Ninety years ago today, on November 26th, 1922, Howard Carter and Lord Caernarvon
stood outside the doorway of tomb KV62 in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. At
the beginning of the month, Carter had discovered a set of 16 steps, leading to
a doorway. Although it was sealed and plastered, there was evidence it had been
penetrated by grave robbers. Beyond the door was a descending passage to a
second sealed door.
Carter had to await his sponsor’s arrival in Egypt before he
opened the second door. Lord Caernarvon arrived in Egypt on November 23rd, and
three days later he watched as Carter made a hole in the door.
What a tense moment that must have been! Would the tomb have
been stripped by the grave robbers?
Carter leaned in, holding a candle. In his own words:
"At first I could
see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flames to
flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the
room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold -
everywhere the glint of gold.
For the moment - an eternity it must have seemed to the
others standing by - I was dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable
to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, 'Can you see anything?'
it was all I could do to get out the words, "Yes, wonderful things."
The tomb of Tutankhamen, as we know, was intact, and
contained an amazing amount of treasures, not least the three gold coffins, one
inside the other, and then the mummified body of the boy king, with its
wonderful gold mask.
The discovery of the tomb has fascinated me ever since I
first learnt about it when I was at school, and later, as a history teacher, I
used to tell my classes about the discovery, in the hope that they would share
my fascination with this amazing discovery.
Twenty years ago, I visited Cairo, and saw the treasures in
the Egyptian Museum, but I still longed to see the tomb itself.
Two years ago, I fulfilled that long-held dream. On the
first day of our tour, which began in Luxor, we went (very early in the
morning) to the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile. Our Egyptian
tour guide was eager for us to see the beautifully decorated tombs of the other
pharaohs but there was only one tomb I really wanted to see. We had to pay
extra for this (I guess the Tourist Authority recognises the extra interest in
Tut’s tomb!) – but I didn’t care. As we walked down the steps and then the
sloping passageway, I could hardly believe I was finally about to enter
Tutankhamen’s tomb.
Was it what I’d imagined? No, it was much smaller. I could
hardly believe that all those treasures had been piled up in a relatively small
antechamber. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes, I stood in that
room, pictured all those treasures, and imagined Carter's excitment. Then I leant on the wooden rail
to peer into the burial chamber where the sarcophagus had been found intact.
I remembered Howard Carter’s words when, having cleared the
antechamber, he finally saw the burial chamber. Again, using his own words: “After
about ten minutes' work, I had made a hole large enough to enable me to [peer
inside]. I inserted an electric torch. An astonishing sight its light revealed,
for there, within a yard of the doorway, stretching as far as one could see and
blocking the entrance to the chamber, stood what to all appearances was a solid
wall of gold.”
This visit to Tutankhamen's tomb was one of the highlights of my visit to Egypt (the
other main one was seeing the Abu Simbel temples), and that visit inspired my
novel, ‘Her Only Option’. Although it’s a romance between a cruise ship tour
guide and an archaeologist working in the Valley of the Kings, I hope it
captures some of the wonders of Ancient Egypt.
Here’s an excerpt from ‘Her Only Option’ when Ross calls
Neve (who’s on a brief visit to London) to tell her what he’s found in the
tunnel he’s been excavating, leading from the burial chamber of one of the
Pharaohs:
“Hi, Ross. Is
everything okay?”
“Yes, everything’s
fine. In fact, it’s more than fine. Ask me what we’ve found.”
She heard a tinge of
controlled excitement in his voice. “Go on then. What have you found?”
“A doorway with the
seals intact.”
“Ross, that’s
fantastic!”
“It’s about twenty
yards further along the passage from where we got to when you came into the
tunnel. We found the broken remains of a couple of gilded statues in the rubble
yesterday, but I didn’t raise my hopes until they cleared some more stuff and
uncovered the top of the doorway early this morning. I thought there’d probably
be signs of it being broken into by tomb robbers, so when I realised it seemed
to be intact—oh, God, I wish you were here, Neve.”
“I’ll be back in two
days. When are you going to open the door?”
“Not sure yet. The
engineers will work overnight to put up more supports in the last section of
the passage where the ceiling is very fragile, and I’ll have to call Malik too.
He’ll want his photographers to get some shots of the doorway before we break
the seal. We may be able to open it later tomorrow or early Sunday.”
“I think I’m as
excited as you sound. Ross, you could be hitting the world headlines by Monday
morning.”
“I’m trying not to
get too excited. It might still turn
out to be a dead-end with nothing behind the door. Sometimes it’s better to be
pessimistic rather than over-optimistic.”
“If I were there
with you, I’d be cracking open a bottle of champagne tonight.”
Ross laughed. “Maybe
we can do that on Sunday evening when you get back, either to celebrate or
drown our sorrows.”
“Think positive—and
I’ll keep everything crossed for you. I’ll be on pins tomorrow, waiting to hear
what you’ve found.”
'Her Only Option' is available from Amazon
Neve Dalton loves her job as a tour guide on a River Nile
cruise ship as much as she values her independence. She isn’t ready to settle
down with her Egyptian boyfriend, despite his repeated proposals and his
father’s desire to see him married.
Nor is she ready to meet Ross McAllister, a compelling and fascinating
archaeologist.She struggles against her growing attraction to him until she can
no longer ignore what her heart is telling her. This is the man who sets her
soul on fire.
When she starts receiving cryptic messages, and Ross’s work
in the famous Valley of the Kings is threatened, Neve has to make a
heart-breaking and life-changing decision which she feels is her only option.
Can they discover whose enmity is forcing them apart before
it’s too late?
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