1.
Statue
–
A statue is a sculpture representing one or more people or animals, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger. A small statue, usually enough to be picked up, is called a statuette or figurine. Statues have been produced in many cultures from prehistory to the present, the worlds tallest statue, Spring Temple Buddha, is 128 metres, and is located in Lushan County, Henan, China. Many statues are built on commission to commemorate a historical event, many statues are intended as public art, exhibited outdoors or in public buildings. Some statues gain fame in their own right, separate from the person or concept they represent, Ancient statues often survive showing the bare surface of the material of which they are made. For example, many people associate Greek classical art with white marble sculpture, most of the colour was weathered off over time, small remnants were removed during cleaning, in some cases small traces remained which could be identified. Richter goes so far as to say of classical Greek sculpture, All stone sculpture, whether limestone or marble, was painted, medieval statues were also usually painted, with some still retaining their original pigments. The colouring of statues ceased during the Renaissance, as excavated classical sculptures, the Löwenmensch figurine from the Swabian Alps in Germany is the oldest known statue in the world, and dates to 30, 000-40,000 years ago. The Venus of Hohle Fels, from the area, is somewhat later. Throughout history, statues have been associated with images in many religious traditions, from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece. Egyptian statues showing kings as sphinxes have existed since the Old Kingdom, the oldest statue of a striding pharaoh dates from the reign of Senwosret I and is the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The Middle Kingdom of Egypt witnessed the growth of block statues which then became the most popular form until the Ptolemaic period, the oldest statue of a deity in Rome was the bronze statue of Ceres in 485 BC. The oldest statue in Rome is now the statue of Diana on the Aventine, the wonders of the world include several statues from antiquity, with the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. While Byzantine art flourished in various forms, sculpture and statue making witnessed a general decline, an example was the statue of Justinian which stood in the square across from the Hagia Sophia until the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. While making statues was not subject to a ban, it was hardly encouraged in this period. Starting with the work of Maillol around 1900, the human figures embodied in statues began to move away from the schools of realism that had held them bound for thousands of years. The Futurist and Cubist schools took this even further until statues, often still nominally representing humans, had lost all. By the 1920s and 1930s statues began to appear that were abstract in design
Statue
–
The Thinker, by
Rodin c. 1902, Bronze,
Copenhagen
Statue
–
Easter Island moai statues
Statue
–
Great Sphinx of Giza, c. 2558–2532 BC, the largest
monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high.
Giza,
Egypt.
Statue
–
The
Charioteer of Delphi, 474 BC,
Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece
2.
Ramesses II
–
Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great and Ozymandias, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He often is regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and his successors and later Egyptians called him the Great Ancestor. Ramesses II led several expeditions into the Levant, reasserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali, at age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his teens and is known to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC. Manetho attributes Ramesses II a reign of 66 years and 2 months, most Egyptologists today believe he assumed the throne on May 31,1279 BC, estimates of his age at death vary,90 or 91 is considered most likely. Ramesses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals during his reign—more than any other pharaoh. On his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, his later was moved to a royal cache where it was discovered in 1881. The early part of his reign was focused on building cities, temples and he established the city of Pi-Ramesses in the Nile Delta as his new capital and used it as the main base for his campaigns in Syria. He is known as Ozymandias in the Greek sources, from a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramesses throne name, Usermaatre Setepenre, The justice of Rê is powerful – chosen of Rê. Early in his life, Ramesses II embarked on campaigns to restore possession of previously held territories lost to the Nubians and Hittites. He also was responsible for suppressing some Nubian revolts and carrying out a campaign in Libya, during Ramesses IIs reign, the Egyptian army is estimated to have totaled about 100,000 men, a formidable force that he used to strengthen Egyptian influence. The Sherden people probably came from the coast of Ionia, from southwest Anatolia or perhaps, a stele from Tanis speaks of their having come in their war-ships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to stand before them. In that sea battle, together with the Sherden, the pharaoh also defeated the Lukka, the immediate antecedents to the Battle of Kadesh were the early campaigns of Ramesses II into Canaan. The inscription is almost totally illegible, due to weathering, additional records tell us that he was forced to fight a Canaanite prince who was mortally wounded by an Egyptian archer, and whose army subsequently, was routed. Ramesses carried off the princes of Canaan as live prisoners to Egypt, Ramesses then plundered the chiefs of the Asiatics in their own lands, returning every year to his headquarters at Riblah to exact tribute. In the fourth year of his reign, he captured the Hittite vassal state of Amurru during his campaign in Syria, the Battle of Kadesh in his fifth regnal year was the climactic engagement in a campaign that Ramesses fought in Syria, against the resurgent Hittite forces of Muwatallis. The pharaoh wanted a victory at Kadesh both to expand Egypts frontiers into Syria, and to emulate his father Seti Is triumphal entry into the city just a decade or so earlier and he also constructed his new capital, Pi-Ramesses
Ramesses II
–
One of the four external seated statues of Ramesses II at
Abu Simbel.
Ramesses II
–
Ramesses II as a child (
Cairo Museum)
Ramesses II
–
Relief from
Ramesseum showing the
siege of Dapur
Ramesses II
–
Tablet of
treaty between
Hattusili III of
Hatti and Ramesses II of
Egypt, at the
Istanbul Archaeology Museum
3.
Granite
–
Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be white, pink, or gray in color. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. By definition, granite is a rock with at least 20% quartz. The term granitic means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks, petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite, Granite is nearly always massive, hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout human history, and more recently as a construction stone. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6 •1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C, it is reduced in the presence of water. Granite has poor primary permeability, but strong secondary permeability, true granite according to modern petrologic convention contains both plagioclase and alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite, when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite, pyroxene and amphibole are common in tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or two-mica granite, two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age, it is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin veneer of the continents. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors and rounded massifs, granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite often occurs as small, less than 100 km² stock masses
Granite
–
Granite containing
potassium feldspar,
plagioclase feldspar,
quartz, and
biotite and/or
amphibole
Granite
–
Close-up of granite exposed in
Chennai,
India
Granite
–
The
Cheesewring, a granite
tor
Granite
–
A granite peak at
Huangshan, China
4.
Ramesseum
–
The Ramesseum is the memorial temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II. It is located in the Theban necropolis in Upper Egypt, across the River Nile from the city of Luxor. It was originally called the House of millions of years of Usermaatra-setepenra that unites with Thebes-the-city in the domain of Amon, Usermaatra-setepenra was the prenomen of Ramesses II. Surviving records indicate that work on the project shortly after the start of his reign. The design of Ramessess mortuary temple adheres to the canons of New Kingdom temple architecture. Oriented northwest and southeast, the temple itself comprised two stone pylons, one after the other, each leading into a courtyard, beyond the second courtyard, at the centre of the complex, was a covered 48-column hypostyle hall, surrounding the inner sanctuary. An enormous pylon stood before the first court, with the palace at the left. As was customary, the pylons and outer walls were decorated with scenes commemorating pharaohs military victories and leaving due record of his dedication to, and kinship with, the gods. The scenes of the pharaoh and his army triumphing over the Hittite forces fleeing before Kadesh, as portrayed in the canons of the epic poem of Pentaur. Only fragments of the base and torso remain of the statue of the enthroned pharaoh,62 feet high. This was alleged to have been transported 170 miles over land and this is the largest remaining colossal statue in the world. However fragments of 4 granite Colossi of Ramses were found in Tanis, estimated height is 69 to 92 feet. Like four of the six colossi of Amenhotep III there are no longer complete remains so it is based partly on unconfirmed estimates, remains of the second court include part of the internal façade of the pylon and a portion of the Osiride portico on the right. Scenes of war and the rout of the Hittites at Kadesh are repeated on the walls, in the upper registers, feast and honour of the phallic god Min, god of fertility. On the opposite side of the court the few Osiride pillars, scattered remains of the two statues of the seated king can also be seen, one in pink granite and the other in black granite, which once flanked the entrance to the temple. The head of one of these has been removed to the British Museum, thirty-nine out of the forty-eight columns in the great hypostyle hall still stand in the central rows. They are decorated with the scenes of the king before various gods. Part of the ceiling decorated with stars on a blue ground has also been preserved
Ramesseum
–
Aerial view of Thebes' Ramesseum, showing pylons and secondary buildings
Ramesseum
–
Osirid statues
Ramesseum
–
The "other" granite head
Ramesseum
–
Laser scanned point cloud image of a headless Osiris pillar, second court, from a
CyArk /
Supreme Council of Antiquities research partnership
5.
British Museum
–
The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, and is located in the Bloomsbury area of London. The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician, the museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. Although today principally a museum of art objects and antiquities. Its foundations lie in the will of the Irish-born British physician, on 7 June 1753, King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. They were joined in 1757 by the Old Royal Library, now the Royal manuscripts, together these four foundation collections included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf. The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public, sloanes collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary, the body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the now occupied by Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost. With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts. A list of donations to the Museum, dated 31 January 1784, in the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman Sculpture, in 1805. In 1816 these masterpieces of art, were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament. The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815, the Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich. The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an extension to the Museum. For the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it, and put forward plans for todays quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the Kings Library Gallery began in 1823, the extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. The Museum became a site as Sir Robert Smirkes grand neo-classical building gradually arose
British Museum
–
British Museum
British Museum
–
The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2001 to become the
Great Court, surrounding the original
Reading Room.
British Museum
–
Sir
Hans Sloane
British Museum
–
Montagu House, c. 1715
6.
Ancient Egypt
–
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
Ancient Egypt
–
The
Great Sphinx and the
pyramids of Giza are among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt
–
A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles. (Predynastic Period)
Ancient Egypt
–
The
Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands.
7.
Ancient Egyptian temple
–
Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated and these rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat, the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, nevertheless, a temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray, give offerings, and seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within. The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary, which contained a cult image. These edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of Egyptian architecture and their typical design consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, and massive entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond the temple proper was a wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple also owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs, temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers. The priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, temple-building in Egypt continued despite the nations decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire. With the coming of Christianity, however, Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, for centuries, the ancient buildings suffered destruction and neglect. Dozens of temples survive today, and some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute significantly to the modern Egyptian economy, Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones, as they are invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the gods to reside on earth, indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means mansion of a god. A gods presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and these rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and it was the purpose of a temple as well. Because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh, as a king, was regarded as Egypts representative to the gods. Thus, it was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites, the pharaoh was nevertheless obligated to maintain, provide for, and expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority, the performance of rituals was still an official duty. The participation of the populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines, however, as the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians
Ancient Egyptian temple
–
The Temple of
Isis at
Philae, with
pylons and an enclosed court on the left and the inner building at right
Ancient Egyptian temple
–
Low relief of
Seti I performing rituals for the god
Amun
Ancient Egyptian temple
–
Sunk relief of personified
provinces of Egypt bearing offerings for the temple god
Ancient Egyptian temple
–
Reconstruction of an Old Kingdom pyramid temple, with causeway leading out to the valley temple
8.
Thebes, Egypt
–
Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset, was an ancient Egyptian city located east of the Nile about 800 kilometers south of the Mediterranean. Its ruins lie within the modern Egyptian city of Luxor, Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. It was close to Nubia and the desert, with their valuable mineral resources. It was a center and the wealthiest city of ancient Egypt at its heyday. The Ancient Egyptians originally knew Thebes as Wose or Wase A was was the scepter of the pharaohs, a staff with an animals head. Thebes is the Latinized form of the Greek Thebai, the form of the Demotic Egyptian Ta-pe. This was the name not for the city itself but for the Karnak temple complex on the northern east bank of the city. As early as Homers Iliad, the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as Thebes of the Hundred Gates, as opposed to the Thebes of the Seven Gates in Boeotia, from the end of the New Kingdom, Thebes was known in Egyptian as Niwt-Imn, the City of Amun. Amun was the chief of the Theban Triad of gods whose other members were Mut and this name appears in the Bible as the Nōʼ ʼĀmôn of the Book of Nahum and probably also as the No mentioned in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the interpretatio graeca, Amun was seen as a form of Zeus, the name was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, the City of Zeus. To distinguish it from the other cities by this name. The Greek names came into use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Thebes was located along the banks of the Nile River in the part of Upper Egypt about 800 km from the Delta. It was built largely on the plains of the Nile Valley which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast-southwest axis parallel to the river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km2 which included parts of the Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter al-Qurn, in the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant of these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes and it was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. In the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, Thebes was found to have neighboring towns such as Per-Hathor, Madu, Djerty, Iuny, Sumenu, according to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC
Thebes, Egypt
–
Egypt - Temple of Seti, east entrance, Thebes. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection
Thebes, Egypt
–
Luxor Temple
Thebes, Egypt
–
The Theban Necropolis
9.
Upper Egypt
–
Upper Egypt is the strip of land on both sides of the Nile that extends between Nubia and downriver to Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile above modern-day Aswan, downriver to the area between Dahshur and El-Ayait, which is south of modern-day Cairo, the northern part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait, is also known as Middle Egypt. In Arabic, inhabitants of Upper Egypt are known as Saidis, in ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as tꜣ šmꜣw, literally the Land of Reeds or the Sedgeland It was divided into twenty-two districts called nomes. The first nome was roughly where modern-day Aswan is and the twenty-second was at modern Atfih just to the south of Cairo, the main city of prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen, whose patron deity was the vulture goddess Nekhbet. By about 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops, shortly after 3600 BC, Egyptian society began to grow and increase in complexity. A new and distinctive pottery, which was related to the Levantine ceramics, extensive use of copper became common during this time. The Mesopotamian process of sun-drying adobe and architectural principles—including the use of the arch, concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt also underwent a unification process, warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta, for most of pharaonic Egypts history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, its importance declined, under the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of Upper Egypts capital city. Upper Egypt was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet, and its symbols were the flowering lotus, in the 11th century, large numbers of pastoralists, known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis. It is believed that degraded grazing conditions in Upper Egypt, associated with the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period, were the cause of the migration. In the 20th-century Egypt, the title Prince of the Said was used by the apparent to the Egyptian throne. Although the Kingdom of Egypt was abolished after the Egyptian revolution of 1952, media related to Upper Egypt at Wikimedia Commons
Upper Egypt
–
Iry-Hor
Upper Egypt
–
Ka
Upper Egypt
–
King Scorpion
10.
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
–
The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, the warrior kings of the early 18th Dynasty had encountered only little resistance from neighbouring kingdoms, allowing them to expand their realm of influence easily. The situation had changed radically towards the end of the 18th Dynasty, the Hittites gradually extended their influence into Syria and Canaan to become a major power in international politics, a power that both Seti I and his son Ramesses II would need to deal with. The Pharaohs of the 19th dynasty ruled for one hundred and ten years. Seti Is reign is considered to be 11 years and not 15 years by both J. von Beckerath and Peter Brand, who wrote a biography on this pharaohs reign. Consequently, it will be amended to 11 years or 1290-1279 BC, therefore, Setis father and predecessor would have ruled Egypt between 1292-1290 BC. 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. New Kingdom Egypt reached the zenith of its power under Seti I and Ramesses II, who campaigned vigorously against the Libyans and the Hittites. The city of Kadesh was first captured by Seti I, who decided to concede it to Muwatalli of Hatti in a peace treaty between Egypt and Hatti. He ultimately accepted that a campaign against the Hittites was a drain on Egypts treasury and military. In his 21st regnal year, Ramesses signed the first recorded peace treaty with Urhi-Teshubs successor, Hattusili III, Ramesses II even married two Hittite princesses, the first after his second Sed Festival. At least as early as Josephus, it was believed that Moses lived during the reign of Ramesses II and this dynasty declined as internal fighting between the heirs of Merneptah for the throne increased. Amenmesse apparently usurped the throne from Merneptahs son and successor, Seti II, after his death, Seti regained power and destroyed most of Amenmesses monuments. Both Bay and Setis chief wife Twosret had a reputation in Ancient Egyptian folklore. After Siptahs death, Twosret ruled Egypt for two years, but she proved unable to maintain her hold on power amid the conspiracies. She was likely ousted in a revolt led by Setnakhte, founder of the Twentieth Dynasty, Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt Family Tree
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
–
Seti I
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
–
Egyptian and Hittite Empires, around the time of the
Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC).
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
–
Ramesses II
Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt
–
Seti II
11.
Pharaoh
–
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
Pharaoh
–
Den
Pharaoh
–
Narmer Palette
Pharaoh
–
Nomen and prenomen of
Ramesses III
Pharaoh
–
Royal titulary
12.
Uraeus
–
The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet and she was one of the earliest Egyptian deities and who often was depicted as a cobra. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the Greeks and she became the patroness of the Nile Delta and the protector of all of Lower Egypt. In whatever manner that the Uraeus was displayed upon the head, it was, in effect. The pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the Uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the ruler, there is evidence for this tradition even in the Old Kingdom during the third millennium BCE. Several goddesses associated with or being considered aspects of Wadjet are depicted wearing the Uraeus also, the importance of their separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so many Egyptian deities. Together, they were known as The Two Ladies, who became the joint protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt. Later, the pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun god Ra, in some mythological works, the eyes of Ra are said to be uraei. As the Uraeus was seen as a symbol, the deities Horus. In early ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus would have been the given to any king as part of the many titles taken. According to the mythology of Re, the first Uraeus was said to have been created by the goddess Isis, who formed it from the dust of the earth. In this version of the mythology, the Uraeus was the instrument with which Isis gained the throne of Egypt for Osiris, Isis is associated with and may be considered an aspect of Wadjet. In 1919, after only a half-hour of excavation, the Qufti worker Hosni Ibrahim held in his hands the solid-gold Golden Uraeus of Senusret II and it had been decided to make a complete clearance of the El-Lahun Pyramids rooms at Saqqara. The start in the offering chamber, leading from the tomb, on the south, immediately revealed in the turnover of the six inches of debris. Prior to the 1922 find of Tutankhamuns tomb, this Golden Uraeus was the only ornament ever known to be worn by an entombed pharaoh, and it was thought that it was passed to the next pharaoh. The Golden Uraeus is of gold,6.7 cm, black eyes of granite, a snake head of deep ultramarine lapis lazuli, the flared cobra hood of dark carnelian inlays. For mounting on the crown, two loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra provide the attachment points. Besides the Uraeus being used as an ornament for statuary or as an adornment on the pharaoh, it also was used for jewellery, however, another important use is as the hieroglyph
Uraeus
–
Mask of
Tutankhamun 's mummy featuring a uraeus, from the
eighteenth dynasty. The
cobra image of
Wadjet with the
vulture image of
Nekhbet representing of the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt
Uraeus
–
Uraeus with Solar Disk, 305-30 B.C.E.,51.147.2,
Brooklyn Museum
Uraeus
–
Green glazed cobra amulet in the form of a Uraeus
13.
Napoleon
–
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
Napoleon
–
The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, by
Jacques-Louis David, 1812
Napoleon
–
Imperial coat of arms
Napoleon
–
Napoleon's father
Carlo Buonaparte was
Corsica 's representative to the court of
Louis XVI of France.
Napoleon
–
Napoleon Bonaparte, aged 23, Lieutenant-Colonel of a battalion of Corsican
Republican volunteers
14.
French invasion of Egypt (1798)
–
It was the primary purpose of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, a series of naval engagements that included the capture of Malta. On the scientific front, the led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. At the time of the invasion, the Directoire had assumed power in France. The notion of annexing Egypt as a French colony had been discussion since François Baron de Tott undertook a secret mission to the Levant in 1777 to determine its feasibility. Baron de Totts report was favorable, but no action was taken. Nevertheless, Egypt became a topic of debate between Talleyrand and Napoleon, which continued in their correspondence during Napoleons Italian campaign, in early 1798, Bonaparte proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt. Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the dream of linking with Frances ally Tipu Sultan. At the time, Egypt had been an Ottoman province since 1517, but was now out of direct Ottoman control, in France, Egyptian fashion was in full swing – intellectuals believed that Egypt was the cradle of western civilization and wished to conquer it. French traders already based on the River Nile were complaining of harassment by the Mamluks and he assured the Directoire that as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions. The Directoire agreed to the plan in March 1798, though troubled by its scope, however, they saw that it would remove the popular and over-ambitious Napoleon from the center of power, though this motive long remained secret. Rumors became rife as 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 sailors were gathered in French Mediterranean ports, a large fleet was assembled at Toulon,13 ships of the line,14 frigates, and 400 transports. To avoid interception by the British fleet under Nelson, the target was kept secret. It was known only to Bonaparte himself, his generals Berthier and Caffarelli, Bonaparte was the commander, with subordinates including Thomas Alexandre Dumas, Kléber, Desaix, Berthier, Caffarelli, Lannes, Damas, Murat, Andréossy, Belliard, Menou, and Zajączek. His aides de camp included his brother Louis Bonaparte, Duroc, Eugène de Beauharnais, Thomas Prosper Jullien, and the Polish nobleman Joseph Sulkowski. The fleet at Toulon was joined by squadrons from Genoa, Civitavecchia and Bastia and was put under the command of Admiral Brueys and Contre-amirals Villeneuve, Du Chayla, Decrès and Ganteaume. The fleet was about to set sail when a crisis developed with Austria, the crisis was resolved in a few weeks, and Bonaparte received orders to travel to Toulon as soon as possible. It is claimed that, in a meeting with the Directoire, Bonaparte threatened to dissolve them and directeur Reubell gave him a pen saying Sign there. Bonaparte arrived at Toulon on 9 May 1798, lodging with Benoît Georges de Najac, grand Master von Hompesch replied that only two foreign ships would be allowed to enter the port at a time
French invasion of Egypt (1798)
–
Battle of the Pyramids
French invasion of Egypt (1798)
–
Napoleon's arrival in Malta
French invasion of Egypt (1798)
–
French Campaign in Egypt, 1798–99
15.
Rosetta Stone
–
The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele, found in 1799, inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script, respectively, as the decree is the same in all three versions, the Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone, carved in black granodiorite during the Hellenistic period, is believed to have originally been displayed within a temple, possibly at nearby Sais. It was probably moved during the early Christian or medieval period and it was rediscovered there in July 1799 by a French soldier named Pierre-François Bouchard during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt. Lithographic copies and plaster casts began circulating among European museums and scholars, meanwhile, British troops defeated the French in Egypt in 1801, and the original stone came into British possession under the Capitulation of Alexandria and was transported to London. It has been on display at the British Museum almost continuously since 1802. It is the object in the British Museum. Study of the decree was already under way when the first full translation of the Greek text appeared in 1803, the Rosetta Stone is, therefore, no longer unique, but it was the essential key to modern understanding of Ancient Egyptian literature and civilisation. The term Rosetta Stone is now used in contexts as the name for the essential clue to a new field of knowledge. The Rosetta Stone is listed as a stone of black granite, found at Rosetta in a contemporary catalogue of the artefacts discovered by the French expedition and surrendered to British troops in 1801. This gave a dark colour to the stone that led to its identification as black basalt. The Rosetta Stone is 1,123 millimetres high at its highest point,757 mm wide and it bears three inscriptions, the top register in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the second in the Egyptian Demotic script, and the third in Ancient Greek. The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a larger stele, no additional fragments were found in later searches of the Rosetta site. Owing to its state, none of the three texts is absolutely complete. The top register, composed of Egyptian hieroglyphs, suffered the most damage, only the last 14 lines of the hieroglyphic text can be seen, all of them are broken on the right side, and 12 of them on the left. The following register of demotic text has survived best, it has 32 lines, the final register of Greek text contains 54 lines, of which the first 27 survive in full, the rest are increasingly fragmentary due to a diagonal break at the bottom right of the stone. The stele was erected after the coronation of King Ptolemy V and was inscribed with a decree established the divine cult of the new ruler. The decree was issued by a congress of priests who gathered at Memphis, the date is given as 4 Xandicus in the Macedonian calendar and 18 Meshir in the Egyptian calendar, which corresponds to March 27,196 BC
Rosetta Stone
–
The Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone
–
Report of the arrival of the Rosetta Stone in England in
The Gentleman's Magazine, 1802
Rosetta Stone
–
Left and right sides of the Rosetta Stone, with inscriptions in English relating to its capture by English forces from the French
Rosetta Stone
–
Experts inspecting the Rosetta Stone during the Second International Congress of Orientalists, 1874
16.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
–
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was a Swiss traveller, geographer and orientalist. He wrote his letters in French and signed Louis and he is best known for rediscovering the ruins of the ancient Nabataean city of Petra in Jordan. Burckhardt was born on 24 November 1784 in Lausanne, Switzerland to a wealthy Basel family of silk merchants, after studying at the universities of Leipzig and Göttingen, he travelled to England in the summer of 1806 with goal of obtaining employment in the civil service. Unsuccessful, he took employment with the African Association with the objective of resolving some of the problems of the course of the Niger River, the expedition called for an overland journey from Cairo to Timbuktu. To prepare for the journey, he attended Cambridge University and studied Arabic, science, at this time he also began to adopt Arabian costume. In 1809 he left England and travelled to Aleppo, Syria to perfect his Arabic, en route to Syria, he stopped in Malta and learned of a Dr. Seetzen who had left Cairo in search of the lost city of Petra and had subsequently been murdered. Once in Syria, he adopted the moniker Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah to hide his true European identity, while in Syria, he investigated local languages and archaeological sites and became the first discoverer of Hittite or Luwian hieroglyphs. He suffered setbacks during his time in Syria having been robbed of his belongings more than once by people he had paid to guarantee his protection. After more than 2 years living and studying as a Muslim in Aleppo, he felt he could travel safely and not be questioned on his identity. To test his disguise, he made 3 journeys in the area of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Transjordan travelling as a poor Arab, sleeping on the ground, with these trips being successful, he prepared to continue his journey to Cairo. He left Aleppo in early 1812 and headed south through Damascus, Ajloun, in Kerak, he trusted his security to the local governor, Sheikh Youssef. The governor, under the guise of concern for his guest, liberated him of his most valuable belongings, the guide soon after took the remainder of his belongings and abandoned him in the desert. Burckhardt found a nearby Bedouin encampment and obtained a new guide, on the road to Cairo along the more dangerous inland route to Aqaba, Burckhardt encountered rumours of ancient ruins in a narrow valley near the supposed biblical tomb of Aaron, the brother of Moses. This region was the former Roman province of Arabia Petraea leading him to believe these were the ruins he had heard about in Malta, the natives call this monument Kaszr Faraoun, or Pharaoh’s castle, and pretend that it was the residence of a prince. But it was rather the sepulchre of a prince, and great must have been the opulence of a city and he could not remain long at the ruins or take detailed notes due to his fears of being unmasked as a treasure-seeking infidel. Seeing no evidence of the name of the ruins, he could only speculate that they were in fact the ruins of Petra which he had been informed about on his journey to Syria. He continued his travels and after crossing the southern deserts of Transjordan, after spending four months in Cairo with no westbound caravans across the Sahara available, Burckhardt decided to journey up the Nile River to Upper Egypt and Nubia. He justified this to his employer with the argument that the information he would collect on African cultures would help him in his journey to west Africa
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
–
Jean Louis Burckhardt
17.
Henry Salt (egyptologist)
–
Henry Salt was an English artist, traveller, collector of antiquities, diplomat, and Egyptologist. Salt, the son of a physician, was born in Lichfield on 14 June 1780 and he trained as a portrait painter, first in Lichfield and then in London under Joseph Farington and John Hoppner. In 1802 he was appointed secretary and draughtsman to George Annesley and they started on an eastern tour, traveling on the British East India Companys extra ship Minerva to India via the Cape Colony. Salt explored the Red Sea area, and in 1805 visited the Ethiopian highlands and he returned to England on 26 October 1806. Salts paintings from the trip were used to Valentias Voyages and Travels to India, the originals of all the drawings were kept by Valentia, as also the copper plates after Salts death. The format and style of the plates is similar to Thomas and William Daniells work, Salt returned to Ethiopia in 1809 on a government mission to explore trade and diplomatic links with the Tigrayan warlord Ras Wolde Selassie. He later returned and continued a friendship with the Ethiopian warlord Sabagadis, in 1815 Salt was appointed British consul-general in Cairo. But Salt was not easily discouraged and resorting to the methods as his rival. Thanks to his assistants, Salt was able to build up his important collection in just two years, Salt also managed to assemble a third collection, containing 1,083 objects. It was sold by auction, largely to the British Museum, in 1835, Salt was portrayed by Robert Portal in the 2005 BBC docudrama Egypt. Henry Salt, Artist, Traveller, Diplomat, Egyptologist
Henry Salt (egyptologist)
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Portrait of Henry Salt by John James Halls (c. 1815)
Henry Salt (egyptologist)
–
"Riacotta in the Baramahal"
18.
Giovanni Belzoni
–
Giovanni Battista Belzoni, sometimes known as The Great Belzoni, was a prolific Italian explorer and pioneer archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities. His father was a barber who sired fourteen children and his family was from Rome and when Belzoni was 16 he went to work there, saying that he studied hydraulics. He intended taking monastic vows, but in 1798 the occupation of the city by French troops drove him from Rome, in 1800 he moved to the Netherlands where he earned a living as a barber. In 1803 he fled to England to avoid being sent to jail, there he married an Englishwoman, Sarah Bane. Belzoni was a man at 6 feet 7 inches tall. They were for some time compelled to find subsistence by performing exhibitions of feats of strength and agility as a strongman at fairs, in 1804 he appears engaged at the circus at Astleys amphitheatre at a variety of performances. Belzoni had an interest in phantasmagoria and experimented with the use of lanterns in his shows. Belzoni wanted to show Muhammad Ali a hydraulic machine of his own invention for raising the waters of the Nile, though the experiment with this engine was successful, the project was not approved by the pasha. Belzoni, now without a job, was resolved to continue his travels, on the recommendation of the orientalist J. L. Shipped by Belzoni to England, this piece is still on prominent display at the British Museum. It took him 17 days and 130 men to tow it to the river and he used levers to lift it onto rollers. Then he had his men distributed equally with 4 ropes drag it on the rollers, on the first day he only covered a few yards, the second he covered 50 yards deliberately breaking the bases of 2 columns to clear the way for his burden. After 150 yards, it sank into the sand, and a detour of 300 yards on firmer ground was necessary. From there, it got a little easier, and, on 12 August and his excavation and removal of the Young Memnon and other stones during this expedition was explicitly authorized by a firman from Muhammed Ali himself, the Pasha of Egypt. He was the first to penetrate into the pyramid of Giza. He also identified the ruins of Berenice on the Red Sea, during 1820 and 1821 he also exhibited facsimiles of the tomb of Seti I. The exhibition was held at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London, in 1822 Belzoni showed his model in Paris. In 1823 he set out for West Africa, intending to travel to Timbuktu, having been refused permission to pass through Morocco, he chose the Guinea Coast route. He reached the Kingdom of Benin, but was seized with dysentery at a village called Gwato, according to the celebrated traveller Richard Francis Burton he was murdered and robbed
Giovanni Belzoni
–
Giovanni Battista Belzoni
Giovanni Belzoni
–
A medal depicting Giovanni Belzoni, British Museum
Giovanni Belzoni
Giovanni Belzoni
–
The 'Young Memnon',
Rameses II, at the
British Museum
19.
Cairo
–
Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Cairo has long been a center of the political and cultural life. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab world, as well as the worlds second-oldest institution of higher learning, Al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, with a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers, Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 9.5 million inhabitants live in proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution, Cairos metro, one of only two in Africa, ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, Egyptians often refer to Cairo as Maṣr, the Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the citys importance for the country. In Coptic the city is known as Kahire, meaning Place of the Sun, possibly referring to the ancient city of Heliopolis, the location of the ancient city is the suburb of Ain Shams. The ancient Egyptian name for the area is thought to be Khere-Ohe, The Place of Combat, sometimes the city is informally referred to as Kayro. The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, had long been a point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance and this fortress, known as Babylon, remained the nucleus of the Roman, and, later, the Byzantine, city and is the oldest structure in the city today. It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, many of Cairos oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church, are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. Following the Muslim conquest in 640 AD the conqueror Amr ibn As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area became known as al-Fustat. Originally a tented camp Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt, in 750, following the overthrow of the Ummayad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar as it was laid out like a military camp, a rebellion in 869 by Ahmad ibn Tulun led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government. This was al-Qattai, to the north of Fustat and closer to the river, Al Qattai was centred around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of ibn Tulun. In 905 the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their returned to Fustat
Cairo
–
Cairo القاهرة al-Qāhirah
Cairo
–
Louis Comfort Tiffany (American, 1848-1933). On the Way between Old and New Cairo, Citadel Mosque of Mohammed Ali, and Tombs of the Mamelukes, 1872. Oil on canvas.
Brooklyn Museum
Cairo
–
A rendition of
Fustat from A. S. Rappoport's History of Egypt
Cairo
–
Cairo map 1847
20.
River Nile
–
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta
River Nile
–
The river in Uganda
River Nile
–
The Nile at
Dendera, as seen from the
SPOT satellite
River Nile
–
The Nile near
Beni Suef
River Nile
–
Composite satellite image of the White Nile.
21.
Luxor
–
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896, with an area of approximately 416 square kilometres, immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the West Bank Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of tourists from all around the world arrive annually to visit these monuments, the name Luxor comes from the Arabic al-ʾuqṣur, lit. the palaces, from the collective pl. of qaṣr, which may be a loanword from the Latin castrum fortified camp. Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom. Montuhotep II who united Egypt after the troubles of the first intermediate period brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature. The city attracted peoples such as the Babylonians, the Mitanni, the Hittites of Anatolia, the Canaanites of Ugarit, the Phoenicians of Byblos and Tyre, a Hittite prince from Anatolia even came to marry with the widow of Tutankhamun, Ankhesenamun. However, as the city of the god Amon-Ra, Thebes remained the capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amon, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon. With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt and his great temple, at Karnak just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity. Later, the city was attacked by Assyrian emperor Assurbanipal who installed the Libyan prince on the throne, the city of Thebes was in ruins and fell in significance. However, Alexander the Great did arrive at the temple of Amun, where the statue of the god was transferred from Karnak during the Opet Festival, Aswan and Luxor have the hottest summer days of any other city in Egypt. Aswan and Luxor have nearly the same climate, Luxor is one of the hottest, sunniest and driest cities in the world. Average high temperatures are above 40 °C during summer while average low temperatures remain above 22 °C, during the coldest month of the year, average high temperatures remain above 22.0 °C while average low temperatures remain above 5 °C. The climate of Luxor has precipitation levels lower than even most other places in the Sahara, the desert city is one of the driest ones in the world, and rainfall does not occur every year. The air is dry in Luxor but much more humid than in Aswan. There is a relative humidity of 39. 9%, with a maximum mean of 57% during winter. In addition, Luxor, Minya, Sohag, Qena and Asyut have the widest difference of temperatures between days and nights of any city in Egypt, with almost 16 °C difference. The hottest temperature recorded was on May 15,1991 which was 50 °C, the Coptic Catholic minority established on November 26,1895 an Eparchy of Luqsor alias Thebes, on territory split off from the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt
Luxor
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Top: First pylon in Precinct of Amun-Re, 2nd left: Night view in Luxor Temple, 2nd right: Colossi of Memnon Statue, Middle left: Pillars of Great Hypostyle Hall ancient site, Middle right: Hatshepsut Temple in Deir el-Bchari, 4th left: Statue of Ramses Ⅱ in Karnak Temple, 4th right: Needle Monument in Karnak Temple, Bottom: View of Pillars of Great Hypostyle Hall ancient site
Luxor
–
Luxor Temple
Luxor
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Streets of Luxor in 2004
Luxor
–
Luxor
souq
22.
Esna
–
Esna, known to the ancient Egyptians as Egyptian, Iunyt or Ta-senet, Coptic, ⲥⲛⲏ, which derives from Ta-senet, Greek, Λατόπολις or πόλις Λάτων or Λάττων, Latin, Lato, is a city in Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the River Nile, the town was formerly part of the modern Qena Governorate, but as of 9/12/2009, has been incorporated into the new Luxor Governorate. This city of Latopolis in the Thebaid region of Upper Egypt should not be confused with the more northerly city of Letopolis, ancient Khem, modern Ausim, held sacred, the Lates niloticus was buried in a cemetery west of the town. The tutelary deities of Latopolis seem to have been the triad – Khnum and Neith, the temple of Esna, dedicated to this triad, was remarkable for the beauty of its site and the magnificence of its architecture. It was built of red sandstone, and its portico consisted of six rows of four each, with lotus-leaf capitals. Another temple of the period has been identified at Kom Mer, about 12 km to the south. There was a temple, dedicated to the triad of Latopolis. Here, too, is a small Zodiac of the age of Ptolemy III Euergetes and this latter building was destroyed in the 19th century, as it stood in the way of a new canal. The temple of Esna was cleared of the soil and rubbish which filled its area when Denon visited it, and served as a cotton warehouse in the mid-19th century. With the exception of the jamb of a gateway – now converted into a door-sill – of the reign of Thutmose II, the name of Ptolemy V Epiphanes is found also inscribed upon a doorway. Although the scale of the ruins are impressive, their sculptures, the west wall features reliefs of Ptolemy VI Philometor and Ptolemy VIII Physcon. On the ceiling of the pronaos is the larger Latopolitan Zodiac, the name of the emperor Geta, the last ruler that can be read in hieroglyphics, although partially erased by his brother and murderer Caracalla, is still legible on the walls of Latopolis. Before raising their own edifice, the Romans seem to have destroyed even the basements of the earlier Egyptian temple, the ceremonial way, which probably linked the quay to the temple, has disappeared. The quay bears cartouches of Marcus Aurelius, the cemetery west of the town, where the Lates niloticus was buried, also contains human burials dating of the Middle Kingdom to the Late Period. The Temple of Esna conveys a sense of the importance which the Ancient Egyptians placed upon their places of worship, all Egyptians who entered the confines of an Egyptian temple were required to comply with the strict rules regarding ritual purity. Two barrage bridges straddle the Nile at this point, one built by the British in 1906, navigation, particularly, Nile cruisers ferrying tourists from Luxor to Aswan 155 km further upstream, can be held up for hours while vessels negotiate their way through the lock system. The two main points of interest in Esna are its lively tourist-oriented market, which fills a couple of streets leading inland from the corniche, the other is the temple of Esna. The temple, which has only partially excavated, is about 200 meters from the river
Esna
–
Esna Tourist bazaar at night
Esna
–
The Temple of
Khnum at Esna
Esna
–
Reliefs showing Khnum with his consort Neith in her Lion Headed form from the Temple of Esna
Esna
–
Wall reliefs from the Temple of Esna
23.
Alexandria
–
Alexandria is the second largest city and a major economic centre in Egypt, extending about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country. Its low elevation on the Nile delta makes it vulnerable to rising sea levels. Alexandria is Egypts largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypts imports and exports and it is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria is also an important tourist destination, Alexandria was founded around a small Ancient Egyptian town c.331 BC by Alexander the Great. Alexandria was the second most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria is believed to have been founded by Alexander the Great in April 331 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια. Alexanders chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile valley. The city and its museum attracted many of the greatest scholars, including Greeks, Jews, the city was later plundered and lost its significance. Just east of Alexandria, there was in ancient times marshland, as early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of Canopus and Heracleion. The latter was rediscovered under water. An Egyptian city, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore also and it continued to exist as the Egyptian quarter of the city. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to his city, after Alexanders departure, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandrias continuous development, the Heptastadion, inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and and it became Egypts main Greek city, with Greek people from diverse backgrounds. Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism, but was home to the largest urban Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek version of the Tanakh, was produced there, in AD115, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Kitos War, which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami, the Islamic prophet, Muhammads first interaction with the people of Egypt occurred in 628, during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha. He sent Hatib bin Abi Baltaeh with a letter to the king of Egypt and Alexandria called Muqawqis In the letter Muhammad said, I invite you to accept Islam, Allah the sublime, shall reward you doubly. But if you refuse to do so, you bear the burden of the transgression of all the Copts
Alexandria
–
Alexandria Ἀλεξάνδρεια
Alexandria
Alexandria
–
Residential neighborhood in Alexandria
Alexandria
–
Fishing in Alexandria
24.
Ozymandias
–
“Ozymandias” is a sonnet written by English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner in London. It was included the year in Shelleys collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue, with Other Poems. Ozymandias is regarded as one of Shelleys most famous works and is frequently anthologised, in antiquity, Ozymandias was a Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled from 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE, in the 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. The 7. 25-ton fragment of the head and torso had been removed in 1816 from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes by Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni. It was expected to arrive in London in 1818, but did not arrive until 1821, Shelley wrote the poem in friendly competition with his friend and fellow poet Horace Smith, who also wrote a sonnet on the same topic with the very same title. Smiths poem was published in The Examiner a few weeks after Shelleys sonnet, both poems explore the fate of history and the ravages of time, that all prominent figures and the empires that they build are impermanent and their legacies fated to decay into oblivion. The banker and political writer Horace Smith spent the Christmas season of 1817–1818 with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley. Shelley and Smith both chose a passage from the writings of the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, which described a massive Egyptian statue and quoted its inscription, if any want to know how great I am and where I lie, let him outdo me in my work. In the poem Diodorus becomes a traveller from an antique land, the two poems were later published in Leigh Hunts The Examiner, published by Leighs brother John Hunt in London. Shelley’s was published on 11 January 1818 under the pen name Glirastes and it appeared on page 24 in the yearly collection, under Original Poetry. Smiths was published, along by a note signed with the initials H. S. on 1 February 1818, Shelleys poem was later republished under the title Sonnet. Shelley wrote the poem in competition with his friend Horace Smith, the central theme of Ozymandias is contrasting the inevitable decline of all leaders and of the empires they build with their pretensions to greatness. Ozymandias represents a transliteration into Greek of a part of Ramessess throne name, the sonnet paraphrases the inscription on the base of the statue, given by Diodorus Siculus in his Bibliotheca historica, as King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, the poem was written and published before the statue arrived in Britain, but the reports of the statues imminent arrival may have inspired the poem. The statues repute in Western Europe preceded its arrival in Britain. The poem has influenced the production of creative works across a range of artistic disciplines. Crime novelist Robert B. Parker opens his 1981 Spenser novel Early Autumn with a quotation of the poem. In John Christophers The Tripods trilogy, a vagrant character named Ozymandias leads the characters to rebel against the tripods, the writer Alan Moore named a superhero Ozymandias in his 1986–87 comic book miniseries Watchmen and recited the poem in the course of the story
Ozymandias
–
The
Younger Memnon statue of
Ramesses II in the
British Museum. Its imminent arrival in London may have inspired the poem.
Ozymandias
–
A fair copy draft (c. 1817) of Shelley's "Ozymandias" in the collection of Oxford's Bodleian Library
Ozymandias
–
1817 draft by Percy Bysshe Shelley,
Bodleian Library
25.
Amenhotep III
–
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
Amenhotep III
–
Colossal statue of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
–
Vase in the Louvre with the names Amenohotep III and Tiye written in the
cartouches on the left, (and Tiye's on the right).
Amenhotep III
–
Queen Tiye, whose husband, Amenhotep III, may have been depicted to her right in this broken statue
Amenhotep III
–
One of the many commemorative scarabs of Amenhotep III. This scarab belongs to a class called the "marriage scarabs," which affirm the divine power of the king and the legitimacy of his wife, Tiye.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
26.
Memnon (mythology)
–
In Greek mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king and son of Tithonus and Eos. As a warrior he was considered to be almost Achilles equal in skill, during the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troys defense and had killed Antilochus during a fierce battle. The death of Memnon echoes that of Hector, another defender of Troy whom Achilles also killed out of revenge for a fallen comrade, after Memnons death, Zeus was moved by Eos tears and granted him immortality. Memnons death is related at length in the lost epic Aethiopis, Quintus of Smyrna records Memnons death in Posthomerica. His death is described in Philostratus Imagines. Memnons army is described as being too big to be counted, as per usual the two leaders end the dinner by exchanging glorious war stories, and Memnons tales lead Priam to declare that the Aethiopian King will be Troys saviour. Despite this, Memnon is very humble and warns that his strength will, he hopes, be seen in battle, before the next days battle, so great is the divine love towards Memnon that Zeus makes all the other Olympians promise not to interfere in the fighting. In battle, Memnon kills Nestors son, Antilochos, after Antilochos has killed Memnons dear comrade, in this way, Memnon is seen as very similar to Achilles – both of them have strong sets of values that are looked upon favourably by the warrior culture of the time. Zeus favours both of them and makes each man tireless and huge so that the battlefield can watch them clash as demigods. Eventually, Achilles stabs Memnon through the heart, causing his army to flee in terror. In honour of Memnon, the Gods collect all the drops of blood that fall from him, the Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader are turned into birds and they stay by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it. Roman writers and later classical Greek writers such as Diodorus Siculus believed Memnon hailed from Aethiopia, because the original historical work by Arctinus of Miletus only survives in fragments, most of what is known about Memnon comes from post-Homeric Greek and Roman writers. Homer only makes passing mention to Memnon in the Odyssey, one of the statues was on the road from Smyrna to Sardis. Herodotus described a carved figure matching this description near the old road from Smyrna to Sardis, the many call it Memnon, who they say from Aethiopia overran Egypt and as far as Susa. The Thebans, however, say that it is a statue, not of Memnon, but of a native named Phamenoph, according to Manetho Memnon and the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Amenophis was one and the same king. According to ancient Greek poets, Memnons father Tithonus was snatched away from Troy by the goddess of dawn Eos and was taken to the ends of the earth on the coast of Oceanus. This literally means he was carried by the east wind and was driven to the ends of the earth beyond the Ocean or Pillars of Hercules. According to Hesiod Eos bore to Tithonus bronzed armed Memnon, the King of the Ethiopians, zephyrus, god of the west wind, like Memnon was also the first-born son of Eos by another father Astraeus, making him the brother of Memnon
Memnon (mythology)
–
The departure of Memnon for Troy. Greek, circa 550-525 BC. Black-figure vase.
Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, Belgium.
Memnon (mythology)
–
Memnon in an engraving by
Bernard Picart (1673–1733)
27.
Colossi of Memnon
–
The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned in Egypt during Dynasty XVIII. For the past 3,400 years, they have stood in the Theban Necropolis, Memnon was a hero of the Trojan War, a King of Ethiopia who led his armies from Africa into Asia Minor to help defend the beleaguered city but was ultimately slain by Achilles. Memnon was said to be the son of Eos, the goddess of dawn and he was associated with the colossi because of the reported cry at dawn of the northern statue, which became known as the Colossus of Memnon. Eventually, the entire Theban Necropolis became generally referred to as the Memnonium making him Ruler of the west as in the case of the god Osiris who was called chief of the west. The twin statues depict Amenhotep III in a position, his hands resting on his knees. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs, the side panels depict the Nile god Hapy. The statues are made from blocks of sandstone which was quarried at el-Gabal el-Ahmar. The blocks used by later Roman engineers to reconstruct the northern colossus may have come from Edfu, including the stone platforms on which they stand – themselves about 4 m – the colossi reach a towering 18 m in height and weigh an estimated 720 tons each. The two figures are about 15 m apart, both statues are quite damaged, with the features above the waist virtually unrecognizable. The southern statue is a piece of stone, but the northern figure has a large extensive crack in the lower half. These upper levels consist of a different type of sandstone, and are the result of a later reconstruction attempt and it is believed that originally the two statues were identical to each other, although inscriptions and minor art may have varied. In its day, this complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt. With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little remains today of Amenhoteps temple, in 27 BCE, a large earthquake reportedly shattered the northern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up and cracking the lower half. Following its rupture, the lower half of this statue was then reputed to sing on various occasions – always within an hour or two of sunrise, usually right at dawn. The sound was most often reported in February or March, the description varied, Strabo said it sounded like a blow, Pausanias compared it to the string of a lyre breaking, but it also was described as the striking of brass or whistling. Other ancient sources include Pliny, Pausanias, Tacitus, Philostratus, in addition, the base of the statue is inscribed with about 90 surviving inscriptions of contemporary tourists reporting whether they had heard the sound or not. The last recorded mention of the sound dates from 196. Various explanations have been offered for the phenomenon, these are of two types, natural or man-made, if natural, the sound was probably caused by rising temperatures and the evaporation of dew inside the porous rock
Colossi of Memnon
–
The Colossi of Memnon in 2015
Colossi of Memnon
–
Antonio Beato, Colosses de Memnon, 19th century.
Brooklyn Museum
Colossi of Memnon
–
Side panel detail showing two flanked relief images of the deity Hapi and, to the right, a sculpture of the royal wife Tiy
Colossi of Memnon
–
Amenhotep III's Sitting Colossi
28.
Charles Towneley
–
Charles Townley FRS was a wealthy English country gentleman, antiquary and collector. He travelled on three Grand Tours to Italy, buying antique sculpture, vases, coins, manuscripts and Old Master drawings and paintings, many of the most important pieces from his collection, especially the Townley Marbles are now in the British Museums Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. The marbles were overshadowed at the time, and still today, Charles Townley was born in England at Towneley Hall, the family seat, near Burnley in Lancashire, on 1 October 1737. He also made excursions to the south of Italy and Sicily. His solitary publication was an account of the Ribchester Helmet in Vetusta Monumenta, a Roman cavalry helmet found near Towneley Hall and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1791. He became a member of the Society of Dilettanti 1786, a large archive of Townleys papers, including diaries, account books, bills, correspondence, and catalogues, was acquired by the British Museum in 1992. A bust of Townley was made in Carrara marble in 1807 by his associate and friend and it shows Townley in herm form – head and neck only, without full shoulders or arms – with a bare neck, dishevelled hair and a pensive expression. The trustees of the museum obtained a parliamentary grant specifically for the purpose, the smaller antiquities, including coins, engraved gems, and pottery, followed in 1814. Townley fully intended to leave this collection to the British Museum, engaged in discussion with him are three fellow connoisseurs, the palaeographer Charles Astle, Hon. Charles Francis Greville, F. R. S. and Pierre-François Hugues DHancarville. Prominent in front are Townleys Roman marble of the Discobolos, the Nymph with a Shell, of which the most famous variant was also in the Borghese collection and a Faun of the Barberini type. On a pedestal in front of the fireplace, the Boys Fighting from the Barberini collection had been Towneleys first major purchase, in 1768. In point of fact, Towneleys only Greek original appears to have been the relief on the left wall above the Bust of a Maenad posed on a wall bracket. The so-called Bust of Clytie perches on the small writing-table, in Zoffanys assembly of the Townley marbles and it was extensively reproduced in marble, plaster, and the white bisque porcelain called parian ware for its supposed resemblance to Parian marble. Goethe owned two casts of this, the Bust of Clytie was apparently Townleys favourite sculpture and the one he took with him when he was forced to flee his home during the anti-Catholic riots of 1780. The Townley Venus on a Roman well-head that serves as drum pedestal had been discovered by Gavin Hamilton at Ostia, the marble Townley Vase, also furtively exported, stands on the bookcase at the rear, it was excavated about 1774 by Gavin Hamilton at Monte Cagnolo. Townley at the B. M. and Cavaceppi at the Clarendon Gallery, B. F. Cook, The Townley Marbles London, The British Museum Press,1985
Charles Towneley
–
Charles Townley by
Nollekens, 1807.
Charles Towneley
–
Charles Townley, miniature by
Josiah Wedgewood
Charles Towneley
–
Bust of Clytie.
Charles Towneley
–
A relief from Townley's collection, from
Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli, ca. 125 AD.
29.
Royal Engineers
–
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers, and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army. It is highly regarded throughout the military, and especially the Army and it provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is headed by the Chief Royal Engineer. The Regimental Headquarters and the Royal School of Military Engineering are in Chatham in Kent, the corps is divided into several regiments, barracked at various places in the United Kingdom and around the world. In Woolwich in 1716, the Board formed the Royal Regiment of Artillery and established a Corps of Engineers, the manual work was done by the Artificer Companies, made up of contracted civilian artisans and labourers. In 1782, a Soldier Artificer Company was established for service in Gibraltar, ten years later the Gibraltar company, which had remained separate, was absorbed and in 1812 the name was changed to the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. The Corps has no battle honours, in 1832, the regimental motto, Ubique Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt, was granted. The motto signified that the Corps had seen action in all the conflicts of the British Army. In 1911 the Corps formed its Air Battalion, the first flying unit of the British Armed Forces, the Air Battalion was the forerunner of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force. In 1915, in response to German mining of British trenches under the then static siege conditions of the First World War, before the Second World War, Royal Engineers recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 4 inches tall. They initially enlisted for six years with the colours and a six years with the reserve or four years. Unlike most corps and regiments, in which the age limit was 25. They trained at the Royal Engineers Depot in Chatham or the RE Mounted Depot at Aldershot, the Royal Engineers Museum is in Gillingham in Kent. Britain having acquired an Empire, it fell to the Royal Engineers to conduct some of the most significant civil engineering schemes around the world, some examples of great works of the era of empire can be found in A. J. Smitherss book Honourable Conquests. The Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, commanded by Richard Clement Moody, was responsible for the foundation, the Royal Albert Hall is one of the UKs most treasured and distinctive buildings, recognisable the world over. Since its opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the leading artists from every kind of performance genre have appeared on its stage. The Hall was designed by Captain Francis Fowke and Major-General Henry Y. D. Scott of the Royal Engineers, the designers were heavily influenced by ancient amphitheatres, but had also been exposed to the ideas of Gottfried Semper while he was working at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Much of the British colonial era infrastructure of India, of which survive today, was created by engineers of the three presidencies armies and the Royal Engineers. In 1838 he designed and built sea defences for Vizagapatam and he masterminded the Godavery Delta project where 720,000 acres of land were irrigated and 500 miles of land to the port of Cocanada was made navigable in the 1840s
Royal Engineers
–
Royal Engineers recruitment poster
Royal Engineers
–
Cap Badge of the Corps of Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
–
Corps of Royal Engineers Cypher
Royal Engineers
–
The
Royal Albert Hall, designed by
Captain Francis Fowke RE
30.
Battle of Waterloo
–
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday,18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Upon Napoleons return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, Wellington and Blüchers armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack them in the hope of destroying them before they could join in an invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Despite holding his ground at Quatre Bras, the defeat of the Prussians forced Wellington to withdraw to Waterloo, Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue the Prussians, who had withdrawn parallel to Wellington. This resulted in the separate and simultaneous Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard, upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment, across the Brussels road. Here he withstood repeated attacks by the French throughout the afternoon, in the evening Napoleon committed his last reserves to a desperate final attack, which was narrowly beaten back. With the Prussians breaking through on the French right flank, Wellingtons Anglo-allied army counter-attacked in the centre, Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleons last. According to Wellington, the battle was the thing you ever saw in your life. Napoleon abdicated four days later, and on 7 July coalition forces entered Paris, the defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleons rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. This ended the First French Empire, and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, the battlefield is located in the municipalities of Braine-lAlleud and Lasne, about 15 kilometres south of Brussels, and about 2 kilometres from the town of Waterloo. The site of the battlefield today is dominated by a large monument, as this mound was constructed from earth taken from the battlefield itself, the contemporary topography of the battlefield near the mound has not been preserved. On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. Crucially, this would have bought him time to recruit and train more men before turning his armies against the Austrians and Russians, an additional consideration for Napoleon was that a French victory might cause French speaking sympathisers in Belgium to launch a friendly revolution. Wellingtons initial dispositions were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through Mons to the south-west of Brussels and this would have pushed Wellington closer to Blücher, but may have cut Wellingtons communications with his base at Ostend. In order to delay Wellingtons deployment, Napoleon spread false intelligence which suggested that Wellingtons supply chain from the ports would be cut. By June, Napoleon had raised a total strength of about 300,000 men. The force at his disposal at Waterloo was less than one third that size, Napoleon divided his army into a left wing commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy and a reserve under his command. Crossing the frontier near Charleroi before dawn on 15 June, the French rapidly overran Coalition outposts and he hoped this would prevent them from combining, and he would be able to destroy first the Prussians army, then Wellingtons
Battle of Waterloo
–
The strategic situation in Western Europe in 1815: 250,000 Frenchmen faced a coalition of about 850,000 soldiers on four
fronts. Napoleon was forced to leave 20,000 men in Western France to reduce a royalist insurrection.
Battle of Waterloo
–
The resurgent
Napoleon's strategy was to isolate the Allied and Prussian armies and annihilate each one separately
Battle of Waterloo
–
Napoleon's headquarters on the eve of the battle, the Caillou ("Pebble") Farm
31.
A History of the World in 100 Objects
–
A History of the World in 100 Objects was a joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, comprising a 100-part radio series written and presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. The series, four years in planning, began on 18 January 2010 and was broadcast over 20 weeks, a book to accompany the series, A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor, was published by Allen Lane on 28 October 2010. The entire series is available for download along with an audio version of the book for purchase. The British Museum won the 2011 Art Fund Prize for its role in hosting the project. In 2016, an exhibition, also titled A History of the World in 100 Objects and evolved from the radio program. The exhibition had already traveled through Japan and Abu Dhabi before coming to Australia, the programme series, described as a landmark project, is billed as A history of humanity told through a hundred objects from all over the world in the British Museums collection. Ive chosen just a hundred objects from different points on our journey, from a pot to a golden galleon. Of course, it can only be a history of the world, the radio programmes will be available on the website permanently for listening or downloading. On 18 January 2010, a special of The Culture Show on BBC2 was dedicated to the launch of the project. The first part of the series was broadcast on weekdays over six weeks between 18 January and 26 February 2010, after a short break, the series returned with the seventh week being broadcast in the week beginning 17 May 2010. It then took another break in the middle of July and returned on 13 September 2010, of these, just over half,5.7 million, were from the UK. Museums all over the world are now copying the formula, as thousands of visitors every day set out to explore the British Museum galleries equipped with the leaflet mapping the objects. It is such a simple idea, to trace human civilisations through the objects that happen to have survived. Each programme, just 15 minutes long, focuses on just one thing, quite patiently, at the end, you feel that you have learnt something, and learnt it with pleasure and interest. For years to come, the BBC will be able to point to this series as an example of the things that it does best. It fulfils, to a degree that one thought hardly possible any more, the BBCs Reithian agenda of improvement, Neil MacGregor reveals the earliest objects that define us as humans. First broadcast week beginning 18 January 2010, why did farming start at the end of the Ice Age. Clues remain in objects left behind, First broadcast week beginning 25 January 2010
A History of the World in 100 Objects
–
Cover of A History of the World in 100 Objects, the companion book by Neil MacGregor
A History of the World in 100 Objects
–
Object 68, the
Hindu deity couple
Shiva and
Parvati sculpture with radio series information panel.
A History of the World in 100 Objects
A History of the World in 100 Objects
32.
BBC Radio 4
–
BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967, the station controller is Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the BBC Radio department. The station is broadcast from the BBCs headquarters at Broadcasting House and it is also available through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and on the Internet. It is notable for its news bulletins and programmes such as Today and The World at One, BBC Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station by total hours, after Radio 2 – and the most popular in London and the South of England. It recorded its highest audience, of 11 million listeners, in May 2011 and was UK Radio Station of the Year at the 2003,2004 and 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards and it also won a Peabody Award in 2002 for File On 4, Export Controls. Costing £71.4 million, it is the BBCs most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be its flagship. There is no comparable British commercial network, Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review, in 2010 Gwyneth Williams replaced Mark Damazer as Radio 4 controller. Damazer became Master of St Peters College, Oxford, music and sport are the only fields that largely fall outside the stations remit. It broadcasts occasional concerts, and documentaries related to forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based Desert Island Discs. As a result, for around 70 days a year listeners have to rely on FM broadcasts or increasingly DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave is now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts take precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast, as well as news and drama, the station has a strong reputation for comedy, including experimental and alternative comedy, many successful comedians and comedy shows first appearing on the station. The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967 and it had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its radio stations. For a time during the 1970s Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday and these were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and an evening bulletin was aired at 5. 55pm. There were also programme variations for the parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations and these included Roundabout East Anglia, a VHF opt-out of the Today programme broadcast from BBC Easts studios in Norwich each weekday from 6.45 am to 8.45 am. Roundabout East Anglia came to an end in 1980, when local services were introduced to East Anglia with the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk. All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980 apart from in the south west, in September 1991 it was decided that the main Radio 4 service would be on FM as coverage had extended to cover almost all of the UK. Opt-outs were transferred to long wave, currently Test Match Special, extra shipping forecasts, The Daily Service, long wave very occasionally opts out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010
BBC Radio 4
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Logo of Radio 4 until 2007
BBC Radio 4
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BBC Radio 4
33.
Neil MacGregor
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Robert Neil MacGregor, OM, AO, FSA is a British art historian and former museum director. He was the editor of the Burlington Magazine from 1981 to 1987, then Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1987 to 2002, Neil MacGregor was born in Glasgow to two doctors, Alexander and Anna MacGregor. MacGregor was educated at Glasgow Academy and then read modern languages at New College, Oxford, the period that followed was spent studying philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and as a law student at Edinburgh University, where he received the Green Prize. Despite being called to the bar in 1972, MacGregor next decided to take an art history degree, the following year, on a Courtauld Institute summer school in Bavaria, the Courtaulds director Anthony Blunt spotted MacGregor and persuaded him to take a masters degree under his supervision. Blunt later considered MacGregor the most brilliant pupil he ever taught, from 1975 to 1981, MacGregor taught History of Art and Architecture at the University of Reading. He left to assume the editorship of The Burlington Magazine and he oversaw the transfer of the magazine from the Thomson Corporation to an independent and charitable status. In 1987 MacGregor became a successful director of the National Gallery in London. There he was dubbed Saint Neil, partly because of his popularity at that institution and he declined the offer of a knighthood in 1999, the first director of the National Gallery to do so. MacGregor was made director of the British Museum in August 2002, holding his office during a period which has seen the Acropolis Museum constructed in Athens, he has consistently argued against returning the British Museums sculptures from the Parthenon to Greece. In January 2008, MacGregor was appointed chairman of the World Collections programme, the exhibition The First Emperor, focussing on Qin Shi Huang and including a small number of his Terracotta Warriors, was mounted in 2008 in the British Museum Reading Room. That year MacGregor was invited to succeed Philippe de Montebello as the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and he declined the offer as the Metropolitan charges its visitors for entry and is thus not a public institution. He similarly made comments that sparked debate, such as his claim that the ancient Persian empire was greater than Ancient Greece. In 2010, MacGregor presented a series on BBC Radio 4, from September 2010 to January 2011 the British Museum lent the ancient Persian Cyrus Cylinder to an exhibition in Tehran. This was seen by at least a million visitors by the Museums estimation, more than any loan exhibition to the United Kingdom had attracted since the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition in 1972. As of 2015, MacGregor was paid a salary of between £190,000 and £194,999 by the British Museum, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. MacGregor retired from the post in December 2015 and was succeeded in Spring 2016 by Hartwig Fischer, MacGregor has made many programmes for British television and radio. In the year 2000, he presented on television Seeing Salvation, at the end of September 2014 UK domestic transmission started of his similarly formatted Talk Radio series Germany, Memories of a Nation. On 8 April 2015, MacGregor announced his resignation as Director of the British Museum, MacGregor will be joined on the committee by archaeologist Hermann Parzinger and art historian Horst Bredekamp
Neil MacGregor
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MacGregor at the British Museum in 2009
34.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
35.
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
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It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000. It is the largest covered square in Europe, controversially, some of the stone in the court is from France, rather than being Portland Stone from southern England as agreed in the original contract with the masons. Within the Great Court, there are shops and a café, the court acts as a central linking point for the museum, somewhat like I. M. Peis Louvre Pyramid in Paris. The central courtyard of the British Museum was occupied by the British Library until 1997 when it moved to St Pancras, at that time the entire courtyard was filled with bookshelves, three stories high. To get from one side of the museum to the visitors had to go round. Once the Library had moved out, the bookstacks were cleared, a new ground level was created, a storey higher than the original courtyard, with the space below used to accommodate the Clore Education Centre and the African galleries. The South Portico was largely rebuilt, with two new lifts incorporated for disabled access to the levels of the museum. A new gridshell glass roof was provided over the courtyard to create a covered space at the centre of the museum. The British Library Reading Room at the centre of the courtyard was retained and refurbished for use as the Museum library and information centre. North of the Reading Room there is a block with a shop at ground level, a gallery for temporary exhibitions above. The Clore Education Centre is housed in the level of the Great Court. He supported the Museums global role, diagrid Thin-shell structure List of thin shell structures Great Court, British Museum including 360° panorama Sounds and video of the Great Court
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
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View of the Great Court from the second floor of the southern wing.
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
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East Portico of Sir
Robert Smirke 's building; Roman equestrian statue visible in the foreground
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
–
Hoa Hakananai'a
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court
36.
British Museum Reading Room
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The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London. Designed by Sydney Smirke and opened in 1857, the Reading Room was in use until its temporary closure for renovation in 1997. It was reopened in 2000, and from 2007 to 2014 it was used to temporary exhibitions. It has since been closed while its use remains under discussion. The building was designed by Sydney Smirke and was constructed between 1854 and 1857, the building used cast iron, concrete, glass and the latest technology in ventilation and heating. Book stacks built around the room were made of iron to take the huge weight. There were forty kilometres of shelving in the prior to the librarys relocation to the new site. The Reading Room was officially opened on 2 May 1857 with a breakfast laid out on the catalogue desks, a public viewing was held between 8 and 16 May which attracted over 62,000 visitors. Tickets to it included a plan of the library, regular users had to apply in writing and be issued a readers ticket by the Principal Librarian. G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in 1997 the British Library moved to its own specially constructed building next to St Pancras Station and all the books and shelving were removed. The Reading Room was reopened in 2000, allowing all visitors and it held a collection of 25,000 books focusing on the cultures represented in the museum along with an information centre and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre. In 2007 the books and facilities installed in 2000 were removed, the general library for visitors moved to a room accessible through nearby Room 2, but closed permanently on 13 August 2011. This is a library that has also had distinguished users, including Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Thackeray, Robert Browning, Giuseppe Mazzini, Charles Darwin. In 2014, the British Museum opened its new World Conservation, the museum has been consulting on the future of the Reading Room, but as of June 2014, its future is still undecided. The British Museum Reading Room has become iconic and it is the subject of an eponymous poem, The British Museum Reading Room, by Louis MacNeice. Much of the action of David Lodges 1965 novel The British Museum Is Falling Down takes place in the old Reading Room, the Glass Ceiling of Anabel Donalds 1994 novel is the ceiling of the Reading Room, where the denouement is set. Alfred Hitchcock used the Reading Room and the dome of the British Museum as a location for the climax of his first sound film Blackmail
British Museum Reading Room
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Inside the Reading Room, before its conversion to an exhibition space
British Museum Reading Room
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Detail of the ceiling with its oculus
British Museum Reading Room
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A
panorama showing an almost 180-degree view of the interior of the Reading Room
British Museum Reading Room
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The reading desks
37.
Akan Drum
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The Akan Drum is a drum that was made in West Africa and was later found in the Colony of Virginia in North America. It is now the oldest African-American object in the British Museum, the drum is a reminder of all three continents involvement in the estimated twelve million people transported across the Atlantic as part of the slave trade. The drum is normally displayed in room 26, the drum is made from two species of wood that are native to sub-Saharan Africa, Baphia and Cordia africana. The latter fine-grained hardwood is known for its ability to be carved and its resonance, the drumskin came from a deer hide and was stretched over the wooden structure using vegetable fibre. The drum was made in the Ghana region of West Africa between 1700 and 1745, and is presumed to have travelled to America on board a slave ship. As all the left with nothing it is presumed that the drum was either brought by a member of the crew or possibly by a son of the African chief who had sold the slaves for transportation. To exercise their captives, the traders would dance the slaves. It is supposed that this was why the drum was transported, the word Akan refers to the culture in what is today Ghana and includes the Fante, Asante and Akuapem people. There is a striking but unexplained similarity between the phrase Akan Drum and the phrase Aiken Drum, used in British folksongs from the 18th century and this particular drum was obtained in Virginia by the Rev. Clerk on behalf of the British collector Sir Hans Sloane. Sloane had travelled through Jamaica and had observed at first hand slaves playing instruments including those that were to evolve into the banjo, Sloane gathered examples of the tools of slavery and other artifacts which included this drum. Sloane used his collection to found the British Museum in 1753, sloanes catalogue records this item as drum made of a hollowed tree carved the top being bracd wt. peggs & thongs wt. the bottom hollow from Virginia. In 1906, curators at the British Museum realised that the drum could not have created by Native Americans. In the 1970s, it possible to use expertise from Kew Gardens to determine that the wood was grown in Africa. The drum is thought to have originally been made for a musician in an African chiefs orchestra and this is the oldest African-American object in the British Museum and was part of its founding collection. This drum was chosen to be featured in A History of the World in 100 Objects, the drum has also been used as the lead object in a special display at the British Museum in 2010 called From Africa to America, drumming, slavery, music. The slave owners were unsure of how they should treat African music, on some plantations drums were banned
Akan Drum
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On display in the
British Museum
Akan Drum
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The Old Plantation - a late 18th-century painting showing slaves dancing with banjo and drum.
Akan Drum
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The "orchestra" of the Chief of Abetifi c. 1890 showing a similar drum
Akan Drum
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Building
38.
Aubin Codex
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The Aubin Codex is a textual and pictorial history of the Aztecs from their departure from Aztlán through the Spanish conquest to the early Spanish colonial period, ending in 1607. Among other topics, the Aubin Codex has a description of the massacre at the temple in Tenochtitlan in 1520. Also called Manuscrito de 1576, this codex is held by the British Museum in London, a copy of the original is held at the Princeton University library in the Robert Garrett Collection there. British Museum. org, Aubin Codex — catalogue record, Reference number AN237162001, Codex Aubin, MSS279 Series 9 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University
Aubin Codex
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Not to be confused with the Tonalamatl Aubin or the Aubin Manuscript 20.
Aubin Codex
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Building
39.
Benin Bronzes
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The Benin Bronzes are a group of more than a thousand commemorative metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Benin Kingdom in modern-day Nigeria. In 1897, most of the plaques and other objects were removed by the British during an expedition to the area as imperial control was being consolidated in Southern Nigeria. Two hundred of the pieces were taken to the British Museum, London, today, a large number are held by the British Museum. Other notable collections are in Germany and the United States, the Benin Bronzes led to a greater appreciation in Europe of African culture and art. Initially and naively, it appeared incredible to the discoverers that people supposedly so primitive, some even concluded that Benin knowledge of metallurgy came from the Portuguese traders who were in contact with Benin in the early modern period. Today, it is clear that the bronzes were made in Benin from an indigenous culture, many of these dramatic sculptures date to the thirteenth century, centuries before contact with Portuguese traders, and a large part of the collection dates to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is believed that two golden ages in Benin metal workmanship occurred during the reigns of Esigie and of Eresoyen, while the collection is known as the Benin Bronzes, like most West African bronzes the pieces are mostly made of brass of variable composition. There are also made of mixtures of bronze and brass, of wood, of ceramic. The metal pieces were made using lost-wax casting and are considered among the best sculptures made using this technique, bronze and ivory objects had a variety of functions in the ritual and courtly life of the Kingdom of Benin. They were used principally to decorate the palace, which contained many bronze works. They were hung on the pillars of the palace by nails punched directly through them, as a courtly art, their principal objective was to glorify the Oba—the divine king—and the history of his imperial power or to honor the queen mother. Art in the Kingdom of Benin took many forms, of bronze and brass reliefs. In tropical Africa of the center, the technique of lost-wax casting was developed early. When a king died, his successor would order that a head be made of his predecessor. Approximately 170 of these sculptures exist, and the oldest date from the twelfth century, the Oba, or king, monopolized the materials that were most difficult to obtain, such as gold, elephant tusks, and bronze. These kings made possible the creation of the splendid Benin bronzes, thus, in 1939, heads very similar to those of the Benin Empire were discovered in Ife, the holy city of the Yoruba, which dated to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This discovery supported an earlier tradition holding that it was artists from Ife who had taught Benin the techniques of bronze metalworking, recognition of the antiquity of the technology in Benin advanced when these sculptures were dated definitively to that era. Few examples of African art had been collected by Europeans in the eighteenth century and this attitude changed after the Benin Expedition of 1897
Benin Bronzes
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A Benin Bronze plaque on display in the
British Museum
Benin Bronzes
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Illustration of
Benin City in 1897, drawn by a British official
Benin Bronzes
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The city of Benin depicted by a Dutch artist in 1668
Benin Bronzes
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Two Benin bronzes in London's
Victoria and Albert Museum
40.
Double-headed serpent
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The Double-headed serpent is an Aztec sculpture kept at the British Museum. It came from Aztec Mexico and might have been worn or displayed in religious ceremonies and it is possible that this sculpture may be one of the gifts given by the Aztec emperor, Moctezuma II, to Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés when he invaded in 1519. The mosaic is made of pieces of turquoise, crab shell, the body of the sculpture has been carved from wood. The back of this model is very plain, and only the heads have decorations on both sides, the body has been hollowed out to make the sculpture lighter. The main body of the snake at the front is covered in turquoise, the stone has been broken into similar sized pieces and then stuck to the wooden body with pine resin. By using 2,000 small pieces, the pieces of stone give the impression of a smooth curved mosaic surface. It has to be remembered that this sculpture was created without the use of iron tools, the turquoise had to be cut and ground using harder stones. Some of the turqoise had been brought 1,600 km to become part of this serpent, the heads of the snake have holes for eyes, but there is evidence that beeswax may have been used to hold something that appeared to be an eye. It has been speculated that the material that made the serpents eyes was a piece of iron pyrite. The vivid contrast of the red and white details on the head have been made from crab shell, cleverly, the adhesive used to attach the Spondylus shell has been coloured with red iron oxide to complete the design. The white shell used for the teeth comes from shells of the sea snail. Cortés arrived on the coast of what is now Mexico in 1519, some sources report that Montezuma thought that Cortés was the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl and treated him accordingly. Cortés was given a number of gifts, which included turquoise sculptures. Despite the gifts and the reception, Montezuma was taken prisoner by Cortés and his troops took the Montezumas capital, Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs were brutally and systematically enslaved and murdered, in spite of their generosity and they then fell victim to smallpox and other European diseases brought to Mexico by Cortés and his troops. Neil Macgregor credits Henry Christy with gathering similar artifacts into the British Museum, the sculpture is now in the possession of the British Museum and was purchased by the Christy funds. This sculpture is one of nine Mexican turquoise mosaics in the British Museum, there are considered to be only 25 Mexican turquoise mosaics in Europe from this period. There were a number of reasons why the serpent may have chosen as the subject of this sculpture
Double-headed serpent
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Double-headed serpent
Double-headed serpent
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Detail of one of the serpent's heads.
Double-headed serpent
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Building
41.
Throne of Weapons
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The Throne of Weapons is a sculpture created by Cristóvão Canhavato out of disused weapons. It has been owned by the British Museum since 2002 and it has been called the Museums most eloquent object and it may have been shown in a wider variety of ways than any other object. The sculpture was created by a sculptor who was born Cristóvão Estavão Canhavato in Zavala in southern Mozambique, Canhavato works under the name of Kester as part of a co-operative called Associação Núcleo de Arte. Kester was born in 1966 and his education took place at the artists collective—although he already had a knowledge of engineering construction. The throne has been signed by the artist, but as the curators have noted, Kester, the artist, points out the smiling faces that he has included in his work even though his relatives were injured by weapons like these. At the top of the right hand rifle butt is a human face, the holes and marks are the remains of where a strap had been attached when it was carried by its owner. The symbol Kester created was the shape at the back which is intended to symbolise a church. The Transforming Arms into Tools organisation supplied the weapons to Kester and his group for this. The guns, mostly AK-47 assault rifles, were manufactured in Portugal, Eastern Europe, the H&K G3 rifles used to form the backrest were designed in Germany and manufactured in Portugal. They were widely used throughout West Africa, the Russian contribution of the iconic AK-47 rifle is important to the design—an AK-47, a hoe, and a book still feature on Mozambiques flag. On the front of the chair is a North Korean manufactured AKM rifle and a single PPSh-43 submachinegun, the weapons in Mozambique arise from a civil war that was funded by South Africa and Rhodesia and involved emigrants from their apartheid regimes. One million people were killed and the war ended when the Soviet Union collapsed. Kofi Annan said when this chair was being discussed, We dont manufacture weapons, how do we get these weapons to kill each other. The throne was purchased by the British Museum in 2002, the sculpture had been brought to England by Christian Aid as part of an exhibition called Swords into Ploughshares. In 2005 the museum went on to another art work from the same group of artists in Maputo. The resulting piece was called Tree of Life and it was exhibited in the main area from February 2005. The symbolism of recycling decommissioned weapons from around the world is self-evident, however, there is an added meaning because chairs can be a symbol of authority in Africa. A nineteenth century example of a chair from Ghana is shown for comparison
Throne of Weapons
–
on display in the museum
Throne of Weapons
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The Throne of
Begoro in Ghana in the 1880s
Throne of Weapons
–
Building
42.
Kayung totem pole
–
The Kayung totem pole is a 12-metre totem pole made by the Haida people. Carved and originally located in the village of Kayung on Graham Island in British Columbia, Canada, in 1903 it was sold by Charles Frederick Newcombe to the British Museum, where since 2007 it has been a prominent exhibit in the Great Court. The totem pole was obtained by the Museum in 1903, when the pole was about fifty years old, the craft of making totem poles, built as heraldic signs but misinterpreted by missionaries, was at that point in decline. It was purchased from Charles Frederick Newcombe, who sold a number of totem poles to museums in Europe. The provenance of the pole was certain as the Museum already had a model of it, provided by J. H. Keen, before being sold to collectors, the pole was located in a village called Kayung on Graham Island in British Columbias Haida Gwaii archipelago. Kayung had been an important village for the Haida before European contact, after the population was decimated by successive smallpox epidemics in the late 1800s, Henry Wiah, the town chief, encouraged the remaining population to move to nearby Masset. The village was in the process of being abandoned in 1884, due to its size, the 12-metre pole spent most of its time at the British Museum confined to a stairwell, as this was the only space of sufficient height available. After the roof of the Great Court was constructed, it possible to install the pole there in 2007. Weathering on the means that there is no remaining paint on the surface. Chief Wiah told the stories to Charles F. Newcombe, the stories themselves are corroborated by another of the Museums totem poles, which was obtained with a model of a First Nations longhouse provided by Keen. The second pole was almost identical to the first one, the figure at the top represents Yetl, and the design also incorporates Haida crests. Haida guests were present at the museum for the installation of the pole in the Great Court in 2007, and told the story carved into the pole, there are two stories associated with the Kayung pole. The first story was that communicated to Newcombe by Chief Weah when Newcombe obtained the pole, there was a village where, every time they fished, they lost the hooks from their rods, and the fish with them. The hooks and fish were being taken by Yetl, who had originally created life, normally Yetl appeared as a raven, but on this occasion imitated a friend of his who could swim beneath the sea. Using this skill he was feeding his hunger with the villagers fish, the villagers decided to change the hooks they were using to include a type made of wood and bone, with two barbs. Onto one of these hooks they put a piece of devil fish, the bait was taken, and after a long battle struggling with the catch, the fisherman and several of his friends were able to pull it to the surface. Pulling hard, they felt the line go slack, and when they pulled it in only a small unidentifiable item on the end. Unbeknownst to them they had caught Yetl, and pulled off his ravens beak, to get back his beak and obtain food, Yetl took on human shape and was accepted by the villagers as a guest, disguising his wound by only showing the upper half of his face
Kayung totem pole
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Being installed in the Great Court
Kayung totem pole
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The Kayung pole in 1884
Kayung totem pole
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The totem pole is 12 metres (39 ft) high
Kayung totem pole
–
Building
43.
Yaxchilan Lintel 24
–
Lintel 24 is the designation given by modern archaeologists to an ancient Maya limestone carving from Yaxchilan, in modern Chiapas, Mexico. The lintel dates to about 725 CE, placing it within the Maya Late Classic period, the text of Maya hieroglyphics indicates that the scene depicted is a bloodletting ritual that took place on 5 Eb 15 Mac,709 CE. The ruler, Shield Jaguar, holds a torch while his consort, Lady Xoc, Lintel 24 was found in its original context alongside Lintels 25 and 26 in Structure 23 of Yaxchilan. Alfred Maudslay had the cut from the ceiling of a side entrance in 1882. Lintel 25 made the journey in 1883, Lintel 26 was discovered in 1897 by Teobert Maler. It was removed to the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia in 1964, “The text consists of two sentences, one relating to Shield Jaguar, the other to his wife. The first three glyphs record the date and the event, “he is letting blood, ” with additional glyphs apparently specifying the particular ritual context. Shield Jaguar’s name begins at E2b, with a title telling us he was a “4-Katun ahpo”--- that he had lived into his fourth katun and his personal name consists of a shield sitting atop a jaguar head. The name phrase concludes by naming him “the captor of Ah-Ahaual”, all three were apparently commissioned by Lady Xoc for the doorways of Structure 23. The lintels show the costumes of the king and queen with remarkable detail. These lintels are considered by some to be the pinnacle of Mayan Art and we are able to study the detail of Mayan weaving as depicted in these carvings, and see the pearls woven into the fabric. Subtle differences in the three lintels suggest that the compositions were completed by two or three different artists, each of the works is signed, indicating that the production of such works was regarded as a highly specialized skill rather than a trade. Shield Jaguar was a figure in directing the course of Yaxchilan. Shield Jaguar ascended to power in AD681 and died in AD742, there are numerous documented references to him on artifacts at the end of Stage V at Yaxchilan. In Lintel 24, he is depicted holding a torch above his first wife, the king is wearing his hair back with quetzal feathers indicating that he will also let blood in this ceremony. Attached to his band is what appears to be a representation of the Jester Mask. The jester mask is considered analogous to the glyph for kingship, ajaw, since the rest of the costume is depicted without much abstraction, it is suggested that Maya kings may have literally attached a shrunken head to their head band as a representation of power. He is shown wearing a pectoral with a representation of the sun god depicted and it is strung from a jade bead necklace that is counterbalanced by a long strand of jade beads and what are probably carved shells going down his back
Yaxchilan Lintel 24
–
The lintel as displayed in the British Museum
Yaxchilan Lintel 24
–
Drawing by
Désiré Charnay (1885)
Yaxchilan Lintel 24
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Building
44.
Colossal red granite statue of Amenhotep III
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The colossal red granite statue of Amenhotep III is a granite head of the 18th Dynasty Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Dating from around 1370 BC, it was found in the enclosure of Mut at Karnak in Upper Egypt. Two parts of the colossal statue are known, the head. Both parts are now in the British Museum, the statue is thought to have been erected by King Amenhotep III, one of the huge number of statues that he had ordered to be built in ancient Thebes. Other colossal statues of Amenhotep III include the two Colossi of Memnon, which stand at his mortuary temple at Kom el-Hitan. The statue is made of red granite and it is fragmentary, only the head and an arm are known to survive. After its discovery, the statue was ascribed by scholars as a statue of King Thutmose III. The confusion has arisen from modification of the head by later rulers - it was common practice in Ancient Egypt for pharaohs to usurp statues of earlier rulers and it is now thought that the alterations were made in the time of and to represent Ramesses II. The broken statue was discovered in the enclosure of Mut at Karnak by Giovanni Battista Belzoni. The head was found in front of the temple of Khonsupakhered, after being uncovered, the head needed to be moved to Luxor on the Nile for transport upriver to Alexandria and thence to London. Moving the head was not easy, it took eight days to transport it the single mile to Luxor, Belzoni does not mention the exact location where the arm was found, though it is assumed to have been found with the head. Made of red granite. and in a fine state of preservation. An arm 18 feet long of the statue with the fist clenched. The head is 2. 90m high, and is depicted wearing the pschent and it was acquired in 1823 by the British Museum from Henry Salt. It has the reference number EA15 and is displayed in Room 4 of the Museum, the arm, a left arm, is 3. 30m long and terminates in a clenched fist. It was acquired in 1823 by the British Museum from Henry Salt and it has the reference number EA55 and is displayed in Room 4 of the Museum. Davies, Egyptian sculpture A. P. Kozloff and B. M
Colossal red granite statue of Amenhotep III
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Colossal granite head of Amenhotep III in the
British Museum
Colossal red granite statue of Amenhotep III
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From below
Colossal red granite statue of Amenhotep III
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Building
45.
Gebelein predynastic mummies
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The Gebelein predynastic mummies are six naturally mummified bodies, dating to approximately 3400 BC from the Late Predynastic period of Ancient Egypt. They were the first complete predynastic bodies to be discovered, the well-preserved bodies were excavated at the end of the nineteenth century by Wallis Budge, the British Museum Keeper for Egyptology, from shallow sand graves near Gebelein in the Egyptian desert. Budge excavated all the bodies from the grave site. Two were identified as male and one as female, with the others being of undetermined gender, the bodies were given to the British Museum in 1900. Some grave-goods were documented at the time of excavation as pots and flints, however they were not passed on to the British Museum, three of the bodies were found with coverings of different types, which still remain with the bodies. The bodies were found in foetal positions lying on their left sides, from 1901 the first body excavated has remained on display in the British Museum. This body was originally nicknamed Ginger due to his red hair, in 1895 and 1896 the ruins at Abydos, Tukh, Hierakonpolis and Gebelein were excavated. In 1892 Jacques de Morgan, Director of Antiquities in Egypt, proved that pottery found at Abydos and Nakadah pre-dated the dynastic period, as each excavation was completed, local Egyptian residents would continue to search the sites for remains. Budge started purchasing predynastic finds from the locals including bowls, spear and arrow heads, carved flint and bone figures, in 1896, Budge was approached by a resident of Gebelein who claimed to have found more mummies. Budge was taken to the bodies, and he recognized them as from the predynastic period. He began excavations and a total of six mummified bodies were removed from shallow graves at Baḥr Bila Mâ located at the eastern slopes of the north-most hill at Gebelein. The only grave goods were a pot found with the adult body and partial remains of wicker, fur. In the predynastic period bodies were buried naked and sometimes loosely wrapped. This method was used in the pre-dynastic Egyptian period, before artificial mummification was developed. All bodies were in similar flexed positions lying on their sides with knees raised up towards their chin. In comparison, most bodies excavated from Egypt dating to the period are in a similar position, however at Merimda Beni Salama. From the time these bodies were buried up until the Middle Kingdom period, after this period they were buried on their backs, and from the Fifth Dynasty the bodies were always fully extended. Archaeological interest in Gebelien started in the early 18th century and was included in Benoît de Maillets Description de lEgypte
Gebelein predynastic mummies
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The mummified man formerly dubbed "Ginger" in a reconstructed Egyptian grave-pit (photo taken in 2008)
Gebelein predynastic mummies
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The head of EA 32751 showing the preserved hair. Photo taken in 2011.
Gebelein predynastic mummies
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Model of a boat found at Gebelein dated to 3400–3200 BC.
Historical Museum of Bern, ref. AE 368.
Gebelein predynastic mummies
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Building
46.
Hunters Palette
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The Hunters Palette or Lion Hunt Palette is a circa 3100 BCE cosmetic palette from the Naqada III period of late prehistoric Egypt. The palette is broken, part is held by the British Museum, the Hunters Palette shows a complex iconography of lion hunting as well as the hunt of other animals such as birds, desert hares, and gazelle types, one gazelle is being contained by a rope. The weapons used in the hunt are the bow and arrow, mace, throwing sticks. Two icongraphic conjoined bull-forefronts adorn the right alongside a hieroglyphic-like symbol similar to the shrine hieroglyph. Cosmetic palette British Museum page on the Palette Photo of Hunters Palette Predynastic palette corpus the Louvre fragment
Hunters Palette
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Hunters Palette with pieces connected
Hunters Palette
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Building
Hunters Palette
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Louvre fragment showing various weapons
Hunters Palette
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British Museum fragment: Detail of end, lion with arrows
47.
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
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The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus is one of the best known examples of Egyptian mathematics. It is named after Alexander Henry Rhind, a Scottish antiquarian and it dates to around 1550 BC. It is one of the two well-known Mathematical Papyri along with the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, the Rhind Papyrus is larger than the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, while the latter is older than the former. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus dates to the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt and it was copied by the scribe Ahmes, from a now-lost text from the reign of king Amenemhat III. Written in the script, this Egyptian manuscript is 33 cm tall. The papyrus began to be transliterated and mathematically translated in the late 19th century, the mathematical translation aspect remains incomplete in several respects. The document is dated to Year 33 of the Hyksos king Apophis and also contains a separate later historical note on its verso likely dating from the period of his successor, Khamudi. In the opening paragraphs of the papyrus, Ahmes presents the papyrus as giving Accurate reckoning for inquiring into things, the scribe Ahmose writes this copy. Several books and articles about the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus have been published, a more recent overview of the Rhind Papyrus was published in 1987 by Robins and Shute. The first part of the Rhind papyrus consists of reference tables, the problems start out with simple fractional expressions, followed by completion problems and more involved linear equations. The first part of the papyrus is taken up by the 2/n table, the fractions 2/n for odd n ranging from 3 to 101 are expressed as sums of unit fractions. For example,2 /15 =1 /10 +1 /30. The decomposition of 2/n into unit fractions is never more than 4 terms long as in for example 2 /101 =1 /101 +1 /202 +1 /303 +1 /606. This table is followed by a smaller, tiny table of fractional expressions for the numbers 1 through 9 divided by 10. Problems 1-7, 7B and 8-40 are concerned with arithmetic and elementary algebra, problems 1–6 compute divisions of a certain number of loaves of bread by 10 men and record the outcome in unit fractions. Problems 7–20 show how to multiply the expressions 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 = 7/4 and 1 + 2/3 + 1/3 =2 by different fractions, problems 21–23 are problems in completion, which in modern notation are simply subtraction problems. Problems 24–34 are ‘’aha’’ problems, these are linear equations, problem 32 for instance corresponds to solving x + 1/3 x + 1/4 x =2 for x. Problems 35–38 involve divisions of the heqat, which is an ancient Egyptian unit of volume, problems 39 and 40 compute the division of loaves and use arithmetic progressions
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
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A portion of the Rhind Papyrus
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
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Building
48.
Sphinx of Taharqo
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The Sphinx of Taharqo is a granite gneiss statue of a sphinx with the face of Taharqo. He was a Nubian Pharaoh, who was one of the 25th Egyptian Dynasty rulers of the Kingdom of Kush and it is now in the British Museum in London. While the Sphinx of Taharqo is significantly smaller than the Giza Sphinx, it is notable for its prominent Egyptian, the lion portrayed in the sphinx is done in classic Egyptian style, while the face of the Sphinx is clearly that of Taharqo. The sphinx is made of grey granite. Taharqo was the last Nubian king who ruled over Egypt and he was defeated by the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Aššurbanipal. His reign lasted from 690 when he succeeded Shebitqo to his death in 664 and he was the son of Piye and Abar and the father to his daughter, Amenirdis II. Taharqo was one of the rulers of Kush who dominated Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and he was a significantly important ruler, initiating a golden age for his new kingdom. Although Taharqo was not of Egyptian descent, he worshipped the Egyptian god Amun, built pyramids and temples in the Egyptian model, the statue is a sphinx, representing here the immense power of the Egyptian and Kushite pharaoh Taharqo, whose face is shown. The headdress bears two uraei, the symbols of kingship, and Taharqos name appears in a cartouche on the sphinxs chest, the statue is called a masterpiece of Kushite art. Construction of the temple was started in 683 BC by Taharqo. Statues of Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqa Caygill, the British Museum A-Z Companion London, The British Museum Press,1999 Hochfield, S. and Riefstahl, E. Africa in Antiquity Brooklyn, N. Y. Brooklyn Museum,1978, pp. 50–51,168 James, T. G. H. and Davies, Egyptian sculpture London, The British Museum Press,1983 Laming Macadam, M. F. Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt London,2006, pp. 262–3, taylor, J. H. Egypt and Nubia London, The British Museum Press,1991 Welsby, D. A. The object reference is EA1770 / Reg No.1932,0611.1
Sphinx of Taharqo
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front view
Sphinx of Taharqo
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Building
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