Exploring Egypt with Dr. Hawass

Dr. Zahi Hawass is likely the most famous archaeologist in the world at the moment. He’s active on a number of projects, sometimes traveling abroad to give a talk or leading groups around Egypt’s bounty of archaeological sites. He continues to play a large role in major excavations and is known for promoting Egypt and native-born Egyptologists.

He and his team discovered the necropolis of the builders of the pyramids at Giza, began excavations of tombs at Bahariya Oases, initiated the Egyptian Mummy Project, discovered major tombs, and more.

In the past, he has held various positions in the government, culminating as Supreme Head of Antiquities. Dr. Hawass has published many books and is a frequent presence in the media. Now on Netflix is Unknown: The Lost Pyramid, in which Dr. Hawass and his team search for the Pyramid of Huni at Saqqara. 

Around twenty-five years ago, I met Dr. Hawass after his lecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. I recall some of his humor on the topic of pyramid power. (Years before that, he had a Fulbright Award to complete his doctorate at UPENN.) The audience was excited to see his slides and hear about his latest projects and Egyptology in general. Afterwards, he signed books. In June 2023, I met him after his lecture during his Grand Tour in New York City.

Recently, he was very generous in granting me this interview on Zoom (below). There is such antiquity and brilliance to ancient Egypt that draws in countless people around the globe. It is solid and real and seems to float in your mind. It is one of the cradles of civilization and has influenced history and cultures from then to now.

Egyptology, like so much else, is a changing field, with one of the revolutions being the use of advanced technology – the focus of this interview. Yet, from early on, technology and discovery have worked hand in hand. High Tech illuminates more and more.

President Barack Obama & Dr. Hawass exploring on an expedition. (Public Domain)

This interview between Dr. Hawass and Dr. Richard Marranca:

Greetings Dr. Hawass. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule. I know you’re involved in a number of projects. Last spring, I met you after your Grand Tour lecture in New York City. You get around. You have an abundance of spirit. 

It’s my pleasure to see you. Well, it’s a passion for archaeology – giving all this energy to continue and excavate, lecture and travel.

That’s very inspiring. I know you’re very involved with high tech for discovery and excavation. Can we talk about that?

Of course. With technology, we are using many things to help us now, like the use of robots to study pyramids. Also, there are very new techniques such as infrared and ultrasound; these new techniques have never been used before to explore voids inside the pyramid. We are using robots and 3D to record graffiti inside the five chambers above the king’s chamber.

Also, we’re using 3D for recording the Golden City. 3D gives great details of the discovery. We’re also using a CT scan to know the secrets of the mummies’ DNA and to know relationships between mummies. New technology has become very important to archaeology.

Was it hard to learn about all this new technology? And can we start with the Great Pyramid?

Sure. I hire the expertise in that field, and they do the work for me. We have a team that will come next week to finalize the big voids inside the Great Pyramid. Until we decide how, we are going to take photos of these big voids in the pyramids through the new techniques – we’ll make a big announcement about this discovery.

The tunnel is 20 by 20 centimeters (7.87 in). The only way to reveal any secrets of the pyramid is to use a robot. And the robot is the one that found all these doors in the pyramid.

What about the use of X-rays and CT scans?

X-rays can’t be done in a tomb, because you cannot move the CT scan. We have a CT scan from the Siemen’s company next to the Cairo Museum in Tahrir Square.

Tutankhamun

Since the time of the discovery in 1922, Tut has had endless fascination for people around the world. Can you tell us about him and his family?

DNA research is being done on how Tutankhamun died. DNA research is being done on Queen Nefertiti and her daughter, Ankhesenamun, the Queen of Tutankhamun.

We’re still waiting for the results. I found out that he was in an accident two days before he died. We are searching now to see if he had an infection when he died. We hope to make an announcement about Nefertiti soon as well.

Now we have to wait. If for sure that this accident caused infection, then maybe he was hunting wild animals in the Valley of Gazelles. He’s the only king who built a rest house at Giza. He could rest after a hard hunting day because he had some physical problems and needed rest. And that’s why he built this palace near Khafre, the builder of the second pyramid in Giza.

Based on the scenes – and with his wife, Ankhesenamun. Tut loved nature.

Scanning the Pharaohs: CT Imaging of the New Royal Kingdom Mummies by Dr. Zahi Hawass was recognized as one of the 2016 Outstanding Academic Titles. (American University of Cairo)

It’s hard to keep up with the latest research on the family – that is, Akhenaten and the others. Can you shine a candle on this research?

We published the family. We found out that Akhenaten was the father. We found the mummy of his mother. We found the mummy of Queen Tiye. This had been published and announced about the family. I think two months from now, we’ll be able to make a big announcement of the discovery of the mummy of Queen Nefertiti and the mummy of her daughter Ankhesenamun, and how Tutankhamun died.

We found his mummy. Our project was the family of Tutankhamun. We found the mummy of Akhenaten in KV55. The features of the body are a translation of what’s written in the poem of Atun. Like they say, you are the man, you are the woman. And they gave the body of all Amarna people the features of Atun. This is why not only kings and the queens but even the common people — you can see the swollen stomach and the body.

(The pyramids at Giza are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – and the only one still intact. They may have lost most of their brilliant limestone casing, but they are still mountainous, incredible and mysterious. There is much in the news lately about how they were built. Dr. Hawass has something to say about that.)

Did you find the tombs of the pyramid builders?

Yeah, we found the tombs of the pyramid builders. We found the lower cemetery of the workmen who moved the stones and the upper cemetery for the technicians. And to the east, we found an area for sorting salted fish. The bakery: we found the villages that the workmen lived in it, and we have evidence that the workmen who built the pyramid were 10,000 workmen. They’re working for the king, and they were paid by the households on Upper and Lower Egypt. In return, the households did not pay taxes to the king.

It’s very important to discover the life of the people who built the pyramids. This is amazing. I never thought that this discovery could happen, but I’m really glad that this is a major discovery that tells us for the first time that the builders of the pyramids were Egyptians and there were no slaves, because if there were slaves, they would never be buried in the shadow of the pyramids. If they were slaves, they would never prepare their tombs for eternity like kings and queens.

Pyramids: New Theory in Old Bottles

I have seen a bunch of articles recently about how the pyramids were built – something about waterways. Can you delve into that?

Waterways are something that we found 35 years ago. And what’s written in this article is not new. We published that the Egyptians cut another River Nile to the west of the existing one, connected with canals and harbors. And we have the jar of papyri that the overseer, the inspector of the workmen, telling us about transporting white fine limestone for the casing of the pyramids through cargo boats. We knew this 35 years ago. What has been published recently is not really new.

You called the Valley of the Golden Mummies “A Festival of Mummies.” A lot of mummies – they revealed a lot, right?  

We examined the mummies and the site with X-rays because we cannot move the CT scan. And the X-ray tells us about how they died, the age of the person, of death, any diseases that they suffered. The x-ray gives us information about the persons and how they died. And we examined many mummies that were discovered in the Valley of the Golden Mummy.

Valley of the Golden Mummies at the Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt. (Viktor Lazić/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Bioarachaeology is really fascinating. Can you tell us what the mummies revealed about the health, diseases and dental problems of these ancient people?

You know, I think the most important thing that we found, for most of them is that they died early. It’s because the water in the well was full of iron and that affected their health.

We found in our research with the CT scan many diseases. We found one mummy, she had a heart attack and that’s why she opened her mouth. One mummy, she had cancer. All types of diseases that you can imagine were found through our Egyptian mummy project to study the mummies through a CT scan. A CT scan can take 1,000 photographs of each mummy and can give you a lot of information about the age of death and about many other things.

Yes, cancer and plague. Any kind of disease they found. The mummies found recently show evidence of heart attacks. And we found out, when she had the heart attack, she opened her mouth. That’s why they call this mummy ‘the screaming mummy.’ Mostly we examine the mummies of the royal family. We very rarely examine mummies of the common people, because the common people also never mummified. Mummification can be done by the people who can afford it only.

Can you tell us about their diet? Also is it true they drank a lot of beer and had some huge breweries?

Yeah, of course. Beer was very important for the ancient Egyptian. Then, the national diet for the ancient Egyptian was eating garlic, onions, bread, and drinking beer. They had five kinds of beer in the time of building the pyramids.  Beer-making facilities were found everywhere. And in most of the tombs of the Old Kingdom and the New Kingdom, there are many scenes of how they made beer and many scenes of people drinking.

Woman Pouring Beer. (Public Domain)

Egypt was known as a breadbasket with a diverse diet. This was made possible by the Nile.  

The Nile was very important because it gives fertility to the land. And this is why the land and agriculture were very important to the Egyptians because through agriculture, they could eat wheat and barley and make beer. Also, the Nile connected with Upper and Lower Egypt to be the important source of transportation for the Egyptians.

I know you have just a few minutes. Can we focus on some of the new stuff, Lidar, Satellites, Drones?

I don’t believe satellites are very important. For example, if you walk on the site of Saqqara, you can see tombs in front of you. I don’t really believe that satellite images are very important for the accuracy of vision.

We use drones when filming only, and we did this at Saqqara and the Golden city in Luxor.

What are new projects – and what would be a dream discovery for you?

I’m working on the secrets of the Great Pyramid, what’s behind the doors, searching for the Lost Pyramid of Saqqara, working with DNA to find out that the mummy of Queen Nefertiti and her daughter, excavating in the Valley of the Kings to search for the tomb of Queen Nefertiti and other missing kings, and also to excavate in a valley that’s not known to the public. I think that 2024- 2025 is going to be a very important time for archaeology. My dream is to discover the tomb of Queen Nefertiti in the Valley of the Kings.

Top image: Zahi Hawass examining a Mummy (2018).     Source: Muhammad A. Fadoul/CC BY-SA 4.0)

By Dr. Richard Marranca