Book 2. The Concubine Tragedy

By Olga Kryuchkova

Ancient Egypt. XIV century BC. Pharaoh Amenhotep III rules Egypt (Ta-Kemet). Fearing a conspiracy, he decides to move the capital of the kingdom from Memphis (Inebu-Hedj) to Avaris (Hut-Waret). He entrusts the construction of the royal palace in Avaris to his eldest son and heir Thutmose. The young prince finds the ruins of the legendary Behdet, in which the solar-like Ra once ruled. More precisely, he finds the ruins of the Basalt Palace, which was the Abode of the Gods in ancient times.
Thutmose comprehends ancient secrets with the help of the ‘The Book of Gateways’ and he sees the distant past. The priests proclaim him to be the living incarnation of Horus, the God of Light. Thutmose is at the pinnacle of glory. The priests give him the Golden Armor of Horus and the Ark of Might. This is the weapon of the divine Ra, with the help of which Osiris was avenged many centuries ago and the insidious Set was destroyed. The heir to the throne cannot even imagine how much these sacred artifacts can drastically change his life and influence the course of further events.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Olga Kryuchkova
• Release date: Aug 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215441220

Olga Kryuchkova

Olga Kryuchkova began her creative career in 2006. During this time, the author had more than 100 publications and reprints (historical novels, historical adventures, esotericism, art therapy, fantasy). A number of novels were co-written with Elena Kryuchkova.

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Olga Kryuchkova

Ark of Divine Power Book Series

Book 2

The Concubine Tragedy

Chapter 3

The pharaoh's palace at Inebu-Hedj, the capital of Ta-Kemet (Egypt), was a stunning sight. The nomarchs, who arrived here from Abdju (later Abydos), Akhetaton (later Amarna), Yamu, Waset (later Thebes), Napata, and even from Khemenu (later Hermopolis) were struck first of all by the majestic scale of the palace gates.

The palace gates were so high that anyone who wished to see their upper extremity had to throw back his head with all his might. The person was surrounded by two huge pylons (watchtowers with flat roofs and lancet windows) that crowned the palace gates. A person felt like a tiny grain of sand, brought by a random wind into the great kingdom of Ta-Kemet (Ancient name of Egypt).

Every Egyptian or foreign merchant heard the light rustle of royal flags, traditionally decorated with images of a scarab, ankh and a solar disk, fluttering on the flat roofs of watchtowers. Above the gate itself towered the coat of arms of Ta-Kemet: a winged ball entwined with two uraeus cobras. Below was the Ennead of the Egyptian gods. Ennead was the nine revered gods: Atum-Ra (in a single persona), Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Horus. On the side columns were also carved images of the Great Ennead, and below them, below, hieroglyphic inscriptions could be seen.

The pylons were decorated with the image of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. In one hand he clutched an ax, and with the other hand he held the heads of several people by the hair, as if preparing to unleash his righteous wrath on them at any moment. At the sight of this expressive scene, the nomarchs each time experienced a feeling of reverent fear of the pharaoh.

Some five years ago, dignitaries and residents of Inebu-Hedj saw the face of Thutmose IV on the same pylons. But immediately after his departure to the Duat, to the Underworld, palace architects skillfully corrected the face of the pharaoh, giving him a resemblance to the son of Thutmose, now alive and ruling the country Amenhotep III.

(The Duat is the realm of the dead in ancient Egyptian mythology. The god Osiris was believed to be the lord of the underworld. He was the first mummy as depicted in the Osiris myth and he personified rebirth and life after death. The underworld was also the residence of various other gods along with Osiris).

The palace gates were guarded by muscular Medjay guards clad in leather breastplates adorned with gold plates. They were wearing striped cotton skirts and head scarves of the same fabric, intercepted in the center of the forehead with silver hoops. The ferocious appearance of these guards evoked on any passer-by no longer reverent fear, but the most animal fear.

(The Medjays was an elite paramilitary police force in ancient Egypt that also served as scouts and border guards on the southern frontiers).

Medjays clutched bronze axes in their huge hands, expressing their readiness to cut off the head of anyone who dares to enter the palace illegally. Many provincial nomarchs, whose conscience was not clear, often had the feeling that, having entered the palace, they would never, alas, leave it. For almost all of them completely ruled over their nomes. (A nome is a unit of administrative division, a region. Accordingly, a nomarch is the ruler