The luxor curse, p.17
The Luxor Curse, page 17
part #1 of Kathryn Black Series
Chapter 13
-
Hatshepsut, a Temple
to Die For
Having spent a blissful night on the sofa in Kate and Aggie’s suite, Alex woke in pain. Feeling down to an area that boys regarded as sacred, he was more than a little relieved to find everything to be intact, even though he was still feeling some pain. As he most carefully inspected both himself and the sofa, he came across the cause of his discomfort. The culprit was the same spring which, unbeknown to him, had awoken Kate just the day before. He inwardly cursed his bad luck, as though he could not remember what he had been dreaming, he was quite sure that it had been a very good dream.
It took Alex a few seconds to remind himself why all he was wearing was a white Winter Palace cotton dressing gown, why his clothes were missing, and why the dressing gown refused to remain closed. As he continued to inwardly curse his bad luck, he heard the door to Kate’s room open. His curses turned to gratitude, as he fumbled to pull the dressing gown tightly around him.
“Are you ready, Alex?”
“Do I look as though I’m ready, Kate?”
“Well, you look better than you did half an hour ago. Oh, and by the way, your laundry is over there,” she said, pointing to the sideboard, where the ants had previously been and where a fresh bowl of fruit now sat. Beside this was a hotel laundry bag.
“Thanks a heap.”
“That’s quite all right, I’ll go back into my bedroom so you can get dressed,” she said with a pompous air before leaving with a chuckle. She hadn’t been out of her room earlier, having only just woken up herself, however, Alex didn’t know this. That was all that mattered, as this would allow her to have fun at his expense today. The laundry must have been slipped inside the room by one of the hotel staff much earlier, but she had recognised what it was by the colour of the bag. Kate felt that this was going to be a good day. If only she could have known just how wrong she was, she would have gone back to bed and stayed there.
“I’m ready. Shall we go?”
Kate duly appeared from her bedroom, walked right past Alex without saying a word, though she had the biggest smirk on her face. He could feel himself turning into a beetroot. Kate checked Aggie’s room. She was in there, still fully dressed, though dead to the world. Aggie would remember nothing of last night, like so many of her nights, which Kate used to think was a waste. Gradually, over quite a period of time, Kate began to see it as a blessing, because she doubted that Aggie would be able to live with herself, if she could remember all the horrible things she had said and done.
Beckoning to Alex to be quiet as they left the room, they headed down for breakfast, where upon sitting, Kate proceeded to count the money Aggie had thrust into her hand the previous evening. It amounted to nearly four hundred English pounds. “Thank God,” thought Kate, because if she had not taken it, it would have all gone last night. She went on to wonder how the expats could leave their families to drink themselves silly in Luxor, when just at that moment Alex brought her back to the real world. He was far from comfortable eating a free breakfast at a hotel where he was not resident. Kate told him to stop worrying. Three had signed their room off for two breakfasts which they had paid for, so he was eating Aggie’s. She would not be awake until long after breakfast had stopped being served. This put him at his ease.
“I was just thinking of Aggie and her expat drinking partners. How can so many old women leave their families? They must have children, grandchildren, and, by the looks of them, great-grandchildren, yet they prefer to live a drunken wasted life here in Luxor.”
“That’s an easy one to answer,” said Alex with a smile. “You saw them, they’re so obviously not from this planet. Can’t be! I reckon they’re aliens who eat their young.”
Cairo came over, wondering what they were laughing about. He stood beside their table, just in case a member of management came in. “I ready to go,” he said with enthusiasm.
“Have you got your white sheet?” asked Kate. Cairo confirmed that he had. Alex confirmed that he also had his white sheet, which he emphasised by pointing to his bulging backpack. Cairo gestured to say that his was under his galabeya. “Obviously you have your torches. Spare batteries?” They had.
Kate and Alex finished off a very light breakfast, during which they had spent far more time packing food surreptitiously under the table, rather than actually eating it. Smugly content that they had been extremely discreet in packing their lunch, because they would need something to eat whilst they were in the tomb, as it was likely to be a very long day, they were suddenly aware of Three’s presence. He was holding out a roll of food wrap. Obviously, they had not been as discreet as they had thought.
Kate’s small, though more than adequate backpack was soon full of neatly wrapped food parcels. Alex had managed to cram a few bits into his backpack as well, though he had only wrapped his food in hotel napkins, which he would ensure were returned later in the day.
The walk to the ferry was uneventful. It verged on being relaxing. Whilst they were crossing the Nile, Kate explained what they were going to do, after which Alex and Cairo were no longer relaxed, as their hearts pounded. Alex now wished that he had not had anything for breakfast, as he was reliving it mouthful by mouthful.
The temple of Queen Hatshepsut was always an impressive site, even if their first view of it was from the taxi as it pulled into the car park. It was Kate and Cairo’s first visit; they were in awe. Even Alex, who had visited at least twice before, could do nothing except marvel at its beauty. This massive white stone temple was constructed on three levels. An extremely wide central staircase rose from the ground to the top floor in two sections. It had the effect of splitting the temple into two. Once at the top of this staircase, visitors walked on through to a small courtyard, before finally reaching a doorway which went into the Theban Hills behind, though this was a doorway which was closed to all. Despite the temple’s immense size, it stood dwarfed under the curve of a sheer rock face, which towered hundreds of metres above it.
Land-trains, exactly the same as those at the Valley of the Kings, took tourists from the entrance to the temple proper. As it turned out, now was far from the busiest time of day at the car park. Though it was packed with tourist coaches, it was devoid of tourists, as they were already all up at the temple. Kate was not at all happy, as this posed two problems. Firstly: it meant that there wasn’t the hustle and bustle which she was relying on, in order for them to be able to slip into the tomb unnoticed. Secondly: The whole area was far more open, as well as much larger, than she had expected it to be. It was so vast that if every tourist in Luxor was, at this very moment, standing waiting for the road train, they still would not have had the cover they needed. Kate had no option, she had to bring Plan B into action. This in itself posed a real problem, as she had not yet fully formulated Plan A!
Leaving the car park on the right-hand side, this forced them, as with all visitors, to have to walk through the gauntlet of overzealous souvenir sellers. Their stalls displayed everything they considered tourists would be eager to take home from a trip to Egypt, though with them asking such ridiculously high prices, they didn’t have the worry of restocking very often, if at all!
Kate needed to think, yet she wasn’t able to, due to the constant hassle of vendors offering small black busts of Queen Hatshepsut, Tutankhamun and the cat god Bast for “little money”. The prices asked made her expensive book on the Valley of the Kings look like an absolute bargain. Others offered alabaster scarabs, printed scarves and even miniature copies of the wall carvings from the tombs nearby. Kate needed to have a clear mind. She looked to Alex in the hope that he could free her from these annoying people, though he was going to be no use at all as he was also surrounded by Egyptians thrusting their wares at him. Hearing that the bartering had started high, he had obviously made the mistake of asking the price of an item, something that Alex himself had warned her of.
Cairo was already holding their entrance tickets, as being Egyptian he had walked through without any hassle. Looking back, he wondered if Kate and Alex were ever going to get through to the ticket office. A group of leaving oriental visitors entered the corridor of hassle on their way back to their coach. The stall owners knew that they had a second chance of catching Kate and Alex as they left the temple, but this was their last chance to get money from these oriental visitors. Once they were on their coach, they would not return, so all of a sudden Kate and Alex were free to make their dash to join Cairo.
“Wow, that was more than a bit pushy,” said Alex, automatically brushing himself off from all the hands that had been pulling at him. “Dad tells of a time when they were afraid to touch a tourist, because if they did, they would be arrested … I wish it was like that now!”
“Yes, that would be nice,” said Kate, who was also brushing at her clothes, “as it’s so annoying, they just won’t leave you alone.” She sent one of her scowls back down to the Egyptians, who were now hassling the oriental tourists, whilst thinking, “If I was a witch, you would all be pillars of salt by now.” Then she wondered if it was actually witches who turned people into pillars of salt. She was just going off in her thoughts to ponder what witches could or could not do, when Cairo pulled her back into reality, by asking what they were going to do now. Without thinking, she replied, “We have the tickets, so we are going to visit the temple. Hatshepsut, here we come!”
They each passed through a very rudimentary security scanner, manned by three half-asleep Tourist Police along with a ticket inspector, who insisted on scrutinising their tickets through spectacles which looked as though each lens had been made from the bottom of a very thick bottle. He did nothing more than inspect their tickets before handing them back, even though they had all set the security scanner buzzing. Obviously, the scanner must buzz for every tourist, so over time they had become complacent, so much so, that they now totally ignored it, however loud it bleeped, and when Kate went through, it did give out a very loud bleep.
Leaving the checkpoint, they emerged onto what Alex described as Heathrow runway four. A wide strip of tarmac which lead straight to the Temple of Hatshepsut. Kate ignored the calls from the road-train driver, whilst under the close scrutiny of far more alert Tourist and Antiquity Police she wandered over to the sign beside the tomb that they needed to get into, and read:
Tomb of Montuemhat (TT. 34) Mayor of Thebes,
Forth Prophet of Amun
and Governor of Upper Egypt.
Thought to be the most powerful man in Upper Egypt
at the end of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty
and at the beginning of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty.
Mission: Spanish, University of Barcelona.
Project: Studying, documentation, restoration,
conservation and protection.
Below this were the various names of people and organisations connected with the excavation of the tomb, all of which held little or no interest for Kate, as she had read all she wanted to read. Alex and Cairo joined her, and Alex also read the sign, though realising that Cairo could not, he read it out loud.
Moving away from the noticeboard, Kate wandered over to the five-bar gate which blocked their entry to the steps down to the tomb. It was beyond obvious that they would never be able to climb over the gate and run down all those white stone steps without been seen, even if there were plenty of tourists in this area who could be used as a distraction. It was extremely unlikely that one of them would make it, two would be impossible, three of them making it would require a miracle. Something else dawned on Kate, now seeing the way down to the entrance for the very first time. The stone steps and high stone walls would act as an echo chamber, so they would have to go down slowly. They would not be able to run, as that would make far too much noise.
Deep down, the stairs stopped against a blank wall, but from the sunlight hitting the floor, Kate deduced that there was a full height opening to the right. An opening that lead into the courtyard, which was pictured on the back of the Spanish booklet. From the picture she knew that it was an open courtyard, though it did look as though there were several places to hide if the need arose. Her final concern, as if Kate did not have enough concerns already, was what type of door had been erected to secure the entrance into the tomb itself. She had no idea what they were going to come up against.
Kate failed to mention to the boys that she had packed a reasonably sized metal stake in her backpack, one she had borrowed from the gardener at the hotel. She considered that it would be strong enough to break an average sized padlock. This was why she had been so relieved, that even though the metal detector buzzer had gone off, nobody had bothered to check her. Continuing to look down as she leaned on the five-bar gate, Kate’s realisation that if she could not find a way in here, then the whole day, and perhaps the whole holiday, was a waste of time, did nothing to improve her mood. The steps were steep, but they were all well below ground level. The walls each side were high when actually on the steps, though when they were seen from Kate’s perspective of ground level, they were not. They stood only a metre or so above the level of the desert, so they were easy enough to jump over, just as long as they did not jump over too far along, or the drop would surely lead to broken bones.
Kate was deep in thought when Alex asked, “What’s the plan?” As she had not heard him arrive beside her, he made her jump. Cairo said, “Yes, Mrs Bond, what the plan?”
“You watch too much television, Cairo. Now come on. I shall explain my dastardly plan to you at the temple.” Giving her best evil villain laugh, she headed off to the land-train. As usual Alex and Cairo followed, though not before Alex had looked at all those steps straight down, which were within clear view of the entrance and the security personnel there. He saw, as he walked over to sit behind Kate, that security was lax, as many were resting now that the morning rush was over. This would make things somewhat easier, though the man with the bottle glasses was far too vigilant for his liking. It only took one person to alert the others … and the others had guns.
On the ride up to Hatshepsut Temple, Kate was still in awe. Up close, the sheer majesty of the three floors, with their many square columns, was stunning. Even Alex remarked on how impressive it was, before going on about how a rockslide in antiquity had led to a major reconstruction effort. Kate soon shut him up, telling him not to spoil the moment, though she just had to add, “Reconstructed or not, it’s still far more impressive than what I saw on the sofa this morning.” Cairo looked confused, Alex looked embarrassed, whilst Kate looked as though she had been the cat which had just had the cream. The rest of the short journey took place in silence.
With their tickets now torn in half, they entered the temple area and gasped. Even Cairo was amazed, as though he lived only a little further down the West Bank of the Nile, at El Marise, he and his family, just as with the vast majority of Egyptians, had never visited any ancient temple or tomb. Many Egyptians found it strange that so many people would travel from all four corners of the world to look at their dead, when they should be looking at, and more importantly helping, the living. Standing there for the very first time, Cairo was instantly hooked into ancient Egypt, as he had never seen anything as magnificent as this. Immediately he understood why so many tourists came to Luxor, as this temple alone was worth all the travelling. “Wow!”
“Are you okay, Cairo?” asked Alex as he saw a tear in his eye. As Kate turned to look at them both, Alex could see what he thought was the start of a tear in her eye. Together she and Cairo said the only thing that anyone could say, as they looked up at the temple … “WOW!”
“I hate to spoil the moment, but have you both forgotten about the three-thousand-year-old soldiers who tried to kill us?” Kate wanted to scowl at him for yet again spoiling the moment, but she couldn’t. He was right, as she had completely let their mission slip her mind.
Cairo was also brought back to the task at hand. “I missed all yesterday, today I stand, I help, I see through, though I scared … a little.”
“I can hear that, Cairo, as you are losing even more small words.” Upon seeing the confused look on Alex’s face, Kate explained. “When Cairo is scared, nervous or excited, then small words such as ‘am,’ ‘we’ and ‘will’ tend to disappear from his sentences.”
“Quite understandable,” said Alex, moving off up the first set of stairs, as having visited before, he acted as an unofficial guide. He showed them the relief of the dwarf like Queen of Punt, followed by the top courtyard, before the small Temple of Hathor just to the left of the main temple, where Alex could not resist lamenting, yet again, that his view of Hathor had been obscured. Cairo looked up at Alex with a look which only young boys have, as he said, “You saw her breasts!”
“No, Cairo, I didn’t,” said Alex rather abruptly, “as I had a three-thousand-year-old Anubis soldier sitting on me. I couldn’t see a thing.”
Kate shook her head as she leant on the guard rail, from where she looked back up the runway. The road-trains were arriving at the temple empty, only to be filled within seconds by the throng of waiting tourists, as like yesterday at the Valley of the Kings, it was that time of day. Yes, it was the time of day that tourist groups were leaving for the cool and calm of their hotel or cruise boat, where they would arrive just in time for lunch. Kate looked down at very hot, extremely sweaty, drained of energy tourists. She felt sorry for them. After leaving the road-train, every single one of them would have to run the gauntlet of hard sell souvenir vendors.
Looking slightly to her right, at the very far end of the runway, Kate focussed on the ancient dark mud brick arch which rose high above the entrance to the tomb of Montuemhat. Noticing a high adjoining wall on this side of the arch, she attempted to rework her original plan. “We must get behind that wall without anyone seeing us, if we are going to have any chance of getting into the tomb.” Kate’s mind was working overtime, though she was too far away to see the detail she needed to see, in order to be able to complete her plan. The sun was almost directly overhead, so it was difficult to make anything else out, as the white sand and rock of the area glared, turning everything at distance into a misty white haze.
