Cikai Korran, an Indian tourist visiting Egypt’s Valley of the Kings about 2,000-years-ago graffitied his name eight times in Old Tamil, claiming almost a third of the Indian language inscriptions found across various Egyptian tombs, according to French scholar Charlotte Schmid and Swiss Professor Ingo Strauch.
Their findings were published in a book titled "Tamil Epigraphy: A four-day international conference 11-14 February 2026, Proceedings Volume 1," and presented at the February conference in Chennai, India.
In their presentation, Schmid and Strauch noted that Korran had written eight inscriptions in five different tombs, and translated the text to mean “Cikai Korran came [here] and saw.”
He also wrote his inscriptions up high and they have yet to figure out how he did so, Schmid said at the conference, adding that in one of the tombs, the inscription had been written 5 to 6 meters above the tomb’s entrance.
Korran had further left his mark on the entrance of a tomb belonging to the New Kingdom pharaohs Tausert and Setnakhte, they noted. This was the only graffiti found in this specific tomb, pointing to the possibility that it had still been sealed off at the time of Korran’s visit.
Though it is unclear who Korran was, the writings being in Old Tamil suggested to researchers that he was from southern India.
Additional graffiti, this one done in Sanskrit was written by a man named Indranandin, Strauch said, who said that he was a "messenger of King Kshaharata."
The Kshaharata dynasty ruled over part of India during the first century CE, Strauch explained in an email to Live Science, noting that it's not clear which specific King Kshaharata the messenger served.
"It is possible that Indranandin arrived by ship at Berenike [on the east coast of Egypt], perhaps together with other Indians, and from there continued inland to the Valley of the Kings," Strauch wrote in his email. "Whether he later traveled on to Rome, however, is unknown."
Strauch also noted that in addition to the Indian graffiti, a total of 132 Greek and Roman inscriptions, as well as one done in the Kharosti script have been found in tombs throughout Valley of the Kings.
Valley of the Kings as 'tourist destination'
According to the researchers, the inscriptions’ discovery is not new. Early Egyptologists had noticed them, but as they did not know what language they’d been written in, were unable to translate them accordingly.
During renewed investigations, however, the inscriptions were recognized, translated, and dated to between the first and third centuries CE.
At that time, Egypt had been a province of the Roman Empire and the Valley of the Kings "was a tourist destination, like today," Strauch said during the conference.
Alexandra von Lieven, an Egyptology professor at the University of Münster not involved in the research, shared with Live Science in an email that the newly translated graffiti "prove[s] not just the mere presence of Indians in Egypt, but also their active interest in the culture of the land.”