State of the Art Technology permits mummified face of 3,000 years old Pharaoh Amenhotep digitally unwrapped

Pyramids at Egypt

Archeologists were thrilled when they first saw the face of 3,000 years old mummy Pharaoh Amenhotep I digitally in the Cairo Museum of Egypt.

Amenhotep I, Egyptian King, a founder of the 18th dynasty & the world’s first follower of a monotheistic religion that led him to worship the sun god Aton, was the son of the father named Ahmose I, believed to reigned in ancient Egypt from 1525 – 1504 BC.  Amenhotep I was known for his effective role in extending ancient Egyptian boundaries in Nubia (now part of Modern Sudan). In the beginning era, Amenhotep I was not expected to inherit the throne because of the presence of his two elder brothers named Ahmose-ankh and Ahmose Sapair in the royal family but after the demise of an heir, became crown prince and later had acceded to the throne, ruled ancient Egypt for about 21 years and died at the age of 35 years.

Mummified Mummy

Advancement in X-ray technology, digital software, and Computed Tomography (CT) scans by scientists paved the way for the unearthing of mummy pharaoh wrappings and mask in the digital way for archeologists and historians for knowing much deeper that was not possible earlier. The remains of the ancient Egyptian King, Amenhotep I, which were found in 1881 in Deir Al Bahari in southern Egypt, approximately 3,000 years ago, were examined digitally by the Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and Cairo University Professor Sahar Saleem, first time without harming and destroying mummy. The state-of-the-art technology has allowed them to remove mummy pharaoh wrappings in a digital way.

For the first time, Egyptian historians saw virtually the ancient king's face inside of the sarcophagus by collecting thousands of images via X-ray and CT scans and used software to process the captured images into 2D and 3D models. During their virtual examination of mummy pharaoh, they found that ancient Egyptian king Amenhotep I was about 165 centimeters in height, facial resemblance features similar to his father Ahmose I, and closure of forearms resembled Osiris position which was followed by ancient kings during royal mummification.

Egyptian team of experts also virtually saw the curly hairs preservation, oval face, narrow chin, intact teeth, 30 amulets worn between the wrappings and inside of king body, golden beads belt but noted a number of wounds in the neck and limbs on mummy pharaoh. Revealing the secrets behind wounds on the neck and limbs, historians said that perhaps robbers would had inflicted harm while looting jewelry. But when priests found after plundering by robbers, they added the jewelry and restored the mummy pharaoh. But the cause of the demise could not be identified. Pharaoh’s brain was found inside the skull and not removed by embalmers was an exceptional case for observers because most often during the time of greater mummification in ancient Egypt, priests usually had removed all the internal organs except for the heart because the heart was considered soul repository for them.