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THE TREASURE OF TENAKERTOM by Robert Edmond Alter

THE TREASURE OF TENAKERTOM

By

Pub Date: Jan. 6th, 1964
Publisher: Putnam

In 1356 B.C., Thurms was the sort of soldier who, today, would call his rifle a gun. After arguing with his father, a prominent Egyptian general, he was banished to the Sinai border and would not be allowed to return to his native Thebes until he had done something heroic and had become a good soldier. After a desert skirmish that brought him inside news of the fabulous lost city of Tenakertom, the charioteer becomes a treasure hunter with the approval of his father. He had gone to Thebes, where the future King Tut is seen playing, with ghoulish relish, at miniature pyramids and funerals. Akhnaton is Pharaoh and is heard, maundering vaguely, about the one god, Aton. Thurms sets out for Tenakertom, a thirsty desert trip, and after many a B.C. hardship, finds the city. The treasure that he and his fatly foolish companion come away with is a small store of rubies and a dawning awareness of the fact that money isn't everything --especially after speaking to a grey beard who may or may not be a Judaic prophet or possibly God Himself. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on where you sit, Hollywood no longer films many of these for the Saturday afternoon cinema set.