Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Ancient Egypt

These Trees Uncover What Plunged Egypt’s Climate Into Chaos

Examining tree rings inside the world’s oldest trees reveal a seismic event that took place around 3,500 years ago

Egyptian Princess May Have Been Buried in Newly Discovered Pyramid

An inscription suggests that the tomb once belonged to a pharaoh’s daughter

Funerary garden discovered by CSIC’s research team.

First Evidence of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Garden Found in Luxor

Researchers have theorized that lettuce and palm trees were once planted there to honor the dead

None

How One Englishman’s ‘Grand Tour’ Helped Crack the Hieroglyphic Code

Thebes is the burial place of seemingly countless Egyptian royals and noblemen.

Cool Finds

Mummies and More Than 1,000 Statues Found in Egyptian Tomb

The treasure was buried near Luxor

Entrance into the newly discovered pyramid

Cool Finds

New Pyramid Discovered in Egypt

Earlier this week the interior structure of pyramid was uncovered at the Dahshur Necropolis, home to some of Egypt’s earliest pyramids

Conservators carefully unfold the shroud, which had been stored in a brown paper parcel for some 80 years.

Ancient Egyptian Shroud Gets New Life After Rediscovery in Scottish Museum Collections

The shroud, which dates to Egypt’s Roman period, is etched with a hieroglyphic inscription and “unusual” art

A boy rides his bike by the recently discovered statue that may be of Pharaoh Ramses II, one of the Egypt's most famous ancient rulers.

Huge Statue of Egyptian Pharaoh Discovered in Cairo

It may be a likeness of Ramses II, ancient Egypt’s most powerful ruler

Detail from the stela of Mentuwoser, c. 1955 B.C., shows the steward preparing for a feast.

Atlas of Eating

For Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, Life Was a Banquet, But the Afterlife Was the Greatest Feast of All

Life after death for the Ancient Egyptian elite included lots, and lots, of food

A sandal believed to have belonged to King Tutankhamun at the Grand Egyptian Museum conservation center.

For the First Time, All 5,000 Objects Found Inside King Tut’s Tomb Will Be Displayed Together

Take a sneak peek at the collection of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, opening in early 2018

Queen Nefertari's knees

New Research

Researchers Identify Queen Nefertari’s Mummified Knees

Found in 1904, new research confirms the mummified fragments in a Turin museum likely belong to ancient Egypt’s beautiful and revered queen

New Research

Archeologists Discover Nearly 2,000-Year-Old Pet Cemetery in Egypt

Containing 100 lovingly positioned creatures, the site suggests that the ancients could have valued their companion animals as much as we do

Cool Finds

Newly Uncovered Ruins Reveal 7,000-Year-Old City in Egypt

Ancient huts and tombs could be the final resting places of local elites

A detailed image of the baby crocodiles inside the mummy.

Cool Finds

Crocodile Mummy Found Packed With Dozens of Smaller Crocodile Mummies

The little critters escaped notice until high-powered modern scanners tackled the mummified remains

Sarah Parcak

American Ingenuity Awards

Space Archaeologist Sarah Parcak Uses Satellites to Uncover Ancient Egyptian Ruins

The Indiana Jones of low Earth orbit harnesses 21st-century technology to uncover long-buried treasures

Why Was King Tut’s Tomb Prepared in Such a Rush?

When archeologists discovered mold formations in King Tut’s tomb, they worried the sweat and breath of tourists were the cause

Trending Today

Archaeologists Detect Two Previously Unknown Cavities Beneath Giza’s Great Pyramid

But don’t get too excited just yet

New Research

New DNA Analysis Shows How Cats Spread Around the World

Felines spread in two waves including moving around Europe on Viking ships, according to researchers

This image shows a scrap of the indigo-dyed fabric (right) and a diagram of the cloth (left), highlighting the blue stripes.

New Research

Earliest Evidence of Indigo Dye Found at Ancient Peruvian Burial Site

The dyed fabrics represent the earliest known use of indigo in the world, predating Egyptian samples by about 1,600 years

Cool Finds

Ancient Egyptian Stories Will Be Published in English for the First Time

Translated from hieroglyphics on monuments, tombs and papyri, the book will present tales few outside of academia have read

Page 16 of 20