Mummy in the Pyramid of Giza? Who was actually buried here

The answer to the question of who is buried in the Pyramids of Giza is shorter than most expect: nobody today.

No king has ever been found in any of the three great structures. No mummy, no wrappings, no grave goods, no canopic jars. In the burial chamber of the largest pyramid stood an open lidless sarcophagus, and it was empty. The middle one was similar. In the smallest pyramid something was found, but it dates from entirely different epochs, more on that shortly.

It is important to distinguish between intent and finding. The structures were built as tombs, as evidenced by the entire building plan: sarcophagi, sealing stones, mortuary temples, cult activities. Who was intended to be buried is also known. Whether the burials actually took place and when the chambers were emptied is another question, and it remains open.

This gap between plan and finding is the actual subject of this page. It also explains why the search for a mummy in these structures comes up empty and why the more interesting burials on the site are located elsewhere.

A clarification on terminology first. A mummy is a preserved corpse, and the preservation technique we know from museums was still under development at the time the pyramids were built. The elaborate embalming with wrappings, amulets, and masks that shape our image comes from much later epochs. Even if a corpse had been found in one of these chambers, it would not have looked like what most people expect.

Because there are abundant burials in Giza, several thousand even. Just not where everyone looks.

Who was buried in the Great Pyramid

Who was buried in the Great Pyramid, if we ask about the intention? The builder himself, King Khufu.

This is well documented, not by an inscription in the structure, but by markings of the construction crews in the relieving chambers above the burial chamber, which contain his name. These spaces were never intended for entry, which is why the markings are considered particularly reliable. The official description of the structure follows this attribution.

So there was a grave in the Great Pyramid, with a granite sarcophagus so wide that it had to be installed before the lid could be closed. After the interment, the ascending passage was sealed with ton-weight granite blocks.

What happened afterwards is unknown. When in the 9th century a tunnel was driven into the north face and the passage system was reached, the room was already empty. Between the interment and this point lie three and a half thousand years, and in this span the administration collapsed multiple times, necropolises went unguarded, and royal tombs were systematically looted. This is abundantly documented for other structures, but not specifically for this one.

One detail speaks for plundering in antiquity. The sarcophagus shows damage to edges and a corner, as occurs during forced opening, and a lid is missing entirely. Someone who opens a sarcophagus properly lifts the lid and places it beside it; someone who breaks it open smashes it. Not a single fragment of the lid has ever been attributed.

It is also conceivable that there was never an interment here, perhaps because the king was buried elsewhere. Evidence for this is also lacking. The sealing stones argue against it, for no one seals an empty passage.

The find in the smallest pyramid

In the smallest of the three pyramids, something was actually found, and this find is a lesson in how carefully one must read such reports.

In 1837, a British officer gained access to the interior using explosives. In the burial chamber stood a basalt sarcophagus, and he also found a wooden coffin bearing the king's name and human bones. At first glance, this looked like the burial everyone had been searching for.

Neither was true. The wooden coffin was dated later and dates from a time roughly one and a half millennia after the construction of the pyramid, belonging thus to a later renewal of the burial. The bones are even younger: according to current knowledge, they date from Christian times, i.e., from an epoch in which the pyramid was already over two and a half thousand years old. This is a later burial in a room long since empty.

The lid of the wooden coffin now lies in the British Museum. The basalt sarcophagus was lost on the way to England when the ship sank.

This finding is at the same time a good example of the utility of scientific dating. To the naked eye, everything fit together: a coffin with the correct name, bones inside, in the right chamber. Only measurement separated three different time levels lying in the same room. Without it, books would still claim today that the king had been found.

Thus, precisely the only pyramid with a find yielded no object from the time of its builder. What was found documents not the burial, but the later use of the room.

The shaft of 1925

The most peculiar find on the site concerns not a pyramid, but a shaft, and it remains unexplained to this day.

In 1925, an excavation team encountered a vertical shaft east of the largest pyramid, which had been carefully filled with stones. At the bottom lay an undisturbed chamber. Inside stood gilded furniture of high quality: a bed, a litter, a canopy, plus jewelry and vessels. Also found was a container with embalmed viscera.

The furnishings are attributed to the mother of the builder of the largest pyramid. It is the richest undisturbed find the plateau has ever produced, and the documentation of this excavation belongs to the most careful of its time; it lies completely in the digital archive of Harvard University.

And then the problem: The sarcophagus in this chamber was closed, sealed, untouched. And empty.

The find also had a practical side rarely mentioned. The gilded furniture was in a state upon opening the chamber that precluded normal recovery: the wood had decayed, only the gold coating remained, which lay as a thin foil in the layer in which the piece of furniture had disintegrated. The recovery took years and consisted of reconstructing the original form from the position of the foils. The pieces displayed today are accordingly replicas with original coating.

A chamber that no one had opened, with a coffin in which no one lay, but with viscera of the same person next door. This makes no sense if one assumes a normal burial, and exactly for this reason the case has been discussed for a hundred years.

Burials are abundant, just not there

And now the actual information: Burials are abundant in Giza, just not in the pyramids.

Surrounding the three structures lies an extensive necropolis of rectangular grave buildings in straight rows, each containing a shaft and a chamber. Over six thousand such structures are known, and their number grows with every excavation campaign. Those buried there were members of the royal house, high officials, priests, and craftsmen of rank.

These structures are the reason why the site is scientifically so fruitful. Many were also plundered, but by no means all, and statues, reliefs, inscriptions, titles, and human remains come from them. Much of what is known about the society of the Old Kingdom comes from here, not from the pyramids.

Part of these structures is also decorated, exactly as many visitors mistakenly expect in the pyramids: with colored reliefs, scenes of daily life, inscriptions, and names. Officials' graves of the Old Kingdom were adorned, royal burial chambers were not. So if you want to see pictures, you must leave the large structures and go into the flat stone boxes beside them.

Added to this is the necropolis of the builders on the southeast edge, where the people who worked on the construction were buried. Skeletal remains were also found there, and they provide insights into diet, stress, and medical care.

Graves in the Pyramids of Giza are thus the exception in the inventory, not the rule. Whoever seeks burials finds them in the fields around, and they are freely accessible. Whoever wants to see a mummy goes to the museum: royal mummies are preserved, albeit from later epochs, not from the time of the pyramid builders.

Frequently asked questions

Were mummies found in the Pyramids of Giza?

Not from the construction period. In the smallest pyramid, human remains were found, but these date from Christian times and belong to a much later burial.

Are the Pyramids of Giza tombs?

Yes. Sarcophagi, sealing stones, mortuary temples, and their classification in a long series of royal tombs document this, even though the chambers are empty today.

Where are the mummies of the pyramid-building kings?

Not preserved. No royal mummy from the 4th Dynasty has been transmitted. The known royal mummies date from the New Kingdom, i.e., over a thousand years later.

When were the chambers emptied?

Unknown. When the rooms were first documented in modern times, they were already empty. Three and a half thousand years lie between interment and documentation.

Can you see burials on site?

The grave fields around are freely walkable. Individual structures are open, which ones changes with the restoration status.