Four Ways to Pharaoh Khufu Read Online Free Page B

minute now. Looking like a young god who had just left the lotus flower, a dark-haired youth stepped thoughtfully along the dusty limestone street. He was shadowed by an intimidating figure.
    “I, Amset, the full-fledged inhabitant of the city of Mennefer, will today know the secret of Horus, living and great, ruler of both Upper and Lower Kemet! Yes, live you forever!” While repeating his mantra in his mind, the youth paused from time to time to raise his face to the heavenly sun’s burning heat and levitated praise to him – the life-giving sun god Horus.
    Quite possibly, the youth repeated his prayer out of habit alone. His thoughts about the secret, however, filled his heart both with happiness and fear, as he was well aware that it could be both excellent and terrible at the same time. This mixed feeling frightened the youth. He truly felt that the unknown excellent was not better than the unknown terrible. There was no way for him to know which would appear first.
    What he did know for certain was that today the supreme priest of the Hewet-ka-Ptah temple would reveal to him one of the great mysteries of Khufu’s pyramid. Only a selected few became the guardians of Pharaoh Khufu’s mystery. He had aspired to be worthy for years for this honor and duty to be bestowed upon him. Now the moment had finally come, and Priest Ur Senu had called Amset for the declaration of the secret. He was the chosen one and it made his mind tingle with anticipation. Finally, it was the time for him to begin the initiation process.
    Amset was of noble origin. His full name was Amset Ba-Pef. While he was a native of the city of Mennefer, he was not allowed to take a single step without the careful eye of his Nubian guard, Jibade, who followed him as consistently as his own shadow. Jibade was a thirty-three-year-old man with curly dark hair arranged in a conspicuous bushy Afro. He usually dressed in a long, white, cotton cloak. He took his duty very seriously and was never seen without a crusader-type sword and his polished, but dented, round shield. Jibade was a Medjay. ‘The Nubian warrior,’ was what Amset liked to call him. Amset had known Jibade for as long as he could remember. They had never been apart. For the Medjay, it was the greatest honor to serve and protect Amset’s life.
    Soon, Amset arrived at the sandy boundary of the city where the Temple Hewet-ka-Ptah stood. After pausing reverently at the threshold, he entered into the temple’s shaded, eternally cool court filled with columns. The columned court was the portion of Hewet-ka-Ptah where anyone could enter to render praise to the gods.
    As Amset waited, surrounded by sculptures of gods and bronze vessels filled with fragrances, his Medjay guardian stood right behind him. They stood in front of several priests in long white robes with leopard skins over their shoulders that were holding rolls of papyrus and reading the sacred texts. On both sides of Amset were others in prayer, either drawn to full height chanting the sacred texts or inclined in a reverent, low bow. The majority of the people gathered to offer prayer were of average wealth: “those, who feed by fish” as high priests called them. These people were not allowed further than the column court. Amset turned and observed as two priests slowly walked in front of the people that were praying to the god sculptures.
    Amset, as a privileged, had the right to pass further, deep inside the temple to the Cherished Hall. The Cherished Hall was the holy of the holies where the statue of the god Ptah resided. Only one supreme priest had permission to enter the Cherished Hall twice a day. His job was to open the Gates of the Horizon in the morning and to shut them tightly at the end of the day. The temple personified the tendency to seek the divine but, at the same time, the impossibility to fully understand the deity.
    Amset always lingered in the columned court to offer prayer before passing further into the