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Menkaure Lost Sarcophagus

A

Anonymous

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I am asking about the balsalt sarcophagus (size 8 ft x 3 ft x 3 ft) of
Menkaure, removed from his tomb by Col. Howard Vyse in 1838. While being
shipped on "The Beatrice" from Alexandria to London, via Malta and Cartagena
in 1834, it left Malta on October 13/14?, 1838 and was presumed lost at sea.
A penciled margin note in a surviving copy of Col. Vyse account (not the one
in the British Museum) records fishermen reporting wreckage identifying "The
Beatrice" washing ashore near Valencia in Spain. If true, the sarcophagus
may lie in up to a depth of 600 feet of water. Has anyone every tried to locate this item, and were drawings of it made before it was removed?
 
Author David Gibbins provides some information about the sarcophagus and its loss (gleaned from his research for a novel) on his website:

http://davidgibbins.com/journal/201...gus-of-menkaure-and-the-wreck-of-the-beatrice

This includes the illustration below ...

Menkaure+sarcophagus+2.jpeg

 
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