Royal Cache

Royal Cache commonly refers to the large 19th-century discovery of reburied royal mummies at Deir el-Bahari near ancient Thebes (Luxor). The site yielded the remains of numerous pharaohs and royals who had been relocated and hidden by Egyptian priests to protect them from looting.

The best-known deposit, often called DB320, contained many of the mummies of the New Kingdom and later rulers and was removed and catalogued after its discovery; many of those royal mummies were transferred to museum collections for study and display. The cache illustrates ancient practices of reburial and the measures taken to safeguard royal dead.

The reburials are generally attributed to temple priests operating during the late New Kingdom and early Third Intermediate Period (around the 11th century BC onward) who concealed royal burials. The modern discovery and excavation in 1881 is a landmark event in Egyptology because of the number and importance of the mummies and funerary goods found.

The site is in the Theban area on the west bank of the Nile at Deir el-Bahari, adjacent to the mortuary temples and tombs of the Theban necropolis near present-day Luxor.

• Discovery: Discovered in 1881, the cache contained the reburied remains of many pharaohs and high-status individuals, moved by priests during the 21st Dynasty to protect them from tomb robbery.

What to See#

• DB320 (Deir el-Bahari): A tomb designated DB320 at Deir el-Bahari where a large group of royal mummies were reburied by priests to protect them from robbers; the cache was discovered intact in the 19th century.