Ramses III – A motive for murder

My most recent book following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt, Ramses’ Revenge, deals with the historical events surrounding the so-called Harem Conspiracy to murder Ramses III.

Ramses III ruled Egypt at the beginning of the 20th Dynasty of the New Kingdom, a little over a thousand years BC. It was a period of ancient Egyptian history about which I knew little beyond what is common knowledge to anyone with more than a passing interest in the subject, having been mostly fascinated by the 18th Dynasty pharaohs. But I knew from News headlines published in 2012, (about the time I was writing my first couple of books in the series) that Ramses III had been murdered. A 2012 CT scan on his mummy, revealed a deeply slit throat that would have killed him instantaneously. That the assassination of the divinely anointed ruler was plotted by one of his wives only added to the sense of intrigue and skulduggery. I determined there and then to learn more about this pharaoh who met with such a violent death. And the first germs of an idea for a novel started to spawn.

It’s impossible, of course, to project what we might call ‘personality’ onto an historical individual who lived and died more than three millennia ago. I started out thinking of Ramses III as a ‘victim’ of the Harem Conspiracy, led by one of his junior wives in a bid to place her son on the throne instead of the intended successor, the Crown Prince. But the more I researched the subject, the more it seemed to me that Ramses III was perhaps the architect of his own downfall. I also started to question the so-called ‘junior’ status of the queen who incited the conspiracy. Important men, it seems, rallied to her cause.

There are clues in the monuments left by Ramses III, in particular his spectacular Memorial Temple on the West Bank near Luxor now known as Medinet Habu Temple, that all may not have been well at his pharaonic court.

Ramses III aped his illustrious predecessor, Ramses The Great, in many things, and proved himself a mighty warrior Pharaoh. He is often dubbed ‘the last warrior pharaoh’. He repelled invading forces and kept the Egyptian empire largely intact at a time when the major empires of the Mediterranean and Near East were crumbling.

Like his predecessor, Ramses III had multiple wives (three concurrent principal wives that we know of) and, as a result, hoardes of children. While possibly not in quite the same league as his forebear, said to have had upwards of a hundred offspring, Ramses III copied his hero by carving his temple walls showing processions of royal princes and princesses. But there was one big difference…

Egyptologists state that in Ramses III’s lifetime, he left the label texts that would name his sons and daughters intentionally blank. Equally, of the known depictions of his queens on statuary or temple walls, only one image has the name and titles added. What are we to make of this ?

True, infant mortality was high. Possibly, the king was being circumspect. But it was a simple enough thing to re-carve the wall reliefs – other pharaohs did it all the time! So, one gets a sense of intrigue, of possible rivalry and jealousy; perhaps of different branches of the royal family being played off against each other by a wily old king.

I learned that three of Ramses III’s sons followed him on the throne of Egypt after his death. Each named himself ‘Ramses’ on his coronation (all still hoping some of the might and majesty of Ramses The Great might rub off on them!). These three sons all added their label texts (and presumably also named some of their brothers) to the procession showing the princely images on the wall at Medinet Habu. They became respectively Ramses IV, VI and VIII.

One might ask how it is possible for three brothers to succeed their father. But this makes sense when you learn that Ramses V and VII (grandsons of Ramses III) died young, without heirs.

In the procession of royal princes at Medinet Habu, one son of Ramses III is missing (or, at least, still unlabelled, or had his image usurped by another brother). This is the prince dubbed ‘Pentaweret’ – the young man the conspirator queen intended for the throne. This unfortunate young man was put to death (by enforced suicide rather than execution) when the Harem Conspiracy was foiled – although not in time to prevent the murder of the king.

On my recent visit to Egypt, I was determined to see this procession of princes for myself, having only ever read about it in books on Egyptology. This short clip shows me pointing them out (with apologies for some background noise).

The conspirators were rounded up by the Crown Prince, who became Ramses IV, and put on trial. The majority were summarily executed, with a favored few allowed to take their own lives. What became of the queen who incited the assassination is unknown … although my novel posits a suggestion.

Of course, nobody deserves to be murdered. But I do have to admit that I could start to see how Ramses III might have stirred up a hornets nest of hatred and anger that led to a plot to dispatch him.

When one also learns that the first recorded workers’ strike in history took place under his rule towards the end of his reign, it serves only to reinforce the impression that here was a pharaoh perhaps who failed to care for his people. Apparently the men who toiled in the Valley of the Kings, carving out the pharaoh’s tomb, downed tools and refused to work because they had not received their payment of grain supplies, and were hungry. All this, so we are told, while the king boasted about the great feasts he held in his palace. Considering the palace adjoining the Medinet Habu Temple was within plain sight of the workers’ village in the cliffs of Deir el Medina – probably possible to smell the meat juices cooking – one can sympathize with their discontent.

So, perhaps the conspirators felt confident their plan to remove the king would be met with a groundswell of approval among the local people. And maybe this dissatisfaction among the populace explains why the Medinet Habu has the feeling of a fortified temple, surrounded by an impregnable, thick boundary wall.

There are records showing that the Nile floods failed in the latter years of Ramses III’s reign, possibly as a result of an explosive volcanic eruption on the other side of the world. Not his fault, for sure; but perhaps an economic downturn needing a different style of leadership. So, my overwhelming impression, having researched the man, is that Ramses III would not have won any popularity contests in the latter part of his reign.

The murder of the king is said to have taken place in the royal harem which was located in the Eastern High Gate in front of the Medinet Habu Temple, shown in one of the pictures below.

Temple of Ramses III — Ramses III column, Medinet Habu

Wall relief — Ramses III column, Medinet Habu

Ramses’ Revenge is the tenth book in my series and sets out to look for the motive and means behind the Harem Conspiracy that led to the assassination of Ramses III. As with all the books in the series, it is set in the present day, but has an ancient mystery at its heart.

Fiona Deal, author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt – Mysteries of modern and ancient Egypt – all available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both Kindle and paperback.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Carter's Conundrums

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Tutankhamun’s Triumph.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Hatshepsut’s Hideaway.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Farouk’s Fancies.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Akhenaten’s Alibi.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Seti’s Secret.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Belzoni’s Bequest.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Nefertari’s Narrative.

An image of the cover of the Fiona Deal book, Ramses’ Riches.

Karnak’s Colored Columns

One of the things that struck me most on my recent visit to Luxor was to see just how much work the Egyptian authorities have done during the pandemic to clean, conserve and restore Egypt’s ancient monuments. In the almost-two-years since my last trip, it was great to see the opening of the Avenue of Sphinxes, the excavation of the Memorial Temple of Amenhotep III and the cleaning of Esna Temple to reveal its wonderful colored columns and ceiling. I have posted separately about all of these recently.

It’s fair to say though that seeing the work at Karnak Temple possibly impressed me the most.

I first visited Karnak as a 17-year old in 1984. I remember being staggered by its unimaginable size and the sheer gigantic scale of everything. Naturally, the Hypostyle Hall with its 134 towering sandstone columns made the biggest impression on me. I recall our guide telling us the temple was originally fully painted. I craned my neck back and peered up at the undersides of what remains of the roof, squinting to see the remains of the original color on some of the reliefs shaded from the bleaching effects of the sun. I tried to imagine what the entire temple must have looked like painted in bright hues. Tried, and failed.

Well, I’m happy to report that it no longer needs a stretch of the imagination to picture what it must have looked like. The authorities have used the last number of months to work on the enormous columns of the central colonnade to restore some of their color. It’s been subtly done. This short video shows you what it looks like now:

It’s not just the columns of the Hypostyle Hall that have been lovingly restored. I was also pleased to see the ram-headed sphinxes lined along both sides of the Open Court had received some much-needed attention. Our Egyptian friend told us that it was only when two of the sphinxes were removed and taken to Tahrir Square that the authorities realized quite how much they were in need of some TLC.

As ever, a visit to Karnak never disappoints. So, hats off to the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry for all the effort they continue to put into making the open-air museum of Luxor such a thrilling and rewarding place to visit.

With apologies to my English readers for the spelling of the word C O L O U R !! The text automatically converts to the American spelling, even when I try to change it back 🙂

Fiona Deal, author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt – Mysteries of modern and ancient Egypt – all available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both Kindle and paperback.

Esna Temple Cleaning and Conservation

There was a time not so long ago when a fair amount of imagination was needed to picture what the ancient Egyptian temples must have looked like when originally built and painted. Over recent years, however, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism has led major programs of work to clean, conserve and, in some cases, renovate and restore the temples.

On my recent trip to Egypt I was keen to visit Esna Temple for the first time to see some of this cleaning and conservation work for myself. Located approximately 50 miles south of Luxor on the West Bank of the Nile, the temple is dedicated to Khnum, a god of the Nile who moulded the “ka” on his potters wheel.

Esna is the last temple built in Egypt in the traditional style, a Ptolemaic temple dating from the Graeco-Roman period. It was completed under the Roman Emperor Decius in circa 250 AD. As with all Ptolemaic temples, it was built on the site of an earlier shrine, this one dating from the reign of Thutmosis III in the New Kingdom. The temple sits in a hollow pit some 9 meters below ground level with the modern town enclosing it on all sides. Only the hypostyle hall has been excavated, with remains of the rest of the temple still buried under the surrounding streets.

This short video clip shows the approach to the temple through narrow streets lined with market stalls, and you can see how the temple sits in a pit surrounded by the modern town.

Arriving Esna Temple

A team was there working hard on the cleaning and conservation work as this next short clip shows:

Cleaning Esna Temple

The work cleaning the capital-headed columns and the astronomical ceiling is revealing some stunning colors as this gallery of photographs shows. So it’s no longer necessary to use your imagination to see what the temple must have looked like when originally carved and painted.

What also sets Esna Temple apart is some of the unique reliefs carved into the walls and columns. On the northern wall the pharaoh is shown hunting wild birds, beautifully carved in raised relief into the sandstone.

These next carvings are unlike anything I have seen on temple walls before… as I understand it depicting a hymn to Khnum.

There is also a depiction on one of the columns of the Emperor Trajan dancing before the goddess Menhet, and another of an Emperor presenting a garland. And finally, on the outer wall apparently the only image in Egypt of a man riding a horse.

All in all, a fascinating visit to an atmospheric and evocative temple being restored to something of its former glory. And, of course, for a writer of fiction such as myself, impossible not to imagine what might be waiting to be discovered buried for millennia under the modern town that surrounds it. Surely, there must be a story there …

Fiona Deal, author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt – Mysteries of modern and ancient Egypt – all available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both Kindle and paperback.

An ancient temple emerges from the sands of time

On a recent trip to Luxor in November 2021, it was fascinating to see the excavations of the ancient Memorial Temple of Amenhotep III. It’s possible to walk along the road behind the famous Colossi of Memnon and look across the excavation site. A few statues have been found and reconstructed. Others remain shattered or in blocks awaiting re-assembly.

Amenhotep III (the ‘Magnificent’) ruled in the mid-18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom, at the height of Egypt’s empire period. His Memorial Temple dates from circa 1350 BCE. When originally built, it was the largest temple structure of its kind. Even the later mortuary temples of Ramses II (the Ramesseum) and Ramses III (Medinet Habu) could not compete for size. When Amenhotep III was constructing his mortuary temple, even Karnak Temple was smaller.

People ask why so little now remains of this once gargantuan temple. Firstly, it seems the temple was very badly damaged in an earthquake that shook the Theban mortuary area in circa 1200 BCE. Huge fissures opened in the ground apparently causing complete statues to tumble into them. Another devastating earthquake occurred in circa 27 BCE. These account for much of the destruction. But it is also the case that successive pharaohs had no compunction about dismantling the structures of former rulers and re-using their stones in the construction of their own monuments. It seems Amenhotep’s memorial temple may have been particularly targeted as a quarry for future generations of builders.

All of this makes it especially fascinating to witness the modern excavation work and see the once mighty temple re-emerging from the sands of time.

In this short video clip, you can see the excavation site as it looks in late-2021 (with my apologies for the traffic noise !)

I have been visiting Egypt for a number of years. The photographs below show the Colossi of Memnon, originally with nothing but farmland behind them , then cordoned off and, more recently, with the excavation work in progress.

I very much hope that, on my next trip, it will be possible to see even more progress…

Fiona Deal, author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt – Mysteries of modern and ancient Egypt – all available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in both Kindle and paperback.

A walk along the Avenue of Sphinxes

Through sheer good luck and great timing, I was fortunate enough to be in Luxor for the spectacular opening of the Avenue of Sphinxes. Like many others, I watched the ceremony and celebrations on television, in my case at the Luxor apartment of Egyptian friends Waleed and Amira, enjoying the fabulous fish feast they prepared. We could hear the fireworks exploding overhead at the end of the lavish and magical event.

Determined to make the most of actually being in Luxor for such a momentous occasion, I was among the first foreign visitors to walk along the Avenue of Sphinxes within 48 hours of its opening (teams of people were there dismantling the stage and lighting systems that hosted the president and various dignitaries and beamed the event around the world).

The short video clip below shows me talking about this remarkable place and how it felt to be among the first to visit. Excavations of the Sphinx Avenue (also known as the ‘Ram’s Road’) started seriously in 1949. There are black & white photographs displayed on huge poster boards along the processional route showing various stages of excavation work through recent decades.

Poster Board if excavation at Avenue of Sphinxes

Poster board from Avenue of Sphinxes

In the years since I first visited Luxor in 1984, it has changed out of all recognition. The decision to clear the entire 2.7km processional route between Karnak and Luxor temples was taken in 2002. Since then, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has funded an enormous project to remove significant parts of the city to excavate out the original Sphinx Avenue. This has included re-housing large numbers of people as their homes were demolished and also moving shops, mosques and even a police station.

The Avenue runs between the two temples, approximately 2-3 meters below ground level. It is possible to walk the entire processional route with tickets to visit both Karnak and Luxor Temples. The Avenue of Sphinxes was originally conceived and building started under Amenhotep III (the Magnificent) in the middle of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom, circa 1375 BCE and completed under Nactanebo II of the 30th Dynasty, around 375 BCE. The ram-headed sphinxes at the Karnak end depict the Theban God Amun-Ra, while the human-headed sphinxes depict Nactanebo, the last indigenous pharaoh of Egypt. The lion body of the sphinx is a symbol of power and protection.

In ancient times, the Sphinx Avenue was used for the annual Open Festival. This was a major religious festival in the Theban calendar when the barque shrines (a kind of boat carried on the shoulders of priests) of the Theban Triad of Gods, Amun, Mut and Khonsu were carried between the two East Bank Temples amid scenes of rejoicing and revelry.

Excavations have revealed a number of wineries along the route, where wine was pressed and filtered. I imagine there was much singing, dancing and possible debauchery ! The wineries date from the Roman era so it seems the processional way was still in use for festivals and rejoicing.

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While many of the actual sphinxes are missing having been lost or destroyed over the millennia, it is still possible to look along the length of the route and imagine what it must have been like in ancient times. It is wonderful to be able to stand midway along the route and see the entrance pylon of Luxor Temple in one direction and a partially reconstructed pylon and one of the obelisks of Karnak in the other.

Newly opened Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor

View along Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor

Shattered Sphinx – Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor

Walking the Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor

Close-up of sphinx, Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor

Amun Barque, Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor

Opening Banner Avenue of Sphinxes

I feel incredibly lucky to have walked along the Avenue of Sphinxes. Now home again as Omicron, the new Covid variant rages across the world, I feel even more so. Definitely inspiration for more books as excavation and restoration work continues…

Fiona Deal, Author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt, fiction books all available on Amazon. To join Merry on her adventures please click on each picture for the link.

Cover of Carter’s Conundrums. Book 1 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Tutankhamun’s Triumph. Book 2 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Hatshepsut’s Hideaway. Book 3 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Farouk’s Fancies. Book 4 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Akhenaten’s Alibi. Book 5 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Seti’s Secret. Book 6 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Belzoni’s Bequest. Book 7 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Nefertari’s Narrative. Book 8 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

The cover of the Fiona Deal book, Ramses’ Riches. Book 9 in the series, Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt.

Why Egypt ?

I’ve written before about my visit to Egypt as a teenager. It sparked a lifelong fascination with its ancient history and led, many years later, to me writing my modern mystery-adventure series set in the land of the pharaohs.

In this enduring fascination, I know I am not alone. One only has to visit any of the museums of the world housing Egyptian collections to see these galleries always thronged with people. So, what is it about ancient Egypt that so excites our imaginations?

I suspect the epoch-defying age, neck-craning scale and breath-taking beauty of the monuments and statuary surviving over thousands of years head the list. The pyramids, of course; the great pyramid one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Not to mention buried treasure, vast quantities of gold, preserved mummies of pharaohs and ordinary people alike, and a whole pantheon of curious animal-headed gods and goddesses.

Photo by Edvin Richardson on Pexels.com

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Photo by David McEachan on Pexels.com

Great Temple of Ramses, Abu Simbel

Wall reliefs, tomb of Nefertari, Valley of the Queens

But I think it is more than all that. Egypt is relatable. An ancient civilization – arguably THE most ancient civilization – it feels curiously modern. Here are some reasons why…

It had a system of government and hierarchy much like our own. The pharaoh supported by viziers, nobles and layers of bureaucracy and administration.
Its belief in Ma’at – translated as balance, order, the natural way of things, truth and justice – was an underpinning belief in “rightness” that still resonates.
It had a successful military and a police force, the Medjay, upholding law and order, plus a judiciary.
Women had rights – able to own property and seek divorce.
People drank wine and beer and clearly loved a party.

And I suspect Egypt feels somehow familiar because many of us grew up listening to stories from the Bible. We heard about Moses in the bullrushes, raised at the court of Pharaoh, about Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt, about the Exodus of the Israelites. Stories to spark the imagination. And then along came the musical theatre production Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Pharaoh depicted as an Elvis Presley-like superstar!

So, Egypt is extremely ancient yet curiously modern. It is embedded in our shared psyche. We can relate.