Bab el-Gasus (lit. ’Gate of the Priests), also known as the Priestly Cache and the Second Cache, was a cache of the ancient 21st dynasty (c. 1070–945 BCE) Egyptian mummies found at Deir el-Bahari in 1891.
Excavations
Bab el-Gasus was excavated by French Egyptologists Eugène Grebaut and Georges Daressy, with Urbain Bouriant and Ahmed Kamal, under the direction of Mohamed Ahmed Abd al‑Rassul, who had also revealed the location of the Royal Cache in 1881. The find was significant for Egyptology, particularly regarding religion, mummification, and coffin studies. The tomb entrance was on the flat area just outside the precinct wall in front of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is the largest intact tomb ever found in Egypt. Today, the contents of the tomb are spread between 30 museums worldwide.
In 1893, Khedive Abbas II of Egypt presented groups of artefacts from the tomb to 16 countries as gifts celebrating the Khedive’s accession to the throne. As a result of this dispersion, the artefacts have received limited focus from scholars.
The cache contained 254 richly decorated coffins (101 double sets), giving 153 coffin sets in total, as well as 110 ushabti boxes, 77 Osirian wooden statuettes (mostly hollow and containing a papyrus), eight wooden steles, two giant wooden statues (Isis and Nephthys), 16 canopic reed baskets, 5 round baskets made of woven reed. The coffins were made almost exclusively with wood from the native fig tree, the Ficus sycomorus.
On the 125th anniversary of the find, the Centro de Estudos Clássicos e Humanísticos of the University of Coimbra launched the “Gate of the Priests” project with the University of Leiden, the National Museum of Antiquities of Leiden, the Vatican Museums and UCLA, to reconstruct the original collection of Bab el-Gasus.
A new display of the Bab el-Gasus artefacts was opened at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in 2021 following the moving of the Royal Cache.
Although one of the Theban tombs, the tomb never received a serial number.
International donations
In 1907, Daressy published a list of the 71 coffin sets donated overseas in 1893 by Khedive Abbas.
Burials
Burials in the tomb include the following, amongst others:
- Children of Menkheperre
- Children of Pinedjem II
- Gautseshen
- Tjanefer
List of objects found
Daressy published a list of the objects found in 1900:
- 153 coffin sets, of which 101 include two coffins and 52 a single coffin
- 110 ushebti-boxes
- 77 wooden statuettes of Osiris, most of them hollowed and holding a papyrus scroll
- Eight wooden stelae
- Two gigantic wooden figures of Isis and Nephthys
- 16 canopic vases
- One mat
- Ten baskets of reeds
- 5 round baskets
- Two fans
- Five pairs of sandals
- 11 baskets with food (with meat, fruits, etc.)
- Six baskets with floral garlands
- Five large vases
- Five pots
- One box with wooden hands and divine beards ripped from coffins.
