Chapter III: "Visiting the Youngest Lady"
The air was very dense, I would swear that I could cut it with a knife.
-Bethany will be better to rest, go to the hotel now and tomorrow afternoon I will see you there around 13.00 hs to visit the valley of the kings ok?
Look at the digital time of my cell phone.
3.00 am.
Shit, I'll arrive at like 4.00 am.
-Emm... I agree. -lock the screen of my cell phone. - do you have a taxi number?
He gave me a burlesque look, and then shook his head slightly.
"Don't be silly. " River," I will take you, "he showed his keys.
***
He traveled here lasted an hour, but it served to get to know Rick a little more thoroughly, I discovered that he loves both electronic music and me, and no, we are not thirty-somethings, we are only two young people with twenty-five and twenty-six years, he told me that although he is an Egyptologist he is also passionate about other ancient cultures such as Roman and Greek, obviously he prefers action movies, when he asked me I replied that I love those of C. Fiction, horror and a little action and like him we eternally hate romantic movies the foundation as very mellow and I with that they were too clichés for this world.
Look at my cell phone screen to check the time again.
6.03 am.
I do not plan to go down for breakfast, I will get up at 12.00 noon. I'll have lunch and go down rick.
Tomorrow, actually today, we will visit the magnificent valley of the kings, where almost all the famous pharaohs remain, and of course there is also the valley of the queens, which we will also visit, and in passing we will take the opportunity to take a small tourist walk on our own.
Now, the only thing I have in mind is to close my patches and never wake up like sleeping beauty, I will wake up in a hundred years if possible.
***
I definitely couldn't make it possible or sleep a hundred years, put on my slippers with giraffe motifs and looked at the window.
You'd better take me a shower first.
***
The sun is at its highest, I'm in the lobby waiting for Rick's idiot, who is already half an hour late.
I see his car park in a hurry and he gets off in a hurry, he suddenly slows down his fast walk and returns to his car looking for some papers, sets an alarm and comes jogging as if his life depended on it.
He enters through the revolving door inadvertently knocking on an Asian who stands in his way, the alluded to looks at him with a bad face and blows his forehead, Rick pronounces an "apology" without even feeling it and comes to me relatively agitated.
-Hello, I'm sorry...
-Let's go Rick. - I say rolling my eyes steps through the revolving glass door and brake in front of the co-pilot door, Rick is just leaving the hotel, you hear the classic sound of the alarm deactivated and I go up without even expecting it.
- In a hurry? - says once in the car.
-Excited actually. - he responds by laughing and starts the car.
-Quiet Willis is only half an hour away.
- Will we visit the tomb of "The younger lady"? - I asked looking out the window.
-That's the way it is, and not only that one.
-Mmmm... I would tell you the one in Akhenaten but that one is in Amarna.
-Then you will have to wait until we arrive, but now let's analyze "The younger lady".
-Do you mean who could be the identity of this mummy?
-Yes.
"I don't know, Akhenaten had many sisters.
-Then let's analyze each of the sisters, we start with Sitamón.
-It may be that everyone assumes that she is the mother of "the child king" but for me it is not like that.
- Why?
-Because according to the records she never married Akhenaten, it is more in the year that Amenhotep III celebrated her jubilee or her Heb Thirst she married him pharaoh.
Rick looked at me and pointed outside the window.
-Welcome to the Valley of the Kings.
I got out of the car with excitement while Rick did it as if it was usual to be here. It's actually that it's actually a regular thing for him to be here.
-Wow, all my life I wanted to come here, I imagine that because it is a research work we will not have to stand in line, right? - Point out the long lines that were presented in each burial chamber.
-Actually, it depends because there are some that are in restoration and only let us pass.
I looked with exhaustius at the long line of people in a tomb begging Osiris not to be the one we should go to, but my mind made a guess.
-That tomb with a large row is that of Tutankhamun, right?
"Yes, the KV62, known for its great fortune and its damn funeral mask," said tired.
"It's true, people sometimes come just for that, I don't know, why don't they visit other tombs?" Like that of the great Nefertari the QV66, is in perfect condition with all the paintings excellently preserved or that of Ramesses II, the KV7, it may not be so preserved but they would visit the tomb of a pharaoh who brought many riches to Egypt, not for nothing they call it "Ramses he great".
-Or the KV35.
- That of Amenhotep II? - I asked strangely.
"Come, come on. -we started walking under the unbearable heat so classic here.
After crossing the middle of this great valley, we began to approach one which was open but there was no one visiting it, poor pharaoh without fame.
We stand in front of it.
-Well my sweaty companion. - look at it wrong. - we arrive at tomb KV35 where King Amenhotep II rests and others without ends.
-Endless, more? ah, there are already other bodies and other pharaohs here, like Amonhotep III and others, right?
-Of course, come come on, let's go.
As soon as the smell of humidity and rot invaded me, we went down the stairs that are there which are more than three thousand years old, I grabbed the old wall dodging the old oil lamps once down we went to a small sealed burial chamber.
-Well behind this wall is "The younger lady" and two other mummies.
- And why is it sealed?
-It is sealed because these are still under investigation. -pointed to a small hole in the corner of the seal. - Do you see that hole there? - nod.- well it is used to look with a flashlight at the state of the mummies, do you want us to see?
-Well, of course. - I replied enthusiastically.
Rick took out of his backpack a small flashlight, those of policemen as in the movies.
He stood on top of a small edge, lit up and waved my hand to go, I walked over and handed me the little flashlight.
-Well take, and observe.
I stand on top of the small edge, lighted the inside of the small burial chamber, and observed the three mummies.
I was quickly able to distinguish Queen Tiy between them was the first from the right to the left, if, when Dr. Fletcher made the discovery that "The younger lady" was the mother of King Tut. he also discovered that the oldest of them was the famous and majestic Queen Tiy, and that the middle mummy belonging to a young boy was the son of King Amenhotep II, in conclusion here were resting Mother and daughter, and well the uncle of "The younger lady" and Tiy's brother-in-law.
I watched more closely "The younger lady", it was definitely noticeable that she was royalty since at first glance it was shown that her body had been mummified with the finest linen, like the other two mummies there, but there were other things that caught my attention remarkably.
1) He was missing much of his left arm, as if it had been torn off with hatred, which may have been so the looters were very cruel.
2) As we had already said with Rick, it had a remarkable vertical cut on its right side, which if I remember correctly, according to the scientists who analyzed this mummy would have been 12 cm. deep, and that yes, it had been wounded in life, they had not been the looters.
3) And the last one was that his mouth had been brutally destroyed, obviously by the looters in revenge since in ancient Egypt, it was believed that if a mummy had his mouth destroyed or was mutilated, he could not pronounce his name before Osiris, he could not pass to eternal life and finally could not obtain his immortality and be considered one more deity in the temples.
Now I looked at poor Queen Tiy, she gave me a bit of a pity because she was resting like a normal person not like a queen would have to do, all her riches plundered, and on top of that she doesn't have her own camera, like every queen.
And finally to the young prince in the middle maybe Webensenu a son of Amenhotep II, who has probably been hit by an epidemic and died because of it, but I did not give it much importance.
-Impressed?
"More than that, I'm excited," I said with a smile from ear to ear.
I got off the edge and handed the flashlight to Rick.
Did you know that this tomb was found plus mummies?
-Of course, called tomb-hiding. The mummies of Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III, Merenptah, Seti II, Siptah, Sethnajt, Ramesses IV, Ramesses V, Ramses VI were found.
"You forgot Queen Tausert.
"They don't really know if it's Queen Tausert, that mummy is unidentified.
-Come, let's go and elaborate more hypotheses about "The younger lady"
-With pleasure, I know who it could be. - I said heading to the exit.
* The younger lady: She is an unidentified female mummy only known to be the mother of Tutankhamun and sister of Akhenaten.
* Sitamon: legitimate sister of Akhenaten, she was a princess and great royal wife of the eighteenth dynasty, marrying her father Amenhotep III.
* Heb Thirst: festivity that celebrated the jubilee of the pharaoh on the thirty years of reign and to renew his power. The festivity lasted ten days.