New discovery in Thebes

New discovery in Thebes

A large red granite false door belonging to the tomb of
Queen Hatshepsut’s vizier, User and his wife Toy, has been
unearthed in front of the Karnak Temple.Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced the discovery,adding that it was carried out by an Egyptian excavation  team during a routine excavation work.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council
of Antiquities (SCA), explained that the door is 175 cm tall,
100 cm wide and 50 cm thick. It is engraved with religious
texts, as well as different titles of the User, who took office in
the fifth year of Queen Hatshepsut’s reign. His titles included
mayor of the city, vizier and prince.Mansour Boraik, supervisor of Luxor Antiquities and Head of the Egyptian excavation mission, said that the newly discovered door was reused during the Roman period: it was removed from the tomb of User and used in the wall of a Roman structure previously found by the mission.
Boraik said that User is the uncle of the well-known vizier
Rekhmire, who was King Tuthmosis III’s vizier (1504-1452
BC). A chapel of User was also found in the Silsila mountain
quarries in Aswan, which attests to his importance during
Hatshepsut’s reign, as well as the importance of the post of
vizier in ancient Egypt, especially during the 18th Dynasty.
Among the most well-known viziers during this dynasty were
Rekhmire and Ramose from the reigns of kings Amenhotep
III and Amenhotep IV as well as the military chief Horemheb,
who later came to Egypt’s throne as the last king of the18th Dynasty.