The mystery of the lost kingdom of Yam

  • 2018

There is enough evidence that the lost kingdom of Yam truly existed on the African continent, although it has barely left a few traces of its existence in Egyptian inscriptions and travel stories.

Experts say that Yam was located in Nubia, near Kerma, in Sudan, but the way its inhabitants were able to cross these huge African deserts at a time when the wheel barely existed is a very complex mystery to unveil

However, there is evidence that the people of the lost kingdom of Yam regularly traded with the ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom.

Harkhuf's travels to the land of Yam

The main mystery about the exact location of the Kingdom of Yam is partially unveiled through hieroglyphs and travel stories .

In the tomb of Harkhuf (Dynasty VI, about 2345 BC - 2181 BC) governor of Elephantine who served under the empire of the pharaohs Merenre and Pepi II, there are biographical inscriptions that relate the expeditions to a land called Yam, where it is believed that several exploration trips were made.

According to these inscriptions, the governor made four trips to the land of Nubia. On the first trip, he marched with his father priest to explore the road to Yam, who managed to perform "in just seven months."

Harkhuf returned from Yam with exotic and sumptuous gifts, such as ivory, ebony, leopard skins, ostrich feathers and eggs, among other products highly appreciated at the time.

Harkhuf's second expedition was made in eight months and the third, in which he did not explicitly travel time, relates that he took the path of Uhet.

Harkhuf's fourth expedition to the Kingdom of Yam was also for the purpose of trading, but in this case it is reported how the governor received a letter from Pepi II, the 8-year-old pharaoh, in which he was asked to see a dwarf that Harkhuf had purchased during its expedition.

In addition to products and slaves, there is evidence that Harkhuf also brought Yam soldiers to Egypt . He tells that this impressed the head of Irhet, Sethu and Wawat, whose territories he crossed.

The existence of Yam's soldiers is also mentioned in a text known as " Weni's Autobiography, " belonging to another official of the Dynasty VI court.

Other evidence of the existence of the lost Kingdom of Yam

In 1923, the Egyptian explorer Ahmed Hassanian Bey found a set of cave paintings in the Uwienate Mountains and called the place "the lost oasis."

In 2007, Mark Borda, a Maltese adventurer along with his guide Mahmoud Morai explored the Uwienate valleys in Libya and discovered prehistoric paintings next to hieroglyphs in which the existence of a Kingdom called Yam is recounted. One of the inscriptions was from Montuhotep, the pharaoh of the 11th dynasty of Egypt who ruled approximately from 2061 to 2010 BC.

In these inscriptions, Pharaoh Montuhotep tells that two people brought him products from those territories . One of them came from Tekhbeten and the other, from the country of Yam.

How did the Kingdom of Yam disappear?

Harkhuf's inscriptions provide a wealth of information about the possible location of the Kingdom of Yam and one of them is the months that the trip took.

Based on these evidences it is possible to determine that from the site where the kingdom of Ancient Egypt was located, one had to travel about 700 kilometers of desert .

Experts believe that the difficult access managed to dissuade people from making the trip and the passage of time, with the discovery of other areas more accessible for trade, made Yam's kingdom fall into oblivion until it disappeared .

Seen on Vix, by Pedro, editor of the White Brotherhood

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