The last Ramessidi pharaohs left their tombs in the valley of the kings as they had left Egypt, abandoned and sacked by the marauder – soldiers who should have protected it – those sovereigns who allowed the country of the Nile to slide into disorder paid their own weakness whit what Frightened the Egyptians most: the profanation of the sepulchral. Their tombs, for the disorders they didn’t have the strength to avoid, were so violated that tey remained completely open for millenniums, and were so then found by the first western travellers: long tunnels that led to desolate empty chambers. The sack obsiously stroke the pharaoh’s tombs, while the less important ones were safe. It’s obvious that the minor personages had more possibilities of saving their own tomb. It’s the case for Yuya and Tuia.
Everything begins in the valley of the kings, a day in 1360 Bc; a small tomb is opened again and noble lady Tuia is put beside her husband, Yuya, who had been there for several years. The sepulchral is so sealed again.
But a short time later the thieves open some passages in the walled doors and take some objects. They are a few and small, what they can easily transport and hide: it’s still the XVIII dynasty, an epoch in which the pharaohs are powerful and the thieves fear them.
About two centuries pass: on the throne there is Ramses XI, he last king with with this name. Egypt is weak and he controls are less efficacious; the thieves enter the tomb a second time, this time more imprudent. The covers of the anthropoid coffins are thrown aside and the mummies are exposed and stripped of the jewels, but the theft is limited to a few objects. It’s probable that the thieves were the same workers who were excavating the King’s nearby tomb and who casually had discovred the two nobles’ ancient burial. But the guards in the necropolis still control, the theft is discovered and the tomb is put in order again, scaled and definitely hidden. The site is forgotten; in the meantime Ramses XI, who had retired in the Delta, had to assist impotent to the raids in the royal tombs, made probably by Panehesy’s Nubian tropps, who should have assured the peace in the region. The millenniums pass until 1904 AC; James Quibell, is supervisor of the excavations in Tebe. One of his first aims is the valley of the Kings, but no longer to search for treasures, but to perfect the knowledge about the history of the area. The archaeologist so begins the excavations in an area between the tombs of one of Ramses’s III son and Ramses’s XI one. According to him the place isn’t very promising, nevertheless, as it’s still unknown, he thinks it would be right to reach the rocky stratum.

This is in fact covered with splinters that form a great mound nine meters high, the rest of dabris from the excavation of Ramses’s XI tomb nearby. Under those splinter there is a surprise, that escapes from Quibell’s grasp for “incompatibility of character”. In fact he has to work beside Davis, the rich American who, as everybody knows, is after a treasure hunt.
The archaeologist doesn’t stand for long the nearness of the “merchant” nor the idea that his own reputation can be damaged by Davis’s fame. So he asks the supervisor, Maspero, a transfer, which he obtains. Quibell is substituted by Arthur Weigall, who continues the works he had begun. So, a few days later, the workers reach the edge of a ramp and after other seven days of excavations, they reach a walled door. It’s February 11th. Quibell is for away so it’s Weigall who presides over the discovery, blocking the work immediately , both because it’s evening, as because he sees that the workers are over-excited. He held back only Reis and his child and, while outside Davs and the guards wait burning with impatience and curiosity, the three go into the entrance of the tomb through a hole in the walled door. The passage is too small for the adults, and so the child goes through it. He, hung to the cloth of his father’s turban, who lowers him in the emptiness, begins to cry, maybe frightened by the dark, then curiosity wins and, touching the floor of the corridor, he goes toward the first objects he sees and, obeying the orders he received, he gathers them. There are a the yoke of an elegant parade coach laminated in gold, of a commanding cane and a stone scarabs covered in gold.
Davis takes the objects and for that night the exploration is interrupted. The day after the workers quickly empty the rest of the ramp and clear the walled entrance, when Maspero and Davis arrive, the wall is knocked down and they enter the sloping corridor. At the flickering candle light a wreath of flowers appears and a wig, a papyrus and a little pack of onions. At the end of the corridor the group finds the way blocked by a second walled door, with the seal of the necropolis.
After they enlarged the hole made by thieves centuries earlier, Maspero, Davis and Weigall enter the tomb. The most sensational discovery made in the valley. Maspero in fact individualizes the owners’s names. Yuya and his wife Tuya. The small tomb is made of only one chamber, but inside there are the two consorts and their funeral trousseau. The burial seems recently closed, the floor is covered by fine golden sand, put for a ritual reason. The dead people are, in fact, often called “those who lie over their sand”. This was know from the texts, but now the archaeologist can see with their own eyes the rests of that ritual.
The various anthropoidal coffins are like the Chinese boxes, one inside the other, and all of them were golden. The coffins are uncovered, but the mummies are still there. And they are almost among the most beautiful ones seen: their serene faces, the hair and even Yuya’s beard let one think of two people that have just gone to sleep. Quibell, to whom actually the discovery is wed, sees the tomb only two days later. It’s he who actually begins the patient work of recording everything and emptying the tomb, although everything must be done quickly for Maspero’s order to avoid the usual thefts.
Quibell uses the help of various collegues who are in the area: Edward Ayrton comes from Deir el Bahari, Smith (the American painter who had passed the first guarding night with Weigall) offers to draw the portrait of the two mummies, Caster will be later employed by Davis to draw the most beautiful finds, the Count Malvezzi de Medici represents the Italian expedition who works in Deir el Medina. The work, quickly and well done, ends in only three weeks. Among the objects found (and destined to become famous for thousands of tourists) we can remember a beautiful chair, the luxurious canopy vases, the Amenhotep’s magnificent jewel-case, an elegant parade coach, adapt to one of Yuya’s titles, who was commander of the royal casts and great teacher of Horses. It’s worthy to remember the beautiful chair of red wood, decorated with golden figures of musicians and with images of princess Sitamun. Exactly this chair is the protagonist of a singular event, in the days after the discovery. On afternoon Quibell, busy in the final phase of emptying the tomb, receives the visit at on old lady with ordinary clothes with a big hat, accompanied by a French who calls her “Your Majesty” Quibell, although he doesn’t know the woman, hearing the title, let’s her ago into the tomb, although it’s almost empty and so there is nothing to let her sit on.
But she sees this chair of Sitamun and sits on it declaring it is perfect.
Fortunately the very ancient find resists to the weight, under the stupefied and embarrassed archaeologists who don’t dare to contradict the woman. Only later Quibell will get information on the mysterious “Majesty”. She was the Empress Eugenia of France, the same who thirty years earlier had presided over as a honor guest to the ceremony of the opening of the Suer Canal.
So, 32 centuries later, an Empress still sits on that royal chair that today, with the best part of the finds, we admire in the Museum in Cairo.