This episode is brought to you by Pepsi Max. Christmas is great, but there's loads of ways to make it better.

Like sneaking some chili into the gravy for some extra ink, or building a playlist that will even get your

none up on the table or just cracking open an ice cold Pepsi Max.

Christmas better with Pepsi Max Christmas.

Better with Pepsi Max. Welcome back to the Egyptian history podcast, episode 31, Seven Empty Years.

The period which elapsed from about 1997 to 1990, B.C. is one of the more unusual interludes in Egyptian history.

It is a period about which we know at least a few significant details, like the ruling king, some of his officials, and some of their policies

and actions. But the Egyptians themselves treated this little window as an empty period in time.

For some reason, which scholars are yet to untangle,

the royal annals produced many years later by Egyptian scribes, declared that the years 1997 to 1990 were a period in which no king ruled.

Why did they say this?

Unravelling this period is our journey today, and it's one that will take us from the dry wadis of the

eastern desert to the furtive raids and conflicts of a country gripped by war.

After 12 successful years on the throne, the elderly king, Saint-Kare, Montu Hotepe the 3rd, died.

His reign had seen the revival of Egyptian activity on the Red Sea, with a large-scale expedition

to Punt, completed in his eighth Reginal year.

The king was laid to rest in a rock-cut tomb to the west of Thebes.

This tomb was discovered in 1997 by a Hungarian team, led by archaeologist Gioro Voros.

Although the tomb had been plundered,

the remaining traces suggested

it was a royal tomb of the early Middle Kingdom period.

Voros and his team tentatively identified it with more. period. community today. But in his life the king had accomplished more well attested feats.

...