TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 126, 25 February 1928, Page 24

TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN

Mr. lan Hay, the well-known novelist, writing on “Modern Egypt” in the “Cornhill Magazine,” has some interesting tilings to say about the tombs the modern tourists see. He writes:— The centre of attractio nto-day is, of course, the tomb of Tutankhamen. It is surrounded by other tombs, long ago discovered and cleared. It seems strange that this particular treasure house should have lain hidden for so many centuries, considering the extreme enterprise of the ancient tomb riflers. Only one other tomb in the whole valley—that of Amenhotep ll—has escaped their attentions. To enter Tutankhamen’s tomb is to recall irresistible memories of \Vembley Exhibition, or even of Madame Tussaud’s. The rock passage leading to the chamber is carpeted with drugget, and there is a wooden handrail running down the middle to separate those entering from those emerging. The passage and tomb are lit by electric light, and only a limited number of visitors is admitted at a time. There is not exactly a turnstile at the entrance, but there is everything else. Your walking-stick is taken from you, as at the Royal Academy, and persons with Kodaks receive short shrift. Some of the neighbouring tombs are more interesting and much larger. Perhaps the most memorable of all is the tomb of Thotlimes 111, of the 18th dynasty—“a little man with a big nose.” His name means nothing now, but he was the greatest conqueror the world ever saw, with the exception of Alexander and Napoleon. . . . He was brought up by his stepmother, a notable lady. She was also his mother-in-law—a formidable combination. Her name was Hatshepsut, and she was the Queen Elizabeth of her time. Besides bringing Thotlimes up, she held him down, witli an iron hand, and Thothmes never forgave her. All over Egypt to-day you will find the usual effigies, statues, and other records of the great Queen ; and every single one of them has been methodically chipped and obliterated out of recognition, over every inch of its surface, by her successor. It must have been a labour of years to do the thing so thoroughly, but Thotlimes evidently regarded it as a labour of love. Human nature does not seem to have altered much in the last three or four thousand years. This Thotlimes, by the way, erected at Karnak an obelisk to commemorate his third jubilee. That obelisk now stands on the Thames Embankment, and Londoners call it Cleopatra’s Needle. They might as well call the Coronation Stone in the Abbey the Albert Memorial. |