Conspiracy in the Harem - The Case of Ramses III

A 2021 Storyhouse Production hosted by Florence Kasumba, as part of Cold Case Geschichte series.

In 2012, the palaeopathologist Albert Zink and colleagues travel to Cairo. They are to examine the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses III for the first time using computer tomography. And they find a sensation. A seven centimetre wide wound on the king's neck. A cut that completely severed the oesophagus as well as the trachea and all blood vessels in the area of the fifth to seventh cervical vertebrae. The last Egyptian ruler Ramses III was murdered. But who was behind this cruel assassination? An old court document from the time accuses women from the royal harem of having planned a conspiracy against the pharaoh. But what is actually behind it?

According to tradition, Ramses III has many wives. They all live together under one roof in the royal women's house. But usually the pharaoh chooses one woman to be his main wife. She was called the "Great Royal Wife". Only her first-born son succeeds the Pharaoh on the throne. But apparently the king cannot make up his mind. He allows three ambitious queens to become powerful and great at court. Is there a clash between the young women and the Pharaoh? Is a ruthless power struggle breaking out among Ramses' sons, as is known from other ruling houses? What leads to the cruel death of the pharaoh? Cold Case reopens the court case on the basis of old traces as well as new circumstantial evidence. In the end, the investigators succeed not only in reconstructing the possible course of events, but also in identifying the mummy of one of the suspected murderers - who, astonishingly, found his final resting place in the same place as his victim.