1.
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
2.
Egyptian chronology
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The majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. Scholarly consensus on the outline of the conventional chronology current in Egyptology has not fluctuated much over the last 100 years. For the Old Kingdom, consensus fluctuates by as much as a few centuries and this is illustrated by comparing the chronology as given by two Egyptologists, the first writing in 1906, the second in 2000. The disparities between the two sets of result from additional discoveries and refined understanding of the still very incomplete source evidence. For example, Breasted adds a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist, following Manetho, Breasted also believed all the dynasties were sequential, whereas it is now known that several existed at the same time. These revisions have resulted in a lowering of the chronology by up to 400 years at the beginning of Dynasty I. The backbone of Egyptian chronology are the years as recorded in Ancient Egyptian king lists. In addition, some Egyptian dynasties may have overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time, not knowing whether monarchies were simultaneous or sequential results in widely differing chronological interpretations. However, further research has shown that these censuses were taken in consecutive years. The sed festival was celebrated on the thirtieth anniversary of the Pharaohs ascension. However, once again, this may not be the practice in all cases. In the early days of Egyptology, the compilation of regnal periods may also have been hampered due to bias on the part of the Egyptologists. This was most pervasive before the mid 19th century, when Manethos figures were recognized as conflicting with biblical chronology based on Old Testament references to Egypt, in the 20th century, such biblical bias has mostly been confined to alternative chronologies outside of scholarly mainstream. A useful way to work around these gaps in knowledge is to find chronological synchronisms, over the past decades, a number of these have been found, although they are of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability. While this does not fix a person or event to a specific year, another example are blocks from the Old Kingdom bearing the names of several kings, which were reused in the construction of Middle Kingdom pyramid-temples at Lisht in the structures of Amenemhat I. The poor documentation of these finds in the Serapeum also compounds the difficulties in using these records. The best known of these is the Sothic cycle, and careful study of this led Richard A. Parker to argue that the dates of the Twelfth dynasty could be fixed with absolute precision. More recent research has eroded this confidence, questioning many of the assumptions used with the Sothic Cycle and this is useful especially for the Early Dynastic period, where Egyptological consensus has only been possible within a range of about three or four centuries
3.
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
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The eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is the best known ancient Egyptian dynasty. It boasts several of Egypts most famous pharaohs, including Tutankhamun, the dynasty is also known as the Thutmosid Dynasty for the four pharaohs named Thutmosis. Famous pharaohs of Dynasty XVIII include Hatshepsut, longest-reigning woman-pharaoh of a dynasty, and Akhenaten. Dynasty XVIII is the first of the three dynasties of the Egyptian New Kingdom, the period in which ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, radiocarbon dating suggests that Dynasty XVIII may have started a few years earlier than the conventional date of 1550 BC. The radiocarbon date range for its beginning is 1570–1544 BC, the point of which is 1557 BC. The pharaohs of Dynasty XVIII ruled for two hundred and fifty years. The dates and names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton, many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes. More information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website, several diplomatic marriages are known for the New Kingdom. These daughters of kings are often only mentioned in cuneiform texts and are not known from other sources. The marriages were likely a way to confirm good relations between these states, Dynasty XVIII was founded by Ahmose I, the brother or son of Kamose, the last ruler of the Dynasty XVII. Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the Hyksos rulers and his reign is seen as the end of the Second Intermediate Period and the start of the New Kingdom. Ahmose was succeeded by his son, Amenhotep I, whose reign was relatively uneventful, Amenhotep I probably left no male heir and the next pharaoh, Thutmose I, seems to have been related to the royal family through marriage. During his reign the borders of Egypts empire reached their greatest expanse, extending in the north to Carchemish on the Euphrates, Thutmose I was succeeded by Thutmose II and his queen, Hatshepsut. Thutmose III who later became known as the greatest military pharaoh ever and he had a second co-regency in his old age with his son Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II was succeeded by Thutmose IV, who in his turn was followed by his son Amenhotep III, the reign of Amenhotep III is seen as a high point in this dynasty. Amenhotep III undertook large scale building programmes, the extent of which can only be compared with those of the much longer reign of Ramesses II during Dynasty XIX. Amenhotep III may have shared the throne for up to twelve years with his son Amenhotep IV, there is much debate about this proposed co-regency. Some experts believe there was a lengthy co-regency, while others prefer to see a short one, there are also many experts who believe no such co-regency existed at all
4.
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
5.
Amenhotep III
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Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, Amenhotep III was Thutmoses son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya. His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendour, when he died in the 38th or 39th year of his reign, his son initially ruled as Amenhotep IV, but then changed his own royal name to Akhenaten. The son of the future Thutmose IV and a minor wife Mutemwiya and he was a member of the Thutmosid family that had ruled Egypt for almost 150 years since the reign of Thutmose I. Amenhotep III was the father of two sons with his Great Royal Wife Tiye and their first son, Crown Prince Thutmose, predeceased his father and their second son, Amenhotep IV, later known as Akhenaten, ultimately succeeded Amenhotep III to the throne. Amenhotep III also may have been the father of a third child—called Smenkhkare, Amenhotep III and Tiye may also have had four daughters, Sitamun, Henuttaneb, Isis or Iset, and Nebetah. They appear frequently on statues and reliefs during the reign of their father, Nebetah is attested only once in the known historical records on a colossal limestone group of statues from Medinet Habu. Amenhotep III elevated two of his four daughters—Sitamun and Isis—to the office of royal wife during the last decade of his reign. Evidence that Sitamun already was promoted to office by Year 30 of his reign, is known from jar-label inscriptions uncovered from the royal palace at Malkata. The goddess Hathor herself was related to Ra as first the mother and later wife, hence, Amenhotep IIIs marriage to his two daughters should not be considered unlikely based on contemporary views of marriage. Amenhotep III is known to have married several women, Gilukhepa. Tadukhepa, the daughter of his ally Tushratta of Mitanni, Around Year 36 of his reign, a daughter of Kurigalzu, king of Babylon. A daughter of Kadashman-Enlil, king of Babylon, a daughter of Tarhundaradu, ruler of Arzawa. A daughter of the ruler of Ammia, Amenhotep III has the distinction of having the most surviving statues of any Egyptian pharaoh, with over 250 of his statues having been discovered and identified. Since these statues span his life, they provide a series of portraits covering the entire length of his reign. Their lengthy inscribed texts extol the accomplishments of the pharaoh, for instance,123 of these commemorative scarabs record the large number of lions that Amenhotep III killed with his own arrows from his first regnal year up to his tenth year. Similarly, five other state that the foreign princess who would become a wife to him, Gilukhepa. She was the first of many such princesses who would enter the pharaohs household, another eleven scarabs record the excavation of an artificial lake he had built for his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye, in his eleventh regnal year, Regnal Year 11 under the Majesty of
6.
Ancient Egyptian royal titulary
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The royal titulary or royal protocol of an Egyptian pharaoh is the standard naming convention taken by the kings of Ancient Egypt. It symbolises worldly power and holy might and also acts as a sort of mission statement for the reign of a monarch. The full titulary, consisting of five names, did not come into standard usage until the Middle Kingdom, the Horus name is the oldest form of the pharaohs name, originating in the Predynastic Period. Many of the oldest-known Egyptian pharaohs were known only by this title, the Horus name was usually written in a serekh, a representation of a palace façade. The name of the pharaoh was written in hieroglyphs inside this representation of a palace, typically an image of the falcon God Horus was perched on top of or beside it. At least one Egyptian ruler, the 2nd dynasty Seth-Peribsen, used an image of the god Seth instead of Horus and he was succeeded by Khasekhemwy, who placed the symbols of both Seth and Horus above his name. Thereafter, the image of Horus always appeared alongside the name of the pharaoh, by the time of the New Kingdom the Horus name was often written without the enclosing serekh. The name is first definitively used by the First Dynasty pharaoh Semerkhet and this particular name was not typically framed by a cartouche or serekh, but always begins with the hieroglyphs of a vulture and cobra resting upon two baskets, the dual noun nebty. Also known as the Golden Horus Name, this form of the name typically featured the image of a Horus falcon perched above or beside the hieroglyph for gold. The meaning of this title has been disputed. One belief is that it represents the triumph of Horus over his uncle Seth, Gold also was strongly associated in the ancient Egyptian mind with eternity, so this may have been intended to convey the pharaohs eternal Horus name. Similar to the Nebty name, this particular name typically was not framed by a cartouche or serekh, the pharaohs throne name, the first of the two names written inside a cartouche, and usually accompanied the title nsw-bity. The term nsw-bity It has been suggested that the Berber term for strong man, the epithet neb tawy, Lord of the Two Lands, referring to valley and delta regions of Egypt, often occurs as well. This was the name given at birth and it was first introduced to the set of royal titles in the Fourth Dynasty and emphasizes the kings role as a representative of the solar god Ra. For women who became pharaoh, the title was interpreted as daughter also. Modern historians typically refer to the ancient kings of Egypt by this name, Middle Egyptian, An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Cairo, London, and New York, The American University in Cairo Press and Thames and Hudson. The Great Name, Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary, Egyptian Grammar, Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs
7.
Ra
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Ra or Re is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become a god in ancient Egyptian religion. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the god Horus and he was believed to rule in all parts of the created world, the sky, the earth, and the underworld. He was associated with the falcon or hawk, when in the New Kingdom the god Amun rose to prominence he was fused with Ra as Amun-Ra. During the Amarna Period, Akhenaten suppressed the cult of Ra in favor of another deity, the Aten, the deified solar disc. The cult of the Mnevis bull, an embodiment of Ra, had its center in Heliopolis, all forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra, who called each of them into existence by speaking their secret names. Alternatively man was created from Ras tears and sweat, hence the Egyptians call themselves the Cattle of Ra, in the myth of the Celestial Cow it is recounted how mankind plotted against Ra and how he sent his eye as the goddess Sekhmet to punish them. When she became bloodthirsty she was pacified by drinking beer mixed with red dye, to the Egyptians, the sun represented light, warmth, and growth. This made the sun deity very important, as the sun was seen as the ruler of all that he created, the sun disk was either seen as the body or eye of Ra. Ra was the father of Shu and Tefnut, whom he created, Shu was the god of the wind, and Tefnut was the goddess of the rain. Sekhmet was the Eye of Ra and was created by the fire in Ras eye, Ra was thought to travel on the Atet, two solar barks called the Mandjet or morning boat and the Mesektet or evening boat. These boats took him on his journey through the sky and the Duat, while Ra was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed form. When Ra traveled in his sun boat, he was accompanied by other deities including Sia and Hu. Sometimes, members of the Ennead helped him on his journey, including Set, who overcame the serpent Apophis, and Mehen, when Ra was in the underworld, he would visit all of his various forms. Apophis, the god of chaos, was a serpent who attempted to stop the sun boats journey every night by consuming it or by stopping it in its tracks with a hypnotic stare. During the evening, the Egyptians believed that Ra set as Atum or in the form of a ram, the night boat would carry him through the underworld and back towards the east in preparation for his rebirth. When Ra was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead, Ra was worshipped as the Creator god among some ancient Egyptians, specifically followers of his cult at Heliopolis. It was believed that Ra wept, and from his tears came man and these cult-followers believed that Ra was self-created, while followers of Ptah believed that Ra was created by Ptah
8.
Thoth
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Thoth or Djehuti was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Maat, Thoths chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering, and was partially destroyed in 1826 CE. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities and he also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, the final -y may even have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel. According to Theodor Hopfner, Thoths Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, the addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis. Hence his name means He who is like the ibis, Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Jehuti, Jehuty, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. Greek versions Thot, Thout and Thoth are derived from the letters ḏḥwty, not counting differences in spelling, Thoth had many names and titles, like other goddesses and gods. Among the names used are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, in addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god Iah-Djehuty, representing the Moon for the entire month. The Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes, One of Thoths titles, Thrice great was translated to the Greek τρισμέγιστος, making Hermes Trismegistus. Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era, usually, he is depicted in his human form with the head of an ibis. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times, when depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he was depicted to be wearing the respective gods headdress. Sometimes he was seen in art to be wearing the Atef crown or the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. When not depicted in this form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also appears as a baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is Aan. In the form of Aah-Djehuty he took a more human-looking form and these forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoths attributes. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads, for example, Maat is often depicted with an ostrich feather, the feather of truth, on her head, or with a feather for a head. Thoths roles in Egyptian mythology were many and he served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other
9.
Nefertari (18th dynasty)
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Nefertari was a queen of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, the first Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose IV. Her origins are unknown, it is likely that she was a commoner, on several depictions she and Queen Mother Tiaa are depicted as goddesses accompanying Thutmose. In the 7th year the new Great Royal Wife was Thutmoses sister Iaret and she was depicted together with her husband before gods in Gizeh, on eight stelae. She was also shown on a found in the Luxor Temple and was mentioned on a scarab found in Gurob. It is not known whether any children were either to Nefertari or to Iaret, after Thutmoses death the next pharaoh was Amenhotep III
10.
Iaret
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Iaret was a Great Royal Wife from the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Laret was the daughter of Amunhotep II and wife of Thutmose IV, the transcription of her name is uncertain, it is written with a single cobra, which has a number of possible readings. Her titles include, King’s Daughter, Great King’s Daughter, King’s Sister, there are no known children for Queen Iaret. Iaret was the great royal wife from the reign of Tuthmosis IV. Queen Nefertari is shown in inscriptions dating to the part of the reign. A secondary wife of Tuthmosis IV by the name of Mutemwiya was the mother to the heir of the throne, Iaret is depicted on a Year 7 stela of Thutmose IV from Konosso. The stela depicts Tuthmosis smiting enemies before the Nubian gods Dedwen, Queen Iaret is depicted standing behind him. Iarets name is known from inscriptions from the turquoise mines at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai from the same year. It is not known when Iaret died or where she was buried
11.
Mutemwiya
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Mutemwiya was a minor wife of Thutmose IV, a pharaoh of Egypt, in the Eighteenth Dynasty and the mother of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Mutemwiyas name means Mut in the divine bark, Mutemwiya is not attested during the reign of her husband Thutmose IV. She would have been overshadowed at court by first queen Nefertari, Mutemwiya is only shown on the monuments of her son Amenhotep III. While she occasionally was identified by researchers as a daughter of King Artatama I of Mitanni, no evidence proves that she is the same person. There seemed to be evidence that she was not a daughter of Artatama, cyril Aldred has suggested that Mutemwiya be a sister of Yuya. He argues that since Mutemwiya was present during the years of her sons reign. However, this theory is supported by texts or archaeological finds. The titles kings mother and gods mother amount to the same thing since the god in question was the reigning king, all of these titles, including that of Great Royal Wife, were used only after her husbands death, during her sons reign. At the time of Amenhotep III’s accession to the throne she gained prominence as the new pharaohs mother, Mutemwiya is shown in the Luxor temple, in scenes depicting the divine birth of her son Amenhotep III. The scenes resemble scenes of the birth of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari. Hatshepsut had used the story to reinforce her claims to the throne. Amenhotep was the son of a ruling Pharaoh and it seems that the scene is used to stress the semi-divine nature of Amenhotep III. In a key scene Mutemwiya is shown seated on a bed receiving the god Amun who had taken the form of her husband Thutmosis IV and they are in the presence of the goddesses Selket and Neith. The scenes show Amenhotep III to be the result of the union of his mother with the god Amun himself, a pregnant queen Mutemwiya as later shown being led to the birthing room by Isis and Khnum. A partial granite statue representing Mutemwiya was found in Karnak and it now is in the collection of the British Museum, the statue takes the form of a rebus showing the goddess Mut seated in a barque, thereby forming her name. Mutemwiya is named in the inscription on the side of the barque, along with her daughter-in-law, Tiye, she also is shown on the Colossi of Memnon erected by Amenhotep III. The date of Mutemwiyas death is unknown, but she is believed to have survived long into her sons reign
12.
KV43
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Tomb KV43 is the tomb of Pharaoh Thutmose IV in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. It has a shape, typical of the layout of early 18th Dynasty tombs. KV43 was rediscovered in 1903 by Howard Carter, located high in the cliffs above the valley floor, it had been spared the extensive flood-water damage suffered by other tombs, and its wall decorations are consequently very well preserved. The pharaohs outer stone sarcophagus is still in place in the burial chamber. Two of the children, Prince Amenemhat and Princess Tentamun were also buried here. Theban Mapping Project, KV43 - Includes detailed maps of the tomb
13.
Egyptian language
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The language spoken in ancient Egypt was a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The earliest known complete sentence in the Egyptian language has been dated to about 2690 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the seventeenth century in the form of Coptic. The national language of modern Egypt is Egyptian Arabic, which gradually replaced Coptic as the language of life in the centuries after the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Coptic is still used as the language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It has several hundred fluent speakers today, the Egyptian language belongs to the Afroasiatic language family. Of the other Afroasiatic branches, Egyptian shows its greatest affinities with Semitic, in Egyptian, the Proto-Afroasiatic voiced consonants */d z ð/ developed into pharyngeal ⟨ꜥ⟩ /ʕ/, e. g. Eg. Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian ⟨n⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨ꜣ⟩, and ⟨j⟩ in the dialect on which the language was based. Original */k g ḳ/ palatalize to ⟨ṯ j ḏ⟩ in some environments and are preserved as ⟨k g q⟩ in others, Egyptian has many biradical and perhaps monoradical roots, in contrast to the Semitic preference for triradical roots. Egyptian probably is more archaic in this regard, whereas Semitic likely underwent later regularizations converting roots into the triradical pattern, scholars group the Egyptian language into six major chronological divisions, Archaic Egyptian language Old Egyptian language Middle Egyptian language, characterizing Middle Kingdom. Demotic Coptic The earliest Egyptian glyphs date back to around 3300 BC and these early texts are generally lumped together under the general term Archaic Egyptian. They record names, titles and labels, but a few of them show morphological and syntactic features familiar from later, more complete, Old Egyptian is dated from the oldest known complete sentence, found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen and dated to around 2690 BCE. It reads, dmḏ. n. f t3wj n z3. f nswt-bjt pr-jb. snj He has united the Two Lands for his son, extensive texts appear from about 2600 BCE. Demotic first appears about 650 BCE and survived as a written language until the fifth century CE and it probably survived in the Egyptian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. Bohairic Coptic is still used by the Coptic Churches, Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian were all written using hieroglyphs and hieratic. Demotic was written using a script derived from hieratic, its appearance is similar to modern Arabic script and is also written from right to left. Coptic is written using the Coptic alphabet, a form of the Greek alphabet with a number of symbols borrowed from Demotic for sounds that did not occur in ancient Greek. Arabic became the language of Egypts political administration soon after the early Muslim conquests in the seventh century, today, Coptic survives as the sacred language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Church
14.
History of ancient Egypt
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The history of ancient Egypt spans the period from the early prehistoric settlements of the northern Nile valley to the Roman conquest, in 30 BC. The Pharaonic Period is dated from the 32nd century BC, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified, until the country fell under Macedonian rule, note For alternative revisions to the chronology of Egypt, see Egyptian chronology. Egypts history is split into different periods according to the ruling dynasty of each pharaoh. The dating of events is still a subject of research, the conservative dates are not supported by any reliable absolute date for a span of about three millennia. The following is the list according to conventional Egyptian chronology, traces of these early people appear in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. To the Egyptians the Nile meant life and the desert meant death, evidence also indicates human habitation and cattle herding in the southwestern corner of Egypt near the Sudan border before the 8th millennium BC. Despite this, the idea of an independent bovine domestication event in Africa must be abandoned because subsequent evidence gathered over a period of thirty years has failed to corroborate this, the oldest-known domesticated cattle remains in Africa are from the Faiyum c.4400 BC. Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently, however, the period from 9th to the 6th millennium BC has left very little in the way of archaeological evidence. The Nile valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks was started, however it appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by the 6th millennium. By that time, Nile society was already engaged in organized agriculture, at this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by the 4th millennium, the people of the valley and the Nile Delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer, an early variety of wheat, and stored it in pits lined with reed mats. They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linen, prehistory continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Amratian culture. Between 5500 BC and the 31st century BC, small settlements flourished along the Nile, the Tasian culture was the next to appear, it existed in Upper Egypt starting about 4500 BC. This group is named for the burials found at Deir Tasa, the Tasian culture is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery painted black on its top and interior. The Badari culture, named for the Badari site near Deir Tasa, followed the Tasian, however, the Badari culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called blacktop-ware, and was assigned the sequence dating numbers between 21 and 29. The Amratian culture is named after the site of el-Amreh, about 120 kilometres south of Badari, el-Amreh was the first site where this culture was found unmingled with the later Gerzeh culture. However, this period is attested at Nagada, and so is also referred to as the Naqada I culture. The Amratian period falls between S. D.30 and 39, newly excavated objects indicate that trade between Upper and Lower Egypt existed at this time
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Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
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The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is a theosophical museum devoted to Ancient Egypt, located at the Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, California, United States. It was founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, the Rosicrucian Order continues to support and expand the museum and its educational and scientific activities. The founder of AMORC, Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis, was a collector of artifacts with mystical symbolism. His very first artifact was a small Sekhmet statue, in 1921 he contributed financially to the archaeological excavations at Tel el Amarna of the Egypt Explorations Society of Boston by receiving donations from AMORC members. In return, the Egypt Explorations Society donated several Egyptian antiquities to AMORC, in 1928, he presented to the public a collection named The Rosicrucian Egyptian Oriental Museum, located at the administration buildings of AMORC at San Jose, California. After Lewis tour in Egypt in 1929, AMORC received many more artifacts and donations and as a result the collection grew significantly, the second Imperator of AMORC, Ralph Maxwell Lewis, son of H. Spencer Lewis, decided to build new buildings for the museum, the new museum buildings opened in November 1966. By that time the museum managed to become unique by, Having the largest exhibition of Ancient Egyptian antiquities in the Western US, being the only such museum in the world with buildings constructed in Ancient Egyptian architectural style. Having a purpose-built planetarium adjacent to the museum, the Planetarium was the 5th opened in the United States, and the first with a Star Projector built in the country, constructed by H. Having its buildings set in an Egyptian revival park, in 1995, Julie Scott, M. A. S. R. C. moved to San Jose and became Director of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. A notable activity took place in 1999 when the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum started the traveling exhibition Women of the Nile accompanied by many lectures, Women of the Nile travelled across the United States of America and Canada, and continued until 2001. In 2000–2002, a figure of Cleopatra VII from the collection was displayed in Rome, London. The results were released at the 75th Anniversary of the Museum on August 6,2005, with detailed scans, one of the scanning images won the 2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2006 co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Science. Below are photographs of the interior of the tomb, largely containing scenes from the Book of the Dead. The dark interior of the replica is evident
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San Jose, California
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San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the economic, cultural, and political center of Silicon Valley and the largest city in Northern California. With an estimated 2015 population of 1,026,908, it is the third most populous city in California and the tenth most populous in United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the shore of San Francisco Bay. San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California. San Jose is the largest city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was inhabited by the Ohlone people, San Jose was founded on November 29,1777, as the Pueblo of San José de Guadalupe, the first civilian town founded in Spanish Alta California. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose became the states first capital, following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 60s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from a center to an urbanized metropolitan area. Results of the 1990 U. S. Census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California, by the 1990s, San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley had become the global center for the high tech and internet industries. San Jose is considered to be a city, notable for its affluence. San Joses location within the high tech industry, as a cultural, political. San Jose is one of the wealthiest major cities in the United States and the world, and has the third highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institute. Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Systems, PayPal, Brocade, Samsung, Acer, Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. The first lasting European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established from 1769 by Junípero Serra, San Jose came under Mexican rule in 1821 after Mexico broke with the Spanish crown. It then became part of the United States, after it capitulated in 1846, on March 27,1850, San Jose became the second incorporated city in the state, with Josiah Belden its first mayor. San Jose was Californias first state capital, and hosted the first, today the Circle of Palms Plaza in downtown is the historical marker for the first state capital. The city was a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, in the period 1900 through 1910, San Jose served as a center for pioneering invention, innovation, and impact in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air flight. These activities were led principally by John Montgomery and his peers, the City of San Jose has established Montgomery Park, a Monument at San Felipe and Yerba Buena Roads, and John J. Montgomery Elementary School in his honor
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Dream Stele
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The Dream Stele, also called the Sphinx Stele, is an epigraphic stele belonging to the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose IV. It was erected in the first year of the reign,1401 BC. As was common with other New Kingdom rulers, the epigraph makes claim to a divine legitimisation to pharaohship, partial text, Now the statue of the very great Khepri rested in this place, great of fame, sacred of respect, the shade of Ra resting on him. Memphis and every city on its two sides came to him, their arms in adoration to his face, bearing great offerings for his Ka, one of these days it happened that prince Thutmose came travelling at the time of midday. He rested in the shadow of this great god, Dream at the moment the sun was at zenith. Then he found the majesty of this noble god speaking from his own mouth like a father speaks to his son, I shall give to you the kingship. The sand of the desert, upon which I used to be, confronts me, the Dream Stele is a vertical rectangular stele,360 cm Ht,218 cm W,70 cm D. The upper scene lunette, shows Thutmose IV on the right, recently a surgeon at Imperial College London has analysed the early death of Thutmose IV and the premature deaths of other Eighteenth dynasty Pharaohs. He identifies that their deaths were likely a result of a familial temporal epilepsy. Shaw,2000, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw, Ed
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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
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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
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Nubia
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Nubia is a region along the Nile river located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa, with a history that can be traced from at least 2000 B. C. onward, and was home to one of the African empires. Nubia was again united within Ottoman Egypt in the 19th century, the name Nubia is derived from that of the Noba people, nomads who settled the area in the 4th century following the collapse of the kingdom of Meroë. The Noba spoke a Nilo-Saharan language, ancestral to Old Nubian, Old Nubian was mostly used in religious texts dating from the 8th and 15th centuries AD. Before the 4th century, and throughout classical antiquity, Nubia was known as Kush, or, in Classical Greek usage, until at least 1970, the Birgid language was spoken north of Nyala in Darfur, but is now extinct. Nubia was divided into two regions, Upper and Lower Nubia, so called because of their location in the Nile river valley. Early settlements sprouted in both Upper and Lower Nubia, Egyptians referred to Nubia as Ta-Seti, or The Land of the Bow, since the Nubians were known to be expert archers. Modern scholars typically refer to the people from this area as the “A-Group” culture, fertile farmland just south of the Third Cataract is known as the “pre-Kerma” culture in Upper Nubia, as they are the ancestors. The Neolithic people in the Nile Valley likely came from Sudan, as well as the Sahara, by the 5th millennium BC, the people who inhabited what is now called Nubia participated in the Neolithic revolution. Saharan rock reliefs depict scenes that have been thought to be suggestive of a cult, typical of those seen throughout parts of Eastern Africa. Megaliths discovered at Nabta Playa are early examples of what seems to be one of the worlds first astronomical devices, around 3500 BC, the second Nubian culture, termed the A-Group, arose. It was a contemporary of, and ethnically and culturally similar to. The A-Group people were engaged in trade with the Egyptians and this trade is testified archaeologically by large amounts of Egyptian commodities deposited in the graves of the A-Group people. The imports consisted of gold objects, copper tools, faience amulets and beads, seals, slate palettes, stone vessels, and a variety of pots. Around 3300 BC, there is evidence of a kingdom, as shown by the finds at Qustul. The Nubian culture may have contributed to the unification of the Nile Valley. The earliest known depiction of the crown is on a ceremonial incense burner from Cemetery at Qustul in Lower Nubia. New evidence from Abydos, however, particularly the excavation of Cemetery U, around the turn of the protodynastic period, Naqada, in its bid to conquer and unify the whole Nile Valley, seems to have conquered Ta-Seti and harmonized it with the Egyptian state
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Stele
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A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in ancient Western culture as a monument. Grave steles were often used for funerary or commemorative purposes, Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines. The surface of the stele usually has text, ornamentation, or both, the ornamentation may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted. Traditional Western gravestones may technically be considered the equivalent of ancient stelae. The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding is the Rosetta Stone, an informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum. Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language, unfinished standing stones, set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland were monuments of pre-literate Megalithic cultures in the Late Stone Age. The Pictish stones of Scotland, often carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries. An obelisk is a kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Britain are specialized steles, totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones, typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph, are among the most common types of stele seen in Western culture. Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust. Steles have been the medium of stone inscription in China since the Tang dynasty. Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative and they can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures. During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones, erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became a widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population, Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive. One of the most famous mountain steles is the 13 m high stele at Mount Tai with the calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725. A number of stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of Chinas minority religious communities
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History of Syria
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The history of Syria covers the developments in the region of Syria and modern Syrian Arab Republic. Syria most likely derives from the name of the Neo-Assyrian Empire established in the 10th century BCE, modern Syria became independent in 1946 following a period of French occupation and Mandate. In 1958, the Republic of Syria became briefly part of the United Arab Republic, from 1963, the Syrian Arab Republic has been ruled by the Baath with the Assad family exclusively from 1970. Currently Syria is fractured between rival forces on the course of the Syrian Civil War, on 23 August 1993 a joint Japan-Syria excavation team discovered fossilized Paleolithic human remains at the Dederiyeh Cave some 400 km north of Damascus. The bones found in this cave were those of a Neanderthal child. Although many Neanderthal bones had been discovered already, this was practically the first time that an almost complete skeleton had been found in its original burial state. Archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, the Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses of the Mureybet culture. In the early Neolithic period, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidence of early trade relations. The cities of Hamoukar and Emar flourished during the late Neolithic, the ruins of Ebla, near Idlib in northern Syria, were discovered and excavated in 1975. Ebla appears to have been an East Semitic speaking city-state founded around 3000 BCE, at its zenith, from about 2500 to 2400 BCE, it may have controlled an empire reaching north to Anatolia, east to Mesopotamia and south to Damascus. Ebla traded with the Mesopotamian states of Sumer, Akkad and Assyria, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. Scholars believe the language of Ebla was closely related to the fellow East Semitic Akkadian language of Mesopotamia and to be among the oldest known written languages. From the third millennium BCE, Syria was occupied and fought over successively by Sumerians, Eblaites, Akkadians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Hittites, Hurrians, Mitanni, Amorites, Ebla was probably conquered into the Mesopotamian Akkadian Empire by Sargon of Akkad around 2330 BCE. The Sumerians, Akkadians and Assyrians of Mesopotamia referred to the region as Mar. Tu or The land of the Amurru from as early as the 24th century BCE. Parts of Syria were controlled by the Neo-Sumerian Empire, Old Assyrian Empire, during this period the bulk of Syria became known as Eber Nari and Aramea. After this empire collapsed, Mesopotamian dominance continued for a time with the short lived Neo-Babylonian Empire. Eventually, in 539 BCE, the Persians took Syria as part of their empire and this dominion ended with the conquests of the Macedonian Greek king, Alexander the Great in 333-332 BCE. Syria was then incorporated into the Seleucid Empire, the capital of this Empire was situated at Antioch, then a part of historical Syria, but just inside the Turkish border today
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Mitanni
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Mitanni, also called Hanigalbat in Assyrian or Naharin in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia from ca.1500 BC–1300 BC. Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite destruction of Amorite Babylon, at the beginning of its history, Mitannis major rival was Egypt under the Thutmosids. However, with the ascent of the Hittite empire, Mitanni, the Mitanni dynasty ruled over the northern Euphrates-Tigris region between c.1475 and c.1275 BC. Eventually, Mitanni succumbed to Hittite and later Assyrian attacks, and was reduced to the status of a province of the Middle Assyrian Empire. While the Mitanni kings were Indo-Iranians, they used the language of the people which was at that time a non Indo-Iranian language. Their sphere of influence is shown in Hurrian place names, personal names and the spread through Syria, the Mitanni controlled trade routes down the Khabur to Mari and up the Euphrates from there to Charchamesh. For a time also controlled the Assyrian territories of the upper Tigris and its headwaters at Nineveh, Arbil, Assur. To the east, they had relations with the Kassites. The land of Mitanni in northern Syria extended from the Taurus mountains to its west and as far east as Nuzi, in the south, it extended from Aleppo across to Mari on the Euphrates in the east. Its centre was in the Khabur River valley, with two capitals, Taite and Washshukanni called Taidu and Ushshukana respectively in Assyrian sources, the whole area allows agriculture without artificial irrigation, cattle, sheep and goats were raised. It is very similar to Assyria in climate, and was settled by both indigenous Hurrian and Amoritic-speaking populations, the Mitanni kingdom was referred to as the Maryannu, Nahrin or Mitanni by the Egyptians, the Hurri by the Hittites, and the Hanigalbat by the Assyrians. The different names seem to have referred to the kingdom and were used interchangeably. Hittite annals mention a people called Hurri, located in northeastern Syria, a Hittite fragment, probably from the time of Mursili I, mentions a King of the Hurri. The Assyro-Akkadian version of the text renders Hurri as Hanigalbat, Tushratta, who styles himself king of Mitanni in his Akkadian Amarna letters, refers to his kingdom as Hanigalbat. Egyptian sources call Mitanni nhrn, which is pronounced as Naharin/Naharina from the Assyro-Akkadian word for river. The name Mitanni is first found in the memoirs of the Syrian wars of the astronomer and clockmaker Amenemhet. The ethnicity of the people of Mitanni is difficult to ascertain, a treatise on the training of chariot horses by Kikkuli contains a number of Indo-Aryan glosses. Kammenhuber suggested that this vocabulary was derived from the still undivided Indo-Iranian language, the common peoples language, the Hurrian language, is neither Indo-European nor Semitic
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Amarna letters
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The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten, founded by pharaoh Akhenaten during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are written in Akkadian cuneiform. The written correspondence spans a period of at most thirty years, the Amarna letters are of great significance for biblical studies as well as Semitic linguistics, since they shed light on the culture and language of the Canaanite peoples in pre-biblical times. These Canaanisms provide valuable insights into the proto-stage of those languages several centuries prior to their first actual manifestation and they had originally been stored in an ancient building that archaeologists have since called the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh. Once the location where they were found was determined, the ruins were explored for more, the first archaeologist who successfully recovered more tablets was Flinders Petrie, who in 1891 and 1892 uncovered 21 fragments. Émile Chassinat, then director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, since Knudtzons edition, some 24 more tablets, or fragments, have been found, either in Egypt, or identified in the collections of various museums. The initial group of letters recovered by local Egyptians have been scattered among museums in Germany, England, Egypt, France, Russia, the archive contains a wealth of information about cultures, kingdoms, events and individuals in a period from which few written sources survive. It includes correspondence from Akhenatens reign, as well as his predecessor Amenhotep IIIs reign, the tablets consist of over 300 diplomatic letters, the remainder comprise miscellaneous literary and educational materials. These tablets shed light on Egyptian relations with Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, Canaan, and Alashiya as well as relations with the Mitanni. The letters have been important in establishing both the history and the chronology of the period, letters from the Babylonian king, Kadashman-Enlil I, anchor the timeframe of Akhenatens reign to the mid-14th century BC. Specifically, the letters include requests for help in the north against Hittite invaders. Note, Many assignments are tentative, spellings vary widely, william L. The Amarna archive, it is now generally agreed, spans at most about thirty years, perhaps only fifteen or so. Moran notes that scholars believe one tablet, EA16. However, this speculation appears improbable because the Amarna archives were closed by Year 2 of Tutankhamun, a small number of the Amarna letters are in the class of poetry. EA153, entitled, Ships on hold, from Abimilku of Tyre is a short, lines 6-8, and 9-11 are parallel phrases, each ending with. before the troops of the king, my lord. -. Both sentences are identical, and repetitive, with only the subject statement changing, the entire corpus of Amarna letters has many standard phrases. It also has some phrases, and quotations used only once, some are parables, A bird in a cage —Rib-Hadda subcorpus of letters. A brick may move from under its partner, still I will not move from under the feet of the king, my lord. —Used in letters EA266,292, EA292 by Adda-danu of Gazru
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Akhenaten
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Akhenaten known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV, was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, Akhenaten tried to bring about a departure from traditional religion, yet in the end it would not be accepted. After his death, his monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues were terminated and he was all but lost from history until the discovery during the 19th century of the site of Akhetaten, the city he built and designed for the worship of Aten, at Amarna. DNA analysis has determined that the man buried in KV55 is the father of King Tutankhamun, the future Akhenaten was a younger son of Amenhotep III and Chief Queen Tiye. The eldest son Crown Prince Thutmose was recognized as the heir of Amenhotep III but he died relatively young, there is much controversy around whether Amenhotep IV succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Amenhotep III or whether there was a coregency. Other literature by Donald Redford, William Murnane, Alan Gardiner, in February 2014, the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities announced what it called conclusive evidence that Akhenaten shared power with his father for at least 8 years. The evidence came from the found in the Luxor tomb of Vizier Amenhotep-Huy. A team of Spanish archeologists have been working at this tomb, Amenhotep IV was crowned in Thebes and there he started a building program. He decorated the entrance to the precincts of the temple of Amun-Re with scenes of his worshiping Re-Harakhti. He soon decreed the construction of a dedicated to the Aten in Eastern Karnak. This Temple of Amenhotep IV was called the Gempaaten, the Gempaaten consisted of a series of buildings, including a palace and a structure called the Hwt Benben which was dedicated to Queen Nefertiti. Other Aten temples constructed at Karnak during this time include the Rud-menu, during this time he did not repress the worship of Amun, and the High Priest of Amun was still active in the fourth year of his reign. The king appears as Amenhotep IV in the tombs of some of the nobles in Thebes, Kheruef, Ramose, in the tomb of Ramose, Amenhotep IV appears on the west wall in the traditional style, seated on a throne with Ramose appearing before the king. On the other side of the doorway, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are shown in the window of appearance with the Aten depicted as the sun disc. In the Theban tomb of Parennefer, Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti are seated on a throne with the sun disk depicted over the king, among the latter-known documents referring to Amenhotep IV are two copies of a letter from the Steward Of Memphis Apy to the pharaoh. The documents were found in Gurob and are dated to regnal year 5, third month of the Growing Season, on day 13, Month 8, in the fifth year of his reign, the king arrived at the site of the new city Akhetaten. A month before that Amenhotep IV had officially changed his name to Akhenaten, Amenhotep IV changed most of his 5 fold titulary in year 5 of his reign. The only name he kept was his prenomen or throne name of Neferkheperure, some recent debate has focused on the extent to which Akhenaten forced his religious reforms on his people
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Khepresh
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The khepresh was an ancient Egyptian royal headdress. It is also known as the crown or war crown. New Kingdom pharaohs are depicted wearing it in battle. It used to be called a war crown by many, the khepresh was made of cloth or leather stained blue and was covered with small yellow sun discs. As with many royal crowns, it featured a uraeus fastened to its front. The Blue Crown, or War Crown, was represented in hieroglyphs, the earliest known mention of the khepresh is on the stela Cairo JE59635 which dates to the reign of pharaoh Neferhotep III, during the Second Intermediate Period. In this and other examples from the era, the word is written with a determinative that represents the cap crown. This crown continued to evolve during the early Eighteenth Dynasty, attaining its best-known form in the reigns of Hatshepsut, after Amenhotep IIIs reign – and particularly during the 18th and 19th Dynasties – it came into fashion and was even adopted by some pharaohs as a primary crown. The crown ceased to be depicted in the Kushite Dynasty, during the New Kingdom, pharaohs were shown with this crown in military circumstances. However, some think that the crown was also meant to evoke the divine power of the pharaoh
27.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
28.
Thutmose III
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Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first 22 years of Thutmoses reign he was co-regent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, while he was shown first on surviving monuments, both were assigned the usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other. He served as the head of her armies, during the final 2 years of his reign, he appointed his son and successor, Amenhotep II, as his junior co-regent. His firstborn son and heir to the throne, Amenemhat, predeceased Thutmose III, when Thutmose III died, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings as were the rest of the kings from this period in Egypt. Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife and his fathers great royal wife was Queen Hatshepsut. Her daughter Neferure was Thutmoses half-sister, Thutmosis III had little power over the empire while Hatshepsut exercised the formal titulary of kingship. Her rule was quite prosperous and marked by great advancements, when he reached a suitable age and demonstrated the capability, she appointed him to head her armies. Thutmosis III had several wives, Satiah, She may have been the mother of his firstborn son, an alternative theory is that the boy was the son of Neferure. Thutmoses successor, the prince and future king Amenhotep II, was the son of Merytre-Hatshepsut. Additional children include Menkheperre and daughters named Nebetiunet, Meryetamun, Meryetamun, Merytre-Hatshepsut was the daughter of the divine adoratrice Huy. Nebtu, she is depicted on a pillar in Thutmose IIIs tomb, menwi, Merti, Menhet three foreign wives. Neferure, Thutmose III may have married his half-sister, but there is no evidence for this marriage. It has been suggested that Neferure, instead of Satiah, may have been the mother of Amenemhat, Thutmose III reigned from 1479 BC to 1425 BC according to the Low Chronology of Ancient Egypt. This has been the conventional Egyptian chronology in academic circles since the 1960s and this document has no note of the place of observation, but it can safely be assumed that it was taken in either a Delta city such as Memphis or Heliopolis, or in Thebes. These two latitudes give dates 20 years apart, the High and Low chronologies, respectively, the length of Thutmose IIIs reign is known to the day thanks to information found in the tomb of the military commander Amenemheb-Mahu. Amenemheb-Mahu records Thutmose IIIs death to his masters 54th regnal year, widely considered a military genius by historians, Thutmose III made 16 raids in 20 years. He was an active expansionist ruler, sometimes called Egypts greatest conqueror or the Napoleon of Egypt and he is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during seventeen known military campaigns. He was the first Pharaoh after Thutmose I to cross the Euphrates and his campaign records were transcribed onto the walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak, and are now transcribed into Urkunden IV
29.
Obelisk
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An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called tekhenu by their builders, the Ancient Egyptians, the Greeks who saw them used the Greek obeliskos to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and ultimately English. Ancient obelisks are monolithic, that is, they consist of a single stone, though this technological capacity exists today, most modern obelisks are made of several stones, some, like the Washington Monument, are buildings. The term stele is used for other monumental, upright. Obelisks were prominent in the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of temples. The word obelisk as used in English today is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, a number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the Unfinished Obelisk found partly hewn from its quarry at Aswan. These obelisks are now dispersed around the world, and fewer than half of them remain in Egypt, the earliest temple obelisk still in its original position is the 68-foot 120-metric-ton red granite Obelisk of Senusret I of the XIIth Dynasty at Al-Matariyyah in modern Heliopolis. The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, and during the religious reformation of Akhenaten was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten. It was also thought that the god existed within the structure, Benben was the mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu upon which the creator god Atum settled in the creation story of the Heliopolitan creation myth form of Ancient Egyptian religion. The Benben stone is the top stone of the Egyptian pyramid and it is also related to the Obelisk. The pyramid and obelisk might have inspired by previously overlooked astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset. The Ancient Romans were strongly influenced by the form, to the extent that there are now more than twice as many obelisks standing in Rome as remain in Egypt. All fell after the Roman period except for the Vatican obelisk and were re-erected in different locations. The largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square at the west side of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet tall, not all the Egyptian obelisks in the Roman Empire were set up at Rome. Herod the Great imitated his Roman patrons and set up a red granite Egyptian obelisk in the hippodrome of his new city Caesarea in northern Judea and this one is about 40 feet tall and weighs about 100 metric tons. It was discovered by archaeologists and has been re-erected at its former site and this one stood 95 feet tall and weighing 380 metric tons. Its lower half reputedly also once stood in Istanbul but is now lost, the Istanbul obelisk is 65 feet tall. Rome is the capital of the world
30.
Karnak
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The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period, the area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, the complex is a vast open-air museum, and the second largest ancient religious site in the world, after the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia. It is believed to be the second most visited site in Egypt. It consists of four parts, of which only the largest is currently open to the general public. The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Ra only, the three other parts, the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are closed to the public. There also are a few temples and sanctuaries connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re. The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, the original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatshepsut, although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area. Many portions of it may have carried away for use in other buildings. The key difference between Karnak and most of the temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times, approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the features of Karnak are unique, but the size. The deities represented range from some of the earliest worshiped to those worshiped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture and it also contains evidence of adaptations, using buildings of the Ancient Egyptians by later cultures for their own religious purposes. One famous aspect of Karnak is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re,122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of columns are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers and this would be an extremely time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory regarding how they were moved is that large ramps were constructed of sand, mud, brick or stone, if stone had been used for the ramps, they would have been able to use much less material
31.
Constantius II
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Constantius II was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II, in 340, Constantius brothers clashed over the western provinces of the empire. The resulting conflict left Constantine II dead and Constans as ruler of the west until he was overthrown, unwilling to accept Magnentius as co-ruler, Constantius defeated him at the battles of Mursa Major and Mons Seleucus. Magnentius committed suicide after the battle, leaving Constantius as sole ruler of the empire. His subsequent military campaigns against Germanic tribes were successful, he defeated the Alamanni in 354 and campaigned across the Danube against the Quadi, in contrast, the war in the east against the Sassanids continued with mixed results. Shortly thereafter, in 355, Constantius promoted his last surviving cousin, Gallus younger half-brother, Julian, however, Julian claimed the rank of Augustus in 360, leading to war between the two. Ultimately, no battle was fought as Constantius became ill and died late in 361, Constantius was born in 317 at Sirmium, Pannonia. He was the son of Constantine the Great, and second by his second wife Fausta. Constantius was made Caesar by his father on 13 November 324, in 336, religious unrest in Armenia and tense relations between Constantine and king Shapur II caused war to break out between Rome and Sassanid Persia. Though he made preparations for the war, Constantine fell ill. Before Constantius arrived, the Persian general Narses, who was possibly the brother, overran Mesopotamia. Constantius promptly attacked Narses, and after suffering minor setbacks defeated and killed Narses at the Battle of Narasara, Constantius captured Amida and initiated a major refortification the city, enhancing the citys circuit walls and constructing large towers. He also built a new stronghold in the nearby, naming it Antinopolis. In early 337, Constantius hurried to Constantinople after receiving news that his father was near death, after Constantine died, Constantius buried him with lavish ceremony in the Church of the Holy Apostles. Eutropius, writing between 350 and 370, states that Constantius merely sanctioned “the act, rather than commanding it”, the massacre killed two of Constantius uncles and six of his cousins, including Hannibalianus and Dalmatius, rulers of Pontus and Moesia respectively. Soon after, Constantius met his brothers in Pannonia at Sirmium to formalize the partition of the empire, Constantius then hurried east to Antioch to resume the war with Persia. Despite initial success, Shapur lifted his siege after his army missed an opportunity to exploit a collapsed wall, when Constantius learned of Shapurs withdrawal from Roman territory, he prepared his army for a counter-attack, drilling them. Constantius repeatedly defended the border against invasions by the aggressive Sassanid Empire under Shapur
32.
Pope Sixtus V
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Pope Sixtus V or Xystus V, born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Bishop of Rome from 24 April 1585 to his death in 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order, where he displayed talents as a scholar and preacher, and enjoyed the patronage of Pius V, the cost of these works was met by heavy taxation that caused much suffering. His foreign policy was regarded as over-ambitious, and he excommunicated both Elizabeth I of England and Henry IV of France and he is recognized as a significant figure of the Counter-Reformation. Felice Peretti was born on 13 December 1521 at Grottammare, in the Papal States, to Pier Gentile, Felice later adopted Peretti as his family name in 1551, and was known as Cardinal Montalto. He himself claimed that he was nato di casa illustre — born of an illustrious house, according to Isidoro Gatti, the Peretti family came from Piceno, todays Marche, in Italy. According to another source, his father came from Montalto, a nearby village, there is a theory that he was of Dalmatian Slavic origin, and according to Sava Nakićenović, he hailed from the Svilanović family from Kruševice in the Bay of Kotor. The theory that his family originated in Kruševice is supported by the fact that the Pope used three pears for his coat of arms, according to this theory, Peretti may be an Italian rendition of the Slavic surname, as Peretti itself links to pears. About 1552 he was noticed by Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Protector of the Franciscan order, Cardinal Ghislieri and Cardinal Caraffa and he was sent to Venice as inquisitor general, but was so severe and conducted matters in such a high-handed manner that he became embroiled in quarrels. The government asked for his recall in 1560, the violent dislike he conceived for Boncampagni exerted a marked influence upon his subsequent actions. He hurried back to Rome upon the accession of Pius V, who made him vicar of his order. The first phase was enlarged after Peretti became pope and was able to clear buildings to open four new streets in 1585–6, the villa contained two residences, the Palazzo Sistino or di Termini and the casino, called the Palazzetto Montalto e Felice. Cardinal Montaltos other concern was with his studies, one of the fruits of which was an edition of the works of Ambrose. As pope he personally supervised the printing of an edition of Jeromes Vulgate – said to be as splendid a translation of the Bible into Latin as the King James version is into English. Though not neglecting to follow the course of affairs, Felice carefully avoided every occasion of offence and this discretion contributed not a little to his election to the papacy on 24 April 1585, with the title of Sixtus V. The story of his having feigned decrepitude in the conclave, in order to win votes, is pure invention, one of the things that commended his candidacy to certain cardinals may have been his physical vigour, which seemed to promise a long pontificate. The terrible condition in which Pope Gregory XIII had left the ecclesiastical states called for prompt, Sixtus proceeded with an almost ferocious severity against the prevailing lawlessness. Thousands of brigands were brought to justice, within a time the country was again quiet. It was claimed there were more heads on spikes across the Ponte SantAngelo than melons for sale in the marketplace
33.
Lateran Obelisk
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It is located in the square across from the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and the San Giovanni Addolorata Hospital. He intended to bring them both to Constantinople, his new capital for the Roman empire, the obelisk never made it there. After remaining a few decades in Alexandria, Constantius II had the Lateran obelisk shipped to Rome when he made his visit there in 357. They were eventually buried by mud and detritus carried by a stream there over time. First person accounts have the base of the monument still in the Circus Maximus as late as 1589. It contained a narrative of Constantius transport, raising, and dedication of his fathers obelisk inscribed on its four sides as a long epigram, though pieces of the obelisk had been found in the 14th and 15th centuries, serious excavation was only made possible under Pope Sixtus V. The three pieces of the Lateran obelisk were dug up in 1587, and after being restored by architect Domenico Fontana, was made approximately 4 meters shorter. When it was erected near the Lateran Palace and basilica of St. John Lateran on 9 August 1588 and its location was formerly the spot where the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius stood until 1538, when it was relocated to decorate the Piazza del Campidoglio on Capitoline Hill. Pp.273 ISBN0801843006 Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, XVII,4, 6-17 A. Pollet, Virtual Roma - Obelisks part I
34.
Valley of the Kings
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The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes, within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley and West Valley, with the 2005 discovery of a new chamber. And the 2008 discovery of two further tomb entrances, the valley is known to contain 63 tombs and chambers and it was the principal burial place of the major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom, as well as a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues as to the beliefs, almost all of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the Pharaohs. This area has been a focus of archaeological and egyptological exploration since the end of the eighteenth century, in modern times the valley has become famous for the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1979, it became a World Heritage Site, along with the rest of the Theban Necropolis, exploration, excavation and conservation continues in the valley, and a new tourist centre has recently been opened. The types of soil where the Valley of the Kings is located are a sandwich of dense limestone and other sedimentary rock. During the Pleistocene the valley was carved out of the plateau by steady rains, there is currently little year-round rain in this part of Egypt, but there are occasional flash floods that hit the valley, dumping tons of debris into the open tombs. The quality of the rock in the Valley is inconsistent, ranging from finely-grained to coarse stone, the occasional layer of shale also caused construction and conservation difficulties, as this rock expands in the presence of water, forcing apart the stone surrounding it. It is thought that some tombs were altered in shape and size depending on the types of rock the builders encountered, builders took advantage of available geological features when constructing the tombs. Some tombs were quarried out of existing limestone clefts, others behind slopes of scree, the problems of tomb construction can be seen with tombs of Ramesses III and his father Setnakhte. Setnakhte started to excavate KV11 but broke into the tomb of Amenmesse, so construction was abandoned and he usurped the tomb of Twosret. When looking for a tomb, Ramesses III extended the partly-excavated tomb started by his father, the tomb of Ramesses II returned to an early style, with a bent axis, probably due to the quality of the rock being excavated. The area of the Theban hills is subject to infrequent violent thunder storms, recent studies have shown that there are at least seven active flood stream beds leading down into the central area of the valley. This central area appears to have been flooded at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the tombs KV63, KV62, and KV55 are dug into the actual wadi bedrock rather than the debris, showing that the level of the valley was five meters below its present level. This was the area that was the subject of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project ground scanning radar investigation, the Theban Hills are dominated by the peak of al-Qurn, known to the Ancient Egyptians as ta dehent, or The Peak. It has an appearance, and it is probable that this echoed the pyramids of the Old Kingdom. Its isolated position also resulted in reduced access, and special police were able to guard the necropolis
35.
KV35
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Tomb KV35 is an ancient Egyptian tomb located in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. It was discovered by Victor Loret in March 1898 and contains the tomb of Amenhotep II and it has a dogs leg shape, typical of the layout of early Eighteenth Dynasty tombs, but several features make this tomb stand out. The burial chamber is a shape and divided into upper and lower pillared sections. This style of burial chamber became standard for royal burials in the later New Kingdom, later the tomb was used as a mummy cache. Some believed this mummy to be a male, however, with DNA testing, this mummy was shown in February 2010 to be a woman, the mother of Tutankhamun, and the daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye. Her name, however, remains unknown, leaving open the possibility that she is likely either Nebetiah or Beketaten, an unknown woman D in an upturned lid of a coffin inscribed for Setnakhte. Two skulls were found in the well and an arm was found with the above Younger Lady. A body on a boat was stolen from or destroyed at the start of the 20th century, william Max Millers Theban Royal Mummy Project
36.
Tutankhamun
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Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom or sometimes the New Empire Period. He has, since his discovery, been referred to as King Tut. His original name, Tutankhaten, means Living Image of Aten, in hieroglyphs, the name Tutankhamun was typically written Amen-tut-ankh, because of a scribal custom that placed a divine name at the beginning of a phrase to show appropriate reverence. The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamuns nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and it sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamuns mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world, in February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed that he was the son of Akhenaten. His mother was Akhenatens sister and wife, whose name is unknown, the mysterious deaths of a few of those who excavated Tutankhamuns tomb has been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs. Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and one of Akhenatens sisters, as a prince, he was known as Tutankhaten. He ascended to the throne in 1333 BC, at the age of nine or ten and his wet nurse was a woman called Maia, known from her tomb at Saqqara. His teacher was most likely Sennedjem, when he became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun. They had two daughters, both stillborn, computed tomography studies released in 2011 revealed that one daughter died at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other at 9 months of pregnancy. No evidence was found in either mummy of congenital anomalies or an apparent cause of death, given his age, the king probably had very powerful advisers, presumably including General Horemheb and Grand Vizier Ay. Horemheb records that the king appointed him lord of the land as hereditary prince to maintain law and he also noted his ability to calm the young king when his temper flared. In his third year, under the influence of his advisors. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy, the ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned and this is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, Living image of Amun, reinforcing the restoration of Amun. As part of his restoration, the king initiated building projects, in particular at Karnak in Thebes, many monuments were erected, and an inscription on his tomb door declares the king had spent his life in fashioning the images of the gods. The traditional festivals were now celebrated again, including those related to the Apis Bull, Horemakhet and his restoration stela says, The temples of the gods and goddesses. Their shrines were deserted and overgrown and their sanctuaries were as non-existent and their courts were used as roads
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