AFTER 3000 YEARS

Southland Times, Issue 19771, 20 February 1923, Page 5

AFTER 3000 YEARS

VISIT TO KING’S TOMB A RESPLENDENT MAUSOLEUM (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, February 17. A special message from Luxor states that the opening of the sealed chamber of Tutankhamen’s tomb revealed the resplendent mausoleum of the king, a spacious and beautifully decorated chamber completely occupied by an immense shrine covered with gold and inlaid with brilliant blue faience work (earthenware of Faienza, a city in Italy). It towers nearly to the ceiling and fills the great sepulchral hall within a short span of four walls. Within is yet another shrine closed and sealed bearing the cypher of the Royal necropolis and by evidence of Papyrus of Rameses IV. there must be a series of shrines covering the remains of the king. Lying in the sarcophagus around the outer canopy stand great emblems of a mystic type. Upon the floor are seven oars for the king’s use on the waters of Elysian fields. Among innumerable articles of beautiful workmanship and untold value stacked in the chamber is the head of a bull emblematic of the underworld; also miniature coffins containing funereal statuettes as servants for the dead in the coming world and other curious emblematic figures. It is reasonably certain that the construction of successive tabernacles which baffled ancient robbers, makes their immediate opening impossible and that the actual sight of Tutankhamen’s remains and the spot where he lies must be postponed indefinitely. These testify to the whole-hearted manner in which Tutankhamen accepted the Amen faith when it became apostasised from the solar monotheism of Akhenaton. The sarcophagus is a huge erection, thirteen feet high by sixteen feet long, overlaid with golden blue glaze. It probably will not be opened for several weeks, possibly not until next winter, as the coming season is unsuitable for archaeological work. It is now known that the sarcophagus consists of at least five sections, of which the outer is the most decorated. Each side is decorated with four guardian figures and religious texts. Isis, with wings outspread, covers one end and the goddess Nephthys adorns the other.

An eye-witness relates the weird impression obtained when passing the two blackfaced figures of the king, who sentinels the mortuary chamber, through a hole in the wall big enough to allow a tall man to enter. Then is seen a huge canopy of the sarcophagus, in the bright glare of the electric light. The feet of the dead king face the south tomb chamber, about four feet below the ante-chamber. It does not seem high, as you look into it- from the broken doorway, but appears much higher when inside, and one fails to distinguish the roof in the fitful flicker of the electric torch. The wall is decorated in a rich, yet soft, colour scheme. The design included figure inscriptions though there has not been time yet to decipher them. Besides the sarcophagus, there were two sacred oars for the king’s use, when the mummy was revivified by the re-entry of the spirit and faced with the necessity of crossing streams to reach the fields of Osiris. There was also another canopy, still arrayed in its cloak of gold, inset with gems. By the side of this second sarcophagus, is a kingly collection of jewels, and an exquisite alabaster vase of even more perfect design and craftmanship than those in the ante-chamber. It is decorated with statuettes of Nephthys and Osis. The fourth chamber is smafler than the mortuary chapel, about the size of the annexe at the end of the first descending passage to the tomb, the contents of which are still unexplored. The contents of this fourth room is much less crowded than the earlier annex. The objects in the fourth chamber are standing in order. If the thieves reached them, they seem to have done no damage to the contents, which give an extraordinary picture of the wealth of Tutankhamen’s realm. Two lovely caskets, decorated with Isis and Nephthys, contain the canoptic jars, with entrails of the deceased. There is a large box which is completely covered with gold. It is six feet high, four feet square, and decorated with embossed figures. There are also several boxes of inlaid ivory and ebony, and half-a-dozen funeral boats, about four feet long, and last of all a sledge in which the king’s mummy was drawn to the tomb, which is exquisitely decorated. Practically every object in the' fourth room bears Tutankhamen’s cartouche. Inside the first canopy of the sarcophagus is a vest of gold wire strung with gems and armlets attached to it. This is the royal regalia.

KING TUTANKHAMEN AND MODERN NOBILITY. LONDON, February 19. (Received February 19, 5.5 p.m.) At Luxor, fifty notables, including the Queen of the Belgians, Prince Leopold, Lord and Lady Allenby and the Dowager Sultana of Egypt visited Tutankhamen’s tomb. All expressed themselves dazzled at the magnificence of the mortuary chamber. The heat of the tomb was intense. The Queen stayed forty minutes and was then forced to come outside. Lord Allenby and the Belgian Crown Prince soon discarded their coats and went about in shirt sleeves. There were only eight inches between the walls of the tomb and the huge gold coffins in which Pharoah lies. The visitors were forced to squeeze sideways when inspecting its beauties. It was curious to see the mumified monarch thus holding levee of people mostly from lands which the King never knew and whose civilisation took ten centuries to reach the stage of culture equal to his own. Tutankhamen apparently died unexpectedly and was buried hurriedly as the pictures on the wall of the mortuary chapel are unfinished. The artists were unable to complete the scheme of decoration, though what had been done was of exquisite colouring. The tomb consists of four rooms, the first the ante-chamber; the second the annex leading from the ante-chamber; the third the mortuary chapel and the fourth the annex to the chapel, which was filled with » dazzling array of art treasures