Ancient Flowers Found in Egypt Coffin for National Geographic
News |June 29, 2006| The last of eight sarcophagi from a
recently discovered burial chamber in Egypt's Valley of the
Kings revealed ancient garlands of flowers. A gaggle of
researchers and media had gathered for the opening of the
3,000-year-old coffin, which archaeologists had hoped would
contain the famous boy king Tutankhamun's mother. But instead
the coffin contained strips of fabric and woven laurels of
delicate dehydrated flowers. "I prayed to find a mummy, but when
I saw this, I said it's betterit's really beautiful," Nadia
Lokma, the chief curator of Cairo's Egyptian Museum, told
reporters gathered for the opening. The flowers are likely the
remains of garlands strung with gold strips that were worn by
ancient Egyptian royalty (related wallpapers: treasures of
Egypt). "It's very rarethere's nothing like it in any museum.
We've seen things like it in drawings, but we've never seen this
before in real life. It's magnificent," Lokma said. The