title: The Funerary Art of Ancient Egypt: A Bridge to the Realm of the Hereafter
author: Abeer el-Shahawy
description: Abeer el Shahawy is an Egyptian Egyptologist.<br /><br />Farid Atiya is a writer, photographer and publisher. He is the author of many books on the Red Sea, Sinai and the monuments of Egypt.
zlib_text: The Palace of al-Tir al-Abtan
  
  by Lawrence Watt-Evans
  
  This is a tale of the wizard al-Tir al-Abtan, when he dwelt in the ancient
  city of Tahrir, on the shore of the southern sea.
  
  The Palace of al-Tir al-Abtan stood, of the wizard's choice, in the poorest
  quarter of Tahrir. To reach it, a determined traveler would find himself
  required to pass through alleys that were little more than tunnels through
  crumbling piles of brick, and down streets that were no more than mud-filled
  gaps between one decrepit tenement and the next. The Most Profound Tir, the
  great magician of the age, had raised his palace here to avoid the petty
  intrigues of lesser wizards, and the maddening importunities of nobles and
  kings upon his time and talent. He did not care directly to refuse the lords
  of the earth admission to his palace, for that would mean constant harassment
  by those seeking exceptions or an end to the ban; but instead, he put the
  palace where no self-respecting nobleman would dare approach it, 