Quick answer
The Valley of the Golden Mummies is a vast Graeco-Roman cemetery near Bawiti in Bahariya Oasis, found in 1996 and excavated by Zahi Hawass from 1999. It holds burials of prosperous oasis people from roughly the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD, some wearing gilded masks. The cemetery is closed to visitors, but a selection of mummies is displayed in a small museum in Bawiti.
How were the Golden Mummies discovered?
According to the story told by the excavators, in 1996 a donkey belonging to an antiquities guard stumbled into a hole in the desert near Bawiti, and the guard found himself looking at a tomb full of gilded mummies. The tale may have grown in the telling, but the discovery was real, and it was kept quiet for three years while the authorities secured the site.
Excavation began in 1999 under Zahi Hawass, then director of the Giza plateau and later Egypt’s antiquities chief. In the first season his team cleared four tombs and recorded around a hundred mummies, many still lying where they had been placed. The announcement made front pages around the world, and the name “Valley of the Golden Mummies” stuck, even though the site is not really a valley but a stretch of low desert dotted with rock-cut tombs.
Survey work suggested the cemetery covers several square kilometres. Estimates of the total number of burials, sometimes quoted at up to 10,000, are extrapolations rather than counts, so treat any precise figure with care.
Who were the people buried there?
They were the well-off families of a thriving oasis town in Roman Egypt, whose wealth came largely from wine and dates traded to the Nile Valley. Bahariya sat on desert routes linking the Nile with the oases further south and west. Its wine was known in pharaonic times, and under the Romans the oasis prospered, with garrisons, temples and farms watered by springs.
Names and styles show a mixed society. Families used Egyptian gods and funerary rituals, but some portraits wear Roman hairstyles, and Greek was the language of administration. Tombs held several generations together, with men, women and children laid side by side, sometimes with small pottery, coins and jewellery.
This was the last great age of Egyptian mummification. Our guide to Roman Egypt sets out the wider history, and mummification explains how the practice changed by this period, when the wrapping and decoration became more elaborate than the treatment of the body itself.
What makes the mummies ‘golden’?
The richest burials wear masks and chest covers of cartonnage, layers of linen and plaster, painted and coated with thin gold leaf. Excavators found a range of styles, roughly matching what families could afford.
- Gilded masks: the most expensive, with gold-covered faces and chest pieces showing Egyptian gods: the four Sons of Horus, Isis and Nephthys with spread wings, and Anubis tending the body.
- Painted cartonnage: similar masks and covers, painted rather than gilded.
- Wrapped in linen: bodies wrapped in elaborate geometric patterns of bandage, sometimes with a painted face.
- Simple burials: wrapped in plain linen or palm-fibre, with few or no goods.
The faces are idealised rather than true portraits; for realistic Roman-era likenesses, the painted wooden panels known as Fayoum portraits are the comparison. Many came from Hawara, beside the pyramid of Amenemhat III, which appears in our list of Egypt’s pyramids.
How do the Golden Mummies compare with other Egyptian mummies?
They are much later and less carefully embalmed than the royal mummies of the New Kingdom, but far more elaborately dressed, which is typical of their age.
| Royal mummies (New Kingdom) | Golden Mummies of Bahariya | Fayoum portrait mummies | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | About 1550–1070 BC | Mostly Roman era, 1st–4th century AD | Roman era, 1st–3rd century AD |
| Who | Kings, queens and their families | Prosperous oasis families | Prosperous townspeople of the Fayoum and Nile Valley |
| Focus | Preserving the body itself | Gilded or painted cartonnage masks | Realistic portraits painted on wooden panels |
| Where to see | National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Cairo | Bawiti museum, Bahariya | Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and museums abroad |
The royal mummies moved to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade of April 2021, and seeing them before or after Bahariya shows how far mummification changed over 1,500 years.
What else did the excavations find in Bahariya?
Work in and around Bawiti also uncovered 26th Dynasty tombs of the oasis governors, showing that Bahariya was important centuries before the Romans. Around 2000 Hawass’s team excavated beneath houses in Bawiti to reach the tomb of Djed-Khonsu-iuf-ankh, a governor of the 26th Dynasty, and found family burials nearby. The painted tombs of Zed-Amun-ef-ankh and his son Banentiu, in the same mound, have been open to visitors at times.
A temple linked to Alexander the Great lies south-west of town, though little of it remains. The Alexander the Great in Egypt guide covers his visit to the oracle at Siwa.
As with many Egyptian sites, excavation has been intermittent and only part of the findings has been fully published, so new information may still emerge.
Where to see the Golden Mummies in Egypt today
The cemetery itself is not open, so the place to see the Golden Mummies is the small museum in Bawiti, where a selection is displayed in glass cases. Allow 20 to 30 minutes; at the time of writing a combined ticket for Bahariya’s antiquities has been sold at the museum, but arrangements change, so check egymonuments.gov.eg or ask your guide.
- Getting there: Bawiti is about 370 km and four to five hours’ drive from Cairo through open desert, so most people see the mummies on the way to the White Desert. Our Bahariya Oasis guide covers the tombs, hot springs and where to stay.
- Combine it: the Black Desert, Crystal Mountain and the White Desert lie to the south, making a natural overnight trip.
- In Cairo: the Egyptian Museum holds Fayoum portraits and Roman-era mummies that give context.
- Before you go: Western Desert travel advice can differ from the Nile Valley, so check Smartraveller or SafeTravel when you book.
Frequently asked questions
Can you visit the Valley of the Golden Mummies?
Not the cemetery itself, which is closed to the public. A selection of the mummies is shown in a small museum in Bawiti, the main town of Bahariya Oasis.
How old are the Golden Mummies?
About 1,700 to 2,000 years old. They date from the Graeco-Roman period, mostly from the Roman era between roughly the 1st and 4th centuries AD.
Are the Golden Mummies made of gold?
No. The bodies are mummified and wrapped in linen; the gold is a thin layer of gold leaf on cartonnage masks and chest covers worn by the wealthiest burials. Most mummies in the cemetery are not gilded.
How far is Bahariya from Cairo?
About 370 km, or four to five hours by road. It works best as part of a White Desert trip with at least one night in the desert or the oasis.
Who discovered the Golden Mummies?
The site was found in 1996, traditionally when a guard’s donkey stumbled into a tomb, and it was excavated from 1999 by a team led by the Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass.
