March 30, 2010. Egypt. Luxor.

March 30, 2010. Egypt. Luxor. Archeologists found a door into another world…

In the course of excavations in a temple complex Karnak north of Egypt complex Luxor scientists discovered a granite door that guarded an entry into the tomb of an adviser of the famous female pharaoh Hatshepsut.

The massive construction made of red granite is 175 centimeters high; 100 centimeters wide and 50 centimeters thick and is covered with carved hieroglyphs. According to the beliefs of the Egyptians who erected it and lived during the epoch of the New Kingdom, the door served as an entry into the after-life world where the soul of the dweller of the tomb was supposed to go after his death. Such doors were located in the western part of the tomb where there also stood a special table with refreshments for the deceased.

According to the engraved inscription, the shrine belonged to vizier User and his wife Toy, reports British Independent Newspaper with a reference to a quotation of the head of the Egyptian Supreme Council on Study of Ancient Artifacts Zahi Havass. Egyptologists calculated that around BC 1474 User served at Hatshepsut’s court; among his titles are those of Mayor and Prince. Historians believe that the vizier worked for the pharaoh for around twenty years, reports Associated Press.

The tomb is located on the western bank of Luxor where Egyptians usually buried their pharaohs and their spouses.

But neither User’s close relations with the pharaoh, nor the special guarding hieroglyphs could keep the shrine from destruction. “The discovered door was once again used during the Roman period. It was broken out of User’s shrine and built into a wall of a Roman building,” says the head of the excavations on the western bank of Luxor Mansour Boraik. Historians do not know so far what kind of an antique construction that was.

The granite door from Karnack is not the first artifact that lets scientists know about the high official User. His name remained on the ruins of a church excavated by archeologists at Gebel el-Silsila in the Aswan Mountains. Baraik reminded that User is considered to be an uncle of the famous vizier Rekhmire who served under Tuthmosis III and left after himself a code of work related responsibilities of the Supreme Adviser. According to that code the vizier of the time of the XVIII dynasty was supposed to appoint military and civil officials for the king’s administration, keep all the valuable documents, solve court appeals and take care of the water supply and the condition of the Nile River.

Earlier on the western bank of Luxor a two-meter head of the young pharaoh Amenhotep III and the statue of the time of the XVIII dynasty portraying god Thoth with a baboon’s head were found.