1 comment The Ra – Sun God – and the Phoenix
Sacred at Heliopolis, the phoenix was a mythological bird based on the wingtail or the heron. It was specially attached to Ra God because it seemed to mimic the sun rising from the water when it took flight. Its Egyptian name (for “phoenix” I is Greek) was bennu, which was derived from a word meaning “to shine” or “to rise.” It was depicted with a long straight beak, graceful body, long legs, and two lengthy feathers falling from the back of its head. In the Coffin Texts the dead person viewed himself as rising like the phoenix: “I am that great phoenix that is in Annu, the supervisor of all that exists.”
The Phoenix – fenix bird
Elsewhere the texts associated the bird with Osiris or Horus since these gods and the bird existed for eternity. In the Book of the Dead there was a spell for helping the dead become the bennu bird: “I flew up as the Primeval God and assumed forms…® I am Horus, the god who gives light by means of his body.”
The most elaborate discussion of the J phoenix bird, however, is seen in Herodotus, who had some strange ideas that have become the conventional concept of the bird, even though they do not seem supported by Egyptian texts:
They have also another sacred bird, which, except in a picture, I have never seen; it is called the phoenix. It is very uncommon, even among themselves; for according to the Heliopolitans, it comes there but once in the course of five hundred years, and then only at the decease of the parent bird. If it bear any resemblance to its picture, the wings are partly of a gold and partly of a crimson color, and its form and size are perfectly like the eagle. They relate one thing about it that surpasses all credibility: they say that it comes from Arabia to the temple of the sun, bearing the dead body of its parent, enclosed in myrrh, which it buries. It makes a ball of myrrh, shaped like an egg, as large as it is able to carry, which it proves by experiment. This done it excavates the mass, into which it introduces the body of the dead bird; it again closes the aperture with myrrh, and the whole becomes the same weight as when composed entirely of myrrh; it then proceeds to Egypt to the temple of the sun.
These and other classical myths concerning the bird appear to be misreadings of the Egyptian concept. In Egypt the bird did not achieve immortality through periodic renewal, but it was seen as a symbol for the sun, which did rise-like the bird-each day from the waters to the east. Perhaps the clearest Egyptian use of the bird was in the Book of the Dead where, as a sign of rebirth, it was beautifully depicted in the vignettes.
No comments Temple of Horus at Edfu Edfu (Greek Apollonopolis), which is situated between Esna and Aswan, is a site with a long-standing tradition. Its name is derived from the ancient Edbo; it means ‘The Town of the Piercing’ and refers to the triumph of Horus over Set.
Temple of Horus
There is evidence of occupation in Edfu from pre-dynastic times through to the end of the Roman period. The temple of Horus, however, is entirely Ptolemaic. Texts on the outer face of the girdle wall indicate that it was begun in 237 BC and completed in 57 BC. Ptolemy III, who started the building, claimed that he was constructing it on an original plan made by Imhotep, builder of Zoser’s Step Pyramid at Sakkara that was raised some two thousand five hundred years earlier. The ruins of the ancient town show that the site was, indeed, an important province during the Old Kingdom, and that it retained its importance in the Middle Kingdom. When the festal journey between Horus of Edfu and Hathor of Dendera was instituted as a regular ceremony in the New Kingdom, Edfu gained great prestige and popularity. This ‘Good Reunion’ took place in the second month of the Egyptian year, when Hathor of Dendera came to visit her husband Horus in his temple at Edfu. The statue of Horus was placed on the sacred boat that was placed on a Nile vessel to be borne northwards to meet his mate. Hathor’s sacred statue was likewise travelling from Dendera towards Edfu. Great was the joy of the populace lining the banks of the river when the craft came together in mid-stream; husband and wife were united.
Temple of Horus at Edfu
Amidst joy and celebration the two boats would make their way to Edfu, where the entire population assembled to watch the priests enter the temple with the sacred statues. The Temple at Edfu, along with those ofPhilae, contains some of the finest art and architecture of the Ptolemaic period. It is dedicated to Horus, Hathor and their son, ‘Horus the younger’ or ‘Uniter of the Two Lands’. It comprises a Great Court (1), the Pronaos (2), Hypostyle Hall (3) and two ante-chambers (4) and (5), leading to the Sanctuary (6). Around the sanctuary is a corridor leading to smaller chambers; around the rear part of the temple runs an Outer Corridor that is accessible only from the Outer Court, or from the two Hypostyle Halls. The entire temple – corridors, halls, ante-chambers, sanctuary, inner chambers, outer walls – are embellished with wonderful reliefs. This is one of the most beautiful, and certainly the best preserved of Egypt’s monuments. In fact there is no ancient monument in the world that can match it. A large granite statue of Horus the Hawk – one of two found outside the western tower — stands in front of the entrance guarding the temple. On its head is the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Entrance Pylon is completely covered with inscriptions and reliefs, both inside and out. They mostly show Ptolemy XIII in the Egyptian tradition; he clasps enemies by the hair and raises his arm to smite them, in the presence of Horus of Edfu and Hathor of Dendera. (Access to the top of the pylon can be gained by small stairways approached from outside the temple and from the Great Court, but is not normally accessible.) The Great Court (i), where offerings were once made to Horus on a great altar, is a spacious enclosure surrounded on three sides by a gallery supported by thirty-two columns. The shafts are decorated with reliefs; the capitals are ornate flower and palm-fronds. The wall reliefs relate to the Good Reunion between Horus and Hathor; on the lower reaches of the right-hand wall (a) the festal boats of Horus and Hathor may be seen on the Nile; they arc towed to Edfu. On arrival, the priests carry the statues, in their barges, towards the temple; there they make offerings and conduct prayers. To the rear of the Court, Ptolemy IX makes offerings; he presents four libation jars to Horus, and a sphinx to Hathor in the presence of Horus (b). There is a similar scene at (c) with offerings of electrum to Hathor. Before the screen, to the left of the doorway is a superb granite hawk of Horus, distainfully surveying the court.
Temple of Horus
The central doorway leads to the Pronaos (2), the roof of which is supported by columns with various floral capitals, and the ceiling is decorated with astrological scenes. The walls are covered with reliefs that, unfortunately, have lost much of their vivid colour. The themes relate to the consecration of the temple. To the left (d), Ptolemy IX breaks ground with a hoe, before Horus and Hathor. Incense is cast on the broken ground to purify the area. The completed temple is then encircled and blessed, in the presence of Horus. Two tiny chambers have been built up against the walls to left and right of the entrance. The chamber to the left (e), is the Consecration Chamber. The inscription over the doorway informs us that golden vessels used for purification ceremonies were stored here. These were used when the pharaoh came to participate in the great festivals of Horus, and, in fact, there is a niche in the wall where they were kept. The wall reliefs show the actual purification ceremonies that were performed in the presence of the deities. Afterwards, the pharaoh, crowned King of Upper and Lower Egypt, is shown being led into the Temple of Horus. The chamber to the right (f), was the library. The inscription over the doorway states that in this chamber the papyrus rolls of Horus and of Harmachis, arranged by the chief ritual-priest for the twelve hours of the day, were stored. From the small size of the niches inside the chamber we can see that the library probably only contained those texts relating to the traditional ceremonies of this particular temple. Over the doorway is a winged sun disc. Immediately beneath are representations (damaged) of the four sensesihearing, sight, taste and reason, each depicted as a human figure honouring the scribe’s palette. Crossing the Pronaos, on the rear doorway we can see representations of Ptolemy IX performing foundation ceremonies before Horus on either side. Above the doorway is a symbolic scene that shows the sun, with the figure of a winged beetle (Kheper), being guided above the horizon by two hawk-headed figures. The gods Thoth, Neith, Wepwawat, Maat and Hathor are shown to the left. The Hypostyle Hall (3) has twelve columns in three rows. They are slender and also have decorative capitals. Note the openings near the top of the walls, and in the ceiling, which admit light to this otherwise darkened place. The scenes on the walls relate to pegging out the limits of the temple by Ptolemy IV, breaking ground and the final presentation to Horus. It would appear that as each Ptolemaic king succeeded to the throne of Egypt, he would repeat these rituals, thus paying honour to the local populace and to their temple. He would then have the scenes depicted on the temple walls. How joyful the people of Edfu must have been when the Ptolemies honoured Horus and brought them prestige. The New Year Festival is represented on the walls of the two staircases, which are approached from the first Antechamber (4). On the walls of the eastern stairway (g) the king, accompanied by priests bearing the standards that represented Egypt’s ancient provinces, mounts to the roof. Behind him is a long procession of priests of a lower order, chanting and reciting hymns. Some of them shake sistrums, burn incense or carry offerings. At the turn of the passage two caskets are being carried; the statues of Horus and Hathor rest on them. Behind and in front of them are priests of a higher order, who burn incense to safeguard the treasures from any evil spirit that might lurk in the temple. The king and queen look anxiously around to ensure that all is well. Towards the top of the staircase, priests with standards are depicted once again. At the top, the king heads the procession. He will watch the sacred statues being placed on the roof, where they will remain until dawn. The descent from the roof is depicted on the walls of the western stairway, after the statues have been revitalised from the rays of the rising sun.
Temple of Horus
The second Antechamber (5) lies immediately in front of the sanctuary. Turning to the right, six steps lead to a small open court and a tiny chamber (h) which contains superb reliefs of Ptolemy IV and his wife Arsinoe, making offerings to Horus and Hathor. On the right-hand wall they are enthroned. On the left-hand wall they make offerings to the memory of their royal parents: Ptolemy III and Queen Berenice. Over the doorway are seven representations of Hathor beating tamborines. They might be prototypes of the legendary fairy-godmothers. The chamber to the left (i) is dedicated to Min, the god of fertility, and to Hathor. The scenes relate to the birth of Horus and the mysterious renewing of life. In the Sanctuary (6), the sacred barge of Horus stood on a low altar at the centre. To the left is a magnificent shrine of dark, highly polished granite in which the sacred statue stood. The reliefs on the lower reaches of the right-hand wall show the king, Nektanebos II, the last Egyptian pharaoh, who was responsible for building the shrine, as he removes the lock from the shrine, opens the door, stands in reverential attitude before the sacred statue, and makes offerings. The pivot holes to the sides of the door indicate that the chamber once had double doors. The corridor around the santuary leads to ten small chambers. All are decorated and relate to items placed in them for storage, and their ritual purpose. The Outer Corridor (accessible from (1) and (3)), has reliefs relating to the overcoming of evil – represented by either a crocodile or a hippopotamus – by good, represented by Horus. They may be found to the west of the temple: at (j) Horus is depicted in a boat, and the king on land. Together they spear a hippopotamus which is held on a rope by Isis. At (k) Horus stands on a chained hippopotamus which he spears. At (1) (where the corridor narrows) is a relief showing three figures: the first figure kills a hippopotamus with a knife; the second shows the sage Imhotep reading from a sacred text, and the third shows the king fattening a goose for sacrifice. T o the east of the temple (m), a staircase leads to an ancient Nilometer. The outside of the Temple is also embellished with reliefs.
Those to the rear (n) show Ptolemy XI in the presence of various gods, particularly Horus, Hathor and their son.
No comments Crafts and Craftsmen in Ancient Egypt Next to this pair are two men engaged in chasing and carving metal, one of whom is named as the draughtsman of the god Amun Pasinisu, also called Parennefer. He chases and inscription on a libation vessel, while his friend works on a golden sphinx using a stone hammer and metal chisel. Further along metal vessel are being manufactured: the smaller of the two is supported on a rod-anvil, while the smith heats a partially worked vessel in a small furnace. This process was required to keep the metal supple, as copper and bronze become brittle when beaten. He holds the, metal with a pair of tongs, whilst blowing through a tube to raise the temperature in the furnace.
Craftsmen in ancient egypt
The lower register is damaged, but enough remains to show that, on the left , bronze lamp stands are in the process of manufacture. One of the smiths heats a small piece of metal in a fire on the ground, again raising the temperature by means of a blow -pipe. Behind him two men appear to be beating a metal sheet over a concave form, possibly the preliminary shaping of a vessel. In the centre of the register is an elaborate furnace in which metal is smelted from the ingots shown above, probably copper and tin combined to make bronze. The furnace is aerated by four men operating foot bellows. These were presumably made of leather. The men hold ropes in their hands, on which they pull to reflate the bellows after they have trodden out the air …. ancient Egyptian crafts.
The molten metal from the furnace would probably have been used for casting, although this process is not shown in the scene. Copper and bronze were used for casting tools, weapons in ancient Egypt and decorative objectives, using moulds cut out of stone or fashions from pottery. Cast metal was also used for figure statuettes, although not commonly until the Late Period. The British Museum’s bronze statuette of Tuthmosis IV is a rare example from the Eighteenth Dynasty. The technique used for casting these figures was the lost-wax process. This method could be used to make either solid cast or hollow figurines, the latter representing a way of economizing on the valuable metal.
Weapons in Ancient Egypt
On the far right of the lower register is a group of stone-workers engaged in the manufacture of beads and vessels. In order to make beads, suitable pieces of coloured or semi-precious stone were broken up and roughly shaped by rolling or bruising. They were then smoothed by rubbing them together. The next phase was to bore holes through the beads for stringing. This was achieved using a bow-drill. The drill point of metal, stone or through reed was attached to a stick. This was rotated using the string of the bow as the operator moved it backwards a forwards. Many beads were drilled from both sides. If one whole began to wander off true, another was begun from the other side to meet it.
For this reason ancient beads rarely have straight holes running through them. The drill bit was aided by an abrasive material such as emery or fine quartz, which is shown on the table next to the drill worker. To speed up production several bits were operated by the same drill-one reason, no doubt, why the line of the bore ran out of true so frequently. Once the beads were made they could be polished or glazed as required. They were then handed over to craftsmen – ancient Egyptian crafts who made them into simple stings of beads, elaborate collars or amuletic nets and plaques to be placed on mummies.
The dress of the men of the middle and higher classes consists of the following articles. First, a pair of full drawers of linen or cotton, tied round the body by running a string or band, the ends of which are embroidered with coloured silks, though concealed by the outer dress. The drawers descend a little below the knees, or to the ankles; but many of the Arabs will not wear long drawers, because prohibited by the Prophet.
Egyptian Dress of the Male
Next is worn a shirt, with very full sleeves, reaching to the wrist; it is made of linen, of a loose, open texture, or of cotton stuff or of muslin, or silk, or of a mixture of silk and cotton, in stripes but all white. Over this, in winter, or in cool weather, most persons wear a sudeyree, which is a short vest of cloth, or of striped coloured silk and cotton, without sleeves.
Over the shirt and the sudeyree or the former alone, is worn a long vest of striped silk and cotton (called kaftan), descending to the ankles, with long sleeves extending a few inches beyond the fingers’ ends, but divided from a point a little above the wrist, or about the middle of the fore-arm; so that the hand is generally exposed, though it may be concealed by the sleeve when necessary; for it is customary to cover the hands in the presence of a person of high rank. Round this vest is wound the girdle, which is a coloured shawl, or a long piece of white figured muslin. The ordinary outer robe is a long cloth coat, of any colour, called … by the Egyptians gibbeh, the sleeves of which reach not quite to the wrist.
Some persons also wear a beneesh; which is a robe of cloth, with long sleeves, like those of the kaftan, but more ample, it is properly a robe of ceremony. … In winter also many persons wrap a muslin or other shawl (such as they use for a turban) about the head and shoulders. The head-dress consists, first, of a small, close-fitting, cotton cap, which is often changed; next, a tarboosh, which is a red cloth cap, also fitting close to the head, with a tassel of dark-blue silk at the crown; lastly a long piece of white muslin, generally figured, or a Kashmeer shawl, which is wound round the tarboosh. Thus is formed the turban. . . . Stockings are not in use; but some few persons, in cold weather, wear woollen or cotton socks. The shoes are of thick red morocco, pointed and turned up at the toes. Some persons also wear inner shoes of soft yellow morocco, and with soles of the same: the outer shoes are taken off on stepping upon a carpet or mat; but not the inner; for this reason, the former are often worn turned down at the heel.
Dress of the Poorer Women, 1812
Dr. Charles Meryon
Egyptian Dress of the Women
The poorer sort of women in ancient Egypt were dressed in a blue shift something like a smock frock, the sleeves being very large. These shifts have at the sides two slits m the place of pocket-holes, so long that it is not unfrequendy happened in bending themselves forward that their naked skin was seen. Over their faces was a slip of black cotton or silk (according to the means of the wearer) tied round the head by a fillet or tape. From the centre of this, in a perpendicular line, pieces of silver or gold, or sometimes pearls, were hung. Over the head passed a long blue or black veil, one end of which had its two comers stitched together for about three inches, and, the corner so stitched being put under the chin, the face came out through an oval opening in it. The sleeves of the shift, which tapered down to a point, were often, when the women were employed, tied by the points behind the back. The arms, thus left bare to the shoulders, showed sometimes as much symmetry of form as would enchant a statuary or a painter.
The period of childhood before education. Apprenticeship and wok was short, but not totally non-existent. Various toys have survived. Such as balls, tops, dolls and figures of animals with moving parts, not dissimilar to wooden playthings given to children today. There are also depictions of boys and girls engaged in group activities such as athletic games, mock battles with sticks and gymnastic dancing. Other sporting activities which were encourage, at least among the royal family and nobility were swimming, archery and horsemanship.
Education in ancient egypt
Education in ancient Egypt was largely vocational an apprenticeship served within the family trade or craft usually under the boy’s father. We know something of the system from the craftsman’s community of Dier el-Medina. Boys were taught skills by their father in the hope of at least on son winning a place in the official corps of tomb-builders. Those youths who were most likely to be accepted were designated ‘children of the tomb’. They were attached to one of the gangs to do odd jobs and run, but no doubt primarily to watch and learn until such time as a place became available for them. Offspring who failed to achieve one of these coveted, lucrative positions had to leave the village, either to set up as craftsmen elsewhere or to seek a different type of job.
A more formal, academic – ancient Egyptian education was reserved for those who trained to b scribes. Elementary schooling for these privileged children, mostly boys, began at about five years of age and consisted of repeated recitation of lessons as well as the copying of standard texts. The basic proper may have been a book called Kemty, which means’ completion;. The form and style of the surviving copies of this work indicate that it was composed in the Middle Kingdom, although it was still used a thousand years later. The reason for its continued popularity as a teaching book was the simplicity of its language and the fact that the text was set out in vertical columns rather than horizontal lines, so that the signs were easier for young children to copy. The contents of the Kemty consisted of model letters phrases and expressions useful to scribes, plus 4assorted wisdom texts giving advice to would be scholars.
Having mastered the basics, the student in ancient Egyptian education could progress to more advanced text. The majority of these were classics of Egyptian literature; in particular the wisdom texts full of pronouncements on morals and behavior for young men who hoped to achieve some position in life. This genre and a long history in Egypt. The sage Imhotep wrote such a work, now lost, in the Third Dynasty and the latest surviving example, the instructions of Onkhsheshongy, is probably Ptolemaic. These wisdom texts are couched in the form of a discourse from a learned master, father or teacher to his pupil, A fair amount of the advice they contained inspired the scholar to diligence. In the words of the scribe Amenemope, pass on day in idleness or you will be beaten. The ear of a boy is on his back. He listens when he is beaten.
schools in ancient egypt
Another type of text frequently found in school copies glorifies, rather snugly, the position f the scribe in society, by comparing with it, in a very poor light, all other crafts and trades. The most famous of these writings is the Satire of the Trades, in which are to be found such crushing comments as :
I have seen the with at work a the opening of his furnace: with fingers like claws of a claws, of stinks more than fish roe’, and the potter is under the soil , though as yet among the living; her grubs n the mud more than a pig , in order to fire in town , her will not suffer it ; as her fills another ‘s need , he will not lack rewards … Behold! No scribe is short of food and of riches from the palace.’
A further source of information on the education, favored statues and potential power of the scribe is to be found in the Miscellanies a group of short compositions collected on rolls of papyrus, these consist of texts, often in the form of open letters. Concerning the workings of administration and the life of the upper middle class of Egyptian society. They are full of unusual and technical language, mathematical problems and lists of exotica, as t he Kemty forms the basic primer so the Miscellanies must represent the final stages of the scribe’s education.
The final years of scribal training were probably vocational, wither working with a master or attending on of the specialized schools run by the major employers of scribes such as the royal palace, government departments, the army or temples, In these schools the trainee would receive knowledge applicable to jobs future employment: mathematics anqad surviving for tax assessors, ritual practices or medicine for future priests, and so on.
At the other end of the social scale and at the lowest level of an Egyptian household were the servants and salves who performed all the mundane duties, but who received little reward. To a certain extent the whole of Egypt was in a state of servitude, for the structure of society was hierarchical and everyone owned duty to someone at a higher level, and ultimately to Pharaoh, who was the embodiment of the State, Nevertheless. at the bottom of the heap it becomes difficult to differentiate be teen the oppressed peasant labourer and those officially designated as slaves.
Unskilled peasant farmer were attached o an estate belonging to Pharaoh, the government, a temple or a rich landowner. Their pay was barely more than subsistence or, of they cultivated land, a large percentage of the harvest was taken in rent and taxes, and this group of people was the main target of Corvée duty. Forced labour raised specific tasks such as the upkeep of irrigation system construction of public buildings and cultivation of land, for this work no pay at all was received, only keep. All but he official classes were obliged to undertaker the Corvée, but anyone who cloud afford to do so would pay for exemption this ensuring that the weight of the burden fell on the poor. If, however, the Corvée workers attempted to run away from their labour, they were classed as fugitives and, if caught sentenced to permanent servitude spending the time between jobs on prison, their children then seem to have inherited the parents’ status as State servants.
Ancient egyptian society structure
These unfortunates bridge the gap between the theoretically free peasants and the lowest class of Egyptian society, the slaves, Slavery is known to have existed in Egypt from the Middle Kingdom onwards. The majority of slaves were foreigners, wither Asia tics of Nubian usually captured in war, although some were brought into the country by merchants. There are a number of terms in Egyptian designating slaves , which basically different between household and agricultural workers, Slaves could be bought sold and threadlike any pother chattel. yet in the whole they appear to have been well treated and there are even examples of emancipated slaves marrying into their former owner’s family .The majority of slaves were female, employed in domestic tasks . yet not all domestic workers were slaves ; many personal servants , as far as we can tell , were free to leave their employer or could be dismissed.
No comments The Meaning of a Pyramid We have reached the end of our detective story of exploration into the distant past, and the time has come to take stock. First of all, let us restate the problem that we have solved. The riddle of the pyramids arises out of a discrepancy which many people have found difficult to accept. It is the disparity between the effort of heaping up 25 million tons of quarried limestone and the sole object of burying under them three pharaohs. However much the Egyptians were interested in the afterlife, eight million tons of rock, all nicely shaped and smoothed, per pharaoh must seem excessive. It is therefore not surprising that various alternative uses for the pyramids have been proposed. All of these, however, turn out to be a good deal less acceptable than the straightforward tomb theory. Moreover, we have Herodotus’ statement that the pyramids were tombs, and even if we have doubts whether it was the kings’ bodies or their souls which were buried in them, the funerary function of the pyramids is firmly established.
Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
My own solution came as a surprise – at least to me. The object of the whole exercise was not the use to which the final product was to be put but its manufacture. Pharaohs could be buried and were, in fact, buried much more cheaply. What mattered was not the pyramid – it was building the pyramid. There are a number of highly encouraging features in this solution. In the first place it does not contradict the well-established fact that the pyramids were funerary monuments. Secondly, it provides a rational explanation for the colossal labour effort, since employment of labour on an immense scale was the main political and economic object. Thirdly, and this is particularly gratifying, I did not set out to prove my point. My interest was confined to a technological disaster, and the solution of the main problem arrived quite unsolicited. Finally, the solution could be tested on a completely isolated system – the Mexican pyramids – and the test turned out to be successful beyond expectation. Before proposing a new theory, a scientist usually surveys his material critically, searching for weak points or inconsistencies. There may be some, but if so, I have not been able to detect them. On the other hand, the consistent nature of the four points enumerated in the preceding paragraph encourages me to think that my conclusions would have to contain quite a number of errors before the theory could be proved invalid. So let us assume for the present that the solution proposed in this book is correct and let us see where we go from there – apart from future corroborative evidence, with which even the best established theory can always do. It would indeed be a poor and sterile theory unless it opens more questions than it has answered. The first question suggests itself immediately. If man 5,000 years ago looked for a great, unifying common task, why did he choose a pyramid instead of something useful, such as an irrigation scheme? Here the answer is simple. Irrigation projects had been in Egypt long before the pyramids but they were always local efforts, giving benefit to a few villages. Even a more ambitious scheme, such as the Bar Yusuf connecting the Nile with Lake Moeris in the Fayum, would hardly have brought the people together in one locality, and its execution demanded a level of hydrological engineering which, at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, was well beyond their ability. The same argument also applies to the more basic and straightforward project of damming up the Nile at the apex of the Delta. It is worth remembering that when the French eventually undertook it at Kaliub in about i860, the dam proved a dismal failure because they had underestimated the seepage of water under its foundations. No, the construction of an impressive man-made mountain was not a matter of choice. It was the only means of doing something spectacular with the large labour force that they wanted to gather, and a mountain of 500 elevation was, as we have seen, the best they could manage. In Chapter 6 we have traced its development through the escalation of Zoser’s monument, which resulted in the Step Pyramid. The building of a distinctive mark in the landscape by making a large heap is still with us in the desire of children making a sand castle. Moreover, this primitive urge is testified to in the Bible (Genesis, XI, 4): ‘Let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make a name.’ The Egyptians of the Fourth Dynasty certainly made their name by building the pyramids. The second question is equally obvious. Why was the building of immense pyramids discontinued ? The answer has, to some extent, already been given earlier in this book. Once, through the process of building pyramids the formation of a centralised state had been achieved, there was little point in continuing this activity. Building pyramids in Egypt to bury kings, and in Mexico to sacrifice humans, continued, but these later pyramids were on a scale so much reduced that the primary object of concentrating a large labour force clearly did not apply. In both orbits, pyramid-building had achieved its aim and there was no point in prolonging it. Once the object of creating the centralised state had been attained, independently in the two independent hemispheres, it had found its place in the development of society, and it had not to be invented again. It is interesting to note that the only project of commensurable size, the Great Wall of China, followed the pyramids by 2,000 years and that its purpose was not in building it but in the use of the final product – to save the state from barbarian incursions. Finally, we must ask the question whether pyramid building is likely ever to occur again. We have seen that it was the means by which human society was transformed from a rural village economy to an entirely new form of community life, the state. The world of village and tribe had reached a condition in which no further progress could be made, except through a drastic change, such as took place in Egypt 5,000 years ago. Without this change it would have remained stationary, as it has in many parts of Africa almost to this day. The state as created by the Fourth Dynasty was the nucleus from which, through an infinite variety of expansions, mankind has progressed to its present form. However, the framework, the national (state, has been retained essentially unchanged. The existence of national states soon gave rise to organised wars between them, a pattern that has not been changed in its basic features for five millennia. States have come and gone, nations have risen and fallen, but the pattern of their life and strife has been retained in that uneasy equilibrium which we call ‘the balance of power’. There have been fluctuations, periods in which national wars were almost abolished as, for instance, under the Pax Romana, the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and even in the hope of a Pax Britannica. However, all these had to fail because the globe was too large, and from somewhere an enemy would arise to force mankind back into the old pattern of national war. In the lifetime of many of us two of these wars have engulfed the whole world, involving not only the fighting forces but also resulting, in one way or another, in the slaughter of many millions of civilians. Since then, however, two important things have happened. The doomsday machine has been invented and the world has shrunk. The nuclear arsenals have become so extensive that not only can the attacking power win by rapid devastation, but the losing one could, by the judicious addition of long-lived radio-isotopes, arrange for the suicide of vanquished and victor alike. Under these circumstances even the politicians have recognised that mankind can afford only one more world war and that we had better not have it. In fact, we have arrived at the stage where the time-honoured system of asserting the sovereignty of national states by war has ceased to function. With it, one suspects, the justification for the national state as an essential form of human society will also fade away. The world has become much too small for the different shades of men and their individual languages to play separate games. They certainly would find ways of irritating each other. The only thing left to us is the creation of a new pattern of life which takes in all members of the species homo sapiens. In other words, there is no alternative to a very drastic change that is acceptable to everybody. And that means that we have to get together, to work together and to get better acquainted with each other. Together we must build a new pyramid. Unfortunately, it is as yet by no means clear what form and character this new pyramid will have. Its object, on the other hand, is well-defined. It has to be a unifying common task of such magnitude that its impact will be felt throughout the world. Among the various suggestions which have been offered, uplifting the poor and stopping pollution take first place, and they are worthy causes that are in people’s minds. However, while I would consider both as priority programmes, I am not so sure that they are likely to provide what is wanted. A little while ago I accompanied a group of enthusiastic young people to the shores of a huge crater lake in the West African jungle. There are no roads to it, only a track which becomes impassable in the rainy season. Along the shores of the lake live 10,000 people without any medical care in what still is the white, and also the black, man’s grave. The infant mortality is very, very high. Against severe odds the young missionaries are setting up a small hospital at the lake and since its fetish does not permit the presence of metal, they intend to visit the villages by the shore in a glass- fibre boat. My forecast is that, if they are successful, the population will have doubled in five years, with still 10,000 needing medical care and 20,000 needing food. Since the worst pollution on our earth is the uncontrolled proliferation of the human species, the well-meaning enthusiasts will have innocently, but handsomely, contributed to it. I have purposely chosen this rather extreme example to show that most worthwhile common tasks tend to be fraught with difficulties. The trouble with all such programmes is that they are designed to achieve a particular end effect. The great strength and beauty of the pyramid projects lay in the complete uselessness of the final product. Their importance was provided by carrying them out and not by achieving a stated aim. The Egyptian and Mexican pyramids were designed for entirely different uses but the main purpose, that is, engaging a large number of people in a common task, was the same for both. If we want our new pyramid to succeed, we have to make sure that the final edifice is as useless as possible. This will allow for any amount of error and faulty direction in the project since, by definition, a useless final product cannot be made more useless by mistakes. When an article of mine on the pyramids was published in the Neue Ziircher Zeitung I was amused to learn that my colleagues at GERN, the European Nuclear Research Centre, got the idea that it was really less concerned with the pyramids than with them. Their suspicion was, of course, not completely unfounded except that they had taken themselves too seriously by at least three orders of magnitude. The miserable 50 million pounds which they annually spend on trying to find a particle, which is still more fundamental than the fundamental ones, amount, at present standards, to a ridiculously small pyramid. There is only one project in the world today which, as far as one can see, offers the possibility of being large enough and useless enough to qualify eventually for the new pyramid. And that is the exploration of outer space. When for the first time man stepped on to the moon, the whole world sat glued to their television sets, each viewer identifying himself with the astronauts. It stirred their imagination more than any other event in our time. For a moment the pride of human achievement silenced even the clamour for three instead of two Sundays a week and the rallying call for saving from extinction the Puerto Rican parrot.
In the end, the results of space exploration are likely to be as ephemeral as the pharaoh accompanying the sun. The effort in money or, what is the same, in labour will be gigantic. No other incentive will be provided than the satisfaction of man to make a name for himself by building a tower that reaches unto planetary space. Five thousand years ago the Egyptians, for an equally vague reason, accepted a monstrous sacrifice of sweat and toil which led man into a new form of society. Perhaps we should build the space pyramid, and the effort in doing so together may be the necessary sacrifice which we must bring to gain a new and peaceful world community.
No comments Anedjib, Semerkhet and Qa’a The next king of the 1st Dynasty reigned for 26 years, if we identify Anedjib with the Miebidos of Manetho. There is some evidence at this period of a dynastic struggle, of north versus south. Anedjib seems to have come from the area of Abydos known as This and is recorded as a Thinite king on the Saqqara King List from the tomb of Thunery (p. 12). Many stone vases bearing his name had their inscriptions erased under his successor Semerkhet, who was himself omitted from the Saqqara List. The Saqqara tomb of the noble Nebitlca, previously ascribed to Anedjib (no. 3038), has an interesting architectural feature, also present in the earlier Saqqara tomb of Queen Merneith. Concealed within the normal rectangular palace fagade mastaba was the base of a stepped structure, a curious juxtaposition of two quite different forms. (Mastaba is an Arabic word for ‘bench’, given to the early tombs since their low flat form resembled the bench found outside the door of village houses.) Possibly here, and in the tomb of Merneith, we have the beginnings of Anedjib’s tomb at Abydos (Tomb X) is one of the worst built and smallest amongst the Abydos royal tombs, a mere 53% x 29Vi ft (16.4 x 9 m), although it had a burial chamber constructed entirely in wood. The surrounding 64 graves of retainers were also of low standard.
Detail of a schist fragment inscribed with the names of Qa’a and Semerkhet, preceded by the sign ntr (god) within an enclosure fence. Cairo Museum.
The next king Semerkhet, reigned for nine years according to the Palermo Stone, or 18 according to Manetho, who notes that there were numerous disasters during the reign. These may have been connected with the problems in relation to his predecessor, it having been suggested that Semerkhet was in fact a usurper because he erased the name of his predecessor from stone vases and was himself omitted from the Saqqara King List. His tomb at Abydos (Tomb U) measures 95 x 1013/t ft (29 x 31 m) and is vastly superior in size and quality to that of his predecessor, with its brick-lined burial chamber and the well-built servants’ graves. Unusually, no large tomb has been identified at Saqqara to his reign. The last king of the 1st Dynasty, Qa’a (Qa’a-hedjet), may have reigned for 26 years, but Manetho’s name of Bieneches, whom he gives as the last king of the dynasty, hardly equates with Qa’a. A large tomb found at Saqqara by Emery in 1954 (no. 3505) was ascribed to Qa’a, but we now believe it to be that of a priestly noble, Merkha, whose large limestone stele giving his name and titles has one of the longest texts extant from the period. The size of the tomb, 213 x 121 ft (65 x 37 m), was such that it led Emery to suggest that Merkha had been granted the honour of burial close to his royal master.
The superbly carved limestone stele of Qa’a shows the king embraced by the falcon-headed god Horus. It probably came from Abydos since so fine a stele must surely have been associated with the king’s tomb. Louvre, Paris.
The large tomb of Qa’a at Abydos (Tomb Q) was re-excavated in 1993 by the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo. They revealed that the tomb had been subject to numerous alterations and enlargements, starting from a simple brick-lined burial chamber. Small by Saqqara comparisons, only 98‘/2 x 75Vi ft (30 x 23 m), it also had a lesser number of satellite burials, only 26. It is notable that the practice of satellite (sacri¬ficial) burials seems to have stopped in Qa’a’s reign in the north, although some are still present, but not in such vast quantities, in the south at Abydos. Petrie assigned the tomb at Abydos to Qa’a not only from the usual jar sealings but also from two fragmentary stele he found on the east side of the tomb that gave Qa’a’s Horus name in a serekh. A superb limestone stele of the king acquired by the Louvre in 1967 shows him wearing the tall White Crown of Upper Egypt and embraced by the falcon-headed Horus. The White Crown also forms part of his name within the serekh above the two heads, possibly indicating the final triumph of the south, Abydos.
A change of dynasty normally indicates a break in the line of the ruling house, yet Manetho tells us that the kings of the 2nd Dynasty also came from This, being Thinite kings, from near Abydos, as were the last kings of the 1st Dynasty.
So Khafre built this Pyramid ? Khafre ( Chephren in Greek) succeeded Djedefre and reigned from 2520-2494 B.C ) . he is credited with building this Pyramid .
The are you using the word ” Credit?” Did he or didn’t he build it ?
Like all the other Pyramids of Giza for Zoser;s , it is essentially anonymous . The attribution is made through Herodotus account and the surrounding funerary complex , which repeatedly refers to his name , but not as the builder of this pyramid . There are no inscriptions in the Pyramid , nor is there any evidence that Khafre or anyone else was ever buried in the stone chest , embedded in the main room .
I know that this pyramid is smaller than Khufu’s. But why does it look bigger to me?
It looks bigger to everybody because : 1 – It was built on slightly higher ground than Khufu’s . 2 – It maintained its summit , while Khufu;s Pyramid lost of top33′ (10m). As it is the most preserved pyramid of the Giza group , it stands close to Khufu’s and in size is almost its twin .
How about the casing blocks here and in Ancient Egypt ?
The upper courses consist of fine-grained limestone casing blocks The lower courses consist of granite casing blocks. The casing stones fit perfectly together with tongue and groove joints . There are still a large number of the while limestone casing stones , on the upper courses.
Khafre Pyramid
How did they ever manage to install the casing stones without chipping the corners even slightly ? As we said before , you don;t see any broken stones anywhere in the Giza Plateau . This goes to confirm again that pyramid blocks and casing stones were probably molded on site .
It makes sense , but is there more evidence ?
Let us look at some of these blocks . In some of them , you can see the outline of a stone incorporated into the block , which means that such such blocks were cat and cloud not have been quarried .
How about the stone block sizes here ?
Just like Khufu’s Pyramid , the heights of of blocks here are staggered , but they all have the same width .
Uniform width of blocks is another indication that they were molded . Right ?
Exactly. Also , Dr .Joseph Davidovits, the chemist and t Egyptologist ,checked the twenty-two steps near the top , and found them to conform to ten uniform lengths . yet more strong evidence that the blocks cloud never have been quarried with such uniform lengths .
Stones at the Temples of Khafre
Since we are on the subject of the molding or quarrying question , let us go and check the large blocks at the Mortuary Temple and the Valley Temple of Khafre.
OK With me .
There is a lot to talk about this are , but let us just focus the core limestone blocks , which were used to build these Temples. Some of these huge coarse blocks weigh well over a hundred tones. A few of them weigh up to 5000 tones apiece . These Huge blocks are very closely fitted. Notice these wavy horizontal lines in them. If these blocks were quarried , they would show a straight line for different strata.
Why are these lines wavy and not horizontal ?
The wavy line indicates that they stopped pouring the synthetic concrete for the day , or that a problem occurred which caused work stoppage , for several hours . When a huge block of concrete is cast it takes more than as single day to complete the job .
This is too overwhelming . I can’t argue the evidence . The evidence is all over!
To quarry and hoist these huge blocks and to set them so close to each other is unbelievable.
The island of Philae lies one-and-a-half miles south of the old Aswan Dam and is considered , by some , to be one of the greatest achievements of modern engineering . The dam the straight across the Nile for 2150 yards and has 180 sluices. It was built in 1891-1902, rising 130 feet above the bed of the Nile. In 1907-1912 it was heightened to 146 feet and in 1928-1934 it was raised for the second time to 155 feet. This increased its capacity to five billion cubic meters. Long before the completion of the dam, scientists and archaeologists ere considering ways to preserve Philae and other temples built in Nubia. Since the benefits of the dam were so great, and since no other site was as favorable, it appeared some of the ancient remains would need to be sacrificed for the welfare of modern Egypt. However, while the erection was in progress , the Egyptian government undertook a major project to save many of the temples of Nubia including those of Philae . The island of Philae formerly ranked as one of the most beautiful spots in Egypt . it was known as the “Pearl of Egypt” because of its many plants, palm trees and striking grouping of temples of sandstone quarried from Gebel Silsila, forty-one miles north of Aswan . here Pharaonic , Ptolemaic, Roman and Christian constructions all blend together in a symphony of symmetry and beauty . The island of Philae is about 500 yards long and 160 yards covered with a thick layer of mud deposited by the Nile . Philae s the smallest of three islands. Ti the west, separated from it by a narrow channel, is the island of Bigeh, twelve times it’s size;and a short distance farther in us El-Heseh, three times larger than Bigeh. The island lost much of its charm with the construction of the Aswan Dam . It was only during the summer months of July to September, when the water of the Nile was allowed flow freely through the gates of the dam, the the whole island stood above the water and access could be obtained to all of its temples . For the rest of the year only the upper part of the first pylon of the Great Temple of Isis was visible. All this was changed by the building of the high Dam or new Dam in 1960-1970, about three miles to the south of Philae. Philae seemed destined for total loss. Its position between the two dams to be permanently above the water , however, the danger would be even greater than before since the base of the temples, up to fifteen feet on height, would be attacked by the flowing waters several times a day. Under these conditions, the monuments would eventually disintegrate and crumble to the ground.
Temples of Philae Egypt at Aswan
Fortunately m the island was rescued in the last of the several salvation enterprises conducted through the joint efforts of UNESCO and the Egyptian government, The plan adopted for Philae was to enclose the island inside a temporary coffer dam of steel pilings, pump it dry , and then remove every stone of every structure and pavement to a storage area on the mainland . These would then be transferred to , and assembled on , the loftier island of Agikia, a quarter mile away. Meanwhile, the island of Agikia to lowered about had to be lowered about 100 feet and slightly enlarged so that its contours would duplicate those of Philae . Work began at Philae in 1971 and ended with the rebuilding of its structures in Agikia island in 1981.
No comments The Tombs of the Royal Ladies In 1920, the shrines and shaft tombs of six young royal ladies – Henhenet, Kemsit, Kawit, Sadeh, Ashayt and Muyet – were found under the pavement at the back of Mentuhotep It’s tomb-temple. The youngest, Muyet, was only about five years old and none of the others were more than 20. Henhenet’s sarcophagus was made up of six limestone blocks fitted together on a sandstone base, but the lid was inscribed for Kawit and clearly did not belong to it.
Egyptian Tombs
Numerous other royal ladies were buried in the area too, including Queen Tem, who was the mother of Mentuhotep II Sankhkare. Another of Mentuhotep I’s queens, Neferu (his sister), lay buried in a tomb a little to the north. In later years this obstructed the building of Hatshepsut’s temple, but it was carefully conserved and obviously the object of interest for 18th Dynasty tourists. In spite of the earlier visitors, Herbert Winlock’s excavations recovered fragments of finely carved wall reliefs and some sad remains of Neferu’s funerary provision, including small wax ushabti figures.
The wooden Models of the Chancell or Meketre
The tomb of Meketre, chancellor to Mentuhotep I, was located near his master’s, and built according to the contemporary fashion with a steeply sloping approach ramp and a huge entrance with a passage cut deep into the cliff face. Although the tomb had been heavily robbed and damaged in antiquity, investigations conducted by Herbert Winlock in 1919-20 revealed a small concealed chamber containing 25 of the most exquisite wooden models of daily life that have survived. The cache includes the great cattle count model, two female offering bearers, model butchers’ and bakers’ shops, granaries, weavers’ and carpenters’ shops, fishing skiffs and the great man’s flotilla, including the kitchen tender that obviously must have sailed unobtrusively down wind. There were even two models of Meketre’s porticoed house, complete with its garden pool shaded by trees.
1 comment The Ra – Sun God – and the Phoenix
