The Pyramid of Khay

Archaeologists working near Luxor (the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes) recently discovered the dismantled pyramid of Khay, Ramesses II’s vizier. Officially “the First Royal Herald of the Lord of the two lands,” Khay served as the vizier of Upper and Lower Egypt under Ramesses (known as Ramesses the Great) for 15 years during the prosperous XIXth dynasty. His original 13th-century B.C.E. mudbrick pyramid stood nearly 50 feet tall, though it was partially dismantled and turned into a Coptic hermitage in the seventh-eighth centuries C.E. While the pyramid is a new discovery, the vizier is well known. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo features two statues of Khay, and ancient documents record his exploits overseeing the construction of royal tombs in the nearby Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.

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In the FREE eBook Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus, top scholars discuss the historical Israelites in Egypt and archaeological evidence for and against the historicity of the Exodus.
 

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Scholars have uncovered evidence of an Egyptian presence in pre-Israelite Jerusalem during the lifetime of Khay. Peter van der Veen describes the discoveries in the March/April 2013 issue of BAR. Read more about Egyptians in Bronze Age Jerusalem in Bible History Daily.

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