Ramses 1 - A Story of Tomb Robbers & Saviours

Ramses 1 triumphant arrival at Luxor Museum followed an extraordinary tale of tomb robbers and eventual saviors.

Ramses was the Father of Seti 1, and the Grandfather of Ramses the Great, who was named after him. Ramses 1 was not of Royal birth, although he was born to a noble military family, he was the son of a Troop Commander named Seti.

Across the river at Dier El Bahari in 1888 the Rassul brothers, local tomb robbers, after severe beatings, and harassment of their village on the Westbank of Luxor, had eventually admitted that they had found the secret hiding place of forty great Kings, Queens and Royal Family. It is considered that Priests had removed the Kings from their own tombs to protect them from Tomb robbery when the High Priest of Karnack ruled, I think he probably moved them from their Tombs to use their treasures, as the days of Egypt's supremacy had died many years ago with the Loss of the Great Royal Kings

When the cache of forty Kings Queens and other Royalty was found at Dier El Bahari by Ahmed Rassul, The mummy of Ramses 1 was missing, although his sarcophagus was found with the rest of the kings. It appears that the Rassul brothers had sold Ramses 1 for seven pounds to a Canadian physician named James Douglas who had acquired the mummy for the owner of a museum at Niagra Falls.

Over a hundred years later In 1980 a German Egyptologist visited the museum and recognized the features of Ramses the great as he looked at this mummy, he was aware that the mummy of Ramses 1 had been missing from the cache, and also this mummy had its arms crossed and its hands appeared to have been grasping what could have been the symbols of royalty which indicated that it was a royal mummy.

In 1999 the Niagra Falls Museum closed and the mummy was sold to the Carlos Museum for two million pounds,. The museum arranged for cat scans and compared the details with the mummies of Seti 1 & Ramses 11 and were convinced that they had in their possession the mummy of Ramses 1, and with this knowledge they generously offered to return the ‘lost’ king to his homeland.

And so Ramses 1 arrived at Cairo airport, his sarcophagus was draped with the Egyptian flag, and he received a military escort even though he had been dead for thousands of years. Eventually plans were made to return him to the place of this throne and burial in ancient Waset, now modern Luxor,

A flotilla of boats escorted Ramses 1, along with Ahmose 1, 'The Warrior Kings', up the river Nile to a military celebration and welcome that waited for them on the Eastbank of Luxor. Their sarcophagus were then driven by horses through the town on a special white barque to a joyous reception held for them at Karnack Temple, from there they were driven to their new home and their final resting place within the new Military Wing that had been specially created for them at Luxor Museum the 'Warrior Kings' had arrived home to jubilation once more.