The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

of Aten to be demolished in Thebes. Asproof of this, I may tell it was Horemheb who ordered his trusted men to remove Akhenaten’s body from the tomb in Akhetaten and move it without identification to his mother’s tomb in Thebes, that it might not fall into the hands of the priests. The priests desired to burn Akhenaten’s body and strew the ashes in the river to put a curse on his Ka so that it would wander forever in the abyss of the underworld, but Horemheb was faster than them and had Akhenaten’s body hidden. Yet these events took place much later.

As soon as Ay had Tutankhamun’s consent, he hastened to assemble many ships, whereby the whole court embarked on the ships abandoning the city of Akhetaten so that there was not a single living creature left save for the embalmers in the House of Death — who were preparing the body of Akhenaten to live forever in order to bury him in a grave that he had had hewn for himself in the eastern mountains. Thus fled the last of the inhabitants of the City of the Heavens, and they left so hastily that none of them looked back any more, and in the golden house dishes from interrupted meals remained on the tables, and Tut’s playthings lay abandoned about the floor in an eternal game of funeral procession.

Desert winds tore open the window shutters, and sand drifted over the floors where brilliant ducks flew through the ever green rushes and coloured fish swam in cool water. The desert returned again to the gardens of Akhetaten: their fish pools dried up, irrigation ditches got blocked, and fruit trees died. The mud of house walls crumbled and roofs fell in, and the city of Akhenaten decayed into ruins; and jackals howled through the empty halls, making their lairs in soft beds under canopies. So died the city of Akhetaten, and it died as rapidly as Pharaoh Akhenaten’s will had brought it to life from the desert. And no one dared to sneak into its ruins to steal expensive items that were lost under crumbling mud for the land was forever cursed, and Amun withered the limbs of those who dared to enter. Thus vanished the city of Akhetaten as if it never were, and it vanished like a dream and a mirage.

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But Horemheb’s warships rushed forward like a storm wind before Tutankhamun’s escort fleet, pacifying the people on both sides of the river. He restored order in Thebes: plundering ceased, and men were not any more hanged on the wall head downward for the sake of Aten since he needed every fit man for the war. Ay raised the pennants of the new Pharaoh flying along the Avenue of Rams, and the priests prepared a magnificent reception for him in the great Temple. I, Sinuhe, saw him carried upon a golden chair along the Avenue of Rams, with Queen Nefertiti and Pharaoh Akhenaten’s daughters following him — and Amun’s victory was complete. The priests anointed the new Pharaoh before the image of Amun in the holy of holies and placed the red papyrus crown of the Lower Kingdom and the white lotus crown of the Upper Kingdom on his head in the sight of the people to demonstrate to them how Pharaoh got his power from their hands. Their heads were shaved smooth and their faces gleamed from sacred oil, and Pharaoh sacrificed to Amun all wealth that Ay had been able to extort from the impoverished land. Herihor had however agreed with Horemheb that Amun would lend his wealth to him for the war, since alarming messages were again coming from the Lower Kingdom, and Horemheb did his best to exaggerate them in order to spread horror and fear of the Hittites amongst the people.

The people of Thebes rejoiced greatly at the return of Amun and at the accession of the new Pharaoh, though he was but a child — for so foolish is the heart of man that he ever puts his hope and trust in the future, learning nothing from his past errors and fancying that tomorrow must be better than today. So the crowd was lined on both sides of the Avenue of Rams, in front of the Temple and in all forecourts, and they greeted the new Pharaoh with cries of joy and strewed flowers in his path — and if someone did not cry but stood silent and grim, the spears of Ay’s and Horemheb’s soldiers taught them to know what was their part in the peace.

But in the harbour and in the poor quarter, the ruins still smouldered, and an acrid smoke arose from them while the river stank of much blood and carnage. Along the ridges of the Temple roof, crows and vultures stretched their necks so gorged that they were unable to fly,

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