Discoveries Loom at Pyramids?
Buried in a painted cliffside tomb, the "purification priest" Rudj-Ka likely lived about 4,350 years ago and served in a dead pharaoh's cult.
Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic
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| Workers brush sand from artifacts at the pyramid builders' cemetery in 2001. |
Although Hawass thinks the workers' graves and the newfound tomb might be linked, another possibility is that the tomb of Rudj-Ka could be a western extension of the massive necropolis of Memphis, on the edge of modern-day Cairo, he said.
"The location is surprising," Hawass said. "We never expected to find a big, large tomb like this in the south of the pyramid builders' [cemetery] at all."
