An ancient Tamil visitor, Cikai Korran, left his mark in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, roughly two thousand years ago. Korran's name is inscribed eight times in five different tombs, with one inscription sitting five to six meters above the entrance, a feat that has yet to be explained.
The discovery was made by Ingo Strauch of the University of Lausanne and Charlotte Schmid of the French School of Asian Studies, who presented their findings at the International Conference on Tamil Epigraphy in Chennai in February.
About twenty of the inscriptions are in Tamil-Brahmi, the earliest known script for writing Tamil, while the rest are in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Gandhari-Kharoshthi, suggesting visitors arrived from across the Indian subcontinent.
The Valley of the Kings inscriptions add a more intimate layer to our understanding of ancient India's connections with the Roman world, where goods and people moved between the Malabar coast and the Mediterranean for commerce.
The discovery highlights the importance of re-examining old catalogues and colonial-era reports, which may contain more ancient tourists waiting to be noticed.
