The Quest of Julian Day (41 page)

The Valley ends at last in a great pit surrounded on all sides, but for its narrow entrance, by glaring, reddish-yellow cliffs which are broken here and there by steep spurs running down into it; and it is under these that the Tombs of the Kings were cut out of the living rock.

There are about sixty tombs in all and very nearly all of them were robbed of their precious contents during the period of anarchy which succeeded the fall of the Egyptian Empire. Many of the empty tombs were already an attraction to tourists as far back as Graeco-Roman times but a great number of them were lost trace of by falls of rock covering their entrances during the centuries in which the Arab Dynasties made Egypt inaccessible to European travellers. In the middle of the last century only about twenty were known, but the archæological expeditions from European countries and the United States have since succeeded in opening up the rest with, it is believed, only two exceptions, which they have still failed to trace.

Of all the tombs so opened in modern times only two had escaped the tomb-robbers of the past and were found with the mummies and treasures in them just as they had been sealed by the priests after the burial.

That of Tutankhamen, the discovery of which made archæological history, was one; and it escaped the depredations of the robbers only because it is an exceptionally small tomb and lies between two others in a place where there seems hardly room enough for a tomb at all. The great store of treasures found in this little tomb gives some idea of the immense riches which must have been looted from the others, many of which were at least twenty times its size. The other tomb which was found intact was that of Iuau and Thuau, the foreign parents-in-law of the ‘Heretic Pharaoh'. This, too, was a
comparatively small tomb but the riches in it form the second-finest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world.

As even an energetic visitor can only manage three or four tombs in one morning, few people see more than eight during a fortnight's stay in Luxor since, apart from the Valley of the Kings, there are those of the Nobles and the Queens and half-a-score of the most important temples in Egypt for the enthusiast to cover there.

Only the half-dozen or so most important tombs have been made easily accessible to tourists by concrete steps, where they are necessary, hand-rails on the slopes and the installation of electricity. The others must be inspected by candle-light and one has to slither down in to them as best one can while holding aloft a guttering candle.

The period of a tomb can easily be guessed as they are of three quite different types. The Kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty, who were the earliest to be buried there, had constructed for them a series of deep pits sloping almost sheer down into the rock but joined by horizontal passages, the sarcophagus-chamber being right at the bottom and often several hundred feet below the surface of the earth. The XIXth Dynasty rulers modified the grade of the slopes so that one can walk down them without much difficulty, while those of the XXth Dynasty burrowed with only very slight slope almost direct into the sides of the hills.

Individually they vary in accordance with the length of the reign of the monarch for whom they were hewn. Directly a Pharaoh came to the throne he commenced work upon his last resting-place; a passage often as much as twelve feet square, was dug in to the cliff followed by a room of twenty feet or so wide. If the Pharaoh's reign was short, as in the case of Tutankhamen this would be the sarcophagus-chamber. If the reign continued, side-chambers were often added and then another passage and another chamber further in the cliff face, which, in turn, became the sarcophagus-chamber if the reign was of medium length; but if the reign were a long one several passages and several chambers would be constructed so that the tunnel penetrated further and further into the rock as the years went by.

Not one of the tombs is finished; each ends in a jagged
passage or a partly-hewn room. The moment the Pharaoh died work on his tomb was abandoned and one can still see the various stages of the walls where the work was left uncompleted. In turn there came the miners who hacked out a rough, rectangular passage, the masons who worked its surface to a polished smoothness, the priests who drew the sacred symbols quite roughly outlined in red paint, the artists who did a new and perfect outline over them in black, the sculptors who chiselled out the images and, lastly, the men who painted them in glowing colours.

The sculptures and wall-paintings are all of a religious nature, consisting of portions of the text and illustrations of the Book of the Litanies of Ra, the Book of the Gates, the Book of Him who is in Underworld, the Book of the Opening of the Mouth and the Book of the Dead, which together composed the sacred literature of the Egyptians. Their purpose was that when the dead King awoke from the sleep of death he should have before him in the hieroglyphics on the walls of his tomb, or those which embellished his huge granite coffin, all the magic texts and symbols which he would need to know in answering the many monsters who would bar his passage through the Valley of the Shadows before he could enter the Boat of Ra and sail to the Egyptian Paradise.

The earlier tombs, like that of Amenophis II of the XVIIIth Dynasty, are the more sombre and restful to the eye and the figures on their walls are not carved but only painted, although their artistry is very pure and beautiful. The XIXth Dynasty tombs show no falling off in the purity of their art and they have the added attraction that every figure and symbol in them was carved in relief before it was painted; their painting is also much more colourful. That of Seti I, who was the third king of the Dynasty, is perhaps the finest in the whole Valley. With the temple which he built to Osiris at Abydos it forms the high-spot of all Egyptian art during the Empire period and can only be rivalled by the work of the artists of the Old Kingdom who wrought with such skill at Sakkara nearly two thousand years earlier. By the time of the coming of the XXth Dynasty a slight decadence had set in. The huge tombs of Rameses VI and Rameses IX, which are fine examples of the period, are even more colourful than those of the earlier Dynasties; but their
vivid paintings make them a little crude and the draughtsmen of that era lacked something of the perfection of their predecessors.

Oonas and I had visited most of the important tombs before, either separately or together, but neither of us had seen that of Merenptah, which is very fine, so we went down into it and afterwards visited that of the general who usurped the throne on the death of Tutankhamen, the Pharaoh Horemheb. Over an hour of our time had gone when we came up again into the sunshine out of the cool yet stuffy darkness. I did not think much of Sayed, the guide she had provided, but he seemed willing enough and quite a decent fellow.

‘What would you like to tackle now?' I asked her. There are still any number of them we haven't seen although we've done the best ones.'

‘How about Thothmes III?' she suggested.

The guide shook his head. ‘I would not advise this one, my ladyship. There was a fall of rock in Thothmes III last year; so it is not very safe any more.'

‘Is it shut now?' she asked.

‘No, it not shut,' he replied slowly. ‘But only the archæologists make visit there. You no like—no interest.'

Thothmes III was the gentleman who, after remaining tied to Queen Hat-shept-sut's apron-strings for some thirty-odd years, had become the greatest conqueror in all the long history of his country. The idea of visiting the Egyptian Napoleon's grave had suddenly appealed to me, so I said:

‘If the grave is officially open it must be safe and even if there isn't much to see I should like to visit it on account of the personality of the man who was buried there.'

Still, Sayed demurred. ‘It is a long way from here, and one must go down ladders to get to it, my lord. It is much troublesome to get. The tomb is down in a deep pit which we have to reach by climbing up into the hills.'

‘I don't mind that, darling,' Oonas said, ‘if you'd like to see it. I should, because his being such a great King makes it in one way really the most interesting tomb in the Valley.'

‘Right ho! Let's go there, then,' I agreed.

Sayed shrugged his shoulders. ‘If my lordship wishes I will
ask one of the guardians for the keys; but it is a long walk and he will tire my ladyship.'

I had a shrewd suspicion that Sayed was only raising objections because he was himself unwilling to undertake the exertion of getting there in the hot sunshine which was now grilling down upon us. In any case I knew that his talk of the place being dangerous must be sheer nonsense, otherwise the authorities would not have allowed the tomb to remain open to the public. Still grumbling and muttering he shambled off to see the tomb guardians about the keys.

A few minutes later he came back with one of them who proved equally averse to our making the visit. He said that there was no danger of the tomb itself caving in, as the fall of rock had been outside its entrance, but that it meant a steep climb first and that in the descent to the entrance of the tomb afterwards one might have a nasty fall; only the professional archæologists ever bothered to go there and so far the tomb had not been opened even once this season.

The very fact that so few visitors to Egypt had ever been down into the tomb of the great conqueror made us all the keener and, as Oonas pointed out, if the way to it really proved too steep and dangerous we could always turn back; so the tomb guardian took one of the large keys off a big iron ring that he carried at his belt and handed it to Sayed.

Leaving the bottom of the Valley, where all the best-known tombs are situated, we followed Sayed slowly up a footpath that led along one of the spurs coming down from the ridge of hills. The way was very steep and ten minutes later we were a hundred feet above the valley bottom, moving in single file along a shaly track that ran parallel to the windings of a nearby precipice.

On our right, across the gulf, we could see another precipice and the two gradually closed in to form a narrow gully which ran deep into the heart of the mountain. It was the best part of half an hour before we reached its end and it was here, at the bottom of a perpendicular chimney, enclosed on three sides by sheer cliffs, that the entrance to the tomb lay. Evidently too, it could not be approached along the bottom of the gully as the
only way down to it was by a succession of ladders tied to a rickety scaffolding precariously fixed in the cliff-face.

‘Have you ever visited this tomb before?' I asked Sayed.

‘Once, my lord,' he replied uneasily. ‘I had to for the obtaining of my guide's certificate; but it is not a nice place and I had hoped never to have to go again.'

Here was the explanation of his reluctance to bring us there but I only laughed and promised him an extra good tip for the trouble to which we were putting him.

‘How d'you feel about it now?' I enquired of Oonas. ‘Is your head all right for heights? Or would you rather we chucked it up?'

She shook her head, smiled and she placed a small, soft hand in one of mine.

‘It seems a pity not to go down now we are here after that tiring walk, and I shall not be frightened if you hold me firmly.'

‘All right, then, I murmured, stepping on the ladder. ‘I'll go first and if you'll come after me step by step my arms will be round you so that you can't possibly fall.'

It wasn't really such a difficult business and we reached the foot of the last ladder a little breathless but quite safely. Standing as we were now, at the bottom of the rock chimney, the entrance of the tomb still lay some twenty feet below us and the only way down to it was over a tumbled pile of jagged rocks.

‘I will go first here,' said Sayed, ‘and my ladyship can come after, putting a hand on my shoulder.'

We followed as he suggested and reached the iron doors built into the rock-face. He inserted the key in the lock which had evidently not been oiled since the previous winter, as he had some difficulty in turning it, but at last he got it open.

He then produced from his pocket some candles which we had used in the tomb of Horemheb and lighting three of them, gave us one apiece.

The tomb being of the XVIIIth Dynasty period was one of the very deep ones which go down almost perpendicularly into the earth and the first ramp was so steep that we could hardly keep upright as we shuffled forward, down into the pitchy, musty blackness. At its end we came to a flight of stairs, one side of which had fallen away into the depths of an unseen
chasm below, so that in places only about nine inches' width of the stairway remained to tread upon. Negotiating this dangerous patch was a tricky and unpleasant business. We had to flatten ourselves against the wall and, as well as holding our candles, Sayed and I had more or less to support Oonas between us.

Her breath was coming quickly and I knew that she was scared but when I suggested that we had gone quite far enough and should turn back she would not hear of it and I admired her pluck tremendously.

We passed through a largish square chamber and then descended another steep ramp. At its bottom there was a short passage-way and I suddenly caught a hollow ring beneath Sayed's feet as he led us through it. Next moment he paused and lit a length of magnesium tape which gave a sudden, lurid flame. By its glare I saw that we had just reached a wooden bridge which spanned a wide chasm the full width of the passage. He motioned to us to peer down into the dark abyss and said:

‘For the tomb robbers. The Pharaohs very clever. They make these pits in the middle of the tunnel and when the priests have buried the king they take away the bridge afterwards. The robbers come and they don't know that. They fall down in the dark and break their necks. When this tomb opened they find the skeletons of six men down there. Tomb robbers who have kill themselves or died of thirst because unable to get out.'

I had seen such pits before in other tombs and knew their purpose, and I was anxious that we should get off that narrow bridge so, with a quick word, I hurried him on.