The Royal Mummies' Hideout: History Short Reads, #1

By Benjamín Collado Hinarejos

Mummies, hidden treasures, grave robbers and curses. Few combinations may be more compelling for lovers of ancient history and its secrets, and if there is a place in the world where all this comes true above all others, that place is Egypt. 
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     The discovery of the royal mummies’ hiding place in Deir el Bahari represented one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time, as it allowed us for the first time in history to be face to face with some of the most important Egyptian pharaohs, which after suffering robberies, outrages and endless transfers from one hiding place to another, ended up piled inside the mountains of Thebes. 

     I hope you enjoy it. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Benjamín Collado Hinarejos
• Release date: Jul 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536581898

Benjamín Collado Hinarejos

El amor por la historia y la arqueología me ha acompañado desde niño, y he tenido la suerte de crecer en una zona rica en restos procedentes de diversas culturas pasadas; algo que me ha dado la oportunidad de participar en numerosas excavaciones arqueológicas en yacimientos de época ibérica y romana en la Comunidad Valenciana (España). Soy licenciado en Historia, especializado en Historia Antigua y Protohistoria, y hasta ahora he publicado en papel los libros “Los íberos” (Akal, 2013), y “Los íberos y su mundo” (Akal, 2014). Además de este libro también he autopublicados los e-books “La tumba de Tutankamon y la maldición de las momias” (2014), y “Los íberos y la guerra” (2014).

Book preview

Introduction: The World Discovers Egypt

Mummies, hidden treasures, grave robbers and curses. Few combinations may be more compelling to the general public, and if there is a place in the world where all of this truly comes together, that place is Egypt.

These elements are surprisingly intermingled in one of the most amazing and exciting archeology episodes of all time: the discovery of dozens of mummies in the cliffs of Deir el Bahari, where 3,000 years ago, pious hands hid the remains of some of the most famous pharaohs of Egypt.

Episodes like this have made the Egyptian civilization stir in the imaginations of millions of people for centuries, which has led to many people throughout history undertaking the difficult journey to the Nile country, to see with their own eyes some of the most impressive works ever created by humans. This, of course, includes the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that’s still standing, the Great Pyramid of Giza, built as a resting place for Pharaoh Khufu.

Pharaonic Egypt ceased to exist when it was absorbed by the mighty Roman Empire which, in a gradual process known as romanization, led to the loss of their ancestral customs, religion and even their language and script, instead adopting Christianity, Latin and, only partially, the Roman way of life.

During the Middle Ages, Egypt became part of the Islamic world and closed to the West. Its ancient civilization was forgotten and almost no foreigner ventured up the Nile. The few Westerners who came to the country used to do it as a stopover on their trip to the Holy Land, so their stay was short, and they were more concerned with the few Christian vestiges than with the Pharaonic monuments, and often did not reach beyond Giza, whose pyramids were even identified with the granaries of the biblical Joseph.

The situation remained much the same until the eighteenth century, when some Europeans began to be curious about exotic objects that were offered to them by the locals and tried to see more of those impressive remains, although it was not until the nineteenth century when the real turning point was reached. At this time, Romanticism spread through Europe and North America, and the new generations looked back to the ancient ruins that connected us to the civilizations that disappeared centuries ago, not only in Europe but also, and especially, in the East. During that century the ancient Mesopotamian cultures, starting with Nineveh in 1840 were discovered, followed by Persepolis and Babylon soon later, and in the 70s, Heinrich Schliemann located Homer's Troy in the Hill of Hisarlik, in modern Turkey.

But it would seem that Egypt became the undisputed star of this resurgence of historical interest, which was possibly attributed to the 1802 book published by French artist Dominique Vivant Denon, titled The Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt during the campaigns of General Bonaparte, in which he describes and draws on a series of beautiful watercolors, all of which he could see when he accompanied Napoleon's expeditionary force in the adventure that led the famous French general to the land of the Nile in 1798. The book was so successful that forty editions were launched consecutively, and it was immediately translated into English and German.

Egyptomania extended over the world, and tourists began to arrive in ever greater numbers, although only the wealthy could afford a trip of this nature, which needed not only a significant financial investment, but also a