Merenptah, Prince Hori and Bakenkhons commenced their vigil just after the rising of the moon. Under the veil of darkness, Rekhmire, Padeshu and I returned to the mortuary temple and slipped into the treasury rooms which were to the side and just in front of the sanctuary. Once certain the temple was empty save for the Guard officers, Hori opened the treasury door and helped us lift a long cedar box labelled ‘tools’ and carry it across to the sanctuary. The box was placed beside the still unsealed coffin of the king. Until that moment I had not laid eyes on the linen bound remains of Ramesses and I momentarily faltered when compelled to look down upon his funeral mask.
Rekhmire and his son had opened the cedar box to reveal an identically enfolded body, though devoid of a face mask and jewellery. The inscriptions and cartouche on the bandaging were an exact copy of those on Ramesses windings. Hori and Bakenkhons lifted the body from the wooden box and placed it on the ground. Then we surrounded Ramesses’s coffin and lifted his remains out and placed them in the cedar box, taking off the mask and stripped him of his ornamentation which Merenptah then arranged on the second shrouded figure before it was placed in the king’s coffin. By now, I and the others were perspiring freely due to the gravity of handling the king’s remains. This was a grim business and I noted every man was stone faced. Rekhmire fastened the lid back on the cedar box. Merenptah asked “Are we ready? Sennefer, you do not have to take your share of this burden. It is enough you are here with him.”
“Master, I will see this to the end and carrying my portion of his weight is not a trial.”
At the king’s signal, Hori and Rekhmire slid the carrying poles through the lugs on the box and we lifted it from the ground. How light it was. Bakenkhons tapped on the sanctuary door which was opened by the Commander of the Royal Guard. Silently, we made our way through the pillared hall and left the mortuary temple by a side entrance. The Commander opened one of the external gates just in front of the Temple of Tuy and Nefertari, where we met a contingent of Guard officers.
Our party, twenty in number, began the long march to the Great Place. Our path was well lit by moonlight and there was no need of torches. The cortege ascended into the hills and then down into the valley, pausing periodically to relieve each other of the burden. The Great Place was a patchwork of intense darkness relieved by stretches of moonlit ground. On reaching the tomb, the cedar doors were swung open, torches lit and we descended the corridor until attaining the well shaft. My son supervised the removal of the planks covering the shaft, ropes were produced and the box carefully lowered to its floor.
Once inside the crypt, we carried the box to the side of the great basalt block against which were two ladders. Reverently, the shrouded body was taken out of its wooden housing and lifted up to the platform on which sat the double basalt sarcophagus. I issued instructions.
“Open those four cedar crates and remove their contents. That one first.” I indicated with my hand. The box contained the largest of the gilded coffins. This was lifted into the sarcophagus and placed next to the coffin of Queen Nefertari, which had been moved the night before. “Then the next box.” This opened to reveal a slightly smaller coffin inlaid with gold and faience. It was lowered into the first coffin. “Now the final crate. Take care, as you will find the contents very heavy.”
The officers placed ropes under the solid gold coffin concealed in the third long chest. Struggling under their fabulous burden, they lifted it out and then up onto the platform. They climbed up and lowered it, with great effort, into the nest of coffins within the sarcophagus. Bakenkhons withdrew, from the fourth box, an exquisite golden face mask, necklaces and pectorals which he handed to Merenptah who arranged them on his father’s body, tears streaming from his eyes. When satisfied with the arrangement of the ornamentation, he and Prince Hori lifted the body and placed Ramesses within the golden coffin.
Bakenkhons took four alabaster viscera vases from the coffin that had borne Ramesses to his tomb. These he handed to Merenptah who placed them into a partitioned recess set into the platform. Bakenkhons scaled a ladder and stood beside Merenptah. He produced from his robe an instrument, the one used to symbolically open the king’s mouth and re-unite the body with its spiritual elements. This he handed to the king. He asked him to read from a scroll he took from his robe and Merenptah intoned
The spirit for whom I do this will never perish
He will exist in the glory of the god
Nothing evil can befall him
He will exist as a spirit in the west with all his faculties
He will not die again
He will eat and drink with Osiris
He will drink water from the drinking place at the river
He will be alive and exist as a god
He will be worshipped by the living as Re
In a final act, the high priest handed Merenptah a flask of cedar and juniper oils which he poured over the body. “Men, it is time to say our farewell. The moment has come to seal Ramesses into his House of Eternity.”
Now the moment had come to bid my friend of seventy years farewell I was strangely calm. Around me, many men wept as the coffin lids were brought to the platform. I bent down and touched the mask and a thought passed through my mind that we would soon meet again. Then the lids were placed on the three coffins and locked in place with silver pins. Bakenkhons recited a final prayer. I had one final instruction. At the foot of the sarcophagus, there was a table with the polished basalt lid resting on its top. I took four copper pins from my robe, handed one each to the king, Hori and Bakenkhons, retaining one for myself.
“We must push the basalt lid into the recess in the sarcophagus until it is almost home. Then stop when I tell you.” The officers, all strong men, pushed the lid from the side and it slid into place and I offered a silent prayer of thanks to Nebamun and his masons. Just before the final push, I showed my companions how to position the pins under the edge of the lid. I could not hear the pins drop into place though I am sure Thoth guided them into the locking holes.
Soundlessly, the men moved the table and empty cedar boxes into the last storeroom at the far end of the corridor and cleared the floor of debris. It was time. I handed a copper hammer to the king and bade him follow me into the corridor off which lay the treasure rooms. In the light of our torches every room gleamed with riches. I pointed to a series of clay pots projecting from the walls on both sides. “Strike each one hard and be sure they are smashed.”
He swung the hammer down on the first pot. It shattered and sand flowed out of a hole in the wall. Slowly, the first basalt door slid down and settled into place, closing the room. He struck one pot after another until all were broken and more doors descended, sealing each chamber. At the end of the corridor he stopped. I pointed to two more pots and he struck again, releasing a heavy portcullis which sealed the corridor with a resounding thud. Back in the burial chamber, I took a long copper rod and handed it to him.
“You must place it within this hole and then strike as though you were spearing a hippopotamus. That blow will start the process that locks your father and Nefertari into the block.”
“Sennefer, I have thought on this moment since you first revealed the story of this crypt. You are the Royal Architect and your work remains unfinished. By my command, finish your work now.” He thrust the rod into my hands. I took a deep breath, inserted it into the aperture, stabbed hard and felt the clay pot break under the impact.
I stood back, listening and watching. Like the solar barque making its descent below the horizon, the sarcophagus slowly sank into the block then stopped, its lid flush with the platform’s top. Next, the pillars supporting the first massive overhead block started to descend onto the base. Under our feet, sand was pouring out into the drainage tunnels. I heard the ends of the pillars breaking more pots as they continued their descent. The upper block settled onto the platform. As I watched, I recalled the childish and prideful games I had played with Pharaoh many years ago in Pi-Ramess, the two small
sarcophagi and his attempt to break them, the sand running through his fingers and my drawings, now long consigned to the fire. Tears sprang to my eyes.
Those in the tomb stood mesmerised as another set of pillars began to sink into the block and the first rectangular curtain of basalt plates began its descent. I remembered the magic Khaemwaset had used to impress the workmen at Giza and I permitted myself a smile at the thought of what a little magic could achieve. My son looked at me and nodded in approval as a third set of pots were crushed deep below us and another set of pillars began to sink. As the second curtain completed its fall, we heard the final set of pots being smashed underfoot and the last basalt curtain settled onto the block, its serrated edges uniting with the locking plates that hedged the perimeter of the lower section.
I picked up four long bronze rods and inserted them in holes cut into the side of the block at an angle. Where placed, they would further inhibit any from lifting the upper sections of the basalt shroud. Into each hole, I tapped in a basalt plug thus hiding evidence of another layer of protection.
“It is finished.” I said. Ramesses and Nefertari were now entombed within a basalt bastion, their bodies forever locked within a fortress. In two days time, I would return to move the limestone block into its place in the well shaft and Rekhmire could see to the pouring of sand into the burial chamber and treasury corridor. Then my work as Ramesses’ builder would be at an end. I could not attend the burial ceremonies tomorrow of the man who now lay in the king’s golden coffins at the mortuary temple. That would be one charade too many.
Merenptah broke our silence “Let us now leave. He is gone, safe in the embrace of Osiris but his memory will last an eternity. We must return to Thebes before Re’s barque appears in the east.” We left the tomb and, during the walk back to the temple, the king thanked each of the officers and shared reminiscences with them about his father. All could be relied upon to keep as secret what they had seen this night. As we neared the temple he came to my side. “You did me a great honour tonight, Master.”
“No, Sennefer, you have spent your entire life honouring my father as his builder and friend. It was only fitting you should strike the blow to complete your work.” He smiled in the darkness, the same smile that had come so readily to his father’s face. “Of course, if your great device had failed, I could place the blame on your shoulders.”
I laughed for the first time in many days. “Your father taught you well. What of the plans I gave to your father?”
“I burnt them just after his death. Your son knew how the device worked and I may avail myself of the same knowledge for my own tomb. What I have just witnessed was more spectacular than the shipping and mounting of the colossi at the Ramesseum. You are indeed a gifted man.”
“My gift comes from the gods. A question: who now lies within your father’s temple awaiting a grand tomb?”
“For many years, my father’s agents scoured the kingdom looking for a man who resembled him. Naturally, the man would have to be of a similar age and appearance but he also needed reddish hair, the one factor which saved many men from a premature death. Ten years ago, such a man was found, perhaps ironically at Sile in the Eastern Delta. A careful check into his forebears assured Ramesses the man was not related. He was a mere leather worker at a small family tannery just outside the town. His wife was dead and his children, not wanting to follow in their father’s trade, had left the Delta and moved to Memphis. After his death, notice was sent by the tannery manager to his children who wrote back advising that their father could be buried in the desert sands as far as they were concerned. Obviously some disharmony existed within his family.”
“It was fortunate you found a man with a close resemblance who died so conveniently.”
“Perhaps his death was timely. Prince Setpentre, who commanded the fortress, invited the tanner to a small banquet. It seems he died soon after eating the meal. Perhaps, royal food proved to be too rich for his palate. His body was taken to Pi-Ramess, preserved most expensively and returned to the palace where the king, by his own hand, wrote the inscriptions on the funeral linen before sending the body to the treasure rooms at Thebes.”
“Now let me tell you more. Long before he died, my father issued further instructions about this matter of deception. Today we looked upon a man in an outer gilded coffin. Beside him lies the solid gold inner and second coffin, which is of richly gilded and inlaid cedar wood. In a few hours, mourners will see only the sealed outer coffin which will be given weight by the addition of viscera jars lest the priests, who will take the coffins to the tomb, become suspicious. The two inner coffins were placed in the treasury rooms tonight for my use when I come to my own entombment. My father was convinced his tomb would be despoiled at some time in the future and was determined the robbers would find little of value. The funerary goods you saw in the first treasury chamber were replaced by some ordinary gilded goods, a few chests of cheap jewellery, cases and pottery vessels filled with wheat, some wine and much old furniture collected from all the royal palaces. This collection now resides in the storerooms of my father’s formal tomb.
“Bakenkhons knows of this?” I asked, somewhat amazed.
“Yes, he was party to the discussions about this matter several years ago. It was his suggestion we weight the coffin with the jars. Should my father’s tomb be broken into the thieves are in for a rude surprise. There is just enough to satisfy their appetite and lead them to believe they have all my father’s funeral possessions.”
I laughed. “A game within a game.”
“Yes. One great legacy of your work was your educating us about the robberies of the dead. You opened our eyes to the theft from monuments and tombs. I remember my father saying it would be cheaper to strew the wealth, accompanying rulers to their tombs, across the desert for Libyans to collect as they herd their cattle. The method you chose to protect my father and his possessions was, in our opinion, an inspiration from the gods. So strongly did my father hold this belief, he has made me swear that I will not reveal anything of our methods to my sons lest everything you have done be defeated. He said to me only last year ‘Let your sons find their own gifted builder. Sennefer was sent to me by the deities and he carries the special blessing of Thoth.’”
“I do not know if I necessarily believe that. Throughout my life, I drew inspiration from your father and many were the times we thought as one about a particular project. I chose to believe his divinity cast a brilliant light on my life and allowed me to best use the simple talents Khnum mixed together when he fashioned me on his wheel.”
“Well spoken. Now, there are some matters before we reach the temple. I know not of your own arrangements for your tomb other than that your son will supervise your interment. This is fitting and proper. I have asked Rekhmire to inform me of your passing so I may have the honour of being present at your funeral. I was commanded by my father to tell you the rituals may be celebrated within his mortuary temple, should you so chose. He further commanded one quarter of the goods you saw in the first treasury room be given to you as a gift to take with you to the Second Life. Under instructions from her father, Neferure is to include much jewellery as he was sure she and Ipi may want for some finery.”
“It is a high honour you would wish to be with me in my final moments and I can think of no better place to hold the service than in the building that meant so much to both your father and myself but I cannot accept the gift. It is too generous.” I protested.
Smiling again, he said “My father warned me of your tendency to disregard certain aspects of the authority of the crown. You cannot refuse my father’s command now re-affirmed by me. Even you will find it difficult to refuse a command from two kings. He said he could not dine at your celestial abode unless it was well appointed and the shades of your wives as well adorned as his wives. He also made a point of stressing both fishing and hunting equipment was to be within your treasure house. Please, Sennefer, I beg you accept these gifts from two men wh
o are eternally grateful for your devotion. See this as another small reward for the years of service to the king. I must sternly warn that if you do not, you will suffer his ill favour for an eternity and that is a fate I cannot allow you to inflict upon yourself.”
“Let it be as you both command. I just hope he always catches the bigger fish and kills the stronger lion.”
It was good we could make light of death. Merenptah was not a young man himself when Ramesses died and his thoughts must have turned to his own passage to the solar barque. We slipped back into the temple and went through the formalities of leaving through the main gates. I back to my quarters and some much needed sleep and the king to prepare for the public entombment of the man passing as his father. As we parted, he explained if there was comment on my absence from the rituals, his response would be that I was too overcome with grief, and the effects of my great age, to attend. I thanked him for his consideration.
“It is done?” asked Neferure as I entered our sleeping chamber just as the first light of dawn appeared to the east. “You look exhausted, dear husband.”
“Yes, he is gone and, save for some details, my work is finished. He and Nefertari are now safe forever.” I related the events of the night and she took satisfaction from the details of the final deception.
“It will be quite difficult for my brother, Prince Hori and I to appear in a state of complete reverence today, knowing we follow the body of a tanner in a wooden box to the tomb. Why should there be any body in the sarcophagus at all? No, wait, let me first attend to you. You need to bathe and have some nourishment as we have some hours before I must go to the temple for the service. My sister, Bintanath, will come to collect me later in the morning. When she visited yesterday she told me there are over fifty of our brothers and sisters gathered here for the ceremony. My father was certainly a prolific progenitor. We Paramessu must be the largest family in the kingdom!”
The Golden Falcon Page 56