The Golden Mask of King Tut The Code. Jesús Ariel Aguirre

with the fact of moving the capital from Thebes to Amarna or Akhenaten “the king declared war on all kings. We had days of victory, happiness and tranquility, I followed their forays into regions and I saw with what fascination they received the crowds. “

      And when in the end the inevitable happened, he continues “We broke our fidelity to a man who thought only of love. His madness had drawn him an extraordinary dream that he wanted us to share in his imaginary happiness ..., I swore my loyalty to the new King Tutankhamun and darkness fell over the greatest drama that lit the heart of Egypt. Look what that madman did with the glory of our noble and ancient land. “

      Horemheb ends the narrative saying that Akhenaten could not overcome this great defeat and that when he felt that his god had abandoned them, his faith was greatly affected, and he became ill and died.

      Naguib Mahfuz introduces us to Akhenaten as “the one who lives in the truth”, according to the original title of his novel. In his work he shows that the performance he had during his reign corresponds to that of an uncompromising priest, imbued with a deep faith, who intends to become the only intermediary between the people and their only god. And he is also convinced that his mission is to announce and spread the new religion, although this conviction causes him serious problems in other areas of the competence of his position.

      If he lived in the truth of his faith, he could not be interested in the political, the social and the military. He was consistent until the end and did not compromise on his beliefs or his way of acting, because he had a great desire: that everyone would live in the truth.

      Anne surprised by this historical account of the pharaoh, asks what illness ended his life?

      After examining Akhenaten’s portrait, they came to the conclusion that he suffered from two diseases, he suffered from Marfan syndrome, which is characterized by endowing the patient with a thin face and slanted eyes, very thin and long fingers and toes, as well as cardiac imbalances.

      Another Pharaoh’s disease could be what is called muscular lipodystrophy; the most visible signs are the disappearance of body fat from the waist up and the accumulation of fat from the waist down. If this was the case in Akhenaten’s case, his physical appearance deviated from the canon of beauty and must have been traumatic for him, possibly this caused his belated response to change his place of residence so as not to be a cause for mockery. As you probably suffered as a child or adolescent.

      In the room dedicated to him in, the Cairo Museum, we see different statues of him with these characteristics.

      The Amarna style was characterized by the movement of figures of more exaggerated proportions, with elongated hands and feet. Representations of Akhenaten during this time give him distinctly feminine with wide hips and prominent breasts.

      Let’s go back to help ourselves to the actual lists. The Royal List of Abydos collects all the kings from Menes to Ramses II. However, it skips the after decades that lasted what the priests consider heretical times, that is, the reigns of Akhenaten, Semenkhkarem Tutankhamun and Ay. It was of no use to the Child Pharaoh to reestablish the cult of Amun, a project that historical evidence seems to indicate already during the months of Semenkhkare’s solitary reign. The damnatio memoriae, that is, the “erasure of memory” of their names and their works was relentless with these pharaohs, whose memory was lost forever until archaeologists recovered it just over a century ago. The doubts reach such an extent that not a few researchers, in the absence of evidence or a better working hypothesis, have concluded that Semenkhkara who accompanied Akhenaten to the throne for just two years, and that he must have ruled alone for a few months later, it could even be Queen Nefertiti herself, disappeared from the face of the earth a few years before, shortly before the twelfth year of the reign of the Heretic Pharaoh, who finally ruled seventeen.

      The sexual ambiguity of Amarna art leads to this type of hypothesis. When the first royal tombs of Akhenaten’s necropolis appeared in the early 1880s, archaeologists thought that the depiction of the royal couple on the reliefs at that time Akhenaten and Nefertiti were actually two women. It is still curious that many of these Nefertiti reliefs appear with the typical royal symbols of a male.

      But since it seemed incredible, then it was thought that the other person was not Nefertiti but Semenkhkare, possible son of Akhenaten with a secondary wife, perhaps Kiya. It is possible that Semenkhakre was co-regent with his father as he did with Amenophis III.

      But the problem now is more. It really is Semenkhkare who appears in the reliefs next to the Heretic Pharaoh. What is he doing caressing his co-regent in somewhat compromised positions? Logically, the explanation is in the mannerism of the Amarna art, out of tune and sophisticated, if we compare it with the traditional iconography seen up to that moment in Egyptian art.

      We know almost nothing about Semenkh Ka Ra (Semenkhkare). He was married to Meritaton, daughter of Akhenaten, who was perhaps also his own sister. It is very possible that when Nefertiti disappeared, Semenkhkare took his place, hence it appears in some reliefs with the titles that the queen had previously carried, a circumstance that raised the suspicions that I have already related before. This would explain that among the titles adopted by Nsemenkhkare was Neferneferaten, literally “Beautiful are the gifts of Aton”, read Nefertiti.

      When in 1907 the eccentric American lawyer Theodore Davis discovered in the center of the Valley of the Kings, a few meters from the tomb of Tutankhamun, the so-called KV55 with remains of a burial corresponding to the time of Amarna, many ventured to say that the The person buried there was the Heretic Pharaoh himself, even the DNA analysis of the skeletal remains carried out by the Egyptian government a few years ago, released to the four winds that that mummy corresponded to the figure of Tutankhamun’s father and by, although there is no no evidence to prove it, with those of Akhenaten. Despite details such as age, of the person ruin this finding since he was about 25 years old and Akhenaten at least 40. Is the mummy of the KV55 that of Semenkhkare, the mysterious sovereign of the time of Amarna?

      The so-called “treasure hunter” Davis together with Russell Ayrton discovered a well, today known as KV-54 where they found remains belonging to a king named Tutankhamun, a little pharaoh who was not known much and Davis assumed that he had found it the tomb of said king.

      A few days later and near the well found, on January 6, 1907, they found another access similar to a tomb, the first steps appeared and then a door sealed with the already known seals of the necropolis, the jackal with nine captives (the seal of the Royal Necropolis of Thebes) before opening the door there was a sloping corridor, with many rubble, apparently, the builders of the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses IX found on top of it and knocked down the ceiling, having found the same with official seals, it would indicate that grave keepers re-sealed at some point. Everything was messy, wood paneling with gold with the image of Queen Tiye. As they continued along the corridor, they came to the chamber, very small and with many water leaks, there were no decorations on the walls, more objects belonging to the queen appeared, 4 canopic vessels of a woman, the 4 magic bricks located towards the cardinal points, a funeral chamber with lion’s heads and above a coffin in very poor condition due to humidity, the coffin thrown on the floor with the lid dropped and a body.

      The face seemed to be that of a woman and apparently a false beard had been added and the cobra, the symbol of the kings, the golden mask broken almost entirely, but the most enigmatic was that the name of the deceased had been torn off to hide his identity, only the shape of a wooden cartridge remained, the gold with his name was no longer in place, the original writings appeared to be that of a woman.

      In the place no sarcophagus was found, the mummy was in very bad condition, its bandages still remained on the body, but again they discovered that in the place where it should be engraved the name had been erased. On the mummy there was a pectoral in the shape of a vulture, bracelets, and pendants, all in gold but without a name.

      The position of the body belonged to a female royal burial of the 18th dynasty, the right arm along and the left over the chest, Davis still thought it was the tomb of Queen Tiye and again hastened to report the discovery.

      The first studies said that the body was that of a young man, which gave