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| Two fascinating facts about ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the tomb: |
Fact 1. Egyptian hieroglyphs – an alphabet menagerie - capture the essence, magic and appeal of ancient Egypt. Many of the symbols, more than a quarter in fact, were of animals, and the Egyptians greatly feared that these creature-symbols might come to life in the tomb and become uncontrollable forces – lions, jackals, snakes, vultures, crocodiles … [For this reason, scribes would sometimes damage hieroglyphs of living things, cutting off the head of a snake or a lion or showing animals pierced with knives or spears in order to render them harmless.]
Fact 2. A totally blank, rolled-up scroll, supposed to be a costly Book of the Dead complete with spells for survival, has actually turned up in a tomb – empty as the desert- leaving us to wonder about the fate of its owner, bereft of a magical passport.
"NEFERA...Ancient Egypt and a young royal in eternal trouble" (Kindle)
This fantasy fiction story for Egypt-lovers, young and old, relates the journey of two children, Egyptian Princess Nefera, and a boy tomb robber, Ipy.
Nefera wakes up to encounter a shock in her decorated and treasure-laden tomb.
Her royal scribe has cheated her and substituted a blank, rolled up scroll for her valuable Book of the Dead, hoping his crime will never be discovered and that he can sell the real one to someone else. Nefera suddenly realises that she has no magical passport-and-guide to the underworld of scary animals and
animal-headed guardians. Hieroglyphs surround her on the tomb’s walls, but her papyrus scroll is totally blank, as if the text had been written in disappearing ink.
“My scroll is as empty as the desert. Where are my magical Words of Power?”
She quakes. Must she enter the shadowy world of animal-headed monsters and demons, alone, unprotected and guideless, clutching a worthless scroll? How will she ever reach the Egyptian heaven? She prays to the ibis-headed god of writing and spells: “Lord Thoth, send me Words of Power to take me through the underworld.”
It is a risky prayer. Hieroglyphs can come to life in the tomb and become uncontrollable forces!
A magical journey on a living lion couch
Nefera is swept up and carried away to experience a thrilling underworld journey. She rides on a nightmarish piece of tomb furniture, a living, golden lion couch with snarling lions’ heads, racing across a papyrus-like desert surface, where monster guardians pop up to challenge her and hinder her race to reach heaven.
She must succeed before the new dawn or perish forever. Can she reach her goal, especially when tomb robbers have broken into her newly sealed tomb and are stealing her treasures and possessions for the afterlife, one object after another, and now a mysterious boy, Ipy and his thieving monkey, Little Robber (both members of the tomb robber gang) suddenly appear and hitch a ride with her on her loping bed? Is the boy dead too?
Wracked by guilt, the boy tomb robber promises to help save the princess and the journeying companions become friends. What happens when the young renegade, filled with remorse and shame at his crime against Nefera, faces the Great Judge, alongside the royal Princess, who does not yet know his secret?
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As well as my adult thriller adventure fiction, written under the name Roy Lester Pond, you can find a range of fiction for young readers and young at heart - published under the name Roy Pond
GREAT EGYPT READS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH A KINDLE, IPAD OR SMART PHONE
As well as my adult thriller adventure fiction, written under the name Roy Lester Pond, you can find a range of fiction for young readers and young at heart - published under the name Roy Pond
