the skull, according to analysis.

The tomography scan revealed that the pharaoh, who conducted several military campaigns during his 21-year rule, had died at the age of 35, apparently of injury or illness.

The mummy discovered in Luxor, southern Egypt, is the only one to not have had its tight bands unrolled by archaeologists, in order to preserve the mask and garlands of flowers that surround it like hair.

The same method of “technical unwrapping”, as described by Saleem, revealed the “harem conspiracy” in 2012, in which Ramses III had his throat slit in a conspiracy hatched by a wife seeking to have her son on the throne rather than the first-born of a rival. – AFP, December 28, 2021.