Last week, while my sisterand I were in the school library, a strange thing happened. A book fell out of the bookcase all by itself. It was an old book about Ancient Egypt. A page with a picture of a man on it had come loose in the fall. He wasn’t a Pharaoh, but one of his close advisors, the Vizier of Egypt. It turns out he was a crook – he plotted to rob a Pharaoh’s tomb. Through the space where the book had once been, we could see a small door with a key in it. We could hear some noises;we just HAD to see what was going on …
Where were we? Just then a boy popped his head around a column. ‘Something’s going on here today, but there’s no fun for children. Do you want to come with me?’
Then some important people came up to our friend, who was called Hotep, murmuring, ‘Your Majesty’. Our new friend was the Pharaoh himself; he had just been made King of Egypt. ‘Why don’t I take you to see where our ancestors are buried?’ he asked, ‘the Pyramids!’
When we returned to the palace, Hotep took us to see something very special. The room was dark with a strong smell of perfume. Lying on a slab was a body being wrapped in bandages. One of the men wore a scary animal mask, ‘a mummy!’ I exclaimed.
Suddenly an angry voice roared, ‘it is strictly forbidden for anyone to be present in this chamber!’
‘It’s O.K., these are my friends, you may leave us,’ Hotep calmly told him. ‘Wasn’t that the man in the picture, the crook?’ Aisha whispered.
‘Nonsense, he’s my most trusted advisor,’ Hotep laughed.
As the children were returning to the palace, they spotted something lying under a rock. A piece of paper …
The paper was a secret message asking the children to find proof of the Vizier’s plot to steal the tomb treasure and show it to Hotep.
The next day Hotep asked us if we would like to sail up the Nile to the Valley. He wanted to see if the tomb was ready for his father.
When we arrived, we had to climb into the tomb through an entrance hidden in the rocks. Inside it was much cooler and we could hear men working, filling the rooms with treasures. Suddenly, we were grabbed by large, fierce-looking men. They grabbed us and flung us into a black pit. As we groped around in the blackness we found a secret passageway. We realised that once the tomb had been sealed the Vizier would be able to sneak back in and steal the treasure. We had found our proof!
We clambered out of the pit and raced to tell Hotep. He positioned his guards ready to grab the Vizier robbing his father’s tomb. ‘You’ve saved the day’, he cheered.