Oxyrhynchus

Oxyrhynchus polis� literally means �City of the Sharp Nosed Fish� (the fish in question was a sacred animal connected to the god Thoeris) and is the Greek name for the Dynastic settlement of Per-medjed. Oxyrhynchus was an important city in Greek and Roman controlled Egypt�the capital of the 19^th Nome and described as the �third city of Egypt.�� Greek and Roman sources describe Oxyrhynchus as an important center for the religion of Christianity, with 12 churches, 10,000 monks, and 20,000 nuns according to one 4^th century account.� Little remains of the city itself, which is thought to have been destroyed during or after the Arabic invasion around 640 CE.� It was later resettled after a period of dormancy and the city of el-Bahnasa still exists on the original site of Oxyrhynchus.� Located on the Bahr Yusuf, a branch of the Nile which leads to Lake Moeris, Oxyrhynchus is 160 km south of Cairo.

The ancient city is important archaeologically and also important to religious scholars due to the wealth of papyri found in its garbage mounds.� The papyri recovered, which number in the tens of thousands, were typically fragmentary and covered a wide variety of subjects over the course of Oxyrhynchus� history as an administrative and religious center:� legal documents, letters, literature, philosophical treatises, and Christian holy writings.� These papyri date from between 250 BCE and 700 CE.� Predominantly Greek and Roman examples are catalogued, though it is known that writings in Arabic were found and disregarded by some early excavators.

Excavation at the site of Oxyrhynchus began in 1896 by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt of the London-based Egypt Exploration Society.� Working on information that Egyptian peasants were finding papyri at el-Bahnasa and selling them on the black market, Grenfell and Hunt started excavation with 100 workers and 30 overseers in the winter of 1896 at the unpromising-looking refuse mounds near the remains of the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus.� What they found was a scriptological mother lode.� Oxyrhynchus became the life�s work of the two men, and they continued excavation and translation well into the 20^th century.� Scientific interest in the site continued beyond the efforts of Grenfell and Hunt.� Italian excavator Ermengildo Pistelli and his crew continued excavation at the archaeologically fertile Kom Gammon, retrieving papyri from the refuse mound and also discovering the medieval tomb of Sheikh Ali Gammon, for whom the hill was named.� William Flinders Petrie also excavated at el-Bahnasa in 1922, concentrating on the architectural remains of Oxyrhynchus.� Petrie uncovered the remains of the city�s Hippodrome, which is estimated to have seated 11,000 people, and also a long, double colonnade which was thought to be the remains of a colonnaded street or square.� Another Italian, Evaristo Breccia, excavated two private homes during two digging seasons between 1928 and 1932 and recovered still more papyrus documents during that period.� Later excavations continuing into the nineteen eighties and nineties included those by the Egyptian Antiquities Service, a Kuwaiti expedition concentrating on the medieval al-Bahnasa, and a Catalan expedition starting in 1992.

The site of Oxyrhynchus provides a tantalizing glimpse at a world thousands of years removed from us in time.� Many writings by authors from the Greek and Roman periods thought long lost (such as the works of Greek poets Pindar and Callimachus) were found among the great city�s refuse. Other papyri found include ancient fragments of controversial religious texts, such as the Gospel of St. Thomas.� More valuable to the archaeological record than the works of lost poets and Christian gospels, were the papyri that deal with everyday life in the city of Oxyrhynchus.� Accounts of street repairs, letters to and from government officials, legal decisions, wills, shopping lists, and other papyrus and ostraka (clay shard) writings recovered from the site paint a vivid picture of life in a bustling Egyptian city.

Palace of Malqata

Pharaoh Amenhotep III founded the royal city and palace complex at Malqata on the western shore of Thebes. The Theban necropolis is on the West Bank of the Nile in the Luxor area. Malqata includes many kinds of structures in the desert such as various residential palaces, a temple of Amen, a festival hall, elite villas used for the relatives of the King, apartments for attendants, and a desert altar called Kom al-Samak and at least four other palaces.

In addition, the track of a huge artificial canal and a harbor named Birket Habu is observable from continuous piles of sandy soil on the southeastern side of the Palace City. The soil removed from that harbor by the excavation was used to make a series of artificial hills along the southwestern shore. Malqata Palace is located at the south of the mortuary temple built by Ramesses III. Malqata Palace was not like smaller ceremonial palaces connected to the funerary temples of New Kingdom Kings, rather it was a residential place or actual living place even though it might not had been a yearlong residence.

Like Elizabethan rulers, Amenhotep made royal palaces spread throughout the legeance. The large palace of Malqata consists of small chapels, large audience halls, parade grounds, villas for public officials, kitchens, offices workshop and quarters for servants. The area of the Malqata palace is about 50 by 125 meters wide. Having a long and narrow hall extended along the central axis, the structure of the palace was planned roughly symmetrical. The throne room was situated at the south edge of the hall, and Pharaohs private apartments in behind.

The Pharaohs apartment consisted of a number of continuous courts, mostly with raised throne divas at the other side of the entrance. The palace was located at the southwestern corner of a huge enclosure wall, at least 100 by 200 meters. The enclosure also included storage rooms, courts, kitchens, and smaller buildings. To enter the palace, Pharaoh passed through a rampway cutting the western face of the enclosure wall via a number of off-axis hallways and large courts. From these, one could go through an antechamber that led into the long central hall.

Much of the upper part of the palace was ruined. However, a considerable amount of the original decorated elements were still preserved. A large number of fragments of the paintings on the walls and ceilings were found from each room of the Malqata palace. Among those prominent motifs painted on the fragments were spiral patterns and rosettes, even though other motifs have been rarely found. Detailed analyses of the fragments led to the identification of several other ornamental patterns. One of the most incredible motifs was a series of vultures representing the Goddess Nekbet with wings spread out, and the names and titles of Amenhotep III are depicted under the motifs. The series of vultures is surrounded by geometrical patterns on each side. The motif has been found in several rooms (Room B, G, and H), and at the Pharaohs bedchamber of the Main palace.

The ceiling painting of each room has been restored and color drawings have been made using the actual painted fragments found from the rooms as a reference. The wall paintings at Malqata are the most complete of the other remaining palaces. They are significant in determining the spatial alignment of the palace activities. The palace had been adorned with a deliberate series of wall murals, painted pavements, ceilings and inlays. The pavements included symbols of pools with swimming ducks and fish surrounded by a border of papyrus with flying birds. The throne bases had steps adorned with bound prisoners and symbols of the nine bows, the traditional enemies of Egypt, who would be under foot whenever the King ascended or descended from the throne.

The columns of the Palace were made of wood with representations of lotuses carved and painted. Also, there were flying birds painted on the ceilings. The antechamber and Pharaohs bed chamber were the rooms that had most of the ornamentations. For example, the ceiling of the antechamber was adorned with a deliberate panel of spreading spirals, buchrania and rosette. The Pharaohs bedchamber had a ceiling adorned with flying vultures and amulet signs like the antechamber. Pharaohs room was surrounded by figures of the goddess Bes.

Image of Queen Tiye: from Megaera Lorenz at http://www.heptune.com/Tiye.jpg

Amenhotep III built this fabulous palace at Malqata in western Thebes for his Queen Tiye and for other members of the royal family. He retired to this palace with his wife where she supervised the affairs of state with the help of counselors and officials. Amenhotep died when she was forty-eight. Depictions of Tiy illustrate a powerful woman who had a sharp chin, deep-set eyes and a firm mouth. Tutankhamon, Pharaoh of Dynasty XVIII who was believed to be the grandson of King Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, was born in Malqata.

There was a temple dedicated to the goddess Isis constructed during the Roman Period at the South of Malqata. Local people named the temple and its precinct Deir al-Shalwit . The excavations of Malqata-south were done from December 1971 to January 1979, and laboratory research continued three more seasons at al-Qurna village.

After nine years of excavation, portions of the site were excavated intensively in addition to the test excavations at the grid corners. Remains found by the excavations were categorized into four groups depending on their time periods: Paleolithic, Predynastic, the 18th Dynasty and the Roman-Byzantine period. Paleolithic sites are situated on the desert edge beside the Roman settlement and further into the desert. Some of the Predynastic period remains were discovered under strata in the Roman settlement area. However, there have been no remains of any structures identified up until now. Magnificent relics of the 18th Dynasty were found at a small mound called the "Kom al-Samak". Artifacts from the Roman-Byzantine period were uncovered from all over the area, which should be investigated as an assemblage consisted of a temple, a settlement and related mass graves.

J. Daressy started the partial excavation of this huge site (originally three square kilometers if Kom al-Samak is included) in 1888. After this excavation, R. de Tytus, published a personal preparatory report. Afterward, much of this site was removed between 1910 and 1920 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The University of Pennsylvania started re-excavation in 1970s. Elizabeth K. Ralph, who did magnetic survey at Malqata in 1973, revealed the usefulness of magnetometry in Egypt in her publication from University of Pennsylvania Museum. David O'Connor, Egyptian Section Curator, and Cambridge University Egyptologist Barry Kamp also did excavations at Malqata from 1971 to 1977. Since 1985, most of the rooms of the Malqata palace have been re-excavated including Pharaohs bedchamber under the direction of Dr. Yasutada Watanabe, Professor of the Department of Architecture at Waseda University (Japan) .

Pelusium

Pelusium is located east of what is modern day Port Said.In 1910, Jean Cledat, a French Egyptologist, came to Pelusium and made a sketch map of the ancient city. Later in 1982 after Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, another excavation of Pelusium began.This excavation was led by Mohammed Abd El-Maksound who was the chief inspector for the North Sinai. In 1991, the site was again under notice when it lay in the path of the Peace Canal. Once discovered that the site was in the path of the Peace Canal, it, along with the surrounding sites, were divided up among teams from Egypt, Canada, Switzerland, and Britain. The surrounding sites such as Tell el-Makhazan and Kanais were believed to be parts of a Greater Pelusium. A joint Canadian-Egyptian team was assigned to excavate the western side of the Pelusium site while the Swiss team surveyed around Kanais and a British team surveyed around the southern side of Pelusium.

Pelusium was an ancient city, which was once located between the two easternmost branches of the Nile. The site of Pelusium, which is also known as Tell el-Farama, is four miles long and today is surrounded by the soft, salt-covered mud that once held the branches of the Nile. When the city was in use, historians had described Pelusium as a busy port city. It once contained quays, magazines, and customs offices for the trading activities, some of which occurred with Asia. There was also an industrial section to the city with salt vats, pottery kilns, fish tanks, and textile workshops. In the city, one could also find temples, baths, theaters, and racetracks.

Aside from being a busy port city, Pelusium also served as a military fort. During the 26^th dynasty, it faced Palestine and served as the main fortress against attacks from the east. The written accounts of Herodotus describe Pelusium as being the land granted by Pharaoh Psammetichus I to his Ionian and Carian mercenaries. No seventh-century remains have yet to be found from the site to prove Herodotus was correct. Herdotus also reports that in 525 B.C.E. the Persian army led by Cambyses defeated Pharaoh Psamtik III at Pelusium. So far, though, there have been no archaeological evidence unearthed to support Herdotus accounts. What was unearthed at the site was a twenty-acre fortress. In the fortress there were thirty-six towers, three gates, and seven-foot-thick walls. It has been dated by the Egyptian and German experts to be from the late 6^th century C.E. The destruction by fire can still be seen in traces on the fortress, which may have been caused by the Persian invasion of 619 C.E.

During the Graeco-Roman period, the city of Pelusium served as a major production and export station since it was on the trade route to the Red Sea. The city exported salted fish and garum, or fish sauce. This was also when the city was known for its dyed linens. Pelusium also imported items from the Mediterranean such as wine, honey, and oil. This changed, though, and later, Sinai and Palestine became the main trade partner

Saqqara

Saqqara, known as the “City of the Dead,” is located west of the Nile River near the point where the river splits and flows to the Mediterranean Sea. It is the largest and most important of the Memphite Metropolis covering 9 square kilometers. Giza is located approximately 17 km to the north and Dashur lies about 10 km to the south. Cairo is 40 km to the northeast. Saqqara is divided into two parts. Saqqara North covers the area between the Archaic tombs and the unfinished buildings of Sekhenkhet. It consists of several smaller cemeteries clustered around larger monuments. Saqqara South is located between the pyramid of Pepi I and Shepsekaf.

The oldest known funerary monuments are located on the northern plateau of Saqqara. They are called the Archaic Tombs. They were excavated by W. B. Emery between 1935 and 1956. The structure, known as a mastaba, was built during the reign of Horus-Aha, the first king of the 1st dynasty. There are several other mastabas along the ridge but they are thought to be private tombs as the names on the tombs are non-royal.

Saqqara became known as a royal necropolis in the 2nd Dynasty when Kings moved away from Umm el-Qa’ab. The structures were also very different from earlier structures when tombs were pits dug into the ground with side chambers. Instead, a long corridor descended into the ground into a maze of long narrow galleries. Later these were covered by long narrow buildings.

The 3rd Dynasty is first represented by the complex of Djoser, the second king. The complex of Djoser sits in the center of Saqqara North. The site had already been used by some of the kings of the 2nd Dynasty. The complex itself seems to have been built on a tomb for another king of that Dynasty, Sened. There were also some vessels with Narmer’s name found underneath Djoser’s pyramid. Djoser’s architect, Imhotep, designed a complex that represented a large step in technology and architecture.

It was Imhotep that began to build structures with more solid materials such as limestone compared to the mud and wood that comprised earlier pyramids. Imhotep had many talents outside of architecture and may have been the first true genius. He was later revered as a god of wisdom by later generations. There is another structure to the west of Djoser that is too weak to be explored fully but its resemblance to the other royal tombs of the 2nd Dynasty verifies that it is very likely a 2^nd dynasty tomb. No names have been found but speculation is that it may belong to Reneb, Sened or Khasekhemwi.

Immediately to the south of Djoser are two sets of subterranean galleries considered to have been the tombs of the first and third kings of the 2nd Dynasty, Hotepsekhemwi and Ninetjer. A third gallery belonging to Hotepsekhemwi, lies underneath the Pyramid Unas. Alessandro Barsanti discovered this in 1901. Seal impressions were found inside showing Hotepsekhemwi and his successor, Reneb. In one tomb, where some seals bearing the seal of Ninetjer, archeologists found several thousand mummies. These were determined to be from the Late Dynastic period. This tomb was excavated by Selim Bey Hassan in 1937-1938. Sekhemkhet, the third king, built his complex to the north west of Djoser. Imhotep is mentioned on the north wall of the pyramid confirming that he probably designed this complex as well. There are questions as to what happened to Sekhemkhet’s body as the sarcophagus was sealed and the passage blocked so the likelihood of grave robbers is doubted.

King Shepseskaf, the sixth king of the 4th Dynasty, was the first to return to Saqqara. His predecessors either preferred Dashur, Abu Rawash, or Giza. His tomb is the most royal tomb of Saqqara South.

The first king of the 5th Dynasty, Userkaf, built his complex at the northeastern corner of the Djoser complex. The return to Saqqara and to Djoser’s complex may be symbolic. His pyramid was called ‘Pure are the Places of Userkauf.’ The pyramid complex of Djedkare/Isesi, seventh king of the 5th Dynasty was excavated by Abdessalam Hussein in 1943. Djedkare is known as the first king to return to Saqqara even though Userkauf built his temple prior to Djedkare. Userkaf had started to move towards Abusir for the construction of his solar temple. Djedkare’s complex consists of a main pyramid called “Beautiful is Isesi,” a mortuary temple, a satellite pyramid, and for the first time, a separately functioning Queen's pyramid. There are still areas within this complex that remain to be excavated.

The last king of this dynasty, Unas, built his complex close to the southwestern corner of the enclosure wall surrounding the complex of Djoser. The main pyramid is called, ‘Perfect are the Places of Unas.’ There were human remains found but it is uncertain whether they are those of Unas. The pyramid is the first since that of Djoser to have decorated rooms. The columns in the antechamber and part of the horizontal passage are carved with hieroglyphs painted in blue. These are the earliest known examples of the pyramid texts and considered the oldest collection of religious texts known to man. Pyramid texts are inscribed with a collection of religious texts and spells.

Mounir Basta discovered the tomb of Niankhknum and Khnumhotep in 1964 near the causeway to the pyramid of Unas. These men shared the title of “Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of the King, King's Acquaintance and Royal Confidant” in the Palace of King Niuserre, the seventh king of this dynasty. There have been several scenes found depicting these men in close embrace and their relationship has been long debated.

Several 6th Dynasty kings chose Saqqara for their pyramids. Teti, the first king, built his pyramid to the northeast of the pyramid of Userkaf. His pyramid is called the ‘The Places of Teti Endure.’ North of Teti’s complex a private cemetery was established and Vizier’s Kagemni and Mereruka were buried under elaborate mastabas.

Pepi I, the third King, built his complex to the northwest of Djedkare’s complex. The pyramid was named ‘Pepi’s perfection is established’ and has been nearly destroyed. This was the first pyramid to have been inscribed with pyramid texts. There have been at least four queen’s pyramids uncovered within the complex. The most eastern pyramid was built for Nebwenet, a second pyramid bears the name of Inenek/Inti, a third for an unnamed but titled ‘eldest daughter of the king’ and the fourth, for Meritites, ‘Daughter of the king and wife of the king’.

The fourth king, Nemtimsaf I/ Merenre, had his pyramid built to the south west of Pepi I. Indications are that the work on the temple was abruptly finished when the king died after his short reign. The pyramid is also badly ruined. Pepi II, the fifth king, had his complex built at the southern most point of Saqqara. There are three queen’s pyramids within the complex. A pyramid to the south was built for queen Wedjebten, one to the north for Neith and the one to west for Iput II. Queen Ankhesenpepi is buried between the pyramids of Neith and Iput, not under a pyramid indicating she may have been of lower rank than the other queens.

King Ibi, from the 8th Dynasty, built the last royal pyramid at Saqqara. It was located near the causeway of pyramid of Pepi II in Saqqara South. Only piles of mud and limestone chips remain of this ruined pyramid. He is the last king buried in a royal tomb at Saqqara.

A private tomb was built for the last king of the 18th Dynasty, Horemheb. It is located to the south of an old causeway from Unas mortuary complex. By the end of the New Kingdom Saqqara was also used by the middle classes. Mummies found there will provide a good source for scientists. Saqqara was also used for burial of sacred animals. During the Roman period, the number of burials at Saqqara decreased. As Christianity prevailed, the funerary practices of mummification, sacrificed animals, and decorated tombs and temples decreased. By 391 AD on, these practices were forbidden.

Senneferi

The Tomb of Senneferi, also known as Theben Tomb 99, was built by Senneferi as his final resting place. It is situated in an area known as “The Tombs of the Nobles,” located on the west bank in Luxor, Egypt. It is surrounded by a number of other tombs found in this area. Senneferi was an important 18th Dynasty official under the reign of Tuthmose III. From inscriptions found in his tomb, archaeologists were able to find information on his family. His wife was named Taiamu, but that was all they were able to find out about her. There was nothing specific mentioned about Senneferi’s children, but he is believed to have had a son and a daughter. A statue of his daughter's husband, Amenhotep, was found in Senneferi’s tomb. His parents were mentioned a number of times in the tomb. His father’s name was Haydjehuty. He was believed to have been a winery official in the eastern delta before moving to Thebes. His mother's name was Zatdjehuty. She was depicted in the tomb as the “Lady of the House.” From the depictions of his parents in the tomb, they were not of high status in Egyptian society. Senneferi somehow worked his way up to becoming an important person during his time and secured his place in the Tombs of the Nobles.

Construction of Senneferi’s tomb took place around 1420 BC. In the rock he cut out a courtyard. From this courtyard led a tunnel to the back of the tomb, where the chapel was located. In the courtyard he also cut a shaft. Many more shafts would later be cut in this tomb but his was the deepest and this is where he was buried.

Senneferi’s tomb, like others built during the New Kingdom had some similar characteristics. These tombs consisted of three levels. Each level served a different function. The lower level is where the burial chambers were located. It was created by digging a shaft well below the surface. This level was known as the Realm of the Dead and belonged to Osiris. The middle level was the Realm of the Living. This is where the courtyard and offering chambers were located. The upper level was the Realm of the Sun God. This consisted of a pyramid-like superstructure or a niche. In the case of Senneferi’s tomb, a niche was located directly over the entrance and most likely held some type of statue. This niche served as the upper level for this tomb. Larger, pyramid-like superstructures serving as the upper level, are found in later tombs beginning in the 19th Dynasty.

Because the tombs in Thebes were built near ancient and modern centers of population, they were used and reused many times throughout their existence. There is evidence that the tomb of Senneferi was first reused during the 21st Dynasty, about 400 years after its initial construction. During this time a new shaft was cut. In the 22nd Dynasty, a family also used it for burials. Mummy cases from at least two generations of this dynasty were found. Two priests of Amun were also buried here long after the initial construction of the tomb. Numerous other burials followed for the next 700 years. Eventually, the function of this tomb went from burials to actual occupation of the tomb as housing. In 1907, the people living in the tomb, believed to be Coptic weavers, were bought out for 11 Egyptian pounds, and an iron door was place at the entrance.

Even though the tomb had been plundered by treasure hunters, it still provided a wealth of information to archaeologists. This tomb had gone from a sacred burial place to a place of residence and is also believed to have been a dumping ground at one time due to the massive amounts of broken pottery found here. There is still more work to be done on the Tomb of Senneferi and many more discoveries are certain to be made.

The Serapeum

The Serapeum was a tomb located in Memphis, where the sacred Apis Bulls of Egypt were buried. The tomb was originally discovered by the geographer Strabo who lived during the 1st century BC. The tomb was later rediscovered by Mariette, a noted archeologist who played a key role in the later formation of the Service of Egyptian Antiquities.

The Serapeum is only one of two temples by the same name dedicate to the god Sarapis. The Apis Bulls were considered to be the incarnation of the god Ptah, and were ceremonially buried through out the nile. It wasn't until 1400 BC/BCE with the rule of Ramses II, that a gallery was designed as the bulls cemetery, and catacomb. The bulls themselves in death, were said to become a part of the god Osiris, and in turn this created the aspect of Osiris known as Osiris-Apis. Similarly the Greeks living along the nile adapted this aspect of Osiris to the god named, Osorapis. By the middle of the Ptolemic dynasty's the name Sarapis was taken from Osiris-Apis, and hence the name of the tomb became the Serapeum.

Strabo wrote of the Serapeum, "One finds a temple to Serapis in such a sandy place that the wind heaps up the sand dunes beneath which we saw sphinxes, some half buried, some buried up to the head, from which one can suppose that the way to this temple could not be without danger if one were caught in a sudden wind storm." In essence what Strabo was describing was a line of sphinx's on either side of a road in Memphis leading directly to the Serapeum. Mariette who had originally been sent to Memphis to collect coptic scripts, found himself intrigued by Strabo's description of the Serapeum. As he explored Egypt, he abandon his original work in egypt, and set out to find the tomb. In 1850, excavation began, and in 1851 his work yeilded many subterranean chambers, and 64 Apis bulls with thousands of inscribed objects therein. Since the time of Mariette excavations have continued of the Serapeum, as recent as 1980.

Sphinx

The majestic Sphinx, with the body of a lion and the head of a king, presides over the Giza necropolis as if it were it’s guardian. It wears a pharaonic nemes and faces the east. A beard used to hang from it’s chin, but it has long since fallen away. The Greek word "sphinx" may have derived from the Egyptian shesep-ankh, which translates to "living image." It stands taller than a six-story building and as long as a city block. It is made from megaliths, which are estimated to weigh 200 tons apiece, the smallest weighing 50 tons. The megaliths are fashioned from a single knoll of rock.

Many scholars believe that the face of the Sphinx was carved to represent="0" who the Greeks knew as Chephren. Khafre reigned from 2520 to 2494 BC. Some also believe that it dates back to the Old Kingdom during the fourth Dynasty. However, the Sphinx is carved of rock, so it cannot be dated by the radio carbon technique. The only other method of dating is by using contemporary texts that refer to its construction. There are none of these, therefore, no definite facts are known. Another notion is that it was built when the Sahara was still green. We know that the Sahara was once fertile, but over the millennia, it slowly eroded. This could be an explanation for the water damage done to the outer walls of the Sphinx.

The awe-inspiring monument lies on an east-west axis. The east and west walls each have six secluded places, perhaps used in rites of the rising and setting of the sun. They also have twenty-four pillars, which may represent the twenty-four hours in a day. There are many legends about the Sphinx. One such legend claims that it is a sole remnant of an advanced civilization lost to archaeology. A small number of people believe that the evidence for this lost civilization is under the right paw. There is no archaeological data to support this claim. Another legend states there are secret underground passages. The Egyptian Antiquities Organization excavated and found three tunnels under the monument. The first tunnel is found under the head of the Sphinx. It travels inside the body for five meters. The second is found in the tail and is thirty feet long. The third is located on the north side. All of these tunnels date to pharaonic times, but the purpose for them is unknown.

A red granite stela sits between the front paws. It tells a story of King Thutmose IV when he was still a prince. He went hunting near Giza and fell asleep in the shade of the Sphinx. The awesome lion appeared before him in a dream and complained that his body was falling into ruin. The creature promised that Thutmose IV would be king one day if he restored the monument. The rest of the inscription has eroded away, but Thutmose IV did become king. He removed sand from around the Sphinx and reset some of the facing stones that had fallen off. He erected the stela that tells his story. The present damage done to the face of the Sphinx was done in 1380 by Arab sheiks and later by soldiers from Napolean's army who used it for target practice.

Let us take a journey back to Giza to the year 10,500 BC. If we looked at the skies, what would we see? If we sat at the paws of the Sphinx just before sunrise, we would see the zodiacal constellation of Leo- a constellation that resembles a lion. At the exact moment of which the solar disc breaks over the horizon ahead of us, we make a ninety-degree right turn to face due south. Consummating at the altitude of nine degrees twenty minutes, we see before us the three stars of Orion’s belt forming a pattern in the sky that is identical to the ground plan of the Giza Pyramids. Graham Hancock, the author of "The Message of the Sphinx", believes that it is a lion because it was built in the Age of Leo. The Age of Leo lasted from 10,970 to 8810 BC. He supports his argument by stating that in the Age of Pisces the symbol of Christianity is the fish. In the proceeding Age of Aries we find rams sacrificed in the Old Testament. Finally, Egyptians worshiped Apis, the bull, in the Age of Taurus and the bull-cult flourished in Minoan Crete. Of course, this is one of many theories.

The Temple of Deir el Bahari (XVIII Dynasty)

Senenmut, who was her architect, designed the temple of Queen Hatshepsut. It was set at the head of a valley overshadowed by the Peak of the Thebes, the "Lover of Silence". A tree lined avenue of sphinxes led up to the temple, and ramps led from terrace to terrace. The porticoes on the lowest terrace are out of proportion and coloring with the rest of the building. They were restored in 1906 to protect the celebrated reliefs depicting the transport of obelisks by barge to Karnak and the miraculous birth of Queen Hatshepsut. Reliefs on the south side of the middle terrace show the queen’s expedition by way of the Red Sea to Punt, the land of incense. Along the front of the upper terrace, a line of large, gently smiling Osirid statues of the queen looked out over the valley. In the shade of the colonnade behind, brightly painted reliefs decorated the walls. Throughout the temple, statues and sphinxes of the queen proliferated. Many of them have been reconstructed, with patience and ingenuity, from the thousands of smashed fragments found by the excavators.

Tel El-Amarna

Tel El-Amarna is a city located on a flat stretch of land beside the Nile Valley. It measures only 12 kilometers from north to south, however it is one of the most interesting and captivating areas in all of Egypt.

In 1887 a woman In Tel el-Amarna found some clay tablets covered in Akkadian cuneiform. When observed by Jules Oppert, a French assyriologist, he concluded that they were fake. However, that didn’t convince others. About 400 clay tablets were eventually found, and they realized that the artifacts were from the time of Akhenaten, a pharaoh that ruled 35 centuries earlier. In addition to the clay tablets found in Tel el-Amarna, there was also a sculptured head of queen Nefertiti, The Hymn of Aten, which Akhenaten wrote himself, and many depictions of Akhenaten and Nefertite worshiping the sun god. There was a dramatic difference in the art depicting Akhenaten with his wife, Nefertiti, and their children sitting together and enjoying themselves. This was completely different than the canon which always had the pharaoh looking straight ahead, with his left foot forward, and fists clenched to the side. The statues of Akhenaten were very unflattering to him.

To understand the history of Amarna, it is necessary to learn about the man who built it. Akhenaten was a most unusual Pharaoh in many ways. He promoted the Aten as chief deity of Egypt, possibly to lessen the authority of the priests. It is speculated that he was the predecessor of modern monotheism. As Pharaoh, he was the sole link between the people and the Aten. He also issued orders for the temples of "false" gods to be desecrated. As you might expect, this probably did not endear him to the priesthood or the populace, many of whom probably still worshipped Amun. To support the religion, he built a new capital which was devoted to Aten. He called the new city Akhetaten "the horizon of Aten." He had his city built in middle Egypt on a site not tainted by the worship of other gods. At around Year 6 in his reign he moved to Amarna, the ancient name being Akhenaten, with his court and family, including wife Nefertiti.

At the height of Akhenaten's reign, the city had a population of over 20,000. There is evidence that he was content to live in his well-guarded city with his family and ignore his other principalities. His co-regency with Smenhkhare might have allowed him the freedom to do this. The arts flourished under his reign. The new wave in art and the beautiful composition "Hymn to Aten" are testaments to this idea. The stylization in the surviving reliefs and sculptures is extremely unique and has spurred many discussions about Akhenaten himself.

How his reign ended is unknown. After Akhenaten died, the next pharaoh changed the religion back to polytheism, moved the capital back to Thebes, the original capital. Later Pharaohs attempted to erase all memories of Akhenaten, including dismantling his temples and city, and obliterating his name on reliefs.

The physical aspects of Tel El-Amarna are as interesting as the heretic king himself. The area is covered by sand and filled with ruins of temples, palaces and houses. There are more then 25 tombs at the base of the cliff front. Six are located on the north side and 19 on the south. The evidence found in Tel El-Amarna is very interesting. There was nothing there before Akhenaten built Akhetaten and, since the capital moved back to Thebes quickly after his death, the site can be dated specifically to a narrow period.

The name Amarna is also used to describe the period of time including Akhenaten and his kin, the most well known of which is Tutankhamun. Howard Carter and Flinders Petrie, two of the best-known archaeologists in history, have excavated at this site.

Amarna remains a source of disagreement with many scholars. It seems the controversy Akhenaten caused in life continues long after his death.

The Tomb of Menna

The tomb of Menna (TT 69) is a private tomb located on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes). The tomb resides in the hill of Sheikh Abd el- Qurna, in the area known as the Tombs of the Nobles. The hill Sheikh Abd el-Qurna was named for a mythical Muslim sheikh. It has 146 numbered tombs, most of which are from the 18^th dynasty. It contains some of the most beautiful private tombs of the West Bank. These tombs are referred to as being T-shaped, where you find an entrance corridor that leads into a wide vestibule, then a short corridor that leads into the long chapel, with a small niche at its rear. Officials in this area occupied most of the Tombs of the Nobles.

The tomb of Menna is dated from the New Kingdoms 18^th dynasty. The approximate age of this tomb is 3,400 years old. It was constructed in approximately c.1400-1390 BC. This was the reign of Tuthmosis IV and his successor Amenhotep III which Menna worked below.

Menna held the title, Scribe of the Fields of the Lord of the Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypts, as well as field overseer of Amun. He is thought to have worked for the Temple of Amun at Karnak, supervising the measuring of fields, inspected the work on the land, prosecuted defaulters and recorded the crop yield. This was of great importance because the grains that were being harvested were for the entire state. Being a scriber (someone that can read and write in heiroglphes) was a trait that not many people had. The fact that so few people could read and write gave Menna very high prestige in this ancient Egyptian society. It was, in fact, one of the most important occupations in ancient Egypt. His wife, called Henut-Tawy (the lady of the two lands), held the function of Chantress of Arnun and the couple had at least three daughters and several sons.

The reason for the importance of this tomb resides in the sophisticated paintings which are one of the most complete in the Theban necropolis. The paintings depict Mennas everyday lifestyle, with an emphasis on his family (mainly his wife) and agriculture. The artist of the paintings depicts Menna's closeness with his family very definably. The artist does this by making the people that were most valued (wife and children) the same size as Menna in the paintings, showing that their status was similar. Many of the painting had scenes of life in the marsh, which were depicted in many New Kingdom tombs, but had a deeper meaning. The Nile marshes were growing out of the fertile mud of the river and the abundant wildlife supported by the environment symbolized rejuvenation and eternal life.

The original discoverer of the Tomb of Menna is unknown. But between 1914 and 1916 Robert L. Mond and Ernest J.H. Mackay started to conduct a photographic survey of the Theban private tombs at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. The First World War interrupted their work.Their survey is made up of around 3300 black and white photographs covering 18 tombs, one of which was Menna. Mond used several small photographs and pieced them together to form a mosaic showing an image of the whole wall.He used photographic techniques to make the prints 3 dimensional like they would appear in the tomb.

The Tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep

The Tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep was discovered by Mounir Basta in 1964 in Saqqara. Basta found the tomb by crawling through a series of passages in the escarpment facing the causeway to the pyramid of Unas.The tomb has been a curiosity, areas of it have been reconstructed and the tomb has been studied, however very little has been written about it. Mr. Greg Reeder, contributing editor to the Egyptology journal KMT, is hoping to remedy this soon (personal communication).

When the mastaba was reconstructed the archaeologists found two hieroglyphic inscriptions, one for each of the men who shared the tomb. Each inscription was the same, though each was addressed to one of the men- the right for Niankhkhnum and the left for Khnumhotep. These men also shared titles in the palace of King Niuserre of the Fifth Dynasty. The shared titles were "Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of the King, King's Acquaintance and Royal Confidant."

Throughout the tomb there are scenes of the men embracing each other. It has long been debated as to what their relationship was; brothers, twins, close friends, lovers, or all of the above. Whatever their relationship was, it is obvious from the scenes that they were close. Even their names show their closeness. It is unclear when they changed their names, however the names they took have been translated. Niankhkhnum means "joined to life" and Khnumhotep means "joined to 'the blessed state of the dead'" and together the names can be translated as "joined in life and joined in death"

They were so close, in fact, that there is a scene showing them in the most intimate embrace possible in Ancient Egyptian art. Niankhkhnum holding Khnumhotep's right forearm and with Khnumhotep's hand on Niankhkhum's left shoulder; the tips of their noses touching. One of the interesting aspects of this picture is that the waist ties of their kilts appear to be tied together, perhaps symbolizing their unity.

From some of the other pictures in the tomb it is known that Niankhkhnum had been married in life, and had children. It is believed that the pictures of the wife were scratched out so the men could be the main guests of honor in the tomb.

Thebes

Thebes is probably the richest archeological site in the world and at just over two square miles, one of the largest. It lies about 500 miles south of Cairo on the West Bank of the Nile. Thebes can be divided into three areas: the cultivated land lying between the Nile and the desert, the low-lying desert, and the barren desert cliffs and mountains.

Few traces of archeological evidence can be found near the cultivated land, due to the silt deposited by the annual flooding of the Nile River. Any important sites would be buried under several meters of mud. This area is now very important to the modern economy.

The low-lying desert is where New Kingdom Egyptians built mortuary temples near the edge of the desert. They buried their court officials in the limestone hills. Now, mud-brick houses are there. About a century ago, the villagers that lived there, to make a living plundered the Tombs of the Nobles. Today, they help archeological expeditions.

The Barren desert cliffs and mountains are home to over 60 tombs. Inside these deep valleys are tombs that range from huge underground complexes in the Valley of the Kings, to less elaborate tombs in the Valley of Queens.

The earliest known visitors from modern Europe to the Valley of Kings was in the 18th century. The earliest maps indicate that about twenty-five tombs were accessible prior to this century. In the 19th century, John Gardner Wilkinson was able to see twenty-one tombs and numbered them in geographical order from the entrance of the Valley southward, then to the east. Since then, they have been numbered in order of their discovery. KV 62 is the most recent of these.

One of the first people to dig in the Valley of the Kings was Giovanni Belzoni. From 1816-1817, he discovered eight tombs. KV 17, the tomb of Sety I, was the most amazing. Victor Loret uncovered sixteen tombs, in the late 19th century. These tombs included the collection of royal mummies in KV 35 and the tomb of Amenhetep II. In the early 20th century Theodore Davis sponsored thirteen years of work. During this time thirty-five tombs were cleared or discovered. Howard Carter was one of his excavators. Carter began working with Earl Carnavon in 1907. Their work led to the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb (KV 62) in 1922.

Today, there are four major archeological expeditions working in the Valley. Otto Schaden is clearing KV 10. Edwin Brook is studying KV 8. Christian LeBlanc is clearing KV 7, and the Theban Mapping project is excavating KV 5.

The Story of the Rosetta Stone, "Finding a Lost Language"

Egyptian hieroglyphics had been used by the Egyptians for thousands of years. However, a particularly bleak period of Egyptian history is the conquest of Egypt by Persia. The Egyptians were dominated by Persian intruders. The events that changed the nature of Egypt were not the Persian conquest but rather the war between Persia (the rulers of Egypt) and the united Greek city-states. Greece had originally been united by Philip of Macedon and then ruled effectively by Alexander the Great. Alexander defeated the Persian forces and then took his army to Egypt. There he was welcomed as a conquering hero by the Egyptians because he brought an end to Persian rule. He was made a god by the Egyptians as well as a pharaoh. He, however, had other campaigns to wage and took his army off to the Middle East and the Indus River Valley leaving a regent in charge of Egypt.

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, his empire was divided among his three most trusted and powerful generals. The throne of Egypt fell to Ptolemy I, the son of Lagus. Ptolemy took Alexander’s preserved body in a jar filled with honey back to Alexandria. Ptolemy ran Egypt like a business, strictly for profit. . He was welcomed by the Egyptians as part of Alexander the Great’s family. Ptolemy then became the pharaoh, Ptolemy I. By so doing, he set the name standard for the 32nd Dynasty which turned out to be the last of Egypt’s great dynasties. All of his male successors were called Ptolemy and all of his female successors were called Cleopatra.

As we move to the end of this Greek Dynasty, there was increasing involvement with the Roman Empire. The Roman civil war between Caesar and Pompeii indirectly involved Egypt. Pompeii lost this war and turned to Egypt for shelter and young Ptolemy (several generations below Ptolemy I) had him executed and delivered to Caesar. The young Ptolemy, thinking this would ingratiate him with Caesar was totally incorrect. His sister, Cleopatra, who was vying for the throne had other ways of ingratiating herself with Caesar - they had children together. Caesar was unfortunately assassinated while visiting Rome and his empire was divided up between General Marcus Antonious and his adopted son, Octavian. Marcus Antonious was better known as Marc Antony. Marc Antony took rulership of that part of the Empire that contained Egypt and that resulted in his inheriting Cleopatra. They, too, had children. His relationship with Octavian broke down and resulted in a war which Marc Antony lost. Antony was killed and Cleopatra committed suicide. Their male children were executed and their female children were probably married off to local princes. The Egyptian dynastic system was ended and a Roman Governorship was established.

During the Ptolemic dynasty, Egyptian and Greek languages were used simultaneously. During the Roman Governorship only Latin was used and occasionally Greek. Within a hundred years the Egyptian hieroglyphics were no longer used or understood by anyone and even the Roman authors of the time suggested that hieroglyphics was not even a language. In the truest sense this is now a dead language.

Ultimately the Roman Empire fell and the Middle Ages "came about". Nevertheless, there existed a constant contact between Europe and Egypt such that hieroglyphics were consistently known by the European elite. The reason for this is that medical practices of the Middle Ages resulted in the prescription of bitumen, ground up mummies as a cure for various kinds of diseases. Thus, there was a trade in whole mummies which resulted in examples of hieroglyphics coming into Europe throughout the Dark Ages.

As a result, there were some early attempts at translation of hieroglyphics. In 1633, a Jesuit priest named Anthanasius Kircher, whose specialities were the humanities, science, language and religion translated the word ‘autocrat’ or in Greek ‘autocratur’ into German and did so by substituting ideas for the images. His translation read "the originator of all moisture and all vegetation whose creative forces is brought into this kingdom by the holy mukta" (is this a ‘bureaucrat’?)

The history of the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphics during the 16th and 17th centuries took small steps toward final interpretation. Some scholars thought that the hieroglyphics were the origin of other languages. Some believed that hieroglyphics spelled nothing at all. Yet others believed that the hieroglyphics were an indication of social stratification or social significance.

This speculation would have continued had not a political event interceded. The almost constant warfare between Britain and France resulted in a major change in the understanding of hieroglyphics. The French under Napoleon Bonaparte decided that they could defeat the British by attacking Egypt and subsequently controlling the rich food supply from along the Nile.

In August of 1798, 13 French ships landed near Alexandria at Aboukir Bay in Egypt and marched inland to fight the British near Cairo. The night before the battle, Napoleon exhorted his troops on by saying something like "Soldiers, from the tops of these pyramids, forty centuries are looking down at you." The French ground forces won the conflict but the British navy, under the command of Lord Horratio Nelson, defeated the French navy. Napoleon believed that he would be in Egypt for only a few months, but he and his men were stranded there for three years with no way to return home. Napoleon had brought with him between nearly 1000 civilians including 167 of whom were scientists, technicians, mathematicians and artists who studied the art, architecture, and culture of Egypt during their "extended vacation." From 1809-1828, they published a 19-volume work called Description of Egypt. Their observations, drawings and illustrations were circulated throughout Europe and created a tremendous interest in antiquities of Egypt.

The soldiers continued to "dig in" and they reconstructed forts as most soldiers had done during previous centuries by using building stones previously used by earlier peoples. In 1799, while extending a fortress near Rosetta, a small city near Alexandria, a young French officer named Pierre-Francois Bouchard found a block of black basalt stone. It measured three feet nine inches long, two feet four and half inches wide, and eleven inches thick and it contained three distinct bands of writing. The most incomplete was the top band containing hieroglyphics, the middle band was an Egyptian script called Demotic script (he did not know that), and the bottom was ancient Greek (he did recognize the bottom band). This stone was called the Rosetta Stone. He took the stone to the scholars and they realized that it was a royal decree that basically stated that it was to be written in the languages used in Egypt at the time. Scholars began to focus on the Demotic script, the middle band, because it was more complete and it looked more like letters than the pictures in the upper band that were hieroglyphics. It was essentially a shorthand hieroglyphics that had evolved from an earlier shorthand version of Egyptian called Heiratic script.

Material from Egypt was continuously coming into Europe. In order to display their status, the European gentry and nobility normally had some Egyptian relics in their possession, perhaps an art object on a table or if one were quite rich, they might have an obelisk in the front yard of the estate. Material containing hieroglyphics continued to enter Europe at a reasonably accelerated rate.

The first to make any sense of the Demotic script on the Rosetta Stone was a French scholar named Silvestre deSacy. deSacy was an important and skilled French linguist. He identified the symbols which comprised the word ‘Ptolemy’ and ‘Alexander’ thus, establishing a relationship between the symbols and sounds. Johann Akerblad who history records as a Swedish diplomat, looked at the Rosetta Stone with an additional knowledge of Coptic. Coptic was the language used by the Coptic church of Egypt, an early Christian group who preserved the language which was used as early as the 4^th century. Coptic was written with the Greek alphabet but utilizes seven additional symbols from the Demotic script. Akerblad’s knowledge of Coptic allowed him to identify the words for ‘love,’ ‘temple’ and ‘Greek’ thus, making it clear that the Demotic script was not only a phonetic script but it was also translatable.

The earliest translation of the Greek text on the Rosetta Stone into English was done by Reverend Stephen Weston in London in April 1802 before the Society of Antiquaries . About this time, both deSacy and Thomas Young, attempted to decipher the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. Young was successful in determining that foreign names could not be represented by symbols because symbols are based upon the words used in a given language. Thus, foreign names had to be spelled phonetically. In hieroglyphics there are groups of symbols that are separated from other symbols. These encircled inscriptions are called cartouches. Thomas Young determined that the cartouches were proper names of people who were not Egyptian like the names of Ptolemy and Alexander which in Greek were Ptolemaios and Alexandrus. He successfully deciphered 5 cartouches. His publication on this matter was far reaching.

At this point there is involvement by a young French historian and linguist named Jean-Fracois Champollion. Champollion had mastered many Eastern languages. In 1807, Champollion went to study for two years with noted French linguist Francois Antoine-Isaac Silvestre deSacy. Later in his career, Champollion had compiled a Coptic dictionary and read Thomas Young in 1819. Looking at Young’s writing on the subject of hieroglyphics, he realized that what Young had actually proven was that all of hieroglyphics were phonetic, not just those hieroglyphics that were contained within the cartouches. Utilizing hieroglyphics from an estate at Kingston Lacey in Britain, Champollion correctly identified the names of Cleopatra and Alexandrus and verified Ptolemeus which had previously been identified by Young He published his results and continued his research. In 1822 new inscriptions from a temple at Abu Simbel on the Nile were introduced into Europe and Champollion had correctly identified the name of the pharaoh who had built the temple. That name was ‘Ramses.’ Utilizing his knowledge of Coptic he continued to successfully translate the hieroglyphics opening up an understanding of the Ancient Egyptians.

Hieroglyphic Technology

Hieroglyphic text processing programs allows script of hieroglyphics to be studied, analyzed, and edited by a computer. Two hieroglyphic text-processing programs are Glyph for Windows and MacScribe.

Glyph for Windows

Glyph for Windows is a hieroglyphic text-processing program designed for IBM-compatible computers. The program runs along with Microsoft Windows. With this program, hieroglyphic scripts can be easily processed and print out in sharp quality by any kind of printer, although laser printers produce the most fluent lines of hieroglyphics. Glyph for Windows looks similar to many Windows applications, with functions and options can be found in pulldown menus, dialog boxes, and hot keys.

Hieroglyphics are entered in the main window in code form. The codes are Gardiner numbers or the glyphs' phonetic value combined with codes that signify the position of the glyph. While code is entered into the main window, a bar on the bottom of the window shows the represented hieroglyphic on each respective line. The Egyptologist can easily edit or change codes that may be incorrect. The entire document can be viewed in hieroglyphic form in a separate pop-up window.

Glyph for Windows designed user-friendly for easy use by the most traditional Egyptologist. Glyph for Windows is able to produce lines or columns of text, both from left-to-right and from right-to-left. The program can process any sign, from simple groupings to complex. Signs can be shaded to represent damaged or partly lost signs. Also the program has the capability of creating cartouches, Serekhs and Hwt-enclosures.

MacScribe

MacScribe offers two major features. First, MacScribe is designed to work with Macintosh computers. Also, it allows the user to process hieroglyphics using internationally accepted hieroglyphic computer-encoding standards. Like Glyph for Windows, hieroglyphs can be entered using the signs' Gardiner number or phonetic value. However, they can also be entered by choosing them from a window using a mouse click.

Using MacScribe a sign can be rotated or inverted. It allows text to be formatted in lines or columns or from right-to-left or left-to-right. The codes for the hieroglyphics are hidden. Also, text can be export to other applications and programs. MacScribe is capable of using any Macintosh hieroglyphic font.

Genetic Archaeology

In the last 50 years archaeologists have been looking through old relics to try to tell the story of different peoples, now they are starting to use the people themselves. They are using mummified corpses and soft tissue from dead people and animals from places like Egypt. The tool they use from them is DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), the scientist extract DNA molecules from soft preserved tissue and then using a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) they duplicate the DNA up to several million times which then yields plenty for analysis. This was the first breakthrough, in 1989 research groups from England, Japan; France successfully removed DNA from preserved teeth, bones and hard tissue.

These findings can ultimately help in determining the genealogy of the Egyptian Kings and Queens because it is now possible to extract some of the major components of the makeup of these people. They can tell from the DNA of the Kings and Queens the possible lineage’s they possess. This means that maybe they can find out if one of these people was related to another and how they were. Because there was allot of intermarrying going on between brothers and sisters and some of the offspring will have the same DNA sequence which will then tell scientists who some of the unknown mummies are that were found in tombs along with others.

This will not only be useful in determining the lineage’s among kings and queens but it will also tell us about the commoners of the time, such as those that were found in a cemetery at Fag el Gamous in Fayum. They found multiple burials in a single grave, often two adults and one or more children or several children buried with a single adult. Up until now we would not know what these people died from but now with this new way of getting into their past it is possible to gage what type of diseases were present in their era and if they were possibly killed by them.

So far from these people they have determined that tuberculosis was present in this population, and it is likely that diseases such as cholera and malaria were present in that area. They were able to find this because it was possible to recover DNA fragments from pathogenic bacteria that were present in the remaining tissue.

The questions about Egypt are fascinating and with help from new advances in technology and science and medicine it will be possible to answer some of them and hopefully to unlock some of their secrets.

FIR'AWN WHO WAS DROWNED

(Deeds) after the manner of the people of Fir'awn and those before them: They treated as false the Signs of their Lord: so We destroyed them for their crimes, and We drowned the people of Fir'awn: for they were all oppressors and wrong-doers. (Surat al-Anfal: 54)

Ancient Egyptian Civilisation, along with other city states established in Mesopotamia at the same time, is known to be one of the oldest civilisations in the world and it is recognised to have been an organised state with the most advanced social order of its age. The facts that they discovered writing around the 3rd millennium BC and used it, that they made use of the river Nile and were protected against dangers abroad on account of the natural setting of the country, greatly contributed to the Egyptians improving their civilisation.

But this "civilised" society was one in which "the reign of pharaohs" prevailed, which is the system of denial mentioned in the clearest and most straightforward way in the Qur'an. They puffed up with pride, turned aside and blasphemed. In the end, neither their advanced civilisations, their social and political orders, nor their military successes could save them from being destroyed.

The Authority of the Pharaohs

The Egyptian civilisation was based on the fertility of the River Nile. Egyptians had settled in the Nile valley due to the abundant water of this river, and because they could cultivate the land with the water supplied by the river without being dependent on rainy seasons.

The historian Ernst H. Gombrich states in his writing that Africa is very hot and sometimes it does not rain there at all for months. For this reason, many areas in this huge continent are extremely dry. Those parts of the continent are covered with vast desert. Both sides of the River Nile are also covered with deserts, and it hardly rains in Egypt. But in this country, rain is not needed so much, because the River Nile runs right down the middle of the whole country. 1

So, whoever has control of the River Nile, which is of such great importance, is also able to control Egypt's biggest source of commerce and agriculture. The pharaohs were able to establish their dominance over Egypt in this way.

The narrow and vertical form of the Nile valley did not allow residential units situated around the river to expand much, and therefore Egyptians formed a civilisation made up of small-scaled towns and villages instead of big cities. This factor also fortified the dominance of the pharaohs over their people.

King Menes is known to be the first Egyptian Pharaoh who united the whole of ancient Egypt, for the first time in history, in a united state around the 3rd millennium BC. In fact, the term "pharaoh" originally referred to the palace where the Egyptian king lived, but in time, it became the title of Egyptian kings. This is why the kings, who were rulers of Old Egypt started to be called "pharaohs".

Being owners, administrators and rulers of the whole state and its lands, these pharaohs were accepted as reflections of the biggest god in the distorted polytheistic religion of old Egypt. The administration of Egyptian lands, their division, their income, in short, all the estates, services and production within the country's borders were managed on behalf of the pharaoh.
The absolutism in the regime had furnished the pharaoh ruling the country with such a power that he could have anything he wished. Right at the establishment of the first dynasty, at the time of Menes who became the first King of Egypt by uniting Upper and Lower Egypt, the River Nile started to be delivered to the public through canals. Beside that, production was taken under control and the entire production of goods and services were assigned to the king. The king distributed and shared these goods and services in the proportions his people needed. It was not hard for the kings, who had established such a power in the region, to reduce the people to submission.

The King of Egypt, or with his future name, the pharaoh, was looked upon as a holy being who held great power and met all the needs of his people: and he was transformed into a god. The Pharaohs definitely believed in time that they were indeed gods.

Some of the words the pharaoh mentioned in the Qur'an used during his conversation with Musa prove that they held this belief. He tried to intimidate Musa by saying "If thou dost put forward any god other than me, I will certainly put thee in prison!" (Surat ash-Shuara: 29), and he said to the people around him "no god do I know for you but myself" (Surat al-Qasas: 38). He said all this because he regarded himself as a god.

Religious Beliefs

According to the historian Herodotus, the Ancient Egyptians were the most "devout" people in the world. However, their religion was not the religion of Truth, but a perverse polytheistic one and they could not abandon their perverse religion because of their extreme conservatism.

The Ancient Egyptians were largely influenced by the natural environment in which they lived. The natural geography of Egypt protected the country against external attacks perfectly. Egypt was surrounded by deserts, mountainous lands and seas on all sides. Attacks likely to be made on the country had two possible routes and it was very simple for the Egyptians to defend those routes. The Egyptians remained isolated from the external world thanks to these natural factors. But passing centuries transformed this isolation into a dark bigotry. Thus the Egyptians acquired a viewpoint which was locked against new developments and novelties, and which was extremely conservative about their religion. The "religion of their ancestors" mentioned frequently in the Qur'an became their most important value.

This is why Fir'awn and his close circle turned their backs on Musa and Harun when they announced the Religion of Truth to them, by saying: "Hast thou come to us to turn us away from the ways we found our fathers following - in order that thou and thy brother may have greatness in the land? But not we shall believe in you!" (Surah Yunus: 78)

The religion of Ancient Egypt was divided into branches, the most important of which were the official religion of the state, the beliefs of the people and belief in life after death.

According to the state's official religion, the pharaoh was a holy being. He was a reflection of the people's gods on earth and his purpose was to dispense justice and protect them on earth.
The beliefs widespread among people were extremely complicated, and the elements in item which clashed with the state's official religion were oppressed by the reigns of the Pharaohs. Basically, they believed in many gods, and these gods were usually depicted as having animal heads on human bodies. But it was also possible to meet with local traditions which differed from region to region.

Life after death made up the most important part of Egyptian belief. They believed that the soul went on living after the body died. According to this, the souls of the dead were brought by particular angels to the God who was a Judge and forty-two other witness judges, a scale was set in the middle and the heart of the soul was weighed in this scale. Those with more goodness passed on to a beautiful setting and lived in happiness, those with more wickedness were sent to a place where they were subject to great torments. There, they were tormented throughout eternity by a strange creature called the "The Dead Eater".

The belief of the Egyptians in the Hereafter clearly shows a parallelism with the monotheistic belief and the religion of Truth. Even their belief in the hereafter alone proves that the religion of truth and the message had reached ancient Egyptian civilisation, but that this religion was later corrupted, and monotheism was turned into polytheism. It is already known that warners calling people to the unity of Allah and summoning them to be His slaves were sent in Egypt from time to time, as they were to all the earth's peoples at one time or another. One of these was the prophet Yusuf whose life is told in detail in the Qur'an. The history of Yusuf is also extremely important because it includes the arrival of the Children of Israel in Egypt and their settlement there.

On the other hand, in the historical resources, there are references to some Egyptians who invited people to monotheistic religions even before Musa. One of them is the most interesting pharaoh in the history of Egypt, that is, Amenhotep IV .

The Monotheistic Pharaoh Amenhotep IV

The Egyptian pharaohs were generally brutal, oppressive, belligerent and ruthless people. In general, they adopted the polytheistic religion of Egypt and deified themselves through this religion.

But there is a pharaoh in Egyptian history who is very different from the others. This pharaoh defended belief in a single Creator and was subjected to great resistance by the priests of Ammon, who profited from the polytheistic religion, and some soldiers who supported them, and so he was finally killed. This pharaoh was Amenhotep IV who rose to power in the 14th Century BC.

When Amenhotep IV was enthroned in 1375 BC, he came across a conservatism and traditionalism which had been lingering for centuries. Until then, the structure of the society and the relations of the public with the royal palace had carried on without any change. The society kept all its doors firmly shut to all external events and religious innovations. This extreme conservatism, also remarked by ancient Greek travellers, was caused by the natural geographical conditions of Egypt as we have explained above.

Imposed on people by the pharaohs, the official religion required an unconditional faith in everything old and traditional. But Amenhotep IV did not adopt the official religion. The historian Ernst Gombrich writes;

He (Amenhotep IV) broke with many of the customs hallowed by an age-old tradition. He did not wish to pay homage to the many strangely shaped gods of his people. For him only one god was supreme, Aton, whom he worshipped and whom he had represented in the shape of the sun. He called himself Akhenaton, after his god, and he moved his court out of reach of the priests of the other gods, to a place which is now called El-Amarna2

After the death of his father, young Amenhotep IV was subjected to great pressure. This oppression was caused by the fact that he developed a religion based on monotheism by changing the traditional polytheistic religion of Egypt, and attempting to make radical changes in all fields. But the leaders of Thebes did not allow him to convey the message of this religion. Amenhotep IV and his folk moved away from the city of Thebes and settled in Tell-El-Amarna. Here, they established a new and modern city named "Akh-et-aton". Amenhotep IV changed his name which meant "Contentment of Amon" to Akh-en-aton, which meant "Submitting to Aton". Amon was the name given to the greatest totem in Egyptian polytheism. According to Amenhotep, Aton is the "creator of the heavens and the earth", his equating the name with Allah.

Disturbed by these developments, the priests of Ammon wanted to snatch Akhenaton's power by profiting from an economic crisis in the country. Akhenaton was finally killed by being poisoned by conspirators. Succeeding pharaohs were careful to stay under the influence of the priests.

After Akhenaton, pharaohs with a military background came to power. These again caused the old traditional polytheism to become widespread and spent a considerable effort to return to the past. Nearly a century later, Ramses II, who was to have the longest rule in the history of Egypt, came to the throne. According to many historians, Ramses was the pharaoh tormenting the Children of Israel and fighting against Musa.

The History of Egyptology

Napoleon I and Vivant Denon paved the way in the discovery of Egypt in archeology. On July 2, 1798 Napoleon stepped onto Egyptian soil after leaving France. He was on his way to seize British lands in India but came upon resistence from British Naval forces.

After spending nineteen days in the desert of Egypt, Napoleon and his men, came across the Nile and the city of Cairo. On the horizon in silhouettes were shadowy figures that were later to be known as the Pyramids of Giza. These symbols were of a lost society, formed and prospering before the birth of Islam. Napoleon's response was of ecstatic proportions, "Soldiers, forty centuries are looking down upon you!"

The discovery of Egypt awoke a political and scientific interest. While Napoleon was busy running Egypt, Denon, an artist, was busy and enthralled with capturing the essence and archeological importance of Egypt through the use of his paper and crayons. He was giving the world a visual record of Egypt while scholars and scientists were examining and cataloging all that they could find. During his findings a key to the Egyptian myteries was discovered. This piece was a black basalt stele known as the Rosetta Stoneconsisting of three bands of writing.

In September of 1801 the French were forced to turn over the collection of Pharaonic antiquities to England aftrer they captured Alexandria. The pieces were then transported and housed in the British Museum by order of George III. Despite loses of the original findings; France had its resources. As pieces were unveiled a copy was produced thus allowing French scholars to continue their studies. The first to make use of these findings was Denon who published, "Voyage dans la Haute et la Basse Egypte". Between the years of 1809 and 1813 the works of Jomard were published. These works, "Description de l'Egypte," were a unique step in archaeological history.

Although Caroline, Napoleon's sister, was excavating Pompeii there was still a problem. The scholars were learning rudiments of archaeology and were trying to decode the hieroglyphics. Even though they had the Description filled with drawings, descriptions and copies, they could not decipher their meaning successfully. It was found to be "scientifically unsolvable" by De Sacy. It wasn't until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by a French soldier under Napoleon that gave some hope of unlocking the mystery of the writings. The only problem was that there was no one to decode the stone at the time. It wasn't until the findings of the Rosetta Stone were published in an Egyptian newspaper that a boy found and twenty years later deciphered.

This man of unknown genius was Jean-Francois Champollion. He was especially interested in foreign languages and studied Arabic and Coptic, among others. In 1808, on August 30, he sent his findings to his brother. The findings contained evidence that he was able to find the correct value of individual characters on one line. Later in 1822 he published "Letter to M. Dacier in regard to Alphabet of the Phonetic Hieroglyphs," in which he proved his ability to unlock the mysteries of the Rosetta Stone.

Although excavation success was never apart of his resume', Champollion did lead an expedition through Egypt from July 1828 to December 1829. During this time he proved his hypothesis to be true. He also corrected past errors of classifying architecture in the ruins of Memphis and errors in the dating of artifacts. Despite his genius in unlocking the Rosetta Stone, he would not receive true recognition until 1896; Sir Peter le Page Renouf gave an address to the Royal Society of London on Champollion's theories. It was this act that caused them to pay homage to Champollion sixty-five years after his death and opened the long process of excavating Egypt.

The formal introduction of Egyptological thought starts with Mariette, a French archaeologist, who discovered the tomb of the Apis Bull. Mariette arrived in Egypt in 1854 in order to translate hieroglyphic texts, but on a hunch began the search for the temple of Serapis. Mariette’s hunch that the temple lay within the saqqara of Memphis, proved to be correct. After finding the tomb of the Apis Bull, Mariette was appointed as Conservator of Monuments in Egypt in 1858, and became the director of the Antiquities Service. The aim of the Service of Antiquities was to create a museum in Cairo where Egyptian monuments and treasures could be exhibited, this was achieved with the founding of the Boulaq Museum.

Maspero, was to continue Mariette’s work. Maspero was Director General of the Antiquities Service from 1881 until 1914. Maspero founded the French Mission, a permanent establishment which was to be a base for the publication of papers and monuments, and for the education of students of Egyptology. The Antiquities Service allocated excavation permits and gave many Egyptology students firsthand knowledge of ancient Egypt. Previously, the education had been limited to exhibits in foreign museums. In addition, the early Antiquities Service allowed archaeologists to keep a percentage of their findings. It has not been until recent times that the Antiquities Service itself, no longer operated under a foreign administration, has stopped the practice of giving archaeologists a percentage of their finds. This ended the ancient days of grave robbing which the study of Egypt was founded upon.

The nineteenth century brought with it many explorations of ancient Egypt. These explorations included the pyramids of Giza, as well as the other minor pyramids, such as the pyramid of Meidum, the Saqqara pyramid, and the Mastabas. A new door of scholarship had dawned upon the egyptological scheme. With it came a multitude of translated texts, as well as many amazing discoveries of the pyramids and its kingdoms. Many of these discoveries have yielded a broad range of knowledge from a variety of scholars. Margaret Murray, William Flinders Petrie, and others all aided in the establishment of Egyptology as a science, applying scientific techniques to the study of Egypt. Such techniques stemmed from scientific interest in the subject rather than an interest in grave robbing and collecting artifacts.

Flinders Petrie spent from 1880 - 1883 studying and excavating the Great Pyramid of Giza. Because of his care and meticulous field methods, Petrie became known as one of the great innovators of the scientific methods in archaeological excavation. In 1884, Petrie discovered fragments of the collassal statue of Ramses II during his excavations of the Temple of Tanis.

The twentieth century brough another flourish of interest in Egyptology. In October of 1891 at the age of 17, Howard Carter set sail for Alexandria, Egypt, which was his first journey outside of Britain. His first project was at Bani Hassan, the gravesite of the Sovereign Princes of Middle Egypt during 2000 B.C. Carter’s task was to record and copy the scenes from the walls of the tomb. At this early age, Howard Carter was a diligent worker with much enthusiasm. He would work the day through and then sleep with the bats in the tomb.

Later, he was privileged to work for Flinders Petrie, a strong field director and one of the most credible archaeologists of his time. Petrie believed Carter would never become a good excavator, but Carter proved him wrong when he unearthed several important finds at the site of el Amarna, the Capital of Egypt during the sovereignty of Akhenaten. Under Petrie’s demanding tutorage, Carter became an archaeologist, while keeping up with his artistic skills. He sketched many of the unusual artifacts found at el Amarna.

Carter was later appointed Principle Artist to the Egyptian Exploration Fund for the excavations of Deir el Babri, the burial place of Queen Hatshepsut. At the age of 25, Carter was offered the job of Inspector General of Monuments for Upper Egypt by the Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, Gaston Maspero, in 1899. Carter’s responsibilities included supervising and controlling archaeology along the Nile Valley.

Carter’s employment at the Egyptian Antiquities Service came to an end in an unfortunate incident between the Egyptian site guards and a number of drunken French tourists. The incident gave Carter a black mark and caused him to be posted to the Nile Delta town of Tanta, a place with very little archaeological involvement. This forced Carter to resign from the Antiquities Service in 1905. Carter sustained a hard existence after resigning from the Antiquities Service. He had to make a living by working as a commercial watercolorist or sometimes a guide for tourists. This lifestyle continued until around 1908 when Carter was introduced to the Fifth Lord Carnarvon by Gaston Maspero. The partnership proceeded happily, as each partner’s personality seemed to compliment the others.

Carter became the Supervisor of the Excavations funded by Carnarvon in Thebes and by 1914 Carnarvon owned one of the most valuable collections of Egyptian artifacts held in private hands. However, Howard Carter had still more ambitious aspirations. He had his eye on finding the tomb of a fairly unknown pharaoh at the time, King Tutankhamun, after various clues to its existence had been found, Carter tore up the Valley of the Kings looking for Tutankhamun’s burial place, but season after season produced little more than a few artifacts. Carnarvon was becoming dissatisfied with the lack of return from his investment and, in 1922, he gave Carter one more season of funding to find the tomb.

Howasrd Carter's work on King Tutankhamun's tomb began on November 1, 1922. It took only three days before the top of a staircase was unearthed. Almost three weeks later the staircase was entirely excavated and the full side of the plaster block was visible. By November 26, the first plaster block was removed, the chip filling the corridor was emptied, and the second plaster was ready to be taken apart. At about 4 P.M. that day, Carter broke through the second plaster block and made one of the discoveries of the century, the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

The tomb’s artifacts took a decade to catalogue. During this time, Lord Carvarvon died in Cairo of pneumonia. After the media got wind of the treasures of King Tutankhamun and the death of Lord Carnarvon, the hype about a mummy’s curse set the media on fire. Much to Carter’s displeasure, letters poured in from spiritualist from around the world, selling advice and warnings from "beyond the grave."

Finally, the artifacts were sent to the Cairo Museum and the corpse of the young king was studied and laid back to rest. After his work was done with King Tutankhamun, Carter no longer worked in the field. He retired from the archaeology business. He took up the pursuit of collecting Egyptian antiquities and, indeed, became a very successful collector. Often, toward the end of his life, he could be found at the Winter Palace Hotel at Luxor, sitting by himself in willful isolation. He returned to England and in 1939, at the age of 65, Howard Carter died.

Kent Weeks has an ongoing project that has produced a wealth of archaeological information and helped to generate interest in the general field of Egyptology among the public. One of the largest finds of the project has been the rediscovery of Valley of the Kings number five (KV5). KV5 revealed the tombs of the sons of Rameses II.(4) The discovery of KV5 has helped Weeks and his team uncover mummies, jewelry, and other artifacts that have helped advance Egyptology into the twenty first century. Weeks wrote a book entitled The Lost Tomb, published in 1998, that details many of the findings of KV5.

Within the present time, Egyptology has utilized many new technologies and techniques in excavations. There has also been many new discussions and theories concerning Ancient Egypt. These discussions, have been on topics such as: the age and construction of the Sphinx, the interpretation of papyrus, the lay out of the pyramids of Giza (their relation to astronomical phenomena), the lineage and ancient histories of Egypt, the role of women in ancient Egypt, the study of Egyptian religion, and in a wider sense have emphasized the culture of ancient Egypt. In addition, Egyptology is no longer predominated by foreign interests as it was by the French, and English in the beginning of the discipline. As the modern age has progressed, Egypt has taken back much of it’s own history. In doing so Egypt has established itself as the center for the serious study of Ancient Egypt and Egyptology.