Siptah
Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the son of Seti II and Queen Tia'a. He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child because his elder brother predeceased Seti II. He ruled Egypt from 1194 to 1188 BC. His step-mother and Seti II's Chief Queen, Twosret, became the Queen Regent at the Royal Court because of his young age.
While Chancellor Bay publicly boasts in his Tomb that he was instrumental in installing Siptah on the throne, Bay fell out of favour at Court. He last appears in public in a dated Year 4 inscription from Siptah's reign and was executed in Year 5 of Siptah, on orders of the king himself. News of his execution was passed to the Workmen of Deir El-Medinah which was recorded in a graffito. This graffito was translated and published in a French journal in 2000 by Pierre Grandet. Siptah died in his 6th Regnal Year. After his death, Twosret simply assumed his Regnal Years and ruled Egypt as a Queen for another 2 Years.
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| Siptah in hieroglyphs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Era: New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Siptah was buried in the Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV47, but his mummy was not found within this tomb. In 1898, it was discovered along with 18 others in the mummy cache within the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35). An examination of his mummy reveals that he suffered from ill-health with a severely deformed left leg and foot.