The Screaming Mummy and a Plot to murder the king Ramses 111

In 1881 eight anonymous mummies were  found near to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.  One of the coffins was found abandoned in the  corridor alone, whilst the remainder of the  mummies were in the burial chamber, there were no  inscriptions on the coffin  to indicate the man's name and the coffin had also been sealed down to prevent escape His ears had been pierced which is a sign of high birth or priesthood, yet his body was wrapped in a sheepskin, this is considered to be  a ritually unclean burial.

DNA tests have shown that it is the mummy of  Pertwere, the son of Ramses 111  whose mother Tiy a lower wife was found to be the main culprit instigating a death plot to murder Ramses 111. Tiy wanted her son Pertwere to succeed to the throne.

A  priest who practiced the arts of  magic created wax figurines potions and wrote magical spells , In ancient Egypt words were magical, and had the power to evoke the  of power  life and death. The spells cast against Ramses and the black magic did not kill him and unfortunately for the conspirators of this devious plot, their intentions were considered as deadly and as serious as an actual physical assault on Ramses, the magic invoked was as terrible a threat as trying to cut him down with a sword. Thirty conspirators of the harem were put on trial, they were sentenced to death and told to commit suicide in front of the court or in their cells, after their trial, ten judges also faced trial for having taken meals with the accused during the trials, they were condemned to have their ears and nose cut off.

After the detailed scan of Pharaoh's mummy, well preserved at the Cairo Egyptian Museum, they discovered that Ramses III's throat was slit through the spine, cutting the trachea, esophagus and large blood cells of the neck, according to scholars the Pharaoh was caught by the killer behind his back and slit from behind

The mummy of Pertwere hands and feet were bound together, and his face was distorted showing him screaming in terror, and his genitals had been sliced off.

Because Pertwere was not prepared for burial with the mummification process his soul  would be cast into the chaos of eternal death instead of the eternal life that  the ancient Egyptians craved,  it would be considered a just punishment  for trying to usurp his fathers throne . The other conspirators were burnt to death, as fire destroys the body so they would have no chance of an eternal life.

The Mummy of Pertwere is on display in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo. Recently Ramses body has been put through a scanner and it was discovered that his throat had been cut. An Eye of Horus amulet, representing healing and protection, was placed around Ramses III’s throat to help heal him for his afterlife

Hatshepsut’s name had reached as far as the circuit of heaven and encompassed the great circle (the sea)

Hatshepsut's Trading Expedition to the Land of Punt

Hatshepsut had a peaceful reign, she concentrated on trade rather than conquest, the walls of her temple shows her famous trading expedition to the Land of Punt, now known as Somalia. To indicate their willingness to submit to an Egyptian sovereign the people of Punt showered the Egyptians with gifts for Hatshepsut. Their gifts included gold and ivory, great heaps of precious balsams and incense for the temples, animals plants and trees for transplantation on the Egyptian soil,  this is recorded on the punt colonnade, where small African houses are shown standing on wooden stilts, beautiful tropical birds are carved flying across the sky and lots of varieties of fish are recorded

Hatshepsut’s name had reached as far as the circuit of heaven and encompassed the great circle (the sea) the best of myrrh was upon her limbs and her fragrance was of divine dew, whilst her odour was mingled with the land of Punt. Her skin was gilded with electrum that shone like the stars at night

Foreign lands were regarded as the personal property of The Goddess Hathor, and the goods that the Egyptians obtained from these countries were considered to be gifts from Hathor, so the return to Thebes with all the treasures from Punt would have been the cause for great celebrations. Now that her reign was strengthened and successful, Hatshepsut made plans with her architect Senemut to build herself a Mortuary Temple fit for a King, and so her unusual three storied columned temple rose up the side of the Theban Mountains of El Dier El Bahari. When looking at a map I realized that the temple with its entrance ramps is in direct line with Karnack Temple the House of Amun on the East Bank, Sheshat the Goddess of the Cosmos guided the priests with her skills of the stars and heavens, the temple is also aligned to the winter solstice sunrise, which in our modern era occurs around the 21st or 22nd of December each year.

Originally Myrrh trees lined the entrance ramps and its lower terrace up into the temple; these were the trees that had been sent from the expedition to punt and are shown being transported in large baskets on the reliefs in the temple.

The White Queen - A Daughter and Great Royal Wife of Ramses 11

In the fields and undergrowth at the side of the Rammessium lie the ruins of a small chapel where a beautiful statue of the face of Merit –Amun was unearthed. The chapel is known as The Chapel of the White Queen, who was the eldest daughter of Ramses and Nefertari who also became one of her father's  Royal Wives.

Meritit-Amun was a priestess of Het-Hert  (Hathor) at the Temple at Dier El Medina, she held many beautiful titles and was obviously loved by her father to have her chapel so close to his mortuary temple. Meritit-Amun titles were;

'The one who fills the forecourt with the scent of her fragrance',
'Superior of the Harem of Amun-Re' '
The Eldest daughter of the King and Nefatari with the splendid face, Magnificent in the Palace,
The beloved of the Lord of two Lands,
She who stands by her Master like Sophis is beside Orion, and
One is satisfied with what is said, when she opens her mouth to the Lord of the Two Lands'
Her tomb is in the Queens Valley no 68.

The Goddess Nut at Dendera Temple

Entering the Temple of the Goddess Hathor at Dendera I weaved my way through the giant columns with the face of Hathor reaching the ceiling and pointing in all the four directions of the earth, walking towards the corner of the Hypostyle Hall  I recognized the outstretched arms of Nut the goddess of the sky, her name is pronounced Noot and means night, her elegant arms and legs were the pillars to the earth, her face was so beautiful and serene. Her slim elongated body snuggly wraps itself around the corner of the room and her long back extends across this length of ceiling creating her nightly shroud of Heaven, I followed her around as her elegant legs curved around the next corner of the hall as she gave birth to the sun in the morning, and each new day the first rays of light shine down onto the face of 'The Golden One’ the Goddess Hathor that had been deeply cut into the ceiling. I think the face of Hathor still shines today.  During the daylight Nut and her husband Geb are separated but once the light of the day diminishes she gradually draws down to lay on the body of her husband Geb and the earth succumbs to darkness.  Nut was the barrier that separated the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos of the ancient world.

Gazing up at the ceiling, a row of Heavenly barque sailed across the night sky beneath the starlit body of Nut.  I can see Taurus the bull and Sagittarius the half man half horse pulling back on his bow with his arrow poised on the future. A tiny barque sails directly beneath the sun and the first ray of light a barque carries an open lotus flower that appears to have a snake rising from it; this is a representation of Ihy, the son of Hathor and Horus, as he appears for the first time out of the primordial sea.  He was the beautiful child of brilliant light, the offspring who lights humanity with the rays of the sun and floods the land with gold. On a slightly larger barque in front of Ihy sit his mother Hathor and the goddess Isis, the procession of barque carry all the gods of the sky, surrounding them and above their heads are golden stars which represent the homes of departed souls, and the silver and golden star gates to travel back and forth between heaven and earth.

`I am a soul, I am a star of gold, Here I am, O Ra, I am your son, I am a soul, a star of Gold.’

The Tomb of Queen Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens

The Tomb of Queen Nefertari


Queen Nefertari was The Great Royal wife of  Ramesses the Great and her name means Beautiful Companion

In the Valley of the Queens on the West Bank of the River Nile, Ramses created an exquisite tomb for Nefertari the Incomparable, Beloved, Glory for her Soul.

Queen Nefetari’s coffin was not found in her tomb,  it was discovered by the tomb robber Ahmed Rassul who was looking for his goat near to the temple of Hatshepsut at Dier El Bahari, 3,000 years after her death in the cache known as DB320. Nefertari was surrounded by forty Great Kings,  and royalty along with her husband Ramses the Great . It took sixteen men to lift its weight from the tomb and move it alone.

It was thought that priests had removed the Kings and Queens from their own tombs in this isolated place from the Valley of the Kings and Queens, they were found by the tomb robber Ahmed Rassul

The Royal mummies  were taken from their hiding place near the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Dier El Bahari  and were carried by donkeys and mules to the banks of the Nile where they were transported to Cairo. Women came to the river bank and wailed in mourning for the deceased kings and their kin. Never in the history of any nation has there been such an awesome entourage of deceased royalty, the glory of Ancient Egypt rose again as their Ancient Kings and Queens  traveled to safety in Cairo, their final resting place, where modern scientists now continue the work of some of the ancient priests to protect and preserve the mummies of their kings.

Below is a short video of Nefertari,s tomb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1g-BSiJmu0

The Rassul Tomb Robbers & their discovery of Tomb 320 A Cache of forty mummies of Kings at Queens

After visiting the Rammessium Cafe that is owned by the Rassul family at the side of the Rammessium Mortuary Temple, I was shown a black and white photograph of Ahmed Rassul the tomb robber, so I photographed it and then I painted it. Ahmed is standing with his mother, daughter and grandaughter, outside their home which was a tomb high on  the hillside facing the Rammessium mortuary temple. Looking very closely at the photograph I realized that Ahmed's mother was actually wearing a pharonic collar!

Ahmed Rassul was searching the hillside for a lost goat, he could hear it bleating and so he followed the sounds until he found himself stood at the edge of a shaft that the goat had obviously fallen into,  Ahmed climbed down a rope into the shaft, once inside the tomb he realized he had found a great collection of mummies, so he retrieved the goat and went in search of his brothers to tell them of his discovery, together the brothers decided that they needed a plan to  keep people away from the tomb and protect their discovery ensuring their wealth to come. They returned to the tomb and threw a dead donkey inside the shaft, the stench of the donkey as it decayed would erase any further curiosity from others, and possibly convincing any suspicious minds that a demon had woken in the tomb. Over the next ten years the tomb robbers prospered with their treasure trove that gradually made its way to the hands of collectors and auction houses. Eventually The Antiquities service realized that a tomb must have been found, and so Sir Gaston Maspero sent one of the museum staff Emil Brugsch to discover where the artifacts were coming from. Emile presented himself as a wealthy buyer which gained the trust of the traders, and finally led him to the Abd Rasul Brothers. The brothers were arrested and tortured and despite a severe beating on the soles of the feet they would not give their discovery away, eventually after a month they were released, but then the police harassed their family and the villagers at Quarna continuously, until eventually one of the brothers confessed to the police where the tomb was to avoid any further harassment of themselves or the rest of the villagers.

Once the Rassul brothers confessed to knowing the whereabouts of the tomb they begrudgingly led Emile Brugsch to the cliffs at the side of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Dier El Bahari and he was guided down a rope into a tomb where to his amazement he found not one mummy case but the remains of over forty mummies. The tomb is known as DB320 it had originally been the family vault of Pinedjem 1 a High Priest of Amun during the 21st dynasty who had declared himself a king. During his rule He had removed some of the kings from their own tombs, possibly to acquire some of their wealth,  after his death further kings moved them again and amidst all the confusion the kings all finally were found in this one vault, Some of the mummy cases held the bodies of the greatest pharaohs of all time, including Seti 1 whose empty sarcophagus had originally been found in his tomb by Giovanni Belzoni, Ramses 11 ‘The Great’, Tuthmosis 1, the father of Hatshepsut, who had also been the first King to be buried in The Valley of The Kings. His burial had been carried out in great secrecy and entrusted to a High Court Official named Ineni, Tuthmosis 11 and his son Tuthmosis 111 princes, princesses, court officials and royal grandchildren. Queen Nefatari’s mummy case was also found in the cache and took sixteen men to lift its weight and move it alone. The Coffin of Ramses 1 was found in this vault but his mummy was missing, it has since been discovered that the robbers had sold Ramses 1 to a Canadian man for seven pounds

After 3,000 years of seclusion the Royal mummies left Dier El Bahari  and were carried by donkeys and mules to the banks of the Nile where they were transported to Cairo. Women came to the riverbank and wailed in mourning for the deceased kings and their kin. Never in the history of any nation has there been such an awesome entourage of deceased royalty, the glory of Ancient Egypt rose again as their pharaohs traveled to safety in Cairo, their final resting place, where modern scientists now continue the work of some of the ancient priests to protect and preserve the mummies of their kings.

The Tomb of Ramose - The Vizier of Akhenaten

Ramose was a Vizier under Amenophis 111 and then later his son Amenhotep 1V who changed his name to Akhenaten.

This tomb is so large and bright with a forest of low solid hypostyle columns representing bound bundles of papyrus, they expanded across the room from floor to ceiling, some of the columns were damaged and looked like large semi-carved boulders scattered across the floor. My eyes jumped between the columns as I eagerly sought out the reliefs on the surrounding walls; slowly I turned around, finally facing the door again. I was breath taken and stunned with admiration at what I saw. The whole exterior wall had the most beautiful carvings of Ramose and his family that I have ever seen in any tomb. I sat down to hold the vision of this excellent Armana art, and a sense of total calm washed over me as shafts of daylight streamed through windows cut into the ceiling along this exterior wall, bringing the awesome simplicity of  the polished limestone to life.

Ramose was stood at the side of the door, and I gazed at his eternally youthful yet handsome face, with his neat little goatee beard he wore an intricately plaited wig, his body radiating the power and position of a Vizier.  The gold collar of a nobleman surrounded his neck with a small beaded necklace, over these strung a heavily beaded heart necklace. On his upper arms and wrists he wore gold bracelets, to signify his office he wore a loose fitting cloak, and in one hand he carried a staff and in the other a large key. Priests made offerings to him, whilst the waters of purification flowed over his head like a sculptured rainbow. On the higher register Ramose is seated while three beautiful musicians shake their sistra to welcome him into the underworld, his wife Ptahmeryt stands behind him affectionately embracing her lord.

On the opposite side of the door Ramose is shown enjoying his funeral banquet with his father and mother, brothers and their wives. This is the most exquisite carving of a group of people I have ever seen within a tomb, the relief’s are life sized which subtly brings the image of this banquet of beautiful people to life, some areas of the wall have been damaged but others as flawless as the day the artist originally created this masterpiece. The smooth polish on the pale limestone carving highlights their cheeks, the only colour used is black within the orbs of their eyes and fine lines that accentuate the kholine around their eyes. The highly detailed and intricate work on the individual wigs as if a hairdresser had sat there for days meticulously weaving and binding. The gowns worn by the ladies seated behind their husbands subtly express the sheerest folds of fine linen. I was disappointed as I turned to the side wall and observed the difference of the small painted registers showing the traditional funeral procession that had obviously been started on whilst Ramose had been the vizier under the rule of Amenophis 111, imagine how wonderful it would have been to see this whole tomb created in the distinctive classical Armarna style.



On the painted walls of the tomb the personal belongings of Ramose are carried into the tomb by porters along with larger objects, including an elegant bed, and four wooden chests. Facing this row a group of women mourners raise their arms wailing with grief as tears stream from their eyes. finally the funeral procession arrives the tomb where the opening of the mouth ceremony is given outside the entrance to the tomb, underneath this scene I almost fell down a set of steps that lead to a gloomy entrance, I was told that this travels underneath the inner chamber and leads to the burial chamber that is not open for viewing. Avoiding this gaping shaft, I moved safely across to look at the back internal wall where the walls are carved once again, but without the same classical finesse of the banquet scene, and Ramose is shown standing before the newly installed  pharaoh Amenhotep 1V, who sits under a royal beldachin with the goddess Maat  behind him. Moving across this wall a doorway that leads into a very dark inner chamber that was unfinished and no access is allowed. passing this the final scenes are carved and penciled in and here the new style of art is portrayed, Amenophis 1V has rejected the god of Amun  and converted to his new religion worshiping one god, and he is now shown as Akhenaten with his wife Nefertiti standing behind him on the balcony of the palace beneath the rays of the Aten ,small hands on some of the rays hold the key of life,  the  enemies of this heretic king have mutilated and gouged  the images of Akhenaten and Nefertiti symbolically destroying the possibility of their next life. So much beauty and passion on the edge of turbulence are expressed on the walls of this tomb. Ramose stands beneath the gouged bodies of Akenaten and Nefertiti and he receives a gold collar for his services as vizier yet his image has endured the attack of religious fervor

I looked at the final scenes portrayed,  Ramose is receiving a group of foreign delegations, the craftsmen had sketched  these on the wall ready for the carvers to follow after them , the carvers never came, the tomb was abandoned the work  left unfinished, Akhenaton had decided to move his court to Armarna and Ramose would have followed as his vizier. The exterior wall of this tomb is a breathtaking masterpiece of art, but like Akhenaten what had started in glory ended like the final wall within this tomb, totally devoid of expression, blank, a wall expressing the wilderness of a revolution that had run out of time before its completion like the work portrayed on its walls.