EGYPT!

August 18th was the day, 192 years ago, that a certain ship landed in Alexandria, Egypt. The Eglé had sailed from Toulon in southern France and carried none other than Jean-François Champollion, the man who had successfully cracked the code of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and some dozen other members of his expedition to explore the ancient ruins and confirm his system of decipherment. The mission received funding from King Charles X of France and Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. (Money the monarchs had borrowed, interestingly, from their bankers, the brothers Rothschild, one in Florence and one in France.)

They would get into the pyramids and the tombs of the Valley of the kings and see the temple of Abu Simbel before they were done in 1829.

There’s much more that could be said, but not here today.

Below (at bottom of post) is a chart I made showing the connections—unknown to me until I looked into it recently—between King Tut and Ramesses the Great. I had no idea they were so close in time, or actual chain of people, rulers and events as they in fact were.

From what I could tell, if Tut had lived even into his 40s, or died, in other words, not tragically and seemingly by accident when he was 19, it’s likely that Ramesses, and thus the whole 19th Dynasty would not have been. Because since Tut died so young and without any kids (heirs), his advisor (and great-uncle) Ay took the throne. But he was already on the old side and on his death, the only viable candidate was the guy–a general named Horemheb–married to Ay’s living daughter. He seems to have been similar to 38th U.S. President Gerald Ford (the one after the notorious Nixon, for our younger readers) in that he helped just get the country back on track after a rocky period (Tut’s dad changed the whole religion, stirred things up, then Tut died super young),

But so Horemheb and the Mrs, like Tut before him, had no kids, and consequently he had to choose a successor. Horemheb picked another general to be ruler after himself. That was Ramesses I, grandfather of Ramesses II, or “the Great”. But here’s what makes this interesting: Horemheb appointed Ramesses I partially because he already had a grown son and a grandson at the point a successor was sought; ie, he had two generations of heirs ready to go. In other words, the three rulers after King Tut were all older than he was, and Ramesses II was born around 20 years after Tut’s death. So if Tutankhamun had lived, then: Ay dies not as ruler but remaining the Vizier, Horemheb is thus not appointed Ay’s successor, who in turn would’ve had no need to appoint Ramesses I. If Tut had had an heir as well, then perhaps Ramesses II would just have been another general for the King, not had 100 kids, and not had his face carved all over the place.

And yet, he did. History is balanced on just such and so many sea-change pivot points.

Chart: (remember to click on it so it opens larger in another tab.)