A frequent visitor to Egypt

I’ve been asked recently if I live in Egypt as that’s where my fictional series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures is set. I don’t. But I’ve been a frequent visitor over the years.

I feel a strong sense of belonging, which is perhaps the next best thing to calling somewhere ‘home’.

My most recent trip was in July 2014, staying at the lovely Jolie Ville hotel, on its own island just outside Luxor. This was my third trip to the Jolie Ville, which features as a location in the first three books in the series: Carter’s Conundrums, Tutankhamun’s Triumph and Hatshepsut’s Hideaway. I also stayed there in 2011 (a few weeks after the Revolution) and 2009. Tourism has been hit hard by the political upheaval of recent years. In July 2014, I was one of only 24 guests at the hotel, which caters for something like 1,600. Great for private use of the pool, but not for the staff who work so diligently to give guests a memorable stay. It’s tragic to see it like this, and I urge visitors to return. I’ve always felt completely safe.

It’s fair to say in the last decade, I’ve been to Egypt almost every year; sometimes cruising the Nile, sometimes touring, and sometimes staying in either Luxor or Cairo. To my way of looking at it, Egypt has everything: guaranteed sunshine and warmth, friendly people, great food and fascinating places to visit. If you’re interested in ancient history or archaeology, so much the better. Egypt is a place to capture the imagination and the heart. I was hooked from my very first trip back in the mid-eighties when my parents took my brother and me for a half-term break one October. We split our time between Cairo and Luxor and I remember I came home with my head spinning.

Now I write adventure/mystery stories based in Egypt. So even when I’m unable to be there for real, I can travel there inside my head. I hope the books enable my readers to experience the land I love so much too.

Fiona

Author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt – ancient mysteries wrapped up in modern adventures.

What lies beneath …?

Photo by Paolo Bondielli Min Project – Luxor Times

Published in the Luxor Times on 1 January, the first discovery in Egypt of 2015. Found in Qurna, on the Nile close to Luxor, this is an Osirieon, a kind of God’s tomb, dedicated to Osiris. It just goes to show how much still lies buried beneath the sands of Egypt, awaiting discovery.

As a fiction writer of an adventure/mystery series set in present-day Egypt, these continued discoveries are beyond thrilling. My characters have been lucky enough to make a few discoveries of their own. Some might say their ‘finds’ are far-fetched, and they’d probably be right. My characters are not archaeologists or excavators. Meredith (Merry) Pink starts her adventures in Egypt as a simple holidaymaker. She counts herself fortunate when she meets a would-be Egyptologist who then introduces her to a professor who is the real thing, and can help her out with what she’s found.

Carter’s Conundrums is Merry’s first adventure. It’s the story of an accidental discovery that sheds new light on Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. And it poses a few questions about what else he might have found that the world wasn’t told about at the time… Writing it, I gave myself the imaginary holiday of a lifetime! I hope it does the same for my readers.

There are a further five books so far in the series. In each one Merry plays a part in unlocking a secret from Egypt’s ancient past. The series is a joy to write and all the time new discoveries are coming to light, I know there will be plenty more ancient Egyptian mysteries for Merry to explore.

All six books in the series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt are available to download or in paperback on Amazon.

Fiona Deal

Exodus: Gods and Kings (Part 2)

Ridley Scott’s motion picture Exodus: Gods and Kings is in cinemas now. It has sparked a storm of controversy in some Middle Eastern countries, where many have banned it for both historical and religious inaccuracies. I wrote a blog a couple of days ago looking at the historical side of the Exodus story, specifically whether there is any evidence that Pharaoh Ramses II was the Pharaoh of the Oppression / Exodus as depicted in popular culture.

It is problematic to write an opinion-piece about religious inaccuracies for fear of causing offence. There has always been debate about the extent to which the Old Testament and other religious books, such as the Torah, are historical or literary works. As such, I guess the question is whether they should be taken literally or whether some poetic licence is allowable. I daresay even the most ardent Biblical scholar would accept the Old Testament stories were handed down orally through generations before they were written down. So some embellishment and distortion is likely, which is perhaps how all the best myths grow up in the popular imagination.

So to call something inaccurate religiously-speaking, one would have to take the Bible stories at face value and expect them to be faithfully retold without deviation or dramatic licence. Perhaps that’s a bit much to ask of a movie-maker.

To my way of looking at it, the Bible and other religious works are books of faith. I personally don’t consider faith is at odds with having an enquiring mind. I don’t see how seeking the historical genesis (no pun intended) of the Bible stories undermines any theological beliefs we may hold. Put simply, whether or not I believe in Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as a ‘historical’ event or as a parable to reference good and evil and the consequences of our choices and actions… it makes no difference to the ‘faith’ I may have in a higher being, whom we might call God.

And so, I turn to the Exodus story and feel free to ask questions and form opinions as, I suspect, did Ridley Scott and Cecil B DeMille and other film-makers. I do so because I am a fiction-writer. My latest novel, Seti’s Secret (Book 6 in a series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt) also explores the Exodus story, although from a different angle. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if something could be found in Egypt to cast light on the Exodus from the historical / archaeological perspective?

The ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea by Moses are apocryphal. We can choose to see the hand of God at play or we can seek an explanation in the natural world. Much has been written about the possibility of a series of ecological disasters causing the plagues. The volcanic explosion of Santorini in antiquity is also cited as possibly being linked to both the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. But was it the Red Sea? The literal translation of Yam Suph is ‘Sea of Reeds’. This might make a more likely location for the crossing of the fleeing Israelites in bitter lakes near the Delta region, not far from Suez (perhaps not quite so exciting for the special effects team of a movie-maker).

Morocco halted screenings of Ridley Scott’s epic because the film contains a “representation of God”, which is forbidden under Islamic Law. Scott depicts the vengeful God of the Old Testament as a young boy who comes across as a bloodthirsty little chap, for all his public schoolboy way of speaking.

This vengeful God has always seemed to me somewhat at odds with the author of the Ten Commandments. But then, as others have pointed out, these appear to be a re-phrasing of Spell 125 of ancient Egyptian Book of The Dead.

Similarly, Psalm 104 is a virtual mirror image of ‘the heretic’ Pharaoh Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Aten. So to my way of looking at it, and at the risk of offending those of a more orthodox religious view, the origins of many of the world’s leading religions today can be found in ancient Egypt.

Moses is credited as being the father of Judaism and forefather of Christianity and Islam. Many writers and historians have sought out the identity of Biblical Moses among the royal families of ancient Egypt. The Bible makes it clear he grew up in the royal household. Sigmund Freud, the Jewish father of psychoanalysis, was the first to suggest a link between the apparently monotheistic beliefs of the pharaoh Akhenaten and the great monotheistic religions of the world today. In his book Moses and Monotheism, published in English in 1939, he suggested Moses may have been a follower of Akhenaten, and perhaps served at his court. This seems to me an inherently more likely scenario than growing up as a ‘brother’ of Ramses II, and helps explain so much more …

If you’re interested in finding out more, and you like a relatively light escapist read, you might want to give my fictional series a try. The Moses story is explored in Akhenaten’s Alibi and Seti’s Secret.

The series starts with Carter’s Conundrums. All six books in the series are set in present-day Egypt. Each is a modern adventure that also sets out to explore an ancient mystery. They are available to download or in paperback on all Amazon sites.

Happy New Year to all.

Fiona Deal

Author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt

Exodus: Gods and Kings

My latest novel in the series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt is called Seti’s Secret. It is an adventure story set in modern-day Egypt but, as with the previous five novels in the series, it sets out to explore an ancient mystery. For this book, I have chosen the Exodus story, proposing the historical identities of the Pharaoh as well as of Moses himself.

Publication of my book has coincided with Ridley Scott’s release of his Biblical film epic Exodus: Gods and Kings. I went to see the film yesterday, interested to compare my take on ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ with Scott’s.

Since its release on Boxing Day, the movie has been banned in Egypt, Morocco and the UAE. Egypt cites historical inaccuracies in the film, including depictions of the Jews building the pyramids and an earthquake causing the parting of the Red Sea. Morocco has halted screenings because the film contains a “representation of God”, which is forbidden under Islamic Law. The UAE has supported its decision saying the film contains religious inaccuracies about Islam as well as other religions, although it has not specified these inaccuracies.

I guess the movie-going public is arguably less concerned about historical and religious accuracy than it is about enjoyment. I won’t comment on whether or not the film is enjoyable – that is for each person who sees it to decide. I certainly found it epic, with sweeping vistas and grand stage sets – the plagues were particularly well depicted. But as a writer, accuracy is something I have to be concerned with, and there are a few points I’d like to explore.

The opening title sequence tells us it is 1300 BCE (Before ‘Christian’ or ‘Common’ Era). This places us in the latter years of the reign of Pharaoh Seti I, who appears briefly in the early scenes of the film as the elderly king about to pass on his throne. To be fair to Ridley Scott, I’m not sure he represented the Hebrew slaves as building THE pyramids. True, the film shows workers constructing pyramids (in the sweeping panoramic shots of ancient Memphis) but I expect this is just for dramatic effect. The Giza pyramids were built some 1000 years earlier during the Old Kingdom, presumably long before the Israelite sojourn in Egypt as described in the Bible; and before the 400 years Scott’s opening titles claim the Hebrews have been enslaved. I guess it depends whether you’re prepared to accept that pyramids continued to be built in Egypt, even into the New Kingdom.

A more interesting historical inaccuracy for me was the scene showing Seti I’s funeral taking place at the Temple of Abu Simbel – another piece of grand cinematography – but factually impossible, since Abu Simbel wasn’t built at the time, and Seti I was interred in the Valley of the Kings.

If the film showed an earthquake parting the Red Sea, I missed it. I saw Moses go to sleep asking for divine intervention, then wake to find the waters had miraculously drained away to allow the Hebrews to cross. The special effects showing the seawater crashing back in again are among the most impressive in the film – although it is perhaps stretching credulity to the limit for both Moses and Ramses to survive the deluge, on their opposite banks of the Sea, given the on-screen violence of the Tsunami-like wave that engulfs the Egyptian army and both lead characters with it.

The Bible is oblique about whether or not the Pharaoh survives being cast into the sea. The Torah is more specific in suggesting the Pharaoh drowns.

Which brings me to what I consider the crux of the historical matter. Was Ramses II (Ramses the Great) the Pharaoh of the Exodus? Ridley Scott apparently believes so, as did Cecil B DeMille before him, in his film The Ten Commandments. Yet is there any historical evidence for his candidacy?

Ramses II ruled Egypt for upwards of sixty years. His mummy is on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and is of a man in his nineties when he died. So if he pursued the fleeing Israelites into the Red Sea he certainly survived it.

Interestingly, the Bible never names a Pharaoh. So we are forced to look for other evidence in the Old Testament as well as in the historical and archaeological record to identify which Pharaoh is described.

The primary argument in support of Ramses II in the Exodus story seems to be that the Bible states the Pharaoh subjected the Hebrews to harsh labour building his store cities of Pithom (the location used in Scott’s film) and Ram’ses. Ramses II certainly built a new capital city Pi-Ramses (or Piramesse). Its remains have been discovered under the modern town of Qantir in the Eastern Delta, close to a branch of the Nile that silted up approximately 1,000 BCE. Because Ramses built a city and named it for himself, hey presto he is the Pharaoh of the Biblical Exodus story. That’s it. That’s the evidence.

What is perhaps not so well known in popular culture is that Pi-Ramses was apparently built on top of the remains of an earlier city. Historians have identified this as the Hyksos capital of Avaris and perhaps also the border city of Zarw, identified by some as Biblical Goshen, where the Hebrew tribes are said to have settled after their descent into Egypt.

If true, this enables us to construct a rather different scenario. The historical record tells us that the grandfather of Ramses II, who ruled as Ramses I, was the Overseer of the Fortress of Zarw while still a commander in the previous Pharaoh’s army. As he shares the name of his more famous grandson, I think it equally possible that he was the one who oversaw the daily lives of the Hebrews living in the place his grandson later decided on as the location for his new city.

The Bible also suggests the Pharaoh of the Exodus was not the same individual as the Pharaoh of the Oppression. Exodus 3:6 describes Moses’ reluctance to return the Egypt to free the enslaved Hebrews after God speaks to him from the burning bush. God reassures Moses that his life will not be in danger if he returns to Egypt as “all those who wished to kill you are dead”. The earlier section (Exodus 1:8) tells us “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt”. These passages suggest that during the years Moses spends in the wilderness, the previous pharaoh has died to be replaced by a new one. This would exclude Ramses II as being the Pharaoh to banish Moses and also the one on whom Moses unleashes the ten plagues.

There is more evidence, of course. But, for now, I’ll end by saying if you’re interested in how the historical and archaeological evidence can be used to construct an alternative set of characters for the Exodus story, you may wish to read Seti’s Secret. (This is book 6 in a series, so I’d suggest you start with the first book Carter’s Conundrums). The books are available on all Amazon sites.

As for the religious inaccuracies cited by the nations who have banned Ridley Scott’s film, I’ve decided they are the subject of a whole new article, which I will publish in the next couple of days.

Fiona Deal

Author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt

Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered

Last night I watched the hour long BBC1 documentary called ‘Tutankhamun : The Truth Uncovered’.

It set out to present clues as to why the most famous Egyptian Pharaoh of them all died so young. The theory of murder due to a blow to the head was debunked. Actually, it was debunked years ago … the bone fragments shown by X-ray to be floating in the back of the boy king’s skull were proved to have been displaced post mortem and also after the embalming process.

The programme showed us a ‘virtual autopsy’ using more that 2,000 CT scans of Tutankhamun’s mummified body. This remarkable technology has enabled scientists to reveal the first ever full-sized, scientifically accurate computer generated image of the young king. Sadly, it is a far cry from the hauntingly beautiful and perfect image we are more used to from the glorious death mask and much of the other artwork and statuary surviving of Tut from antiquity.

It reveals the club foot, which explains once and for all why so many walking canes – over 120 of them – were found by Howard Carter when he entered Tutankhamun’s tomb. I can’t help but wonder if seeing ‘the truth uncovered’ might actually be a little less than Tutankhamun deserves. We come face to face with a teenager who might now unkindly, but no doubt accurately, be referred to as a cripple. I’m sure he’d have preferred the images of himself riding his chariot, full of youthful vigour to be the ones to survive him down the centuries.

And with mention of the chariot (there were six of them found dis-assembled in Tutankhamun’s tomb) we come to the next popular theory explaining his early death. The CT scan reveals the fracture above his knee, which experts believe to have killed him. A long-held theory is that the fracture was caused by a fall from his chariot whilst out hunting, or perhaps even in battle. (Or maybe he was pushed?). But last night’s documentary suggests it would have been almost impossible for the young king to ride at any speed in a one-man chariot. Or indeed ride a chariot at all. The club foot and bone wasting disease shown also to be affecting his left foot would, we are told, have made it excruciatingly painful to ride.

And so, another explanation has to be found. It is not slow in coming. Epilepsy.

This condition, we are told, may also account for the ‘visions’ experienced by Tutankhamun’s predecessors. His great-grandfather, Thutmosis IV, recorded in the famous ‘dream stele’ (still situated between the paws of the Sphinx) the vision in which the Sphinx spoke to him and told him if Thutmosis cleared the sand from around the Sphinx’s body, he would be crowned king. And, Akhenaten, the controversial pharaoh who preceded Tutankhamun was apparently given to religious visions, which led him to elevate the sun disc, the Aten, as the sole god from the Egyptian Pantheon. They also led him to build a new city, modern Amarna, on virgin soil in middle Egypt.

And now, with the mention of Akhenaten, we come to the part where I take issue with last night’s documentary. DNA testing has enabled scientists and Egyptologists to build Tutankhamun’s family tree. This has established that the body found in tomb KV55 is Tut’s father, and the ‘younger lady’ found in the cache hidden inside Amenhotep II’s tomb is Tut’s mother. More astonishing, Tutankhamun is shown to be the product of an incestuous full-brother-and-sister relationship.

This much, I believe, is irrefutable. It seems to me tragic that in their attempts to keep the royal bloodline pure, the pharaohs of the late 18th dynasty actually inbred its genetic downfall.

BUT, the documentary makes one big and, to my way of looking at it, unsupportable assumption … That the KV55 mummy is Akhenaten. Ergo Akhenaten is Tutankhamun’s father. This is presented as FACT, with no questions asked.

This does the viewing public a huge disservice. While Akhenaten is unquestionably one candidate as the KV55 mummy, he is not the only one. Many scholars believe the skeleton to be that of Akhenaten’s younger brother, an ephemeral character on the pharaonic stage. His name was Smenkhkare. Nobody has ever been able to prove the identity of the KV55 mummy for sure. So, for the BBC to overlook this and present Akhenaten as the sole candidate seems to me to be misleading and negligent.

We know Akhenaten was famously married to Nefertiti. They very publicly had six daughters. Images of the whole family are plastered all over Amarna. Nobody has yet gone so far as to suggest the ‘younger lady’ is Nefertiti, or that she was Akhenaten’s full sister. So, we must suppose that Akhenaten had an incestuous relationship with one of his full sisters, who bore Tutankhamun. Under the royal protocol of the time, she would have had to be one of his wives, possibly even his Great Royal Wife. For this to have completely escaped the historical record seems to me extremely unlikely.

Yet, if his younger brother Smenkhkare were to have had an incestuous marriage with one of their sisters, with Tutankhamun as the result, it seems perfectly possible for no record of it to have survived.

I personally believe Smenkhkare is the KV55 mummy. Other scholars agree. One other piece of evidence supports this theory. On last night’s documentary, Tutankhamun was repeatedly described as Akhenaten’s successor. He wasn’t. At least, not at first. The historical record shows quite clearly that Smenkhkare came to the throne on Akhenaten’s death. Incidentally, Smenkhkare married Akhenaten & Nefertiti’s eldest daughter, his niece Meritaten, presumably to strengthen his right to rule. She became his Great Royal Wife. Whether his previous sister-wife was still alive at the time is a matter for conjecture.

It is not clear how long Smenkhkare ruled. Some experts say a few months, others up to three years. But rule he did.

To me, this is more evidence that Tutankhamun was not Akhenaten’s son. There are plenty of other examples of minors coming to the throne, so his age would not have presented a reason for him to be passed over in favour of his ‘uncle’ Smenkhkare if indeed Akhenaten was his father. I think in the absence of a male heir who was his son, the throne passed to Akhenaten’s brother and only then on Smenkhare’s death to his son, Tutankhamun.

Frustratingly, none of this can be proved once and for all. We need more discoveries to be made in the historical record, or for modern science to take yet another leap forward.

I’m left with the impression of a documentary wanting to re-work old ‘truths’ to find a new angle. I’d have been perfectly happy with this, if only certain assumptions were not presented as fact.

Luckily for me, there is one field in which it’s more acceptable to work within what’s known, and make up the rest. I am a fiction writer. The mysteries of ancient Egypt are my chosen subject. So last night’s documentary was of particular interest. I’m pleased to say, it didn’t present anything to make me go back and rewrite any of the content of my books. The second book in my series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt is Tutankhamun’s Triumph. If you’re interested in reading more about Tut’s family tree, you may wish to give it a go.

Fiona Deal

Author of Carter’s Conundrums, Tutankhamun’s Triumph, Hatshepsut’s Hideaway, Farouk’s Fancies and Akhenaten’s Alibi. Available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and all other Amazon sites.

Book 2 of Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt

Sailing the Nile on a Victorian Dahabeeyah

One of the things I enjoy about writing a fiction series is deciding how to keep my characters moving forward across several books. For the first three books in my series following Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt, starting with Carter’s Conundrums, my main character was on a tourist holiday, staying at the Jolie Ville hotel, situated on its own island in the Nile in Luxor.

As the series developed, I needed to find a way for the central British characters to remain in Egypt. They needed to progress from tourist visas to working visas, and find somewhere permanent to live. And so the idea of having them own and run a restored Victorian dahabeeyah was born. In Farouk’s Fancies they are setting up in business offering luxury Nile cruises to discerning travellers.

From the 1850s through into late Victorian times, the dahabeeyah was the standard way to travel up and down the Nile. ‘Dahabeeyah’ means ‘golden boat’ in Arabic. The prototype for the Victorian version can be found on tomb and temple walls in Egypt and has changed little in design since pharaonic times when the royals and nobles painted their boats gold. Amenhotep III had a Nile sail barge called ‘Aten Gleams’.

The dahabeeyah started to lose popularity when Thomas Cook, a pioneer in travel, who single-handedly invented modern tourism in Egypt, introduced the Nile steam boat. The steam boats significantly reduced the journey time along the Nile. Where the dahabeeyah took a traveller on a grand voyage of discovery, the steam boats introduced the idea of a shorter sight-seeing trip. These were popular with late nineteenth century travellers.

As tourism became available to the masses during the twentieth century, the Nile cruise boats adapted to the increased demand, becoming the large floating hotels we are used to today.

But in recent years there has been a resurgence in those seeking out a more traditional way to journey along the Nile. There are those drawn to Egypt by the lure of nostalgia for the pioneering days of archaeology, as well as the antiquity to be found along the Nile. A number of restored dahabeeyahs became available for hire during the early years of this century. It’s into this niche market that my characters have stepped.

Sadly the political situation in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East has put tourists off the Nile as a holiday destination. So my characters must struggle to see if they can get their new business venture afloat. Otherwise I may have to dream up another way of keeping them in Egypt so they can continue their adventures.

Fiona Deal

Author of Carter’s Conundrums, Tutankhamun’s Triumph, Hatshepsut’s Hideaway, Farouk’s Fancies and Akhenaten’s Alibi. Available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and all other Amazon sites.

Nothing new under the Egyptian Sun

I’ve just published Akhenaten’s Alibi, the fifth book in the series following Meredith Pink on her adventures in Egypt. It’s set against the backdrop of the turbulent events of the summer of 2013, when the people of Egypt took to the streets to protest the ‘undemocratic rule’ of their first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. This resulted in a coup d’etat that ousted him from power.

As I’ve mentioned before, it seems there really is nothing new under the Egyptian sun. Some scholars claim the first coup d’etat took place in Egypt over 3000 years ago. Back then it wasn’t a democratically elected president but a divinely anointed pharaoh who was allegedly forced to abdicate his position.

The pharaoh in question was Akhenaten, arguably the most intriguing of all the pharaohs. He ruled towards the end of the golden age of Egypt’s empire in the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Some say he catapulted it into decline. He has been called ‘the first individual in history’. It’s not hard to see why. Unlike the traditional statuary and tomb-and-temple carvings that remained largely unchanged over a passage of time spanning upwards of 2000 years, Akhenaten’s is unique. For reasons that remain obscure, he chose to have himself represented artistically with an elongated and distorted body shape and with exaggerated and unflattering facial features.

What we know for sure is that he led a religious revolution, breaking with centuries’-worth of uniformity and consigning the ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods and goddesses to oblivion. Instead he elevated the Aten, the sun disc for sole worship.

The big questions this begs … was Akhenaten the first monotheist in history? Did he pave the way for the great monotheistic religions of the world… Judaism, Islam and Christianity? Was he a contemporary, or perhaps an inspiration for Moses? Opinion is divided. Some claim Akhenaten was an enlightened spiritualist, born before his time. Others that he was an autocratic despot who imposed his thinking on a resistant populace.

So, was Akhenaten ousted from power by a people unwilling to accept his unilateralism, in the way Morsi was? Or did he die a natural death? Were his beliefs kept alive by a small band of his followers, who handed them down perhaps until the Qumran Essenes set them down in the earliest biblical writings, the Dead Sea Scrolls?

We may never know. But these are intriguing questions for a fiction writer. My latest novel seeks to weave a story from these threads and set it against the backdrop of the modern political situation in Egypt. It’s available on all the Amazon sites. I hope you enjoy it. If you’d like to begin with the first book in the series, look out for Carter’s Conundrums, also available on Amazon

Fiona Deal

Howard Carter’s Legacy Lives on…

Howard Carter died seventy-five years ago on 2 March 1939. His death went largely unremarked. This is fairly extraordinary considering Carter was the man responsible for making arguably the most important archaeological discovery ever … the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, dating from the 14th century BC.

It seems astonishing to me that such a spectacular find should earn no accolade at all for its discoverer. Howard Carter lies buried in an unremarkable grave in a Putney Vale cemetery in London. Only the words on his grave stone give any clue to the love of Egypt, Egyptology and his world-famous discovery…

Howard Carter,

Egyptologist,

Discoverer of the tomb of Tutankhamun 1922

“May your spirit live, may you spend millions of years, you who love Thebes, sitting with your face to the north wind, your eyes beholding happiness.”

It’s hardly the most lavish epitaph!

So, why the lack of recognition? All Carter earned during his lifetime was an honorary doctorate from an American university. In his own country; nothing.

Carter had a reputation as an irascible man, pig-headed, stubborn and intractable. He rubbed shoulders with the aristocracy (notably his patron and sponsor the Earl of Carnarvon) yet wasn’t one of them. Perhaps an incident early in his career in Egypt cast a long shadow. It became known as the Saqqara Affair. Carter committed career suicide, refusing to apologise to the authorities over an incident where he forcibly ejected a group of rowdy and drunk young Frenchmen from the site of the famous stepped pyramid. Carter resigned over the incident, halting a hitherto promising career, and entered what have become known as his ‘wilderness years’. He scratched a living as an artist and antiquities dealer before being recommended as an excavator to Carnarvon.

The rest, as they say, is history. But Carter’s temper continued to be his Achilles heel. After Carnarvon’s untimely death just 5 months after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, Carter once again exploded. This time it was over the refusal of the Egyptian Authorities to allow the wives of the excavation team a private viewing of the tomb. Carter downed tools and took himself off on a lecture tour of America.

But perhaps more damning were the rumours that started to circulate while he was away that Carter was misappropriating items from the tomb. A lotus flower head of the boy king was found inside a Fortnum & Mason wine case. Carter said he’d stored it there for safekeeping until it could be properly conserved. His explanation was accepted without question, but I wonder if the powers that be were really convinced …?

Whatever, the recognition he might have expected as arguably the most famous excavator of all time never materialised.

Carter returned to England in 1935, having taken 10 years to clear the tomb. He continued to deal in antiquities for many of the major museums of the world – perhaps considered a dodgy profession…? He died, aged 65, of lymphoma.

But perhaps the action that meant he could never earn the recognition he deserved was his alleged unauthorised break-in to the tomb the night before its official opening in November 1922. It’s never been proven, but it’s now achieved the status of something of an open secret. Carter and Carnarvon, together with Carnarvon’s daughter and their friend Pecky Callender, are said to have broken into both the outer chamber and the burial chamber of the tomb.

I think, if true, it’s hard to blame them. Which of us can honestly say we could have resisted the temptation after such a long search?

Whatever, rumours of wrong-doing seem to have dogged Carter’s footsteps – and his memory.

Book 1 of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt

These provide fertile soil for a writer of fiction, such as myself. In the first book in my series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt, my heroine finds herself caught up in a mystery that draws heavily on the conduct and character of Howard Carter.

So, despite the lack of any public recognition, I’d like to remember the seventy-fifth anniversary of his death, and thank Howard Carter for his legacy. It was gawping at the Tutankhamun treasures in the Cairo museum as a teenager that sparked my enduring fascination for ancient Egypt … and perhaps that’s when my desire to write was first born. So, thank you, Mr Carter … your legacy lives on …

Fiona Deal

Author of Carter’s Conundrums, Tutankhamun’s Triumph, Hatshepsut’s Hideaway and Farouk’s Fancies

So who was King Farouk?

My latest book following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt is called Farouk’s Fancies. On a recent trip to Luxor I visited the wonderful old colonial hotel, The Winter Palace.

This was once a winter retreat for Egypt’s last reigning monarch, King Farouk. He was last in line of the Turkish Mohammed Ali Dynasty that had ruled Egypt for ten generations. It sparked my interest in finding out a bit more about the king who was exiled to Europe after an uprising by the people that toppled him from power (sound familiar?)

And what a fascinating and larger(literally) than life character he was!

English: Photograph of Farouk I (1920-1965), King of Egypt (1936-1952). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He came to the throne as a teenager; young, handsome and blue-eyed. But the honeymoon period wasn’t to last. Known early in his reign for his excessive partying and gambling, Farouk was once described as “a stomach with a head”. He grew to over 20 stone. It’s rumoured he drank 30 bottles of fizzy drink every day and had caviar for breakfast; apparently eating it straight from the can.

King Farouk of Egypt (1948) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was said if there were seven deadly sins, Farouk would find an eighth. He was a glutton , womaniser, gambler and, perhaps bizarrely for someone with infinite wealth, a kleptomaniac. He famously stole a pocket watch from Winston Churchill. He later claimed to have simply found it lying around, but neglected to mention that he’d “found” it in Churchill’s pocket. He also stole a ceremonial sword from the coffin of the Shah of Persia, while it was in Cairo. It put a strain on relations between Egypt and Persia for years.

There’s another story that after having nightmares about lions attacking him, Farouk decided to take a trip to the Cairo Zoo. Once there, he shot the lions in their cages. Hardly a normal reaction to suffering a bad dream!

Finally, when Hitler’s army was preparing to invade Egypt, Farouk sent Hitler a telegram apparently welcoming the offensive. He resented the British forces occupying his country. I can only assume he must have thought the Nazis were somehow preferable.

Farouk frittered away his popularity. In 1952, he was overthrown in a move supported by both the British and American governments and soon afterwards the hugely popular President Nasser took up the reigns of leadership in Egypt. Farouk was sent into exile in Europe. When his palaces were raided, he was found to have huge collections of treasures including rare coins, stamps, and a massive collection of pornography.

While my book is set in the present day, so Farouk does not appear as a character, the mythology that’s sprung up about his personality and excessive lifestyle provided a great backdrop for my story.

Tourists return to Egypt

The British Foreign Office relaxed its restrictions on travel to Egypt last month. This is good news for all those whose livelihoods depend on the tourist industry, and a positive note on which to end this year which has seen so much political drama in Egypt.

I do hope the tourists will venture back to Egypt quickly. Speaking as one who visited Luxor a couple of weeks after similar restrictions were lifted in 2011 when the Mubarak regime was toppled, I can only say it was a delight to visit when the tourist sites were uncrowded. The Egyptian people were warm and welcoming (yes, there was some hassle, but it was good-natured and perfectly understandable in the circumstances.)

As Egypt ends the year on a more positive note, so do I with the publication of the fourth book in my series following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt. This story is set in the spring of 2013, before the events of the summer, which saw the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi from office. Merry’s latest adventure, Farouk’s Fancies, draws on the events which saw the monarchy topped in Egypt and King Farouk sent into exile. It was interesting to observe the political situation unfolding in Cairo this summer while writing about broadly similar themes which saw Farouk removed as king. The story also involves the Dead Sea Scrolls and the theories put forward by some historians claiming key figures in the Bible were in fact ancient Egyptian pharaohs.

I look forward to a return to Egypt and to continuing the adventures of Merry and Adam. I’m starting to think about how they’ve experienced the latter half of 2013 in Egypt and where their adventures will take them next.

Egypt – beyond the tourist bubble

On a recent trip to Luxor, a couple of experiences got me thinking about life outside the tourist bubble…

Firstly, I decided one evening to eat outside my hotel and visited a charming restaurant in downtown Luxor. It was warm and I was glad of the air conditioning. No sooner had I given my order – for a rather tasty Egyptian tagine – than all the lights went out and, yes, you guessed it, the air conditioning unit shut down. Apparently these power cuts were a daily – even several times daily – occurrence. Candles immediately appeared on all the tables and each of the waiters carried a small battery operated torch. Luckily an emergency generator kept the kitchen operational. But as the temperature started to rise (no air conditioning and all those candles) it struck me what a challenge it must be for local businesses having to deal with this type of interruption to their service on a nightly basis, and at peak trade. As one of the staff said to me, “When this happens in the evenings we’re at home, the heat and the pitch dark mean all you can do is lie down and pretend to be a vegetable.” I loved the prosaic attitude. But with temperatures at this time of year regularly hitting 40 degrees (and not cooling off much at night), it made me realise how much we tourists take the electricity supply for granted. Of course, the power cuts don’t affect the hotels because they have their own on site generators. Apparently the power cuts are the result of the government’s agreement to sell electricity to Israel. This link is the latest I’ve been able to discover about this agreement. I couldn’t quite make up my mind what I thought about all this. One one hand, I understand the government’s need to underpin the Egyptian economy – which relies so heavily on tourism (so sadly depleted since the revolution) and agriculture. But for this to be at the expense of local businesses struggling to keep their own heads above water during these tough times didn’t sit completely comfortably with me.

The second experience that gave me pause for thought was during a trip to the West Bank to visit some of the tombs of the nobles. These tombs riddle the Theban Hills giving it something of the appearance of a mountainous Swiss cheese. What’s fascinating is that over the centuries a modern village called Gurneh sprang up on the hillside, in many cases with the dwellings built literally on top of the ancient tombs. I remember on my first visit to Luxor in the 1980’s, the village was still there – although over the last decade or so the villagers have largely been relocated to the modern, purpose built New Gurneh to enable proper excavation of the Nobles’ tombs to take place.

My taxi driver for my excursion to the West Bank was a friendly chap (I’ve yet to meet an unfriendly one) called Hassan. Once he’d deposited me at the tombs I’d chosen to explore (see my previous blog about the El Khokha tombs), he then offered to drive me around the village of New Gurneh so I could see for myself the new homes so many people have relocated to. I was impressed. He showed me the school and the hospital. Then, on the return journey, he suggested I might like to call in on his family for some tea. Being decidedly hot and dusty by this stage, this was an appealing idea. The Egyptian tea is hot and sweet, served without milk, and usually with fresh mint. He took me to a rather tumbledown mud brick house near the canal that runs inland from the Nile along the West Bank. It was deliciously cool inside, the windows shuttered and the thick mud brick walls keeping the heat of the sun out. The interesting thing was that tea wasn’t the only thing I was offered. As I sipped the hot, fragrant beverage, his brother brought me a selection of ancient Egyptian artefacts to look at. Hassan carefully explained in rather broken English that his family grew up in the old village of Gurneh. Many of them had ancient tombs as cellars. As children they made a habit of digging for treasure, and the artefacts I was being shown now represented just one families’ collection. There were lots of small carved figurines made from faience, and small stone scarabs and carved cats. The piece de resistance was an exquisitely carved stone head of a pharaoh, complete with the uraeus snake rising from his brow. It was heavy, probably solid granite, and rested in my palm, probably about the size of a large orange. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hassan and his brother very keen for me to make an offer on any of the pieces that took my fancy. This presented me with something of a dilemma. I did not wish to appear rude in the face of their hospitality and I could certainly sympathise with their attempts to supplement a no doubt meagre family income. But at the same time I had horrible visions of being stopped by customs officials at the airport and trying to explain how a genuine pharaonic artefact came to be in my luggage. It was enough to bring me out in a cold sweat. But it made me wonder … If this was just one families’ selection of the artefacts they’d dug up, effectively from their own back yards, how many more such exquisite and possibly important pieces must there be stored in cupboards and boxes in the homes of the ordinary people of Luxor’s West Bank? The Egyptian people live a simple agricultural life. I’ll be honest, I was a little bit horrified to be offered antiquities for sale in a private home. But “finders-keepers” is a deep-seated concept in many cultures. So who am I to judge these warm, welcoming people for trying to earn a few extra pennies from the ancient Egyptian artefacts that literally turned up under the floorboards, so to speak? I resisted the temptation and eased my conscience with a generous tip when Hassan deposited me back at my hotel.

So, the economy in Egypt is struggling and the local people seize whatever opportunities they can to make a living in often difficult circumstances. I admire them. And I do what I can… just small things like preferring to visit the sites by taxi and in the company of an Egyptian guide, rather than on an organised tour with one of the travel agencies. I’d rather put my money in the pockets of the local people where possible.

These little slices of everyday Egyptian life are so special. I am a writer, and have so far published three mystery/adventure stories set in present-day Egypt, so experiences like these are invaluable.

I have been back from my most recent trip for a few weeks now. When I look back I find it is not the tombs and temples that made the most significant impression on this occasion. I remember the night the lights went out in the restaurant, and I remember the thrill of handling a genuine artefact in a humble homestead on the West Bank. These are memories to treasure – a little slice of the real Egypt outside the tourist bubble.

Fiona Deal

Book 1 of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt

Book 2 of Meredith Pink’s adventures in Egypt

Author of Carter’s Conundrums, Tutankhamun’s Triumph and Hatshepsut’s Hideaway – following Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt – all available in Kindle or paperback on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Places to stay in Egypt – great book locations

Jolie Ville Kings Island (Photo credit: iifu)

I have now completed three novels set in Egypt and am approximately two-thirds of the way through the fourth. My central character, Merry, is a tourist to Egypt and starts her series of madcap adventures in Carter’s Conundrums while staying at the Jolie Ville hotel, which is situated on Kings Island, just outside Luxor. I’ve been lucky enough to stay at the delightful Joilie Ville twice, in 2009 and 2011. The sunsets looking across the Nile are the most spectacular I’ve seen anywhere in the world.

Merry also gets the chance to stay in two of Egypt’s finest old hotels – both world class – both dating from Victorian times. The first is the Mena House, once a Khedive hunting lodge built at Giza, a stone’s throw from the foot of the pyramid plateau. Here’s a snap of me taken in 2008 in the Mena House garden, with the pyramids in the background. It was a hazy day, but you get the general idea of how close they are.

The second of these grand Victorian hostelries is the impressive Winter Palace in Luxor. This is where Lord Carnarvon stayed during the heady days of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by his excavator, Howard Carter. I don’t imagine it’s changed much since then. It makes a wonderful setting for a novel. I’m also setting chunks of my latest novel, Farouk’s Fancies there – to be published this summer. It’s no coincidence that King Farouk, the last sovereign of Egypt – who was deposed in the 1950’s an exiled to Europe – once used The Winter Palace as his home in Luxor.

While Carter’s Conundrums and Tutankhamun’s Triumph are both set at the Jolie Ville hotel, the third book, Hatshepsut’s Hideaway, takes Merry on a Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan and back for her latest adventure. I chose as my setting the wonderful steamship SS Misr, which dates from 1918 and was lovingly restored by Jules Verne. SS Misr was also once owned by King Farouk, who hosted lavish parties on board. I took a Nile cruise on the Misr in 2008 -a superb trip.

If you’re travelling to Egypt – and I heartily recommend it despite the political situation – you’re spoilt for choice for wonderful places to stay. My personal favourite has to be The Jolie Ville. How can you beat a hotel that comes complete with its own star attraction – Ramses the camel offering rides to all and sundry? Nothing comes close to the experience of sipping a cocktail while watching the fiery sun slowly slipping beyond the Theban Hills on the West Bank of the Nile. Enjoy!

Fiona

Don’t miss the Tombs of the Nobles – el-Khokha Tombs

One of the highlights of my trip to Luxor was the chance to visit some of the little-known Theban Tombs. They riddle the Theban Hills like a mountainous Swiss cheese. According to my guide book there are thousands of them, although only a handful are open to the public with a ticket purchased from the ticket booth near the Colossi of Memnon. I visited the three tombs of El-Khokha.

The tomb of Dhuti is unusual for containing seated statues,presumably images of the deceased tomb-owner himself, gazing over his grave goods.

Nefersekhuru and Neferrenpet were both Scribes of the Treasury in the Estate of Amun-Ra during the second half of the reign of Ramses II,

and would presumably have known each other. It’s tempting to see thrm trying to out-do each other with their tombs. Both bear their original paintings, the colours remarkably preserved considering the passage of some three thousand years. Nefersekhuru’s tomb has a beautifully painted geometrically patterned ceiling, shown here in the photograph.

The Theban tombs show us a slice of real life that’s not so easy to glimpse in the royal tombs, which are laden with religious iconography. These are the houses of eternity that you or I may have chosen for ourselves, had we happened to live in dynastic Egypt and boast a reasonably good job. Here’s just a selection of the scenes. The guard on duty was more than happy for me to take photographs in return for a little baksheesh. I switched off the flash of course.

Do visit if you ever get the chance. These wonderful little sepulchres are not to be missed.

Fiona Deal

Author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt.

Book 1 of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt

Dendera Zodiac

The Dendera Zodiac was on the ceiling of the Greco-Roman temple of Hathor at Dendera (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ok, so here’s the question that’s been playing on my mind today. Is it a good thing or not that the original Dendera zodiac was chipped from the wall of the temple at some point during the nineteenth century by the early explorers of Egypt and now resides in Le Louvre in Paris? Would it not be better for it to have remained in situ in the wonderful Ptolemaic temple where it was first carved?

I visited Dendera Temple yesterday. It’s an hour’s drive north along the desert road from Luxor; or it’s possible to take a boat trip if you want to make a whole day of it.

The temple sits on the West Bank of the Nile, opposite the modern town of Qena. It’s quite simply stunning. A beautifully preserved temple, full of the chirping of hundreds of sparrows. The tops of the columns in the Hypostyle Hall are unusual for having the Hathor-headed capital – still with original colours. It’s right up there with some of the other hugely impressive temples of ancient Egypt.

This temple was built towards the end of the Ptolemaic period, some two thousand years ago. There’s a huge carving on the back wall of Cleopatra with Caesar and their son Caesarian who was sadly never to assume his place at Pharaoh once the Roman Empire fully took charge after the joint suicide of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

A clean-up job has begun inside the temple. The roof is blackened from the centuries when the temple almost disappeared beneath the sands of time; and the old Bedoiuns used to camp out inside the temple walls, and build fires to keep warm and for their cooking pots. The smoke from these fires has blackened the roof with centuries’ worth of soot. The careful cleaning job is revealing a remarkable ceiling, beautifully painted and with its original colours still largely intact. This picture looks like it’s half in the shadow and half in the light. Actually, it shows half the ceiling – cleaned – and the other half still blackened with dirt.

But back to the question that’s been bugging me. The trouble is, I can argue it both ways. The museums of the world – notably the British Museum in London, Metropolitan in New York, Le Louvre in Paris and the Turin Museum in Italy – are filled with treasures taken from Egypt in those early days of exploration before the Egyptian Antiquities Service put a stop to it in the early twentieth century.

My heart tells me that Egypt’s treasures should have remained in Egypt. I would love to visit the temples and see them filled with their statues and original wall carvings. I can’t help but feel Egypt has been robbed of some of its fabulous heritage. But it’s also a simple fact that some people will never get the opportunity to travel to Egypt – and to see the fabulous statuary and artefacts in the museums of the world is better than never seeing them at all. And perhaps this is what inspires many people to come to Egypt in the first place. So it’s a circular argument in the end.

But standing in Dendera temple yesterday, and looking at the huge metre-square replica of the zodiac on the roof of the dark little chapel where the original once resided; I couldn’t help but question the ethics of those original explorers who chipped this remarkable carving off the wall and shipped it to Europe.

Fiona Deal – Author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt. Three modern adventure stories set in Egypt, with ancient mysteries to solve…

Pharaoh leaves nothing to chance

Façade, Temple of Seti I, Abydos, Egypt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday we visited Abydos, a drive of about 2 hours north from Luxor along the desert road that connects Cairo with Aswan. Abydos is one of the oldest sites in Egypt and contains archaeological remains from every period of ancient Egypt.

A cult grew up in ancient times that it was the burial place of the god Osiris; and for a thousand years or more ancient Egyptians made pilgrimages to the site to make offerings.

Today, it’s most famous for the temple of Seti I (father to the prodigious builder Ramses II) who ruled at the start of the 19th Dynasty, a little over three thousand years ago. The quality of the carving, many in raised relief, is outstanding. The detail on Seti’s crown in this photograph, for example, is exquisite.

The temple is contemporary with the great Hypostyle Hall of pillars at Karnak. But unlike at Karnak, here at Abydos the original colours of the wall reliefs are beautifully preserved. Perhaps because of this, the content of the scenes is easy to make out, even for the untrained eye. Here we have Seti I making offerings before all the major gods of the ancient Egyptian pantheon. We see him before falcon-headed Horus, ram-headed Knum, ibis-headed Thoth, lion-headed Sekhmet, jackel-headed Anubis and crocodile-headed Sobek. We see scene after scene of him before Osiris (god of the afterlife) and his wife Isis, with their son Horus.

Temple of Osiris at Abydos (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Of course, these scenes are replicated on temple walls the length and breadth of Egypt. But what really struck me at Abydos – where they hit you square between the eyes – is how little Pharaoh was prepared to leave to chance. Literally every square inch of his temple is decorated with scenes of him worshipping the gods. I’m very sure he was well looked after in the afterlife!

Abydos is also famous for its ‘king-list’. This is a wall carved from one end to the other with the cartouches of the kings of Egypt who preceded Seti I – from Narmer who unified upper and lower Egypt in the Old Kingdom through the Seti’s father Ramses I. Notably, there are a few key individuals missing. Hatshepsut has been left out – possibly because she was a woman. And the controversial kings of the Amarna period (Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ay) also fail to get a mention. The Amarna period was within the living memory of the older folk among the population – a time of social upheaval and religious oppression.

Abydos is a wonderful temple – well worth the drive from Luxor. And I think my visit may have given me another idea for a book!

Fiona Deal

Author of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt.

Book 1 of Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt

Fiona Deal

Author of series “Meredith Pink’s Adventures in Egypt”Ancient Egyptian mysteries wrapped up in modern Egyptian adventures. Escapist fiction centred on Ancient Egypt.

Tag Archives: egypt

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What lies beneath …?

Exodus: Gods and Kings (Part 2)

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered

Sailing the Nile on a Victorian Dahabeeyah

Nothing new under the Egyptian Sun

Howard Carter’s Legacy Lives on…

So who was King Farouk?

Tourists return to Egypt

Egypt – beyond the tourist bubble

Places to stay in Egypt – great book locations

Don’t miss the Tombs of the Nobles – el-Khokha Tombs

Dendera Zodiac

Pharaoh leaves nothing to chance