Mysteries of Khufu's Pyramid and Djedi

"Djedi" is a joint international-Egyptian mission, which dr. Zahi Hawas, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, named after Djedi, the magician who "Khufu" consulted when planning the layout of his pyramid.

The purpose of this project is to send a robotic tunnel explorer into the two “air shafts” that lead from the Queen’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Khufu to gather evidence to determine the purpose of the shafts.He selected the "Djedi team" during a competition that he coordinated to pick the best possible robot to explore the shafts in the Great Pyramid.

This international team is experienced in the development and deployment of systems to meet real world challenges, including systems for space, search and rescue and medical devices, as well as inspection of stone structures.

"Djedi team" hopes to uncover the meaning of these airshafts by drilling through the doors that are blocking them. The team has made to previous examinations of the airshafts in July and December of 2009. The team is hoping to gather as much evidence as possible to try to piece together the purpose of the airshafts, while at the same time ensuring that the Great Pyramid is not damaged in any way.

The story of the discovery of the hidden doors began in 1992, when "Zahi Hawas" made the decision to close the Great Pyramid to visitors in order to begin a project to reduce the humidity inside and to correct the damage that was occurring from the accumulation of salt. Each visitor who enters the pyramid leaves behind about 20 grams of moisture from their breath and sweat. When it evaporates, this moisture leaves behind salt deposits, which erode the stone over time.

In 1992, It was found that the humidity inside the pyramid was hovering around 85%, and salt deposits covered the walls of the Grand Gallery hence the salt was cleaned from the walls of the Grand Galley, but it was known that to save the pyramid from irreversible damage, a way should be found to reduce the humidity inside.

Dr." Zahi Hawa" contacted some specialists for installing a ventilation and humidity control system in the pyramid. The first step was to clear the two shafts, each about 20 cm wide and 14 cm high, that lead from the King’s Chamber to the exterior of the monument. Then they installed ventilation equipment in the shafts. This project was very successful, allowing reduction and stabilization of the humidity inside the pyramid.

The shafts themselves are a great mystery. In addition to the two that extend from the King’s Chamber, there are two in the Queen’s chamber as well - one in the northern wall, and one opposite it in the southern wall. No one knows why these shafts were included in the pyramid’s design. An important part of the work in the shafts in the King’s Chamber was sending a small robot inside with a camera attached, to

inspect them along their entire lengths.

Reference: from an article , by Zahi Hawas

Cleopatra's Items in Franklin institute on exhibit

An exhibit focusing on one of ancient Egypt's most enigmatic rulers, Cleopatra, and featuring never-before-displayed artifacts, has opened in Philadelphia.

Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt, on exhibit at the Franklin Institute, is a splashy show with videos, a glass walkway and lots of sound and light.

At the heart of the 150-artifact collection, which opened its doors Saturday, is an attempt to uncover the mystery behind the queen. None of the items at the exhibit have ever before been shown to the public.

Little evidence has survived of Cleopatra, who at 39 years of age chose a suicidal snake bite rather than surrender to the conquering Romans in 30 BC. The Roman general Octavian, later known as Augustus Caesar, ordered all her images destroyed. Her life story has been subjected to much speculation and interpretation, largely through popular depictions, notably in a 1963 Elizabeth Taylor film.

The first part of the exhibit concentrates on discoveries made by underwater archeologist, Franck Goddio, who has spent 20 years off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, excavating Cleopatra's palace and two temples. Earthquakes and tsunamis submerged ancient Alexandria more than 1,500 years ago.

Items on display from Goddio's work include gold coins and 4.5-metre-high granite figures.

The second part of the exhibit includes finds of "Zahi Hawass", a celebrated archeologist who is secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo.

He has been searching for the lost tomb of Cleopatra and her lover, the Roman general "Mark Antony", and has uncovered mummies, jewelry and sculptures at three sites west of Alexandria.

The show will be at the Philadelphia museum until January, and then is expected to tour the U.S. at five locations yet to be announced.

Reference: CBC- News

Farmers and Egyptian bread

In ancient Egypt there were three seasons. In the first season "summer" the Nile flooded the farm land. In the second season the land was no longer flooded and farmers ploughed sowed seeds and dug new irrigation canals.

A wall painting showed a man and a woman ploughing and sowing seeds Ploughs were made of wood. They were pulled by oxen and used to turn over the soil ready for the seed to be sown.

The Egyptian grew barley and a kind of wheat called emmer. The grain was made into flour and kneaded with water into dough to make bread.

How ancient Egyptian made bread in details?

Grain is knocked out of the emmer using a pestle and mortar.

A stone is rolled over the grain to make fine flour.

Flour and water are mixed to make dough.

The dough is baked in a cone- shaped oven

Both rich and poor people ate bread and drank beer. They also ate fruits such as dates and figs. Those who could afford it would have meat, fish and wine. Meat from ducks and geese and "fish caught in the Nile" was pickled and dried in the sun.

Reference : Ancient Egypt - by Martin Forrest

Rampant Tut-mania in New York

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," now on view in Manhattan until Jan. 2, 2011, has unleashed rampant Tut-mania in New York, just like it did at the exhibition’s previous seven stops. This is last venue for this touring blockbuster. A selection of about 50 pieces unearthed from the tomb of King Tut (ca. 1343 BC-1333 BC) is being shown with about 80 more items from the 18th Dynasty in Egypt.

Among the most intriguing pieces from Tut’s tomb is a painted wooden torso of Tut. He may have been considered both a god and a human being, but the human dominates in this startlingly realistic bust, wearing a royal crown and linen shirt, but without arms. It projects a lively presence, but its purpose is one of the many mysteries still unanswered about Tut.

But the most impressive pieces are the many fine gold, personal items found with Tutankhamun’s mummy. The show’s grand finale consists of a replica of the mummy chamber with a handful of finely wrought, mostly gold objects -- a jeweled pectoral, made of gold, silver, glass and semiprecious stones, a gold diadem, and a gold knife and sheath too delicate for this world but perfect for use in a royal afterlife among others.

This is the second Tut exhibition to tour the U.S. and very different from the earlier 1976-79 King Tut tour. Only a handful of pieces are the same, so fans of that show at the Metropolitan Museum will want to visit the Discovery Center to see the new material. This show also contains some of the latest scientific research on Tut. It’s explained along with a replica of Tut’s mummy at the very end of the exhibition.

The King Tut shows are more than simple cultural exchanges, of course; they’re designed for fundraising as well, and this tour should help pay for a new museum to house antiquities in Cairo. Admission is $27.50 for adults.

In publicity for the show, there is a golden statue of King Tut that looks like the gilded funerary mask of King Tut’s mummy, which appeared in the last exhibition. The golden mask won’t leave Cairo again by order of the Egyptian government. What you are actually seeing is a much smaller, but also exquisite piece, one of four miniature coffins for the viscera of Tut. The Egyptians embalmed the body, placing the heart back into it, but putting the stomach, intestines, and lungs and, in this case, the liver in separate containers.

Tut’s liver caffeinate is made of gold, with inlays of colored glass and carnelian, and obsidian and rock crystal for his eyes. He holds a flail, symbol of royal power, and a crook, symbol of the king as shepherd of his people. It measures only about ten inches high, yet it exudes power.

One of the favorite pieces isn’t made of gold. It’s a carved-calcite cylindrical cosmetic jar with a recumbent lion, representing the king, on the lid. Instead of feet, the jar rests on four heads of traditional enemies of Egypt, two Nubians of carved black stone, and two western Asians carved in red stone. The exterior walls of the vessel are incised and painted blue. They show a lion attacking a bovine with the help of dogs.

For Tut enthusiasts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting a show of finds from the embalming site of Tut, "Tutankhamun’s Funeral," through Sept. 2, 2010. The small show has more artifacts than art but the importance of floral collars and the beads they incorporated are worth a look.

Reference: an article written by N.F. Karlins

The river "Nile" and its crucial role in existence of the civilization

Without the Nile, Egypt may never have become one of the most extraordinary civilizations in history. The White Nile together with the Blue Nile which joins it in the south has a total length of about 1,913miles. The Blue Nile rises in the highlands of Ethiopia. Egypt is very hot and very dry. There is no enough rain in Egypt to help crops to grow, so the River Nile is very important to the Egyptians. Every year it rains hard in the distant mountains to the south. In the summer, water comes rushing down the Nile into Egypt. The river bursts its banks and floods the farm land on either side. The Egyptian people have always used irrigation. In this way they can make the best use of the flood waters. The Ancient Egyptians dug ditches which ran through their fields. They built reservoirs to store the water. Men and woman called conscripts were made to help with this work. By 3100 B.C the Nile Valley and Delta had coalesced into a single entity that was the world's first large nation state. As well as providing the region's material potential, the Nile and other geographical features influenced political developments and were significant in the development of Egyptian thought. The land continued to develop and its population increased until Roman times. Important factors in this process were unity, political stability, and the expansion of the area of cultivated land. The harnessing of the Nile was crucial to growth. It is uncertain how early and by how much the inundation was regulated. The Nile's annual inundation was relatively reliable, and the floodplain and Delta were very fertile, making Egyptian agriculture the most secure and productive in the Near East. When conditions were stable, food could be stored against scarcity. The situation, however, was not always favorable. High floods could be very destructive; sometimes growth was held back through crop failure due to poor floods; sometimes there was population loss through disease and other hazards. Contrary to modern practice, only one main crop was grown per year. Crops could be planted after the inundation, which covered the Valley and Delta in August and September; they needed minimal watering and ripened from March to May. Management of the inundation in order to improve its coverage of the land and to regulate the period of flooding increased yields, while drainage and the accumulation of silt extended the fields. Vegetables grown in small plots needed irrigating all year from water carried by hand in pots and from 1500 BC by artificial water-lifting devices. Some plants, such as date palms, whose crops ripened in the late summer, drew their water from the subsoil and needed no other watering.

References: the story of the Nile by John Baines

Ancient Egypt by Martin Forrest

Abu Simbel and the miracle of the sun

The temple of Abu Simbel is an exact transferal of the architectural formOf an Egyptian inner sanctuary temple cut deep inside the rock. Sculpted into the mountain, the façade is 38 meters long and 31 high. This is framed by a convex "torus " moulding , and is surmounted by a cornice with uraei (the sacred asp) above which is carved a row of 22 seated baboons , each two and a half meters high. Below the torus moulding is a cornice engraved with dedicatory hieroglyphics, and in a niche below this in the middle of the façade is a large high – relief statue representing Ra- Harakhati with a falcon's head flanked by two – relief figures of Ramses II. Four colossal statues of Ramses II seated form the supporting columns of the façade. Even on this monumental scale they produce the true features of the monarch. They are 20 meters high and measure more than 4 from ear to ear, while the lips, measuring over a meter, express a soft, gentle smile. The pharaoh is represented with his hands resting in his lap wearing the double crown and a headdress with deep folds on either side of his face. The second statue on the left is broken and part of the head and body lie on the ground. Beside and between the legs of each colossus are other statues representing members of the royal family including a daughter (who was also his wife) Bent'anat , his mother Tuya , his wife Nefertari , his son Amenhirkhopshef, and another daughter and wife, Merytamun. On the base and along the sides of the seats are figures of African and Asiatic prisoners. A multitude of workers imprisoned by his sword "worked on the monumental façade under the orders of Pyay , head of the sculptures , as we read inside the temple. The work of the sculptures was followed by that of the painters for, at the time of Ramses, the temple was most probably richly painted and decorated

The interior

On passing to the interior, the shadowy light emphasizes the mysterious and evocative atmosphere. The "pronaos" is a vast rectangular hall 18 meters long and 16.70 wide. This is flanked by eight Osiris pillars ten meters tall arranged in two rows, representing Osiris with the features of Ramses. The colossi on the left wear the white crown of Upper Egypt, those on the right, the "pschent" or double crown. Their arms, crossed over their chests, hold the scepter and flail. Decorating the roof of the central nave is the great vulture of the goddess Nekhbet, protrectress of Upper Egypt, while the aisles on either side are painted with stars.

Sanctuary and the miracle of the sun
Sixty – five meters from the entrance, deep in the heart of the mountain, is a sanctuary, the most intimate and secret part of the temple, a small room four meters by seven. Here sits the statue of the deified Ramses II together with the triad of "Ptah", "Amoun-Ra" and "Harmakhis".
It was obvious ever since discovery in the 19th century that nothing in this temple was left to chance and that it was built according to a very precise logic and pre-established plan.
Francois Champollion was the first of several scholars to note what has become known as the "miracle of the sun".
"Abu Simbel" was built along a pre- determined axis: twice a year, corresponding to the equinoxes, the rising sun penetrates the heart of the mountain and illuminates the statues in the sanctuary. The first rays of the sun follow the axis of the temple precisely, crossing its entire length and gradually flooding the statues of "Amon", "Harmakhis" and the pharaoh in light. It takes about twenty minutes for the light to pass, yet remarkably Ptah is never struck by the sun's rays. Ptah is, in fact, the god of darkness and the dead.

Queen Nefertari and her fascinating tomb

Nefertari , whose name means the most beautiful of them all , was not an ordinary queen. She was the beloved wife of the great pharaoh, Ramesses II who wore the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt for 67 years, probably starting in 1279 B.C. He was a king of both war and peace, and signed the world's first peace treaty. His popular title, Ramesses the great, derived from his being a great builder who constructed many temples, statues and obelisks, leaving his stamp on monuments throughout Egypt.

Although Ramesses had several wives, Nefertari was his favorite and chief queen until her death around 1255 B.C. They were married around 1279 B.C. and there is a shrine to Ramesses II at ”Gebel- El Silsileh" with a stela from the first year of his reign and showing Ramesses and Nefertari Performing religious rites before deities.

Nefertari gave Ramesses II his first son, the crown prince Amenhirkhopshef and at least three other sons and two daughters; in all Ramses II had 92 sons and 106 daughters by his many wives. Nefertari had several titles such as (hmt-nsw-wrt) which means "great royal wife", (nbt-t3-w-nbw) mistress of all lands, beautiful of face (nfrt-hr) and ''sweet of love" (bnrt- mrwt).

Nefertari participated in both political life and affairs of state and appeared beside her husband in festival ceremonies. Ramesses was eager to show her accompanying him. Because of her beauty and his love for her, he dedicated the small temple of Abu-Simbel to her (jointly with the goddess of love and joy, hathor) , an honor never granted to any other queen. There are six statues on the temple façade, two portraying Nefertari in the same size as the king b(33 feet high) .

Ramesses II ordered that a beautiful tomb be built for his beloved wife in the valley of the queens which the ancient Egyptians called st-nfrw, "meaning place of beauty". Today it is known as Biban - El Harim. It is located on the southwestern side of Theban Necropolis.

The tomb of Nefertari is the most beautiful in the entire valley of the queens. It is an elegant structure with unusual decorative motifs and vividly colored scenes portraying Nefertari wearing long, transparent white garments and lavish jewels. She must have been a charming woman. She is shown with a beautiful face, slim- waisted body, delicate hand gesture and majestic posture which also reflect the skill of the artist. The ceiling of the tomb is decorated with yellow stars on the blue background, representing the heavens.

The tomb was discovered by the Italian archeologist "Schiaparelli" in 1904. It consists of an entrance with a staircase leading down to a hall measuring 17 feet by 17.5 feet, where there is a rock – cut bench with niches and a cavetto cornice to hold funerary items. There is a side – chamber to the right and a corridor with steps leading down to the burial chamber which has four pillars and three small side chambers. The site of the sarcophagus is sunken slightly below the ground.

Unfortunately, the tomb was carved from poor quality limestone so that rainwater seeped through cracks and joints for several thousand years. Salts grew and crystallized behind the plaster layer with the paintings, pushing them outward and causing them to fall off.

The decorations on this tomb are religious – funerary and distinguished by fine detail and balanced composition, however, according to the opinions of some experts they are coldly academic. Visitors in general, on the other hand, are fascinated by the pictures

Schiaparelli had written that " the size of the figures , the variety of colors , the magnificence and firmness of style make this tomb one of the most important monuments in Theban necropolis.

It is important to highlight the profound symbolic meaning of the paintings on Nefertari tomb which illustrate some chapters of a ritual the Egyptians called " formulas for coming out into the day" the title" book of the dead" was attributed to it relatively recently in 1842, by scholar R. Lepsiius. These paintings portray the queens long journey in the after world .