'Cikai Korran came here': 2,000 years ago, Indian man scribbled his name in Tamil on Egyptian tombs

An Indian man who spoke Tamil scribbled his name on eight Egyptian tombs 2,000 years ago. An archaeological discovery has uncovered who this offender was, showing Indo-Egyptian connections in ancient times, and proves the fact that tourists were just the same even thousands of years ago. A man named Cikai Korran visited Egypt’s Valley of Kings and etched dozens of inscriptions on several tombs. Eight of them bore just his name. Archaeologists say that the language used was Old Tamil, an Indian language. When scientists dug deeper, they also found writings in Sanskrit. The researchers revealed everything about this culprit and his actions at a conference in Chennai, the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Ingo Strauch, an expert in South Asian studies at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, clarified that visitors from across the world vandalised Egyptian tombs over the years, and Indians are not the only offenders.

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Graffiti in Tamil found at Egyptian tombs

French scholar Jules Baillet found more than 2,000 inscriptions and drawings on Egyptian tombs in 1926. His findings showed that Greek and Latin tourists commonly came and left their mark here. However, Strauch says that when he visited the tombs in 2024, he noticed graffiti that looked different from the ones that were earlier revealed. He told Gizmodo that the ones he found were similar to Indian scripts. An analysis of the photos he took suggested that they were likely written in Tamil. He showed them to his colleague Charlotte Schmid, who confirmed that it was indeed Tamil. She even provided a translation - “Cikai Korran came here and saw.” They revisited Baillet's texts and found that he also saw scribblings made in an Asian language.

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They got curious and decided to investigate the site again. They successfully came across more graffiti and inscriptions, some in Sanskrit and others in an ancient version of Tamil, known as Tamil-Brahmi. Schmid also said at the conference that Cikai Korran had a "weird" way of leaving his mark, some of which were several feet high. At the tomb of Ramesses IX, he wrote his name about 16 to 20 feet above the entrance. The researchers said he probably wanted to ensure that "everybody would see him", that they knew that "Cikai Korran came here." Strauch added that he was "apparently extremely excited about his visit and decided to leave his name in nearly every tomb."

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Schmid said the findings show that Indians travelled to the Nile Valley. They were even familiar with the Greek language since some of their graffiti referred to those scribbled in Greek. To see that the inscription survived tough times, Cikai Korran truly accomplished what he set out to do.