They were now approaching the temple complex, the road passing to the west of the Temple of Mut located just to the south of the main complex of the Temple of Amun. “We’ll call at the Temple of Mut on our way back. Let’s look at the main complex first,” said Pamose.
They approached the main western entrance of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. The outer wall rose high, obscuring the view of most of the temple, but the wall itself was dominated by the huge entrance pylons. These were massively tall and wide stone structures of triangular cross-section. Off to their left was the canal cut from the river to the temple, forty paces wide and terminating at a quay near the main entrance. The water shone as it reflected the early morning sunlight.
Pamose approached the temple guards at the first gate and established their credentials. The common folk were only permitted into the temple grounds during festivals, and even then only into the outer courtyard.
Colossal statues of Ramesses stood before the entrance, the one on the left with a statue of Queen Bent ’anta, then as a princess, carved between its legs. Behind the statues stood the massive hall, with its 134 huge columns carved to resemble papyrus stalks. In comparison with the brilliant sunshine outside, once they were inside the hall the light was dim despite the light that streamed through the doorways and the window-gratings high on the walls and in the central raised roof over the processional walkway. The barred patches of bright light cast on the floor allowed Nikolas and his friends to see the relief carvings, mainly showing the military campaigns of Seti and Ramesses in Canaan and Syria. Several classes of acolytes sat in groups in the hall, cross-legged on the floor, learning to scribe or studying religious texts.
The carvings were beautifully painted in vibrant colours, bringing the stories depicted into vivid, if somewhat still and formal, life. Here Pharaoh charged in his chariot with bow raised to shoot; there he strode amongst the enemy smashing them with upraised mace; there a line of captives, bound and kneeling before Pharaoh and awaiting his judgement of their fate. Nikolas was in awe of the sheer size and magnificence of the hall, and indeed the whole of the temple. The brightly painted massive columns reached some seventy-five feet, more than ten times the height of a man, to support the stone roof above. The colossal proportions of the building made those walking through it feel small and insignificant.
The magnificent gilded ship, on which the statue of Amun was paraded to Luxor at each Opet Festival, looked like a small toy in the position in which it was stored in the huge hall, but as they came nearer Nikolas realized that the seemingly small ‘toy’ was itself full-sized, but was dwarfed by the size of the building. Standing on a painted stone plinth itself the height of a man, the ship towered over the onlooker, some forty cubits long and the mast some twenty cubits high. The ship was jet-black, made of ebony wood lavishly covered with gold leaf and richly painted with religious symbols and scenes.
In one corner of the hall rope-scaffolding supported a group of craftsmen renewing paintwork at the top of one wall, carefully scraping and cleaning the surface and reapplying fresh paint.
Proceeding through the hall they saw the Red Chapel, glistening in the rosy light reflected from its red quartz blocks, and the two tall obelisks of Hatshepsut and the four obelisks erected by Thutmosis I and Thutmosis III to mark the entrance to the original old temple.
The bases of the obelisks of Hatshepsut were surrounded by stone walls erected by her step-son and successor Thutmosis III to hide the inscriptions praising the achievements of the regent who for so long had usurped his position as ruler and whose memory he had tried to erase. As they entered the Old Temple Nikolas ran his hands over the columns carved with the emblems of Upper and Lower Egypt.
“Truly this place is magnificent. Its sheer size, complexity and detail stun the senses. Hundreds of years of building, each Pharaoh seeking to outdo those before. The effort! The cost! To achieve this, and the Pyramids at Giza, this must be the richest land on the face of the earth!”
“Ramesses also builds temples at Aswan and Abu Simbel, and improves or extends many others throughout the Two Lands,” commented Lorentis proudly.
“The temples are important,” said Pamose. “The goodwill of the gods is essential to our land. We rely on the bounty that the favour of the gods brings. The magnificence of the temples and the regular sacrifices of animals maintain that goodwill. If we have a drought or a plague, that is because the gods are not happy with us because we’ve failed to properly honour them. But it’s a pity that the priests view that what is necessary to appease the gods requires so much of the land and resources of the kmet to be in their hands. Yes, we must appease the gods, show them honour and strengthen their ka – but I’m sure the gods aren’t as greedy as the priests indicate.”
Nikolas, Pamose, Lorentis and Kiya stood below one of the great carved and painted friezes in the outer area of the temple. It showed in graphic detail Ramesses’ defeat of the Hittites at Kadesh. Scene after scene showed Ramesses, depicted much larger than all the other figures, raising a mace to smash the heads of the Hittite warriors or loosing arrows from a great bow while standing in a chariot. The friezes showed hundreds of chariots in action, with many smashed chariots and slain soldiers and horses lying everywhere in disarray.
Lorentis said, “What you may not know, Nikolas, is that these carving and inscriptions are not just pictures or a story. They are literally carved in stone and have magic properties that protect and strengthen Ramesses and Egypt. This was a truly great victory! We are indeed fortunate to have such a Pharaoh!” as she touched the deeply-cut carvings in the stone.
Pamose gave a snort but said nothing in reply. “You disagree?” asked Nikolas.
“Certainly about the battle,” he replied. “We studied it in Staff College as an excellent example of how not to conduct a battle. Ramesses was moving through unknown country with inadequate scouting. He had no idea where the Hittites were. Later he complained about the army not scouting properly. The fact is that if you chose to move your army in those circumstances you have to be very careful; he wasn’t. He took the command group, one division of foot soldiers and most of the chariots to the head of the column, put them in an exposed position and failed to keep the infantry divisions in mutually-supporting groups. The Division of Re was placed too far ahead of the Division of Ptah. The Division of Amun was with the command group in the north and was making camp.
“When the Hittite chariots crossed the river and attacked unexpectedly from the east, The Division of Re was smashed. The rest of the army was in column of march to the south, except the Division of Amun, the chariots and the command group to the north, who were all cut off. The next infantry division, Ptah, was still emerging from the Robaui Forest, miles awys.
“The army was cut in half, with one half not being able to reach the battle and deploy. The centre division, the Division of Re, was smashed and its survivors fled north. If Muwatallis had brought his infantry across the river he would have crushed the Division of Amun and killed Ramesses. He’d have had more than twenty-five thousand men against five thousand. Instead he used his chariots, already across the river and who outnumbered us two to one. The Hittite chariots are different to ours. They’re bigger, heavier and slower – but they carry three men to our two; with one acting as driver they can have two archers, where our chariots only have one. The Division of Amun suffered severe losses and half our two thousand chariots were lost.”
Here Pamose thoughtfully touched several of the carvings of smashed chariots with dead and dying horses. “But our chariots more than held their own as the gods were with Ramesses that day. They helped him to rally the men and guided his hand and the hands of his men in their fight, allowing them to avert disaster. The Hittites were also busily engaged in looting the baggage camp, which gave us an advantage. Our chariots fought the Hittite chariots to a halt and allowed the Division of Ptah to come up and attack the Hittite southern flank. Their chariots retired east back across the river. They still out
numbered us in chariots and had twenty-five thousand fresh infantry who would have been itching for battle. By then we would have had less than ten thousand effectives. Both Re and Amun had suffered more than fifty percent casualties, as had our chariots. At that point you usually say the unit has become combat-ineffective and cannot fight. But Muwatallis showed himself as being overly cautious and didn’t press his advantage. Again, this was the will of Amun-Ra. Ramesses led our men to the south to regroup, while the Hittites withdrew north. Shortly afterwards we occupied Kadesh itself.
“So, it was not a great victory; at best a draw. Amun-Ra assisted his followers that day and prevented a devastating loss.” Pamose thumped a fist against the stone wall carvings. “This is a great piece of propaganda, not a true history. If it had a been a great victory we would have marched north, not sought and received a peace treaty. If the Hittites had won, as they claim, they would not have agreed to a peace treaty but instead marched south.
“As I said, it was a hard-fought draw. The teachers at the Army Staff College taught us that one cannot always rely on the favour of the gods, and that usually the gods who fight on the side of the largest army influence the result – after all both armies invoke divine assistance before a battle. To be fair to Ramesses, after he made the initial mistakes he did lead the army effectively to avoid it being crushed and he led from the front and participated in the fighting, strengthened and guided by Amun-Ra. There was nothing wrong with his personal courage or his reaction under pressure, it was just his knowledge of how to move twenty-five thousand men in a mutually-supporting force that caused the problem in the first place.”
Pamose paused for a moment before adding, “It’s notable that he hasn’t undertaken any offensive military action or campaigns since that time, in over fifty years. There’s just been the usual defensive patrolling and the regular expeditions to the Eastern Desert and the Sinai.”
Lorentis looked quite confused at this information, which she hadn’t heard before. “But at least the peace treaty has stood the test of time?” she ventured.
Pamose nodded. “Ramesses learnt a lesson; the outcome of war is never certain. He’s highly intelligent and decided that he could achieve the results he wanted without either the risk or cost of war, by using diplomacy. He’s concentrated on building the strength of Egypt within its borders. And fortunately the Hittites have had enough other problems to prevent them from wanting to expand south. As for Canaan and the deserts to the east of that, we have what we want through alliances with the local rulers, and retain access to the minerals and the forests. Peace with the Hittites has allowed the kmet to be peaceful and prosper. But we’ve done nothing in fifty years to take advantage of that.”
“But surely you must agree that the Two Lands are strong and rich and have profited from Ramesses’ wise rule,” asked Lorentis in perplexity. “Ramesses has built much of benefit to the people.”
After a pause for thought Pamose replied, “As to the building, much of what Ramesses has done has been to complete what those before him started, and then erected statues of himself and claimed the works for his own. We have a population of more than three million, but a professional standing army of only twenty-five thousand or so. The Hittite army is more than twice that large, and their country is not as rich. I personally believe that a country should have more soldiers than it has bureaucrats! Perhaps we can draft the bureaucrats into the army and give them all spears! We lost Lower Nubia nearly a hundred years ago when the Armana heretics were on the throne. Why, in fifty years, has Ramesses not sent the army marching south to reclaim what is ours, when he has no threat to the north?
“Tudhaliya wishes peace with us to free his military resources to use against his own enemies, who are also our enemies, to his east. We’ve had a Hittite as Ramesses’ wife, although she wasn’t the Great Royal Wife. As the good goddess Hathor knows, to recover control of the mines and other resources in Nubia, particularly the gold mines, will make us a richer and stronger nation. Two years and it would be done.”
Pamose paused again and then asked Nikolas, “Why don’t you own slaves?”
Nikolas, who had been drinking in this unusual criticism of the establishment, gave a start at this change of topic and replied, “Although my own land holds slavery as normal, myself I don’t like it. But the main reason is that they’re too expensive to justify the cost when you can hire a freeman for a relatively small amount. Slaves are an expensive upfront harder to get rid of them than get rid of a freeman. Most of them are lazy and do just enough to avoid being beaten; realistically why should they do more when there’s no reward?”
Pamose nodded his agreement. “Slaves come mainly from war. Lorentis, you know from their very names how many of the Court and bureaucracy are of Libyan slave origin, absorbed into our society over many centuries. With no wars there are fewer and fewer slaves.
Ramesses has insufficient slaves to properly work the underground mines, where freemen aren’t used. Our people work hard all day for a few pounds of flour to make bread. Most of our people are poor. Even in a good year many suffer from malnutrition; not hunger, but inadequate food. A bad year, when the Nile doesn’t rise in full, can see some of our people starve. I’m sorry, but Ramesses doesn’t have the vision of a Thutmosis or one of the other warrior-kings. He’s a bureaucrat, not a visionary. And I see little chance of positive change in his likely successors.”
“So you feel our rulers have failed?” asked Kiya.
Pamose shrugged. “Not failed. But we could do so much better! There’s so much waste and so much land is in the hands of the temples, for which they pay no tax and give little to the people whose efforts support them.”
“But the temples are important!” exclaimed Lorentis.
Pamose nodded. “Yes, they are, as I’ve just said. The priests make offerings to the gods. Those offerings keep the favour of the gods the kmet and its people need. But do they really need to own quarter of the land in the Two Kingdoms?”
There was a long pause while they all considered his words.
Eventually Nikolas commented, “Interesting thoughts. I can see you are something of a philosopher, Pamose.”
“No, just a bitter and disillusioned junior army officer,” replied the latter. “Halve the number of bureaucrats and priests that are like leeches sucking the blood out of our healthy nation. Double the size of the army. Then we can rid the land of bandits and increase trade and wealth. We could also then recover Lower Nubia, undertake trading expeditions to Punt and properly exploit the resources in the Eastern Desert and the deserts on the other side of the sea. If we do all that we can also increase the temple building projects and the offerings to the gods. But to do that we need a young and energetic king, not a man in his dotage whose chosen successors are already old men.”
Nikolas nodded. “Enthusiasm and new ideas are always good. Now, I suggest we move on and finish looking around before we leave.”
Their escorting priest, who had so far been content to allow them to proceed slowly and marvel at the wonders they saw, pointed out that the time for their appointment with High Priest Amunenthat was approaching and directed them towards the official quarters.
They were ushered through a huge intricately-carved doorway of double doors into a large brightly-lit audience room. The marvellous lifelike carvings and frescoes that adorned the walls would have done justice to the royal chambers at the palace. At the far side stood two men, both wearing simple plain white robes of fine material; the shorter and fatter of the two also wore a golden torque around his neck. As they neared the two priests they both nodded a solemn welcome, which was returned by the visitors.
The smaller priest said, “Welcome! I am Amunenthat, High Priest of Amun, and I acknowledge the authority given to you by Pharaoh’s Seal. Please be seated,” and gestured to a nearby setting of wooden stools.
After they were seated an acolyte entered with a tray and cups of watered wine were offered to the visitors and quick
ly consumed.
“And how may our temple be of assistance to Pharaoh?”
“You will be aware of the death of Prince Ra-em hotep several weeks ago?” asked Nikolas.
“Yes, indeed! A terrible event to have happen in the royal palace,” replied Amunenthat, giving a small wave of his right hand and then looking down to brush off some specks of dust from his robe.
Nikolas noted the very limited nature of the expression of sorrow and the lack of either interest or tension in the priest’s demeanor.
“We have been asked to investigate the circumstances and background of his death,” explained Nikolas.
“This is a strange place to do so, given we are not in Memphis. What assistance may we give you?” asked Amunenthat, head tilted slightly to one side and a small frown on his brow.
“We’ve heard that Ra-em hotep’s relations with the Temple of Amun were not good,” said Pamose. “We’ve heard that he worshipped the god Aten.”
Amunenthat sat back and clasped his hands in his lap, looking first Pamose and then Nikolas in the eyes. “It is true that Ra-em hotep was not a follower of Amun, or the principal gods of the Two Lands. Indeed, as far as I could comment he appeared to worship and consort with the demons of the Duat, rather than any of the gods of this world. I would suggest that Ra-em hotep will have some difficulty when the time comes for his heart to be weighed against the feather of his deeds. He was not a good or kindly man. The Two Lands and the royal family may be better off without his cancerous presence. But I fail to see what this has to do with our Temple.”
Murder in the Palace: A Nikolas of Kydonia Mystery Page 14