Most People Don’t Realize There’s An Ancient Egyptian Prince Buried In Vermont

Think you have to fly to Africa to visit the final resting place of Egyptian royalty? Think again. There’s actually a real royal Egyptian tomb right here in Vermont. Here’s how you can visit the grave site of an actual Egyptian prince without leaving the state.

Wikimedia Commons/tutincommon (John Campana)

Getty/Cinoby

Amum Her Khepesh Ef was an Egyptian prince who was born in Egypt around 1881 B.C., during the period known as the Middle Kingdom. His father was pharaoh Sen Woset III, who built the famed Sisostris Canal.

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The pharaoh’s tomb lies in a pyramid in Dahshur, Egypt and was originally explored by archaeologists near the end of the 19th century. Unfortunately, the pyramid had already been plundered by treasure hunters and grave robbers before experts could account for all of the contents. That’s likely when the mummy of Amum Her Khepesh Ef was spirited out of the pyramid.

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Henry Sheldon Museum

The royal mummy of Amum Her Khepesh Ef, who was just over two years old when he died, was purchased by Vermont antiquities collector Henry Sheldon in the late 1800s.

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Upon receiving the mummy, Sheldon was disappointed at its poor condition and stowed it in his attic instead of exhibiting it at the Museum of Vermont History, as he had originally planned.

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The mummy was rescued from the attic in 1945 by George Mead, who had then succeeded Sheldon as the museum’s director. Mead was touched by the mummy’s unhappy history and decided to cremate the remains. He then buried them in his family’s plot at West Cemetery in Middlebury.

Getty/Gudella

You can now visit the mummy’s remains at the Mead plot. The headstone bears a Christian cross, an Egyptian ankh, and a bird symbol.

Click here for driving directions to the cemetery. For more of the weirdest stuff you can possibly see and do in Vermont, check out a few of our favorite ideas right here.