Qualla: Valley of the Golden Mummies https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/h/3/valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Valley of the Golden Mummies https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies Valley of the Golden Mummies: Introduction https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies/ Photo credit Viktor Lazić, CC BY-SA 4.0. A donkey stumbled. That is how the story begins. In 1996, a guard at the Temple of Alexander near Bahariya Oasis was riding his donkey across the desert when the animal's hoof broke through the sand into a cavity below. The guard peered into the hole and saw the glint of gold. He had just opened the door to one of the largest burial sites ever discovered in Egypt, a necropolis holding an estimated ten thousand mummies dating back two thousand years.

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Image: Viktor Lazić | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/h/3/valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wp/sth3-valley-of-the-golden-mummies-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Valley of the Golden Mummies: Gold in the Western Desert https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies/ Photo credit Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0. Archaeologist Zahi Hawass and his Egyptian team began excavation almost immediately, and over several seasons they recovered approximately 250 mummies from what became known as the Valley of the Golden Mummies. The site lies at Bahariya Oasis, a depression in Egypt's Western Dese...

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Image: Roland Unger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/h/3/valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wp/sth3-valley-of-the-golden-mummies-gold-in-the-western-desert.mp3 0:06 2 full Valley of the Golden Mummies: Four Styles of the Dead https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies/ Photo credit Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0. The mummies fell into four distinct categories, each reflecting the status and means of the individual. The wealthiest wore the golden masks and ornamental chest plates depicting deities like Anubis, the jackal-headed god of mummification. A second style was wrapped in cartonnage...

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Image: Roland Unger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/h/3/valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wp/sth3-valley-of-the-golden-mummies-four-styles-of-the-dead.mp3 0:06 3 full Valley of the Golden Mummies: Wine, Wealth, and the Oasis Economy https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies/ Photo credit Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0. How did a remote desert oasis produce such wealth? The answer lay in its vineyards. Bahariya's principal industry during the Greco-Roman period was the production of wine from dates and grapes, a commodity that traveled far beyond the oasis walls. Hawass estimated the population ...

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Image: Roland Unger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/h/3/valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wp/sth3-valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wine-wealth-and-the-oasis-economy.mp3 0:06 4 full Valley of the Golden Mummies: The Scales of the Afterlife https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies/ Photo credit Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0. The burial practices at Bahariya reflected a mummification tradition that had evolved over three thousand years. During this period, embalmers placed reed sticks along each side of the body before wrapping it in linen, a technique that produced more stable mummies than those of t...

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Image: Roland Unger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/h/3/valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wp/sth3-valley-of-the-golden-mummies-the-scales-of-the-afterlife.mp3 0:06 5 full Valley of the Golden Mummies: Ten Thousand Still Waiting https://qualla.com/valley-of-the-golden-mummies/ Photo credit Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 250 mummies recovered represent only a fraction of what lies beneath the sand. Hawass estimated the total at more than ten thousand, making the Valley of the Golden Mummies one of the largest burial sites in Egypt. Much of the necropolis remains unexcavated, its contents pres...

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Image: Roland Unger | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/t/h/3/valley-of-the-golden-mummies-wp/sth3-valley-of-the-golden-mummies-ten-thousand-still-waiting.mp3 0:06 6 full