MJ Thomas Wrote:
> Howabout Khufu was out in the wild somewhere,> wandered off into the bush to relieve himself
> without having his entire entorage gawping at him, and bumped into a pride of particularly
> hungry lions...
> Khufu would, I'm sure, have been surrounded by a circle of heavily-armed guards - all facing
> outwards, of course.
> Hmmm. It really does look as though I am going to
> have to accept that the chances that Khufu's body
> was not available for his (or should that be its?)
> funeral are very, very remote indeed.

Far from privacy there are certain ancient positions (referred to as "Keeper of the Royal Personage" etc. where Royalty was considered too exalted to (how to say in polite circles) manually perform certain deeds of hygiene. This is well documented in ancient Rome, and somewhat in ancient Greece (an attendant to pour rinse water over one).

When those around you think you are a living God, privacy can be sacrificed to render total service.

Jammer

ps, if there was gold at the bottom of the lake it would be more likly Pharaoh would say "Go forth and get me this" from the safe shore.