The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Ship after ship followed him, and he gathered together his master builders and architects and showed them where the main streets were to run, where his golden palace and the Temple of Aten were to stand, and as his followers joined him, he pointed out to each the site of his house. The builders drove away the herdsmen and their sheep and tore down their reed huts and built quays along the shore. For these builders, Pharaoh allotted space for their own town outside the city where, before starting the work commanded of them, they were allowed to build mud houses for themselves: five streets running north and south, five east and west, and every house had the same height and every house had two similar rooms, and the roasting pit was in the same place in every house, and every house had the same place for each jar and mat; for Pharaoh bore good will to all his workmen and wished them be equal that they might dwell happily in their own city outside Pharaoh’s city and bless the name of Aten.

But did they bless the name of Aten? No, they cursed him bitterly, and in their simplicity they cursed Pharaoh for moving them from their own cities to desert without roads and taverns, without anything but scorched grass and sand. Not a single woman was content with her roasting pit, and they continuously wanted to make their cooking fires outside their houses, against the ban, and they moved their mats and jars all the time, and those who had many children envied the space of those who didn’t have any. Those who were accustomed to soil floor, reproached mud floor as dusty and unhealthy and those who were accustomed to mud floor said the mud in Akhetaten was different than elsewhere, and no doubt it was accursed mud since it kept cracking when washed.

They also wanted to plant their beets on the street in front of their houses, like they were accustomed to, and were not content with the cultivation plots Pharaoh had given them outside the city but said there was not enough water and claimed they could not carry their dung that far. They hanged their reed ropes across the streets to dry their clothes after laundering and they kept goats in their rooms though Pharaoh had forbidden it for the sake of health and children — so I have never seen a

411

more unhappy and quarrelsome city than Akhetaten’s city of builders was when the new capital was constructed. But I have to admit that as time went by, they got used to it and resigned themselves to all the discomforts and did not reproach Pharaoh any more, but they sighed and thought back to their earlier dwellings without real desire to return any more. However, the women continued to keep goats hidden in their houses, and not even Pharaoh could prevent that.

Then came the season of flood and winter, but Pharaoh did not return to Thebes and remained stubbornly aboard his ship living there and governing the country from there. Every stone that was laid upon stone and every column that was erected greatly rejoiced him, and often he would break into gleeful laughter when he beheld the beautiful timber houses rising delicately along the streets, for the thought of Thebes corroded his mind like poison. On this city of Akhetaten, he spent all the money he had won from Amun, but Amun’s land he divided in all districts amongst the very poor who wanted to cultivate land. He had all the ships sailing upstream stopped and bought their cargos and unloaded them in Akhetaten to bring harm to Thebes, and he hurried the construction so that the price of wood and stone went up, and a man could become rich by floating timber rafts from the first cataract up to Akhetaten. In addition to his own builders, a lot of other workers came to Akhetaten, and they lived in mud holes and reed huts by the river and made tiles and mixed clay. They smoothed the streets and dug irrigation canals, and they dug the sacred lake of Aten in Pharaoh’s park. Bushes and trees were also floated in ships along the river and planted in the City of the Heavens after flood time, and even complete fruits trees were planted, so that already the following summer Pharaoh could pick the first dates, figs and pomegranates grown in his city with his delighted hands.

As a physician, I had much work to do, for although Pharaoh himself was healed and improved in health and became joyful as he beheld his airy city blossom from the soil on its coloured pillars, yet sickness raged amongst the workmen before the ground had been drained, and also there were many building accidents because of the haste imposed upon the men. Before the quays were built, crocodiles harassed the men who had to wade in the water to unload cargoes. It

412