1 comment Sekhmet Egyptian Goddess Ptah’s consort, Sekhmet Goddess, was called the “Great Lady, beloved of Ptah, holy one, powerful one.” She was both wife and sister to Ptah, a common situation in Egyptian mythology. Usually she was depicted with the body of a woman and the head of a lioness. Her headpiece consisted of a solar disk, which associated her with the sun god, and a uraeus (or cobra), and she was often dressed in red. Her physical description and her name, which meant “to be strong, mighty, violent,” reflected her character: she was renowned for her violence and power. The Book of the Dead attributed her power to her use of the destructive forces of the sun s heat and also associated her with the hot winds of heaven. Other sources associated the hot winds of the desert with her breath.
Sekhmet Egyptian Goddess
Sekhmet Goddess was a goddess of war and accompanied the king into battle-her weapons were arrows, swift darts, and the fiery heat of her own body, which supposedly derived from the heat of the sun. She said of herself: “I am the fierce heat of the fire for a distance of Millions of cubits between Osiris and his enemy, and I keep away from him the evil ones and remove his foes from his habitation.”
Apparently her power was great enough not only to assist Osiris but at times to dominate even him according to the Book of the Dead, at the times of storms and great floods she had power even over the great god of the underworld.
Sekhmet’s father was said to have been Ra himself, and many of her attributes connected her with the sun god. In the early Egyptian writing she was often called the Eye of Ra, which was supposed to have represented the god when he was forced to take action against his enemies and was vindictive and fierce-the traditional evil eye. Judging from the hieroglyph for this eye, we can assume that its power was derived from the combativeness of the uraeus and the heat of the sun. As we saw in Chapter 7 (“Hathor”), when Ra sent Hathor out to avenge his mistreatment by human beings, he sent her in the form of Sekhmet Goddess , the lioness. This merging of the two goddesses accentuates the fact that in later years Sekhmet Goddess was connected with the character of numerous other goddesses, including Hathor, Nut, and Bastet (who as a domestic cat was sometimes said to represent the gentler aspect of Sekhmet). Amenhotep III placed several hundred statues of Sekhmet in his temple dedicated to Mut at Karnak.
The warrior goddess Sekhmet, shown with her sun disk and cobra crown
There were two minor characteristics of this goddess that seem at odds with her predominantly violent nature. First, she was often depicted holding or carrying the ankh, the sign of life; an second, she was renowned for her role as a healer because of her knowledge of magic and sorcery. These indications of care and concern for others are not easily reconciled with what else i knew about her activities.
No comments Tomb of Ramses VI This tomb was started by Ramses V and was usurped by his successor. It has three entrance corridors, two chambers, a further two corridors, one after the other in a straight line, leading to the ante-chamber and the tomb chamber. The wall representations are carried out in painted low relief. The standard of craftsmanship is not high, but the tomb chamber has one of the most important ceilings in the Valley of the Kings. In fact, names and mottoes in Coptic and Greek show that this ‘Golden Hall’ was an attraction from the first century AD.
Tomb of Ramses VI
On each side of the first corridor (i) are representations of the deceased standing before Ra-Harakhte (a) and Osiris (b). On the right-hand wall of the second corridor (c) the barge of the Sun-god travels through the different hours of the night, watched over by Osiris, at (d). The third corridor (3) has the figure of the Sky- goddess Nut extending across the roof, through the ante-chamber (4) and ends in chamber (5). A scene, at (e) shows Osiris under a canopy. Chamber (5) is supported by four pillars, on each of which the pharaoh is shown making offerings to the deities. On the rear walls (f) and (g) arc fine representations of the enthroned Osiris; the deceased burns incense before him. The sloping passage to the rear is guarded by sacred winged snakes.
Tomb of Ramses VI
Deeper and deeper through the different caverns of the underworld we travel, as we pass through corridor (6), which has a fine representation, at (h), of the fourth hour of the night. Protective and sacred emblems safeguard the barge of the Sun-god in the sloping corridor (7), which leads to the ante-chamber. On the right-hand wall (i), the deceased stands with Maat, goddess of Truth; on the left-hand wall (j) are sacred texts. The tomb chamber (9), which is decorated throughout and is well preserved, has a vaulted ceiling and the smashed sarcophagus at its centre. The right-hand wall (k) has a symbolic representation of the Sun-god represented in the form of a beetle with a ram’s head. The boat in which he travels is worshipped by two has, human-headed birds, and by the souls of Kheper and Atum. Above this scene is the goddess Nut, with upstretched arms; below are the condemned, beheaded.
Tomb of Ramses VI
Dark blue and gold predominate on the ceiling, where the goddess Nut is twice depicted along its entire length, in a graceful semi-circle with backs touching. She represents the morning and the evening skies. Her elongated body curves to touch the earth with finger and toe, head to the west and loins to the east. The astrological representations include the different signs of the Egyptian zodiac: lion, serpent, balances, scorpion, archer and goat; the crab, twins, bull, ram, fishes and water carrier. There are also ships containing controllers of the different sections of the day and divisions of the half year.
Tomb of Ramses VI
In the niche to the rear (1), the barge of the Sun-god is held aloft by upstretched arms.
No comments Sailing toward the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, 1819 Giovanni Belzoni
Temple of Jupiter Ammon
. . . we put on board some provisions and made towards the west, where the famous Labyrinth is supposed to have been situated. The water of the lake was good enough to drink, though a little saltish; but it was only this year that it could be drunk at all, owing to the extraordinary overflow of the Nile, which surmounted all the high lands, and, in addition to the Bahr Yousuf, came in such torrents into the lake, that it raised the water twelve feet higher than it ever had been in the memory of the oldest fisherman. We advanced towards the west, and at sunset, saw the shore quite deserted, with nothing to look at but the lake and the mountains on the northern side of it. Our boatman lighted a fire, while the other went to fish with a net, and soon returned with a supper of fish. The land we were now in, had anciently been cultivated, as there appeared many stumps of palm and other trees nearly petrified. I also observed the vine in great plenty. The scene here was beautiful. The silence of the night, the beams of the radiant moon resting on the still water of the lake, the solitude of the place, the sight of our boat, the group of fishermen, and the temple a little way off (Kassar-el-Karon), . . . Nothing could be more pleasing to my imagination. [On the next day they continued west to near the end of the lake, where they landed and Belzoni set off with two boatmen to the temple named Kassar-el- Karon, standing in the ruins of a town.]
The temple is placed on a small eminence, bearing marks of having been washed by the lake. At its entrance, which faces south-east, there is a portico unlike any other in Egypt, and bearing a Greek inscription, in which the name of Thermusis occurs All its walls have the inclination observable in genuine Egyptian buildings; every part is symmetrical; and the winged globe over the entrance, the only external ornament, is alone sufficient to show by what people it was built. Five halls may be traced, though filled with rubbish; and the walls of the inmost, which is the sanctuary, are adorned with sculptures, among which Apis is clearly recognised. Behind it there is a very lofty and strongly re-echoing chamber, quite dark, and accessible only by a small aperture very easily concealed. This place was designed to hide the person who secretly delivered the oracles which the god was supposed to communicate. On the side of the large chamber, there are five small ones, quite unornamented, and now choked up with rubbish. In the interior of the building, there is a flight of steps leading to an upper storey, on the walls of which human figures appear among the sculptures, and among them Cneph or Cnuphis, the Jupiter Ammon of the Greeks, to whom this temple was dedicated. It was long taken for part of the Labyrinth.
No comments Pyramids and human sacrifice at the top of them were discovered by the Conquistadors to be a standard feature of daily life throughout Mexico. Since human sacrifice came to an abrupt end with the Conquest, the actual number of sacrifices is not certain but native records show that at the dedication of the great temple of Tenochtitlan in 1487 twenty thousand victims were dispatched. When thirty years later the Spaniards entered the great square of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, they found a rack holding many thousands of skulls and similar depositories were discovered in all the other towns and even villages. The Aztecs were a warlike race and they had a multitude of thirsty gods, above all Huitzilo- pochtli, the humming bird who led them into battle.
Mexican Pyramids
His innumerable victims were led up the steps of the pyramid, each stretched with his back over the altar by four priests who had gripped his arms and legs. A fifth priest plunged a stone knife into his belly, ripping open the abdominal cavity, and deftly tore out the still pulsating heart from his chest to be offered on behalf of the god to the sun. Often the victims were first prodded into dancing around the altar, as the Spaniards saw their captured comrades doing on St John’s night in June 1521. Victims in honour of Xipe Totec were crucified and flayed alive so that the priests could wear their skins. Tezcatlipoca, the smoking mirror, required his bound victims to be thrown onto glowing embers to be pulled out again in time to have their hearts torn out. Women, too, were sacrificed, being beheaded while dancing, and the tears of children taken for sacrifice were meant to signify rain which was needed. There was a never-ending variety of ritual for which the pyramid had to provide the stage. It imposed certain and definite demands on the architect. First of all, the spectacle should be visible to a large audience who should be able to watch the ritual in all its phases. At the beginning of the ceremony, the victim had to be identified with the god to whom he was offered. He was given the headdress characteristic of the god and his emblems. Then he took leave of mankind, being led up the steps of the pyramid, and this ascent into the sphere of divinity required a broad and impressive stairway. Much thought and architectural skill had been devoted by the Mexican builders to the various solutions of this problem, which we shall discuss presently in detail. After the victim had reached the top of the pyramid, the central feature of the ritual, the sacrifice itself and the apotheosis of the dead man, had to be enacted. He was believed to join the god when his heart was offered up to the sun. It was therefore important that every detail of the victim’s death throes should be observable to the crowd in the pyramid enclosure. It meant that the pyramid, while being sufficiently imposing, must not be too high. Finally, the corpse had to be disposed of, and this, too, should be done in a spectacular manner. For this purpose the body was rolled down the stairway which had to be steep enough to provide an uninterrupted passage to the ground. Finally, as a backcloth to the ritual there had to be a shrine at the top of the platform which was a sanctuary dedicated to the god and which served as an abode for the holy image. Some of the Aztec pyramids, such as that in the capital, Tenochtitlan, and another close by, at Tenayuca, carried at the top two sanctuaries, dedicated to different gods. At these twin structures only the pyramid itself was common to both cults but separate staircases led up side by side to the two sanctuaries. Practically all the Aztec pyramids in the Valley of Mexico had a core of adobe bricks, which were faced with stone held together with mortar. This sets certain limits on the steepness of the stairs but, since the total height of the structure was modest, a fairly high angle of elevation could be maintained. Even the most important pyramids, such as the great temple of Tenochtitlan, rose to only 30 m., not more than a fifth of the great pyramids of Giza. Since the staircase served as a stage for the initial phases of the sacrifice, the spectators’ interest had to be focused on it and the impression of steepness was further enhanced by an accentuated elevation of the banisters near the top. Thanks to the use of different materials, the Mayas of Yucatan were able to construct steeper stairs, reaching higher. They built their pyramids throughout of stone, held together with a very strong lime r.iortar. When set, this type of structure was essentially monolithic and there was no danger of slip or plastic flow. In this way they could achieve angles of elevation of up to 750, much steeper than anything attempted in Egypt, and about as steep as the remaining core of the Meidum pyramid. The great stairway of the ‘Pyramid of the Magician’ at Uxmal rises at an angle of almost 50° to a height of nearly 35 m. This is clearly at the very limit of practicability for a flight of steps; when I climbed it I certainly had to keep a good hold of the iron chain now provided for visitors to make a safe ascent. The steepness of these stairways, which was necessary for their sinister purpose, was brought home to me by a macabre incident at the pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza. Emerging from a tunnel at ground level, I came upon a group of Maya Indians in a hushed silence. At the bottom of the stairs was a large pool of blood. One of the Maya girls whom I had seen making the ascent a few minutes earlier had lost her footing and cracked open her skull. At this pyramid another cunning device had been used by the architects to make the stairway appear even steeper than it is. This was achieved by making the banisters diverge slightly towards the top of the stairs. Standing, as the spectators were, directly in front of the pyramid, this architectural trick cannot be noticed and it is only from a fair distance that the diverging banisters can be perceived. The great strength of their mortar allowed the Maya to create internal space in their stone buildings. Just as in Egypt, however, they did not discover the carrying properties of the barrel vault and also had to rely on the corbelled roof. The typical Maya arch is gradually narrowed towards the top, making ample use of the cantilever principle. Consequently, the ratio of internal space to the total size of their building is, in spite of the near-monolithic construction, fairly low. However, unlike the Aztec pyramids, those in Yucatan have mostly retained the crowning temple, often embellished by an elegant roof comb.
From what has been said so far it is clear that the Mexican pyramids differ in a number of essential features from those of Egypt. Whereas the latter could not be ascended after completion, all the Mexican pyramids were provided with steps leading up to the stop of a truncated building. The basic idea of the Central American structures was simply to raise the sanctuary of the god high above the ground. The object was a stairway leading up to a temple. The purpose of the pyramids was therefore quite different in the two cases. Until fairly recently it was taken for granted that the Mexican pyramids never served as tombs. In 1951, however, an internal staircase was discovered in the ‘Pyramid of the Inscriptions’ at Palenque which led into an undisturbed tomb deep in the body of the structure. The staircase, which had been blocked with rubble, descends to a chamber in which the skeletons of four people, evidently sacrificial victims, were found. When a large stone slab at the far end of this chamber was removed it revealed a crypt whose floor was almost completely covered by the carved lid of a huge sarcophagus. It contained the skeleton of a man of magnificent stature whose face had been covered with a jade mask and who wore jade ornaments.
No comments The Cities that Make Up Cairo, c. 960 Ebn Haukal
The chief city of Egypt is called Fostat, situated on the bank of the River Nile to the north. The Nile flows from the east; and this city is situated on one side of it. Near to it are certain edifices, called Jezireh, or the Island, to which they pass from Fostat on a bridge; and from this Jezireh they have constructed a bridge to the other bank, where there is a place called Jeirah [Giza], The extent of the city is about two thirds of a farsang: it is very well inhabited, and supplied with provisions; all their houses are seven or eight storeys high. . . . Hamra is a town situated on the bank of the River Nile.
Fostat Egypt
It has two principal mosques: one in the middle of the town built by Amru ben Aas; and the other in the place called Mouekef, erected by Laaher ben Toulon. Without the town is a certain place of about a mile in extent, which that Laaher Toulon called to be built for his troops: this they call Fetaia or Ketaia. . . . On the northern side of the river Nile, near Fostat, there is a certain hill, called Moazem, in the vicinity of which is found the khemahein, and this hill extends to the land of the Ionians (Greeks). And near that hill, in the district of Fostat, is a burying place, where the tomb of Shafaei is situated, the Lord be merciful to him!
In the vicinity of Fostat, there grows a plant, called balsam, from which the oil is extracted. This is not to be found in any other part of the world.
No comments Luxor Today it is difficult when one arrives at Luxor to imagine how the great city of Thebes was laid out. For centuries the capital of the Egyptian Kingdom, it was proverbially famous for its wealth («the city where the rich houses are treasures»), it is the city which Homer in the IX canto of the II- liad referred to as «Thebes of the hundred gates». Just a little village during the Memphis era it was the spot where the god of war Montu was worshipped. Its importance started to increase appreciably from the Xth dynasty onwards, for both political and geographical reasons, until finally it became the capital of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. The god Amon, part of the triad which also included Mut and Khonsu, was worshipped here with great pomp. Every victory and triumph was celebrated by the construction of new and grandiose temples., to the god. Its decline started with the sacking of the city by Ashur-ban-pal in 672 B.C. and it was finally destroyed completely by the Ptolemies. In Roman times it was already just a ruin. As with Memphis a prophesy had been fulfilled, «Thebes shall be rent asunder» said Ezechiel (Ezechiel, XXX, 16). The old Egyptian capital is divided in two by a canal; to the south grew up the town of Luxor while to the north the village of Karnak developed.
Luxor
In Luxor the only witness to its splendid past is the grandiose temple that the Egyptians call «Amon’s southern harem», 260 metres long it was started by Amon-Ofis III, enlarged by Tutmose III and finished by Ramses II. It is joined to the temple of Karnak by a long avenue of sphinxes with ram’s heads which the XXth dynasty substituted for the human head. This road has not been completely uncovered and work is still in progress to restore it in its integrity. The road finished at what effectively constituted the entrance of the temple of Luxor, marked by the great pylon built by Ramses II which was 65 metres wide and was decorated with bas-reliefs representing scenes from the military campaign led by Ramses II against the Hittites, and also with the text of the so-called «Poem of Pentaur» in which the Pharaoh’s war exploits were celebrated. In front of the pylon there used to stand the two obelises of Ramses II but today only one on the left (25 metres high) remains, the other having been carried away to France in 1833 and erected by the engineer Lebas on 25th October 1836 in the centre of the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Luxor
The entrance is flanked by two granite colossi representing the Pharaoh seated on his throne fifteen and a half metres high on a base of about one metre. Originally the two colossi stood beside four huge statues of pink granite having their backs to the pylon, of which one represented the Queen Nefertari and another on the right (which is still standing but is much damaged) represents her daughter Merit-Amon. Beyond this triumphal entrance is the courtyard of Ramses II in which stand two rows of columns whose capitals represent a closed papyrus flower, with between the columns, Osirian statues. In this courtyard there also stand the little temple of Tutmose III which possesses three chapels dedicated to the triad of Amon, Mut and Khonsu who are worshipped in the sanctuary of Karnak. Finally an imposing colonnade, 25 metres long, leads into the courtyard of Amon-Ofis III which is surrounded on three sides by a sides by a double row of columns with closed papyrus capitals, a veritable petrified forest which is very evocative.
Luxor
The outside of the temple is also quite interesting. The external wall has numerous doors leading into the various side chapels in which are depicted scenes from the battle against the Syrian-Hittite coalition and also scenes from religious ceremonies. To one side can be found remains of buildings which were part of the Roman camp («castrum» in Latin). The present name of Luxor is derived from the Arabic «E1 Qousour» a translation of the Latin «castrum».
No comments The Scribe (Dynasty IV) Ancient Egyptians considered the profession of the scribe to be the highest of professions. The scribe was close to the Pharaoh because of his wisdom and knowledge. This statue is made of painted limestone and is of an unknown squatting scribe holding an open papyrus roll on his knees. The eyes are of inlaid quartz and framed with bronze. Although the ancient Egyptian was very careful to keep up with artistic standards in sculpture, there is a little deviation of the statue’s head to the right side as if thinking before writing.
No comments Snefru’s Red Pyramid We now proceed to another pyramid less than a mile of the Bent Pyramid , Which is called the Northern Pyramid of Dahshur . It is popularly known as the Red Pyramid because if the reddish or pinkish tint of the core stones.
Snefru’s Red Pyramid
Ancient Egyptian Pyramid
The Red Pyramid is in good condition . This is the earliest monument which is in complete pyramidical from . It looks good because i still retains large areas of its original casing stones .
Who built the Red Pyramid ?
Again , there are no inscriptions whatever inside or outside if this pyramid . It is believed that thus pyramid was built during the reign of king Snefru (2575 – 25551B.C).
The blocks here are huge !
yes . The height of blocks here vary from 1′-7″ (.5m) to 4′-7″ (1.4m).
What is inside the Red Pyramid ?
The entrance passage is again the unique typical polar passage .it leads down a long , sloping corridor , to the bedrock , and is only 3′-11″(1.2m) high . Again , he passage is too small for a person to walk standing up straight .
The passage leads to two adjoining a third l identical rooms with corbelled roofs
A short passage leads upwards to a third large room, The corbelled roof of this third room rises to a height of 50′(15.2m) .
Really unique arrangement , It sure is . Also here ,for the first time , the rooms were incorporated into the pyramid itself ( traditionally they were underground )
The rooms were empty again ?
Yes. No trace of a stone chest or burial was found anywhere in the three rooms ,
So Snefru built at least two and maybe tree large pyramids
Yes, Snefru built two , and possibly three colossal pyramids m and erected stone monuments throughout Egypt , It is estimated that nine million tones of stone were used during the Pharaoh;s twenty -four years reign .
So Snefru used more stone in building than his famous son Khufu ?
Yes , Building with stone occurred on a mush larger scale prior to the building with stone occurred in a much larger scale prior to the building of Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza .
So Snefru was never buried in his pyramid ?
there is no evidence of burial in any of the three pyramids . It should be clearer than ever that these Pyramids were not built to entomb anybody.
No comments Nut Ancient Egyptian Sky Goddess Nut Goddess was almost always depicted as a woman with remarkable j physical proportions. Most of the drawings showed her nude, with j large breasts and detailed anatomy. Nut Goddess was pretty and appealing. If she wore any headdress, it was a vase of water, and her name derived from the phonetic sound of the word for vase. Sometimes she was shown standing in a sycamore tree, her symbol, pouring out water to purify the souls of the dead.
Nut Egyptian Goddess
The myth that was basic to her explains her relationship with the sun. Nut Goddess was supposed to give birth daily to her son, the sun. He then passed over her body until he reached her mouth, whereupon she ate him, and he disappeared until it was time for him to be born again the next morning. This myth was frequently represented in Pharaonic ceiling paintings, such as that of the temple at Dendera or the tomb of Ramses VI at Luxor. Here she is shown nude; her limbs and trunk so extraordinarily long that her body covers in some paintings-the outline of three edges of the ceiling.
Her hands begin in one corner and her arms take up the length of one wall. The second and third wall-lengths are taken up by her body and legs respectively, with her feet reaching to the end of the third wall. The sun, in the form of a ball, is depicted rolling over her body from the point of birth to her mouth, where it was to be eaten. Elsewhere, Nut’s ceiling appearance is more symbolic: in the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara it is made up of thousands of small stars, creating a sky-like background for the hieroglyphics, which form part of the Pyramid Texts.
Another version of this myth is again concerned with Nut Goddess eating her own children. This story tells how the stars followed Ra into the mouth of their mother, and thereby disappeared during the daytime. Geb became angry at the thought of his wife eating her own children and he quarreled with her, comparing her to “the sow that eats her piglets.” Her father, Shu, however, intervened and sent a message to Geb not to be angry. Shu insisted that the eating of the children each morning assured that they would be born again that evening and would therefore survive safely.
Nut Goddess was often connected with Hathor, the cow goddess. In one myth Ra had fallen into serious trouble with the residents of earth. Nun advised him to mount the back of Nut Goddess in her cow form and ride away through the sky to escape the anger of the humans. In typical drawings of this story, the boats of Ra can be seen beside her front legs where they join her body, and also to the rear beside her udder. Ra himself rides in the foremost of the two boats. Nut’s belly is lined with stars, and Shu stands under her supporting the sky. This one scene illustrates four different concepts of the sky held by ancient Egyptians: the woman, the cow, the ocean (through which the boats sail), and the ceiling over Shu that must be supported.
The Pyramid Texts were full of prayers to Nut Goddess to provide protection for the dead, since the gods flying daily through the sky in their boat were under her protection, as were the souls of the dead. As a sign of this role for Nut Goddess, many sarcophagi have her image carved on the undersides of their lids. While the dead person lies there eternally, he looks up at the personification of the sky. As a result, one of her many names was “the great protect tress.” Examples of this image of Nut Goddess can be found in both the Egyptian Museum and the British Museum.
Nut’s greatest role, however, was as the mother of the main body of gods in the Great Ennead. Myths told us that she and Geb, the earth, entered into an embrace each night; and the Pyramid Texts told us that the earth was an island that lay between the legs of Nut Goddess. The inevitable result was that she gave birth to the major gods of the next generation. For this Nut Goddess was known in the Coffin Texts as “she with the braided hair who gave birth to the gods.”!
In her capacity as the sky, the protector of men and gods, the ocean through which Ra made his daily journey, and the mother of the gods, Nut Goddess was one of the most highly revered of the Great Ennead. She was probably depicted in more different scenes and myths than any of the others, yet her personal power was small. She served and protected others more powerful than herself.
Who designed this complex ? His name was Imhotep he was Zoser’s architect and Vizier . He held many titles , among them m the builder , the Sculptor . the Builder , the Sculptor , the Maker of Stone Vases . He was also called “The Inventor ” of the art building with polished ( was mistranslated by many as hewn ) stone . He was the first to use stone if such large magnitude of such large magnitude in building . his knowledge and wisdom were renowned for thousands of years . The Greeks called him Imuthes and identified him with their god Aesculapius , son of Apollo .
He is Considered in history as the greatest father of masons .
1 comment Sekhmet Egyptian Goddess
