1.
Pyramid
–
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
Pyramid
–
The
Egyptian pyramids of the
Giza Necropolis, as seen from the air
Pyramid
–
Pyramid of the Moon,
Teotihuacan
Pyramid
–
Prasat Thom temple at
Koh Ker
Pyramid
–
Pyramids of Güímar,
Tenerife (
Spain)
2.
Giza Governorate
–
Giza Governorate is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is in the center of the country, situated on the west bank of the Nile River opposite Cairo and its capital is the city of Giza. The Giza Governorate is also home to the Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, according to population estimates from 2015 the majority of residents in the governorate live in urban areas, with an urbanization rate of 58. 6%. Out of an estimated 7,585,115 people residing in the governorate,4,446,805 people lived in areas as opposed to only 3,138,310 in rural areas. It is located in the Giza pyramid complex, in a program that began on August 28,2012, the European Union invested 40 million Euros on upgrading the infrastructure of informal areas in Giza Governorate. Media related to Giza Governorate at Wikimedia Commons
Giza Governorate
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Flag
3.
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
Egypt
–
The
Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the
ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.
Egypt
–
Flag
Egypt
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The Greek Ptolemaic queen
Cleopatra VII and her son by Julius Caesar,
Caesarion at the
Temple of Dendera.
Egypt
–
The 1803
Cedid Atlas, showing
Ottoman Egypt.
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
5.
Monument
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The term monument is often applied to buildings or structures that are considered examples of important architectural and/or cultural heritage. Monuments have been created for thousands of years, and they are often the most durable, in more recent times, monumental structures such as the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower have become iconic emblems of modern nation-states. The term monumentality relates to the status and physical presence of a monument. Monuments are frequently used to improve the appearance of a city or location, planned cities such as Washington D. C. New Delhi and Brasília are often built around monuments, for example, the Washington Monuments location was conceived by LEnfant to help organize public space in the city, before it was designed or constructed. Older cities have monuments placed at locations that are important or are sometimes redesigned to focus on one. As Shelley suggested in his famous poem Ozymandias, the purpose of monuments is often to impress or awe. Structures created for purposes that have been made notable by their age. This can happen because of age and size, as in the case of the Great Wall of China. Monuments are also designed to convey historical or political information. They can be used to reinforce the primacy of political power. The social meanings of monuments are rarely fixed and certain and are contested by different social groups. This contention of meaning is a theme of modern post processual archaeological discourse. Until recently, it was customary for archaeologists to study large monuments, New ideas about what constitutes the archaeological record have revealed that certain legislative and theoretical approaches to the subject are too focused on earlier definitions of monuments. An example has been the United Kingdoms Scheduled Ancient Monument laws, recently, more and more monuments are being preserved digitally through organisations as CyArk. Cenotaphs and other memorials to commemorate the dead, usually war casualties, e. g. India Gate and Vimy Ridge Memorial, or disaster casualties, such as the Titanic Memorial, Belfast. Church monuments to commemorate the dead, located above or near their grave, often featuring an effigy, columns, often topped with a statue, e. g. Berlin Victory Column, Nelsons Column in London, and Trajans Column in Rome. Gravestones, small monuments to the deceased, placed at their gravesites, e. g. the tombs and vaults of veterans in Les Invalides, mausoleums and tombs to honor the dead, e. g. the Great Pyramid of Giza and Taj Mahal
Monument
–
The
Lincoln Memorial,
Washington Monument, and
US Capitol. The planned US capital
Washington D.C. is built around monuments commemorating founding fathers of the
United States.
Monument
–
The
Great Pyramid of
Giza built almost 5000 years ago as
pharaoh 's
tomb, one of the
Seven Wonders and enduring symbol of
ancient Egyptian civilization since antiquity.
Monument
–
The
Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of
Ancient Greece, the
Athenian democracy, as well as the symbol of
Western Civilization.
Monument
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The
Colosseum Flavian amphitheatre in
Rome, a popular monument of the
Roman Empire.
6.
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
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The Archaic or Early Dynastic Period of Egypt is the era immediately following the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c.3100 BC. It is generally taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the end of the Naqada III archaeological period until about 2686 BC, with the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Thinis to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by an Egyptian god-king. Abydos remained the holy land in the south. The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art, architecture and many aspects of religion, before the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypts history thereafter, the pharaohs established a national administration and appointed royal governors. The buildings of the government were typically open-air temples constructed of wood or sandstone. The earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs appear just before this period, though little is known of the language they represent. By about 3600 BC, neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops, shortly after 3600 BC Egyptian society began to grow and advance rapidly toward refined civilization. A new and distinctive pottery, which was related to the pottery in the Southern Levant, extensive use of copper became common during this time. The Mesopotamian process of sun-dried bricks, and architectural building principles—including the use of the arch, concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt also underwent a unification process, warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta, in mythology, the unification of Egypt is portrayed as the falcon-god, called Horus and identified with Lower Egypt, as conquering and subduing the god Set, who was identified with Upper Egypt. Divine kingship, which would persist in Egypt for the next three millennia, was established as the basis of Egypts government. The unification of societies along the Nile has also linked to the drying of the Sahara. Funeral practices for the peasants would have been the same as in predynastic times, thus, the Egyptians began construction of the mastabas which became models for the later Old Kingdom constructions such as the Step pyramid. Cereal agriculture and centralization contributed to the success of the state for the next 800 years and this would last for many centuries. It was also during this period that the Egyptian writing system was further developed, initially Egyptian writing had been composed primarily of a few symbols denoting amounts of various substances. By the end of the 3rd dynasty it had expanded to include more than 200 symbols
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
–
A plate created during the Early Dynastic period of Ancient Egypt. It depicts a man on a boat alongside a
Hippopotamus and a
Crocodile
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
–
Flag
7.
Late Period of ancient Egypt
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It ran from 664 BC until 332 BC. Libyans and Persians alternated rule with native Egyptians, but traditional conventions continued in the arts and it is often regarded as the last gasp of a once great culture, during which the power of Egypt steadily diminished. The Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, also known as the Saite Dynasty after Sais, reigned from 672 BC to 525 BC, canal construction from the Nile to the Red Sea began. One major contribution from the Late Period of ancient Egypt was the Brooklyn Papyrus and this was a medical papyrus with a collection of medical and magical remedies for victims of snakebites based on snake type or symptoms. Artwork during this time was representative of animal cults and animal mummies and this image shows the god Pataikos wearing a scarab beetle on his head, supporting two human-headed birds on his shoulders, holding a snake in each hand, and standing atop crocodiles. The First Achaemenid Period period saw Egypt conquered by an expansive Achaemenid Empire under Cambyses, a total of eight pharaohs from this dynasty ruled over Egypt. The initial period of Achaemenid Persian occupation when Egypt became a satrapy, the Twenty-Eighth Dynasty consisted of a single king, Amyrtaeus, prince of Sais, who rebelled against the Persians. He left no monuments with his name and this dynasty reigned for six years, from 404 BC to 398 BC. The Twenty-Ninth Dynasty ruled from Mendes, for the period from 398 BC to 380 BC, the Thirtieth Dynasty took their art style from the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. A series of three pharaohs ruled from 380 BC until their defeat in 343 BC led to the re-occupation by the Persians. The final ruler of dynasty, and the final native ruler of Egypt until nearly 2,300 years later, was Nectanebo II. There was a Second Achaemenid Period of the Thirty-First Dynasty, and consisted of four pharaohs, Artaxerxes III, Artaxerxes IV, Khababash, gozzoli, The Writing of History in Ancient Egypt During the First Millennium BCE. Trend and Perspectives, London 2006, ISBN 0-9550256-3-X Lloyd, Alan B.2000, the Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw. Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press, 71-74 Primary sources Herodotus Fragments of Ctesias Thucydides Diodorus Siculus Fragments of Manetho Flavius Josephus
Late Period of ancient Egypt
Late Period of ancient Egypt
–
Egypt 664-332 BC -
Brooklyn Museum
Late Period of ancient Egypt
–
Figure of Pataikos, 664-30 BC -
Brooklyn Museum
8.
World Heritage Site
–
A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
World Heritage Site
–
Site #252:
Taj Mahal, an example of cultural heritage site
World Heritage Site
–
Logo of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
World Heritage Committee
World Heritage Site
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Site #156:
Serengeti National Park, an example of natural heritage site
World Heritage Site
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Site #274:
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, an example of mixed heritage site
9.
Arabic language
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
Arabic language
–
The Galland Manuscript of
One Thousand and One Nights, 14th century
Arabic language
–
al-ʿArabiyyah in written Arabic (
Naskh script)
Arabic language
–
Bilingual traffic sign in
Qatar.
Arabic language
–
Examples of how the Arabic root and form system works.
10.
Archaeological site
–
Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use. Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a site can vary widely, depending on the period studied and it is almost invariably difficult to delimit a site. It is sometimes taken to indicate a settlement of some sort although the archaeologist must also define the limits of human activity around the settlement, any episode of deposition such as a hoard or burial can form a site as well. Development-led archaeology undertaken as cultural resources management has the disadvantage of having its sites defined by the limits of the intended development, even in this case however, in describing and interpreting the site, the archaeologist will have to look outside the boundaries of the building site. According to Jess Beck in “How Do Archaeologists find sites. ”The areas with a number of artifacts are good targets for future excavation. The most common person to have found artifacts are farmers who are plowing their fields or just cleaning them up often find archaeological artifacts, many people who are out hiking and even pilots find artifacts they usually end up reporting them to archaeologist to do further investigation. When they find sites, they have to first record the area and if they have the money, there are many ways to find sites, one example can be through surveys. Surveys involve walking around analyzing the land looking for artifacts. ”This helps archaeologists in the future. In case there was no time, or money during the finding of the site, archaeologists can come back, archaeologist can also sample randomly within a given area of land as another form of conducting surveys. Surveys are very useful, according to Jess Beck, “it can tell you where people were living at different points in the past. ”Geophysics is a branch of survey becoming more and more popular in archaeology, because it uses different types of instruments to investigate features below the ground surface. It is not as reliable, because although they can see what is under the surface of the ground it does not produce the best picture, Archaeologists have to still dig up the area in order to uncover the truth. There are also two most common types of survey, which is, magnetometer and ground penetrating radar. Magnetometry is the technique of measuring and mapping patterns of magnetism in the soil and it uses an instrument called a magnetometer which is required to measure and map traces of soil magnetism. The ground penetrating radar is a method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface and it uses electro magnetic radiation in the microwave band of the radio spectrum, and detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures. There are many tools that can be used to find artifacts. This tool is helpful to archaeologists who want to explore in a different area. They can use this tool to see what has already been discovered, with this information available, archaeologists can expand their research and add more to what has already been found. Traditionally, sites are distinguished by the presence of artifacts and features
Archaeological site
–
An archaeological site with human presence dating from 4th century BC, Fillipovka, South Urals,
Russia. This site has been interpreted to be a
Sarmatian Kurgan.
Archaeological site
–
Monte Albán, a
Zapotec site in
Oaxaca,
Mexico
11.
Giza Plateau
–
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
Giza Plateau
–
From north to south: parts of the city of Giza, the Giza Necropolis, and part of the Giza plateau
Giza Plateau
–
City
12.
Cairo
–
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
Cairo
–
Cairo القاهرة al-Qāhirah
Cairo
–
Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933). On the Way between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes, 1872. Oil on canvas.
Brooklyn Museum
Cairo
–
A rendition of
Fustat from A. S. Rappoport's History of Egypt
Cairo
–
Cairo map 1847
13.
Sculpture
–
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies. The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
Sculpture
–
The Dying Gaul, or The Capitoline Gaul a Roman marble copy of a
Hellenistic work of the late 3rd century BCE
Capitoline Museums, Rome
Sculpture
Sculpture
–
Michelangelo 's
Moses, (c. 1513–1515), housed in the church of
San Pietro in Vincoli in
Rome. The sculpture was commissioned in 1505 by
Pope Julius II for his
tomb.
Sculpture
–
Assyrian
lamassu gate guardian from
Khorsabad, c. 721–800 BCE
14.
Great Sphinx
–
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
Great Sphinx
–
The Great Sphinx of Giza, 2015
Great Sphinx
Great Sphinx
–
Views, Objects: Egypt. Gizeh [selected images]. View 06: Sphinx and Pyramid., n.d. Brooklyn Museum Archives
Great Sphinx
–
The Great Sphinx partly under the sand, ca. 1870s
15.
Libyan Desert
–
The Libyan Desert forms the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert. The Libyan Desert is one of the driest, harshest and most remote parts of the greater Sahara and this extended desert country is barren, bone dry and rainless. Modern Libya is divided into the regions of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, the country covers an area of 1,760,000 square kilometres. Most of which is desert save for a coastal strip to the north on the shore of the Mediterranean. Like most of the Sahara, this desert is primarily sand, Sand plains, dunes, ridges, and some depressions typify the endorheic region, with no rivers draining into or out of the desert. The desert features a diversity of landscapes including mountains, oases. To the south lie the main ranges, from the Jebel Uweinat, on the Libya-Egypt-Sudan border, the Tibesti to the south, on the border with Chad. The main oases are Jaghbub and Jalo in east, in Cyrenaica, Kufra in the southeast, the sand seas lie in a ring around the border of Libya. To the south-east lies the Rebiana Sand Sea, near the border with Sudan, to the south west is the Idehan Murzuq, bordering Chad, and to west lies the Idehan Ubari, bordering Algeria. The sand seas contain dunes up to 512 meters in height, to the southeast, between Kufra and the Libya-Egypt-Sudan border, lies the Jebel Arkenu, with the associated Arkenu structures, thought to be caused by meteorite strikes. North of the Gilf Kebir plateau, among the shallow peripheral dunes of the southern Great Sand Sea, is a field of Libyan desert glass and this is thought to be associated with a meteorite impact, marked by the Kebira crater, on the Libya-Egypt border. A specimen of the glass was used in a piece of Tutankhamuns ancient jewellery. The Libyan Desert is barely populated apart from the settlements at oases of the lower Cyrenaica region in southeastern Libya. The indigenous population are Bisharin tribe, Mahas, and Berber, where the desert extends into Egypt and no longer in Libya, it is generally known as the Western Desert. The term Western Desert contrasts with the Eastern Desert to the east of the Nile River, the Libyan desert is said to be one of the least hospitable regions on Earth. Its climate is variable, being hot in summer, with average daytime temperatures of 50 °C and above. In winter days are cool, with temperastures averaging 27 °C, at these times the formation of hoar frost is not uncommon, and are known as White Nights. Contrariwise, at Aziziya a daytime temperature of 58 °C was seen in 1922, in the north, along the Mediterranean shore, cool onshore winds blow inland, while further south, hot, dry winds, known as Ghibli, blow from the interior, creating blinding sand-storms
Libyan Desert
–
The Libyan Desert landscape, in southern
Libya.
Libyan Desert
–
Quartz-rich sand from the Western Desert near Sakkara, Egypt.
Libyan Desert
–
In this map of Africa from
Sebastian Münster 's
Cosmographia (1545), the Libyan desert (marked Libyae desertum and Libya Interior) is shown in the center of the continent, west of
Nubiae regnum, south of
Regnum Tunis and east of
Regnum Senegae.
16.
Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination
–
Egypt has had a legendary image in the West through the Greek and Hebrew traditions. Egypt was already ancient to outsiders, and the idea of Egypt has continued to be at least as influential in the history of ideas as the actual historical Egypt itself. After Late Antiquity, the Old Testament image of Egypt as the land of enslavement for the Hebrews predominated, herodotus, in his Histories, Book II, gives a detailed if selectively coloured and imaginative description of ancient Egypt. He praises peasants preservation of history through oral tradition, and Egyptians piety and he lists the many animals to which Egypt is home, including the mythical phoenix and winged serpent, and gives inaccurate descriptions of the hippopotamus and horned viper. Both Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius mention that Thales studied in Egypt, iamblichus of Chalcis in the 3rd century CE reports that Pythagoras studied in Egypt for 22 years. From the classical texts that thus evolved, a mythical Egypt emerges as the mother-country of Religion, Wisdom, Philosophy, Egypt is mentioned 611 times in the Bible, between Genesis 12,10 and Revelation 11,8. Following the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Egypt, the West lost direct contact with Egypt, in Medieval Europe, Egypt was depicted primarily in the illustration and interpretation of the biblical accounts. These illustrations were often quite fanciful, as the iconography and style of ancient Egyptian art, architecture, biblical hermeneutics were primarily theological in nature, and had little to do with historical investigations. Throughout the Middle Ages mummy, made, if it were genuine, during the Renaissance the German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher gave n allegorical decipherment of hieroglyphs through which Egypt was thought of as a source of ancient mystic or occult wisdom. In alchemist circles, the prestige of Egyptians rose, early in the 18th century, Jean Terrasson had written Sethos, a work of fiction, which launched the notion of Egyptian mysteries. In an atmosphere of antiquarian interest, a sense arose that ancient knowledge was embodied in Egyptian monuments. But the broken ruins that sometimes appeared in paintings of the episode of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt were always of Roman character, with historicism came the first fictions set in the Egypt of the imagination. Shakespeares Antony and Cleopatra had been set partly in Alexandria, but its protagonists were noble and universal, the rationale for Egyptomania rests on a similar concept, Westerners looked to ancient Egyptian motifs because ancient Egypt itself was intrinsically so alluring. Their legislators had judged that this moral impression would contribute to the stability of their empire, the culture of Romanticism embraced every exotic locale, and its rise in the popular imagination coincided with Napoleons failed Egyptian campaign. A modern Battle of the Nile could hardly fail to stir renewed curiosity about Egypt beyond the figure of Cleopatra, at about the same moment, the tarot was brought to Europes attention by the Frenchman Antoine Court de Gebelin as a purported key to the occult knowledge of Egypt. All this gave rise to Egyptomania and occult tarot and this legendary Egypt has been difficult, but not impossible to concile with the 1824 decryption of hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion. Ancient Egypt provided the setting for the Italian composer Verdis stately 1871 opera Aida and it is, at the same time, one of the most compelling literary reconstructions of life at every level of ancient Egyptian society. In 1966 the novel was adapted as a Polish feature film, in 1912, the discovery of an exquisite painted limestone bust of Nefertiti, unearthed from its sculptors workshop near the royal city of Amarna, added the first new celebrity of Egypt
Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination
–
Tutankhamun 's mask.
Egyptian Museum,
Cairo.
Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination
–
Foire du Caire, Paris (1798), with
Hathor heads and Egyptianizing frieze
Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination
–
Rowlandson 's 1806 satire on craze for
ancient Egypt after
Napoleon 's invasion
Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination
–
John Martin 's
Seventh Plague of Egypt (1828) set the Biblical plague in
Hellenistic Alexandria.
17.
Hellenistic civilization
–
It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
Hellenistic civilization
–
The
Nike of Samothrace is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of
Hellenistic art.
Hellenistic civilization
–
Alexander fighting the Persian king
Darius III. From the
Alexander Mosaic,
Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Hellenistic civilization
–
Alexander's empire at the time of its maximum expansion.
18.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
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
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
The
Great Pyramid of Giza, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (from left to right, top to bottom):
Great Pyramid of Giza,
Hanging Gardens of Babylon,
Temple of Artemis,
Statue of Zeus at Olympia,
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,
Colossus of Rhodes, and the
Lighthouse of Alexandria as depicted by 16th-century Dutch artist
Maarten van Heemskerck.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
–
In this painting by
Maerten van Heemskerck, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are depicted as a background for the abduction of Helen by Paris. The Walters Art Museum.
19.
Brooklyn Museum
–
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum is New York Citys third largest in physical size, the museum initially struggled to maintain its building and collection, only to be revitalized in the late 20th century, thanks to major renovations. Significant areas of the collection include antiquities, specifically their collection of Egyptian antiquities spanning over 3,000 years, African, Oceanic, and Japanese art make for notable antiquities collections as well. American art is represented, starting at the Colonial period. Artists represented in the collection include Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Georgia OKeeffe, the museum also has a Memorial Sculpture Garden which features salvaged architectural elements from throughout New York City. The roots of the Brooklyn Museum extend back to the 1823 founding by Augustus Graham of the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library in Brooklyn Heights, in 1890, under its director Franklin Hooper, Institute leaders reorganized as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and began planning the Brooklyn Museum. The initial design for the Brooklyn Museum was four times as large as the actualized version, Daniel Chester French, the noted sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, was the principal designer of the pediment sculptures and the monolithic 12. 5-foot figures along the cornice. The figures were created by 11 sculptors and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, by 1920, the New York City Subway reached the museum with a subway station, this greatly improved access to the once-isolated museum from Manhattan and other outer boroughs. The Brooklyn Institutes director Franklin Hooper was the museums first director and he was followed by Philip Newell Youtz, Laurance Page Roberts, Isabel Spaulding Roberts, Charles Nagel, Jr. and Edgar Craig Schenck. Thomas S. Buechner became the director in 1960, making him one of the youngest directors in the country. Buechner oversaw a major transformation in the way the museum displayed art and brought some one thousand works that had languished in the museums archives and put them on display. Buechner played a role in rescuing the Daniel Chester French sculptures from destruction due to an expansion project at the Manhattan Bridge in the 1960s. The Brooklyn Museum changed its name to Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1997, on March 12,2004, the museum announced that it would revert to its previous name. In April 2004, the museum opened the James Polshek-designed entrance pavilion on the Eastern Parkway façade, in September 2014, Lehman announced that he was planning to retire around June 2015. In May 2015, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak was named the Museums next director, member institutions occupy land or buildings owned by the City of New York and derive part of their yearly funding from the City. The Brooklyn Museum also supplements its earned income with funding from Federal and State governments, as well as donations by individuals. Major benefactors include Frank Lusk Babbott, the museum is the site of the annual Brooklyn Artists Ball which has included celebrity hosts such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Liv Tyler. The Brooklyn Museum exhibits collections that seek to embody the rich heritage of world cultures
Brooklyn Museum
–
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
–
Replica of the
Statue of Liberty in back lot.
Brooklyn Museum
–
Book of the Dead of the Goldworker of Amun, Sobekmose, 31.1777e
Brooklyn Museum
–
Brooklyn Papyrus 664-332 BCE
20.
Auguste Mariette
–
François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, and founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities. Meanwhile, his cousin Nestor LHote, the friend and fellow-traveller of Champollion, died, largely self-taught, he devoted himself to the study of hieroglyphics and Coptic. His 1847 analytic catalogue of the Egyptian Gallery of the Boulogne Museum got him an appointment at the Louvre Museum in 1849. The site initially looked a spectacle of desolation, thus, in 1851, he made his celebrated discovery of this avenue and eventually the subterranean tomb-temple complex of catacombs with their spectacular sarcophagi of the Apis bulls. Breaking through the rubble at the entrance on November 12, he entered the complex, finding thousands of statues, bronze tablets and other treasures. He also found the intact tomb of Prince Khaemweset, Ramesses IIs son. Accused of theft and destruction by rival diggers and by the Egyptian authorities, Mariette began to rebury his finds in the desert to keep them from these competitors. However, the French government and the Louvre set up an arrangement to divide the finds 50,50, so that upon his return to Paris 230 crates went to the Louvre, but an equal amount remained in Egypt. In 1860 alone, Mariette set up 35 new dig sites and his success was aided by the fact that no rivals were permitted to dig in Egypt, a fact that the British and Germans protested at as a sweetheart deal between Egypt and France. Nor were Mariettes relations with the Khedive always stable, the Khedive, like many potentates, assumed all discoveries ranked as treasure and that what went to the museum in Cairo went only at his pleasure. Even early on, in February 1859, Mariette dashed to Thebes to confiscate a boatload of antiquities from the tomb of Queen Ahhotep I that were to have been sent to the Khedive. In 1867, he returned to oversee the ancient Egyptian stand at the Exposition Universelle, in 1869, at the request of the Khedive, he wrote a brief plot for an opera. The following year this concept, worked into a scenario by Camille du Locle, was proposed to Giuseppe Verdi, for Aida, Mariette and Du Locle oversaw the scenery and costumes, which were inspired by the art of Ancient Egypt. The premiere of Aida was originally scheduled for February 1871, but was delayed until 24 December 1871, the opera met with great acclaim. Mariette was raised successively to the rank of bey and pasha, in 1878, his museum was ravaged by floods, which destroyed most of his notes and drawings. At this time, the English comprised the majority of Egyptologists in Egypt and he died in Cairo and was interred in a sarcophagus which is on display in the Garden of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The bust of other famous Egyptologists, including Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, have placed on a semi-circular memorial around the sarcophagus. Though not all his discoveries were published, the list of his publications is a long one
Auguste Mariette
–
Mariette by Nadar, ca.1861
Auguste Mariette
–
Auguste Mariette (seated, far left) and Emperor
Pedro II of Brazil (seated, far right) with others during the monarch's visit to the
Giza Necropolis at the end of 1871.
Auguste Mariette
–
A statue of Auguste Mariette in his home city of
Boulogne-sur-Mer.
21.
Pedro II of Brazil
–
Dom Pedro II, nicknamed the Magnanimous, was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina. His fathers abrupt abdication and departure to Europe in 1831 left a five-year-old Pedro II as Emperor and led to a grim and lonely childhood, obliged to spend his time studying in preparation for rule, he knew only brief moments of happiness and encountered few friends of his age. Inheriting an Empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II turned Portuguese-speaking Brazil into a power in the international arena. Brazil was also victorious in three international conflicts under his rule, as well as prevailing in other international disputes. Pedro II steadfastly pushed through the abolition of slavery despite opposition from powerful political, a savant in his own right, the Emperor established a reputation as a vigorous sponsor of learning, culture and the sciences. Pedro II had become weary of emperorship and despaired over the future prospects. He did not allow his ouster to be opposed and did not support any attempt to restore the monarchy and he spent the last two years of his life in exile in Europe, living alone on very little money. The men who had exiled him soon began to see in him a model for the Brazilian republic, a few decades after his death, his reputation was restored and his remains were returned to Brazil with celebrations nationwide. Historians have regarded the Emperor in a positive light and several have ranked him as the greatest Brazilian. Pedro was born at 02,30 on 2 December 1825 in the Palace of São Cristóvão, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Named after St. Peter of Alcantara, his name in full was Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga. Through his father, Emperor Dom Pedro I, he was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza and was referred to using the honorific Dom from birth and he was the grandson of Portuguese King Dom João VI and nephew of Dom Miguel I. His mother was the Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, daughter of Franz II, through his mother, Pedro was a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and first cousin of Emperors Napoleon II of France, Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and Don Maximiliano I of Mexico. The only legitimate child of Pedro I to survive infancy. Empress Maria Leopoldina died on 11 December 1826, a few days after a stillbirth, Two and a half years later, his father married Amélie of Leuchtenberg. Prince Pedro developed a relationship with her, whom he came to regard as his mother. He and Amélie immediately departed for Europe, leaving behind the Prince Imperial, upon leaving the country, Emperor Pedro I selected three people to take charge of his son and remaining daughters
Pedro II of Brazil
–
Emperor Pedro II at age 12 wearing court dress and the
Order of the Golden Fleece, 1838
Pedro II of Brazil
–
Emperor
Dom Pedro II around age 61, c. 1887
Pedro II of Brazil
–
Pedro II at age 20 wearing court dress, 1846
Pedro II of Brazil
–
Pedro II around age 22, c. 1848. This is the earliest surviving photograph of the Emperor
22.
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
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
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Great Pyramid of Giza
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Transparent view of Khufu's pyramid from SE. Taken from a 3d Model
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Great Pyramid of Giza from a 19th-century
stereopticon card
photo
Great Pyramid of Giza
–
Casing stone in the
British Museum.
23.
Khufu
–
Khufu, originally Khnum-Khufu, is the birth name of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty in the first half of the Old Kingdom period. Khufu was the pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, he followed his possible father, king Sneferu. He is generally accepted as having commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the only completely preserved portrait of the king is a three-inch high ivory figurine found in a temple ruin of later period at Abydos in 1903. All other reliefs and statues were found in fragments and many buildings of Khufu are lost, everything known about Khufu comes from inscriptions in his necropolis at Giza and later documents. For example, Khufu is the actor of the famous Papyrus Westcar from the 13th dynasty. Most documents that mention king Khufu were written by ancient Egyptian, thanks to these documents, an obscure and critical picture of Khufus personality persists. Khufus name was dedicated to the earth deity Khnum, which point to an increase of Khnums popularity. Khufu may have viewed himself as a creator, a role that was already given to Khnum. As a consequence, the king connected Khnums name with his own, interestingly, the pharaoh officially used two versions of his birth name, Khnum-khuf and Khufu. The first version clearly exhibits Khufus religious loyalty to Khnum, the version does not. It is unknown as to why the king would use a shortened version, since it hides the name of Khnum. It might be possible though, that the name wasnt meant to be connected to any god at all. Khufu is well known under his Hellenized name Khêops or Cheops and less well known under another Hellenized name, a rare version of the name of Khufu, used by Josephus, is Sofe. Arab historians, who wrote stories about Khufu and the Giza pyramids. The royal family of Khufu was quite large and it is uncertain if Khufu was actually the biological son of Sneferu. Mainstream Egyptologists believe Sneferu was Khufus father, but only because it was handed down by historians that the eldest son or a selected descendant would inherit the throne. In 1925 the tomb of queen Hetepheres I, G 7000x, was found east of Khufus pyramid and it contained many precious grave goods, and several inscriptions give her the title Mut-nesut, together with the name of king Sneferu. Therefore, it seemed clear at first that Hetepheres was the wife of Sneferu, more recently, however, some have doubted this theory, because Hetepheres is not known to have borne the title Hemet-nesut, a title indispensable to confirm a queens royal status
Khufu
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Statue of Khufu in the
Cairo Museum
Khufu
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Portrait of Sneferu, Khufu's father or stepfather
Khufu
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Granite fragment with Khufu's horus name Medjedu on it.
Khufu
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Ivory idol of Khufu in detail
24.
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
Pyramid of Khafre
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Pyramid of Khafre
Pyramid of Khafre
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The Pyramid of Khafre and the
Great Sphinx of Giza
Pyramid of Khafre
Pyramid of Khafre
25.
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
Pyramid of Menkaure
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Pyramid of Menkaure
Pyramid of Menkaure
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Isometric views of the pyramid of Menkaure taken from a 3d model
Pyramid of Menkaure
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Base of Menkaure's pyramid, adjacent to the northern entrance. The bottom courses of granite are visibly unfinished, probably halted in mid-work due to the death of the pharaoh.
Pyramid of Menkaure
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The Damage to the Pyramid.
26.
Khafre
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Khafra was an ancient Egyptian king of 4th dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He was the son of Khufu and the successor of Djedefre. According to the ancient historian Manetho, Khafra was followed by king Bikheris, Khafra was the builder of the second largest pyramid of Giza. The view held by modern Egyptology at large remains that the Great Sphinx was built in approximately 2500 BC for Khafra. There is not much known about Khafra, except the reports of Herodotus, who describes him as a cruel and heretic ruler. Khafra was a son of king Khufu and the brother and successor of Djedefre, Khafra is thought by some to be the son of Queen Meritites I due to an inscription where he is said to honor her memory. Others argue that the inscription just suggests that this queen died during the reign of Khafre, Khafre may be a son of Queen Henutsen instead. Khafra had several wives and he had at least 12 sons and 3 or 4 daughters, Queen Meresankh III was the daughter of Kawab and Hetepheres II and thus a niece of Khafra. She was the mother of Khafras sons Nebemakhet, Duaenre, Niuserre and Khentetka, Queen Khamerernebty I was the mother of Menkaure and his principal queen Khamerernebty II. Hekenuhedjet was a wife of Khafra and she is mentioned in the tomb of her son Sekhemkare. Persenet may have been a wife of Khafra based on the location of her tomb and she was the mother of Nikaure. Other children of Khafra are known, but no mothers have been identified, further sons include Ankhmare, Akhre, Iunmin, and Iunre. Two more daughters named Rekhetre and Hemetre are known as well, there is no agreement on the date of his reign. Some authors say it was between 2558 BC and 2532 BC, this dynasty is dated ca.2650 BC–2480 BC. The will is dated anonymously to the Year of the 12th Count and is assumed to belong to Khufu since Nekure was his son. Khafras highest year date is the Year of the 13th occurrence which is a date on the back of a casing stone belonging to mastaba G7650. This would imply a reign of 24–25 years for this if the cattle count was biannual during the Fourth Dynasty. Khafra built the second largest pyramid at Giza, the Egyptian name of the pyramid was Wer-Khafre which means Khafre is Great
Khafre
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Diorite statue of Khafra, now in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo
Khafre
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Cartouche name Kha'afre in the
Abydos King List
Khafre
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King Khafre. In Ägyptisches Museum
Georg Steindorff,
Leipzig
Khafre
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Lantern Slide Collection: Views, Objects: Egypt. Gizeh [selected images]. View 07: Egyptian - Old Kingdom. Plan of Temple of Khephren. Gizeh, 4th Dyn., n.d. Brooklyn Museum Archives
27.
Nummulite
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A nummulite is a large lenticular fossil, characterized by its numerous coils, subdivided by septa into chambers. They are the shells of the fossil and present-day marine protozoan Nummulites, Nummulites commonly vary in diameter from 1.3 cm to 5 cm and are common in Eocene to Miocene marine rocks, particularly around southwest Asia and the Mediterranean. Fossils up to 6 inches wide are found in the Middle Eocene rocks of Turkey.2 They are valuable as index fossils, the ancient Egyptians used nummulite shells as coins and the pyramids were constructed using limestone that contained nummulites. It is not surprising then that the name Nummulites is a form of the Latin nummulus meaning little coin. Nummulite, Tiscali Dictionary of Animals, retrieved 17 August 20042, biggest Microbes, Guinness World Records 2001, p.153. Biofabrics as Dynamic Indicators in Nummulite Accumulations, a Review of Eocene Nummulite Accumulations, Structure, Formation and Reservoir Potential. Nummulite biostratigraphy at the Middle/Upper Eocene boundary in the northern Mediterranean area, rivista italiana di paleontologia e stratigrafia. Guido, Adriano, Papazzoni, Cesare, Mastandrea, Adelaide, Morsilli, Michele, La Russa, Mauro F. Tosti, Fabio, Russo, automicrite in a nummulite bank from the Monte Saraceno, evidence for synsedimentary cementation
Nummulite
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Fossil nummulitid foraminiferans showing microspheric and megalospheric individuals;
Eocene of the
United Arab Emirates; scale in mm.
Nummulite
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Fossil nummulites in
Urbasa,
Navarre
Nummulite
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This article includes a
list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient
inline citations. Please help to
improve this article by
introducing more precise citations. (November 2015)
28.
Great Sphinx of Giza
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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
Great Sphinx of Giza
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The Great Sphinx of Giza, 2015
Great Sphinx of Giza
Great Sphinx of Giza
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Views, Objects: Egypt. Gizeh [selected images]. View 06: Sphinx and Pyramid., n.d. Brooklyn Museum Archives
Great Sphinx of Giza
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The Great Sphinx partly under the sand, ca. 1870s
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