TUTANKHAMUN

THE YOUNG PHARAOH

Miryam Patiño 2ºA

The pharaoh of Egypt was dead and now his son Tutankhamun was the new pharaoh. He was very
young, only nine years old and her mother, queen Kiya was very worried. Tut asked her who
helped him to govern Egypt and she answered that this person was Ay, his father’s chief advisor.

Tut went to the stadium of the pharaohs mounted on a chariot pulled by horses. There the
people waved and smiled Tut, but he was frightened. In the ceremony the ministers made boring
speeches, the soldiers walked their chariots into the stadium with his commander, Horemheb,
rode in front. Tut didn’t like him. It was dancers and games competitions. The favourite for Tut
was archery competition. He gave the medals to the winners and that likes him.

Tut and his mother moved to a beautiful palace in Menphis. Ay lived near and gave him the
lessons every day. Tut started to go to government meetings but he hated. He preferred to play
with Ankhesenamun, Ay’s granddaughter. He played with the stable boy Rami too. They played
wrestling and sword fighting but always lost. Often Horemheb visited the palace and noticed
that Tut preferred to play with the girl and thought Tut was stupid and weak.

One day Tut heard Ay and Horemheb talking about him. Horemheb said that he is a weak boy but
Ay said that he will teach him to ride a chariot and to fight. A few days later, a trainer came to
teach Tut to fight. He wanted to impress Horemheb because this day he was in the palace.
Horemheb laughed when he saw Tut onto the ground and he smiled when Tut swung the sword
badly at the trainer. He was very embarrassed and hit Horemheb’s back with his hands.
Horemheb lifted him and threw him to the wall. Tut fell to the ground and he didn’t move. Tut
was ill for a week and his mother was very angry about Horemheb. She thought he is dangerous
for his son. Tut learned wrestling, sword fighting and archery, after that and he spend less time
with Ankhesenamun.

Over the years Ankhesenamun became a beautiful young woman and Tut fell in love with her. She
loved him too. Rami thought Ankhesenamun is beautiful too and he thought that he will be a
great soldier one day and then he will marry her.

The Tutankhamun’s wedding day arrives. Tut was 17 years old and Ankhesenamun was 16 years
old. Tut made a fan for his bride with ostrich feathers that himself got with his bow and arrow.
Her mother, queen Kiya gave him a lucky amulet and put it around her son’s neck for to frighten
the bad spirits.

After the wedding ceremony, all people are very happy, but Tut is the happiest of all. He told
Ankhesenamun that after the wedding celebrations, they’ll travel along the River Nile in a royal
tour in Egypt. But not everybody was happy. Horemheb was angry because he wanted to be
pharaoh. So he thought a plan. He told with Rami’s father to organised a secret meeting with his
son and Horemheb explained his plan to kill Tut. Rami accepted because he was envious of Tut.
Rami fell in love with Ankhesenamun and he thought if Tut dies he will marry her.

During the royal tour the pharaoh and the new queen waved to the people who waited by the
river to see them. On the second day of the tour, the boat stopped and Tut and his wife went to
visit his tomb. Ankhesenamun didn’t like the place where Tut was preparing his tomb for the
afterlife because it was under the ground and she wanted to return to the boat.

While the royal couple were away Rami had time to work on Horemheb’s plan. One evening he
went to the stable and examined a wheel on Tut’s chariot and took a small peg from its place. He
thought that when Tut out hunting, the wheel will fall and kill him. But when Tut returned to the
palace he was very busy and he didn’t have time to go hunting. His wife was bored because she
was alone in the palace all day, so one day she decided to ride into the desert. When she went to
the stables she noticed that her horse walked badly caused by a wound in his leg, so she toke the
Tut’s chariot and she rode slowly into the desert.

Tut went to find his wife when he finished. He took a strong horse and rode after his wife
shouted her. But suddenly a snake frightened Ankhesenamun’s horses and they started to run.
She was terrified and Tut jumped onto one of the horses. The chariot fell to the ground and
Tut’s leg was under his horse. He was unconscious from his fall. Two weeks later Tutankhamun
was dead.

As the Tut’s tomb wasn’t ready Horemheb offered his tomb and they carried the sarcophagus
there. Ankhesenamun was horrified because she knew Tut liked his tomb at the Valley of the
Kings and not this place. The ministers should choose a new pharaoh and the successor was Ay
because he was Ankhesenamun’s grandfather and he had experience and he was advisor to the
pharaohs. Horemheb wasn't happy.

Two years later Horemheb returns to Egypt like a hero because the army won the Nubians,
enemys of Egypt. Horemheb replied Ay to marry Ankhesenamun and he told with his
granddaughter but she didn’t want marry with Horemheb. Ay told her that she must forget Tut
because he is dead and she must give Horemheb a son, the future pharaoh of Egypt.

The wedding arrives and Ankhesenamun married with Horemheb. When he was watching the
dancing girls she left the room very quietly. Nobody saw her again. Ay was heartbroken and
after Ay’s death Horemheb put his mummy in another small tomb in the Valley of the Kings
although pharaoh’s tomb was now ready, but Horemheb disn’t want to bury Ay in it. He wanted
that tomb for himself, king Horemheb.

Horemheb want everybody forgot about Tutankhamun, but one day in 1922 an English
archaeologist found a small tomb in the Valley of the Kings where there was a fan of ostrich
feathers and the treasures of a young pharaoh. When he opened the sarcophagus he found the
body of Tut and the people discovered the terrible plan to kill him.