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.

Ramses’ Riches Scene Setting

Book 9. Ramses’ Riches.

I have been taking a look at photos that bring back great memories of my travels to Egypt. Many of the hotels and archaeological sites have provided locations for the key scenes in by 10-book series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt. All the time it’s not possible to travel freely, it seems to me the best way to get away is to read about foreign places and/or to look at pictures, which help to bring us a bit closer to what we’re missing.

I am now up to Book 9 in my series, Ramses’ Riches. This novel explores possible links between the court of Ramses The Great and the legendary tales about Helen of Troy.

After a spell in Luxor, Merry & Co decide to travel south down the Nile and then across Lake Nasser. Their destination is the glorious Temple of Ramses the Great at Abu Simbel.

While on their Nile Cruise, Merry and her friends and associates visit some of the most popular tourist sites along the banks of the river. What’s so great about a cruise along The Nile is that the ancient temple ruins are dotted along its banks at intervals. It makes for a leisurely touring itinerary and nothing is too far away from the boat. Key stops on the journey south to Aswan from Luxor include the Ptolemaic temples of Esna, Edfu, and Kom Ombo. Merry & Co visit Kom Ombo at night, soaking up the atmosphere of a full moon.

Esna Temple

Fiona Deal outside First Pylon of Edfu Temple

Fiona Deal, Statue of Horus, Edfu Temple

Kom Ombo Temple at Night

Kom Ombo Temple at night

Wall relief, Kom Ombo Temple

One of the many pleasures of a Nile cruise is looking at the scenes along the river bank, especially as the dusk sweeps in and the palm trees become a charcoal smudge against the glowing embers of the sinking sun.

Sunset on the Nile

Sunset on the Nile

The drama really start to heat up once Merry reaches Aswan and visits the island-temples go Philae. The main temple is dedicated Isis. Once sited on the island of Philae, the temples were dismantled to save them from the rising flood waters after the British dam was built in the early part of the 20th century. They have been re-sited on the nearby island of Agilika on higher ground. Looking at them today, you would never know they had been moved – a remarkable feat of modern engineering to rival the ancient artisans’ skill. Philae is very beautiful, surrounded by lush vegetation and the blue waters of The Nile near the first cataract.

Temples of Philae, Island of Agilika

Philae Temple, Island of Agilika

Kiosk of Trajan, Philae Temples

Temple of Isis, Philae

Kiosk of Trajan, Philae Temple

Author Fiona Deal at Philae Temple

Ultimately though, Merry’s destination is Abu Simbel. She is lucky enough to approach over water across Lake Nasser. Here, the sunsets are also beautiful. And the approach towards the great temples is breathtaking. Like Philae, both the smaller temple of Nefertari (dedicated to the goddess Hathor) and the Great Temple of Ramses II were rescued by UNESCO from the rising floodwaters of Lake Nasser, this time after the building of the Aswan High Dam in the mid-1960s. Every stone was painstakingly dismantled and moved to higher ground close to their original location. These two originally rock-cut tombs were reconstructed inside huge concrete and steel-enforced domes, like aircraft hangers. Again, it’s hard to imagine, seeing them so apparently intact today.

Sunset over Lake Nasser

Approaching Abu Simbel from Lake Nasser

Smaller Temple of Nefertari, Abu Simbel (Fiona Deal)

Abu Simbel Temples of Nefertari (Hathor) and Ramses the Great

Inside both temples, the walls are covered with reliefs. The smaller temple of Nefertari – a key location in the novel – is covered with intimate scenes of Queen Neferari and her husband making offerings to the goddess Hathor. Inside the mighty temple of Ramses the Great, the wall scenes depict his war exploits against The Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh. Ramses claimed this as a great military victory. In truth, it was more likely to have ended in a stalemate that led to the first peace treaty in history some twenty years after the infamous battle.

Wall carving of Ramses II, Abu Simbel

Wall carving, inside the Great Temple of Ramses, Abu Simbel

Inside the Great Temple of Ramses at Abu Simbel

Fiona Deal inside SmallerTemple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel

Fiona Deal inside Nefertari’s Temple, Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel at night. Great Temple of Ramses II

Abu Simbel is truly one of the most impressive of Egypt’s ancient temples, dating to the New Kingdom, some 3,000 years ago. Not as immense as the pyramids, nor as sprawling and neck-craning as Karnak or as beautiful as Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple, it has an egotistical majesty that is quite awe inspiring, declaring one man’s power and glory, and his love for his Great Royal Wife. He called Nefertari “she for whom the sun shines”.

Fiona Deal outside the Great Temple of Ramses at Abu Simbel

Fiona Deal outside the Smaller Temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel

Inner sanctuary in the Great Temple of Ramses at Abu Simbel

The bulk of the action in Ramses’ Riches takes place once Merry & Co reach Abu Simbel. The key question is whether something might remain buried behind the inner sanctuary of the temple, protected by the four seated statues of the gods, and whether this might somehow prove a link with the mythical Helen of Troy, or perhaps a more recent news story.

As always, there’s plenty of action and adventure along the way as Merry unlocks more secrets from Egypt’s ancient past.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my pictures of my visits to Egypt that have provided settings for keystones in my books, and that you might consider reading them for some light, escapist fiction with a dose of ancient Egyptian history thrown in. If so, I suggest you start with the first in the series, Carter’s Conundrums. All my books areavaailable on Amazon.

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.

Location Shoot Nefertari’s Narrative

Book 8. Nefertari’s Narrative.

I am over halfway through my trip down Memory Lane, re-visiting my photo albums and looking at the fabulous archaeological sites in Egypt that have provided settings for some of the key scenes in my travel-mystery series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt.

In book 8, Nefertari’s Narrative, my central protagonist, Merry, is enticed to return to Egypt after a spell back at home in England. She’s lured by the opportunity to search for some fabled stone tablets purported to tell the origins of the famous Queen Nefertari, Great Royal Wife of Ramses II (The Great).

Her latest adventure in Egypt begins in Cairo where she is granted the rare opportunity to climb (lawfully) to the top of the Great Pyramid. Climbing the pyramids has been forbidden since the mid 1980s, although some still take the risk. As you might expect, things don’t go entirely according to plan and Merry & Co’s time at the Giza Plateau is not without incident. Here are a few pictures of the Pyramids. The one taken from the top of the Great Pyramid is not mine, so appears courtesy of Wikipedia and Google images.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza

Author Fiona Deal at the Great Pyramid of Giza

Author Fiona Deal, Great Pyramid of Khufu, Giza

Author Fiona Deal, pyramid of Khafre, Giza

Pyramids of Menkaure, Giza

Camel at the Giza pyramid plateau

View from the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza courtesy of Daily Mail

The Giza pyramids and Cairo suburbs

Having cruised up the Nile from Cairo to Luxor … (I feel I should clarify that you cruise UP the Nile as the water flows DOWN from its sources deep in Africa to spill into the Mediterranean) … Merry is caught up in a mishap while visiting the Ramesseum on the West Bank of the river. This was the mortuary temple, or “Mansion of Millions of Years” of the Great Ramses II. Today, it is a picturesque ruin, and one of the less-visited tourist sites on Luxor’s West Bank. This is where the head-and-torso-bust of Ramses II, now on display in the British Museum, was discovered. Giovanni Belzoni, Italian adventurer and explorer arranged for it to be dragged across the agricultural land to The Nile and onto a boat for transportation to Alexandria.

The Ramesseum, West Bank, Luxor

The Ramesseum Mortuary Temple of Ramses II

Fallen colossus, Ramesseum, near Luxor

View of The Theban Hills from the Ramesseum

The Ramesseum outer precincts

Grain stores at the Ramesseum

Ramses II (the younger Memnon) bust, British Museum

Of course, a novel about Queen Nefertari wouldn’t be complete without a visit to her stunning tomb in The Valley of the Queens. This exquisite ancient Egyptian work of art was closed to the public for decades while The Getty Institute worked to conserve and restore its beautiful wall reliefs. Only recently re-opened to the public (although numbers are limited) it is a highlight on any visit to Luxor, and rates one of the top experiences of my life.

Fiona Deal inside the Tomb of Nefertari

Wall reliefs, Tomb of Nefertari

Wall reliefs, Tomb of Nefertari, Valley of the Queens

Author Fiona Deal outside the tomb of Nefertari

Tomb of Nefertari wall reliefs – goddess Ma’at

Wall reliefs, tomb of Nefertari, Valley of the Queens

Wall reliefs, Nefertari’s tomb, Valley of the Queens

Wall reliefs, tomb of Nefertari, Valley of the Queens

Wall reliefs, Nefertari’s tomb, Valley of the Queens

Tomb of Nefertari

Speaking of tombs, one of the key scenes in the book takes place inside the spectacular tomb of Seti I. Even though I have already featured this, here are a few more pictures. Another highlight of any trip to Egypt … although perhaps not for Merry, given what happens while she is here.

Wall relief, tomb of Seti I, Valley of the Kings

Pillared chamber, Tomb of Seti I, Valley of the Kings

Wall reliefs, Tomb of Seti I, Valley of the Kings

Wall reliefs, Tomb of Seti I, Valley of the Kings

Tomb of Seti I, wall reliefs, Valley of the Kings

The dramatic action concludes in the Theban hills. These are criss-crossed with ancient footpaths which wind their way across the barren landscape between The Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple and the ancient workmen’s village of Deer El Medina. In this adventure, Merry is here at nightfall – a dangerous time to visit. Here, you can see what it looks like during the day.

View of Hatshepsut’s Temple from the Theban Hills

Footpaths across the Theban Hills

Footpaths above the Theban Hills above The Valley of the Kings

I hope you have enjoyed looking at this selection of photographs, which have provided the backdrop for one of my adventure stories. If you are interested in finding out more, you might perhaps consider reading the series. If so, I suggest you start with the first of Merry’s adventures from which all the others flow, Carter’s Conundrums.