Hidden Chamber revealed in KV62...

From Chapter 15: The Flawed Emerald, Copyright 1995 Michael J. Costa, All rights reserved. Written in 1989-1990 CE.  Original name was Eye of the Pharaoh. 

   After investigating other areas of the estate, I went into the chariot house and talked to Horemhab secretly.  I told him: “Should anything happen to me within the next week, that he should take my place as Per-aa of the Two Lands.”  He, of course, was awkwardly interested yet baffled about my statement.  I urged him to remember what I told him, even if it never means anything in the near future.  Since I am the per-aa, he cannot argue about it. 

   I half jogged up the stairs and into my bedroom suite where I had kept my secret diary.  I hastily made some important notes in it and stealthily climbed down the stairs and into the chariot house.  Horemhab was gone for the moment, which relieved me.  I assembled my horses and chariot equipment and drove to the Valley of the Per-aas in the western hills.  I drove past the tomb that Ay had been building and asked myself who it was destined for.  Disregarding it as personal, I drove towards my unused tomb.

    It was dark inside so I lit a portable torch and climbed in slowly.  I made my way past odd-looking statues of fine quality and into the ‘secret chamber’.  I considered it to be secret because of the sliding stone door that, when shut, made an even wall.  The door will later be covered with plaster and have painted scenes with some inscriptions.

   I entered through the side of the door and into the room.  I placed the torch along one wall and opened the obsidian, pyramid shaped altar.  The top of the pyramid altar was a pyramid itself, and the inside of the altar was partly hollow to allow a small object to be placed inside.

    Reaching inside the altar, I grabbed the Emerald ring containing third-component and held it to the light.  The third-component swished in circles as light bounced off the sides of the crystal.  I held it to my heart and concentrated for an hour, thinking about the temple of Ptah at the same time, for it was the priests of the temple of Ptah that first made use of the Emeralds in the distant past.

MC 2015.

 Chapter 19: The Future:
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I quietly entered the tomb searching for more power rushes, energy strings, or ancient radiation.  What I did find were unpainted, unfinished walls enclosing the antechamber and annex.  The burial room was accessible by a wooden deck, which had a high fence, which protected the sarcophagus from unwanted visitors, including me.  The fence did not prevent me from climbing over, however.  I walked to the treasury and looked at the inscriptions along some walls in that area.  Next I visited the golden coffin and wiped the dust off of the glass lid.   I peered into the lapis lazuli eyes of the coffin and thought to myself about why I had to leave.  After all, I was in no hurry back then.  I could have waited a few years before I departed.  Now, due to my late decision, I am forever separated (while on Earth) from both my past career, and my beloved wife Ankhesenamon who is buried somewhere.

    After two hours of replenishing my memory, I slowly emerged from the cavity of my past and continued to roam about the valley with some ideas in mind.  I walked and greeted the morning sun as I drifted towards the tomb of Amonhotep II, in the direction of the original tomb for the use of my past burial.  The ring of Emerauldia drew me in the direction of the unfinished cache, which protected it. I felt the countless rays of energetic destiny emitting from below the surface of the rock piled ground in the hills to my west.  I walked on top of smooth limestone piercing the still lawn of boulders in the higher ground above the tomb of my greater ancestor Amonhotep.  Voices from the past echoed to me from below the very surface on which I stood, causing me to be drawn to the level of my ankles.  I scratched at the topsoil and commenced a slow and tiring dig.  With the aid of a passing fellahin carrying a blunt shovel to which I offered an Egyptian pound, I began a long search for the opening staircase of my lost entombment.
    After four hours of digging, we managed to discover a stone step protruding downward.  I felt as excited as Howard Carter must have felt when he removed the rubble from the entrance of the tomb to which I was buried and almost forgotten.  Another hour of excavation followed as we determined the exact opening portal of the cache.  The time was nearly at noon, and some tourists passed by with the look of awe upon their gloomy faces, which dripped with perspiration.



    The time was one o'clock in the afternoon when we finally reached the granite filled passage.  I climbed over the boulders and broken diorite pillars.  The antechamber was only four meters away when I heard a booming voice from behind.  There was a tour director of medium height standing at the entrance of the passage.  He demanded my authorization or a temporary archaeologist passport, which gave me permission to dig in this zone.  I informed him that I already was issued a passport by the chairman of the board of the international archaeologist committee.  He gave me a crooked grin and decided that my bluff was enough for authorization, so he turned away and walked to the nearby rest
house.  I resumed my exploration and hoped that my luck would not turn sour.
    I entered the polluted antechamber and searched for a wall with two jagged lines that would form an entrance to the secret chamber.  I crept through the roughly polished tunnel connecting the back chambers with the entry.  In between the second and third chamber I discovered an air-pocket along the western wall.  I lit a match and watched the trapped air from the hidden chamber cause the flame to flicker gently.  I called the Arab from the entrance to enter the tomb with his shovel.  When he answered my call, I grabbed his shovel and inserted the blade in between the cracks and pushed a rock below it.  I added weight to the handle of the shovel and eventually forced the wall to open at one side.

I silently entered and lit a torch.

    In the chamber I stood alone, searching through heaps of dust on the floor for any object of value.  My fingers penetrated through 3,000 years of decomposition and discovered an obsidian pyramid at the center of the room.  I quickly brushed aside the decayed fabrics that had once covered the altar and tossed them into the surrounding dust.  My hands handled the apex of the pyramid and I lifted it from its platform.
    Inside the obsidian art treasure I reached in and picked up a large emerald bezel on top of a 23k gold ring in the form of a lotus flower.  Inscribed along the edge of the ring were these words: "The power of Ptah is triumphant, victorious is the owner of the green sun who knows not Re but is forever the victor of his enemies. . ."
    I placed the ring on my third finger and noticed that it fit almost perfectly.  I carefully replaced the top of the pyramid onto its altar of volcanic glass.
    I stood up from my kneeling position and searched the walls for a niche.  Inside one wall was a false doorway, which contained a lightly gilt, wooden box in the form of a local Kemtic shrine.  Opening the clay sealed lock with a pocket knife, I opened the box and discovered a black cord enclosing a long papyrus scroll.  This was the diary I had written long ago, and finally I have found it!  I hastily ripped the cord from the scroll and unraveled it.  Using a brief hieroglyphic decoder, I managed to decipher the first word.  It was in no doubt my diary from the past.
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Chapter 20: A Pharaoh's Dream:
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I walked in the breezy afternoon, glaring at my energized ring containing the infamous third-component.  I held it to the sun and allowed the rays to reflect from its uncut surface.  I decided that I should not bathe in this glory alone. My decision was to locate my wife's tomb and to give her the breath of life so that she may accompany me in both my afterlife and my current.
    Walking in the hot sun allowed me to grow tired so I took a brief rest on top of a granite obelisk, which had fallen during some restoration work a year ago.  I stared to the mountains of the Valley of the Queens where my search would commence.  Some people started to walk towards me from the rest house ten meters away.  One of them was an advanced Egyptologist who acquired knowledge of my discovery.  Another was a director of antiquities at the Luxor museum.  The remaining few were merely Arabs dressed in peasant garb carrying excavation equipment.  They asked me where I would dig next.

    I told them that I would begin searching for the tomb of Queen Ankhesenamon in the Valley of the Queens after I had rested.  During the rest period, the baffled scientists wondered in amazement of my physic ability to locate my old tomb.  They nearly bombarded me with simple questions to satisfy their quarrelsome worries.
    It was four in the afternoon when I drew enough energy from my will to force myself upon another equally important discovery.  I was now armed with a dark brimmed hat, a leather whip (for protection), a light weight jacket and a brass handled shovel.
    We walked along a path where famous queens had their palaces of eternity decked in the mountainside.  I raised my hand, which wore the ring and glanced to the north.  The sun sent a bolt of light to the emerald, which then sent a light beam towards the valley.  The light beam directed itself to a side in the mountains.  I told the assistants to walk in that direction.
    When we approached the designated location the emerald cast a light in the corner of the valley.  We walked to the site and started digging.
    After another three hours, the sun lowered itself to the clouded horizon and thus sending cool winds across the desert.  Our shovels hit something.  I cleared away the sand with a portable dust blower and brushed off excess dust with a five-inch brush.  There was a step with the Cartouche of my wife's name inscribed upon it.  I was delighted.

    Without taking a break from our discovery, I ordered the workmen to start removing the enclosing rubble from the staircase.  Stone by stone were removed and each minute increased my enduring excitement.  We worked until six that evening until the staircase and the first passage were cleared.  The Egyptologist found some alabaster lamps and unguent containers with both the names of my wife and that of my former embodiment.  I knew
that she was buried here, though I did not know when.
    At 6:30 PM the antechamber was uncovered and some gilt furniture came to light.  The objects were similar in design to those, which were buried with Tutankhamon.  At seven o'clock, we posted a guard and went to the local restaurant and ordered dinner.   The curator of the Luxor museum met us there and we discussed our findings of the day.
Although I did not have a valid permit to dig, they allowed me anyway since I single-handedly found my old tomb.    

Two hours later I returned to my cruise ship and changed my clothes and took a relaxing shower.  I returned to the site at 8:41 PM and assisted the men with their spotlight and camera equipment.
    I opened the burial chamber with a crowbar and beamed my flashlight at the hole.  The light bounced off a gold covered wall, probably a burial shrine containing the coffins.  The men were amazed although the sight looked all too familiar to me. . .  After clearing away the plastered door, we entered the sepulcher in silence.

    The crewmen at the entrance directed the spotlight towards the stairwell and the cameras would record the findings.  I inched along the side of the golden wall and discovered the entrance with the doors still sealed after 3,000 years.  I allowed one of the workmen to photograph the clay seal with its nine jackals representing the nine chosen enemies of
Kemti.  The rope knot was carefully loosened with a slippery gel that caused the withered rope to be preserved upon its removal.  I held the ancient bronze door handle in my right hand and I swiftly pulled back the door with ease of its fragile hinges.  The door was at first stuck in place until some lubricant was added, and then the door was opened easily.
    Upon the opening of the first set of doors, many artifacts came to light: first there was an ivory jewel box heaped with golden jewelry, next were ceremonial garments, and finally there was a shroud dotted with roses of gilt bronze covering the next shrine.  I wasn't positive as to why there were shrines in this tomb, since usually shrines were meant for pharaohs and not their queens.
    Two more golden shrines were uncovered and following the removal of more artifacts the stone sarcophagus appeared in the midst of our discovery.  I told the others to clear a way along the walls of the inner sanctum and that of the antechamber for room to place the coffins.  The workmen lifted the stone lid from its home and placed it on the side of the sarcophagus.  Next, shovels were placed within the cracks between the coffins for their removal.

    From the granite sarcophagus three gilt coffins of similar description were removed.  I waited impatiently as the lid of the interior coffin was being removed.  After the archaeologists took the lid from its place I directed a high powered flashlight onto its contents.  There, laid before me in the form of the goddess Isis, was the mummy of my former loving wife, Ankhesenamon.  Not knowing what to say, I knelt down beside her and glided my hand across her folded arms as newly formed tears blurred my vision.  Although in reality she was my oldest niece, I regarded her not only as my wife but also as my purpose for living. . .
    Finally, my eternal quest was at an end.  I have both regained my ancient knowledge and the kindest, most caring creature I ever knew in my environment of the times.  I intended to resurrect her using my combined ancient powers so that she may assist with my future progress that she would not have witnessed otherwise. 

MC 2015.