Amenhotep the Magnificent knocked back a stiff gulp of red wine as he shuffied into the sunlit throne room.

     Once upon a time the pharaoh had been lean and muscular, a warrior feared throughout the known world. Now he was 'prosperous', which was a polite way of saying that his great belly preceded him wherever he went.

     "You'll get fat from all that wine," cooed Tiye, his queen and favourite wife possibly because she had a sense of humnour that matched his own."

     Too late."  Amenhotep slurred his words noticeably. "At least a dozen years too late."

     Just back from a morning of sailing, Tiye had entered from the main hall without fanfare, her sandalled feet quietly slapping the tiled floor. The queen had full lips, a pleasingly ample bosom, and wore a white linen dress with vertical blue stripes that was cinched at her narrow waist.

     They both knew why she'd come to see him today.

     "Pharaoh," she said, standing over him, "we must talk. This one time you must listen to a woman, my love. You must.

     Amenhotep pretended to ignore his queen. He thought about swabbing a little opium on his abscessed teeth, just to take the edge off, and then maybe having a nap before dinner. No. First a visit to the lovely Resi over at the harem for a midafternoon romp, then sleep. Amenhotep got a happy feeling just thinking about her.

     Up in Memphis, the northern capital of his kingdom, the bureaucrats would be pestering him with crop reports and tax estimates. Nothing but meetings all day long. Yes, Egypt needed officials like that; the country would be a lawless backwater without the legion of clerks. But after three decades in power, Amenhotep needed a break.

     Which is why he loved Thebes much more than Memphis.

     Thebes, just a week's journey up the Nile from Memphis, was so different from the northern capital, it might as well have been in a separate country. In Thebes a pharaoh could bask in the desert sun, drink wine whenever he wanted, and make love to his entire harema dozen beauties, each selected by him-without a single bureaucratic interruption. In Thebes the pharaoh had time to think, to dream. In Thebes the pharaoh answered to no one except his wife.

     Amenhotep looked up at Tiye, 'I am a fat old pharaoh who is no longer fit to rule this kingdom. Is that what you're about to say? Tell me.

     Tiye bit her tongue, In many ways, she loved this fat old man, this deity. But now Amenhotep was dying. Decisions had to be made before it was too late for Egypt, and for its queen.

     "All right,' he said with a sigh. Let's talk. I'm dying, What of it?"

     "The future of Egypt is at stake. You know that. You need to take act