Enquiries are continuing...

Archaeologists and scientists from around the world are arriving in Egypt in response to a recent gruesome discovery. Rasan Abdel Hassan, our Middle East correspondent, links it to a report he made in 1988.

That report read:

The sudden disappearance of Mr Peter Carter, aged 23 years, is causing some concern. He joined a party of other New Zealanders on a seven day tour of Egypt, after visiting the grave of his grandfather killed during World War II. Mrs Heather Ronsom, leader of the party, said that Mr Carter had a particular interest in mummification and had stopped several times to study the wall paintings in one of the funerary passageways in the Temple of Hatshepsut. We made allowances for Mr Carter to do this during a full day at Luxor, on the West Bank. When time was running short I asked one of our party to find him and hurry him along. It was then his disappearance was discovered. A search was continued for some time with nothing further being heard of him.

The above report, given almost 10 years to the day when he disappeared, has been reviewed in the light of something that happened only a few hours ago. Ben Suid Rafel, present curator at the Temple of Hatshepsut informs us that a guide has come across a previously unknown room. Inside was a notebook containing the following:

Sunday, October 16th, 1988. I am Peter Carter, from New Zealand, travelling with North Island Tours. It is now 2.30am. I write these notes in case I'm not found alive. I'm in a room off a side passage in the Temple of Hatshepsut. Air is coming from somewhere above me. I was admiring the decoration showing Sennedjem, an overseer of workmen, being tended by Anubis who is said to have invented mummification. Inspecting the lion-shaped couch on which Sennedjem lay, I felt a puff of air on my cheeks as an opening appeared in the wall to one side and stepped through. Before I passed out I sat down with my back against the part where I'd entered.

6am. Not enough light from my cigarette lighter to examine this place very well. I'm sitting against the entrance doorway. I can feel a few marks on the ground.

Faint sounds around 4.30pm yesterday. Nothing since. A little water left but no food. If I'm not found soon I know I will die here.

9.15pm. Heard sounds. Stone dragged on stone. Imagination? Out of food and water. Very weak. Love to Mum, Dad and ... Another sound. Clear now. Footsteps? Yes! footsteps ... from the wall opposite ... but that's solid rock ... an opening ... someone's coming through ...  No, it can't be ... it looks like ...

At which point Peter Carter's note ended. The notebook was found by a local guide who'd stopped to examine what appeared to be tracks on the floor leading to a wall of one of the passageways. There he found a cleverly concealed door into a room in a previously undiscovered section of the funerary. He picked up the notebook lying just by the door, took a quick glance around the room, saw several mummified bodies and hurried off to notify the authorities.

A few hours later, Egyptian archaeologists using an EIR machine, identified one as being the body of Mr Peter Carter. The wall opposite the opening is being thoroughly investigated as it is now believed another set of passageways exists.

The Egyptian foreign minister has sent his condolences to the relatives of Mr Peter Carter and has invited them to be guests of their government to discuss what they wish to be done with the mummified remains.
Enquires concerning missing people and the work of examining the other mummified bodies continues while the world awaits.

Dennis Crompton © 1998
(first published www.denniscrompton.wordpress.com 2013)