The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [43]
The guardian at the entrance to the tomb smiled as Mansoor arrived and greeted him with the traditional, ‘Ahlan wa-sahlan.’ The words – literally meaning ‘Family and easy’ – could loosely be translated as ‘Make yourself at home.’
They exchanged a few more words in Arabic and then Mansoor motioned with his arm to Daniel and Gabrielle, shepherding them towards the entrance.
‘This is KV46,’ said Mansoor.
‘The tomb of Yuya,’ Daniel replied, his memory stirring as he joined the Egyptian before the entrance. ‘A powerful courtier in ancient Egypt who served both Thutmose the Fourth and his son Amenhotep the Third.’
Mansoor nodded approvingly and entered the tomb ahead of them. The guards had switched on the electric lights that had been installed in the tomb soon after it was first opened, but a few steps down the stairway that was hewn into the rock, they all stopped like a column of cars held up by a red traffic light, to accustom their eyes to the dim light.
At the foot of the stairs, they found themselves walking down a corridor about thirty feet long that led to another staircase. The walls were rough and undecorated, not even smoothed let alone plastered, but they were covered with a meticulous grid of black dots spaced evenly apart both vertically and horizontally, effectively dividing the walls into squares. Daniel stopped to study them, shining a torch on to them to see more clearly. He had noticed the same square pattern of dots on the walls by the stairway. Daniel estimated that they were about sixteen inches apart. That would put them at the lower end of that variable ancient unit of measurement known as a cubit.
Mansoor led them to a second stairway and when they arrived at the bottom, they found themselves in another corridor, shorter than the first. But this one had a rounded ceiling, rather than a flat one. This was consistent with the fact that the ancient Egyptians understood the principle of the arch as far back as 4,500 years ago – a thousand years before this tomb was constructed – even if their public buildings continued to be post and lintel constructions for more than a whole millennium thereafter.
At the end of the corridor, they entered the burial chamber.
‘Much has been removed from here,’ Mansoor explained. ‘It was raided in antiquity, although the robbers took very little, possibly because they were scared off and the tomb resealed. But a number of the larger items remained, such as the sarcophagus and the three coffins, originally placed one inside the other – although they had been disturbed by tomb-raiders. Also, remember that Yuya’s wife Thuya was buried here too. And both their mummies were extremely well preserved.’
Daniel looked around in amazement. He knew about this tomb, but he had never dreamt that he would actually be standing here.
‘Yuya and Thuya were, if my memory serves me right, probably amongst the few non-royals to have a private tomb in the Valley of the Kings.’
‘That’s right,’ Mansoor confirmed.
‘And also in Yuya’s case,’ Gabrielle added, ‘one of the few foreigners to reach such a high rank, judging by the physical characteristics of his mummy. He was taller than most Egyptians and he had a beard, which Egyptians tended not to do. Also he had no body piercings.’
‘Is there any significance in that?’ asked Daniel.
‘Well… I believe that body piercing is forbidden by Jewish law.’
‘And Orthodox Jewish men have beards,’ Daniel added.
Ignoring the exchange, Mansoor pointed to some hieroglyphics on the wall.
‘He had an impressive list of titles: “First among the King’s Companions”, “Deputy of the King’s Chariots”, “He whom the King made Great and Wise, whom the King has made his Double”. And of course “Father of God”.’
‘What does that mean?’ asked Daniel.
‘Well, there’s a dispute over the meaning of that title. Some say it was a purely priestly title, but others say it was a title reserved for the father-in-law of a pharaoh.’
‘And was Yuya the father-in-law of one of the pharaohs?’
‘Oh yes,