BOB Cribbs was an unusual American friend who loved Egypt very much and Egypt loved him too.
In this week’s article, we explored the story of the dis¬covery of the tomb of Seti I by Belzoni at the beginning of the 19th century and how he solved the different tricks of that magnificent tomb, yet, he didn’t find any treasures.
He ended up finding an unfinished tunnel that extended underneath the last chamber that had the famous astronom¬ical ceiling. He entered that tunnel for few metres and then he stopped because of the difficulties he encountered, leaving behind several questions like: Are there any other undiscovered chambers? Where does the unfinished tunnel lead to? Where are the treasures of Seti I?
A hundred years later, during the first half of the 20th century, the famous family of Abdel-Rasoul from Luxor was helping the Egyptology missions carry out their exca¬vations in the area (they also knew about some hidden archeological sites). They are very famous for the discovery of the Cachette of Luxor, where a cave full of mummies of most of the Pharaohs of the new kingdom was found. That story was the subject of the worldwide famous movie of Shady Abdel-Salam ‘The Mummy’.
Abdel-Rasoul applied to the department of Antiquities to carry on a mission to explore the unfinished tunnel of Seti I and he was granted it.
Abdel-Rasoul started working by removing the debris from the sides of the tunnel and installing wooden rein-forcement on the sides. It seems that he succeeded in reach¬ing the end of the tunnel where he found an unfinished chamber, but he was using primitive non-professional tools for his excavations. Before reaching his target, the work was terminated by the Government because the dust coming out through the tunnel was damaging the walls of the tomb.
Abdel-Rasoul did not leave behind him any account of his work or his findings, but he was the first to enter the unfinished tunnel and reach its end and since then the tunnel was named after him.
Given this history, and in year 2002, we applied together, Bob Cribbs and I, representing our organisations, for a mission to investigate the tomb of Seti I, using radar techniques. We would try to find any missing chambers and to inspect “Abdel-Rasoul’s” tunnel. We carried out several missions and during one of them we built a Radar Imaging System that could be used to produce X-ray like images of hidden places. We used it to scan the walls and grounds of the different chambers, hoping to locate cavities that might indicate a hidden chamber.
Unfortunately, we did not find any, but in scientific research, the rule is that the negative result is no less important than the positive one; both take the same effort to be reached.
In another mission, we prepared to enter the unfinished ¬tunnel. Bob, accompanied by my assistant Ayman Khoury, went inside the tunnel. Ayman stopped in the middle because it was so dangerous, but Bob Cribbs decided to continue to the end alone. He went indeed to the end of the tunnel in spite of the very difficult conditions.
Unfortunately, he had a very limited light torch with him and he did not carry a camera. He came out with his clothes torn and with many scratches around his body. Nothing was found inside the chamber at the end of the tunnel. With this, he was the second person to reach the end of the unfinished tunnel and that was our last adventure together.
We were planning to revisit the tunnel after having better preparations, but we never did because Bob Cribbs left our world this year. We lost a friend who loved Egypt very much and Egypt loved him too.
