Missing in Egypt (13 page)

We tore into the bread and cheese.
 
We were ravenous and very low on strength.
 
The food restored our spirits a little, especially now we had hope that tomorrow we would be free.

It was also great to be able to wash.
 
As I watched Yasmeen undress and bathe herself I realised once again just how beautiful she was. “Now that I’m clean I feel human again” she said, rubbing up against me.
 
“Make love to me Ramy” she whispered, running her hands over my naked body.
 
What was a man to do?

We fell into a deep sleep but were awake as soon as the sun began to lighten the cave.
 
We had tried to save some food for the morning but we were so hungry we had eaten it all.
 
We could only hope that our captors would be in a benevolent mood and bring us some breakfast.

Soon we heard footsteps and, to our relief, we saw that they had indeed brought us some gruel and water.
 
“Eat this quickly” we were told “don’t waste time, we have a long walk ahead of us”.

It was great to walk out into the sunshine, even though our hands were bound again.
 
This time they didn’t bother to blindfold us, I guess because they figured we would travel faster that way and we wouldn’t be coming back anyway.
 
It didn’t really matter, the hills all looked much the same to me and most of the time I was looking at the ground so I wouldn’t stumble.
 
We walked for about an hour and as we came over the last crest I could see the Valley of the
Queens
spread out below us.
 
Far in the distance I could see the first of the tourist buses coming towards Queen Hatshepsut’s temple which was below us to the right.
 
It was so far away that they looked like toy buses and I knew it would be useless to try and attract their attention if something went wrong.
 
Let’s hope these are men of their word, I thought.

I could see a man waiting under the overhang of a rock.
 
The sun was already beating down on us and I knew Yasmeen must be as thirsty as I was.
 
Nothing really mattered though except the thought that we would soon be free.
 
“That’s my father” Yasmeen whispered to me.

Yasmeen’s father was not at all like her in appearance.
 
He was short and tubby but when he saw his little girl his eyes lit up and I could see the resemblance in his broad smile.
 
“My darling daughter” he said “I hope they haven’t hurt you”.
 
“Never mind about all that” said Rashidi “Give me the collar and the dagger.
 
Yasmeen’s father produced them from inside his jacket and they glittered in the sunlight.
 
Rashidi turned them over and over in his hands, examining th
em.
 
“They are truly remarkable”
he said “and now it is time for you to show us where the tomb is that
contains all these treasures.”
 
From beneath their robes both Rashidi and Mosi produced guns and waved them at us, signalling for Yasmeen’s father to lead us to the tomb.
 
He nodded to me briefly in acknowledgement as we turned back into the hills the way we had come. “It is hard for me to find this” Yasmeen’s father was explaining to Rashidi.
 
“I have not been here since I was a boy.
 
My father brought me just before he died.
 
The man who showed my father the tomb died suddenly and not long after my father brought me here he also died suddenly.
 
It is believed there is a curse on most of these tombs and that is what I also believe.
 
That is why I have not come back here.
 
I have only those two items you have heard about, which my father took out and which came to me on his death.
 
In fact I had all but forgotten about the tomb.
 
These antiquities have been in my shop for years.
 
People comment on them and I say they are not for sale, they are just part of the shop”.
 
“That’s enough talk old man” said Mosi “just keep walking until you find this tomb”.
 

We walked to a ravine by a huge boulder, which looked for all the world like it was about to topple and roll down the valley.
 
“We are close now” said Yasmeen’s father.
 
We walked between the sides of the sharp ravine and beyond it the ground opened up again.
 
“Oh” said Yasmeen’s father, sucking in his breath “oh dear, what has happened here.”
 
Before us was a pile of rocks and shale in a huge mound.
 
“It was not like this” he explained “we covered the entrance to the tomb with rocks and stones so that it was hidden, but it was not buried under all these rocks.
 
Some heavy rains over the years must have caused a landslip.
 
The tomb’s entrance was way below ground level.”

Rashidi cursed and Mosi s
aid “Great, what do we do now?”
 
Rashidi kicked at the rubble and cursed some more.
 
“After all this” he said “we are no closer. What is

Mohammed going to say?”

At least we had the name of the top man.
 
Not that it would help us much as every second person in
Egypt
seemed to be called Mohammed.
 
We didn’t know any of their surnames and I was sure they would soon disappear once they had cleared out the treasures of the tomb.
 
But it was nice to have confirmation of our thought that Rashidi and Mosi were not smart enough to be acting alone.

“This Mohammed” I asked.
 
“Where is he?
 
We have brought you to the tomb, now you should let us go”.
 
“Let you go?” said Rashidi. ‘How do we know there is any tomb here?
 
The old man could have brought us on a wild goosechase for all we know.
 
Now you will have to dig.”

“Dig?” I repeated incredulously.
 
“Dig that huge pile of rocks?
 
We have an old man, a woman and me
.
We don’t even have any tools. How do you propose we are going to dig through that?”
 
“We will get tools” Rashidi answered “and you will all dig.
 
You are not going anywhere until we see the treasures in the tomb.
 
Now we know where the tomb is supposed to be we can drive to the road behind the hills and carry the tools across.
 
Mosi, you stay here with them and I will go and arrange everything”.
 
“You’d better bring some water and plenty of food.
 
We are weak from not eating” I retorted.

We sat in the narrow ravine to avoid the direct blast of the sun.
 
Mosi positioned himself between us and the Valley of the
Queens
, his gun ready at his side.
 
I introduced myself to Yasmeen’s father.
 
“Please call me Masud” he said.
 
“I am pleased to meet you – my daughter told me all about you over the phone before we went away”.
 
At this Yasmeen kissed her father’s cheek.
 
“I am so sorry papa” she wept.
 
“Don’t be Yasmeen” he replied.
 
“It is me who is sorry that you are in this awful mess.”
 
“I never even knew about the tomb” she continued.
 
“No, my daughter.
 
Not even your brothers know about this.
 
I decided to let the secret die with me.
 
It has already cost two lives.
 
I am sure my father died when he removed just two pieces of treasure because of a curse put on the tomb.
 
That is why I have never sold them.
 
I hoped the curse would die with him”.

“But you could have been rich if you had sold the treasures – even if you had turned it over to the authorities you would have received a very handsome share”.
 
“I know” he replied.
 
“In some ways I suppose I was silly.
 
But I made a promise to my father to keep it secret.
 
I have enough money for what we want, I do not need any more.
 
It is so sad that all the tombs are raided, even though many of the treasures go to museums.
 
Surely we should leave some for future generations to discover, or even to lay in peace as it was intended?”

“Are you sure this is where the tomb is?” Yasmeen whispered, so that Mosi couldn’t hear what she was saying.
 
“Yes” he replied, also in a whisper “I thought about taking them to the wrong place but your life to me is worth more than any treasure.
 
Although I was very young when my father brought me here he showed me how to line it up with the Queen Hatshepsut’s tomb to bring me to this ravine and then it was sixty paces from the end of it.
 
I hadn’t thought about it being covered over though.”

“Stop the whispering
– or you
”
Mosi
bellowed
pointing at Yasmeen
“will be very sorry.
”

“So how did your father find the tomb?” Yasmeen asked after a few minutes.
 
“Did he discover it with the other man?”
 
“Oh no,” Masud replied “the other man, my father’s great friend Edjo, told my father he knew of it only as a rumour which had circulated in his family from the times of the burials of the Queens in the Valley.
 
He believed one of his ancestors may have worked on the tomb.
 
Many had gone looking for it but without success.
 
Edjo also had searched for it in vain.
 
Then one day he stumbled across the ravine and he said as he came through it the sun shone on a very bright stone in a hole in the ground.
 
Curious he went over to look at it and found that the ground around it was falling away.
 
He marked the spot and came back the next day with a shovel and a pick. He camped here for a couple of days and it wasn’t long before he found an opening to a tunnel.
 
Some of the ground must have been washed away, much as it has now been heaped back on top of it. It doesn’t rain here very often, but when it does it roars down. He told of a long tunnel going down deep into the ground.
 
It opened into a big chamber which was filled with treasures he had only dreamt about.
 
Off this big chamber there were two smaller chambers.
 
One held the sarcophagus and the other more treasures to help her on her journey to the next world. He said the pictures covering the walls were still very vivid and beautiful to behold.
 
He marvelled at the gold car
riage, ready but not assembled.
There was everything the Princess could need for her journey to the after-life – jewellery, gold combs and hair adornments, urns and pitchers full of food, wine and water, knives, forks, dishes – the chambers were bursting with beautiful objects.

Not wanting to draw attention to his find by taking anything too large, Edjo had simply taken the jewelled dagger, which he slipped inside his robes.
 
He covered the entrance to the tunnel before returning to his village to consider what to do next.
 
He told my father and took him there to see it.
 
This time they took away the golden collar.
 
The next day Edjo took ill.
 
On his deathbed he told my father he believed he

had been cursed for disturbing the tomb.
 
“Take the dagger and the collar” he begged my father “and promise me you will keep the secret”.

A few months later my father took me to see the tomb.
 
He said someone else should know about it.
 
He told me to remember the location of the ravine.
 
Then we paced out the distance from the end of the ravine to the opening of the tomb.
 
He told me never to forget it – to keep it as my inheritance.