The Saga of RAMSES III, Medinet Habu Temple, and the ‘Screaming Mummy’

The Screaming Mummy: A Saga of Betrayal in Ancient Egypt

In the heart of ancient Egypt, a sad and gruesome saga unfolded, with intrigue, power struggles, a mysterious mummy, and an overly ambitious mother at its center.

The Pharaoh & His Power

It all began with Ramesses III, who inherited the throne in 1186 BC from his elderly father; actually, he may have reigned with his father for a short time.  But the origins of his father, Setnakhte, are shrouded in mystery.  In those days, Egypt was in turmoil, divided into small provinces ruled by tribal leaders.  Setnakhte’s rise seems to have brought a semblance of peace to the land, and the people accepted him.

Ramesses III was a ruler of great success.  He achieved fame for defeating the menacing “Sea People.”  To commemorate his victorious campaigns, he commissioned the grand Temple of Medinet Habu on the West Bank of Luxor, adorned with vivid depictions of his conquests.  There was already a Temple  built by Hatshepsut and Thutmose III on the site which is directly across the river from Luxor Temple and in ancient times it was believed to be the site of the “primordial mound” which was the first land to emerge out of the primeval waters – the “nun”.

Before reading the gruesome tale, perhaps explore the hidden story of Medinet Habu, – what it was – not just another temple, but something else, and a glimpse into the psyche of Ramses III, the Pharaoh who made a pact with the devil himself.

A Palace of Plots: The Harem Conspiracy

Within his palace walls in the year 1155 B.C., Ramses III’s harem was anything but serene. Amidst the wives, a storm was brewing. Tiye, a lesser wife, plotted a conspiracy with several court officials to assassinate the Pharaoh during the chaos of the Heb-Sed festival.

Tiye’s powers of persuasion must have been legendary. It was no small feat to turn those closest to the king—the very people entrusted with his safety—against him. They were not merely planning to kill a man; they intended to murder the representative of the gods on earth and tear the very fabric of Ma’at, the sacred order of the universe.

The most logical place for the deed was the harem itself. While heavily guarded from the outside, its inner chambers were a realm of relative privacy and access. The conspirators could move through one of three doors connecting the palace to the inner court behind the first pylon. and from the service entrance on the East Wall or through the garden on the West side of the Palace – the only entances to his home.  But to succeed, Tiye needed more than just a few officials; she needed the cooperation of multiple people inside the harem—most likely, everyone in her immediate service.

The outrageous plan succeeded with shocking brutality. The 60-year-old pharaoh was set upon by multiple attackers. One assailant swung an axe, severing the king’s big toe in a blow meant to cripple and bring him down. Another—or perhaps several—slashed at his throat so gruesomely that he was nearly decapitated, a horrific injury starkly visible on his mummy centuries later.

For years, Egyptologists debated whether the pharaoh had actually survived the attack, but these recent forensic examinations leave no doubt: his injuries were too extensive.  Ramesses III died from the assault.

The rebellion itself, however, faltered in its objective to put Tiye’s son, Pentawere, on his father’s throne when most of the nobles and army commanders refused to support it.  With the king dead, power immediately passed to his legitimate heir and son, Ramses IV, who would have taken control of the kingdom and the ensuing investigation.  A court hearing ensued, revealing Tiye’s involvement and implicating her son, Pentawere, along with nearly 40 others.

A Son’s Sentence & The Screaming Mummy

In the aftermath, Pentawere and the high-ranking conspirators were sentenced to death.  Some also say that others who were close to the attackers but could not be proved to be involved had their ears and noses cut off.  Modern analysis has now overturned the long-held belief that the main orchestrators of the rebellion chose poison.  While it is not 100% certain what happened to Tiye, new evidence points to Prince Pentawere being hanged for his role in the patricide.   It is this specific method of death, potentially combined with the rapid, crude preservation process, that is the likely cause of the features in his face being frozen in a scream.  Others who proved to be involved were executed.

The mysterious “screaming mummy” emerged from the shadows when it was discovered amongst several mummies in a cache in the Valley of the Kings in 1881.  For a century and a half, its identity remained unknown until DNA testing unveiled the truth.  The “screaming mummy” was, in fact, Pentawere, the ill-fated son of Ramesses III, who met his demise at the tender age of 20.

A Ritual Insult & A Lasting Mystery

As a further indignity for his crime, Pentawere’s body was subjected to a rushed and ritually corrupt mummification.  He was wrapped in a sheepskin, considered a symbolic insult of impurity.  His hands and feet had been bound with leather thongs, and resin was poured down his throat, perhaps in a frantic attempt to silence him or halt his decay.  He was denied all the proper means of getting through the Underworld to the afterlife.

Yet, the fact that he was mummified at all, and later hidden in a royal cache for safekeeping, is a profound and lasting mystery.  It suggests a silent conflict among the living: some authorities sought to damn him for eternity with these insults, while others, perhaps still loyal to the prince or his mother, may have made a desperate, clandestine attempt to preserve his body for some form of afterlife, however flawed.  His curse was not just death, but a tortured limbo—caught between the intention to destroy him and the impulse to save him.

Pentawer’s mummy is either still on display in the Antiquities Museum at Tahrir Square in Cairo or may have been moved with many others to the new Museum of Civilization.

Epilogue: The Futility of the Plot

The brutal punishment of the conspirators raises a haunting question: “why were Tiye’s other children allowed to live?”   If this had occurred in another era—like the Ottoman Empire in Turkey—the entire bloodline likely would have been eradicated to eliminate any future threat to the throne.

But New Kingdom Egypt operated under a different principle: ma’at—the sacred order of the universe.  Justice, however severe, was meant to be precise.  The investigators and the new pharaoh, Ramses IV, targeted only those proven guilty of treason.  The crime was personal disloyalty, not the abstract sin of shared blood.  Tiye’s other children, including a young prince named Ramses VIII, were spared, likely living out their lives in comfortable but quiet obscurity, their political futures ruined by their mother’s disgrace.

This makes the final twist of history all the more profoundly ironic.

Queen Tiye’s plot was a desperate, violent gamble to force her son onto the throne. In doing so, she destroyed her favored son, Pentawere, and herself.

But had she simply been patient, had she trusted in time and fate, she might have lived to see her deepest ambition fulfilled.

The legitimate line of Ramses IV eventually died out.  A few short years later, when the royal family needed a viable heir from the blood of Ramses III, it was her other son, Ramses VIII, who ascended to the throne, however briefly.

The universe (ma’at), in its own inscrutable way, rejected her violent disruption but ultimately granted the core of her desire.  The bloodline she sought to elevate through murder and betrayal eventually achieved power through the simple, silent passage of time.

Tiye’s tragedy is one of futile impatience. In her greed to control destiny, she shattered it, never knowing that the destiny she wanted was already waiting in the wings.

Join our tour to Medinet Habu and other key sites on the West Bank

Continue Exploring the Medinet Habu Series:

• The Pharaoh: Understand the mind of the man who wore the crown: Medinet Habu: The Pharaoh’s Bargain with Chaos

• The People: Step into the daily life before the fall in The Palace of Shadows: The Family of Ramses III

• The Place: Take a sensory walk through the fortress itself in Walking Through the Nerve Center: A Guide to Medinet Habu’s Three Faces