The vizier's door

IN THE COURSE of routine excavations in front of the Karnak temples, an Egyptian team unearthed a huge, red granite false door taken from the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut's vizier User and his wife, Toy, reports Nevine El-Aref



According to Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), the door, which is 175cm tall, 100cm wide and 50cm thick, is engraved with religious texts as well as User's various titles: the mayor of the city; vizier; and inheriting prince.

User is believed to have come to office in the fifth year of Hatshepsut's reign. He built a tomb for himself and his wife on the west bank at Luxor (number 61). Mansour Boreik, supervisor of Luxor antiquities and head of the excavation team, said the newly-discovered door was cut from the tomb during the Roman period and used as part of a wall found several months ago by the mission. Boreik said User was the uncle of the well-known vizier Rekhmere, who was the vizier of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1504-1452 BC).

A chapel that belonged to User (number 17) was found in the Silsila mountain quarries in Aswan, testimony to the vizier's importance under Hatshepsut. The position of vizier was a top post in ancient Egypt, especially during the 18th Dynasty. Among the best known viziers of the dynasty were Rekhmere and Ramose who served under Amenhotep III and IV, as well as the military chief Horemheb who eventually came to the Egyptian throne as the last king of the 18th Dynasty.

ahram.org.eg