1.
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, 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 largest pyramid by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the Mesopotamians built the earliest pyramidal structures, called ziggurats. In ancient times, these were 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
2.
Giza
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Giza, is the third-largest city in Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile,5 km southwest of central Cairo, along with Cairo Governorate, Shubra El-Kheima, Helwan, 6th October City and Obour, the five form Greater Cairo metropolis. The city of Giza is the capital of the Giza Governorate and it is located right on the banks of the River Nile. The citys population was 2,681,863 in the 2006 national census and its large population made it the worlds second largest suburb in 2006, tied with Incheon, South Korea and Quezon City, Philippines, second only to Yokohama, Japan. Giza has always been a point in Egypts history due to its location close to Memphis. Its St. George cathedral is the see of the Coptic Catholic Eparchy of Giza. The Great Pyramid of Giza at one time was advocated as the location for the Prime Meridian, a reference point used for determining a base longitude. Mn Nefer, which means the wall in the ancient Egyptian language. Gizas most famous site, the Giza Plateau, holds some major monuments of Egyptian history. Once thriving with the Nile that flowed right into the Giza Plateau, the Giza Plateau is also home to Egyptian monuments such as the tomb of Pharaoh Djet of the First Dynasty, as well as that of Pharaoh Ninetjer of the Second Dynasty. The area in what is now Giza served as the necropolis of several pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt, Three of these tombs, in the form of giant pyramids, are what is now the famed Three Pyramids of Giza. As ancient Egypt passed under several conquests under the Persians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, a Byzantine village named Teresa, located south of Giza, existed before the Muslim conquest of the region. A year later in 642 AD, they founded the city of Giza and its name, al-Jizzah in Arabic, means the valley or the plateau, pertaining to the areas topography. Giza has seen changes over time. Giza is a centre of Egyptian culture and is quite heavily populated, with many facilities. Giza saw much attention in particular to its vast amount of ancient Egyptian monuments found on the Giza Plateau, gizas infrastructure saw much attention from both the British government prior to the 1952 coup détat, as well as the current Egyptian government due to the citys importance in tourism. The city hosts the first zoo on the entire African continent and one of the oldest in the Mediterranean region, in addition, there are several parks, the most famous among them is Orman Park, which means Forest Park in the Turkish language. Giza has advanced level of medical care just like its elder twin Cairo, a list of famous hospitals in Giza, Agooza in Agouza district
3.
Giza Governorate
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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
4.
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
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Early Dynastic Period (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
8.
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
9.
World Heritage Site
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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
10.
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
11.
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
12.
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 William Howard Vyse, who first visited Egypt in 1835, discovered in the upper antechamber the remains of a wooden anthropoid coffin inscribed with Menkaures name, deeper into the pyramid, Vyse came upon a beautiful basalt sarcophagus, rich in detail with a bold projecting corniche
13.
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
14.
Giza West Field
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The Giza West Field is located on the Giza Plateau, to the west of the Pharaoh Khufu’s pyramid. The West Field contains Cemetery G1000 – Cemetery G1600, and Cemetery G1900, further cemeteries in this field are, Cemeteries G2000, G2200, G2500, G3000, G4000, and G6000. Three other cemeteries are named after their excavators, Junker Cemetery West, Junker Cemetery East, Cemetery G2100 was first excavated by Lepsius in 1842. The first tomb to be cleared was the mastaba owned by Merib, in 1905/6 the Harvard-Boston Museum expedition excavated this cemetery and further excavations date to 1912-13 and 1931-32. The cemetery consists of four rows of large mastabas, The western most row consists of the mastabas of Merib, Sedit, a second row consists of the mastabas of Seshatsekhentiu, Khentka. The presence of Reserve heads and slab stela points to the reign of Khufu for the construction of the earliest of the tombs in this cemetery, the family complex of Senedjemib Inti makes up an important part of this cemetery. Senedjemib Inti was vizier and chief architect to King Djedkare Isesi and his son Senedjemib Mehi followed in his footsteps as the vizier and chief architect under Unas, and eventually another son named Khnumenti became vizier under Teti. A man named Mer-ptah-ankh-meryre Nekhebu may be a grandson of Inti, nekhebus sons Mer-ptah-ankh-meryre Ptahshepses Impy and Sabu-ptah Ibebi were buried in this cemetery as well. This cemetery was excavated by Hermann Junker for the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Vienna, Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, the toms are not numbered and are named after their owner. This cemetery contains mostly brick-built mastabas, the cemetery was excavated by Georg Steindorff for the University of Leipzig and Pelizaeus Expedition. Several of the tombs were excavated by Hermann Junker. The Giza Archives Website maintained by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, quote, This website is a comprehensive resource for research on Giza
15.
Giza East Field
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The East Field is located to the east of Khufu’s pyramid and contains cemetery G7000. This cemetery was a place for some of the family members of Khufu. The cemetery also includes mastabas from tenants and priests of the pyramids dated to the 5th dynasty, the East Field consists of the three Queens pyramids and a number of mastabas labeled Cemetery G7000. Reisner constructed a timeline for the construction of the East Field, the first two Queens Pyramids, G 1a and G 1b, were likely started in year 15-17 of King Khufu. The earliest part of the cemetery consisted of 12 mastabas which were built as double mastabas, of these the great mastaba G7510 of kings son and vizier Ankhhaf stands out due to its size. The construction of several other mastabas can be dated to the time of King Khafra, G7530 +7540, the tomb of Meresankh III, contains quarry inscriptions dating to year 13 of that king. Mastaba G7050, belonging to Nefertkau I, was built during the reign of Khafra as well, further additions date to the end of the 4th, 5th and 6th dynasty and even later. Pyramid G 1a was at first thought to belong to Queen Meritites I, all three pyramids have a square base measuring about 45 –49 m. on a side. The angle of inclination is about 51° 50‘ for all three, shaft tomb, Nucleus of Cemetery G7000 The later additions to the cemetery, The Giza Archives Website maintained by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Quote, This website is a resource for research on Giza
16.
Cemetery GIS
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Cemetery GIS is a necropolis in the Giza Plateau. It derives its name from its proximity to pyramid G I, the tombs are located on the south side of that pyramid and hence the name G I South Cemetery. Reisner thought the cemetery a continuation of the G7000 cemetery which is part of the Giza East Field, the construction postdates that of mastaba G7070 of Sneferukhaf. Junker dated the cemetery to the reign of Menkaure based on the presence of granite powder thought to derive from the dressing of the pyramid at Giza. Reisner allows for a construction date dating to the reign of Khafre. This cemetery also contains several mastabas built of stone, which date to as late as the 6th dynasty. Tombs from the time of Menkaure include the mastabas of the royal chamberlain Khaemnefert, the King’s son Khufudjedef who was master of the largesse. The following are a collection of found in this cemetery. There are also many shafts without any superstructure that belong to this cemetery, unnumbered tombs from the G I S cemetery include, Giza Necropolis - overview of the Giza necropolis. Giza East Field - including the Queens Pyramids from the Khufu pyramid complex and royal cemetery G7000 Giza West Field - including cemeteries G1000, G1100, G1200, the Giza Archives Website maintained by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Quote, This website is a resource for research on Giza
17.
Arabic
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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
18.
Archaeological site
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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
19.
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
20.
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
21.
Sculpture
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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
22.
Western Desert (Egypt)
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The Western Desert of Egypt is an area of the Sahara which lies west of the river Nile, up to the Libyan border, and south from the Mediterranean sea to the border with Sudan. It is named in contrast to the Eastern Desert which extends east from the Nile to Red Sea, the Western Desert is mostly rocky desert, though an area of sandy desert, known as the Great Sand Sea, lies to the west against the Libyan border. The desert covers an area of 262,800 sq miles which is two-thirds of the area of the country. Its highest elevation is 3,300 ft in the Gilf Kebir plateau to the far south-west of the country, the Western Desert is barren and uninhabited save for a chain of oases which extend in an arc from Siwa, in the north-west, to Kharga in the south. However it has been the scene of conflict in modern times and he also states that little of the area conforms to the romantic view. These lie in an arc from Siwa in the north-west near the Libyan border, to Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla, east of Siwa lies the Qattara Depression, a low-lying area dotted with salt marsh and extending 190 miles west to east and 84 miles north to south. Further to the east, near the Nile, another depression gives rise to the Fayyum Oasis, to the south, beyond the Bahariya oasis lies the Black Desert, an area of black volcanic hills and dolerite deposits. Beyond this, north of Farafra, lies the White Desert, an area of wind-sculpted chalk rock formations, which give the area its name. To the south of Kharga the plateau rises towards the Gilf Kebir, an upland region lying astride the Egypt-Sudan border and home to pre-historic sites such as the Cave of Swimmers. In the south-west, near the point where the borders of Libya, Sudan and Egypt meet, is an area of glass, thought to have been formed by a meteorite strike at Kebira. The Great Sand Sea is a roughly lung-shaped area of sandy desert lying astride the border with Libya,200 miles inland from the Mediterranean. The sea is divided by a peninsula of rocky desert along the border, leaving the eastern lobe in Egypt and the western in Libya. On the Egyptian side it extends from a point south of Siwa for 400 miles into the interior, the Western Desert was known historically as the Libyan Desert, taking its name from Ancient Libya, which lay between the Nile and Cyrenaica. With the formation of the state of Libya, the term Western Desert has come to describe part of the Sahara in Egypt. To the Ancient Greeks, the term Libya described the whole Saharan littoral west of the Nile to the Atlas mountains. During Roman times the term Libya was limited to Cyrenaica and the region between there and Egypt, which were organized as the provinces of Libya Superior and Libya Inferior, the term Libyan Desert then applied to the area to the south of these. Playfair described the Western Desert of 1940 as being 240 miles wide and 150 miles wide, the contemporary use of the term refers to the entire desert in Egypt west of the Nile. It is thought over-grazing and climate led to desertification and the current geography
23.
Nile
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The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta
24.
Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination
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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
25.
Hellenistic period
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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
26.
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
27.
Brooklyn Museum
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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
28.
Auguste Mariette
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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
29.
Pedro II of Brazil
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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
30.
Khufu
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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
31.
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
32.
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
33.
Menkaure
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Menkaure, was an ancient Egyptian king of the 4th dynasty during the Old Kingdom, who is well known under his Hellenized names Mykerinos and Menkheres. According to Manetho, he was the successor of king Bikheris. Menkaure became famous for his tomb, the Pyramid of Menkaure, at Giza and his beautiful statue triads, showing the king together with his wives Rekhetre, Menkaure was the son of Khafra and the grandson of Khufu. A flint knife found in the temple of Menkaure mentioned a kings mother Khamerernebty I, suggesting that Khafra. Menkaure is thought to have had at least two wives, Queen Khamerernebty II is the daughter of Khamerernebti I and the mother of a kings son Khuenre. The location of Khuenres tomb suggests that he was a son of Menkaure, Queen Rekhetre is known to have been a daughter of Khafra and as such the most likely identity of her husband is Menkaure. Not many children are attested for Menkaure, Khuenre was the son of queen Khamerernebti II, Menkaure was not succeeded by Prince Khuenre, his eldest son, who predeceased Menkaure, but rather by Shepseskaf, a younger son of this king. Shepseskaf was the successor to Menkaure and likely his son, sekhemre is known from a statue and possibly a son of Menkaure. A daughter that died in early adulthood is mentioned by Herodotus, khentkaus I - possible Menkaures daughter The royal court included several of Menkaures half brothers. His brothers Nebemakhet, Duaenre, Nikaure and Iunmin served as vizier during the reign of their brother and his brother Sekhemkare may have been younger and became vizier after the death of Menkaure. The length of Menkaures reign is uncertain, the ancient historian Manetho credits him with a rulership of 63 years, but this is surely an exaggeration. The Turin Canon is damaged at the spot where it should present the full sum of years, egyptologists think that an 18-year rulership was meant to be written, which is generally accepted. A contemporary workmen´s graffito reports about the “year after the 11th cattle count”, if the cattle count was held every second year, Menkaure might have ruled for 22 years. In 2013, a fragment of the sphinx of Menkaure was discovered at Tel Hazor at the entrance to the city palace, Menkaures pyramid at Giza was called Netjer-er-Menkaure which means Menkaure is Divine. This pyramid is the smallest of the three pyramids at Giza and this pyramid measures 103.4 meters at the base and 65.5 meters in height. There are three subsidiary pyramids associated with Menkaures pyramid and these pyramids are sometimes labeled G-IIIa, G-IIIb and G-IIIc. In the chapel associated with G-IIIa a statue of a Queen was found and it is possible that these pyramids were meant for the Queens of Khafra. It may be that Khamerernebti II was buried in one of the pyramids, the Valley temple was a mainly brick built structure which was enlarged in the 5th or 6th dynasty
34.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
35.
Amenhotep II
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Amenhotep II was the seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. His reign is dated from 1427 to 1401 BC. Amenhotep II was born to Thutmose III and a wife of the king. However, between Years 24 and 35 of Thutmose III, both queen Satiah and prince Amenemhat died, which prompted the pharaoh to marry the non-royal Merytre-Hatshepsut and she would bear Thutmose III a number of children including the future Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II was born and raised in Memphis in the north, instead of in Thebes, while a prince, he oversaw deliveries of wood sent to the dockyard of Peru-nūfe in Memphis, and was made the Setem, the high priest over Lower Egypt. Amenhotep has left several inscriptions touting his athletic skills while he was a leader of the army before his crowning, Amenhotep was no less athletic than his powerful father. He claims to have been able to shoot an arrow through a target one palm thick. Accordingly, some skepticism concerning the truth of his claims has been expressed among Egyptologists, Amenhotep acceded to the throne on the first day of the fourth month of Akhet, but his father died on the thirtieth day of the third month of Peret. If an Egyptian crown prince was proclaimed king but did not take the throne on the day after his fathers death, a coregency with Thutmose III and Amenhotep II is believed to have lasted for two years and four months. After becoming pharaoh, Amenhotep married a woman of uncertain parentage named Tiaa, as many as ten sons and one daughter have been attributed to him. Amenhoteps most important son was Thutmose IV, who succeeded him, however, Princes Amenhotep, Webensenu, Amenemopet, and Nedjem are all clearly attested, and Amenemhat, Khaemwaset, and Aakheperure as well as a daughter, Iaret, are also possible children. 10056, which dates to sometime after Amenhotep IIs tenth year, refers to a kings son and this Amenhotep might also be attested in a stele from Amenhotep IIs temple at Giza, however the steles name has been defaced so that positive identification is impossible. Stele B may belong to another son, Webensenu, webensenus name is otherwise attested on a statue of Amenhoteps chief architect, Minmose, and his canopic jars and a funerary statue have been found in Amenhotep IIs tomb. Another Giza stele, stele C, records the name of a Prince Amenemopet, the same statue with the name Webensenu on it is also inscribed with the name of prince Nedjem, who is otherwise unattested. There are other references to kings sons from this period who may or may not be sons of Amenhotep II, two graffiti from Sahel mention a kings son and stable master named Khaemwaset, but specifically which king is his father is unknown. A figure with the name Amenemhet is recorded behind a prince Amenhotep in Theban tomb 64,10056, Amenemhat would also be Amenhotep IIs son. Additionally, a prince Aakheperure is mentioned in a Konosso graffito alongside a prince Amenhotep,10056, Aakheperure would also have been Amenhotep IIs son. In addition to sons, Amenhotep II may have had a daughter named Iaret, two more sons had been attributed to Amenhotep II in the past, however, they have since been proven to be of other parentage
36.
Khentkaus I
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Khentkaus I, also referred to as Khentkawes, was a Queen of Ancient Egypt during the 4th dynasty. She may have been a daughter of pharaoh Menkaure, wife of both kings Shepseskaf and Userkaf and mother of Sahure and her Mastaba at Giza - tomb LG100 - is located very close to Menkaures pyramid complex. This close connection may point to a relationship, but it is not quite clear exactly what that relationship is. The proximity of Khentkaus pyramid complex to that of King Menkaure has led to the conjecture that she may have been his daughter and she may have been married to King Userkaf and may have been the mother of Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai. Verner has stated that it is likely however that Sahure was a son of Userkaf. It has also been suggested Khentkaus was the mother and regent for her son Thampthis, manethos King List has Menkaure and Thampthis reigning in the fourth dynasty, which ties her to the end of the fourth dynasty. Khentkaus appears to have served as a regent and may have taken on kingly titles. Some of her titles are ambiguous and are open to interpretation. King’s Mother Mother of Two Dual Kings or Dual King and Mother of a Dual King The Khentkaus Problem has a long history, in the 1930s Hassan proposed that Khentkaus was a daughter of Menkaure, and married first to Shepseskaf and later to Userkaf. Ventikiev was the first to suggest that the title mwt nswt bity nswt bity should be read as The Mother of two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt and he suggested that she was the daughter of Menkaure and the sister of Shepseskaf. Borchardt suggested that Shepseskaf was a commoner who married the king’s daughter Khentkaus and he further thought that Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai were sons of Shepseskaf and Khentkaus. Borchardt conjectured that Userkaf was an outsider who was able to take the throne because Sahure and Neferirkare were too young to ascend the throne when Shepseskaf died, altenmüller suggested that Khentkaus was none other than the lady Redjedjet mentioned in the Westcar Papyrus. He suggested that Khentkaus was the mother of Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare Kakai, kozloff theorized that Shepseskaf was the son of Menkaure with a minor wife who came to the throne after the death of the King’s Son Khuenre. Upon the premature death of Shepseskaf, Khentkaus married the High Priest of Re to secure the throne for her two sons, callender took the fact that Khentkaus’ name never appeared in a cartouche to mean that she never ruled Egypt. Instead she preferred to read the mwt nswt bity nswt bity title as the mother of two Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt and she thought Khentkaus had to be a daughter of Menkaure and the wife of either Shepseskaf or Thampthis. She pointed to Userkaf and Neferirkare as the two referred to as the sons of Khentkaus in her title. 29°5824. 26N 31°88. 19E Khentkaus was buried in Giza and her tomb is known as LG100 and G8400 and is located in the Central Field, Giza which is part of the Giza Necropolis. The pyramid complex of Queen Khentkaus includes her pyramid, a pit, a Valley Temple
37.
Egyptian pyramid construction techniques
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There have been many hypotheses about the Egyptian pyramid construction techniques. These techniques seem to have developed over time, later pyramids were not built the way as earlier ones. Most of the hypotheses are based on the idea that huge stones were carved with copper chisels from stone quarries. Disagreements chiefly concern the methods used to move and place the stones, in addition to the many unresolved arguments about the construction techniques, there have been disagreements as to the kind of workforce used. The Greeks, many years after the event, believed that the pyramids must have built by slave labor. For the Middle Kingdom Pyramid of Amenemhat II, there is evidence from the stone of the king that foreigners from Palestine were used. During the earliest period, pyramids were constructed wholly of stone, locally quarried limestone was the material of choice for the main body of these pyramids, while a higher quality of limestone quarried at Tura was used as the outer casing. Granite, quarried near Aswan, was used to some architectural elements, including the portcullis. Occasionally, granite was used in the casing as well. The Bent Pyramid at Dahshur seems to indicate acceptance of a technique at a transition between these two building techniques. Its lower section is built of sloping courses, while in its upper section the stones are laid horizontally, during the Middle Kingdom, pyramid construction techniques changed again. Most pyramids built then were more than mountains of mud brick encased in a veneer of polished limestone. In several cases, later pyramids were built on top of hills to further reduce the volume of material needed in their construction. One of the problems faced by the early pyramid builders was the need to move huge quantities of stone. The Twelfth Dynasty tomb of Djehutihotep has an illustration of 172 men pulling an alabaster statue of him on a sledge. The statue is estimated to weigh 60 tons and Denys Stocks estimated that 45 workers would be required to start moving a 16,300 kg lubricated block, or eight workers to move a 2,750 kg block. Dr R H G Parry has suggested a method for rolling the stones, four of those objects could be fitted around a block so it could be rolled easily. This idea was described by John Bush in 1977, and is mentioned in the Closing Remarks section of Parrys book
38.
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
39.
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
40.
Herodotus
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Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire and lived in the fifth century BC, a contemporary of Socrates. The Histories is the work which he is known to have produced. Despite Herodotus historical significance, little is known of his personal life and his place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact, of these only fragments of Hecataeuss work survive yet they allow us glimpses into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own Histories. In his introduction to Hecataeus’s work, Genealogies, This points forward to the ‘folksy’ yet ‘international’ outlook typical of Herodotus. Yet, one scholar has described the work of Hecataeus as “a curious false start to history” since despite his critical spirit. It is possible that Herodotus borrowed much material from Hecataeus, as stated by Porphyry in a recorded by Eusebius. But Hecataeus did not record events that had occurred in living memory, unlike Herodotus, Herodotus claims to be better informed than his predecessors by relying on empirical observation to correct their excessive schematism. For example, He argues for continental asymmetry as opposed to the theory of a perfectly circular earth with Europe. Yet, he retains idealizing tendencies, as in his notions of the Danube. His debt to previous authors of prose ‘histories’ might be questionable, however, this point is one of the most contentious issues in modern scholarship. It is on account of the strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics in early modern times branded him “The Father of Lies”. Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement, similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a “logos-writer”. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view, the interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus’s own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, modern accounts of his life typically go something like this, Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus around 484 BC. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, the epic poet Panyassis – a relative of Herodotus – is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. Herodotus expresses affection for the island of Samos, and this is an indication that he might have lived there in his youth. So it is possible that his family was involved in an uprising against Lygdamis, leading to a period of exile on Samos, Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect, yet he was born in Halicarnassus, which was a Dorian settlement
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Mark Lehner
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Mark Lehner is an American archaeologist with more than 30 years of experience excavating in Egypt. His approach, as director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, is to conduct interdisciplinary archaeological investigation, every excavated object is examined by specialists to create an overall picture of an archaeological site—from the buildings down to the pollen spores. He discovered that Pyramid G1-a, one of the pyramids of the Great Pyramid, belonged to Hetepheres I. Lehner first went to Egypt as a student in the 1970s and he turned to the scientific method of discovery in order to understand the culture better, returning some years later to complete a doctorate degree at Yale University. Lehners 1991 dissertation was titled Archaeology of an image, The Great Sphinx of Giza, lehners team has more recently included parts of Menkaures valley temple and the town attached to the monument of Queen Khentkawes in their excavations. AERAs 2009 field season was recorded in a blog, AERA has conducted a number of archaeological field schools for Egyptian antiquities inspectors under the auspices of Egypts Supreme Council of Antiquities. The AERA team has run basic and advanced courses at Giza, among his other work in Egypt, Lehner has produced the only known scale maps of the Giza Sphinx. Lehners book, The Complete Pyramids, is an catalogue of Egypts many pyramid sites. He has appeared in television programs about Ancient Egypt. He is an assistant professor of Egyptian archaeology at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Lehner took part in an American Association for the Advancement of Science debate centered around controversy surrounding the age of the Sphinx at Giza, Lehner has also starred and aided in the production of several documentaries about the pyramids which are regularly aired on the National Geographic Channel. He has consistently insisted that the Giza Necropolis was built in a span of 85 years between 2589 and 2504 BC, despite continued opposition from fringe theorists who believe them to be much older, Lehner has two sons, Ramses and Luke Lehner. Both sons graduated from the American University of Cairo and are theatrical actors and directors as well as musical producers, mark remarried and has had two more children, Eliza and Alexander Lehner. R. E. ISBN 0-87604-071-7 The Complete Pyramids, Slovenia, Thames and Hudson
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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
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