Travel Directory Blog

Temple of Horus, Edfu, Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:31:00 +0000

The Temple of Horus in Edfu (also known as the Temple of Edfu) is considered the best-preserved cult temple in Egypt. This partly because it was built later than most: in the Ptolemaic era from 237 to 57 BC.

Yet despite its later date, it exactly reflects traditional pharaonic architecture and so provides an excellent idea of how all the temples once looked. Edfu is also very large: the second largest in Egypt after Karnak Temple.

The provincial town of Edfu is located about halfway between Luxor (115km away) and Aswan (105km) and 65km north of Kom Ombo. A very popular destination, Edfu is included in virtually all Egyptian tour itineraries and can be reached by taxi or by cruise on the Nile followed by a caleche ride.
History

In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. After his death in 323, his successors ruled Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. This was the last dynasty of independent Egypt. The Ptolemies were Greeks but presented themselves to the Egyptians as native pharaohs and closely imitated the traditions and architecture of pharaonic Egypt.

The Temple of Horus at Edfu was built during the Ptolemiac era on top of an earlier temple to Horus, which was oriented east-west instead of the current north-south configuration.

The oldest part of the temple is the section from the Festival Hall to the Sanctuary; this was begun by Ptolemy III in 237 BC and completed by his son, Ptolemy IV Philopator. The Hypostyle Hall was added by Ptolemy VII (145-116 BC) and the pylon was erected by Ptolemy IX (88-81 BC). The final touches to the temple were added under Ptolemy XII in 57 BC.

The falcon-headed Horus was originally the sky god, whose eyes were the sun and moon. He was later assimilated into the popular myth of Isis and Osiris as the divine couple's child. Raised by Isis and Hathor after Osiris' murder by his brother Seth, Horus avenged his father's death in a great battle at Edfu. Seth was exiled and Horus took the throne, Osiris reigning through him from the underworld. Thus all pharoahs claimed to be the incarnation of Horus, the "living king."

The Temple of Edfu was abandoned after the Roman Empire became Christian and paganism was outlawed in 391 AD. It lay buried up to its lintels in sand, with homes built over the top, until it was excavated by Auguste Mariette in the 1860s. The sand protected the monument over the years, leaving it very well preserved today.

In 2005, a visitor center and paved parking lot were added to the south side of the temple, and in late 2006 a sophisticated lighting system was added to allow night visits.

What to See

When facing the Pylon from the south, don't miss the Birth House is on the left. This colonnaded structure was the site of the annual Festival of Coronation, which reenacted the divine birth of Horus and the reigning pharaoh. Around the back of the building are reliefs of Horus being suckled by Isis. A Birth House is a Greco-Roman feature that would not have been part of older pharaonic temples.

Erected by Ptolemy IX (88-81 BC), the Pylon was one of the last features to be added. Standing 37m high, it is among the largest in Egypt. Its reliefs show a later Ptolemaic ruler, Neos Dionysos (Ptolemy VIII), smiting his enemies before Horus the Elder.

Beyond the Pylon is the spacious Court of Offerings, where people could enter to make offerings to the image of Horus. The court is surrounded by columns on three sides and is decorated with festival reliefs. Beginning on the inner walls of the Pylon and continuing around the court along the bottom of the wall, the reliefs depict the Festival of the Beautiful Meeting, during which Hathor's image sailed from Dendera to spend some intimate time with Horus in the sanctuary of the Temple of Edfu before sailing back.

Beneath the western colonnade are reliefs of Ptolemy IX (88-81 BC) making offerings to Horus, Hathor and Ihy; his successor is shown with the same deities across the way.

At the back of the Court of Offerings, outside the Hypostyle Hall, are a pair of black granite Horus statues. One stands taller than a man and is a favorite photographic subject of tourists; the other lies legless on the ground.

The rectangular Hypostyle Hall was built under Ptolemy VII (145-116 BC) and has two rows of six pillars supporting an intact roof. The ceiling has astronomical paintings symbolizing the sky.

If you have a flashlight, you can examine two interesting rooms on the entrance wall: the Chamber of Consecrations to the left, where the king or priest dressed for rituals; and the Library on the right, where sacred texts were kept and reliefs depict Sheshat, the goddess of writing. On the far (north) wall, reliefs of Horus have been destroyed by Christian iconoclasts.

Next is the Festival Hall, which marks the beginning of the oldest part of the temple, built 237-212 BC under Ptolemy III and IV. During festivals, this hall was decorated with faience, flowers and herbs and scented with incense and myrrh. Offerings of libations, fruit and sacrificial animals were brought in through the passageway on the right and nonperishable offerings were stored in a room to the left. The room in the back left (northwest) corner is the Laboratory, where recipes for incense and unguents are inscribed on the walls.

A small doorway, decorated with splendid reliefs of the sacred barques of Horus and Hathor, leads from the Festival Hall into the Hall of Offerings. During the New Year Festival, the image of Horus was carried up the ascending stairway on the left to be revitalized by the sun, then carried back down the descending stairway. Reliefs on the walls of both stairways depict the event, but a flashlight is necessary and locked gates may make access difficult.

This hall leads into the Sanctuary of Horus, the holiest part of the temple. The sanctuary centers on a black-granite shrine that was dedicated by Nectanebo II, making it the oldest relic in the temple. This once contained the gilded wooden cult image of Horus. Next to the shrine is an offering table and the ceremonial barque (barge) on which Horus was carried during festivals. Reliefs on the right (east) wall of the sanctuary show Philopator (Ptolemy IV) worshipping Horus, Hathor and his deified parents in the sanctuary.

The corridor surrounding the sanctuary contains several interesting rooms worth exploring. On the left (west) is the Linen Room, flanked by chapels to Min and the Throne of the Gods. In the back, a set of rooms nominally dedicated to Osiris has colorful reliefs of Horus receiving offerings (left room), a life-sized depiction of Horus' barque (middle room) and reliefs of his avatars (rear room in the right/east wall). Continuing south in the right corridor is the New Year Chapel, with an impressive blue-hued relief of the sky goddess Nut stretched across the ceiling.

Returning to the Festival Hall, head through the passage in the east wall for access to the external corridor where the priests tallied tithes based on the nearby Nilometer.

The passage in the west wall leads to a corridor with reliefs of the triumph of Horus over Seth. Specifically, they depict a Mystery Play that was performed as part of a festival ritual, in which Seth appears as a hippopotamus lurking beneath his brother's boat. At the end of the play, the priests cut up and ate a hippo-shaped cake.
Location Map
Location map and satellite view of Edfu and the Temple of Horus. Using the buttons on the left, zoom in for a closer look or zoom out to get your bearings. Click and drag the map to move around. For a larger view,
see our Egypt Map or Google Earth download.

Map

Satellite

Hybrid

Quick Facts

Names:	Temple of Horus; Temple of Edfu; Edfu Temple; Apollopolis Magna (the Greeks identified Horus with Apollo)
Type of site:	Egyptian cult temple
Dedication:	Horus
Dates:	Built 237-57 BC
Size:	Pylon: 37m high
Location:	115km from Luxor; 105km from Aswan (105km); 65km north of Kom Ombo
Hours:	Daily 7am-4pm
Cost:	£E35

Kom Ombo: Temple of Sobek and Horus in Aswan, Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:39:00 +0000

Kom Ombo stands by the Nile just south of Gebel el-Silsila, between Aswan and Edfu, at the site of the ancient city of Per Sobek (the estate of Sobek). The Temple of Sobek and Horus the Elder is an unconventional temple in that it is dedicated to two triads of deities; Sobek, Hathor and their child Khonsu, and Horus the Elder (Heru-ur or Haroeris), Tasenetnofret ("the good sister") and their child Panebtawy (the Lord of the Two Lands). Sobek and Horus the Elder are the two primary gods, and so the temple was also known as "House of the Crocodile" (Sobek) and "Castle of the Falcon" (Horus).

History

There is significant evidence that the area had been settled since the Predynastic Period and there are Old Kingdom tombs nearby, but the current temple was not built until the Ptolemaic Period. Champollion apparently found evidence of an Eighteenth Dynasty gateway in the south enclosure wall, and a few New Kingdom blocks have been recovered from the site,so there was probably a temple at the site from at least the New Kingdom if not before. The first pharaoh referred to in the temple is Ptolemy VI Philometor. A number of his successors including Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos and Ptolemy XIII (who built the outer and inner hypostyle halls) also added to the site.

There were also additions to the decorations in the forecourt during the Roman Period and an outer corridor was added to the structure. The outer enclosure wall and part of the court were built by Augustus sometime after 30 BC, and are mostly gone. The Temple was converted into a Coptic church but unfortunately the Copts defaced many of the reliefs when adopting the building. Eventually the temple was harvested for building materials. As a result, it is in a fairly advanced state of ruin.

Structure

Mud brick outer enclosure wall
Outer enclosure wall
Inner enclosure wall
Birth house of Ptolemy VII
Courtyard of Augustus
Altar
First Hypostyle Hall
Second Hypostyle Hall
Sanctuary of Horus the Elder
Sanctuary of Sobek
Shrine of Hathor
Gate of Ptolemy XII
Well

Temple Enclosure

The outer enclosure wall is mud brick but the temple itself is built of local sandstone from the quarry at Gebel el-Silsila. The modern visitor enters by the gate on the eastern side of the outer enclosure wall. This gate was built by Ptolemy XII (Neos Dionysus), the father of Cleopatra VII (the famous Cleopatra).
Although the layout of the Temple of Sobek and Horus the Elder at Kom Ombo reflects that of the Temples of Denderah and Edfu, the chambers are duplicated along the main axis to reflect the duality of the temple. There is a double entrance, twin courts and colonnades, two hypostyle halls and two inner sanctuaries. It is often suggested that there may have been two sets of priests who separately tended to their respective gods. The left side of the building (to the north-west) was dedicated to Horus the Elder who was associated with Lower Egypt (which was in the north) while the right side of the building (further south-east and so associated with Upper Egypt) was dedicated to Sobek (who was sometimes associated with the god Set, a patron of Upper Egypt).
To the right of the gate there is a small shrine dedicated to Hathor in which mummified crocodiles found in the temple grounds are now displayed. In front of the main entrance there is a large well with a staircase descending into it which was used as a Nilometer. It is thought that the well was also connected with the ritual worship of the crocodile. There was also a birth house built by

There was also a birth house but little of it remains. Napoleon´s architects found four Hathor columns and recorded reliefs depicting Ptolemy VIII on the walls. It took the form of a simple temple with a room for visiting deities, an offering chamber and a sanctuary. In common with other temple complexes walls there was a platform, but unusually there was no walkway. In this respect it is more like temple enclosures of the Thirtieth Dynasty.

Main Temple

Only the foundation stones of the first pylon remain along with part of the wall. The Roman Emperor Domitian is depicted on this wall with a number of gods paying homage to the triad of Sobek, Hathor and Khonsu. The court itself was constructed by Roman Emperor Tiberius who featured sixteen painted columns on three sides. There used to be a staircase running from the court behind the pylon leading to a roof terrace, but this has been destroyed. On the walls there are reliefs of the Pharaoh leaving his palace flanked by standards. On either side of the door to the first hypostyle hall, there are columns inscribed with the heraldic plants of Upper Egypt (the lotus) and Lower Egypt (papyrus).
The court features a central Altar where the sacred barque would rest during festival processions. There are a underground tunnels and crypts leading to the inner chambers. There is a corridor which runs around the outside of the main temple. On the inner side of the back wall of the Temple a relief depicts medical and surgical tools. The relief is thought to be the oldest illustration of such items.

First Hypostyle HallOn either side of the doors, Ptolemy XII Neo Dionysos is shown purified by the gods Horus, Sobek and Thoth. Three rows of columns with either lotus-shaped, papyriform, or palm-shaped tops. The ceiling is decorated with astronomical scenes, with Nekhbet and Wadjet also being represented. The columns are decorated with bands of text and Ankh symbols above representations of the pharaoh paying homage to the gods.

Second Hypostyle HallTwin entrances in the rear wall lead to the second hypostyle hall or "offering hall". It has fifteen columns, five of them incorporated in the front wall. Reliefs depict Ptolemy VIII and Ptolemy XII before the Nile Gods. The reliefs form a list of the sacred places of Egypt, recording the gods of the main towns and a number of local and national festivals. In the southwest corner there are scenes on a single column depicting the purification of the King, his coronation and the consecration of the Temple. These scenes are the only ones which do not reflect the duality of the temple.

Entrance Chambers and Sanctuaries
After the hypostyle hall there are three entrance chambers, each smaller than the last, separated by a few small steps. In the outermost chamber, there are scenes depicting the goddess Seshat overseeing the construction of the temple, and a scene depicting the Ptolemy VI consecrating the completed temple with natron. Unfortunately, the staircase leading to the roof terrace is almost all that remains of the offering hall.
Two doors from the inner chamber lead to the two separate sanctuaries of Sobek and Horus the Elder. The sanctuaries themselves are largely ruined with little remaining other than the pedestals for the gods´s sacred barques. A secret corridor between the two sanctuaries allowed a priest acting as the "Oracle" to pronounce the god´s will.

Nubian settlement

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:35:00 +0000

The inhabitants of old Nubia formed riverine communities clustered in villages along the banks of the Nile. Prior to relocation, Nubia was located between Aswan in Egypt and 150 kilometers into Sudan. The Kenuz occupied the northern area, the Arabs resided in the middle, and the Nubians were located in the south of Egypt and the north of Sudan. About 50,000 Sudanese Nubians and 70,000 Egyptian Nubians were relocated. There were attempts in the relocation plans to maintain the location of the villages in relation to each other.

The villages are further divided into hamlets. The size of the village, the number of its hamlets, and the density of its population are directly related to the width of the agricultural land. The villages with wider agricultural land were smaller, had higher population density and contained fewer hamlets. The hamlet is both a regional and kinship unit of settlement. The inhabitants are related to each other by marriage and descent. Three types of hamlet existed in old Nubia. In a patrilineal hamlet, all inhabitants were descended from the same patriarch, and the hamlet was named after this common ancestor. A second type of hamlet includes members of various patrilineal clans who are related through matrilineal descent and is usually named after the male founder of the settlement. In some hamlets, inhabitants are not related at all.

The hamlet is further divided into dwelling quarters. In patrilineal hamlets, each family is connected to the dwelling quarter by patrilineal descent. In other types of hamlets, the dwelling quarters reflect patrilineal clan/tribal affiliations. In all types of hamlets, dwelling quarters were separated from each other by natural divisions, including small hills and barren land. Inside the dwelling quarters, closeness of patrilineal relationship determines the spatial location of housing. Each hamlet had a mosque and a modiafah or a mandara, visiting quarters. The relocation of the Nubians presented new experiences to which they had to adapt. In Egypt, Nubian villages were given their old names, but, rather than being located along the banks of the Nile, were 3 to 10 kilometers away. The palm trees that were characteristic of the old Nubian environment did not exist in the new villages. The rocky hills that separated the villages and hamlets from each other also did not exist. The previous widely separated hamlets were brought together, thus increasing the density of the settlements. In old Nubia, a hamlet often represented a clan or kinship unit. In New Nubia, the dwelling patterns were built in four blocks to the size of the living quarters, and during resettlement houses were allocated on the basis of family size. As a result, the dwelling patterns that were based on kinship disappeared. In Sudan, the Nubian villages were no longer located at the banks of the Nile. Instead they were located at the Atbara River, which is narrower than the Nile. Their agricultural land, unlike that in old Nubia, was broad, and they had to cope with rotational crops.

Kom Ombo in Aswan, Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:58:00 +0000

While the stone differs from that of all the other temples perhaps because it was covered with sand for so long, the outstanding feature of the Kom Ombo Temple is the unusual, even unique, ground plan, the result of the unification of two adjacent temples, each dedicated to a distinct divinity: the crocodile-headed Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world, and Haroeris or the ancient falcon-headed Horus, the solar war god.

This was why the temple was called both "House of the Crocodile" and "Castle of the Falcon". An imaginary line divides the temple longitudinally into twoKom Ombo parts, each with its entrance, hypostyle halls, chapels, etc. The right part of the temple was consecrated to Sobek, the left to Haroeris, whose winged disk that protects from all evils is depicted over all the entrance portals. This temple, too, was the work of the Ptolemies who built it on the site of a much older and smaller sanctuary of which little remains.
All that is left of the great entrance pylon is the right hand part, where the Roman emperor Domitian can be seen with various gods rendering homage to the triad of Sobek, Hathor and Khonsu, together with a long text of 52 lines in hieroglyphics.

The court that follows must originally have been quite lovely, with its sixteen painted columns on three sides. Now only the base and the lower part are left, with, at the center, the remains of the altar on which the sacred bark was placed during processions. The reliefs on the columns show the emperor Tiberius, whose name is cut into the cartouches which accompany the figures, as he makes offering to the gods. The north part of the court is closed by the exterior wall of the pronaos, or first hypostyle hall.
The two entrances that correspond to the temples of Haroeris and of Sobek open in this wall. On either side of the doors, Ptolemy XII Neo Dionysos is shown purified by Horus, Thot and Haroeris (in the part on the left) and by Horus, Thot and Sobek on the right. The first hypostyle hall has three transversal rows of fine bundle columns each with a bill capital. Some of them are lotus-shaped, others papyrus, and one is even palm-shaped. The ceiling is decorated with astronomical scenes, with the vulture, the symbol of Nekhbet and Uadjit. The column shafts are all carved with reliefs: above, under the capitals, with a band of hieroglyphs with the symbol of life (ankh) and below with the pharaoh rendering homage to the various gods.

The same offering scenes are repeated on the walls of the hall: the pharaohs depicted are all of the Ptolemaic period, and include Cleopatra VI. To be noted is the central row of columns which ideally marks the division of the two sanctuaries.

From here two distinctly separate entrances lead to the second hypostyle hall, or "hall of offering", smaller than the one before. Here too the central row of columns acts as a divider. Both the architecture and the decoration are the same as in the first hall, for the same scenes and subjects are repeated. The figures depicted this time are Ptolemy VIII, Evergetes II, his wife Cleopatra and Ptolemy XII, Neo Dionysos.
After this hall come three vestibules placed transversally, the last of which leads to the sanctuary, or to be more precise, the two sanctuaries of Haroeris and Sobek. All three rooms were built by Ptolemy VI, Philometer and he is shown in the reliefs on the walls. In one of these on the internal wall of the last vestibule, the pharaoh is seen wearing his Maccedonian mantle, before the triad of Haroeris, Sobek and Khonsu. Unfortunately not much is left of the sanctuaries dedicated to the two divinities: unlike the rest of the temple in which the right and left hand parts were fused together, the sanctuaries were clearly separated by an intermediate wall. An idea of how rich the decoration must have been can still be gathered from a fragment in the sanctuary of Haroeris. The long dedicatory inscription with the name of Cleopatra on the left door is still intact. A double corridor surrounds the entire temple: seven small rooms open off the interior corridor behind the shrines. A staircase leads from the center room to the terrace above, with a breath-taking view over the entire temple. These chapels were also decorated, even though the reliefs often remained unfinished. Luckily the relief on the internal facade of the second wall has survived. It depicts a whole series of surgeon's instruments; confirming once again the high degree of skill achieved in the field of medicine.

The "Birth House" or mammisi and Hathor chapel also belonged to the temple complex of Kom Ombo. The Hathor Chapel is in better state. It is situated to the right of the temple and was built by Domitian in honor of Hathor whom the Greek identified with Aphrodite. Various crocodile sarcophagi and mummies, from the excavations of a neighboring necropolis, can now be seen in this chapel, which was donated by a wealthy Roman matron.
The pervasive presence of Nile, where the feluccas silently glide over the water, and of the deep green fields which accentuate the blue of the sky, accompany your visit to Kom Ombo.

Abu Simbel near Aswan, Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Abu Simbel (Arabic: أبو سنبل‎ or أبو سمبل) is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples in Nubia, southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments", which run from Abu Simbel downriver to Philae (near Aswan).

The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, to commemorate his alleged victory at the Battle of Kadesh, and to intimidate his Nubian neighbors. However, the complex was relocated in its entirety in the 1960s, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan High Dam reservoir.
The relocation of the temples was necessary to avoid their being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt's top tourist attractions.

Construction

Construction of the temple complex started in approximately 1244 BCE and lasted for about 20 years, until 1224 BCE. Known as the "Temple of Ramesses, beloved by Amun", it was one of six rock temples erected in Nubia during the long reign of Ramesses II. Their purpose was to impress Egypt's southern neighbors, and also to reinforce the status of Egyptian religion in the region. Historians say that the design of Abu Simbel expresses a bit of ego and pride in Ramses II.

Rediscovery
With the passage of time, the temples fell into disuse and eventually became covered by sand. Already in the 6th century BC, the sand covered the statues of the main temple up to their knees. The temple was forgotten until 1813, when Swiss orientalist JL Burckhardt found the top frieze of the main temple. Burckhardt talked about his discovery with Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni, who travelled to the site, but was unable to dig out an entry to the temple. Belzoni returned in 1817, this time succeeding in his attempt to enter the complex. He took everything valuable and portable with him. Tour guides at the site relate the legend that "Abu Simbel" was a young local boy who guided these early re-discoverers to the site of the buried temple which he had seen from time to time in the shifting sands. Eventually, they named the complex after him: Abu Simbel.

Relocation

In 1959 an international donations campaign to save the monuments of Nubia began: the southernmost relics of this ancient human civilization were under threat from the rising waters of the Nile that were about to result from the construction of the Aswan High Dam.
The salvage of the Abu Simbel temples began in 1964, and cost some USD $40 million. Between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was cut into large blocks (up to 30 tons averaging 20 tons), dismantled and reassembled in a new location – 65 m higher and 200 m back from the river, in what manyconsider one of the greatest feats of archaeological engineering. Some structures were even saved from under the waters of Lake Nasser. Today, thousands of tourists visit the temples daily. Guarded convoys of buses and cars depart twice a day from Aswan, the nearest city. Many visitors also arrive by plane, at an airfield that was specially constructed for the temple complex.
The complex consists of two temples. The larger one is dedicated to Ra-Harakhty, Ptah and Amun, Egypt's three state deities of the time, and features four large statues of Ramesses II in the facade. The smaller temple is dedicated to the goddess Hathor, personified by Nefertari, Ramesses's most beloved wife (in total, the pharaoh had some 200 wives and concubines). The temple is now open to the public.

The Great Temple

The Great Temple at Abu Simbel, which took about twenty years to build, was completed around year 24 of the reign of Rameses the Great (which corresponds to 1265 BCE). It was dedicated to the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to the deified Rameses himself. It is generally considered the grandest and most beautiful of the temples commissioned during the reign of Rameses II, and one of the most beautiful in Egypt.
Four colossal 20 meter statues of the pharaoh with the double Atef crown of Upper and Lower Egypt decorate the facade of the temple, which is 35 meters wide and is topped by a frieze with 22 baboons, worshippers of the sun and flank the entrance. The colossal statues were sculptured directly from the rock in which the temple was located before it was moved. All statues represent Ramesses II, seated on a throne and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The statue to the left of the entrance was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only the lower part of the statue still intact. The head and torso can still be seen at the statue's feet.
Next to the legs of the colossi, there are other statues no higher than the knees of the pharaoh. These depict Nefertari, Ramesses's chief wife, and queen mother Mut-Tuy, his first two sons Amun-her-khepeshef, Ramesses, and his first six daughters Bintanath, Baketmut, Nefertari, Meritamen, Nebettawy and Isetnofret.

The entrance itself is crowned by a bas-relief representing two images of the king worshiping the falcon-headed Ra Harakhti, whose statue stands in a large niche. This god is holding the hieroglyph user in his right hand and a feather while Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice) in on his left; this is nothing less than a gigantic cryptogram for Ramesses II's throne name, User-Maat-Re. The facade is topped by a row of 22 baboons, their arms raised in the air, supposedly worshipping the rising sun. Another notable feature of the facade is a stele which records the marriage of Ramesses with a daughter of king Hattusili III, which sealed the peace between Egypt and the Hittites.

The inner part of the temple has the same triangular layout that most ancient Egyptian temples follow, with rooms decreasing in size from the entrance to the sanctuary. The temple is complex in structure and quite unusual because of its many side chambers. The hypostyle hall (sometimes also called pronaos) is 18 meters long and 16,7 meters wide and is supported by eight huge Osirid pillars depicting the deified Ramses linked to the god Osiris, the god of the Underworld, to indicate the everlasting nature of the pharaoh. The colossal statues along the left-hand wall bear the white crown of Upper Egypt, while those on the opposite side are wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt(pschent). The bas-reliefs on the walls of the pronaos depict battle scenes in the military campaigns the ruler waged. Much of the sculpture is given to the Battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes river in present-day Syria, in which the Egyptian king fought against the Hittites. The most famous relief shows the king on his chariot shooting arrows against his fleeing enemies, who are being taken prisoner. Other scenes show Egyptian victories in Libya and Nubia.

From the hypostyle hall, one enters the second pillared hall, which has four pillars decorated with beautiful scenes of offerings to the gods. There are depictions of Ramesses and Nefertari with the sacred boats of Amun and Ra-Harakhti. This hall gives access to a transverse vestibule in the middle of which is the entrance to the sanctuary. Here, on a black wall, are rock cut sculptures of four seated figures: Ra-Horakhty, the deified king Ramesses, and the gods Amun Ra and Ptah. Ra-Horakhty, Amun Ra and Ptah were the main divinities in that period and their cult centers were at Heliopolis, Thebes and Memphis respectively.

The axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that twice a year, on October 20 and February 20, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculpture on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, the god connected with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark.These dates are allegedly the king's birthday and coronation day respectively, but there is no evidence to support this, though it is quite logical to assume that these dates had some relation to a great event, such as the jubilee celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the pharaoh's rule. In fact, according to calculations made on the basis of the heliacal rising of the star Sirius (Sothis) and inscriptions found by archaeologists, this date must have been October 22. This image of the king was enhanced and revitalized by the energy of the solar star, and the deified Ramesses Great could take his place next to Amun Ra and Ra-Horakhty.

Due to the displacement of the temple, it is widely believed that this event now occurs one day later than it did originally.

The Small Temple

The temple of Hathor and Nefertari, also known as the Small Temple, was built about one hundred meters northeast of the temple of Ramesses II and was dedicated to the goddess Hathor and Ramesses II's chief consort, Nefertari. This was in fact the second time in ancient Egyptian history that a temple was dedicated to a queen. The first time, Akhenaten dedicated a temple to his great royal wife, Nefertiti. The rock-cut facade is decorated with two groups of colossi that are separated by the large gateway. The statues, slightly more than ten meters high, are of the king and his queen. On the other side of the portal are two statues of the king, wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt (south colossus) and the double crown (north colossus); these are flanked by statues of the queen and the king. What is truly surprising is that for the only time in Egyptian art, the statues of the king and his consort are equal in size
Traditionally, the statues of the queens stood next to those of the pharaoh, but were never taller than his knees. This exception to such a long standing rule bears witness to the special importance attached to Nefertari by Ramesses, who went to Abu Simbel with his beloved wife in the 24th year of his reign. As the Great temple of the king, there are small statues of princes and princesses next to their parents. In this case they are positioned symmetrically: on the south side (at left as you face the gateway) are, from left to right, princes Meryatum and Meryre, princesses Meritamen and Henuttawy, and princes Rahirwenemef and Amun-her-khepeshef, while on the north side the same figures are in reverse order. The plan of the Small Temple is a simplified version of that of the Great Temple.

As the larger temple dedicated to the king, the hypostyle hall or pronaos is supported by six pillars; in this case, however, they are not Osirid pillars depicting the king, but are decorated with scenes with the queen playing the sinistrum (an instrument sacred to the goddess Hathor), together with the gods Horus, Khnum, Khonsu, and Thoth, and the goddesses Hathor, Isis, Maat, Mut of Asher, Satis and Taweret; in one scene Ramesses is presenting flowers or burning incense. The capitals of the pillars bear the face of the goddess Hathor; this type of column is known as Hathoric. The bas-reliefs in the pillared hall illustrate the deification of the king, the destruction of his enemies in the north and south (in this scenes the king is accompanied by his wife), and the queen making offerings to the goddess Hathor and Mut. The hypostyle hall is followed by a vestibule, access to which is given by three large doors. On the south and the north walls of this chamber there are two graceful and poetic bes-reliefs of the king and his consort presenting papyrus plants to Hathor, who is depicted as a cow on a boat sailing in a thicket of papyri. On the west wall, Ramesses II and Nefertari are depicted making offerings to god Horus and the divinities of the Cataracts - Satis, Anubis and Khnum.
The rock cut sanctuary and the two side chambers are connected to the transverse vestibule and are aligned with the axis of the temple. The bas-reliefs on the side walls of the small sanctuary represent scenes of offerings to various gods made either by the pharaoh or the queen. On the back wall, which lies to the west along the axis of the temple, there is a niche in which Hathor, as a divine cow, seems to be coming out of the mountain: the goddess is depicted as the Mistress of the temple dedicated to her and to queen Nefertari, who is intimately linked to the goddess.
Each temple has its own priest that represents the king in daily religious ceremonies. In theory, the Pharaoh should be the only celebrant in daily religious ceremonies performed in different temples throughout Egypt. In reality, the high priest also played that role. To reach that position, an extensive education in art and science was necessary, like the one pharaoh had. Reading, writing, engineering, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, space measurement, time calculations, were all part of this learning. The priests of Heliopolis, for example, became guardians of sacred knowledge and earned the reputation of wise men.

Temple of Kalabsha in Aswan , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:57:00 +0000

Kalabsha Temple originally built at Kalabsha (Talmis) was moved to its present location at New Kalabsha (Chellal) in 1970, together with other monuments from Nubia, including the Kiosk of Qertassi (Kertassi). Also nearby is Beit al-Wali. Reachable by taxi or by boat, depending on the water level, the sandstone edifice was built by the Roman Emperor Octavius Augustus (30 to 14 BC) and dedicated to the fertility and Nubian Solar deity known as Mandulis (Merwel who was the Nubian counterpart of Horus).

It was the largest free-standing temple of Egyptian Nubia and the design of Kalabsha Temple is classical for the Ptolemaic period with pylons, courtyard, hypostyle hall and three room sanctuary. However, the Pylon is offset, which creates a trapezoid in the courtyard beyond. It was built on the site of an earlier structure built by Ptolemy IX as evidenced by a chapel. There is also a small chapel and gate on Elephantine Island from Kalabsha, and a gate built by Augustus was given to the Agyptisches Museum in West Berlin.

The courtyard just inside the pylon once had columns on three sides. At either end is a staircase that leads to the upper stories of the pylon and a good view of Lake Nassar. On the right screened wall separating the courtyard from the hypostyle hall is an inscription from Aurelius Besarion (about 249 AD), the governor of Ombos and Elephantine, decreeing the expulsion of swine from the town for religious purposes. On a column here is the text of King Kharamadoye and is one of the longest Meroitic inscriptions found to date. On an end wall is thought to be an inscription of the 5th century Nubian King, Silko, who conquered the fierce Nubian Blemmyes. Other seances on the on the screen walls include the King with Horus and Thoth. On the rear of the vestibule are scenes depicting a Ptolemaic king making offerings to Isis and Mandulis. Also, Amenhotep II, who founded the original temple (1450 to 1425 BC) upon which this one is built, is making offers of wine to Min and Mandulis.

After the vestibule are three chambers, the pronaos (a chamber preceding the sanctuary, the naos, or sanctuary where statues of gods were located, and the adyton, which is the innermost or secrete shrine). Various seances within these chambers show the King surrounded by the goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt, Amun-Min and Ptah while receiving holy water from Thoth and Horus. In the naos and adyton, the king is making offerings to Osiris, Isis and Mandulis.
There is also a small chapel which can be reached from stairs in the first chamber which then descend from the roof into the chapel set inside the wall. As you leave the temple, be sure to note the rear wall with images of Mandulis with his vulture feathered cloak.

The Temples of Philae on Agilika Island in Aswan , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:26:00 +0000

In the 20th Century the island of Philae was flooded by the Low Dam. The High Dam waters of Lake Nasser completely submerged the island when it was be completed.

The temples on the island were therefor completely dismanteled and moved about 550 Meters north of Philae, between the years 1972 - 1980 AD to the island of Agilika on Lake Nasser.
Today it is still commonly said that the various monuments are on Philae Island, even though they really are on Agilika Island.
Tradition said that it was from Philae (Pilak in Egyptian) that Isis watched over the tomb of Osiris on the neighboring island of Biga. The Temple Of Isis and Horus The Child dominated the group of monuments erected between the 26th Dynasty and the Roman Period.

Before the High Dam

By almost every tour to Egypt is what is billed as Philae, but Philae is actually a nonexistent island now buried beneath Lake Nasser. The island was sometimes visible and sometimes not after the Old Aswan Dam was built, but was permanently submerged by the High Dam. Philae is an approximate Greek rendering of the local name "Pilak" known from hieroglyphic texts and which may be Nubian in origin. The ancient Egyptians saw in their name for Philae an etymology with the meaning "island of the time [of Ra]", i.e. creation, but the island’s history is later than that.
What we refer to today as Philae is the main temple complex relocated from that island, after the High Dam was built, to the island of Agilika. It was the center of the cult of the goddess Isis and her connection with Osiris, Horus, and the Kingship, during the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian History.
Today, there are two dams at Aswan but of course, in ancient times, there were none. Prior to the dams, Philae Island occupied a position at the beginning or southern end of the First Nile Cataract, where the river gathered speed, dropping sixteen feet in swirling eddies and turbulent falls of white water for a distance of three miles. Various pharaohs attempted to calm or at least provide better passage around these rapids. Pepi I built at least one canal, as did Merenre, as early as the Old Kingdom, but later kings would also, such as Senusret III.
There were numerous islands in the region, Amelia Edwards says hundreds, including Biggeh, the temple's current location of Agilika, a group of small islands at Awad and El Hasa, and below the Cataract (north), Siheil and Elephantine.
During early times, the priests of Philae claimed that the source of the Nile was bottomless and lay beneath the rocks of Biggeh, where half the river rose to flow north and half to flow south. Their rivals were the priests of Elephantine, who made the same claim. Indeed, the river around these islands was even then over one hundred feet deep in places, with confusing waters that could twist and turn in all directions.
This trek of water was hazardous in ancient times, a fact that escapes the modern visitor to Agilika Island. Amelia Edwards, the fearless Victorian Egyptologist saw it differently than we do today. She recounts:

"At Assuan, one bids good-bye to Egypt and enters Nubia through the gates of the Cataract - which is, in truth, no cataract, but a succession of rapids extending over two thirds of the distance between Elephantine and Philae. The Nile - diverted from its original course by some unrecorded catastrophe, the nature of which has given rise to much scientific conjecture - here spreads itself over a rocky basin bounded by sand-slopes on the one side, and by granite cliffs on the other. Studded with numberless islets, divided into numberless channels, foaming over sunken rocks, eddying among water-worn boulders, now shallow, now deep, now loitering, now hurrying, here sleeping in the ribbed hollow of a tiny sand-drift, there circling above the vortex of a hidden whirlpool, the river, whether looked upon from the deck of a dahabeeyah or the heights along the shore, is seen everywhere to be fighting its way through a labyrinth, the paths of which have never yet been mapped or sounded."

Of course, one can still get a glimpse of these cataracts north of the Old Aswan Dam. In ancient times, travelers made their devotions at Philae before continuing through the dangerous territory of the south to the "Land of Ghosts".
On the island of Sehel are more than 250 inscriptions from pilgrims and travelers coming to and going through the area, dating from the fourth dynasty down to the Ptolemaic period. Pepi I cut canals through the cataract to assist boat crews on their way to the calm water above Philae. Harkhuf passed through here on his way to Nubia during the reign of Pepi II. Also here on Sehel is the so-called Famine Stela, inscribed during Ptolemaic times but related to the reign of King Djoser in the 3rd Dynasty. It states that the king decreed that large tracts of land on both sides of the river stretching from Elephantine south should be given to Khnum’s temple, along with one-tenth of all produce and livestock raised as well as taxes on caravans and gold mining. There is an identical decree in the temple of Philae, carved at the base of the eastern tower of the second Great Pylon.
Such was the power of the gods, or at least the belief therein, that according to an inscription on the base of the eastern obelisk standing in front of the Great Pylon, during the reign of Ptolemy VIII, Euergetes II, and Cleopatra III his second wife, the priests complained that they were being forced to refund the expenses of civil and military authorities incurred during their stay at Philae.
The priests were not being left enough resources with which to continue sacrifices and libations for the welfare of the royal family. Euergetes II released the priests from further payments.
The Island of Philae lied about four miles south of modern Elephantine, just to the other side of the Old Aswan Dam. It only measured about 500 yards from north to south and 160 yards from east to west, which meant that it was almost entirely covered with temples and other monuments. These were protected from the Nile Flood during ancient times by high walls, quays and terraces. In fact, before the building of the first dam, the Island always stayed clear of the river, safe on its granite foundation against the turbulent rush of the flood with its abrasive silt.
Prior to the building of the Aswan Dam, the engineer in charge, Captain Henry Lyon, was asked to underpin the monuments of Philae so that they could withstand the submersion, which he did. He also excavated part of the site where he discovered the remains of some Christian churches.
After the Old Dam was built, it created a lake extending south some 140 miles back to the Sudanese border. In fact, the height of the dam was at first restricted because of the protests made by people interested in preserving Philae and the other temples and monuments from submersion. Winston Churchill cared little for this. He remarked that:

"This offering of 1,500 millions of cubic feet of water to Hathor by the Wise Men of the West is the most cruel, the most wicked and the most senseless sacrifice ever offered on the altar of a false religion. The State must struggle and the people starve, in order that the professors may exult and the tourists find some place to scratch their names."

So the water level was raised, and the temples and structures on Philae were flooded each year from December to about March, and had to be visited during this time by boat, passing through the Kiosk of Trajan and into the court of the Temple of Isis.
All did not turn out as badly as thought, however. The water ended up saving the temples from erosion by sand storms and helped to remove salt deposits which were damaging to the stonework. Regular inspections of the site showed that it suffered less damage than might have been expected, save for the paintwork that was washed away by the new lake created by the Old English Dam.
Then, construction on the High Dam began and, as with a number of other monuments south of Aswan, the temple and other monuments had to either be moved or lost beneath the waters
In reality, Philae would not have been lost under the water of Lake Nasser itself, but rather the lake that was formed between the High Dam and the Old Dam. It was the only major monument located in this region. it would have been almost permanently submerged,
but worse, this small lake is subject to a daily rise and fall of several yards, which would have inevitably eroded the temples completely.
This was accomplished during the 1970s, when the Philae monuments were moved to Agilkia northwest of Philae Island. Since waters already engulfed the monuments at Philae, a coffer dam had to be built around the island and then the water pumped out. This work began in 1972 and was finished in 1980 as a cooperative effort of UNESCO and the Egyptian Antiquity Organization. The new location was carefully landscaped to make it resemble Philae as much as possible. Some 40,000 blocks, weighing about 20,000 tons were moved to the new location.

The Approach to the Temple of Isis
Of Philae Island are now located on the nearby reworked Island of Agilika, and Philae is now buried beneath the waters of the lake formed between the Old Aswan Dam and the High Dam, Philae and the neighboring island of Biggeh to the west, in ancient times, formed an integrated religious complex devoted to the cult of Osiris. The ritual focus was Biggeh, the site of the abaton, one of the alleged tombs of Osiris. At Philae, regular visits were paid every tenth day by Isis to the island of Bigeh and the tomb of Osiris.
There are many legends connected to Philae, but the most well known one tells the story of how Isis found the heart of Osiris here after his murder by his brother Seth. Each evening there is a Sound and Light Show which recounts the legends against the magnificent backdrop of the floodlit monuments - a truly magical experience.

Tourist boats on their way to visit the Temples of Philae in Egypt

Philae was dedicated preeminently to Isis, sister-wife to Osiris, and patroness of the Ptolemaic rule. Although Isis was the major deity honored therein, the location of the island on the frontier between Egypt and Nubia meant that cults of Nubia were also featured on the island, represented by significant cult buildings.
There was some evidence at the actual island of Philae of cult activity in honor of Amun, in the time of King Taharqa, who ruled Egypt between 689 and 664 BC in the 25th dynasty, and who probably built an altar of granite to Amun. Perhaps the Kushites, when invading Egypt, established a stronghold on Philae. Traces of mudbrick houses in trenches between the stone foundations of the later temples and the early nilometer west of the mammisi may date to this period.

The monuments on the island are dominated by the great temple of Isis and its associated structures, which are concentrated in the west and center of the island, on, or adjacent to, a granite outcrop which must have been originally chosen as an embodiment of the primeval hill on which the first temple was said to have rested. This hill was reproduced on the new location of the monuments at Agilika.

The Taharqa altar to Amun is the earliest evidence of structures on the island. The known history of Philae does not go back farther than that, and it was not until the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods that Philae rose to importance. The priests believed their island had a far longer history, and as stated above, an inscription at the frontier on the island of Sehel states that as early as the 3rd Dynasty, Djoser gave them the country from the First Cataract to the island of Derar. (Dodekaschoinoi) During Ptolemaic times they held the gold mines of Wadi Alaki within their administrative sphere.

But the earliest known cult building in honor of Isis, known to the Egyptians as Aset, was a small shrine erected in the Saite period by Psamtik II. This was followed by a further small temple on the granite outcrop, erected by Amasis. So it now seems that the Saite kings introduced the cult of Isis into this area and laid the foundations for her subsequent glorification on the island.
The next evidence of building, and the earliest surviving monument of Philae, dates to the 30th Dynasty. Beginning at the ancient quay where boats now land at the southwestern corner of the great temple, the first structure is the kiosk of Nectanebo I, though one may first notice the obvious seating for the sound and light show. The kiosk or vestibule of Nectanebo is a hall with screen walls linked by graceful columns. Of its original fourteen Hathor pillars, only six remain. The screens between the columns are some six feet high, crowned with concave cornices and rows of uraeus-serpents. The screens are carved with reliefs showing Nectanebo sacrificing to the gods.
From Nectanebo's monument north, there are two colonnades, one on the east side and another on the west of an outer courtyard that leads to the first temple pylon. The western half of the colonnade is the more complete, and is pierced with windows originally looking toward the island of Biggeh. A nilometer descends the cliff from here. The colonnade is about one hundred yards long and contains thirty-one of the original thirty-two columns. The column capitals tops are floral, and remarkable in their variety with no two being alike. Most of the columns show carvings of Tiberius offering gifts to the gods. The ceiling, which is mostly destroyed, is decorated with stars and and flying vultures, while the rear wall has two rows of bas-reliefs of Tiberius and Agustus offering to the gods.
The eastern colonnade was never completed. On the south it abuts the temple of Arsenuphis, or Iry-hemes-nufer just to the north of the vestibule of Nectanebo. Arensnuphis was an obscure Nubian lion-god venerated as the companion of Isis. The temple was built by Ptolemy IV Philopator and extended by Ptolemy V Epiphanes. Here, the reliefs depict Ptolemy V before Isis and other gods, and also Ptolemy IV before Isis, Horus and Unnefer. The shrine was enclosed by walls that are ruined in some places but which have representations of Tiberius worshipping Osiris, Isis, Harsieses (Horus the Elder), Nephthys, Khnum, Satis, Anukis, Arsenuphis and Tefnut.
The eastern colonnade is partly roofed and has seventeen columns, only six of which have their capitals completed. Behind (to the north) of the Temple of Arsenuphis and to the east of the eastern colonnade is the ruined chapel of Mandulis, another Nubian deity. At the northern end of the colonnade is the Temple of Imhotep. In it, Ptolemy V Epiphanes is shown before the deified Imhotep.
Just beyond the temple of Imhotep and the first Great Pylon of the Temple of Isis is the Gate of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, with depictions of the Ptolemaic Pharaoh being led forward by Isis.
Just before the main gateway to the first pylon are two Roman style lions carved from pink granite that have been re-erected on this island from their fallen position on the old Island of Philae. Two obelisks once also stood here, erected by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and his second wife, Cleopatra III (who by the way is not the more famous Cleopatra VII). On the base of the eastern obelisk was the inscription complaining to the royal that the priests of Isis at Philae were being forced to refund the expenses of civil and military authorities incurred during their stay on the island.
These obelisks made of pink granite are not lost to us, but may now be found at Kingston Lacy in Dorset in the UK. The eastern obelisk, which measures 6.7 meters tall and weighs six tons, was found on its side half-buried and its western counterpart was badly damaged and only about a third of it remained. They were taken by Mr. Ralph Bankes for his garden. Interestingly, they were partly instrumental in the decipherment of hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone bears many inscription of Ptolemy in hieroglyphics, demotic script and Greek. From these inscriptions, it was possible for the French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion to identify the hieroglyphic form of the name, by using the same method, Bankes pointed out the hieroglyphic form of the name, Cleopatra, which was unknown before. But these obelisks, or at least the eastern one, has a more interesting history than this.
Two of the most avid collectors of antiquities in Egypt around this time (1819) were the British Consul, Henry Salt, and the Consul-General of France, Bernardino Drovetti. They both gave money to local chiefs throughout Egypt who then saw to it that other collectors were either warned off or not supplied with labor. It was Salt, of course, who actually obtained the obelisks for Ralph Bankes, and Salt was lucky enough to have as his agent the giant Italian adventurer, Giovanni Belzoni, nicknamed the strongman of Egyptology.
On hearing of this matter concerning the obelisks at Philae, Drovetti claimed that they belonged to him, but grandly ceded the ownership to Bankes. Belzoni, who Salt tasked with their transport, thought that Drovetti had found it impossible to find ways of transporting the first obelisk (the complete, eastern one) through the cataract and had relinquished his claim for this reason. Given the size of the obelisk, he may have been right.
The obelisk was levered and pushed on rollers to a stout wooden pier for shipment, "But, alas," writes Bezoni, "when the obelisk came gradually from the sloping bank and all its weight rested on it, the pier, with the obelisk and some of the men, took a slow movement, and majestically descended into the river."
Nevertheless, Belzoni and his men hauled it out of the mud and got it loaded onto a boat for its journey to Cairo. Yet the story does not end there, for Drovetti had, it seems, not given up. Drovetti's men intercepted Belzoni on his way to Aswan and it was only after a long altercation which ended in gun-fire and the arrival of Drovetti himself that the monument was allowed to proceed on its way. It was shipped to England on the Despatch in May, 1821 and not erected in Bankes garden until 1827. In the interval, Bankes returned to Egypt in 1822 to collect the broken western obelisk.

Temple of Isis Inner Chambers and Structures to the West

Formerly on Philae Island, the gate of the Second Pylon gives way to a small open court, which is part of a hypostyle hall. Amelia Edwards said of it:

"Here is a place in which time seems to have stood as still as in that immortal palace where everything went to sleep for a hundred years. The bas-reliefs on the walls, the intricate paintings on the ceilings, the colours upon the capitals are incredibly fresh and perfect. These exquisite capitals have long been the wonder and delight of travellers in Egypt. They are all studied from natural forms - from the lotus in bud and blossom, the papyrus, and the palm. Conventionalised with consummate skill, they are at the same time so justly proportioned to the height and girth of the columns as to give an air of wonderful lightness to the whole structure."

The court at one time had a colonnade on its east and west sides, but today contains only ten columns. The little court was separated from the vestibule beyond it by screen walls uniting four columns, behind which four other columns helped support the roof of the hall. On the east site, the reliefs have been replaced by Coptic Christian crosses before which a Christian altar was erected in about 500 AD. At that time there were dedicated several churches here, including one to the Virgin Mary and one to Saint Stephen, the former being the standard Christian substitute for Isis and the second a highly appropriate replacement for Harendotes. On the side doorway leading to a room on the right is another inscription to Bishop Theodorus, made during the reign of Justinian 527-565 AD), claiming credit for this "good work". A similar inscription commemorates the archaeological expedition of 1841 sent by Pope Gregory XVI.
Three small antechambers, flanked by dark rooms, leads to the sanctuary which is lit by two small windows. It still contains the pedestal placed here by Ptolemy III Euergetes I and his wife Berenice for the image of Isis in her sacred bark. The granite shrines (naos) were removed to European museums during the 19th century. From her sanctuary, the statue of Isis would have been carried out in processions from the temple on her ceremonial barque to make the short crossing to the island of Bigeh to visit the tomb of her spouse, Osiris.

Surrounding the sanctuary are the Osiris chambers reached by a short staircase on the west side of the temple which leads to the roof. Having Osirian rooms on the roof of the temple was standard during the Graeco-Roman Period, though here they are sunk well below the level of the roof at each of its four corners. The Osiris room has its own vestibule with scenes of gods bewailing the dead Osiris, and the inner room contains scenes relating to the collection of the god's sacred limbs. To reach these, after ascending the stairs, one then descends to the first room where the Nile-god offers libations of milk to the soul or Ba of Osiris, sitting before him in the form of a bird. In the second room is the falcon-headed mummy of Osiris. In the third room the god Shu and the Emperor Antoninus, who built the room, stand before Osiris and his two sisters Isis and Nephthys. Still another room on the roof shows Isis and Nephthys by the nude body of Osiris, lying on a bier. The frog-headed Heket and the falcon-headed Harsiesis stand by the bier beneath which are depicted four canopic jars for the entrails of the god. The other walls show the corpse of Osiris among marsh plants with a priest pouring consecrated water. The jackal headed Anubis stands by the bier of Osiris beside which kneel Isis and Nephthys.

Once these scenes were bright with brilliant colors, the columns and capitals scintillating in the clear sunshine against vivid blue skies. As Robert Curzon rote, "Excepting the Pyramids, nothing struck me so much as when on a bright moonlight night I first entered the court of the great temple of Philae".
The outside walls of the temple are covered with reliefs largely dating from the reign of Tiberius. On the west side of the temple itself are several other structures that must be considered a part of the overall structure. Just to the west o the second Pylon stands a gateway and a ruined vestibule built by Emperor Hadrian. On the lintel of the gate Hadrian stands before Osiris, Isis and Harsiesis. Within the gateway, Marcus Aurelius stands before Osiris and below this scene, he offers grapes and flowers to Isis.
The uncompleted vestibule shows Nephthys presenting the crown of Lower Egypt and Isis the Crown of Upper Egypt to Horus. On one wall is a relief of Isis watching Osiris being carried on the back of a crocodile across the Nile. Another relief on the north wall shows Isis, Nephthys, Horus, Amun and Hathor worshipping the Hawk-god rising over the river beneath the island of Bigeh. This island has a vulture perched on it and beneath this is a cave surrounded by a serpent holding the figure of Hapi, the Nile God, representing the source of the Nile.
Also, at the northern end of the western colonnade that fronts the temple is one of the few ancient nilometers remaining in Egypt, which was used to measure the Nile flood in ancient times.
The Temple of Isis, which was moved from old Philae Island due to the building of the High Dam south of Aswan to its present location on Agilkia Island, beautiful as it is, has one further distinction. it was the last surviving outpost of the old Egyptian pagan religion. Some say that Christianity and the pagan religion, for a time, were practiced here side by side until the pagan priesthood was officially disbanded by Justinian in about 550 AD.

Other Structures on the Island

monuments besides the temple of Isis that were moved from Philae to Agilika Island, some of which are extraordinary monuments. To the north of Hadrian's gate on the western side of the island and of the Temple of Isis is the ruined temple built by the Emperor Claudius and dedicated to Harendotes, "Horus the protector (or avenger) of his Father", one of the many forms of Horus.

North of the Temple of Isis is the ruined temple of Augustus, which was built in the eighteenth year of his reign. Notably, a stone bearing a trilingual inscription of Cornelius Gallus was found here. Gallus was the first Roman Prefect appointed after the death of Cleopatra VII. Now in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo, it records his victory when he successfully suppressed a revolt by the Egyptians in 29 BC. North of this is the Roman town gate that leads to a quay, also built by the Romans along the northeast side of the island. This spectacular gate was probably a triumphal arch built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
Down south from here on the eastern side of the island adjacent to the main temple complex of Isis is the temple of Hathor, built by Ptolemy VI Philometor and Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II. It consists of a colonnaded hall and a forecourt. The colonnade was decorated by Augustus and is filled with carvings of festivities in recognition of Isis and Hathor, the Aphrodite of Greece and goddess of all the joys of the senses. Here we find scenes of music and drinking. Augustus offers a festal crown to Isis and flowers to Nephthys. Bes is also here, beating a tambourine and playing a harp, while an ape plays a lute. In fact, flute players, harpers and dancing apes flow round the pillars while priests carry in an antelope for the feast.
Further south is the last important monument on the island itself, which always seems to catch the eye of the visitor. This is the so-called Kiosk, sometimes referred to as "Pharaoh's Bed". The rectangular building has fourteen columns with beautifully carved floral capitals that once supported a wooden roof. Only two of the screen walls between the columns are completed. They show the Emperor Trajan burning incense before Isis and Osiris and offering wine to Isis and Horus. The Kiosk is often ascribed to Trajan, but is might well have been built earlier than this, possibly during the reign of Augustus. This unfinished building is one of the most popular monuments of Philae and was in ancient times the formal entrance to the island.
In addition to these ruins, there are also two ancient Coptic churches, as well as the remains of a Coptic monastery. Reportedly, there were as many as two additional Christian churches on the original island, and there is a Bishop of Philae mentioned in the year 362 AD. The original island of Philae contained mud-brick settlement remains on the northern part of the island, and to the east and southeast, which would have originally housed the staff that served the temple, but these structures were left to be flooded by the lake.
Before leaving Philae, we must also mention the island of Bigeh (Biggeh, Biga), located just to the south of new Philae and a little to the west of the original island. By the start of the Graeco-Roman Period, this site had come to be viewed as both the tomb of Osiris and the source of the Nile, which was believed to issue from a cavern deep beneath the island. A special sanctuary was built there in ancient times, but the area was prohibited to people and thus became known in Greek as the Abaton, or "forbidden place". According to legend, the left leg of Osiris was buried here after his body had been cut up by his brother Seth. The burial place on Bigeh was said to be surrounded by 365 altars on which the priests laid daily offerings of milk. Although originally of greater religious importance than nearby Philae, Bigeh thus remained outside the normal development cycle of temple building and growth, so it was Philae that was developed instead. The remains of the small temple at Bigeh are on the eastern side of the island, opposite the location of the original Philae.
Once every ten days and on annual festivals, the statue of Isis was carried out of her temple at Philae to visit the tomb of her husband on Bigeh.
It is difficult to overrate the importance of the religious complex at Philae. It provides us with a major late cult center which is exceptionally well preserved. Beginning in the Saite period and continuing into the 30th Dynasty it underwent a spectacular flowering in the Graeco-Roman Period and, because of the circumstances of its dismantling and removal, there is possibly a unique insight into its architectural evolution until and including its conversion to a Christian center. As the last bastion of the ancient Egyptian religious culture, it is no coincidence that the latest datable hieroglyphic inscription (August 24, 394 AD) comes from Philae. The latest demotic inscription is also found here, dating to 452 AD.
It seems only fitting to depart Philae with words of Amelia Edwards, as she too leaves the island:

"It has been a hot day, and there is dead calm on the river. My last sketch finished, I wander slowly round from spot to spot, saying farewell to Pharaoh's Bed - to the Painted Columns - to every terrace, palm, and shrine, and familiar point of view. I peep once again into the mystic chamber of Osiris. I see the sun set for the last time from the roof the the Temple of Isis. Then, when all that wondrous flush of rose and gold has died away, comes the warm afterglow. No words can paint the melancholy beauty of Philae at this hour. The surrounding mountains stand out jagged and purple against a pale amber sky. The Nile is glassy. Not a breath, not a bubble, troubles the inverted landscape. Every palm is twofold; every stone is doubled. The big boulders in med-stream are reflected so perfectly that it is impossible to tell where the rock ends and the water begins. The Temples, meanwhile, have turned to a subdued golden bronze; and the pylons are peopled with shapes that glow with fantastic life, and look ready to step down from their places.
The solitude is perfect, and there is a magical stillness in the air. I hear a mother crooning to her baby on the neighbouring island - a sparrow twittering in its little nest in the capital of a column below by feet - a vulture screaming plaintively among the rocks in the far distance.
I look; I listen; I promise myself that I will remember it all in years to come - all these solemn hills, these silent colonnades, these deep, quiet places of shadow, these sleeping palms. Lingering till it is all but dark, I at last bed them farewell, fearing lest I may behold them no more."

St. Simeon Monastery (Monastery of Anba Hatre) in Aswan, Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:27:00 +0000

General View of the Monastery of St. Simeon

Those on a fairly standard tour of Egypt that includes the Aswan area will most likely visit St. Simeon (Deir Anba Sim'an), the monastery otherwise known as Anba Hatre. It is very likely that this will also include their one substantial camel ride (about 15 minutes), which is how these ruins, located some one thousand two hundred meters from the west bank oppose the southern tip of the island of Elephantine, are usually accessed. The monastery was given the name St. Simeon by archaeologists and travelers, but earlier Arabic and Coptic sources called it Anba Hatre (Hidra, Hadri, Hadra),

after an anchorite who was consecrated a bishop of Syene (now Aswan) by Patriarch Theophilus (385-412 AD). Anba Hatre married at the age of eighteen. Tradition provides that just after the wedding, he encountered a funeral procession which inspired him to preserved his chastity and later become a disciple of Saint Baiman. After eight years of ascetic practices under the supervision of his teacher, he retired to the desert and applied himself to the study of the life of Saint Antony. He died during the time of Theodosius I.

Little actual archaeological attention has really ever been paid to this ancient site. It was examined and published by Grossmann in 1985, and in 1998 the inspectors of the antiquities removed some debris from the church, but apparently little else was accomplished.

The Plan of the Monastery

It is clear that by the sixth or seventh century, from wall paintings in some of the rock caves dating to that period, that there was a monastic settlement at Anba Hatre, though whether it dates back to the life of the anchorite who it was named after is unknown. The monastery apparently was subject to significant building activity during the first half of the eleventh century, when several tall structures were built. Afterwards, Abu al-Makarim, a well known travelers and historian, also speaks of the monastery being occupied by monks. During the twelfth century (1173 AD), is suffered a particularly violent attack and heavy damage when the troops of Salah al-Din (Saladin) conducted their expeditions into Nubia. It is possible that Saladin may have feared that marauding Christian Nubians might use the monastery to make forays into southern Egypt. By the end of the thirteenth century, what was at one time one of the largest monasteries in Egypt with perhaps as many as 1,000 monks had been abandoned, either because of the lack of water are due to frequent raids by desert marauders.
Even though much of the monastery is in ruins, many of its main features are well preserved. It is of considerable architectural interest, for the church provides the most important example of an oblong, domed Christian church in Egypt and the keep, or tower, which served as a permanent residential complex, is the most developed of its kind. Furthermore, the large number of tombstones in the monastery cemetery are invaluable sources for the study of early Christian tombstones in the Nile Valley, and the kilns of the monastery have also proven significant for research into archaic Aswan pottery.

There is a cliff that separates the monastery into two natural terraces on two levels. There is a relatively thin, six meter high trapezoid wall that encloses the terraces that occupy about a hectare of land, with two gates that give access to each terrace. This wall, with its lower portion made of rough stone and upper of unbaked brick, was equipped with towers and lookouts. Originally parts of the wall may have stood as high as ten meters, but today, most only the stone section of the wall remains intact, while the mudbrick is all but gone. The brown-ocher color of the brick contributes to the perfect harmonization of all the buildings with their desert surroundings.

The Lower Terrace

In the lower terrace are the original rock caves of the saints, the church with its baptistery, and (ancient) lodging for pilgrims. Here, the entrance gate projects out from the east wall of the enclosure beneath a defensive tower. Its vestibule leading into the monastery has a barrel vaulted roof.

The Principal Church of the Monastery

Within, the church was built during the first half of the eleventh century (or possibly earlier, in the tenth century) and represents the oldest of its kind in Egypt. Though only the lower part of it remains, it is an important example of a domed oblong church, a type that dates back to the beginning of Egypt's Fatimid Period (969-1173). The naos has a nave and two side aisles. The domes are octagonal in shape, with the two largest domes covering and dividing the nave, which is lined with pillars, into two square areas. The aisles of the nave end to the east along the sanctuary in a room which originally had an entrance in its east wall. This was an unusual arrangement for Coptic churches, and the entrances were subsequently blocked. The room at the east end of the south aisle served as a baptistery. There is also a grotto at the west end of the north aisle of the church, where the structure rests against the rock which delimits the lower terrace, that is an ancient Egyptian rock tomb used by the monks as a habitat. This may have been the original dwelling of Anba Hatre himself. A rectangular cruciform sanctuary, originally covered by another dome, was once connected with the khurus (choir) so that altogether, they formed a large, single trefoil with three rectangular compartments. The addition of two rectangular rooms flanking the sanctuary, covered with half domes, was a later expansion in the eastern zone of the church. Behind the sanctuary is a room that reminds us of the corridor in a similar location built into Nubian churches. Behind the church lining the east wall of the monastery are a few cells for monks, each with three stone beds.

Plan of the Church

There were a number of visible wall paintings that were still discernable at the end of the nineteenth century, but alas, most of these are now badly damaged or even destroyed. It has been suggested that these paintings date to the eleventh or twelfth century, though below those that can still be seen are at least another layer of paintings in the apse of the church. In the eastern semi-dome their remains visible a scene of Christ enthroned within the mandorla, held by two angles, with flames rising to its base. Christ holds a book on one knee with his left hand, while his right hand is raised in blessing beyond the edge of the mandorla. A human figure with a square nimbus appears in a praying position on the extreme right. Below this scene, the walls are adorned with arcades and pendentives.
On the north wall of the sanctuary there is still extant a painting of juxtaposed, haloed figures seated, representing the twenty-four Priests (elders of Revelation). Also, in a niche on the west side of the church is a painting depicting the Holy Virgin Mary standing between two bowing angles.
Within the grotto at the west end of the north aisle, the walls were originally decorated with a sequence of figures numbering thirty-six in one register. It has been suggested that these represent some of the seventy-two disciples of Christ. The ceiling of the grotto is adorned with busts within large squares and small octagons and set against a geometrical design of fretwork patterns. These painting can be dated to the sixth or seventh century.

Ceiling of the Grotto

The Upper Terrace

The upper terrace consisted of the large keep (qasr) that provided permanent living quarters for the monastic community. This was somewhat unusual in that most keeps served only as temporary housing during sieges. The upper terrace can be approached by a stairway along the north wall of the church in the lower part of the monastery. The keep, its massive size unusual in comparison to those of other monasteries, is a three-storied building that dominates the ruins. Individual cells for the monks, a refectory, kitchen and several workshops were included in this structure, though no well or other water supply to sustain the community during times of siege has ever been discovered. Nevertheless, it represents the climax in development for this type of structure.

The Refectory

The ground floor of the keep encompasses the refectory, together with rows of cells that flank a vaulted corridor. This corridor, with three windows for illumination, is oriented north-south, and the wall at its north end is the northern enclosure wall of the monastery. The cells are furnished with as few as two and as many as six stone beds. The refectory, a rectangular room that was originally divided by a row of four columns and roofed by two rows of contiguous cupolas n pendentives, is on the northwest side of the corridor. The floor of the refectory is paved with baked bricks, upon which are seven mudbrick rings that formed the base of the seats used by monks when they took their common meals.

A cell with beds of stone

Thee are various dependencies attached to the kitchen west of the refectory. One room contains a reservoir that held part of the monastery's water supply. Even though no water well has ever been found on the monastery grounds, there is an elaborate plumbing arrangement that provided water on the upper terrace bathrooms, latrines and several laundering establishments.

The Corridor in the Keep

The oil press, with its granite millstone decorated with three crosses, is situated on the upper terrace south of the keep. There was also a mill and bakery outside the keep, and a number of ovens of different sizes were found on both terraces. Other structures include a wine press, storage annexes, stables, a vat to decant the water and another to extract salt.
The pottery kilns in the southern zone of the monastery were used to produce Aswan pottery that was used in Upper Egypt and Nubia during Roman, Byzantine and the early Islamic periods. Hence, they are of special interest.
The cemetery of the monastery has yielded nearly two hundred tombstones, many of which range in date from the sixth through the ninth century. Their text, which shows three distinct editions and different prayer formulas, is highly valuable to researchers.

Aga Khan Mausoleum in Aswan , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:53:00 +0000

It is often said that the River Nile manifests its beauty at its best at Aswan, Egypt's most southern city, where white-sailed feluccas glide across the clear, blue water.

The residents of Aswan are friendly and less likely to hassle you than other cities in Egypt that attract large numbers of visitors. And large numbers there are. The warm, year-round climate and the tropical vegetation give the town a distinctly African feel. The next stop is Sudan. Of all the things to see in this delightful place, the most pleasant thing of all is just to walk and to take in the atmosphere.

The Great Mausoleum
The beautiful Fatimid-style stone mausoleum of the Aga Khan, then, which stands on a hill above Aswan, impresses as much by its simplicity as its grandeur, calling upon all who gaze on it to ponder the greatness of Allah (Arabic for: God) in a world that so often seems to forget Him.
Standing tall above the Nile like many an ancient Pharaonic temple, the mausoleum is the chosen resting place of His Highness Mawlana Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan III, the 48th Imam of the Isma`ili Muslims, who died in 1957.

"Egypt is the flag of Islam," he would say, and it was to Egypt that he would return in death. Having wintered in Aswan for many years because of its beauty and warm temperate climate, the Aga Khan wished to be buried there. He chose the site for his tomb, and his wife, the Begum Aga Khan, spent 16 months preparing the mausoleum. Its architect, Farid El-Shafei, chose to model it on the simple beauty of the many Fatimid tombs in Cairo's City of the Dead and in Aswan's own Fatimid cemetery.

From the landing stage at the foot of the sand-covered hill, the exterior of the mausoleum resembles as much a fortress as a burial place, with its high, stark walls of honey-colored sandstone standing right on the edge of the desert.
The small dome, atop the mausoleum, is the only clue that gives away the purpose of the building. The interior is more gentle, with a tomb of Carrara marble and a most beautiful mihrab, pointing out the direction of Makkah. The effect of the whole is calm and dignified, a suitable resting place for one so dignified. The very building, then, reflects both the strength and the gentleness of Islam.

A giant of a man, in every sense, the wealth of the Aga Khan III was legendary. On his diamond jubilee, the weight of his body in diamonds was distributed amongst his followers. He owned thoroughbred racehorses and had five Derby winners from his stables. He was the friend of kings and princes, Egypt's own President Nasser giving permission for the land in Aswan to be purchased for its intended use.

Although he died in our own age, the Aga Khan was born in another — in 1877. At the age of 20, he was made a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire by Queen Victoria. He was similarly honored by the German Kaiser, the Shah of Persia, and the Sultan of Turkey. In 1934, he became a member of the Privy Council, which advises the British sovereign, and such was his standing on the world stage that, in 1937, he was chosen as President of the League of Nations. As a founding member and president of the "All India Muslim League," the Aga Khan was to play an important role in the movement that led to the division of the Indian sub-Continent, after British colonial rule, into India and Pakistan.

Spreading the Word
Despite his international reputation, though, and his great wealth and all his honors, the Aga Khan knew that he could take none of this with him when he died. He was laid to rest as a simple Muslim man. In his life, he had shown great kindness to the poor and, in the grand circles in which he had mixed, had tried steadfastly to present Islam in a favorable light to those who knew nothing of its sweet and gentle message. Although in his day, Islam was not yet looked upon as a threat to Western civilization, Muslims were regarded as backward. He tried to present the achievements of Islam, rather than the current state it was in because of colonialism.

In Loving Memory
In a touching tribute of love, his wife (the Begum) had a single red rose laid on his grave every day until she, herself, died. It is said by local residents that when there were no roses to be bought in Aswan, she would have roses especially flown in from Paris.

The Mausoleum Now
At the present time, the tourists in Aswan no longer have the chance to flock to visit the mausoleum, as once they did. Instead they can only gaze across the Nile at its majesty, contemplating how quickly our life on this earth comes to an end and how death comes to us all, whether we be rich or poor.
Unlike many of us, the Aga Khan was wise enough to know that we cannot avoid coming to the grave and that nothing can stop our appointed time. His charitable works live on in many of the organizations and institutions he founded. Only recently the Aga Khan Foundation, a successor to his own work, funded the splendid Al-Azhar Park in Egypt's capital, Cairo.

Tombs of Mekhu and Sabni in Aswan , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:23:00 +0000

Monument Number : 25 and 26
Period : Old kingdom
Founder : Sabni
Construction date : Century 23 (0) BC
State : Preserved
Address: At Qubbet el-Hawa, Aswan

Mekhu and Sabni were father and son , both were governors of Upper Egypt during the reign of Pepi II of the 6th Dynasty . The reliefs on the walls of the tombs tell the story of the killing of Mekhu while he was on an expedition in Nubia and the efforts of his son , Sabni , to bring the body of his father back as well as his ceremonial burial . Sabni informed King Pepi II of the event and the king sent his personal embalmers to mummify the deceased governor . The tombs follow the Old Kingdom's style , with small obelisks and offering table at the entrance doorway . The Offering table of Mekhu still stands there .
The tomb of Mekhu , to the left side , has 18 columns and a niche in the back wall . The decoration , in reliefs , show daily life scenes of the deceased .

Sabni's tomb façade tells the autobiography of Sabni and his successful expedition to recover his father's body . The tomb has 14 pillars and the reliefs on the back wall show Sabni hunting with his daughters .

Aswan Tombs of the Nobles , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:35:00 +0000

The riverscape of Aswan is dominated by the sand-covered hills of the West Bank which is strewn with rock-cut tombs of high-status officials of the Old and Middle Kingdom. At the crest of the hill is the domed tomb of a Muslim prophet which gives the hill its local name, Qubbet el-Hawa or ‘Dome of the Winds’.

The ticket office is to the northern end of the tomb area and a steep climb up several flights of stone steps leads to the upper level of the cemetery where there are around 6 or 7 tombs open to visitors. The guide will usually begin at the southern end of the upper level where the most interesting tombs can be seen. These ancient tombs are roughly cut from the natural rock, and though they are not as well preserved as some of those to be visited in the Luxor or Cairo areas they are well worth seeing. Tombs of this period are usually fairly inaccessible in most places south of Cairo and these show fine examples of hieroglyphic texts detailing the careers of their owners as well as scenes of daily life in the earlier periods. Many of the tombs are linked together as family members added their own chambers.

Tombs 25/26: Sabni and Mekhu
The owners of these tombs were father and son, both Overseers of Upper Egypt in Dynasty VI during the reign of Pepy II. Reliefs on the walls of Mekhu’s tomb record his murder while on an expedition in Nubia and the revenge taken by Sabni, his son. He seems to have been buried with much ceremony. The tombs were roughly constructed in Old Kingdom style, with small obelisks at the entrance doorway and an offering table of Mekhu still in situ.

Tomb 31: Sarenput II
The next major tomb in the sequence is that of Sarenput II, Overseer of the Priests of Khnum and Commander of the Garrison at Elephantine, dated to the reign of Dynasty XII king, Amenemhet II. This is one of the best preserved tombs at Aswan. It consists of a large chamber with six perfectly symmetrical undecorated pillars and a gallery flanked by six niches each once containing mummiform statues of the deceased prince. The four pillars of a second chamber were decorated with images of Sarenput. Beyond this, a chapel cut deep into the rock is plastered and painted in vivid colours and depicts his wife, a Priestess of Hathor and other family members. In the niche at the back of the chapel Sarenput is named as ‘Hereditary Lord’. This biographical text is very colourful with well-depicted hieroglyphs and shows the cartouche of ‘Nebkaure’ – Amenemhet II as well as an unusual glyph of an elephant. The style of painting and the hieroglyphs are distinctly similar to the Old Kingdom tombs, leading some Egyptologists to suggest that the same artists decorated them and that the length of the 1st Intermediate Period was therefore very short.

Tomb 31: Khunes
This is a Dynasty VI tomb, its owner Khunes was a Lector Priest and Chancellor. A side chamber to the left of the entrance was re-used as a Coptic cell and another chamber on an upper level was a serdab. The tomb contains scenes of the deceased and his family in daily life.

Tomb 31: Harkhuf
Harkhuf was an Overseer of Foreign Troops during the reigns of Pepy I, Merenre and Pepy II in Dynasty VI. This tomb is famous for Harkhuf’s biographical text and a copy of a letter from Pepy II requesting that Harkhuf should hurry to bring the young king a dancing pigmy from an expedition into Africa.

Tomb 35: Pepynakht (also called Heqa-ib)
The owner of this tomb was another Overseer of Foreign Troops during the reign of Pepy II of Dynasty VI. The tomb has a columned façade, biographical texts and good reliefs showing hunting and bull-fighting scenes. Heqa-ib was the deified official whose cult chapel stood on Elephantine Island.

Tomb 36: Sarenput I
The last major tomb on the upper level dates from Dynasty XII and the reign of Senwosret I. Sarenput I was a Governor of Elephantine and Overseer of the Priests of Satis. A columned court has scenes on the rear walls of the deceased hunting and fishing with his dogs and his sandal-bearer. In a hall with four columns there are scenes of daily life, a boating scene and a biographical text with finely painted hieroglyphs. A chamber at the rear of the tomb has a ‘false door’.

Note the causeways which run down the hillside from the different cemetery levels. These would have been the original ‘paths’ to the tombs and coffins and burial goods would have been dragged up these steep inclines from the river. At night the whole cemetery area is floodlit and can be seen from all over Aswan.
The tombs are mostly quite deep in the hillside and therefore very dark. Photography is not usually allowed.

Note the causeways which run down the hillside from the different cemetery levels. These would have been the original 'paths' to the tombs and coffins and burial goods would have been dragged up these steep inclines from the river. At night the whole cemetery area is floodlit and can be seen from all over Aswan.
The tombs are mostly quite deep in the hillside and therefore very dark. Flash photography is not usually allowed.
How to get there
To get to the Tombs of the Nobles, there is a ferry which leaves from the northern end of the Corniche. Alternatively you can hire a felucca which will wait and bring you back. You could also combine a visit to the tombs with a longer felucca trip.

Sehel Island in Aswan , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:11:00 +0000

On the summit of the eastern hill stands the most well-known of the rock-inscriptions on Sehel Island, known as the ‘Famine Stela’. The inscription is bruised lightly onto a large granite boulder and tells a story set in Dynasty III during the reign of the Horus Netjerikhet, king Djoser. The dating however is artificial, the text was carved during the Ptolemaic Period, shown by the style of the vocabulary and grammar and by the deification of Djoser’s architect Imhotep. It is possible that the text was re-worded from an earlier document but whatever the source, this is the earliest known connection between the names of the Pharaoh Netjerikhet, owner of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and the name of King Djoser, by which he is now best known. The stela depicts King Djoser offering to the deities Khnum-Re, Satis and Anukis of the cataract region. The vertical rows of text below refer to the catastrophic effects of seven years of famine and drought during the reign of Djoser and how in a dream the god Khnum appeared to the king and promised to end the hardship if his instructions on the building of a temple at Elephantine were followed. The temple was duly built and a decree issued that a tax of one tenth of all produce from harvest, hunting and fishing as well as a proportion of precious minerals and materials brought from Nubia, should be donated to the temple of Khnum. No other official or administrator would be allowed to tax the people in the area designated by the king. It has been suggested that the erection of this stela was another case of political propaganda by the local priests of Khnum, on finding that the nearby Temple of Isis at Philae was gaining power in the region and that Khnum’s hold over the area from Aswan north to Esna was diminishing. Surely a decree of such apparent antiquity and under the protection of Khnum himself could not be ignored.

The Island of Sehel is about 4km south of Aswan, in the Nile to the north of the old Aswan Dam. In ancient times travellers on their way to Nubia, or who had just returned from an expedition to the south, would make a pilgrimage to the sacred island of Sehel and leave inscriptions recording their appeals or prayers of gratitude for help in safely negotiating the hazardous first Nile cataract. Several of them record events and journeys into Nubia by officials on the king’s business. The inscriptions are carved or bruised onto the jumbled mounds of granite boulders which are strewn over several areas of the island. Flinders Petrie visited Sehel in 1887 taking photographs and making sketches of the thousands of inscriptions he found on the boulders and cliffs by climbing rope ladders. The two hills which dominate the south-eastern end of the island boast over 250 inscriptions, many of which are dedicated to the goddess Anukis and her consort Khnum and date from the Middle Kingdom to Ptolemaic periods.

A chapel dedicated to Anukis was built at the time of Amenemhet II during Dynasty XII but little remains of this structure, while remaining blocks from a small Ptolemaic temple of Khnum were found scattered around the Nubian village. Anukis was a goddess worshipped in the area of the Egyptian border and sometimes known as ‘Mistress of Nubia’. She was associated with the cataracts at Aswan and specifically with the islands of Sehel and Elephantine. A protective and fertility deity, Anukis was also thought to be a personification of the Nile who embraced the waters of the inundation. Her husband Khnum, a ram-headed creator god who is often shown fashioning the ka of the king on his potters wheel, was also seen as a potent fertility god under whose protection the cataract region came.

The boulders in the monument areas are now enclosed by a metal fence. The path up from the river takes you past a section to the west with some nice inscriptions and a larger hill to the east for which a ticket is required at the entrance. Here you will see a great number of well-preserved carvings with hieroglyphic inscriptions dedicated to Khnum, Anukis and other deities and several royal cartouches. As you climb the hill to the top there is a spectacular view over the cataract area to the south. The cataracts are rocky areas of boulders in the narrow channels of the River Nile which until a century or so ago, before the construction of the old Aswan Dam in 1902, formed treacherous rapids of foaming water. It was dangerous to row between the rocks and larger vessels were forced to unload their cargo in order to negotiate this stretch of river. Standing on top of this hill overlooking the river gives us a good idea how hazardous the river journey would have been and why the traveller would have felt in need of divine protection.

The trip by boat to Sehel Island makes a pleasant morning or afternoon excursion. The island people are friendly and hospitable offering cups of tea galore in their Nubian homes and the local ladies will follow you everywhere with their baskets of hand-made crafts, carved dolls and beaded jewellery.

How to get there
Sehel Island can be reached by felucca or motor boat, negotiated on the Corniche at Aswan. If time is limited a motorboat is faster and not dependent on the wind as a felucca is. The boat will wait while you are on the island and take you back to the Corniche or the trip can be combined with another site such as Elephantine or Kitchener’s Islands.

Aswan Botanical Garden , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:15:00 +0000

Lord Horatio Kitchener
The island where the Aswan Botanical Gardens are located was originally used by the Nubians, however in 1899 it was given to the prominent British soldier Lord Horatio Kitchener after a successful military operation in Sudan. At the time, Kitchener was the commander of Egypt's army and was also assigned to the area to complete a mapping survey for the British government.

The survey also collected data on the topography of the region, as well as information on the local flora and fauna. The results of the survey were published in an eight volume series, with Kitchener's contribution in the first three tomes (Conder and Kitchener 1881-1885).

This survey has had a lasting effect on the Middle East and the data compiled is still used by archaeologists and geographers today.

Kitchener's Island or Plantation Island
Lying directly to the west of the Elephantine Island, Kitchener's Island also goes by the names of both Plantation Island and the Aswan Botanical Gardens.
Flowers from across Africa, India and The World

Lord Kitchener spent many years transforming the 16 acre Aswan Botanical Gardens into a horticultural wonderland, with flowers and plants from all over Africa, India and beyond.

Visitors to Aswan Botanical Gardens, now owned by the state, will find that the main attractions include endless seasonal flowers, a world-class collection of lush palm trees, more than 400 different species of exotic and subtropical vegetation and picnicking with some exceptional views.

Elephantine Island in Aswan , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Elephantine (Arabic: جزيرة الفنتين‎) is an island in the River Nile, located just downstream of the First Cataract at the southern border of Ancient Egypt. This region is referred to as Upper Egypt because the land is higher than that near the Mediterranean coast. It may have received its name because it was a trading place for Ivory[citation needed]. Other theories claim that the island is named after its shape. It is easily verifiable that the island's shape is similar to that of an elephant's tusk. This is the meaning of the Greek word elephas (ελέφας). This hypothesis does not explain how the ancients knew the shape of the island.

The island measures some 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) from north to south and is about 400 metres (1,300 ft) across at its widest point. It is a part of the modern Egyptian city of Aswan.

Known to the Ancient Egyptians as Abu or Yebu, the island of Elephantine stood at the border between Egypt and Nubia. It was an excellent defensive site for a city and its location made it a natural cargo transfer point for river trade. This border is near the Tropic of Cancer, the most northerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon and from which it appears to reverse direction or "turn back" at the solstices.
Elephantine was a fort that stood just before the first cataract of the Nile. During the Second Intermediate Period (1650 - 1550 BCE), the fort marked the southern border of Egypt.

According to Egyptian mythology, here was the dwelling place of Khnum, the ram-headed god of the cataracts, who guarded and controlled the waters of the Nile from caves beneath the island. He was worshipped here as part of a late triad among the Egyptian pantheon of deities. The Elephantine Triad included Satis and Anuket. Satis was worshipped from very early times as a war goddess and protector of this strategic region of Egypt. When seen as a fertility goddess, she personified the bountiful annual flooding of the Nile, which was identified as her daughter, Anuket. The cult of Satis originated in the ancient city of Swenet. Later, when the triad was formed, Khnum became identified as her consort and, thereby, was thought of as the father of Anuket. His role in myths changed later and another deity was assigned his duties with the river. At that time his role as a potter enabled him to be assigned a duty in the creation of human bodies.

Temple
There are records of a temple to Khnum on the island as early as the third dynasty. Most of the southern tip of the island is taken up by the ruins of a later temple to him. This temple was completely rebuilt in the Late Period, during the thirtieth dynasty of Egypt, just before the foreign rule that followed in the Graeco-Roman Period. The Greeks formed the Ptolemaic dynasty during their three-hundred-year rule over Egypt (from 305 BC to 30 BC) and maintained the ancient religious customs and traditions, albeit, often associating the Egyptian deities with their own. Egypt then became part of the Roman Empire and its religious traditions existed alongside those from many diverse cultures until 600 AD.

In ancient times, the island was also an important stone quarry providing granite materials that would be transported widely within Egypt for monuments and buildings.
Ongoing excavations by the German Archaeological Institute at the town have uncovered many findings that are now on display in the museum located on the island, including a mummified ram of Khnum. Artifacts dating back to predynastic times have been found on Elephantine.

The oldest ruins still standing on the island are a granite step pyramid from the third dynasty and a small shrine, built for the local sixth-dynasty nomarch, Hekayib. There were forty-two such provinces created as regional governments that dated from the Old Kingdom through the Roman Period.

Elephantine calendar

A rare calendar, known as the Elephantine Calendar of Things, dating to the reign of Thutmose III, was found in fragments. Also on the island is one of the oldest nilometers in Egypt, last reconstructed in Roman times and still in use as late as the nineteenth century CE. Ninety steps that lead down to the river are marked with Hindu-Arabic, Roman, and hieroglyphic numerals. Inscriptions carved deeply into the rock during the seventeenth dynasty can be seen at the water's edge.

Prior to 1822, there were temples to Thutmose III and Amenhotep III on the island. At that time they were destroyed by the Ottoman government. Both temples were relatively intact prior to the deliberate demolition.

Jewish presence

The Elephantine papyri are caches of legal documents and letters written in Aramaic, which document a community of Jewish soldiers, with perhaps an admixture of Samaritans, stationed here during the Persian occupation of Egypt. They maintained their own temple (also see House of Yahweh), evincing polytheistic beliefs, which functioned alongside that of Khnum, . The Jewish community at Elephantine was probably founded as a military installation circa 650 BCE during Manasseh's reign, to assist Pharaoh Psammetichus I in his Nubian campaign (See Investigating the Origin of the Ancient Jewish Community at Elephantine: A Review. ) The documents cover the period 495 to 399 BCE.

Nilometers

There are two nilometers on the Elephantine island. The more famous one is a corridor nilometer associated with the Temple of Satis, with a stone staircase that descends down the corridor. There are many markings and symbols on the two walls of the nilometer for measuring the water level of the Nile. The other nilometer is a rectangular basin located at the southern tip of the island, near the Temple of Khnum and opposite of the Old Cataract Hotel. It is probably older of the two. One of the nilometers is mentioned by Strabo, a Greek historian, though it is not certain which one.

Many sources claim that the fabled Well of Erastothenes, famous for the calculation of the circumference of Earth by Eratosthenes, was located on the island. Strabo does mention that there was a particular well that was used for observing that Syene lies on the Tropic of Cancer, but the reference is to a well in Syene (Aswan), not on Elephantine. Neither of the nilometers on Elephantine is suitable for the purpose, but the well in Syene is apparently lost.

The 2 nd Arab International E-Tourism & E-marketing Conference

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Tourism and Marketing in the Age of Technology: Virtual and Real

El Gouna - Red Sea – EGYPT

Mövenpick Resort & Spa El Gouna, Sheraton Miramar Resort El Gouna and Steigenberger Golf

Resort El Gouna

Dec. 14-18, 2009

Organized by

IOETI

International Organization for the E- Tourism Industry

This event is an initiative organized by IOETI, the International Organization for the E-Tourism Industry,under the patronage of the League of Arab States and in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt,the Egyptian Ministry of Administrative Development and the Egyptian Ministry of Communications along with The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and some international associations and organizations concerned with the e Tourism and e Marketing.

IOETI conference mission : to update you on the latest developments with the leading e-commerce providers, assess the technology most pertinent to the travel and tourism industry and provided you with access to companies using cutting edge practical technology.

This year, The 2nd Arab International e Tourism & e Marketing Conference brings together a large number of international and regional experts in e Tourism and e Marketing with outstanding variety of businesses. It also involves a valuable group of people with fresh views and perceptions, meshed with the guidance, knowledge, and support of those who have worked and managed across different types of online tourism and marketing. For more information.
The objective of this event is to create awareness, educate, and update the travel and tourism industry with sound e Marketing and e Commerce strategies to improve sales and profits with minimum costs and efforts. The main focus in this conference is e Tourism trends such as online marketing, search marketing, social media, and online brand reputation.
Over three consecutive days, the agenda of the scientific sessions (IOETI offers a unique forum for academics, researchers, industry, consultants and government representatives to explore the future of E Tourism through research) and the workshops will be relatively flexible so that content and topics can respond to market movements and participant interests. IOETI offers an ideal venue for all specialists and experts of e Tourism and e Marketing to meet and network with leading e Commerce travel specialists, review the balance between traditional and Internet advertising, decide on means to target prospective clients, and understand how to use search technology as a marketing tools.
Moreover, for the first time in the region, this conference will initiate a Website Competition for the top tourism websites in the Arab world and Africa supervised by IOETI.
IOETI invites travel businesses, concerned individuals, corporations and governmental authorities and all individuals working in e Marketing, e Commerce, and e Business to attend The 2nd Arab International e Tourism & e Marketing Conference and discover new e tourism technology. All registered participants will receive a certificate of attendance, endorsed by world-renowned tourism organizations.

More information & registration visit IOETI

Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:50:00 +0000

Much of the red granite used for ancient temples and colossi came from quarries in the Aswan area. Around these quarries are many inscriptions, many of which describe successful quarrying projects. The Unfinished Obelisk located in the Northern Quarry still lies where a crack was discovered as it was being hewn from the rock. Possibly intended as a companion to the Lateran Obelisk, originally at Karnak but now in Rome, it would have weighed over 2.3 million pounds and would have been the worlds largest piece of stone ever handled. However, a crack in the stone occurred, which caused it to be abandoned. Tools left by it's builders have given us much insight into how such work was performed.

In ancient times obelisks and other large stone objects were usually blocked out roughly before they left the quarry. There are several techniques suggested for the splitting of hard stone away from its surrounding rock. One method may have been to cut a groove along the line where the stone was to be detached and then to drive in wooden wedges which were soaked with water. The force of the swelling wood would act to split the granite - there is certainly evidence that this method was used in Roman times. Another method may have been to cut a groove with stone tools, or a primitive saw used with an abrasive, which would then be heated with charcoal and rapidly cooled with water, causing the stone to split.
Given the primitive soft-metal tools of the ancient Egyptians, the obelisk in the Northern Quarry shows us an amazing feat of technology and archaeologists have learned much about the techniques of stone-cutting from examining this abandoned monument and from the tools which have been left behind. It would appear that the stone, which measures 42m in length and would have weighed around 1216 tonnes, developed a flaw during quarrying and was never completed, left to lie still attached to the rock for the next 3000 years. It has been a tourist attraction for almost as long.

The Northern Quarry is an fascinating place to visit for those interested in early technologies. It is famous for producing the granite used in the construction of the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid of Khufu as well as some of the casing stones in other pyramids. Every rock face shows the imprint of ancient stone workers with many cut-marks or artists sketches still to see. You can almost believe that the workmen have only just put down their tools and gone home for the night.

The area of the northern quarry has been recently excavated and renovated by the SCA, its mounds of rubble cleared to reveal many previously unknown granite objects, including fragments of columns and statues. Archaeologists have been able to get a clearer picture of how the stone was cut, carved and transported and have found several ancient tools and artists' sketches. To the south of the unfinished obelisk, excavators found a hieroglyphic inscription dated to year 25 of the reign of Tuthmose III, an instruction from the King for the quarrying of two large obelisks to be erected in Karnak Temple and dedicated to Amun-Re. They also uncovered, close to the unfinished obelisk, the depressions made from the hewing of seven large obelisks, possibly those in Karnak and Luxor temples. Another important discovery was a harbour from where the stone was shipped northwards along the Nile, its walls revealing decorative graffiti of the god Bes, ostriches and fish.

The site is now landscaped and re-opened and offers wide wooden walkways and steps between the many different levels of the quarry with a good viewing platform at either end of the unfinished obelisk. A visitors centre and open-air museum to display some of the artefacts, along with the inevitable tourist bazaar completes this unique experience.

Nubia Museum in Aswan, Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:51:00 +0000

In the early 1960's, when Egypt built the High Dam at Aswan, Egyptologists and archaeologists the world over heeded UNESCO's appeal to salvage the monuments of Egyptian Nubia before the rising waters of Lake Nasser submerged them forever. More than sixty expeditions ultimately joined the "Nubian Rescue Campaign", which resulted in the excavation and recording of hundreds of sites, the recovery of thousands of objects, and the salvage and translocation of a number of important temples to higher ground.

Due to the quantities of material recovered from tombs, temples and settlements, UNESCO was encouraged in the 1980's to plan a new Nubian museum in Aswan where the objects could be stored and exhibited. It was universally felt at the time that they should be kept as close as possible to their principal places of origin.

Nearly twelve years later, the Museum became a reality and opened its doors in November 1997. It was designed by the late Egyptian architect Mahmoud al-Hakim, and Mexican architect Pedro Vasquez Ramirez designed the museum's interior display. The Museum won the Agha-Khan Award of Architecture 2001.

The total area of the complex is 50,000 square meters: 7,000 allocated for the building, and 43,000 for the grounds. The architecture of the Museum and the enclosure walls are intended to evoke traditional Nubian village architecture, as it was along the Nubian Nile before the region was flooded by Lake Nasser.

The building is set within a landscape, on graded levels, that includes a sequence of waterfalls. When the waterway reaches the lower part of the garden, it divides into 2 branches to surround an open-air stage and amphitheater where already many local and foreign groups have performed. The remaining 43,000 sq. m. have been planted with palm trees, flowers, and climbing plants, spread over natural rocks. An outdoor exhibit is planned for the garden, but at the moment only a small section is ready. The project is a beautiful resolution of a long-awaited dream.

The collections of the Nubia museum are composed of artefacts found on sites now submerged, during the Unesco salvage campaign. They are also composed of collections from a variety of museums in Egypt, collected in Nubia during the first half of the twentieth century. It displays in its permanent exhibition about 1500 artefacts showing, in chronological order, the material culture of Nubia, from Prehistory to present times. Virtually all the objects on display were found in Egyptian Nubia with the exception of a few pieces that are included because they clearly relate to Nubia and help elucidate Nubian history and its environment.

Open air museum

The site surrounding the Museum has received considerable landscaping work which has been designed to enhance and fit in with the major existing topographical features. It has been planted with palm trees, flowers and climbing plants, through which a watercourse flows to the rear of the Museum, falling both across and down the site, over a series of weirs to accommodate the natural fall of the ground.

The pathway around the site -along with other paved areas, sitting areas, etc. - is constructed from granite and sandstone paving and steps, and in addition to providing access around the site, also lead to the various artefacts composing the Museum's outdoor exhibition.

Islamic religious buildings and antiquities occupy the Northern end of the site. To the South can be found an artificial cave containing prehistoric paintings and carvings collected in the Nubian area, an open air theatre and the replica of a Nubian house, typically furnished according to Nubian habits, folklore and traditions.

Opening hours:

9:00 AM - 13:00 PM
17:00 PM - 21:00 PM winter
18:00 PM - 22:00 PM summer
Address: Nubia Museum, el Fanadek Street (Opposite Basma Hotel), 81111, Aswan, Egypt
Tel.: (+20) 97-319333
Fax.: (+20) 97-317998

E-mail: nubiamuseum@numibia.net

Entrance fee:
Adult: 20 LE
Student: 10 LE
Approximate length of guided visit: 2 hours

Access for handicapped people: Yes

Plan of museum:

Basement:

12. Main exhibition hall

13. Stairs to ground floor

14. Diorama

15. Class rooms

16. Open-air theatre

17. Toilets

18. Lifts

Aswan, Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:17:00 +0000

Aswan or Aswanl, formerly spelled Assuan, (Arabic: أسوان‎, Aswān; Ancient Egyptian: Swenet, "Trade"; Coptic: ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ, Swān; Ancient Greek: Συήνη, Syene) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist center. The modern city has expanded and includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine.
Aswan is one of the driest inhabited places in the world; as of early 2001, the last rain there was six years earlier. As of 6 October 200, the last rainfall was a thunderstorm on May 13, 2006. In Nubian settlements, they generally do not bother to roof all of the rooms in their houses.

History

Aswan is the ancient city of Swenet, which in antiquity was the frontier town of Ancient Egypt to the south. Swenet is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name. This goddess later was identified as Eileithyia by the Greeks and Lucina by the Romans during their occupation of Ancient Egypt because of the similar association of their goddesses with childbirth, and of which the import is "the opener". The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for trade.

Because the Ancient Egyptians oriented toward the origin of the life-giving waters of the Nile in the south, Swenet was the first town in the country, and Egypt always was conceived to "open" or begin at Swenet.[citation needed] The city stood upon a peninsula on the right (east) bank of the Nile, immediately below (north of) the first cataract of the flowing waters, which extend to it from Philae. Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier.

The stone quarries of ancient Egypt located here were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the granitic rock called Syenite. They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks, and monolithal shrines that are found throughout Egypt, including the pyramids; and the traces of the quarrymen who wrought in these 3000 years ago are still visible in the native rock. They lie on either bank of the Nile, and a road, four miles in length, was cut beside them from Syene to Philae.

Swenet was equally important as a military station as that of a place of traffic. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town; and here tolls and customs were levied on all boats passing southward and northward. Around AD 330, the legion stationed here received a bishop from Alexandria; this later became the Coptic Diocese of Syene. The city is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus (ii. 30), Strabo (ii. p. 133, xvii. p. 797, seq.), Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.), Ptolemy (vii. 5. § 15, viii. 15. § 15), Pliny the Elder (ii. 73. s. 75, v. 10. s. 11, vi. 29. s. 34), De architectura (book viii. ch ii. § 6), and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary (p. 164). It also is mentioned in the Book of Isaiah from the Scriptures (ref. Ezekiel 29:10).

The latitude of the city that would become Aswan, located at– 24° 5′ 23″– was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice, a vertical staff cast no shadow. They noted that the sun's disc was reflected in a well at noon. This statement is only approximately correct; at the summer solstice, the shadow was only 1/400th of the staff, and so could scarcely be discerned, and the northern limb of the sun's disc would be nearly vertical.

Eratosthenes used measurements at Aswan (Elephantine) to contest the Flat Earth theory and tried to determine the circumference of Earth, using Syene as the originating point and Alexandria as the terminal point of a measured arc (based on shadow length at the solstice).

The Nile is nearly 3000 yards wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt, the river flows for more than 750 miles without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually took 21 to 28 days in favourable weather.

Climate

Weather data for Aswan
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	38 (100)	39 (102)	43 (109)	46 (115)	48 (118)	51 (124)	51 (124)	49 (120)	47 (117)	44 (111)	42 (108)	37 (99)	51 (124)
Average high °C (°F)	23 (73)	26 (79)	31 (88)	36 (97)	39 (102)	42 (108)	41 (106)	41 (106)	39 (102)	37 (99)	31 (88)	25 (77)	34 (93)
Average low °C (°F)	10 (50)	11 (52)	14 (57)	19 (66)	23 (73)	26 (79)	26 (79)	26 (79)	24 (75)	22 (72)	17 (63)	12 (54)	19 (66)
Record low °C (°F)	3 (37)	2 (36)	6 (43)	9 (48)	11 (52)	20 (68)	21 (70)	19 (66)	17 (63)	14 (57)	6 (43)	4 (39)	2 (36)
Precipitation mm (inches)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Source: BBC Weather 2009-09-11

Aswan Dam
The Egyptians wanted to control the annual flooding of the Nile and to generate electrical power. As a result, in 1958 Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of Egypt, decided to build a high dam at Aswan.

The dam would bring benefits, but it would also create a huge lake that would flood all of Lower Nubia and the northern part of the Sudan. The people who lived there would have to leave their ancestral lands, and many archaeological sites of ancient Nubia would be destroyed.
As the waters rose, over 100,000 people were resettled elsewhere, and a huge international effort began to rescue the most important ancient temples and archaeological treasures before they were lost forever.

In eight years, over 40 teams of archaeologists from around the world worked together to explore 500 km of the Nile Valley. They discovered thousands of ancient sites and objects. This great effort made Lower Nubia, archaeologically, one of the best known regions in the world and created the discipline of Nubiology. After the flooding of Lower Nubia, many Nubiologists looked to the south to continue their research, and began the archaeological exploration of the northern Sudan, which continues today .

See in Aswan

Aswan Town and the East Bank

Nubian Museum, (opposite the Basma Hotel, south of the Old Cataract Hotel, at the southern edge of Aswan town on Sharia Abtal al-Tahrir - approximately a half hour walk from the city centre.), . daily 9AM-1:00PM and 5:00PM-9:00PM winter, 6:00PM-10:00PM summer. Very well organized, features Nubian treasures recovered before the flooding of Nubia. Adult: 20LE; Student: 10LE.

Unfinished Obelisk, (South of Aswan). The largest known ancient obelisk, carved directly out of bedrock. If finished it would have measured around 42m (120 feet) and would have weighed nearly 1,200 tons. 25LE.

The River and Islands

Elephantine Island: Nubian Villages & Aswan Museum. Nubian villages of Siou and Koti occupy this island. Also home to the famous Nilometers and the Temples of Sati, Khnum (ancient rams-head god) and Pepinakht-Heqaib. Movenpick resort is on the island. The Aswan Museum (Adult: 25LE, Student 15LE) at the southern end of the island houses items found during escavations on Elephantine Island. Also, be careful of unsolicited tours from locals, which will result in a request for baksheesh. There is regular boat taxi to Elephantine Island run by the locals for only 2LE for one crossing but they will charge more for tourists.

Aswan Botanical Gardens, (On the entirety of Kitcheners Island to the west of Elephantine Island). Lord Kitchener, who owned the 6.8 hectare island in the 1890's converted it to a botanical garden. Filled with birds and hundreds of plant species and palm trees. Accessible via a felucca tour. 10LE.

Seheyl Island, (Just north of the old Aswan Dam). 7AM to 4:00PM. Friendly Nubian villages. Well known for its excellent beaded jewelry. Also the location of the Famine Stela. Cliff with more than 200 inscriptions from the 18th dynasty, 65LE.

West Bank

Tombs of the Nobles. 8AM to 4:00PM. The northern hills of the west bank are filled with the rock-hewn tombs of princes from the Old Kingdom to the Roman period. The 6th Dynasty tombs, some of which form linked family complexes, contain important biographical texts. Inside, the tombs are decorated with vivid wall paintings showing scenes of everyday life, hieroglyphic biographies and inscriptions telling of the noblemen's journeys into Africa. Adult: 20LE, Student: 10LE.
- Tombs of Mekhu & Sabni - Reliefs show invasion of Nubia
- Tomb of Sarenput II - One of the most beautiful and preserved tombs
- Tomb of Harkhuf - Hieroglyphics
- Tomb of Hekaib - Reliefs show fighting and hunting scenes
- Qubbet al Hawa - Located on the hilltop above the other tombs. Stunning views of the Nile

Qubbet el-Hawa, (on top of the hill above the Tombs of the Nobles). Small shrine / tomb of a local sheikh and holy man. The climb is rewarded with amazing views of Aswan, the Nile river and the surrounding landscape, richly evoked in the translation from the Arabic of the place name, "the dome of the wind'.

Mausoleum of Mohammed Shah Aga Khan, (High up in the west bank). Tomb of the 48th iman of the Islami sect and his wife. Visible from the outside, although closed to the public.

Monastery of St Simeon. Oct to May: 8AM-4:00PM; Jun-Sep:7:00AM-5:00PM. The history of the monastery of St. Simeon dates back to the 7th century, and survived long as a Christian stronghold of southern Egypt until destroyed by Saladin in 1173. While still in use it housed 300 monks, and could in addition receive up to 100 pilgrims at a time. The monastery was surrounded by a 10 metre high wall, and doubled as a fortress. Apparently, the monastery did not return to its original use after Saladin's destruction. To get here, ride a camel or walk from the Tombs of the Nobles. Adult: 20LE, Student: 10LE.

Around Aswan

The High Dam. Despite being a highly important piece of infrastructure, the Aswan High Dam is (to put it delicately) a bit of a letdown even for dam lovers. 20LE.

Philae Temple, (Agilkia Island). Built to honor Isis, this was the last ancient temple built in the the classical Egyptian architectural style. Construction began in approx 690 BC. It was moved from its original location on Philae Island, to its new location on Agilkia Island, after the flooding of Lake Nasser. A major multinational UNESCO team relocated Philae, and a number of other temples that now dot the shores of Lake Nasser. You can see the submerged original island a short distance away, punctuated by the steel columns used in the moving process. Don't miss the Sound and Light show at night, see picture to the right, the least cheesy of the Sound and Light "extravaganzas". On your feet, look out for the extremely creative guards who will do all in their power to get in your photos, or to point out the hieroglpyhs that you can quite clearly see yourself, all for some baksheesh(tip)! Note also the re-use of the temple as a Christian church, with crosses carved into the older hieroglyph reliefs, and images of the Egyptian gods carefully defaced. There are grafitti dating from the 1800s.

Kalabsha Temple. Like Philae, this temple and its surrounding ruins were moved by UNESCO to save them from the floodwaters of Lake Nasser. The main temple was built to the Nubian fertility and sun god Marul during the rule of Emperor Augustus. Don't miss the Kiosk of Qirtasi and the amazing Temple of Beit al-Wali built by Ramesses II.

Abu Simbel. Most people use Aswan as a base to see this fantastic temple. There is a convoy that departs at 3AM, and is usually arranged by your hotel. See Abu Simbel article for more details.

Eat

Al-Masry Restaurant, Sharia Al Matar. Popular with locals. Great kafta and kebabs, pigeon, and chicken, all served with bread, salad and tahini Dishes: 8LE to 30 LE.

Aswan Moon, Corniche an Nil (Situated on pontoons along the Nile), ☎ 231 6108. Decent food with cheery service. The local fish joints near the city market can be excellent -- their fish is fresh, and you can watch it cook. Don't miss the crab soup! Mezze: 4LE to 9LE; Pizza: 19Le to 25LE; Kebob: 25LE; Daoud Basha (meatballs and tomato sauce): 13LE.

Biti Pizza, Midan al Mahatta (Near the train station). Serves fiteer, a flaky Egyptian pizza, as well as western varieties. Pizza: 20LE.

Chef Khalil, Sharia al Souq (Near the train station). Fresh fish restaurant, priced by weight. Small place but worth the wait. From 25LE to 60LE.

Emy, Corniche an Nil (On a double deckered boat moored in the Nile, next to Aswan Moon), ☎ 230 4349. Popular amound Nubian felucca captains. Beer available. Beer: 9LE; Salads: 3LE; Egyption and international dishes: 13LE to 18LE; Fresh juices: 5LE.

Madena Restaurant, Sharia al souq (Close to Cleopatra Hotel). Small place. Kofta meal: 22LE; Vegetarian meal: 15LE.

Nubian House, off Sharia al Tahrir, 1km past Nubian Museum, ☎ 232 6226. Spectacular sunset views over the first cataract. Sheesha and tea. From 15LE to 22LE.

Panorama, Corniche an Nil, ☎ 231 6169. Serves simple Egyptian stews served in clay pots, with salad, mezze, rice. All day breakfast Dishes; 8LE to 20LE.

Drink

Aswan is much less strict on drinking alcohol than Cairo or Luxor, and many of the restaurants sell Stella (Egyptian brand not the Belgian brand) and Saqqara, both of which are lagers and comparable to European beers.

Sleep

Budget

Abu Schleeb Hotel, (Off Shaira Abbas Farid), ☎ 230 3051. Small but clean rooms Singles: 35LE, Doubles: 40LE, Triples: 45LE.

Happi Hotel, (Sharia Abtal al Tahrir), ☎ 231 4115. Gloomy hotel but clean rooms. Singles: 65LE, Doubles: 90LE.

Hathor Hotel, (Corniche an Nil), ☎ 231 4580. 36 rooms. Swimming pool. Singles: 40LE, Doubles: 60LE.

HI International Youth Hostel, 96 Sharia Abtal at-Tahrir, ☎ 230 2313. The cheapest place to stay in Aswan, but you get what you pay for. Dorm bed: From 9LE, Singles from 15LE.

Keylany Hotel, 25 Sharia Keylany, ☎ 231 7332, . The best budget hotel in Aswan. Clean and comfortable rooms. Spotless bathrooms. Internet access available for 10LE per hour, but is very slow. Singles: 60LE, Doubles: 75LE, Triples: 90LE.

Marwa Hotel & Hostel, (In a small side alley off Sharia Abtal at-Tahrir). OK budget option if you are looking for the cheapest bed. Dorm bed: 6LE.

Memnon Hotel, (Corniche an Nil, south of Aswan Moon restaurant). Great Nile views. Singles: 45LE, Doubles: 65LE.

Noorhan Hotel, (Off Sharia Abtal at-Tahrir), ☎ 231 6069. Clean and pleasant with functioning (common) hot shower. Staff is aggressive about trying to sell you a tour. Singles: 15LE, Doubles: 20LE.

Nuba Nile Hotel, (Sharia Abtal al Tahrir). The second best value for your money, after the Keylany Hotel. Clean comfortable rooms, near train station. Next to internet cafe and ahwa. Singles: 60LE, Doubles: 75LE.

Nubian Oasis Hotel, 234 Sharia as Souq, ☎ 231 2126. Staff is aggressive about trying to sell you a tour. Beer available in roof garden. Clean rooms Singles: 25LE, Doubles: 30LE.

Orchida St George, (Sharia Muhammed Kahlid). Friendly 3-star hotel with tacky decor. Singles: 80LE, Doubles: 100LE.

Philae Hotel, (Corniche an Nil), ☎ 231 2090. Friendly staff, and some of the best views in Egypt (make sure you get a Nile View room). On the downside somewhat rundown rooms, gives you that camping inside feeling, not always plenty of hot water! Singles: 60LE, Doubles: 75LE, 20% premium for Nile View.

Ramsis Hotel, (Sharia Abtal al Tahrir), ☎ 230 4000. High rise hotel. Slow service and no character but good views and good value. Singles: 65LE, Doubles: 100LE.

Yassin Hotel, (Off Sharia Abtal at-Tahrir, next to Noorhan Hotel), ☎ 231 7109. Rooms are basic but clean. Staff is aggressive about trying to sell you a tour. Singles: 15LE, Doubles: 20LE.

Mid-range

Bet el Kerem, (The only hotel accommodation on the Westbank, near the Tombs of the Nobles and close to the ferry boat to Aswan centre), . Quiet atmosphere, hospitable staff, clean rooms, small (8 double rooms), restaurant for guests on the roof terrace. Marvellous view over the Nile, the desert and the Nubian villages. Perfect place if you are looking for something different! Bike rental available. Double: €30; House rental: €45.

Elephantine Island Resort. Run down, but in the process of being refurbished.

Splurg

Movenpick Resort, (Northern end of Elephantine Island), ☎ +20 97 230 34 55 (resort.aswan@moevenpick.com). Best resort hotel in Aswan. Rates from USD160 per room per night. 7 night package with meals and massage: USD1,064 (summer) to USD1,414 (winter).

Old Cataract Hotel, (Abtal El Tahrir Street), ☎ +20 97/2316000 (H1666@accor.com), . CLOSED FOR REFUBISHMENT UNTIL MAY 2010. Live it up like the aristocrats of old! Part of the Sofitel chain of hotels, the Old Cataract Hotel overlooks the Nile River opposite the island of Elephantine. 123 rooms and 8 suites.

Colossi of Memnon (memorial temple of Amenophis III)

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:40:00 +0000

The Colossi of Memnon (known to locals as el-Colossat, or es-Salamat) are two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. For the past 3400 years (since 1350 BC) they have stood in the Theban necropolis, across the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor.

Description
he twin statues depict Amenhotep III (fl. 14th century BC) in a seated position, his hands resting on his knees and his gaze facing eastwards (actually SSE in modern bearings) towards the river. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs: these are his wife Tiy and mother Mutemwiya. The side panels depict the Nile god Hapy.

The statues are made from blocks of quartzite sandstone which was stone quarried at el-Gabal el-Ahmar (near modern-day Cairo) and transported 420 miles overland to Thebes. (They are too heavy to have been transported upstream on the Nile.) The blocks used by later Roman engineers to reconstruct the eastern colossus may have come from Edfu (north of Aswan). Including the stone platforms on which they stand (about 4 meters themselves), the colossi reach a towering 18 metres (approx. 60 ft) in height and weigh an estimated 700 tons each. The two figures are about 50 feet apart.

Both statues are quite damaged, with the features above the waist virtually unrecognizable. The western (or southern) statue is a single piece of stone, but the eastern (or northern) figure has a large extentive crack in the lower half and above the waist consists of 5 tiers of stone. These upper levels consist of a different type of sandstone, and are the result of a later (Roman Empire) reconstruction attempt. It is believed that originally the two statues were identical to each other, although inscriptions and minor art may have varied.

The original function of the Colossi was to stand guard at the entrance to Amenhotep's memorial temple (or mortuary temple): a massive cult centre built during the pharaoh's lifetime, where he was worshipped as a god-on-earth both before and after his departure from this world. In its day, this temple complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt. Covering a total of 35 ha, even later rivals such as Ramesses II's Ramesseum or Ramesses III's Medinet Habu were unable to match it in area; even the Temple of Karnak, as it stood in Amenhotep's time, was smaller.

With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little remains today of Amenhotep's temple. Standing on the edge of the Nile floodplain, successive annual inundations gnawed away at the foundations – a famous 1840s lithograph by David Roberts shows the Colossi surrounded by water – and it was not unknown for later rulers to dismantle, purloin, and reuse portions of their predecessors' monuments.

Name

Memnon was a hero of the Trojan War, a King of Ethiopia who led his armies from Africa into Asia Minor to help defend the beleaguered city but was ultimately slain by Achilles. The name Memnon means "Ruler of the Dawn", and was probably applied to the colossi because of the reported cry at dawn of one of the statues (see below). Eventually, the entire Theban Necropolis became generally referred to as the Memnonium.

"The Voice of Memnon"

In 27 BC, a large earthquake reportedly shattered the eastern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up and cracking the lower half. Following its rupture, the remaining lower half of this statue was then reputed to "sing" on various occasions- always within an hour or two of sunrise, usually right at dawn. The sound was most often reported in February or March, but this is probably more a reflection of the tourist season rather than any actual pattern. The description varied; Strabo said it sounded "like a blow", Pausanias compared it to "the string of a lyre" breaking, but it also was described as the striking of brass or whistling. The earliest report in literature is that of the Greek historian and geographer Strabo, who claimed to have personally heard the sound during a visit in 20 BC, by which time it apparently was already well-known. Other ancient sources include Pliny (not from personal experience, but he collected other reports), Pausanias, and Juvenal. In addition, the base of the statue is inscribed with about 90 surviving inscriptions of contemporary tourists reporting whether they had heard the sound or not.

The legend of the "Vocal Memnon", the luck that hearing it was reputed to bring, and the reputation of the statue's oracular powers, travelled the length of the known world, and a constant stream of visitors, including several Roman Emperors, came to marvel at the statues. The last recorded reliable observation of the sound dates from 196 (AD or CE). Sometime later in the Roman era, the upper tiers of sandstone were added (the original remains of the top half have never been found); the date of this reconstruction is unknown, but local tradition has this circa 199, by Roman Emperor Septimius Severus in an attempt to curry favour with the oracle (it is known that he visited the statue but did not hear the sound).

Various explanations have been offered for the phenomenon, these are of two types: natural or man-made. Strabo himself apparently was too far away to be able to determine its nature: he reported that he could not determine if it came from the pedestal, the shattered upper area, or "the people standing around at the base". If natural, the sound was probably caused by rising temperatures and the evaporation of dew inside the porous rock. Similar sounds, although much rarer, have been heard from some of the other Egyptian monuments (Karnak is the usual location for more modern reports). Perhaps the most convincing argument against it being the result of human agents is that it did cease, probably due to the added weight of the reconstructed upper tiers.

A few mentions of the sound in the early modern era (late 18th and early 19th centuries) seem to be hoaxes, either by the writers or perhaps by locals perpetuating the phenomenon.

Malkata (palace of Amenophis III) in Luxor , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Malkata (or Malqata) was an Ancient Egyptian palace complex located on the western bank of the Nile River at Thebes, in Egypt, in the desert to the south of Medinet Habu.

It was built by the pharaoh Amenhotep III along with a temple dedicated to his Great Royal Wife, Tiy, and honoring Sobek, the crocodile deity
Malkata's modern Arabic name means the place where things are picked up.

Palace of Amenhotep III
There are various structures in the desert, consisting of several residential palaces, a temple of Amun, a festival hall, elite villas, houses for the relatives of the royal Family, apartments for attendants, and a desert altar termed the Kom al-Samak, all of which were constructed by mud bricks.

The palace was built in the 14th century BC and its ancient name was Per-Hay, "House of Rejoicing". Originally, the palace was known as the Palace of the Dazzling Aten. It was constructed mostly out of mud-brick, the palace was Amenhotep's residence throughout most the later part of his reign. Begun around year 11 of his reign and continued until the king moved there permanently around his year 29. Once completed, it was the largest royal residence in Egypt.

To the east of the palace a large ceremonial lake was dug. The palace area was connected to the Nile through a system of canals, which end in a large habour or quay, now called Birket Habu.

Layout of the palace
The palace contained many audience halls, central halls, courtyards, villas, smaller palace complexes for the royal family, and apartments for officials. A harbor and canal connected the palace with the Nile, allowing easy travel across the river to the city of Thebes, which was situated on the eastern bank. There is little evidence of this lake today and little but the foundations of the palace itself remain.

The royal apartment featured a bedroom, a dressing room, a private audience chamber, and a harem, which, after the reign of Amenhotep III, was used simply for storage. The palace had a central courtyard, and across from the pharaoh's rooms were apartments for his daughters and son. His Great Royal Wife, Tiye, had her own smaller palace complex diagonally across from the pharaoh's. The palace grounds contained gardens and a large pleasure lake.

Remains exist of a temple of Amun to the north of the palace, within the complex. A "desert altar" on the outskirts of the ruins has been excavated also. Remains of a temple to the goddess Isis lies south of the main palace complex.

Malqata was managed by a veritable army of servants and staff. Remains of kitchens near the royal chamber have been found, as well as servant quarters. The palace resembled a complete city, with officials in charge of different sections such as the gardens and the different apartments and quarters.

Palace decorations

Fragments of plastered wall paintings have given archaeologists a glimpse of how the palace was decorated. Various paintings of the goddess Nekhbet made up the ceiling of the royal bedchamber. The walls were decorated with scenes of wildlife - flowers, reeds, and animals in the marshes, as well as decorative geometric designs, complete with rosettes. Ornate wooden columns painted to resemble lilies supported the ceilings. In the palace archaeologists also found some paintings of the great royal wife, Tiye. Rare traces of original wall paintings are still visible on site, despite the badly ruined state of the mudbrick walls.

History of the palace

The palace seems to have been begun by Amenhotep III in the early 14th century BC and the site was occupied as late as the Roman-Byzantine Period. Malqata was most definitely Amenhotep's main residence near Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt, and therefore, probably his main palace in all of the country. Remains of other smaller palaces in Thebes and other cities throughout Egypt have been found, but none so large as Amenhotep's palace at Malqata.

Malqata was abandoned by Akhenaten, Amenhotep III's son and successor when he moved the capital to his new city at Amarna in order to break the corrupt influence of the powerful priests of the Temple of Amun, however, it may have been re-inhabited by the youthful Tutankhamen, when the traditional religion and capital were restored and the priests of the temple regained their influence in the interwoven religion and government of Ancient Egypt.

Tutankhamen's successor, Ay, probably inhabited the palace briefly, and pharaoh Horemheb after him as well, but by the ascension of Ramses II, it was simply a minor residence, as the capital was moved to Pi-Ramesses in the far north.

Excavations

The palace ruins were "rediscovered" several times: in 1888 by Daressy; by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1910-1920; by University Museum of Pennsylvania in the 1970s; and since 1985, they have been the site of excavations by the Archaeological Mission of Waseda University.

Deir el-Bahri (Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, etc.) in Luxor , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Deir el-Bahri (Arabic الدير البحري ad-dayr al-baḥrī, literally meaning, "The Northern Monastery") is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt.

In 1997, 58 tourists and four Egyptians were massacred there by Islamist terrorists from Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in what has been called the Luxor massacre, causing a reduction of tourism in the area.

The first monument built at the site was the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh dynasty.

During the Eighteenth dynasty, Amenhotep I and Hatshepsut also built extensively at the site.

Mortuary temple of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II

Mentuhotep II, the Eleventh Dynasty king who reunited Egypt at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, built a very unusual funerary complex. His mortuary temple was built on several levels in the great bay at Deir el-Bahri. It was approached by a 16-metre-wide (150-ft) causeway leading from a valley temple which no longer exists.
The mortuary temple itself consists of a forecourt, enclosed by walls on three sides, and a terrace on which stands a large square structure that may represent the primeval mound that arose from the waters of chaos. As the temple faces east, the structure is likely to be connected with the sun cult of Rê and the resurrection of the king.
From the eastern part of the forecourt, an opening called the Bab el-Hosan ('Gate of the Horseman') leads to an underground passage and an unfinished tomb or cenotaph containing a seated statue of the king. On the western side, tamarisk and sycamore trees were planted beside the ramp leading up to the terrace. At the back of the forecourt and terrace are colonnades decorated in relief with boat processions, hunts, and scenes showing the king's military achievements.
Statues of the Twelfth Dynasty king Senusret III were found here too.
The inner part of the temple was actually cut into the cliff and consists of a peristyle court, a hypostyle hall and an underground passage leading into the tomb itself. The cult of the dead king centred on the small shrine cut into the rear of the Hypostyle Hall.
The mastaba-like structure on the terrace is surrounded by a pillared ambulatory along the west wall, where the statue shrines and tombs of several royal wives and daughters were found. These royal princesses were the priestesses of Hathor, one of the main ancient Egyptian funerary deities. Although little remained of the king's own burial, six sarcophagi were retrieved from the tombs of the royal ladies. Each was formed of six slabs, held together at the corners by metal braces and carved in sunken relief. The sarcophagus of Queen Kawit, now in the Cairo Museum, is particularly fine.
The burial shaft and subsequent tunnel descend for 150 meters and end in a burial chamber 45 meters below the court. The chamber held a shrine, which once held the wooden coffin of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep. A great tree-lined court was reached by means of the processional causeway, leading up from the valley temple. Beneath the court, a deep shaft was cut which led to unfinished rooms believed to have been intended originally as the king’s tomb. A wrapped image of the pharaoh was discovered in this area by Howard Carter. The temple complex also held six mortuary chapels and shaft tombs built for the pharaoh's wives and daughters.

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut

The focal point of the Deir el-Bahri complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning "the Holy of Holies", the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is a colonnaded structure, which was designed and implemented by Senemut, royal steward and architect of Hatshepsut (and believed by some to be her lover), to serve for her posthumous worship and to honor the glory of Amun.
Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of colonnaded terraces, reached by long ramps that once were graced with gardens. It is built into a cliff face that rises sharply above it, and is largely considered to be one of the "incomparable monuments of ancient Egypt". It is 97 feet (30 m) tall

The unusual form of Hatshepsut's temple is explained by the choice of location, in the valley basin of Deir el-Bahri, surrounded by steep cliffs. It was here, in about 2050 BC, that Mentuhotep II, the founder of the Middle Kingdom, laid out his sloping, terrace-shaped mortuary temple. The pillared galleries at either side of the central ramp of the Djeser Djeseru correspond to the pillar positions on two successive levels of the Temple of Mentuhotep.

Today the terraces of Deir el-Bahri only convey a faint impression of the original intentions of Senenmut. Most of the statue ornaments are missing - the statues of Osiris in front of the pillars of the upper colonnade, the sphinx avenues in front of the court, and the standing, sitting, and kneeling figures of Hatshepsut; these were destroyed in a posthumous condemnation of this pharaoh. The architecture of the temple has been considerably altered as a result of misguided reconstruction in the early twentieth century A.D.

Architecture

While Hatshepsut used Menuhotep’s temple as a model, the two structures are significantly different. Hatshepsut employed a lengthy colonnaded terrace that deviated from the centralized massing of Menuhotep’s model – an anomaly that may be caused by the decentralized location of her burial chamber.

There are three layered terraces reaching 97 feet (30 m) in height. Each ‘story’ is articulated by a double colonnade of square piers, with the exception of the northwest corner of the central terrace, which employs Proto-Doric columns to house the chapel.
These terraces are connected by long ramps which were once surrounded by gardens. The layering of Hatshepsut’s temple corresponds with the classical Theban form, employing pylon, courts, hypostyle hall, sun court, chapel, and sanctuary.

The relief sculpture within Hatshepsut’s temple recites the tale of the divine birth of the pharaoh. The text and pictorial cycle also tell of an expedition to the Land of Punt, an exotic country on the Red Sea coast.

On either side of the entrance to the sanctuary (shown above) are painted pillars with images of Hathor as the capitals. Just under the roof is an image of Wadjet, displayed as a bilateral solar symbol, flanked by two other long serpents.

The temple includes an image, shown to the right, of Hatshepsut depicted as male pharaoh giving offerings to Horus, and to their left, an animal skin wound around a tall staff that is a symbol of the god Osiris.

While the statues and ornamentation have since been stolen or destroyed, the temple once was home to two statues of Osiris, a long avenue lined by sphinxes, as well as many sculptures of pharaoh Hatshepsut in different attitudes – standing, sitting, or kneeling.

Historical Influence

Hatshepsut’s temple is considered the closest Egyptians came to the Classical Architecture. It marks a turning point in the architecture of Ancient Egypt, which forsook the megalithic geometry of the Old Kingdom for a temple which allowed for active worship, requiring the presence of participants to create its majesty. The linear axiality of Hatshepsut’s temple is mirrored in the later New Kingdom temples.

Mortuary Temple of Thutmose III

Thutmose III built a temple complex here, dedicated to Amun. Discovered in 1961, it is believed to have been used during the Beautiful festival of the valley. Not much is known about the complex, as it was abandoned after sustaining severe damage during a landslide in the latter twentieth Dynasty. After that time it was used a source of building materials and in Christian times became the site of a Coptic cemetery.

Royal and non-royal tombs

An Eleventh dynasty shaft tomb located at the southern end of the complex contained a cache of forty royal mummies, moved there from the Valley of the Kings. The bodies had been placed there by Twenty-first Dynasty priests, most likely to prevent further desecration and looting.

In the cache were found the mummies of Ahmose I, along with the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasty leaders Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II, Thutmose III, Ramesses I, Seti I, Ramesses II, and Ramesses IX. In a separate room were found Twenty-first dynasty High Priests and pharaohs Pinedjem I, Pinedjem II, and Siamun. Later on, a cache of 153 reburied mummies of the priests themselves also were found in a tomb at the site.

Private tombs dating from the Middle Kingdom through the Ptolemaic period may be found here. There are two most notable private tombs at Deir el-Bahri. The first is that of Meketre (TT280), which contains many painted wooden funerary models from the Middle Kingdom and the first recorded human-headed canopic jar.
The second, the 'secret' tomb of Senenmut—the architect and steward who oversaw the construction of the temple for Hatshepsut—was begun in the complex also. Senenmut's tomb was vandalized in antiquity, but some of the relief artwork still is intact. It was meant to be a very large tomb and its corridors are over one hundred yards long, however, it was never finished and Senenmut was not interred there. He has another tomb, not far from Deir el-Bahri, where his body may have been placed, but it, too, was vandalized and robbed.

Valley of the Nobles in Luxor , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:27:00 +0000

The Valley of The Nobles is located on the west bank of Luxor, in an area called Sheik Abd El-Korna. The site has rock cut tombs of Nobles, and high officials of ancient Egypt, who once served the Pharaohs during the time of the New Kingdom. (1500 - 500 BC)

Among the most important tombs in this cemetery is the tomb numbered 55, which belonged to Ra-Mose. He was the mayor of Thebes, and during the end of the reign of Amenhotep III (Amenophis III) and his son Akhenaton, the vizier.
Unfortunately this tomb is unfinished because Ra-Mose moved, with Akhenaton, to the new capital Akht-Aton (modern day Tell El-Amarna), therefore the decoration work stopped, and the tomb was left unfinished, except for the scenes which already had been completed. Because of this, we can appreciate the high techniques that Egyptian art had during that period
This tomb consists of a square rock-cut court, with a central doorway, opening into a broad columned hall with columns in the papyrus bud form. The inner hall is undecorated! On the left of the broad hall, and under the inner hall, were shafts’ leading below to two burial chambers, but the mummy of Ra-Mose was not found. The relief carving in this chapel is very fine and only some parts were painted
The tomb numbered 100 is another one of the important tombs in this cemetery; it belonged to Re-khme–e, who was vizier of Tuthmosis III and Amenhotep II.

It is another rock cut tomb and its walls are decorated with many painted scenes of the various aspects of life in Ancient Egypt. One of the most beautiful scenes is the one that represents the arrival of the foreign delegations to the court of the Vizier Re-khme-Re, carrying presents and tributes to the King of Egypt and his men. These presents and tributes included items such as, utensils, agricultural products and various animals. One of the most important text engraves in the this tomb is the one which mentions the duties and responsibilities assumed by the vizier in order to let the justice prevail on Earth.

When you visit the tombs, it is very important to know the number of the tomb you want to visit. This way you can visit exactly what you want to see; otherwise you will be lost, as many of the names of the Nobles are similar.

Here I have selected for you, some of the tombs that I recommend for you to visit.

The Tombs Chapel of Nakht, Number 52:

The owner of this tomb was one of the Nobles who had the title of the great scribe! He was also an astronomer in the Temple of Amon during the time of the reign of King Tuthmosis IV; his wife was also involved in the activities carried on in the Temple, as she worked as a chanter.

The tomb is fairly small but has one the most brilliant colourful scenes; these scenes are well preserved and have great beauty.

The tomb is decorated with scenes of agriculture, and a marvellous scene of Nakht in hunting action, together with his wife standing on a boatharpooning fish. Near to this scene, there is another one of him fowling in the marshes of the Delta, where he is catching birds using a boomerang.

Next, there is a wonderful scene where you can see some female musicians playing their instruments, while a blind singer sings for the crowds. You can also see crowds of people, who were invited to this party, watching the show, talking amongst each other and eating from a fruit laden table.

The Tomb of Menna N 69:

It is considered amongst the most famous tombs in the Valley of the Nobles, and one of the most beautiful, as it has many magnificent scenes and still remains in good condition

The tomb belonged to a Noble, who had the title of being the land surveyor during the time of King Tuthmosis IV. His job was important, as he was the one responsible for estimating how much in taxes should be levied, for the King, from the local farmers.

The tomb is full of scenes of daily life. There are scenes of cultivation, including harvesting, threshing, ploughing the fields and winnowing the seeds (separating the chaff from the seeds).

In the middle of the left wall, in the second register of the agriculture scenes, there is a very cute scene that depicts two girls fighting over falling seeds that passing farmers are dropping, while transporting them to the threshing ground.

This tomb also includes some offering scenes, here Menna and his wife are offering to the God Osiris.

There are also scenes of fishing and fowling in the marshes of the Nile. As well as all of the relief’s, there is also a destroyed statue of Menna and his wife, of which nothing remains but the feet!

When looking at the depictions of Menna on the walls, you will notice that his eyes have been destroyed! It seems that he had an enemy, who entered his tomb after the burial and destroyed the eyes in the paintings, meaning that Menna will never be able to see again in the after life.

The Tomb Chapel of Ra Mose

This is my passion and the best tomb so far. This marvelous tomb belongs to the vizier and counselor of the city of Thebes, who lived during the reigns of King Amonhotep III and Akhenaton (or Amenhotep IV) in the 18th Dynasty. In this tomb, there is a complete record of the new cult that Akhenaton, who was regarded as the heretic King, introduced and called Atonism.
Ra-mose lived until the 5th year of the reign of King Akhenaton. Evidence was found that proved that this tomb was opened and re-used by many other Noblemen in a later period; most probably they were the ones who erased the names of King Akhenaton of the walls of the tomb!

The high Priest Ra-mose of Amon Ra had great power! It is clear from the style of decoration inside this tomb, that he enjoyed a very unique position.

The most interesting part of the tomb was for the worshippers of the sun disk, the God Aton, which illuminates the name and figures of the wives and children of Akhenaton. Next to him, in this scene, there is another one of the high Priests with a long mantle and clean-shaven head.
On the interiors wall to the south, is the fine colour scene showing the funeral ceremony and female mourners. There you will see a group of servants carrying offerings to the deceased. On the eastern wall there is a fine specimen of relief sculpture made by the finest artists of the 18th Dynasty; here the scene shows Ra-mose’s wife, father, uncles and sisters.

There is also a large scene that shows Ra-mose sitting on a stool with his wife, and their pet goose sitting underneath.

On the southern wall of the tomb, there is a fresco that shows the funeral of Ra-mose, his possessions, and the offerings being made for him. In another scene you can see groups of mourners weeping and wailing. In front of them there is a Priest, standing at the entrance of the tomb.

Tomb #56 Userhet

Lonely Planet points out that the tombs of the Nobles, situated as they are among buildings of rather poor neighborhood in the village of Qurna, are some of the least visited tombs in the West Bank. Walking through town, we were surrounded by charming children whose limited English vocabulary was surprisingly well pronounced. The children begged us to buy these pitiful little charm dolls. I recall one girl about age 10, whose portrait I regrettfully failed to take, with dark brown skin and blond hair. I believe that she probably typifies the appearance of an ancient Egyptian child. At the tomb of Userhet, the thob wearing guard offered to reflect light into the tomb with a shiny piece of copper. So these photos of winemaking, daily life, and Userhet hunting gazelles from a chariot are partly a reflection of the guards efforts. Userhet was a royal scribe to Amenophis II.

Khaemhet's Tomb #57

Like Tombs of the Artisan's the Nobles tombs provide more of a view of real life in Egyptian times. This was the life of a poor agricultural worker, but rather of the work and family of a wealthy bureacrat. Khaemhet's tomb is marked as tomb #57 and is locked at night. The tomb has some wonderful reliefs, but the tomb was heavily damaged, perhaps by someone who lived there, because much of the art is heavily restored. Khaemhet was a court scribe and the walls of his tomb are richly decorated in heiroglyphics. He was also an inspector of granaries, under Amenophis III, and so the walls also depict in places agricultural life. At the far end of the tomb is a statue to two seated figures. The left one is greatly defaced, and is either Khaemhet's wife or the god of darkness. Khaemhet himself receives even at the corner some light shining on his face.

Tomb #96 Sennofer

Lonely Planet writes that Prince Sennofer of Thebes, supervisor of the gardens at the Temple of Amun in Karnak under Amenophis II, is frequently depicted with his sister. Interestingly though, the relationship appears more romantic, and since Sennofer is clearly a black Nubian and the woman, whether his sister or wife, is a white Egyptian. In any case, the paintings of grapes and vines on the ceiling.

Deir el-Medina in Luxor , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:27:00 +0000

Deir el-Medina (Arabic: دير المدينة‎) is an ancient Egyptian village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th dynasties of the New Kingdom period (ca. 1550-1080 BCE) The settlement's ancient name was "Set Maat" (translated as "The Place of Truth"), and the workmen who lived there were called “Servants in the Place of Truth”. During the Christian era the temple of Hathor was converted into a Church from which the Arabic name Deir el-Medina ( "the monastery of the town") is derived.

At the time when the world's press was concentrating on Howard Carter's discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 a team led by Bernard Bruyère began to excavate the site. This work has resulted in one of the most thoroughly documented accounts of community life in the ancient world that spans almost four hundred years. There is no comparable site in which the organisation, social interactions, working and living conditions of a community can be studied in such detail.

The site is located on the west bank of the Nile, across the river from modern-day Luxor. The village is laid out in a small natural amphitheatre, within easy walking distance of the Valley of the Kings to the north, funerary temples to the east and south-east, with the Valley of the Queens to the west. The village may have been built apart from the wider population in order to preserve secrecy in view of sensitive nature of the work carried out in the tombs.

Excavation history

A significant find of papyri was made in the 1840s in the vicinity of the village and many objects were also found during the course of the 19th century. The archaeological site was first seriously excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli between 1905-1909 which uncovered large amounts of ostraca . A French team directed by Bernard Bruyère excavated the entire site, including village, dump and cemetery, between 1922-1951. Unfortunately through lack of control it is now thought that about half of the papyri recovered was removed without the knowledge or authorisation of the team director Around five thousand ostrica of assorted works of commerce and literature were found in a well close to the village. Jaroslav Černý, who was part of Bruyère's team, went on to study the village for almost fifty years until his death in 1970 and was able to name and describe the lives of many of the inhabitants. The peak overlooking the village was renamed "Mont Cernabru" in recognition of Černý and Bruyère's work on the village.

The Village

The first datable remains of the village belong to the reign of Thutmosis I (c. 1506-1493 BCE) with its final shape being formed during the Ramesside Period At its peak the community contained around sixty-eight houses spread over at total area of 5,600 sq. m. with a narrow road running the length of the village. The main road through the village may have been covered to shelter the villagers from the intense glare and heat of the sun. The size of the habitations varied, with an average floor space of 70 sq. m., but the same construction methods were used throughout the village. Walls were made of mudbrick, built on top of stone foundations. Mud was applied to the walls which were then painted white on the external surfaces with some of the inner surfaces whitewashed up to a height of around one metre. A wooden front door might have carried the occupants name. Houses consisted of four to five rooms comprising an entrance, main room, two smaller rooms, kitchen with cellar and staircase leading to the roof. The full glare of the sun was avoided by situating the windows high up on the walls. The main room contained a mudbrick platform with steps which may have been used as a shrine or a birthing bed. Nearly all houses contained niches for statues and small altars. The tombs built by the community for their own use include small rock-cut chapels and substructures adorned with small pyramids.

Due to its location, the village is not thought to have provided a pleasant environment: the walled village takes up the shape of the narrow valley in which its situated, with the barren surrounding hillsides reflecting the desert sun and the hill of Gurnet Murai cutting of the north breeze as well as the view of the verdant river valley. The village was abandoned c. 1110-1080 BCE during the reign of Ramesses XI (whose tomb was the last of the royal tombs built in the The Valley of the Kings) due to increasing threats of Libyan raids and the instability of civil war. The Ptolemies later built a temple to Hathor on the site of an ancient shrine dedicated to her.

Historical texts of Deir el-Medina

The surviving texts record the events of daily life rather than major historical incidents. Personal letters reveal much about the social relations and family life of the villagers. The ancient economy is documented by records of sales transactions that yield information on prices and exchange. Records of prayers and charms illustrate ordinary popular conceptions of the divine, whilst researchers into ancient law and practice find a rich source of information recorded in the texts from the village. Many examples of the most famous works of Ancient Egyptian literature have also been found. Thousands of papyri and ostraca still await publication.

Village life

The settlement was home to a mixed population of Egyptians, Nubians and Asiatics who were employed as labourers, ( stone-cutters, plasterers, water-carriers), as well as those involved in the administration and decoration of the royal tombs and temples. The artisans and the village were organised into two groups, left and right gangs who worked on opposite sides of the tomb walls similar to a ship's crew, with a foreman for each who supervised the village and its work.

As the main well was thirty minutes walk from the village carriers worked to keep the village regularly supplied with water. When working on the tombs the artisans stayed overnight in a camp overlooking the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut (c. 1479–1458 BCE) that is still visible today. Surviving records indicate that the workers had cooked meals delivered to them from the village.

Based on analysis of income and prices, the workmen of the village would, in modern terms, be considered middle class. As salaried state employees they were paid in rations at up to three times the rate of a fieldhand, but unofficial second jobs were also widely practiced. At great festivals such as the heb sed the workmen were issued with extra supplies of food and drink to allow a stylish celebration.

The working week was eight days followed by two days holiday, though the six days off a month could be supplemented frequently due to illness, family reasons and, as recorded by the scribe of the tomb, rowing with wife or having a hangover. Including the days given over to festivals, over one-third of the year was time-off for the villagers during the reign of Merneptah (c. 1213-1203 BCE).
During their days off the workmen could work on their own tombs, and since they were amongst the best craftsmen in Ancient Egypt who excavated and decorated royal tombs, their own tombs are considered to be some of the most beautiful on the west bank.

A large proportion of the community, including women, could at least read and possibly write.
The jobs of the workers would have been considered desirable and prized positions with the posts being inheritable.

The examples of love songs recovered show how friendship between the sexes was practised, as was social drinking by both men and women. Egyptian marriages amongst commoners were monogamous but little is known about the marriage or wedding arrangements from surviving records. It was not unusual for couples to have six or seven children with some recorded as having ten.
Separation, divorce and remarriage occurred. Merymaat is recorded as wanting a divorce on account of his mother in-law's behaviour. Girl slaves could become surrogate mothers in cases were the wife was infertile and in doing so raise their status and procure their freedom
The community could move freely in and out of the walled village but for security reasons only outsiders who had good work related reasons could enter the site.

Women and village life

The records from this village provide most of the information we know about how women lived in the New Kingdom era. Women were supplied with servants by the government to assist with the grinding of the grain and laundry tasks. The wives of the workers cared for the children and baked the bread, a prime food source in these kind of societies. The vast majority of women who had a particular religious status embedded in their names were married to foremen or scribes and could hold the titles of chantress or singer with official positions within local shrines or temples, perhaps even within the major temples of Thebes. Under Egyptian law they had property rights more advanced than some of the British and American wives studying them. They had title to their own wealth and a third of all marital goods. This would belong solely to the wife in case of divorce or death of the husband. If she died first it would go to her heirs, not to her spouse. Brewing of beer was normally supervised by the Mistress of the House, though the workmen considered the monitoring of the activity as a legitimate excuse for taking time off work.

Law and order

The workers and their families were not slaves but free citizens with recourse to the justice system as required. In principle any Egyptian could petition the vizier and could demand a trial by his peers. The community had its own court of law made up of a foreman, deputies, craftsmen and a court scribe, and were authorised to deal with all civil and some criminal cases, typically relating to the non-payment of goods or services. The villagers represented themselves and cases could go on for several years, with one dispute involving the chief of police lasting eleven years. The local police, Medjay, were responsible for preserving law and order as well as controlling access to the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. One of the most famous cases recorded relates to Paneb the son of an overseer who was accused of looting royal tombs, adultery and causing unrest in the community. The outcome is not known but surviving records indicate the execution of a head of workmen at this time.
The people of Deir el-Medina often consulted with oracles about many aspects of their lives including justice. Questions could be put in writing or orally before the image of the god when carried by priests upon a litter. A positive response could have been made by a downward dip and a negative by a withdrawal of the litter. When a matter of justice came up and it wasn't resolved by a tribunal they would carry the statue to the accused and ask "Is it he who stole my goods" and if the statue nodded the accused would be considered guilty however at times the accused would deny guilt and demand to see another oracle or, in at least one case when that failed, he asked to see a third. When the third also nodded indicating guilt a judgement would be passed and he would have to make reparations and receive punishment. They also believed the oracle could punish or reward by bringing disease or blindness to people as punishment or miracle cures as rewards.

Popular piety

The excavations of the royal artisans community at Deir el-Medina have revealed much evidence of personal religious practice and cults. State gods were worshipped freely alongside personal gods without any conflict between national and local modes of religious expression.

The community had between sixteen-eighteen chapels, with the larger ones dedicated to Hathor , Ptah and Ramesses II. The workmen seem to have honoured Ptah and Reshep, the scribes Thoth and Seshat, as patron deities of their particular activity. Women had particular devotion towards Hathor, Taweret, and Bes in pregnancy, turning to Renenutet and Meretseger for food and safety. Meretseger, "Lady of the Western Mountain", was perhaps, at a local level, at least as important as Osiris, the great god of the dead.
The villagers held Amenhotep I (c. 1526-1506 BCE) and his mother Queen Ahmose Nefertari in high regard over many generations, possibly as divinized patrons of the community. When Amenhotep died he became the centre of a village funerary cult, worshipped as "Amenhotep of the Town". When the Queen died she also was deified and became "Mistress of the Sky" and "Lady of the West". Every year the villagers celebrated the Festival of Amenhotep I when the elders acted as priests in the ceremonies that paid honour to their own local gods who were not worshipped anywhere else in Egypt.
Prayers were made and dedicated to a particular deity as votive offerings, similar in style to the penitential psalms in the Hebrew scriptures that express remorse and thanksgiving for mercy. Stelae record sorrow for human error and humbly invoke a god for forgiveness and mercy. In one instance Meretseger is petitioned to bring relief to one in pain. She answer the prayer by bringing "sweet breezes". On another stela a workman writes: "I was a man who swore falsely by Ptah, Lord of Truth, and he caused me to see darkness by day. Now I will declaim his might to both the ignorant and the knowledgeable.” Amun was considered a special patron of the poor and one who was merciful to the penitent. A stelae records:

[Amun] who comes at the voice of the poor in distress, who gives breath to him who is wretched..You are Amun, the Lord of the silent, who comes at the voice of the poor, when I call to you in my distress You come and rescue me...Though the servant was disposed to do evil, the Lord is disposed to forgive. The Lord of Thebes spends not a whole day in anger, His wrath passes in a moment, none remains. His breath comes back to us in mercy..May your ka be kind, may you forgive, It shall not happen again.

Scene from the Tomb of Sennedjem Dream interpretation, a gift which Hebrew scriptures also attribute to Joseph, was very common. A book of dreams was found in Scribe Kenhirkhopeshef's library which was old even in his time. This book was used to interpret various types of dreams. These interpretations lacked precision and similar dreams often had different meanings. In many cases the interpretation was the opposite of what the dream depicted, for example a happy dream often signified sadness, a dream of plenty often signified scarceness etc.

Examples of how the dreams are interpreted include the following:

If a man sees himself dead this is good; it means a long life in front of him.
If a man sees himself eating crocodile flesh this is good; it means acting as an official amongst his people. (i.e. becoming a tax collector)
If a man sees himself with his face in a mirror this is bad; it means a new life.
If a man sees himself uncovering his own backside this is bad it means he will be an orphan later.

Strike

The royal building service was usually well run in view of the importance of the work it carried out. Paying proper wages was a religious duty that formed an intrinsic part of Maat. When this broke down it indicated problems in the wider state. The coming of the iron age and collapse of empire led to economic instability with inflation a notable feature. The high ideals expressed in the code of Maat became strained and this provided the background to workers unrest.

In about the 25th year the reign of Ramses III (c. 1170 BCE) the laborers were so exasperated by delays in supplies they threw down their tools and walked off the job in what may have been the first sit down strike in history. They wrote a letter to the Vizier complaining about lack of wheat rations. Village leaders attempted to reason with them but they refused to return to work until their grievances were addressed. They responded to the elders with "great oaths". "we are hungry", the crews claimed; "eighteen days have passed this month" and they still had not received their rations. They were forced to buy their own wheat. They told them to send to Pharaoh or vizier to address their concerns. After the authorities heard of their complaints they addressed them and they went back to work the next day. There were several strikes that followed after one of them when the strike leader asked the workers to follow him they told them they had enough and returned to work. This was not the last strike but they soon restored the regular wheat supplies and the strikes came to an end for the remaining years of Ramesses III. However since the chiefs supported the authorities the workers no longer trusted them and chose their own representatives. Further complaints by the artisans are recorded forty and fifty years after the initial dispute, during the reigns of Ramesses IX and Ramesses X.

Tomb Robbing

After the reign of Ramses IV (c. 1155-1149 BCE) the conditions of the village became increasingly unsettled. At times there was no work for fear of the enemy. The grain supplies became less dependable and this was followed by more strikes. Gangs of tomb robbers increased often tunnelling in through the back so they wouldn't break the seal and be exposed. A tomb robbing culture developed that included fences and even some officials who accepted bribes. When the Vizier checked the tombs if the seals were undisturbed they wouldn't report it as being opened. When they finally did catch tomb robbers they used limb twisting tactics to interrogate the tomb robbers and obtain information about where the plunder was and who their accomplices were. On one occasion when some officials were looking for a scapegoat they obtained a confession from a repeat offender after torturing him. However the Vizier was suspicious at how easy he was produced and asked him to lead them to the tomb he robbed. He led them to an unfinished tomb that was never used and claimed it was the tomb of Isis.

The Ramesseum in Luxor , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:21:00 +0000

The Ramesseum is the memorial temple (or mortuary temple) of Pharaoh Ramesses II("Ramesses the Great", also spelled "Ramses" and "Rameses"). It is located in the Theban necropolis in Upper Egypt, across the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor. The name – or at least its French form, Rhamesséion – was coined by Jean-François Champollion, who visited the ruins of the site in 1829 and first identified the hieroglyphsmaking up Ramesses's names and titles on the walls. It was originally called the House of millions of years of Usermaatra-setepenra that unites with Thebes-the-city in the domain of Amon.

Most splendid of these, in accordance with New Kingdom Royal burial practices, would have been his memorial temple: a place of worship dedicated to pharaoh, god on earth, where his memory would have been kept alive after his passing from this world. Surviving records indicate that work on the project began shortly after the start of his reign and continued for 20 years.

The design of Ramesses's mortuary temple abides by the standard canons of New Kingdom temple architecture. Oriented northwest and southeast, the temple itself comprised two stone pylons(gateways, some 60 m wide), one after the other, each leading into a courtyard. Beyond the second courtyard, at the centre of the complex, was a covered 48-column hypostyle hall, surrounding the inner sanctuary.

An enormous pylon (gateways, some 60 m wide) stood before the first court, with the royal palace at the left and the gigantic statue of the king looming up at the back.

As is customary, the pylons and outer walls were decorated with scenes commemorating pharaoh's military victories and leaving due record of his dedication to, and kinship with, the gods. In Ramesses's case, much importance is placed on the Battle of Kadesh (ca. 1285 BC); more intriguingly, however, one block atop the first pylon records his pillaging, in the eighth year of his reign, a city called "Shalem", which may or may not have been Jerusalem.

The scenes of the great pharaoh and his army triumphing over the Hittite forces fleeing before Kadesh, represented in line with the canons of the "epic poem of Pentaur", can still be made out of the pylon.

Only fragments of the base and torso remain of the syenite statue of the enthroned pharaoh, 62 feet (19 metres) high and weighing more than 1000 tons. This was alleged to have been transported 170 miles over land. This is the largest remaining colossal statue (except statues done in situ) in the world. However fragments of 4 granite Colossi of Ramses were found in Tanis (northern Egypt). Estimated height is 69 to 92 feet (21 to 28 meters). Like four of the six colossi of Amenhotep III (Colossi of Memnon) there are no longer complete remains so it is based partly on unconfirmed estimates.

Remains of the second court include part of the internal façade of the pylon and a portion of the Osiride portico on the right. Scenes of war and the rout the Hittites at Kadesh are repeated on the walls. In the upper registers, feast and honour of the phallic god Min, god of fertility.On the opposite side of the court the few Osiride pillars and columns still left can furnish an idea of the original grandeur. Scattered remains of the two statues of the seated king can also be seen, one in pink granite and the other in black granite, which once flanked the entrance to thetemple. Thirty-nine out of the forty-eight columns in the great hypostyle hall (m 41x 31) still stand in the central rows. They are decorated with the usual scenes of the king before various gods. Part of the ceiling decorated with gold stars on a blue ground has also been preserved. The sons and daughters of Ramesses appear in the procession on the few walls left. The sanctuary was composed of three consecutive rooms, with eight columns and the tetrastyle cell. Part of the first room, with the ceiling decorated with astral scenes, and few remains of the second room are all that is left.

Adjacent to the north of the hypostyle hall was a smaller temple; this was dedicated to Ramesses's mother, Tuya, and his beloved chief wife,Nefertari. To the south of the first courtyard stood the temple palace. The complex was surrounded by various storerooms, granaries, workshops, and other ancillary buildings, some built as late as Roman times.

A temple of Seti I, of which nothing is now left but the foundations, once stood to the right of the hypostyle hall. It consisted of a peristyle court with two chapel shrines. The entire complex was enclosed in mud brick walls which started at the gigantic southeast pylon.

A cache of papyri and ostraca dating back to the third intermediate period (11th to 8th centuries BC) indicates that the temple was also the site of an important scribal school.

The site was in use before Ramesses had the first stone put in place: beneath the hypostyle hall, modern archaeologists have found a shaft tomb from the Middle Kingdom, yielding a rich hoard of religious and funerary artifacts.

Remains

Unlike the massive stone temples that Ramesses ordered carved from the face of the Nubian mountains at Abu Simbel, the inexorable passage of three millennia was not kind to his "temple of a million years" at Thebes. This was mostly due to its location on the very edge of the Nilefloodplain, with the annual inundation gradually undermining the foundations of this temple, and its neighbours. Neglect and the arrival of new faiths also took their toll: for example, in the early years of the Common Era, the temple was put into service as a Christian church.

This is all standard fare for a temple of its kind built at the time it was. Leaving aside the escalation of scale – whereby each successive New Kingdom pharaoh strove to outdo his predecessors in volume and scope – the Ramesseum is largely cast in the same mould as Ramesses III'sMedinet Habu or the ruined temple of Amenhotep III that stood behind the "Colossi of Memnon" a kilometre or so away. Instead, the significance that the Ramesseum enjoys today owes more to the time and manner of its rediscovery by Europeans.

Excavation and Studies

The origins of modern Egyptology can be traced to the arrival in Egypt of Napoleon Bonaparte in the summer of 1798. While undeniably an invasion by an alien imperialist power, this was nonetheless an invasion of its times, informed by Enlightenment ideas: alongside Napoleon's troops went men of science, the same whose toil under the desert sun would later yield the seminal 23-volume Description de l'Égypte. Two French engineers, Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, were assigned to study the Ramesseum site, and it was with much fanfare that they identified it with the "Tomb of Ozymandias" or "Palace of Memnon" of which Diodorus of Sicily had written in the 1st century BC.

It was against the backdrop of intense excitement surrounding the statue's arrival, and having heard wondrous tales of other, less transportable treasures still in the desert, that the poet Percy Bysshe Shelleypenned his sonnet "Ozymandias". In particular, one massive fallen statue at the Ramesseum is now inextricably linked with Shelley, because of the cartouche on its shoulder bearing Ramesses's throne name, User-maat-re Setep-en-re, the first part of which Diodorus transliterated into Greek as "Ozymandias". While Shelley's "vast and trunkless legs of stone" owe more to poetic license than to archaeology, the "half sunk... shattered visage" lying on the sand is an accurate description of part of the wrecked statue. The hands, and the feet, lie nearby. Were it still standing, the Ozymandias colossus would tower 18 metres above the ground, rivalling the Colossi of Memnon and the statues of Ramesses carved into the mountain at Abu Simbel.The next visitor of note was Giovanni Belzoni, a showman and engineer of Italian origin and, latterly, an archaeologist and antiques dealer. Belzoni's travels took him in 1815 to Cairo, where he soldMehemet Ali a hydraulic engine of his own invention. There he met British Consul General Henry Salt, who hired his services to collect from the temple in Thebes the so-called 'Younger Memnon', one of two colossal granite heads depicting Ramesses II, and transport it to England. Thanks to Belzoni's hydraulics and his skill as an engineer (Napoleon's men had failed in the same endeavour a decade or so earlier), the 7-ton stone head arrived in London in 1818, where it was dubbed "The Younger Memnon" and, some years later, given pride of place in the British Museum.

Medinet Habu (temple) in Luxor , Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (NiceTimeGo) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:13:00 +0000

Medinet Habu is the name commonly given to the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III, an important New Kingdom period structure in the location of the same name on the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt. Aside from its intrinsic size and architectural and artistic importance, the temple is probably best known as the source of inscribed reliefs depicting the advent and defeat of the Sea Peoples during the reign of Ramesses III.

The temple, some 150 m long, is of orthodox design, and resembles closely the nearby mortuary templeof Ramesses II (the Ramesseum). The temple precinct measures approximately 700 ft (210 m). by 1,000 ft (300 m) and contains more than 75,350 sq ft (7,000 m2) of decorated wall reliefs.[1] Its walls are relatively well preserved and it is surrounded by a massive mudbrick enclosure, which may have been fortified. The original entrance is through a fortified gate-house, known as a migdol (a common architectural feature of Asiatic fortresses of the time).

Just inside the enclosure, to the south, are chapels of Amenirdis I, Shepenupet II and Nitiqret, all of whom had the title of Divine Adoratrice of Amun.

The first pylon leads into an open courtyard, lined with colossal statues of Ramesses III as Osiris on one side, and uncarved columns on the other. The second pylon leads into a peristyle hall, again featuring columns in the shape of Ramesses. This leads up a ramp that leads (through a columned portico) to the third pylon and then into the large hypostyle hall (which has lost its roof). Reliefs and actual heads of foreign captives were also found placed within the temple perhaps in an attempt to symbolise the king's control over Syria and Nubia.

In Coptic times, there was a church inside the temple structure, which has since been removed. Some of the carvings in the main wall of the temple have been altered by coptic carvings.

Initial excavation of the temple took place sporadically between 1859 and 1899, under the auspices of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. During these decades the main temple was cleared, a large number ofCoptic period buildings removed and the site made accessible to visitors.

The further excavation, recording and conservation of the temple has been facilitated in chief part by theArchitectural and Epigraphic Surveys of Chicago University's Oriental Institute, almost continuously since 1924.