During routine excavations on the northern side of the Amun-Re Temple in Luxor’s famous Karnak temple complex, a team from the French-Egyptian Centre for the Study of the Karnak Temples this week unearthed a gate that they say has led to a significant breakthrough in archaeologists’ understanding of Egypt’s enigmatic 17th Dynasty. It was this dynasty that launched the military campaign that eventually succeeded in ridding Egypt of the tribe of invaders known as the Hyksos.
The gate, carved out of limestone, is engraved with the name of a king called “Sen-Nakht-En-Re.” Mansour Boreik, general supervisor of monuments in Luxor, told Ahram Online that this king’s name was previously mentioned twice – during the Rameside period and during the reign of King Ahmose, the latter of whom is traditionally given credit for expelling the Hyksos from Egypt.
Boreik went on to note that, despite these earlier references to Sen-Nakht-En-Re, archaeologists had believed him to be an imaginary king, since no monuments had ever been found bearing his name. The recent discovery of the pharaoh’s name on the gate in Karnak, however, strongly suggests that the king was, in fact, once a ruler of ancient Egypt.
The gate, carved out of limestone, is engraved with the name of a king called “Sen-Nakht-En-Re.” Mansour Boreik, general supervisor of monuments in Luxor, told Ahram Online that this king’s name was previously mentioned twice – during the Rameside period and during the reign of King Ahmose, the latter of whom is traditionally given credit for expelling the Hyksos from Egypt.
Boreik went on to note that, despite these earlier references to Sen-Nakht-En-Re, archaeologists had believed him to be an imaginary king, since no monuments had ever been found bearing his name. The recent discovery of the pharaoh’s name on the gate in Karnak, however, strongly suggests that the king was, in fact, once a ruler of ancient Egypt.
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