Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt: The Secret History Hidden in the Valley of the Kings (5 page)

From the very beginning, Egypt was a culture obsessed with royalty and death. Although Egypt had a pantheon of gods, the principal deity was the sun god Re (also called Ra), for whose worship a massive religious centre had grown up at Heliopolis, some fifty kilometres to the north of Memphis. It was believed that Re had once ruled over Egypt personally but, wearied by the affairs of mankind, had retired to the heavens, leaving the pharaohs to rule in his stead. Called 'the son of Re', the pharaoh was considered a half-human, half-divine being, through whose body Re himself could manifest. However, as the falcon god Horus was the protector of Egypt, the king was also seen as his personification. By the Third Dynasty, therefore, Re and Horus had been assimilated as one god: Re-Herakhte. Depicted as a human male with a falcon's head, this composite deity was considered both the god of the sun and the god of Egypt, and his incarnation on earth was the pharaoh himself. Only the king
could expect an individual eternity with the gods, everyone else could only hope to participate in this vicariously, through their contribution to his well-being. This applied as much after the king's death as it did during his life. It was believed that the dead pharaoh's spirit would only survive if it periodically returned to earth for sustenance, in the form of food, drink and other material offerings – something that necessitated having a body to return to. The process of mummification was therefore developed by preserving the body with natron, a dehydrating agent applied to the skin beneath bandages. The king was then entombed with his possessions to be utilized in the afterlife, and surrounded by religious illustrations to assure him power and protection in the next world. These elaborate interments were originally housed in so-called mastaba tombs, a series of chambers cut down into solid rock, above which stood a brick-built superstructure resembling a miniature royal palace. The entire area was then enclosed by a defensive wall and guarded around the clock. The mastaba tombs were therefore not so much final resting places, but
dwelling places
of the dead.

Although it seems that devotion to the king could ensure his subjects a place in the next world, the quality of the afterlife depended on what they took with them. This meant that the nobility also had themselves mummified and entombed as elaborately as possible. They constructed their smaller mastaba tombs around that of their beloved pharaoh, in the belief that they would continue in his service in the life to come. Consequently, a great necropolis – a city of the dead – grew up near Memphis at Saqqara, and to cater for the opulent funerary activities a massive industry developed. In addition to the ever-growing priesthood, who attended to the dead by receiving offerings and carrying out unceasing rituals, a wealthy middle class emerged: the craftsmen who built the mausoleums, and
the artisans who produced the exquisite jewellery, amulets and burial equipment which furnished them. By far the finest, most lavish and numerous artefacts manufactured in Egypt at this time were intended only for the tomb.

As the funerary industry grew, so did organized crime. Despite the vast numbers of guards and others in attendance at Saqqara, gangs of ingenious robbers still managed to plunder the tombs. To counter this menace, safer and altogether more imposing tombs were conceived – the pyramids. The first of these was designed and built by the royal vizier (chief minister) Imhotep for the pharaoh Zoser around 2650
BC
. This huge construction, which still dominates the ruins of Saqqara, was originally designed as a mastaba tomb, but later alterations and additions created a stepped pyramid in which a series of six mastaba superstructures of decreasing size were placed one on top of the other. Although the largest feature of the burial site, Zoser's pyramid formed only part of a complex of monuments designed to imitate the main elements of the king's royal court as it had been in life. Within a white limestone wall that encircled the compound, there stood an array of religious buildings, courts and a mortuary temple where extravagant offerings could be continually made.

It was not long before the more familiar smooth-sided pyramids began to appear. Various explanations have been offered to account for this development. It may have been an architectural device to conceal the entrance from thieves – who nevertheless plundered them all – or it may have represented a sun's ray, symbolizing the power of the principle god Re. Modern commentators have attributed the pyramid with astrological, mystical or even alien significance; the only thing of which we can be certain, however, is that they were seen as a link between heaven and earth. The name 'pyramid' is a Greek
word, and was the term the Greeks used when they first encountered these monuments. The Egyptian word for these structures was
mer.
Meaning 'Place of Ascension', this name clearly implies that the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom saw the pyramids as the means by which the pharaoh could ascend to the realm of the gods. In these new constructions the king was no longer buried underground, as had been the procedure with the mastaba tombs, but in a chamber within the pyramid itself. Nevertheless, like the earlier tombs it was still adjoined by a mortuary temple where offerings could be received.

Around the middle of the third millennium
BC
, the Old Kingdom reached the zenith of its achievements with the construction of the great pyramids at a second necropolis near Memphis at Giza. It was once believed that the great pyramids were constructed by huge armies of slaves, but it now seems far more likely that they were the work of a willing populace. The construction of the royal pyramid complex became the focus of society, of paramount importance, not only to the king, but all his subjects, whose existence in life and after death depended on his soul's survival. The largest and most spectacular of these was the pyramid of Cheops, built for the pharaoh Khufu around 2580
BC
. Described by the ancient Greeks as the First Wonder of the World, it was originally 147 metres high – the tallest building on earth until the nineteenth century. Incredibly, its base covered thirteen acres – an area so vast that it could accommodate the cathedrals of Florence, Milan, London's St Pauls, Westminster Abbey and St Peter's in Rome, and still have room to spare. Exactly how it was constructed, even now, remains a mystery. From excavating contemporary habitations at Giza, archaeologists have estimated the maximum possible size of the work force which cut and hauled these thousands of tons of rock into place. Equipped only with simple tools, it
should have taken them generations to build the pyramid of Cheops, yet the whole gargantuan undertaking was apparently completed during Khufu's reign of just twenty-three years.

The national obsession with the royal dead finally brought about the death of the Old Kingdom. The incredible drain on the economy required to build, furnish, staff and maintain these enormous burial complexes finally bankrupted the country. Even the monarchy was ruined: in addition to preparing his own burial complex, the king was expected to repair and provision those of his predecessors, as well as provide tombs for his own family and court. Before the Old Kingdom ended in political fragmentation around 2181
BC
, considerable military and technological advances had been made, however. Egypt's armies were structured into efficient fighting units, sea-going vessels traded the Mediterranean, and learned scribes were writing with ink on papyrus sheets manufactured from reeds. Sadly, this finely balanced, well-ordered society collapsed into the chaotic conditions of an era now called the First Intermediate.

During this time the centralized government at Memphis was overthrown, and an age of continual fighting resulted between local warlords and provincial rulers. Around 2040
BC
, after about a century and a half of civil strife, a fresh era emerged from a strong line of rulers from Thebes in Upper Egypt. Once they had reunited Egypt to form the so-called Middle Kingdom, the Theban pharaohs instituted a scheme that they hoped would stabilize central government and preserve their hold on the throne: the system of co-regency. By placing his own son and heir on the throne nominally to rule alongside him, the pharaoh ensured that after his death there could be no arguments over succession as the new king was already officially in power. There was also a nominal alteration in the religious
status of the monarchy at the birth of the Middle Kingdom. During the preceding period of instability, a powerful cult dedicated to the god Osiris had grown up at the city of Abydos. In Egyptian mythology Osiris was the ruler of the netherworld and Horus was his son. However, the newly powerful pharaohs were still seen as the divine sons of Re-Herakhte, a deity which had previously assimilated Horus. A compromise concept ultimately resulted in a kind of archaic trinity: Re remained the principal deity but, as ruler of both heaven and earth, he had two separate aspects. As the ruler of heaven he was Osiris, and as ruler of earth he was Horus. The king was therefore still the incarnation of Re, but while he was alive he was Horus and when he died he became Osiris.

Apart from these few adaptations, the Middle Kingdom was in essence a watered-down version of the Old Kingdom: the pharaohs were still buried in pyramids, although less opulent, and they were still expected to funnel wealth to the priesthood. It was not only the temple of Re-Herakhte at Heliopolis, the temple of the creator-god Ptah at Memphis, and the temple of Osiris at Abydos that required the king's financial support, but the newly powerful sect of the wind-god Amun at the pharaoh's native Thebes. A new temple was established near the city at Karnak which grew ever greater in wealth, size and prestige throughout the era.

Before the Middle Kingdom began to succumb to foreign invasion around 1782
BC
, the country enjoyed the benefits of significant technological innovations. The invention of the furnace bellows and the smelting of bronze made for better tools; there were tremendous advances in methods of irrigation; and with the invention of the horizontal loom came an impressive range of fabrics. The Egyptians of the period were even
supplied with copious quantities of alcohol, thanks to the introduction of new agricultural methods and the mass cultivation of grapes. And all this before the inhabitants of Britain had even got around to building Stonehenge.

The so-called Second Intermediate began when a series of Semitic kings, from around what is now Israel to the east of Egypt, began seizing control in areas of the Nile Delta. Known as the Hyksos – meaning 'Desert Princes' – their military innovations gave them an incredible advantage over the Egyptians. Not only did they introduce the horse and chariot to warfare, giving them immense tactical supremacy, but they were also far superior archers, employing the more effective compound bow. The whole of northern Egypt fell to the Hyksos around 1720
BC
when they stormed Memphis and sacked the city. For 150 years the Hyksos kings governed northern Egypt, making their own capital at Avaris at the eastern edge of the Nile Delta. Only southern Egypt – Upper Egypt – remained in native hands. Here, the Egyptians finally managed to emulate the superior military innovations of the Hyksos, and around 1570
BC
the Theban prince Amosis reconquered northern Egypt and inaugurated the so-called New Kingdom. So began the Eighteenth Dynasty, into which Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun were eventually born.

The Hyksos period was especially significant in the country's long history, in that it profoundly changed the Egyptians' attitude to the outside world. Previously isolated from foreign aggression, the Egyptians had happily traded with their neighbours without considering it necessary to conquer them. Now, however, they were forced to recognize that, unless they kept their neighbours under control, it would not be long before Egypt's wealth would again attract invaders. From the outset,
the pharaohs of the New Kingdom established a larger, more professional army, adopted expansionist policies and began the foundations of the world's first empire.

Egypt of the New Kingdom made its capital at Thebes, where a new necropolis was chosen in the bleak western hills. In this barren gorge, known today as The Valley of the Kings, the Egyptians abandoned their earlier custom of building pyramids, perhaps because of their vulnerability to tomb robbers, and opted instead for deep rock-cut tombs. It has been suggested that the area was chosen as the royal burial site because the valley is overlooked by a natural cliff formation that resembles a pyramid. However, it was probably chosen for practical considerations, the narrow valley being relatively easy to guard. Here the tombs, consisting of a series of stairwells, corridors and chambers cut into the mountainside, were ingeniously designed to defeat the tomb robbers.

Unlike the earlier burial sites, the Valley of the Kings was used almost exclusively by pharaohs. (Only from New Kingdom are Egypt's rulers actually referred to as pharaohs. Coming from the term
pr-o,
meaning 'great house', it seems to have pertained to the ruling house, or dynasty of Thebes.) Many tombs in the valley still retain a royal sarcophagus and have walls decorated with carved and painted scenes designed to assist the king in passing from this world to the next. These tombs have provided modern scholars with a wealth of information concerning the contemporary religious beliefs, customs and living conditions. Among other things, the tomb scenes illustrate the entire funerary practice, from the initial preparations to the ceremonial processions and the final interment.

The New Kingdom was the strongest and most expansive period in Egypt's history, and the colossal works of its kings, their temples, palaces and monuments are the most numerous
of any era. We can even gaze upon the very faces of many of the New Kingdom pharaohs in a special room at the Cairo Museum. When the New Kingdom finally collapsed, these despoiled mummies had been removed from their tombs by loyal priests and hidden nearby in two great caches. Here the fifty-six remarkably preserved bodies remained undisturbed for almost three thousand years until they were rediscovered in the nineteenth century.