Dr. Kuifje's Travels: Tintin in Egypt
The title Cigars of the Pharaoh suggests a fantastic Egyptian adventure for Tintin. Indeed the story starts with Tintin's arrival by boat in Port Said, Egypt. He goes ashore on page 5. However already on page 10 Tintin leaves Egypt, when he is carried aboard Allan Thompson's ship, packaged in a sarcophagus. Hergé created these first pages in 1933; nine years after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, which revived the Egyptomania in Western culture that had started in the early 19th century with Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Documentation was therefore easy to obtain. The rich Egyptian past provided many possibilities for a Tintin story, making this a missed opportunity. Nevertheless the captivating and haunting scene in the tomb of Pharao Kih-Oskh is a memorable one.
In December 2000, Dr. Kuifje visited Egypt, travelling from Cairo to Thebes, Asswan, and Abu Simbel. Below I show some pictures that match with scenes from Tintin's Egyptian adventure.
Professor Sarcophagus and Tintin leave Cairo in search for Kih-Oskh's tomb. "Later, somewhere near Cairo", the caption reads. In the background two pyramids are visible (only in the coloured version). Considering the two well-preserved pyramids near each other, the pyramids depicted must be two of the three pyramids at Giza.
Kih-Oskh's tomb is of course fictitious. Or is it? Dr. Kuifje made an amazing discovery: South-West of the pyramid of Menkaure, at a location from where only two pyramids are visible, lies a stone structure mostly covered by sand. Could this be the entrance? Since there were too many people around, I was not able to dig for the door.
The flat roof of Kih-Oskh's tomb suggests it is a mastaba, which is an underground tomb. Dr Kuifje visited a mastaba in Saqqara, the tomb of Ka-Gmni (6th dynasty, 2340 BC). Its walls are covered with beautiful mural paintings. See Farr (2001; p. 43) for two images that Hergé used for the backgrounds of page 7 (colour version).
Several details can be found at other places in Egypt; for example the column with a papyriform base can be seen in many temples.
- The faces are now profiles.
- The clothes are more detailed and stylized.
- Three bracelets were added.
- The uraeus (cobra) on Thomson's bowler was move to Thompson's bowler. The uraus seems not to be present on Tutankhamen's throne, but it is depicted in many other places, for instance on the famous golden mask of Tutankhamen
- The haircuts of Thompson and Thompson have changed.
- The remarable feet of the chair are not visible anymore.
One page later, Tintin is smuggled out of Egypt. Was Hergé already fed up with Egypt? Actually the title Les Cigares du Pharaon (Cigars of the Pharaoh) stems from the first book publication in 1934. The title under which the story was first published in Le Petit Vingtième was Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter en orient: The adventures of Tintin, reporter in the orient. That explains why Hergé was in a hurry: there were still lots of countries to be covered!
This concludes my observations regarding the Egyptian part of the Cigars of the Pharao; I plan to address the Arabic and the Indian parts in two other installments.
References
M. Farr (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. Editions Moulinsart.
External links
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Available travels
- Cheverny
- Egypt
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To appear
- China
- The desert
- India
- Mexico
- Peru
- Scotland