Tomb of Hetepheres: Khufu's Mother and Her Hidden Burial

The tomb of Hetepheres is a deep shaft at Giza that held the burial equipment of Queen Hetepheres I, wife of Sneferu and mother of Khufu, from around 2600 BC. Discovered in 1925, it contained the only largely intact set of royal grave goods known from Egypt’s Old Kingdom. Yet when its sealed sarcophagus was opened, the queen’s body was not inside.

Who was Hetepheres?

Hetepheres I lived at the start of the Fourth Dynasty, the age of the great pyramids. She was the wife of Sneferu, who built the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur, and the mother of Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid of Giza. Many Egyptologists think she was also a daughter of Huni, the last king of the Third Dynasty, though this is inferred rather than proven.

Her titles, written on objects from the tomb, include “mother of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt” and “daughter of the god”. These link her firmly to Khufu’s reign.

The discovery in 1925

In February 1925 the joint expedition of Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, directed by the American archaeologist George Reisner, was working in the cemetery east of the Great Pyramid. The expedition’s photographer was setting up his camera when one leg of the tripod struck a patch of plaster. Beneath it lay a hidden, rubble-filled shaft.

The shaft, later numbered G 7000X, was cut about 27 metres (roughly 90 feet) into the bedrock. At the bottom was a small chamber crowded with decayed wood, gold sheeting, pottery and stone vessels. Reisner was away at the time, and on his return the team decided to clear it with unusual care.

A two-year excavation

The chamber was cleared over about two years, from 1925 to 1927. The excavators recorded every fragment with notes, drawings and photographs, because the wooden furniture had rotted away and left only its gold casing and inlays on the floor.

This patience paid off. From the records, conservators were later able to rebuild the queen’s furniture. The finds include a carrying chair with gold hieroglyphs, a bed with a footboard, two armchairs, a gilded frame for a canopy that held curtains around the bed, and a box for the curtains.

Other objects included silver bracelets inlaid with butterflies of semi-precious stone, toilet vessels, copper tools and pottery. Silver was rarer than gold in ancient Egypt, which makes the bracelets especially notable. Seal impressions in the chamber name Khufu, showing that the burial was made during his reign.

The empty sarcophagus

In March 1927 the excavators opened the queen’s alabaster sarcophagus in front of invited officials. It was empty. No trace of her mummy has ever been found.

In the same chamber, however, was a sealed alabaster canopic chest. Its compartments held packages of the queen’s internal organs in a solution of natron, the salt Egyptians used to dry bodies. This is one of the earliest known examples of the removal and separate preservation of organs, a key step in the history of mummification in ancient Egypt.

Theories about the burial

Reisner proposed a dramatic explanation. He suggested that Hetepheres was first buried near her husband at Dahshur, that robbers broke in and took her body, and that Khufu had the surviving goods reburied at Giza, perhaps without being told the body was gone.

In 1985 the Egyptologist Mark Lehner offered a different view. He argued that the shaft at Giza was first prepared as her tomb, and that her burial was later moved to one of the small queens’ pyramids beside the Great Pyramid, leaving some goods behind as a cache. Neither theory can be proven, and the question remains open.

Where the finds are today

The original objects from the tomb belong to Egypt and have been displayed for decades in Cairo at the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square. Because the wood had perished, what visitors see is a careful restoration: new wooden frames covered with the ancient gold sheeting and inlays, rebuilt from the excavators’ plans.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which co-sponsored the excavation, made full-size replicas of the bed, chairs, canopy and carrying chair. These copies show the furniture as it would have looked when new. Together the two sets give a rare picture of how a Fourth Dynasty queen lived, sat, slept and travelled, since most royal furnishings of the period have long since vanished.

Timeline

• c. 2600 BC: Hetepheres I lives as wife of Sneferu and mother of Khufu.
• Reign of Khufu: Her burial equipment is placed in shaft G 7000X at Giza.
• February 1925: The Harvard–Boston expedition finds the hidden shaft.
• 1925–1927: The burial chamber is cleared and recorded in detail.
• March 1927: The alabaster sarcophagus is opened and found empty.
• 1955: Reisner and William Stevenson Smith publish the full report on the tomb.
• 1985: Mark Lehner publishes his reinterpretation of the burial.

Why it matters

The tomb of Hetepheres preserved the finest surviving royal furniture of the Old Kingdom and early evidence for the treatment of internal organs. It also shows how careful recording can rescue objects that seem lost. The puzzle of the empty sarcophagus still connects her story to the pyramid builders at Dahshur and Giza, including her husband’s Red Pyramid.