A French archeological mission has unearthed a 4,000-year-old rare pink granite sarcophagus belonging to a little known ancient queen of Egypt, the Culture Ministry said Wednesday. The mystery queen identified as Bahnou, was “one of the queens of the Sixth Dynasty which ruled Egypt from 2374 to 2192 BC,” antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement. The Old Kingdom queen's chamber was badly damaged except for two inner walls covered with spells meant to help her travel to the afterlife, he said in a statement. Such engraved spells, known as Pyramids Texts, were common in royal tombs during the 5th and 6th Dynasties, Hawass said. But experts are confused on who was Queen Bahnou's spouse. “We still do not know if she was the wife of Pepi I (2354-2310 BC) or of Pepi II (2300-2206 BC),” Hawass said. According to Philippe Collombert who headed the French team, she was “probably” the wife of Pepi II. The discovery was made in the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo. The pyramid, where the sarcophagus was found, was revealed to be that of Bahnou and is located among a group of other pyramids close to that of Pepi I. The 2.6-meter-tall (8.5-foot) sarcophagus was found in the pyramid's funerary chamber, where prayers were etched into the walls to help ease the queen's passage into the afterlife. One side of the sarcophagus bore the hieroglyphic inscription “the king's wife and beloved.” Galal Muawwad, an antiquities inspector who worked with the French team, stressed that the sarcophagus was a “very rare” find. “Its rarity comes from the fact that the main body is pink while the lid is in black basalt. This is very rare,” he said, without dismissing the possibility that the lid came from another sarcophagus.
