1.
Temple of Edfu
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The Temple of Edfu is an ancient Egyptian temple, located on the west bank of the Nile in Edfu, Upper Egypt. The city was known in Greco-Roman times as Apollonopolis Magna, after the chief god Horus-Apollo and it is one of the best preserved shrines in Egypt. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BC, the inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt. There are also important scenes and inscriptions of the Sacred Drama which related the age-old conflict between Horus and Seth and they are translated by the German Edfu-Project. Edfu was one of several built during the Ptolemaic period, including Dendera, Esna, Kom Ombo. Its size reflects the prosperity of the time. The present temple, which was begun on 23 August 237 BC, initially consisted of a pillared hall, the building was started during the reign of Ptolemy III and completed in 57 BC under Ptolemy XII. It was built on the site of an earlier, smaller temple dedicated to Horus. A ruined pylon lies just to the east of the current temple, inscriptional evidence has been found indicating a building program under the New Kingdom rulers Ramesses I, Seti I and Ramesses II. A naos of Nectanebo II, a relic from a building, is preserved in the inner sanctuary. The temple of Edfu fell into disuse as a religious monument following Theodosius Is edict banning non-Christian worship within the Roman Empire in 391, as elsewhere, many of the temples carved reliefs were razed by followers of the Christian faith which came to dominate Egypt. The blackened ceiling of the hall, visible today, is believed to be the result of arson intended to destroy religious imagery that was then considered pagan. Over the centuries, the temple became buried to a depth of 12 metres beneath drifting desert sand, local inhabitants built homes directly over the former temple grounds. Only the upper reaches of the pylons were visible by 1798. In 1860 Auguste Mariette, a French Egyptologist, began the work of freeing Edfu temple from the sands, the Temple of Edfu is nearly intact and a very good example of an ancient Egyptian temple. The Temple of Edfus archaeological significance and high state of preservation has made it a centre for tourism in Egypt, in 2005, access to the temple was revamped with the addition of a visitor center and paved carpark. A sophisticated lighting system was added in late 2006 to allow night visits, the temple of Edfu is the largest temple dedicated to Horus and Hathor of Dendera. It was the center of several festivals sacred to Horus, each year, Hathor travelled south from her temple at Denderah to visit Horus at Edfu, and this event marking their sacred marriage was the occasion of a great festival and pilgrimage
2.
Architectural sculpture
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Architectural sculpture is the use of sculptural techniques by an architect and/or sculptor in the design of a building, bridge, mausoleum or other such project. The sculpture is usually integrated with the structure, but freestanding works that are part of the design are also considered to be architectural sculpture. It has also defined as, an integral part of a building or sculpture created especially to decorate or embellish an architectural structure. Architectural sculpture has been employed by builders throughout history, and in every continent on earth save pre-colonial Australia. Modern understanding of ancient Egyptian architecture is based mainly on the monuments that have survived since antiquity. The classic examples of Egyptian colossal monuments represent thoroughly integrated combinations of architecture and sculpture, obelisks, elaborately carved from a single block of stone, were usually placed in pairs to flank the entrances to temples and pyramids. Reliefs are also common in Egyptian building, depicting scenes of everyday life, the Fertile Crescent architectural sculptural tradition began when Ashurnasirpal II moved his capitol to the city of Nimrud around 879 BCE. This site was located near a deposit of gypsum. This fairly easy to cut stone could be quarried in large blocks that allowed it to be carved for the palaces that were built there. The early style developed out of an already flourishing mural tradition by creating drawings that were carved in low relief. Another contributing factor in the development of sculpture were the small carved seals that had been made in the area for centuries. Classical Greek architecture, like the prototypical Parthenon, incorporate architectural sculpture in a narrow set of standard. The names of these elements comprise the usual vocabulary for discussion, the pediment, the metope, the frieze, the caryatid. Not until about 1870 did the U. S. develop the talent, the power. In the same years, H. H. Richardson began to develop his influential signature genre, which included romantic, medieval, and Romanesque stone carving. The Beaux-Arts style dominated for major buildings between the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago, through about 1912, the year of the San Francisco City Hall. The need for sculptors saw the emergence of an industry of carvers and modelers, and a professional organization. The advent of steel frames and reinforced concrete encouraged, at first, the diversity of skyscraper Gothic, exotic revivals of Mayan and Egyptian, Stripped Classicism, Art Deco, etc. called for a similar diversity of sculptural approaches
3.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
4.
Art of ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization of ancient Egypt in the lower Nile Valley from about 3000 BC to 30 AD. Ancient Egyptian art reached a level in painting and sculpture. It was famously conservative, and Egyptian styles changed remarkably little over more than three thousand years, much of the surviving art comes from tombs and monuments and thus there is an emphasis on life after death and the preservation of knowledge of the past. Ancient Egyptian art included paintings, sculpture in wood, stone and ceramics, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories and it displays an extraordinarily vivid representation of the ancient Egyptians socioeconomic status and belief systems. This appears as early as the Narmer Palette from Dynasty I, other conventions make statues of males darker than females ones. Egyptian art uses hierarchical proportion, where the size of figures indicates their relative importance, symbolism can be observed throughout Egyptian art and played an important role in establishing a sense of order. The pharaohs regalia, for example, represented his power to maintain order, animals were also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art. Not all Egyptian reliefs were painted, and less prestigious works in tombs, Stone surfaces were prepared by whitewash, or if rough, a layer of coarse mud plaster, with a smoother gesso layer above, some finer limestones could take paint directly. Pigments were mostly mineral, chosen to withstand sunlight without fading. The binding medium used in painting remains unclear, egg tempera and various gums and it is clear that true fresco, painted into a thin layer of wet plaster, was not used. Instead the paint was applied to dried plaster, in what is called fresco a secco in Italian, small objects including wooden statuettes were often painted using similar techniques. Many ancient Egyptian paintings have survived in tombs, and sometimes temples, the paintings were often made with the intent of making a pleasant afterlife for the deceased. The themes included journey through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the deceased to the gods of the underworld, some tomb paintings show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were alive and wished to carry on doing for eternity. In the New Kingdom and later, the Book of the Dead was buried with the entombed person and it was considered important for an introduction to the afterlife. Egyptian paintings are painted in such a way to show a profile view, for example, the painting to the right shows the head from a profile view and the body from a frontal view. Their main colors were red, blue, green, gold, black, the monumental sculpture of ancient Egypts temples and tombs is world-famous, but refined and delicate small works exist in much greater numbers. The Egyptians used the technique of sunk relief, which is well suited to very bright sunlight. The distinctive pose of standing statues facing forward with one foot in front of the other was helpful for the balance and it was adopted very early and remained unchanged until the arrival of the Greeks
5.
Clothing in ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egyptian clothes refers to clothing worn in ancient Egypt from the end of the Neolithic period to the collapse of the Ptolemaic dynasty with the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. Egyptian clothing was filled with a variety of colors, adorned with precious gems and jewels, the fashions of the Ancient Egyptians were made for not only beauty but also comfort. Egyptian fashion was created to keep cool while in the hot desert, in ancient Egypt, linen was by far the most common textile. It helped people to be comfortable in the subtropical heat, linen is made from the flax plant by spinning the fibers from the stem of the plant. Spinning, weaving and sewing were very important techniques for all Egyptian societies, plant dyes could be applied to clothing but the clothing was usually left in its natural color. Wool was known, but considered impure, only the wealthy wore animal fibers that were the object of taboos. They were used on occasion for overcoats, but were forbidden in temples and sanctuaries, peasants, workers and other people of modest condition often wore nothing, but the shenti was worn by all people. The most common headdress was the khat or nemes, a cloth worn by men. From about 2130 BC during the Old Kingdom, garments were simple, the men wore wrap around skirts known as the shendyt, which were belted at the waist, sometimes pleated or gathered in the front. During this time, mens skirts were short, as the Middle Kingdom of Egypt,1600 B. C. came, the skirt was worn longer. Then, around 1420 BC, there was a tunic or blouse with sleeves. During the Old, Middle and New Kingdom, Ancient Egyptian women often wore simple sheath dresses called kalasiris, womens clothing in ancient Egypt was more conservative than mens clothing. The dresses were held up by one or two straps and were worn down to the ankle, while the edge could be worn above or below the breasts. The length of the dress denoted the social class of the wearer, beading or feathers were also used as an embellishment on the dress. Over the dress, women had a choice of wearing shawls, capes, the shawl was a piece of cloth around 4 feet wide by 13 or 14 feet long. This was mostly worn pleated as well, female clothes only changed slightly through the millennia. Draped clothing sometimes gave the impression of different clothing. It was made of haïk, a fine muslin
6.
Ancient Egyptian cuisine
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The cuisine of ancient Egypt covers a span of over three thousand years, but still retained many consistent traits until well into Greco-Roman times. The staples of both poor and wealthy Egyptians were bread and beer, often accompanied by green-shooted onions, other vegetables, depictions of banquets can be found in paintings from both the Old Kingdom and New Kingdom. They usually started sometime in the afternoon, men and women were separated unless they were married. Seating varied according to status, with those of the highest status sitting on chairs, those slightly lower sat on stools. Before the food was served, basins were provided along with perfumes and cones of scented fat were lit to spread pleasant smells or to repel insects, depending on the type. Lily flowers and flower collars were handed out and professional dancers entertained, accompanied by musicians playing harps, lutes, drums, tambourines, and clappers. There were usually considerable amounts of alcohol and abundant quantities of foods, there were whole roast oxen, ducks, geese, pigeons, the dishes frequently consisted of stews served with great amounts of bread, fresh vegetables and fruit. For sweets there were cakes baked with dates and sweetened with honey, the goddess Hathor was often invoked during feasts. Food could be prepared by stewing, baking, boiling, grilling, frying, spices and herbs were added for flavor, though the former were expensive imports and therefore confined to the tables of the wealthy. Food such as meats was mostly preserved by salting, and dates, the staples bread and beer were usually prepared in the same locations, as the yeast used for bread was also used for brewing. The two were prepared either in special bakeries or, more often, at home, and any surplus would be sold, Egyptian bread was made almost exclusively from emmer wheat, which was more difficult to turn into flour than most other varieties of wheat. The chaff does not come off through threshing, but comes in spikelets that needed to be removed by moistening and pounding with a pestle to avoid crushing the grains inside. It was then dried in the sun, winnowed and sieved and finally milled on a saddle quern, the baking techniques varied over time. In the Old Kingdom, heavy pottery molds were filled with dough, during the Middle Kingdom tall cones were used on square hearths. In the New Kingdom a new type of a large open-topped clay oven, cylindrical in shape, was used, dough was then slapped on the heated inner wall and peeled off when done, similar to how a tandoor oven is used for flatbreads. Tombs from the New Kingdom show images of bread in many different shapes and sizes, loaves shaped like human figures, fish, various animals and fans, all of varying dough texture. Flavorings used for bread included coriander seeds and dates, but it is not known if this was used by the poor. Other than emmer, barley was grown to make bread and also used for making beer, and so were lily seeds and roots, and tiger nut
7.
Ancient Egyptian literature
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Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from ancient Egypts pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. It represents the oldest corpus of Egyptian literature, along with Sumerian literature, it is considered the worlds earliest literature. Writing in ancient Egypt—both hieroglyphic and hieratic—first appeared in the late 4th millennium BC during the phase of predynastic Egypt. It was not until the early Middle Kingdom that a narrative Egyptian literature was created and this was a media revolution which, according to Richard B. However, it is possible that the literacy rate was less than one percent of the entire population. The creation of literature was thus an elite exercise, monopolized by a scribal class attached to government offices, However, there is no full consensus among modern scholars concerning the dependence of ancient Egyptian literature on the sociopolitical order of the royal courts. Middle Egyptian, the language of the Middle Kingdom, became a classical language during the New Kingdom. Scribes of the New Kingdom canonized and copied many literary texts written in Middle Egyptian, some genres of Middle Kingdom literature, such as teachings and fictional tales, remained popular in the New Kingdom, although the genre of prophetic texts was not revived until the Ptolemaic period. Popular tales included the Story of Sinuhe and The Eloquent Peasant, while important teaching texts include the Instructions of Amenemhat and The Loyalist Teaching. By the New Kingdom period, the writing of graffiti on sacred temple and tomb walls flourished as a unique genre of literature. The acknowledgment of rightful authorship remained important only in a few genres, while texts of the genre were pseudonymous. Ancient Egyptian literature has been preserved on a variety of media. This includes papyrus scrolls and packets, limestone or ceramic ostraca, wooden writing boards, monumental stone edifices, Texts preserved and unearthed by modern archaeologists represent a small fraction of ancient Egyptian literary material. The area of the floodplain of the Nile is under-represented because the moist environment is unsuitable for the preservation of papyri, on the other hand, hidden caches of literature, buried for thousands of years, have been discovered in settlements on the dry desert margins of Egyptian civilization. By the Early Dynastic Period in the late 4th millennium BC, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphs are small artistic pictures of natural objects. The Narmer Palette, dated c.3100 BC during the last phase of Predynastic Egypt, combines the hieroglyphs for catfish and chisel to produce the name of King Narmer. The Egyptians called their hieroglyphs words of god and reserved their use for exalted purposes, such as communicating with divinities, each hieroglyphic word represented both, a specific object and embodied the essence of that object, recognizing it as divinely made and belonging within the greater cosmos. Through acts of priestly ritual, like burning incense, the priest allowed spirits, mutilating the hieroglyph of a venomous snake, or other dangerous animal, removed a potential threat
8.
Egyptian pyramids
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The Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped masonry structures located in Egypt. As of November 2008, sources cite either 118 or 138 as the number of identified Egyptian pyramids, most were built as tombs for the countrys pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara, northwest of Memphis, the earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser which was built during the third dynasty. This pyramid and its surrounding complex were designed by the architect Imhotep, the most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built, the Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. By the time of the Early Dynastic Period, those with sufficient means were buried in bench-like structures known as mastabas, the second historically-documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed to the architect Imhotep, who planned what Egyptologists believe to be a tomb for the pharaoh Djoser. Imhotep is credited with being the first to conceive the notion of stacking mastabas on top of each other, the result was the Pyramid of Djoser, which was designed to serve as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens. Such was the importance of Imhoteps achievement that he was deified by later Egyptians, the most prolific pyramid-building phase coincided with the greatest degree of absolutist rule. It was during this time that the most famous pyramids, the Giza pyramid complex, were built. Long after the end of Egypts own pyramid-building period, a burst of pyramid-building occurred in what is present-day Sudan, al-Aziz Uthman tried to destroy the Giza pyramid complex. He gave up after damaging the Pyramid of Menkaure because the task proved too huge, the shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created. Pyramids were often named in ways that referred to solar luminescence. For example, the name of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur The Southern Shining Pyramid. While it is agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. One suggestion is that they were designed as a type of resurrection machine, the Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the shafts that extend from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the center of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have designed to serve as a means to magically launch the deceased pharaohs soul directly into the abode of the gods
9.
Egyptian temple
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Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated and these rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat, the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, nevertheless, a temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray, give offerings, and seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within. The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary, which contained a cult image. These edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of Egyptian architecture and their typical design consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, and massive entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond the temple proper was a wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple also owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs, temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers. The priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, temple-building in Egypt continued despite the nations decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire. With the coming of Christianity, however, Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, for centuries, the ancient buildings suffered destruction and neglect. Dozens of temples survive today, and some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute significantly to the modern Egyptian economy, Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones, as they are invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the gods to reside on earth, indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means mansion of a god. A gods presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and these rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and it was the purpose of a temple as well. Because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh, as a king, was regarded as Egypts representative to the gods. Thus, it was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites, the pharaoh was nevertheless obligated to maintain, provide for, and expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority, the performance of rituals was still an official duty. The participation of the populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines, however, as the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians
10.
Mud brick
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A mudbrick is a brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. In warm regions with little timber available to fuel a kiln. In some cases brickmakers extended the life of mud bricks by putting fired bricks on top or covering them with stucco, the Great Mosque of Djenné, in central Mali, is the worlds largest mudbrick structure. This plaster must be reapplied annually, the South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh constructed, and lived in, mud brick houses between 7000–3300 BC. Mud bricks used at more than 15 reported sites in 3rd millennium BC are attributed as major cultural trait in the ancient Indus valley civilization, mudbricks were in use in the Middle East during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. The Mesopotamians used sun-dried bricks in their city construction, typically these bricks were flat on the bottom and curved on the top, some bricks were formed in a square mould and rounded so that the middle was thicker than the ends. In Ancient Egypt, workers gathered mud from the Nile river, workers then tramped on the mud while straw was added to solidify the mold. In Minoan Crete at the Knossos site there is evidence that sun-dried bricks were used in the Neolithic period. Mudbricks were used to some extent in pre-Roman Egypt, and mudbrick use increased at the time of Roman influence, adobe – Often used in the making of mudbricks. Cob Earth structure Loam Rammed earth Possehl, Gregory L. Mehrgarh in Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Earth Architecture, website whose focus is contemporary issues in earth architecture. Very experienced experts are contactable and there are regular demonstrations in the area, video showing mud brick making, mud brick building and biolytic sewerage in South Africa. CRAterre, Centre de recherche architectural en terre, French university research organisation dedicated to unfired earth construction
11.
Rock (geology)
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Rock or stone is a natural substance, a solid aggregate of one or more minerals or mineraloids. For example, granite, a rock, is a combination of the minerals quartz, feldspar. The Earths outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock, rock has been used by mankind throughout history. The minerals and metals found in rocks have been essential to human civilization, three major groups of rocks are defined, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The scientific study of rocks is called petrology, which is a component of geology. At a granular level, rocks are composed of grains of minerals, the aggregate minerals forming the rock are held together by chemical bonds. The types and abundance of minerals in a rock are determined by the manner in which the rock was formed, many rocks contain silica, a compound of silicon and oxygen that forms 74. 3% of the Earths crust. This material forms crystals with other compounds in the rock, the proportion of silica in rocks and minerals is a major factor in determining their name and properties. Rocks are geologically classified according to such as mineral and chemical composition, permeability, the texture of the constituent particles. These physical properties are the end result of the processes that formed the rocks, over the course of time, rocks can transform from one type into another, as described by the geological model called the rock cycle. These events produce three general classes of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, the three classes of rocks are subdivided into many groups. However, there are no hard and fast boundaries between allied rocks, hence the definitions adopted in establishing rock nomenclature merely correspond to more or less arbitrary selected points in a continuously graduated series. Igneous rock forms through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava and this magma can be derived from partial melts of pre-existing rocks in either a planets mantle or crust. Typically, the melting of rocks is caused by one or more of three processes, an increase in temperature, a decrease in pressure, or a change in composition, igneous rocks are divided into two main categories, plutonic rock and volcanic. Plutonic or intrusive rocks result when magma cools and crystallizes slowly within the Earths crust, a common example of this type is granite. Volcanic or extrusive rocks result from magma reaching the surface either as lava or fragmental ejecta, the chemical abundance and the rate of cooling of magma typically forms a sequence known as Bowens reaction series. Most major igneous rocks are found along this scale, about 64. 7% of the Earths crust by volume consists of igneous rocks, making it the most plentiful category. Of these, 66% are basalts and gabbros, 16% are granite, only 0. 6% are syenites and 0. 3% peridotites and dunites
12.
Old Kingdom
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The term itself was coined by eighteenth-century historians and the distinction between the Old Kingdom and the Early Dynastic Period is not one which would have been recognized by Ancient Egyptians. The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as the period from the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty, many Egyptologists also include the Memphite Seventh and Eighth Dynasties in the Old Kingdom as a continuation of the administration centralized at Memphis. During the Old Kingdom, the king of Egypt became a god who ruled absolutely and could demand the services. Under King Djoser, the first king of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, the capital of Egypt was moved to Memphis. A new era of building was initiated at Saqqara under his reign, King Djosers architect, Imhotep is credited with the development of building with stone and with the conception of the new architectural form—the Step Pyramid. Indeed, the Old Kingdom is perhaps best known for the number of pyramids constructed at this time as burial places for Egypts kings. For this reason, the Old Kingdom is frequently referred to as the Age of the Pyramids, the first king of the Old Kingdom was Djoser of the third dynasty, who ordered the construction of a pyramid in Memphis necropolis, Saqqara. An important person during the reign of Djoser was his vizier and it was in this era that formerly independent ancient Egyptian states became known as nomes, under the rule of the king. The former rulers were forced to assume the role of governors or otherwise work in tax collection, Egyptians in this era worshipped their king as a god, believing that he ensured the annual flooding of the Nile that was necessary for their crops. Egyptian views on the nature of time during this period held that the worked in cycles. They also perceived themselves as a specially selected people, the Old Kingdom and its royal power reached a zenith under the Fourth Dynasty, which began with Sneferu. Using more stones than any king, he built three pyramids, a now collapsed pyramid in Meidum, the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur. However, the development of the pyramid style of building was reached not at Saqqara. Sneferu was succeeded by his son, Khufu who built the Great Pyramid of Giza, after Khufus death, his sons Djedefra and Khafra may have quarrelled. The latter built the pyramid and the Sphinx in Giza. Recent reexamination of evidence has led Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev to propose that the Sphinx had been built by Djedefra as a monument to his father Khufu, alternatively, the Sphinx has been proposed to be the work of Khafra and Khufu himself. There were military expeditions into Canaan and Nubia, with Egyptian influence reaching up the Nile into what is today the Sudan, the later kings of the Fourth Dynasty were king Menkaure, who built the smallest pyramid in Giza, Shepseskaf and, perhaps, Djedefptah. The Fifth Dynasty began with Userkaf and was marked by the importance of the cult of sun god Ra
13.
Tomb
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A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber and its central feature is a single, prominent pillar or column, often made of stone. Sarcophagus – a stone container for a body or coffin, often decorated and perhaps part of a monument, sepulchre – a cavernous rock-cut space for interment, generally in the Jewish or Christian faiths. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgräber or kurgans, a cairn, might also be originally a tumulus. A long barrow is a tumulus, usually for numbers of burials. As indicated, tombs are located in or under religious buildings, such as churches. However, they may also be found in catacombs, on land or, in the case of early or pre-historic tombs. The tomb of Emperor Nintoku is the largest in the world by area, however, the Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt is the largest by volume
14.
Pyramid
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A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single point at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, as such, a pyramid has at least three outer triangular surfaces. The square pyramid, with base and four triangular outer surfaces, is a common version. A pyramids design, with the majority of the closer to the ground. This distribution of weight allowed early civilizations to create stable monumental structures and it has been demonstrated that the common shape of the pyramids of antiquity, from Egypt to Central America, represents the dry-stone construction that requires minimum human work. Pyramids have been built by civilizations in many parts of the world, the largest pyramid by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the Mexican state of Puebla. Khufus Pyramid is built mainly of limestone, and is considered an architectural masterpiece. It contains over 2,000,000 blocks ranging in weight from 2.5 tonnes to 15 tonnes and is built on a base with sides measuring about 230 m. Its four sides face the four cardinal points precisely and it has an angle of 52 degrees and it is still the tallest pyramid. The Mesopotamians built the earliest pyramidal structures, called ziggurats, in ancient times, these were brightly painted in gold/bronze. Since they were constructed of sun-dried mud-brick, little remains of them, ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a complex which included other buildings. The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BC, the earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period. The latest Mesopotamian ziggurats date from the 6th century BC, built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside, the facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks, the number of tiers ranged from two to seven. It is assumed that they had shrines at the top, but there is no evidence for this. Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a ramp from base to summit
15.
Capital (architecture)
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In architecture the capital or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column. It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column. The capital may be convex, as in the Doric order, concave, as in the bell of the Corinthian order, or scrolling out. These form the three types on which all capitals are based. The Composite order, established in the 16th century on a hint from the Arch of Titus, from the highly visible position it occupies in all colonnaded monumental buildings, the capital is often selected for ornamentation, and is often the clearest indicator of the architectural order. The treatment of its detail may be an indication of the buildings date, the decoration underneath the bracket capital comes from art and designs from the many cultures that the Persian Empire conquered and assimilated including Egypt, Babylon, and Lydia. But of course these decorations below the bracket capital serve no purpose and are simply there for show. The earliest Aegean capital is shown in the frescoes at Knossos in Crete, it was of the convex type. The Doric capital is the simplest of the five Classical orders, it consists of the abacus above an ovolo molding, the sloping side of the echinus becomes flatter in the later examples, and in the Colosseum at Rome forms a quarter round. In the Ionic capital, spirally coiled volutes are inserted between the abacus and the ovolo. In the Ionic capitals of the archaic Temple of Artemis at Ephesus the width of the abacus is twice that of its depth, a century later, in the temple on the Ilissus, the abacus has become square. It has been suggested that the foliage of the Greek Corinthian capital was based on the Acanthus spinosus, not all architectural foliage is as realistic as Isaac Wares however. The leaves are carved in two ranks or bands, like one leafy cup set within another. The various orders are discussed in Vitruvius books iii and iv, Vitruvius describes Roman practice in a practical fashion. He gives some tales about the invention of each of the Orders, the increasing adoption of composite capitals signalled a trend towards freer, more inventive capitals in Late Antiquity. The top of an anta is often decorated, usually with bands of floral motifs. The designs often respond to an order of columns, but usually with a different set of design principles, in order not to protude excessively from the wall surface, these structures tend to have a rather flat surface, forming brick-shaped capitals, called anta capitals
16.
Deir al-Madinah
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During the Christian era, the temple of Hathor was converted into a church from which the Arabic name Deir el-Medina is derived. At the time when the press was concentrating on Howard Carters discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. This work has resulted in one of the most thoroughly documented accounts of community life in the ancient world that spans almost four hundred years. There is no site in which the organisation, social interactions. The site is located on the west bank of the Nile, the village may have been built apart from the wider population in order to preserve secrecy in view of sensitive nature of the work carried out in the tombs. A significant find of papyri was made in the 1840s in the vicinity of the village, the archaeological site was first seriously excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli between 1905–1909 which uncovered large amounts of ostraca. A French team directed by Bernard Bruyère excavated the site, including village, dump and cemetery. Unfortunately through lack of control it is now thought that half of the papyri recovered was removed without the knowledge or authorization of the team director. Around five thousand ostraca of assorted works of commerce and literature were found in a close to the village. Jaroslav Černý, who was part of Bruyères team, went on to study the village for almost fifty years until his death in 1970 and was able to name, the peak overlooking the village was renamed Mont Cernabru in recognition of Černý and Bruyères work on the village. The main road through the village may have been covered to shelter the villagers from the intense glare, the size of the habitations varied, with an average floor space of 70 m2, but the same construction methods were used throughout the village. Walls were made of mudbrick, built on top of stone foundations, mud was applied to the walls which were then painted white on the external surfaces with some of the inner surfaces whitewashed up to a height of around one metre. A wooden front door might have carried the occupants name, houses consisted of four to five rooms comprising an entrance, main room, two smaller rooms, kitchen with cellar and staircase leading to the roof. The full glare of the sun was avoided by situating the windows high up on the walls, the main room contained a mudbrick platform with steps which may have been used as a shrine or a birthing bed. Nearly all houses contained niches for statues and small altars, the tombs built by the community for their own use include small rock-cut chapels and substructures adorned with small pyramids. 1110–1080 BCE during the reign of Ramesses XI due to increasing threats of Libyan raids, the Ptolemies later built a temple to Hathor on the site of an ancient shrine dedicated to her. The surviving texts record the events of life rather than major historical incidents. Personal letters reveal much about the relations and family life of the villagers
17.
El-Lahun
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El Lahun is a village in Faiyum, Egypt. Associated with the pyramid of Senusret II, it is located near the modern village, also nearby is the pyramid itself, known as the Pyramid of Lahun. The ancient name of the site was rꜣ-ḥn. t, literally, Mouth of the Canal) and this approach was probably intended to ensure the stability of the brick structure. Unusually, despite a Pyramid Temple on the east side, the entrance to the pyramid is on the south, the archaeologist Flinders Petrie nevertheless spent considerable time searching for it on the east side. He discovered the entrance only when workmen clearing the nearby tombs of the nobles discovered a tunnel at the bottom of a 40-foot shaft. Evidently the original workmen on the tomb had used their legitimate activity as a cover for digging this tunnel, once he was in the burial chamber, Petrie was able to work backwards to the entrance. The pyramid stands on an artificial terrace cut from sloping ground, on the north side eight rectangular blocks of stone were left to serve as mastabas, probably for the burial of personages associated with the royal court. In front of each mastaba is a shaft leading down to the burial chamber underneath. Also on the side is the Queens Pyramid or subsidiary pyramid. The most remarkable discovery was that of the village of the workers who constructed the pyramid and then served the funerary cult of the king. The village, conventionally known as Kahun, is about 800 meters from the pyramid, when found, many of the buildings were extant up to roof height, and Petrie confirmed that the true arch was known and used by the workmen in the village. However, all the buildings found were demolished in the process of excavation, when the first strip had been cleared, mapped and drawn, the next strip was excavated and the spoil dumped in the previous strip. As a result, there is little to be seen on the site today. The village was excavated by Petrie in 1888-90 and again in 1914, the excavation was remarkable for the number, range, and quality of objects of everyday life that were found in the houses. Among the curiosities found there were wooden boxes buried beneath the floors of many of the houses, when opened they were found to contain the skeletons of infants, sometimes two or three in a box, and aged only a few months at death. Petrie reburied these human remains in the desert, also found in the town were the Kahun papyri, comprising about 1000 fragments, covering legal and medical matters. Re-excavation of the area in 2009 by Egyptian archaeologists revealed a cache of mummies in brightly painted wooden coffins in the sand-covered desert rock surrounding the pyramid. The site was occupied into the late Thirteenth Dynasty, and then again in the New Kingdom, the town was laid out in a regular plan, with mud-brick town walls on 3 sides
18.
Buhen
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Buhen was an ancient Egyptian settlement situated on the West bank of the Nile below the Second Cataract in what is now Northern State, Sudan. On the East bank, across the river, was located an ancient settlement of Wadi Halfa, in the Old Kingdom it was the site of a small trading post in Nubia that was also used for copper working. The settlement may have been established during the reign of Sneferu, nevertheless, there is evidence of still earlier, 2nd dynasty, occupation at Buhen. An archaeological investigation in 1962 revealed what was described as an ancient copper factory, graffiti and other inscribed items from the site show that the Egyptians stayed about 200 years, until late in the 5th dynasty, when they were probably forced out by immigration from the south. Buhen is known for its fortress, probably constructed during the rule of Senusret III in around 1860 BC. Senusret III conducted four campaigns into Kush and established a line of forts within signalling distance of one another, the other forts along the banks were Mirgissa, Shalfak, Uronarti, Askut, Dabenarti, Semna, and Kumma. The Kushites captured Buhen during the 13th dynasty, and held it until Ahmose I recaptured it at the beginning of the 18th dynasty and it was stormed and recaptured by indigenous forces at the end of Egypts 20th dynasty. The fortress itself extended more than 150 metres along the west bank of the Nile and it covered 13,000 square metres, and had within its wall a small town laid out in a grid system. At its peak it probably had a population of around 3500 people, the fortress also included the administration for the whole fortified region of the Second Cataract. Its fortifications included a moat three metres deep, drawbridges, bastions, buttresses, ramparts, battlements, loopholes, the walls of the fort were about 5 metres thick and 10 metres high. The fortress at Buhen is now submerged under Lake Nasser as a result of the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1964, before the site was covered with water, it was excavated by a team led by Walter Bryan Emery. Buhen had a temple of Horus built by Hatshepsut, which was moved to the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum prior to the flooding of Lake Nasser, brian Yare, The Middle Kingdom Egyptian Fortresses in Nubia
19.
Mirgissa
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Mirgissa was a settlement in Northern state, Sudan. Situated at the 2nd cataract, it contained one of the largest fortresses in Nubia, in the time of Thutmose II,250 to 450 people inhabited the area. The site was first explored by the English geologist Sir Henry George Lyons in 1892, in addition to the fort, excavations uncovered the remains of two cities, one of which was fortified, a northern enclosure, two cemeteries, a boat slide, and a port. Construction of the Aswan High Dam caused the disappearance of Mirgissa, travelers from the north who reached Abusir had to leave their boats and circumvent the 2nd cataract in order to reach Mirgissa. It was situated 300 feet from the harbor, where boats from the south could dock in calm waters and its lofty geographic position allowed sentries to observe the movement of troops for miles around. Even before the fort, an open town existed at Mirgissa. It went on to become a frontier post and trade center, the occupation of the region dates back to 7500 BC as shown by the evidence obtained at Akha, an important Mesolithic site located a few hundred meters east of the great fortress. Large stone tools, dating from 3500 BC, were found in places of the plain. They demonstrate that Mirgissa was occupied in Neolithic times, but the occupation was at its height during the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt, and to a lesser extent, during the New Kingdom. While Senusret I probably established the site within the northern enclosure. A stele, dated to year 8 of the reign of Senusret III, was discovered near the fortress of Semna and its inscription stresses the economic importance of Mirgissa. During the Twelfth Dynasty, it served as a customs post for travels heading north to Egypt, the periods of most intense occupation date from the Thirteenth Dynasty and then the Hyksos era, as evidenced by the large number of beetles found on the premises. The great fortress was then re-occupied during the Eighteenth Dynasty, followed by a decline until the Twentieth Dynasty. Sporadically occupied at the time Meroitic era, the abandonment of the site was final during the early Christian era, city Mirgissas open city predates its fortification. Situated 1 kilometre north-northeast of the fortress, it stretched over a 75,000 square metres area. In its early development, the city was protected by a stone wall 1 metre thick, of the two older excavated houses, the first was surrounded by a rectangular corrugated brick wall, while the second, a stone hut, was mainly rectangular though it contained circular elements. It was built by the pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom to defend their border and control trade routes that passed through the Nile from Sudan. From a strategic and commercial standpoint, Mirgissa was of importance as it ensured economic exchanges between the Kingdom of Kush and Egypt
20.
Arch
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An arch is a curved structure that spans a space and may or may not support weight above it. Arch may be synonymous with vault, but a vault may be distinguished as a continuous arch forming a roof, an arch is a pure compression form. It can span an area by resolving forces into compressive stresses and. This is sometimes referred to as arch action, as the forces in the arch are carried to the ground, the arch will push outward at the base, called thrust. As the rise, or height of the arch decreases, the outward thrust increases, in order to maintain arch action and prevent the arch from collapsing, the thrust needs to be restrained, either with internal ties or external bracing, such as abutments. The most common true arch configurations are the arch, the two-hinged arch. The fixed arch is most often used in reinforced concrete bridge and tunnel construction, because it is subject to additional internal stress caused by thermal expansion and contraction, this type of arch is considered to be statically indeterminate. The two-hinged arch is most often used to long spans. This type of arch has pinned connections at the base, unlike the fixed arch, the pinned base is able to rotate, allowing the structure to move freely and compensate for the thermal expansion and contraction caused by changes in outdoor temperature. However, this can result in additional stresses, so the two-hinged arch is also statically indeterminate, the three-hinged arch is not only hinged at its base, like the two-hinged arch, but at the mid-span as well. The additional connection at the mid-span allows the arch to move in two opposite directions and compensate for any expansion and contraction. This type of arch is not subject to additional stress caused by thermal change. The three-hinged arch is said to be statically determinate. It is most often used for structures, such as large building roofs. Another advantage of the arch is that the pinned bases are more easily developed than fixed ones, allowing for shallow. Arches have many forms, but all fall into three categories, circular, pointed, and parabolic. Arches can also be configured to produce vaults and arcades, Arches with a circular form, also referred to as rounded arches, were commonly employed by the builders of ancient, heavy masonry arches. Ancient Roman builders relied heavily on the arch to span large
21.
Fourth dynasty of Egypt
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The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt is characterized as a golden age of the Old Kingdom. Dynasty IV lasted from c. 2613 to 2494 BC and it was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other countries is documented. Dynasties III, IV, V and VI are often combined under the title the Old Kingdom. The capital at time was Memphis. The Fourth Dynasty heralded the height of the pyramid-building age, the relative peace of the Third Dynasty allowed the Dynasty IV rulers the leisure to explore more artistic and cultural pursuits. Sneferu’s building experiments led to the evolution from the mastaba styled step pyramids to the smooth sided “true” pyramids, no other period in Egypt’s history equaled Dynasty IV’s architectural accomplishments. Each of the rulers of this dynasty commissioned at least one pyramid to serve as a tomb or cenotaph, the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty ruled for approximately 120 years, from c. 2613 to 2494 BC. The names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton and he also constructed a number of smaller step pyramids, making him the most prolific pyramid builder of the era. It is said that Sneferu had more stone and brick moved than any other pharaoh, sneferus chief wife was Hetepheres I, his half-sister and the mother of his son Khufu. His other two wives bore him more children, a well-liked ruler, Sneferu bolstered the power of the ruling family line by giving official titles and positions to relatives. He maintained control over the nobility by keeping a tight rein on lands and he conducted military excursions into Sinai, Nubia, Libya, and began trade arrangements with Lebanon for the acquisition of cedar. Surviving from this era are the records of Egyptian contact with her neighbors. They are recorded on the Palermo stone, information carved on the stone pre-dates and antedates this dynasty. Objects dating to the reign of Khafre have been found farther away, at Ebla. Khufu is the ruler who is known in Greek as Χέοψ = Cheops and his son is Khafre and his grandson is Menkaure. All of these rulers achieved lasting fame in the construction of their pyramids at Giza. In fact, recent excavations outside the Wall of the Crow by Dr. Mark Lehner have uncovered a city which seems to have housed, fed. Some records indicate that each household was responsible for providing a worker for civic projects, civic duties were not necessarily building projects, there were duties for the temples, libraries, and festivals as well, and both men and women filled some of the positions
22.
Post and lintel
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In architecture, post and lintel is a building system where strong horizontal elements are held up by strong vertical elements with large spaces between them. This is usually used to hold up a roof, creating an open space beneath. The horizontal elements are called by a variety of names including lintel, header, architrave or beam, the use of wider elements at the top of the post, called capitals, to help spread the load, is common to many traditions. The trabeated system is a principle of Neolithic architecture, Ancient Indian architecture, Ancient Greek architecture. Other trabeated styles are the Persian, Lycian, Japanese, traditional Chinese, and ancient Chinese architecture, especially in northern China, the traditions are represented in North and Central America by Mayan architecture, and in South America by Inca architecture. In all or most of these traditions, certainly in Greece and India, the earliest versions developed using wood, timber framing, also using trusses, remains common for smaller buildings such as houses to the modern day. The biggest disadvantage to a post and lintel construction is the weight that can be held up. Ancient Roman architectures development of the allowed for much larger structures to be constructed. As with the Roman temple portico front and its descendents in later classical architecture, the classical orders of Greek origin were in particular retained in buildings designed to impress, even though they usually had little or no structural role. In architecture, a post-and-lintel or trabeated system refers to the use of horizontal beams or lintels which are borne up by columns or posts, the name is from the Latin trabs, beam, influenced by trabeatus, clothed in the trabea, a ritual garment. In India the style was used originally for wooden construction, but later the technique was adopted for stone structures for decorated load-bearing, post and lintel construction is one of four ancient structural methods of building, the others being the corbel, arch-and-vault, and truss. The two posts are under compression from the weight of the lintel above, the lintel will deform by sagging in the middle because the underside is under tension and the topside is under compression
23.
Column
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A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member, the term column applies especially to a large round support with a capital and a base or pedestal and made of stone, or appearing to be so. A small wooden or metal support is called a post. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces, other compression members are often termed columns because of the similar stress conditions. Columns are frequently used to support beams or arches on which the parts of walls or ceilings rest. In architecture, column refers to such an element that also has certain proportional. A column might also be an element not needed for structural purposes, many columns are engaged. All significant Iron Age civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean made some use of columns, egyptian columns are famously present in the Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak, where 134 columns are lined up in 16 rows, with some columns reaching heights of 24 metres. Some of the most elaborate columns in the ancient world were those of the Persians and they included double-bull structures in their capitals. The Hall of Hundred Columns at Persepolis, measuring 70 ×70 metres, was built by the Achaemenid king Darius I, many of the ancient Persian columns are standing, some being more than 30 metres tall. The Minoans used whole tree-trunks, usually turned upside down in order to prevent re-growth, stood on a set in the stylobate. These were then painted as in the most famous Minoan palace of Knossos, the Minoans employed columns to create large open-plan spaces, light-wells and as a focal point for religious rituals. These traditions were continued by the later Mycenaean civilization, particularly in the megaron or hall at the heart of their palaces. Being made of wood these early columns have not survived, but their bases have and through these we may see their use. The Greeks developed the classical orders of architecture, which are most easily distinguished by the form of the column and their Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders were expanded by the Romans to include the Tuscan and Composite orders. Columns, or at least large structural exterior ones, became less significant in the architecture of the Middle Ages. Early columns were constructed of stone, some out of a piece of stone. Monolithic columns are among the heaviest stones used in architecture, other stone columns are created out of multiple sections of stone, mortared or dry-fit together
24.
Pier (architecture)
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A pier, in architecture, is an upright support for a structure or superstructure such as an arch or bridge. Sections of structural walls between openings can function as piers, the simplest cross section of the pier is square, or rectangular, but other shapes are also common. In medieval architecture, massive circular supports called drum piers, cruciform piers, columns are a similar upright support, but stand on a round base. In buildings with sequence of bays between piers, each opening between two piers is considered a single bay, single-span bridges have abutments at each end that support the weight of the bridge and serve as retaining walls to resist lateral movement of the earthen fill of the bridge approach. Multi-span bridges require piers to support the ends of spans between these abutments, in cold climates the upstream edge of a pier may include a starkwater to prevent accumulation of broken ice during peak snowmelt flows. The starkwater has a sharpened upstream edge sometimes called a cutwater, the cutwater edge may be of concrete or masonry, but is often capped with a steel angle to resist abrasion and focus force at a single point to fracture floating pieces of ice striking the pier. In the Arc de Triomphe, Paris the central arch and side arches are raised on four massive planar piers, the original plan by Donato Bramante for St Peters Basilica in Rome has richly articulated piers, rendered in solid black. The vaulting they support is in lines, a familiar representation convention in architectural plans. Four piers support the weight of the dome at the central crossing and these piers were found to be too small to support the weight and were changed later by Michelangelo to account for the massive weight of the dome. The piers of the four apses that project from each wall are also strong. Many niches articulate the wall-spaces of the piers, column — pillar Compound pier Pilaster Deep foundation
25.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
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Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. It combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters, cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts are derived from hieroglyphic writing, the writing system continued to be used throughout the Late Period, as well as the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, with the closing of pagan temples in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost, and the script remained undeciphered throughout the medieval and early modern period. The decipherment of hieroglyphs would only be solved in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, the word hieroglyph comes from the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικός, a compound of ἱερός and γλύφω, supposedly a calque of an Egyptian phrase mdw·w-nṯr gods words. The glyphs themselves were called τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ γράμματα the sacred engraved letters, the word hieroglyph has become a noun in English, standing for an individual hieroglyphic character. As used in the sentence, the word hieroglyphic is an adjective. Hieroglyphs emerged from the artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from c.4000 BC have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing, proto-hieroglyphic symbol systems develop in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called Scorpion I recovered at Abydos in 1998. The first full sentence written in hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qaab. There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, by the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000. However, given the lack of evidence, no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt. Since the 1990s, and discoveries such as the Abydos glyphs, as writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in the hieratic and demotic scripts. These variants were more suited than hieroglyphs for use on papyrus. Hieroglyphic writing was not, however, eclipsed, but existed alongside the other forms, especially in monumental, the Rosetta Stone contains three parallel scripts – hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Hieroglyphs continued to be used under Persian rule, and after Alexander the Greats conquest of Egypt, during the ensuing Ptolemaic and Roman periods. It appears that the quality of comments from Greek and Roman writers about hieroglyphs came about, at least in part. Some believed that hieroglyphs may have functioned as a way to distinguish true Egyptians from some of the foreign conquerors, another reason may be the refusal to tackle a foreign culture on its own terms, which characterized Greco-Roman approaches to Egyptian culture generally
26.
Symbol
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A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences, all communication is achieved through the use of symbols. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, ideas or visual images and are used to other ideas. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for STOP, on a map, a blue line might represent a river. Alphabetic letters may be symbols for sounds, personal names are symbols representing individuals. A red rose may symbolize love and compassion, the variable x, in a mathematical equation, may symbolize the position of a particle in space. In cartography, a collection of symbols forms a legend for a map The word derives from the Greek symbolon meaning token or watchword. It is an amalgam of syn- together + bole a throwing, a casting, the sense evolution in Greek is from throwing things together to contrasting to comparing to token used in comparisons to determine if something is genuine. The meaning something which stands for something else was first recorded in 1590, later, expanding on what he means by this definition Campbell says, a symbol, like everything else, shows a double aspect. We must distinguish, therefore between the sense and the meaning of the symbol. The term meaning can only to the first two but these, today, are in the charge of science – which is the province as we have said, not of symbols. The ineffable, the unknowable, can be only sensed. Heinrich Zimmer gives an overview of the nature, and perennial relevance. Concepts and words are symbols, just as visions, rituals, through all of these a transcendent reality is mirrored. They are so many metaphors reflecting and implying something which, though thus variously expressed, is ineffable, though thus rendered multiform, Symbols hold the mind to truth but are not themselves the truth, hence it is delusory to borrow them. Each civilisation, every age, must bring forth its own, in the book Signs and Symbols, it is stated that A symbol. Is a visual image or sign representing an idea -- a deeper indicator of a universal truth, Symbols are a means of complex communication that often can have multiple levels of meaning. This separates symbols from signs, as signs have only one meaning, human cultures use symbols to express specific ideologies and social structures and to represent aspects of their specific culture
27.
Dung beetle
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Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on dung. A dung beetle can bury dung 250 times heavier than itself in one night, many dung beetles, known as rollers, roll dung into round balls, which are used as a food source or breeding chambers. Others, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it, a third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow, they simply live in manure. They are often attracted by the dung collected by burrowing owls, Dung Beetles can grow to 3 cm long and 2 cm wide. All the species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae, as most species of Scarabaeinae feed exclusively on feces, that subfamily is often dubbed true dung beetles. There are dung-feeding beetles which belong to families, such as the Geotrupidae. The Scarabaeinae alone comprises more than 5,000 species, Dung beetles are currently the only known non-human animal to navigate and orient themselves using the Milky Way. Dung beetles are not a taxonomic group, dung feeding is found in a number of families of beetles. They do not prefer extremely cold or dry weather and they are found on all continents except Antarctica. They eat the dung of herbivores and omnivores, and prefer that produced by the latter, many of them also feed on mushrooms and decaying leaves and fruits. One type living in Central America, Deltochilum valgum, is a carnivore preying upon millipedes and those that eat dung do not need to eat or drink anything else, because the dung provides all the necessary nutrients. Most dung beetles search for dung using their sense of smell. Some smaller species simply attach themselves to the dung-providers to wait for the dung, after capturing the dung, a dung beetle rolls it, following a straight line despite all obstacles. Dung beetles can roll up to 10 times their weight, male Onthophagus taurus beetles can pull 1,141 times their own body weight, the equivalent of an average person pulling six double-decker buses full of people. A species of dung beetle navigates by polarization patterns in moonlight, Dung beetles can also navigate when only the Milky Way or clusters of bright stars are visible, making them the only insects known to orient themselves by the galaxy. The rollers roll and bury a dung ball either for storage or for making a brooding ball. In the latter case, two beetles, one male and one female, stay around the ball during the rolling process. Usually it is the male that rolls the ball, while the female hitch-hikes or simply follows behind, in some cases, the male and the female roll together
28.
Solar disk
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The photosphere is a stars outer shell from which light is radiated. It extends into a stars surface until the plasma becomes opaque, in other words, a photosphere is the deepest region of a luminous object, usually a star, that is transparent to photons of certain wavelengths. The surface of a star is defined to have a given by the effective temperature in the Stefan–Boltzmann law. Stars, excepting neutron stars, have no solid surface, therefore, the photosphere is typically used to describe the Suns or another stars visual surface. The Sun is composed primarily of the elements hydrogen and helium, they account for 74. 9% and 23. 8% of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere. All heavier elements, called metals in astronomy, account for less than 2% of the mass, with oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron being the most abundant. The Suns photosphere has a temperature between 4,500 and 6,000 K and a density of about 2×10−4 kg/m3, each granule has a lifespan of only about eight minutes, resulting in a continually shifting boiling pattern. Grouping the typical granules are super granules up to 30,000 kilometers in diameter with lifespans of up to 24 hours and these details are too fine to see on other stars. The Suns visible atmosphere has other layers above the photosphere, the 2,000 kilometer-deep chromosphere lies just between the photosphere and the much hotter but more tenuous corona, other surface features on the photosphere are solar flares and sunspots. Animated explanation of the temperature of the Photosphere
29.
Vulture
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Some traditional Old World vultures are not closely related to the others, which is why the vultures are to be subdivided into three taxa rather than two. A particular characteristic of many vultures is a head, devoid of normal feathers. Although it has been believed to help keep the head clean when feeding. Vultures have been observed to hunch their bodies and tuck in their heads in the cold, a group of vultures is called a wake, committee, kettle, venue, or volt. The term kettle refers to vultures in flight, while committee refers to vultures resting in trees, wake is reserved for a group of vultures that are feeding. The word Geier does not have a meaning in ornithology, it is occasionally used to refer to a vulture in English. The Old World vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which includes eagles, kites, buzzards. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight, however, recent DNA evidence suggests that they should be included among the Accipitriformes, along with other birds of prey. However, they are not closely related to the other vultures. Several species have a sense of smell, unusual for raptors. When a carcass has too thick a hide for its beak to open, vast numbers have been seen upon battlefields. They gorge themselves when prey is abundant, until their crops bulge and these birds do not carry food to their young in their claws, but disgorge it from their crops. Vultures are of value as scavengers, especially in hot regions. New World vultures often vomit when threatened or approached, new World vultures also urinate straight down their legs, the uric acid kills bacteria accumulated from walking through carcasses, and also acts as evaporative cooling. Vultures in south Asia, mainly in India and Nepal, have declined dramatically since the early 1990s and it has been found that this decline was caused by residues of the veterinary drug Diclofenac in animal carcasses. The government of India has taken very late cognizance of this fact and has banned the drug for animals, the same problem is also seen in Nepal where government has taken some late steps to conserve remaining vultures. A recent study in 2016, reported that of the 22 vulture species, nine are critically endangered, three are endangered, four are near threatened, and six are least concern
30.
Palm tree
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The Arecaceae are a botanical family of perennial climbers, shrubs, acaules and trees commonly known as palm trees. They are flowering plants, a family in the monocot order Arecales, currently 181 genera with around 2600 species are known, most of them restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, however, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts. Palms are among the best known and most extensively cultivated plant families and they have been important to humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods are derived from palms, and palms are widely used in landscaping, making them one of the most economically important plants. In many historical cultures, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, for inhabitants of cooler climates today, palms symbolize the tropics and vacations. Whether as shrubs, trees, or vines, palms have two methods of growth, solitary or clustered, the common representation is that of a solitary shoot ending in a crown of leaves. This monopodial character may be exhibited by prostrate, trunkless, some common palms restricted to solitary growth include Washingtonia and Roystonea. Palms may instead grow in sparse though dense clusters, the trunk develops an axillary bud at a leaf node, usually near the base, from which a new shoot emerges. The new shoot, in turn, produces an axillary bud, exclusively sympodial genera include many of the rattans, Guihaia, and Rhapis. Several palm genera have both solitary and clustering members, Palms which are usually solitary may grow in clusters, and vice versa. These aberrations suggest the habit operates on a single gene, Palms have large, evergreen leaves that are either palmately or pinnately compound and spirally arranged at the top of the stem. The leaves have a sheath at the base that usually splits open on one side at maturity. The inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity, the flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and can be either uni- or bisexual. The sepals and petals usually number three each, and may be distinct or joined at the base, the stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single-seeded drupe but some genera may contain two or more seeds in each fruit, like all monocots, palms do not have the ability to increase the width of a stem via the same kind of vascular cambium found in non-monocot woody plants. This explains the shape of the trunk that is often seen in palms. The Arecaceae are notable among monocots for their height and for the size of their seeds, leaves, Ceroxylon quindiuense, Colombias national tree, is the tallest monocot in the world, reaching up to 60 m tall
31.
Papyrus
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The word papyrus /pəˈpaɪrəs/ refers to a thick precursor to modern paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus. Papyrus can also refer to a document written on sheets of papyrus joined together side by side and rolled up into a scroll, the plural for such documents is papyri. Papyrus is first known to have used in ancient Egypt. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region and in Kingdom of Kush, the Ancient Egyptians used papyrus as a writing material, as well as employing it commonly in the construction of other artifacts such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets. Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE, the earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza, in the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned, early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Græco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Codices were an improvement on the scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking. Papyrus had the advantage of being cheap and easy to produce. Unless the papyrus was of quality, the writing surface was irregular. Its last appearance in the Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, the latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree, under Pope Victor II, and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs who originally learned of it from the Chinese, by the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire, but papyrus was still an option. Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices, pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus which were sold in the Roman market of the day. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, grades ranged from the superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping, until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known. They did not contain literary works, the first modern discovery of papyri rolls was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until then, the papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. The English word papyrus derives, via Latin, from Greek πάπυρος, Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος
32.
Nymphaea caerulea
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Nymphaea caerulea, known primarily as blue lotus, but also blue water lily, and sacred blue lily, is a water lily in the genus Nymphaea. Like other species in the genus, the plant contains the psychoactive alkaloid apomorphine and it was known to the Ancient Egyptian civilizations. Its original habitat may have been along the Nile and other parts of East Africa and it spread more widely in ancient times, including to the Indian subcontinent and Thailand. The leaves are rounded, 25–40 cm across, with a notch at the leaf stem. The flowers are 10–15 cm in diameter, in fact, the flower buds rise to the surface over a period of two to three days, and when ready, open around 9,30 am and close about 3,00 pm. The flowers and buds do not rise above the water in the morning, the flowers have pale bluish-white to sky-blue or mauve petals, smoothly changing to a pale yellow in the centre of the flower. Along with the lotus, Nymphaea lotus are also native to Egypt. The plant and flower are very frequently depicted in Egyptian art, N. caerulea was considered extremely significant in Egyptian mythology, regarded as a symbol of the sun, since the flowers are closed at night and open again in the morning. At Heliopolis, the origin of the world was taught to have been when the sun god Ra emerged from a flower growing in primordial waters. At night, he was believed to retreat into the flower again. Due to its colour, it was identified, in some beliefs, as having been the original container, in a manner to an egg, of Atum. As such, its properties form the origin of the variant of the Ogdoad cosmogeny. It was the symbol of the Egyptian deity Nefertem, some evidence indicates the clinical effects of plants including N. caerulea that contain the psychoactive alkaloid apomorphine were known to both the Mayans and the Ancient Egyptians. The mildly sedating effects of N. caerulea makes it a candidate for the lotus plant eaten by the mythical Lotophagi in Homers Odyssey. This lotus has been used to produce perfumes since ancient times, N. caerulea is illegal in Latvia since November 2009. Possession of quantities up to 1 gram are fined up to 280 euros, possession of larger quantities can be punished by up to 15 years in prison. N. caerulea was banned in Poland in March 2009, possession and distribution lead to a criminal charge. N. caerulea is illegal in Russia since April 2009 along with spice and related products, Salvia divinorum, Argyreia nervosa, and others
33.
Solstice
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The Solstice occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. The seasons of the year are directly connected to both the solstices and the equinoxes, the term solstice can also be used in a broader sense, as the day when this occurs. The day of the solstice has either the most sunlight of the year or the least sunlight of the year for any other than the equator. Alternative terms, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context, are June solstice and December solstice, at latitudes outside the tropics, the summer solstice marks the day when the sun appears highest in the sky. Within the tropics, the sun directly overhead from days to months before the solstice and again after the solstice. For an observer on the North Pole, the sun reaches the highest position in the sky once a year in June, the day this occurs is called the June solstice day. Similarly, for an observer on the South Pole, the sun reaches the highest position on December solstice day, when it is the summer solstice at one Pole, it is the winter solstice on the other. The suns westerly motion never ceases as the Earth is continually in rotation, however, the suns motion in declination comes to a stop at the moment of solstice. In that sense, solstice means sun-standing and this modern scientific word descends from a Latin scientific word in use in the late Roman republic of the 1st century BC, solstitium. Pliny uses it a number of times in his Natural History with a meaning that it has today. It contains two Latin-language morphemes, sol, sun, and -stitium, stoppage, the Romans used standing to refer to a component of the relative velocity of the Sun as it is observed in the sky. Relative velocity is the motion of an object from the point of view of an observer in a frame of reference, from a fixed position on the ground, the sun appears to orbit around the Earth. To an observer in a frame of reference, the planet Earth is seen to rotate about an axis. The Earths axis is tilted with respect to the plane of the Earths orbit, an observer on Earth therefore sees a solar path that is the result of both rotation and revolution. At maximum or minimum elevation, the relative motion of the Sun perpendicular to the horizon stops. Outside of the tropics, the maximum occurs at the summer solstice. The path of the Sun, or ecliptic, sweeps north and south between the northern and southern hemispheres, the days are longer around the summer solstice and shorter around the winter solstice. When the Suns path crosses the equator, the length of the nights at latitudes +L° and -L° are of equal length and this is known as an equinox
34.
Equinox
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An equinox is the moment in which the plane of Earths equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September. On an equinox, day and night are of equal duration all over the planet. They are not exactly equal, however, due to the size of the sun. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day in which the durations of light, see Length of equinoctial day and night for further discussion. The word is derived from the Latin aequinoctium, aequus and nox, the equinoxes are the only times when the solar terminator is perpendicular to the equator. As a result, the northern and southern hemispheres are equally illuminated, the word comes from Latin equi or equal and nox meaning night. In other words, the equinoxes are the times when the subsolar point is on the equator. The subsolar point crosses the equator moving northward at the March equinox, the equinoxes, along with solstices, are directly related to the seasons of the year. In the southern hemisphere, the equinox occurs in September. When Julius Caesar established the Julian calendar in 45 BC, he set 25 March as the date of the spring equinox. Because the Julian year is longer than the tropical year. By 1500 AD, it had drifted backwards to 11 March and this drift induced Pope Gregory XIII to create a modern Gregorian calendar. However, the leap year intervals in his calendar were not smooth and this causes the equinox to oscillate by about 53 hours around its mean position. This in turn raised the possibility that it could fall on 22 March, the astronomers chose the appropriate number of days to omit so that the equinox would swing from 19 to 21 March but never fall on the 22nd. Vernal equinox and Autumnal equinox, these names are direct derivatives of Latin. The equivalent common language English terms spring equinox and autumn equinox are even more ambiguous, March equinox and September equinox, names referring to the months of the year they occur, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context. They are still not universal, however, as not all use a solar-based calendar where the equinoxes occur every year in the same month. Northward equinox and southward equinox, names referring to the apparent direction of motion of the Sun
35.
Pharaoh
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The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
36.
Giza pyramid complex
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The Giza pyramid complex is an archaeological site on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. It is located in the Libyan Desert, approximately 9 km west of the Nile river at the old town of Giza and it is by far the oldest of the ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence. The Great Sphinx lies on the east side of the complex, current consensus among Egyptologists is that the head of the Great Sphinx is that of Khafre. Along with these monuments are a number of smaller satellite edifices, known as queens pyramids, causeways. The valley temple was connected to a causeway which was destroyed when the village was constructed. The causeway led to the Mortuary Temple of Khufu, from this temple the basalt pavement is the only thing that remains. The mortuary temple was connected to the king’s pyramid, the king’s pyramid has three smaller queen’s pyramids associated with it and five boat pits. The boat pits contained a ship, and the 2 pits on the side of the pyramid still contained intact ships. One of these ships has been restored and is on display, khufus pyramid still has a limited collection of casing stones at its base. These casing stones were made of white limestone quarried from the nearby range. Khafre’s pyramid complex consists of a temple, the Sphinx temple, a causeway, a mortuary temple. The valley temple yielded several statues of Khafre, several were found in a well in the floor of the temple by Mariette in 1860. Others were found during excavations by Sieglin, Junker, Reisner. Khafre’s complex contained five boat-pits and a pyramid with a serdab. Khafres pyramid retains a prominent display of casing stones at its apex, menkaure’s pyramid complex consists of a valley temple, a causeway, a mortuary temple, and the king’s pyramid. The valley temple once contained several statues of Menkaure, during the 5th dynasty, a smaller ante-temple was added on to the valley temple. The mortuary temple also yielded several statues of Menkaure, the king’s pyramid has three subsidiary or queen’s pyramids. Of the four monuments, only Menkaures pyramid is seen today without any of its original polished limestone casing
37.
Giza Plateau
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The Giza Plateau is a plateau that is located in Giza, Egypt. The famous Giza Necropolis is located in this area, which is characterized by a sandy, desert climate. It is somewhat virgin desert and it is a place attractive to tourists, researchers, stout shoes or jogging shoes are recommended for visitors to the plateau. In the beginning of the year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were taken of the great figures. The height from the lowest of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, modern Gizas layout is accessed by two main roads. The first from the leads to Khufus pyramids and the other road leads near the Sphinxs forecourt from the east. They cross the Nile River from the east bank and follow the causeway westward, dominating the plateau and running in a southwest diagonal through the site are the three pyramids of the pharaohs Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura. The northernmost, and the largest, one belongs to Khufu, khafras pyramid is built precisely on a southwest diagonal to his fathers pyramid, as well as having been built on higher ground to create the illusion of being bigger. The pyramid of Menkaura is much smaller and is not aligned along the diagonal line as the other two pyramids. On a clear day the Pyramids of Abusir can be seen from the Giza Plateau, some looting took place during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 at the site. Plans to build the Grand Egyptian Museum, on the Giza Plateau were stalled, initially hopes were to have the GEM completed by 2012. In October,2015, the Minister of Antiquities, Mamdouh al-Damaty, stated that GEM will be inaugurated in 2018
38.
Cairo
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Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat
39.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
40.
Necropolis
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A necropolis is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek νεκρόπολις nekropolis, literally meaning city of the dead, the term usually implies a separate burial site at a distance from a city, as opposed to tombs within cities, which were common in various places and periods of history. They are different from fields, which did not have remains above the ground. While the word is most commonly used for ancient sites, the name was revived in the early 19th century and applied to planned city cemeteries, such as the Glasgow Necropolis. Aside from the pyramids which were reserved for the burial of Pharaohs the Egyptian necropoleis included mastabas, naqsh-e Rustam is an ancient necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran. The oldest relief at Naqsh-i Rustam dates to c.1000 BC, though it is severely damaged, it depicts a faint image of a man with unusual head-gear and is thought to be Elamite in origin. The depiction is part of an image, most of which was removed at the command of Bahram II. Four tombs belonging to Achaemenid kings are carved out of the face at a considerable height above the ground. The tombs are known locally as the Persian crosses, after the shape of the facades of the tombs, later, Sassanian kings added a series of rock reliefs below the tombs. In the Mycenean Greek period pre-dating ancient Greece burials could be performed inside the city, in Mycenae for example the royal tombs were located in a precinct within the city walls. This changed during the ancient Greek period when necropoleis usually lined the roads outside a city, there existed some degree of variation within the ancient Greek world however. Sparta was notable for continuing the practice of burial within the city, the Etruscans took the concept of a city of the dead quite literally. The typical tomb at the Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri consists of a tumulus which covers one or more rock-cut subterranean tombs and these tombs had multiple chambers and were elaborately decorated like contemporary houses. The arrangement of the tumuli in a grid of streets gave it a similar to the cities of the living. The art historian Nigel Spivey considers the name cemetery inadequate and argues that only the term necropolis can do justice to these burial sites. Etruscan necropoleis were located on hills or slopes of hills. In ancient Rome families originally buried deceased relatives in their own homes because of the Roman practice of ancestor worship, the enactment of the Twelve Tables in 449 BC forbade this, which made the Romans adopt the practice of burial in necropoleis. List of necropoleis Funerary art Catacombs
41.
Pyramid of Khufu
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The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, initially at 146.5 metres, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed an outer surface. Some of the stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramids construction techniques, most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. There are three chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished, the so-called Queens Chamber and Kings Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and was constructed over a 20-year period, Khufus vizier, Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall, each base side was 440 cubits,230.4 metres long. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes, the volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic metres. Based on these estimates, building the pyramid in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day, the first precision measurements of the pyramid were made by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880–82 and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Almost all reports are based on his measurements, many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the casing stones, the mean opening of the joints is only 0.5 millimetre wide. The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, the accuracy of the pyramids workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres in length. The base is horizontal and flat to within ±15 mm, the ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760/280 royal cubits equates to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0. 05%. Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion, verner wrote, We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it. Petrie, author of Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh concluded, but these relations of areas, others have argued that the Ancient Egyptians had no concept of pi and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments. They believe that the observed pyramid slope may be based on a simple seked slope choice alone, with no regard to the overall size, in 2013 rolls of papyrus were discovered written by some of those who delivered stone and other construction materials to Khufus brother at Giza
42.
Great Pyramid of Giza
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The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, initially at 146.5 metres, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Originally, the Great Pyramid was covered by casing stones that formed an outer surface. Some of the stones that once covered the structure can still be seen around the base. There have been varying scientific and alternative theories about the Great Pyramids construction techniques, most accepted construction hypotheses are based on the idea that it was built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. There are three chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished, the so-called Queens Chamber and Kings Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. It is believed the pyramid was built as a tomb for Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu and was constructed over a 20-year period, Khufus vizier, Hemiunu, is believed by some to be the architect of the Great Pyramid. It is thought that, at construction, the Great Pyramid was originally 280 Egyptian cubits tall, each base side was 440 cubits,230.4 metres long. The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes, the volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic metres. Based on these estimates, building the pyramid in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day, the first precision measurements of the pyramid were made by Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1880–82 and published as The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Almost all reports are based on his measurements, many of the casing stones and inner chamber blocks of the Great Pyramid fit together with extremely high precision. Based on measurements taken on the casing stones, the mean opening of the joints is only 0.5 millimetre wide. The pyramid remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, the accuracy of the pyramids workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimetres in length. The base is horizontal and flat to within ±15 mm, the ratio of the perimeter to height of 1760/280 royal cubits equates to 2π to an accuracy of better than 0. 05%. Some Egyptologists consider this to have been the result of deliberate design proportion, verner wrote, We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it. Petrie, author of Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh concluded, but these relations of areas, others have argued that the Ancient Egyptians had no concept of pi and would not have thought to encode it in their monuments. They believe that the observed pyramid slope may be based on a simple seked slope choice alone, with no regard to the overall size, in 2013 rolls of papyrus were discovered written by some of those who delivered stone and other construction materials to Khufus brother at Giza
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Pyramid of Khafre
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The pyramid has a base length of 215.5 m and rises up to a height of 136.4 metres The pyramid is made of limestone blocks weighing more than 2 tons each. The slope of the pyramid rises at a 53°10 angle, steeper than its neighbor, the Pyramid of Khufu, the pyramid sits on bedrock 10 m higher than Khufu’s pyramid, which makes it appear to be taller. The pyramid was opened and robbed during the First Intermediate Period. During the Eighteenth Dynasty, the overseer of construction took casing stone from it to build a temple in Heliopolis on Ramesses II’s orders. Arab historian Ibn Abd al-Salam recorded that the pyramid was opened in 1372 AD, on the wall of the burial chamber, there is an Arabic graffito that probably dates from the same time. It was first explored in modern times by Giovanni Belzoni on March 2,1818, when the entrance was found on the north side of the pyramid. Belzoni had hopes of finding an intact burial, however, the chamber was empty except for an open sarcophagus and its broken lid on the floor. The first complete exploration was conducted by John Perring in 1837, in 1853, Auguste Mariette partially excavated Khafres valley temple, and, in 1858, while completing its clearance, he managed to discover a diorite statue. Like the Great Pyramid, a rock outcropping was used in the core, due to the slope of the plateau, the northwest corner was cut 10 m out of the rock subsoil and the southeast corner is built up. The pyramid is built of horizontal courses, the stones used at the bottom are very large, but as the pyramid rises, the stones become smaller, becoming only 50 cm thick at the apex. The courses are rough and irregular for the first half of its height, at the northwest corner of the pyramid, the bedrock was fashioned into steps. Casing stones cover the top third of the pyramid, but the pyramidion, the bottom course of casing stones was made out of pink granite but the remainder of the pyramid was cased in Tura Limestone. Close examination reveals that the edges of remaining casing stones are not completely straight. One theory is that this is due to settling from seismic activity, an alternative theory postulates that the slope on the blocks was cut to shape before being placed due to the limited working space towards the top of the pyramid. Two entrances lead to the chamber, one that opens 11.54 m up the face of the pyramid. These passageways do not align with the centerline of the pyramid, the lower descending passageway is carved completely out of the bedrock, descending, running horizontal, then ascending to join the horizontal passage leading to the burial chamber. This would place the entrance to the lower descending passage within the masonry of the pyramid. While the bedrock is cut away farther from the pyramid on the side than on the west side, it is not clear that there is enough room on the plateau for the enclosure wall
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Pyramid of Menkaure
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The Pyramid of Menkaure, located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, is the smallest of the three main Pyramids of Giza. It is thought to have built to serve as the tomb of the fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Menkaure. Menkaures pyramid had a height of 65.5 metres and was the smallest of the three major pyramids at the Giza Necropolis. It now stands at 61 m tall with a base of 108.5 m and its angle of incline is approximately 51°20′25″. It was constructed of limestone and granite, the first sixteen courses of the exterior were made of red granite. The upper portion was cased in the manner with Tura limestone. Part of the granite was left in the rough, incomplete projects such as this pyramid help archaeologists understand the methods used to build pyramids and temples. South of the pyramid of Menkaure are three pyramids that are each accompanied with a temple and have a substructure. The southernmost is the largest and a true pyramid and its casing is partly of granite, like the main pyramid, and is believed to have been completed due to the limestone pyramidion found close by. Neither of the two progressed beyond the construction of the inner core. In the mortuary temple the foundations and the core were made of limestone. The floors were begun with granite and granite facings were added to some of the walls, the foundations of the valley temple were made of stone. However both temples were finished with crude bricks and it was not unusual for a son or successor to complete a temple when a Pharaoh died, so it is not unreasonable to assume that Shepseskaf finished the temples with crude brick. There was an inscription in the temple that said he made it as his monument for his father. During excavations of the temples Reisner found a number of statues mostly of Menkaure alone. These were all carved in the style of the old kingdom with a high degree of detail evident. The pyramids date of construction is unknown, because Menkaures reign has not been accurately defined and it lies a few hundred meters southwest of its larger neighbors, the Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Pyramid of Khufu in the Giza necropolis. Richard Vyse, who first visited Egypt in 1835, discovered in the upper antechamber the remains of a wooden anthropoid coffin inscribed with Menkaures name and this is now considered to be a substitute coffin from the Saite period
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Great Sphinx
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Facing directly from West to East, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent the Pharaoh Khafre, cut from the bedrock, the original shape of the Sphinx has been restored with layers of blocks. It measures 238 feet long from paw to tail,66.3 ft high from the base to the top of the head and 62.6 feet wide at its rear haunches. It is the oldest known sculpture in Egypt and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the Pharaoh Khafre. The Sphinx is a monolith carved into the bedrock of the plateau, the nummulitic limestone of the area consists of layers which offer differing resistance to erosion, leading to the uneven degradation apparent in the Sphinxs body. The lowest part of the body, including the legs, is solid rock, the body of the lion up to its neck is fashioned from softer layers that have suffered considerable disintegration. The layer in which the head was sculpted is much harder, the Great Sphinx is one of the worlds largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it are still subject to debate, such as when it was built, by whom and for what purpose. These questions have resulted in the idea of the Riddle of the Sphinx. In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx was called Hor-em-akhet, the English word sphinx comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ apparently from the verb σφίγγω, after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle. The name may alternatively be a corruption of the phonetically different ancient Egyptian word Ssp-anx. This name is given to royal statues of the Fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt, medieval Arab writers, including al-Maqrīzī, call the Sphinx balhib and bilhaw, which suggest a Coptic influence. The modern Egyptian Arabic name is أبو الهول, the circumstantial evidence mentioned by Hassan includes the Sphinxs location in the context of the funerary complex surrounding the Second Pyramid, which is traditionally connected with Khafra. A diorite statue of Khafre, which was discovered buried upside down along with other debris in the Valley Temple, is claimed as support for the Khafra theory, the Dream Stele, erected much later by the pharaoh Thutmose IV, associates the Sphinx with Khafra. When the stele was discovered, its lines of text were already damaged and incomplete, an extract was translated, which we bring for him, oxen. and all the young vegetables, and we shall give praise to Wenofer. Khaf. the statue made for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet, the Egyptologist Thomas Young, finding the Khaf hieroglyphs in a damaged cartouche used to surround a royal name, inserted the glyph ra to complete Khafras name. When the Stele was re-excavated in 1925, the lines of text referring to Khaf flaked off and were destroyed. In 1857, Auguste Mariette, founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, unearthed the much later Inventory Stela, such an act became common when religious institutions such as temples, shrines and priests domains were fighting for political attention and for financial and economic donations. Gaston Maspero, the French Egyptologist and second director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and he supports this by suggesting that Khafras Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing structure, which, he concludes, given its location, could only have been the Sphinx
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Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
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Although the list, in its current form, did not stabilise until the Renaissance, the first such lists of seven wonders date from the 1st-2nd century BC. The original list inspired innumerable versions through the ages, often listing seven entries, of the original Seven Wonders, only one—the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest of the ancient wonders—remains relatively intact. The Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis, the location and ultimate fate of the Hanging Gardens are unknown, and there is speculation that they may not have existed at all. The Greek conquest of much of the western world in the 4th century BC gave Hellenistic travellers access to the civilizations of the Egyptians, Persians. Impressed and captivated by the landmarks and marvels of the various lands, instead of wonders, the ancient Greeks spoke of theamata, which means sights, in other words things to be seen. Later, the word for wonder was used, hence, the list was meant to be the Ancient Worlds counterpart of a travel guidebook. The first reference to a list of seven such monuments was given by Diodorus Siculus, — Greek Anthology IX.58 Another 2nd century BC observer, who claimed to be the mathematician Philo of Byzantium, wrote a short account entitled The Seven Sights of the World. However, the surviving manuscript only covered six of the supposedly seven places. Earlier and later lists by the historian Herodotus and the architect Callimachus of Cyrene, housed at the Museum of Alexandria, survived only as references. The Colossus of Rhodes was the last of the seven to be completed, after 280 BC, hence, all seven existed at the same time for a period of less than 60 years. The list covered only the sculptural and architectural monuments of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions, hence, extant sites beyond this realm were not considered as part of contemporary accounts. The primary accounts, coming from Hellenistic writers, also influenced the places included in the wonders list. Five of the seven entries are a celebration of Greek accomplishments in the arts, the seven wonders on Antipaters list won praises for their notable features, ranging from superlatives of the highest or largest of their types, to the artistry with which they were executed. Their architectural and artistic features were imitated throughout the Hellenistic world, the Greek influence in Roman culture, and the revival of Greco-Roman artistic styles during the Renaissance caught the imagination of European artists and travellers. Paintings and sculptures alluding to Antipaters list were made, while adventurers flocked to the sites to personally witness the wonders. Legends circulated to further complement the superlatives of the wonders, of Antipaters wonders, the only one that has survived to the present day is the Great Pyramid of Giza. Its brilliant white stone facing had survived intact until around 1300 AD, the existence of the Hanging Gardens has not been proven, although theories abound. Records and archaeology confirm the existence of the other five wonders, the Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus were destroyed by fire, while the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Colossus, and tomb of Mausolus were destroyed by earthquakes
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2532 BC
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The 26th century BC was a century which lasted from the year 2600 BC to 2501 BC. c.2900 BC –2334 BC, Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period continue. C.2600 BC, The Harappan civilization rises to become a powerful civilization, C.2600 BC, Pre-Palace Period, phase I, in Crete c.2600 BC –2500 BC, Wild horses still provide hunting feasts in Denmark. C.2600 BC –1900 BC, Large water tank, possibly a public or ritual bathing area, Mohenjo-Daro, Indus Valley Civilization, C.2589 BC, Pharaoh Khufu starts to rule. C.2575 BC, Old Kingdom in Egypt 4th Dynasty Snofru is Pharaoh, C.2570 BC, Khafra started to rule in Ancient Egypt. C.2566 BC, Pharaoh Khufu dies, C.2558 BC, Pharaoh Khafra starts to rule. C.2550 BC, Estimated date of completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza. c.2550 BC, Egyptian rulers contact Western Desert oases and it is now kept at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. C.2533 BC, Menkaura started to rule in Ancient Egypt, C.2532 BC, Pharaoh Khafra dies. C.2532 BC, Pharaoh Menkaura starts to rule, C.2510 BC –2460 BC, Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt, tomb of Ti, Saqqara, Fifth dynasty of Egypt, is made. Discovered by French archeologist Auguste Mariette in 1865, C.2503 BC, Pharaoh Menkaura dies. C.2500 BC, Menkaura and a Queen, perhaps his wife, Queen Khamerernebty II sculpture and it is now in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Butmir culture existed in Butmir, near Ilidža, Bosnia and Herzegovina,2575 BC—Old Kingdom in Egypt, 4th Dynasty, Sneferu is Pharaoh. Khufu dies Rock drawings at Rødøy in Norway show the use of skis Bactrian Camel and Dromedary are domesticated
