On July 2, Egyptians were plunged into horror by the news of a child’s murder and the severing of his hands as a sacrifice to a jinn, a supernatural spirit, to open a Pharaonic tomb full of treasures and artifacts in Assiut Governorate in southern Egypt.
Egyptian police have arrested three of the victim’s cousins as suspects. Two of them have confessed to the crime, which they carried out in collaboration with an illegal antiquities dealer who wanted to purchase the child’s hands to use as a sacrificial offering.
Breaking the Pharaonic curse on buried tombs to acquire hidden treasures and artifacts is spread in many cities around Egypt such as Aswan, Assiut, Hawamdiya in Giza, Dar El-Salam in Cairo, and other areas.
According to the Secretary General of the General Union of Arab Archaeologists, Mohamed El-Kahlawy, “Superstitions related to artifact excavation, such as child sacrifices to offer to jinn for easier excavation, have become old methods of fraud.”
Statistics indicate that the volume of antiquities trade and smuggling in Egypt reaches USD 20 billion (EGP 972.5 billion) annually. Most of the smuggled artifacts are obtained through secret excavations by gangs in villages in Upper Egypt and remote areas, which serve as their hideouts, facilitating their illegal activities.
A Widely Spread Superstition
In search of “El-masakhit”, a term that refers to ancient Egyptian statues made of gold that are illegally excavated and sold in violation of the law, many people try to open pharaonic tombs.
A sorcerer, or a man of religion known as a sheikh (an elder) who specializes in deciphering ancient curses, communicates with the jinn guarding the tomb and breaks the curse.
“It is known that when opening Pharaonic tombs, there must be a sorcerer present, who they call sheikh. But he is nothing more than a magician who performs acts of sorcery. He casts spells and summons jinn with the blood of children, who are often kidnapped,” an antiquities dealer and smuggler recounts.
According to him, a sorcerer communicates with a summoned jinn to locate a tomb, timing the ritual with specific moon phases. The jinn may demand a payment, often a blood sacrifice. While animal blood is common, some sorcerers require human blood, specifically from a child. The ritual involves setting up four stones inscribed with jinn names in a square, and the victim’s blood is poured over them.
The victims are often children, as they are favored by jinn, and the perpetrators frequently turn out to be relatives, sometimes even the child’s parents. The child must be under 10 years old and have specific physical and spiritual traits, like a split in their tongue and a wide line across their palms.
“Digging for treasures is very popular in my hometown,” Dalia*, a 25-year-old woman who grew up in Aswan told Egyptian Streets.
She shared that her grandmother was approached by neighbors who asked her to dig under her house to enter a tomb. They believed her house sat above the entrance to the tomb, which they couldn’t access from the house behind hers. Her grandmother refused their request.
Dalia noted that this was not the first or last time she heard about this. She said, “After a young boy went missing, rumors about our neighbor, a woman in her fifties, began to spread quickly. People believed that she murdered the young boy as a sacrifice to open a tomb under her house with the help of a sheikh.”
“All parents warned their children from going near her house,” Dalia shared.
A Long History of Sacrifices
Another incident took place In September 2021. A village in the Dairut district of Assiut witnessed the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a young man. According to confessions from his uncle, cousins, and aunt to the authorities, they offered his body as a sacrifice to the jinn in hopes of opening an archaeological tomb.
Four people met their demise while they were inside a pit they dug themselves looking for artifacts in 2017. Under the instructions of a sheikh who assured them that this archaeological tomb would change their lives and make them wealthy.
In Sohag, in 2018 security forces arrested a gang of three individuals were arrested while excavating artifacts inside one of their homes in Dar al-Salam. Upon investigation, the body of a nine-year-old girl was discovered with signs of slaughter. She was the daughter of one of the suspects, and he sacrificed her to gain favor with the jinn and open a Pharaonic tomb.
A similar incident occurred in Qena Governorate in 2017, where a man sacrificed his neighbor’s seven-year-old daughter as an offering to open a Pharaonic tomb.
Individuals convicted of stealing artifacts, regardless of whether these items are officially registered, face severe penalties, under article 42 of Egypt’s Antiquities Protection Law. The statute mandates life imprisonment and imposes a hefty financial fine ranging from a minimum of EGP one million (USD 20,565) to a maximum of EGP five million (USD 102,825).
As authorities continue their efforts to combat these crimes and protect both human lives and historical treasures, the reality of these practices underscores the urgent need for greater public awareness and stringent enforcement against these offenses.
*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.
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