The mummies in this tomb were some of the best found because of the realistic style with which their features are depicted. One lady's, mask is particularly spectacular and depicts her with a uniquely long nose. The lips are very thin and coloured red, and her wide eyes are lined with kohl.

The other tomb found to the north nearer to the temple of Alexander the Great, has mummies that are covered in cartonage, rather than gold. All the mummies found in this tomb have no heads. We do not know why they were found like this.

We can understand much about the mummies from the x-rays that we did of them on site. We found under the linen of one mummy of a child a golden snake with wings over the eyebrow. We found three cases of people who died of cancer, and the average age of death at the oasis was 35 to 40 years old. Bones alone can tall us many stories about life and death in ancient Egypt.

Graeco-Roman cemeteries have been found throughout Egypt from Alexandria in the north to Nubia in the south. By the end of the Late Period, mummification, once reserved for those of noble rank, was offered to anyone who could afford it. This means that every individual could be guaranteed a place in eternity regardless of wealth or status, which may explain why there is such a range of mummy styles in Greco-Roman cemeteries. Each different type of mummification represents a different class within the culture, and this factor may have led to the loss of the funerary rituals and magic that were once integral parts of ancient mummification practices. As the commercial aspect of mummification increased, an understanding of its sacred purpose gradually disappeared.

The mummies prepared by Greek and Roman embalmers do not reflect the same meticulous care taken by ancient Egyptians in embalming. Although preservation techniques were greatly simplified during the Late Period and especially after the Ptolemaic Period, the outer casings simultaneously became distinctly varied and ornate. Linen wrapping became more sophisticated in the Greek Period and reached its peak in Roman times. Wrappings were criss-crossed in uniquely intricate patterns and sometimes decorated with gold. A new deveIopment in the first century A.D. was the wrapping of mummies in red-dyed linen. We found several mummies at Bahariya with traces of red dye still present in their wrappings.

Mummies have great magic and mystery, and many wish to visit and see these traces of an ancient past. However, I believe that mummies should not be displayed to the public, not only for purposes of conservation, but also because I believe in keeping them in the place where these people chose to be buried, rather than making them tourist spectacles. However, to satisfy the great tourist demand, we took six mummies and put them in a museum for visitors to the site to see as samples of what lies in the cemeteries of Bahariya. The rest we have preserved on site, making new ceilings for each tomb, in order to respect the spiritual values of the ancients.