Professor Maspero’s last official act as Director-General of the Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt was his examination of the mummy of Ramses II. found in 1884, in the presence of the khedive and other high dignitaries.  The mummy of this great conqueror was well preserved, revealing a giant frame and a face expressive of sovereign majesty, indomitable will, and the pride of the Egyptian king of kings.  He then unbandaged the mummy of Nofritari, wife of King Ahmosis I. of the eighteenth dynasty, beside which, in the same sarcophagus, had been discovered the mummy of Ramses ITT.  The physiognomy of this monarch is more refined and intellectual than that of his warlike predecessor; nor was his frame built upon the same colossal plan.  The height of the body was less, and the shoulders not so wide.  In the same season Maspero also discovered an ancient Egyptian romance inscribed on limestone near the tomb of Sinuhit at Thebes.  A fragment on papyrus had been preserved at the Berlin Museum, but the whole romance was now decipherable.

Professor Maspero resigned his office of directorship on June 5, 1886, and was succeeded in the superintendency of excavations and Egyptian archeology by M. Eugene Grebault.  In the same month Grebault started upon the work of unbandaging the mummy of the Theban King Sekenenra Ta-aken, of the eighteenth dynasty.  It was under this monarch that a revolt against the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, had originated, in the course of which the Asiatics were expelled from Egypt.  The history of this king has always been considered legendary, but from the signs of wounds present in the mummy, it is certain that he had died in battle.  In the same season the mummy of Seti I. was unbandaged, and also that of an anonymous prince.

The next season the work of clearing away the sand from around the Great Sphinx was vigorously prosecuted by Grebault.  In the beginning of the year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all made visible.  Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were taken of the great figures.  The height from the lowest of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the paws was found to be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide.  Here there was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thutmosis IV. was discovered, recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the sand that even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx.

M. Naville and Mr. F. Llewellen Griffiths explored during the season of 1886-87 the mound of Tel-el-Yehu-dieh (the mound of the Jew).  The site is probably that on which was once built the city that Ptolemy Philadelphus allowed the Jews to construct.  The remains of a statue of the cat-headed goddess Bast, to which there is a reference in Josephus, was also found here.  The discovery of tablets of definitely Jewish origin make it clear that the modern name had been given to the place for some reason connected with the colony thus proved to have once been settled there.