Looks like Tutankhamen, is Tutankhamen

King Tutankhamen, the 18th dynasty boy king, probably gave the world much more in death than he did in his 19 year life, 11 of those as the king of unified Egypt. His mortuary monument of death does not parallel Khufu’s gigantic pyramid at Giza, or Hathshepsut’s amazingly modern looking temple at Dier-el-Bahri or Ramses colossi at Abu Simbel. 

But it is the most intact of them all.

It had the sarcophagus – 7 boxed, and the jewelry and the chariots, the golden mask, the four Canopy jars, every single item mentioned by the Book of the dead, give or take a few.

Compiling King Tut’s three faces as we know them

His golden mask, giving us a glimpse of the face structure. Gold as a precious metal has no effect on me, though I remember standing awe struck in front of this exhibit in the museum in Cairo.

In 2005, National geographic used 3D CT scans to create a forensic reconstruction.

And then the just released photographs of the face from the past. The asymmetrical head, the wonderful buck teeth, the high cheeks bones

29th Dec 2006, the day we were on the west bank of Nile, we casually skirted the tomb, pausing merely to take a picture. Do I regret not going in – sure – I regret not seeing so many places in Egypt that the list is itself worthy of a blog …

Egyptian Cindrella

Cindrella was written in the 26th egyptian dynasty (about 3000 years before Walt Disney)

The Red slippers

Dixon’s relics

In September 1872, Waynman Dixon discovered a shaft in the north wall of the Queen’s chamber of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Unlike the 1993 Wepwawet experiment, Dixon used a crude metal rod to probe the shaft and found three objects tumbling down the shaft: A small bronze hook, a granite ball and a piece of cedar-like wood.

The objects were taken to England and recorded by the  Astronomer Royal of Scotland and handed back to Dixon. After which they disappeared only to reappear in the British museum (This is not the first time I have heard artifacts disappearing all over the world only to reappear mysteriously in the British museum, anyway)

Here is a theory which hypothesizes that the objects, known as the Dixon relics, are part of an ancient Egyptian geometrical spherical measuring instrument of surveying and astronomy which may have been used while building the Great Pyramid.

"This working example of a cross type of instrument with a measuring rod set at 45 degrees to the upright , cross bars for sighting and a plumb line shows clearly how linear angles can be found.

An exponential scale of 90 centimeters gives this particular instrument  an accuracy of 3 arc minutes, which is a coincidence with the reported inaccuracy of the pyramid alignment."

I guess, while the "What are these objects" question remains unanswered, the second question is, "What were they doing in the shaft?"

Other good reads

Zahi Hawass’s utterly readable article

Where the artifacts disappeared?

An intriguing story

Sunil Shinde was here …

The timeless desire to leave ones stamp on another artisan’s work …

Here is a 150 year old engraving left on the beautiful rocks at Karnak

And at Abu Simbel (Bottom right corner of the image.. on Ramses forearm)

600 AD Roman grafitti in the temple of Philae

1799 graffiti left by the French army

And Coptic graffiti 2000 year old in the temple of Karnak

And probably the most famous (and deplorable) of them all .. by Belzoni in Khafre’s pyramid

I found a web-site Graffito Graffiti  dedicated entirely to graffiti’s on the Egyptian and Sudanese monuments.

The Knows of Sphinx

	Head of the Great Sphinx by Luigi Mayer (1755- 1803), a watercolourist and draughtsman produced the monumental volumes The Holy Land (1842) and Views in ancient Egypt and Nubia (1846). More Information
	A Profile of the Colossal Head of the Sphinx by Frederik Ludwig Norden (1708-1742) from the book Voyage d’Egypte et de Nubie
	Norden again… Norden was the first illustrator to draw the Sphinx without the nose …
	Napoleon and the Sphinx by Jean-Leon Gerome (1834 – 1904)
	La description de l’Egypte by Edgar Cayce
	View of the head of the Great Sphinx and the second Pyramid by Louis-Francoi Cassas (1756-1827)
	Approach of the Simoon by David Roberts (1796 to 1864) In this picture, David take a bit of poetic liberty is placing the sun on the wrong side. David’s other paintings of Egypt and Nubia
	Le Sphinx, et les pyramides de Mykerinos, Kheops et Chephren by Craplet Louis Amable(1822-1867)
	The duality of the Sphinx by Sunil Shinde (1972- )

Were ancient Egyptians surgeons?

This is the photograph of a famous relief found on the rear wall of the temple of Sobek in Kom Ombo. While it is widely believed that they could as well be instruments of cult used for rituals, Egypt does not cease to impress and surprise.

I can see forceps, tongs, needles …

It is also said that Imhotep was as proficient a surgeon as an architect he was …

Egypt::Day 7:: Edfu – the land of the horus

Over the night, out cruise crossed the ancient locks of Esna and landed up at the Temple of Edfu

(An oil painting by David Roberts – sketched in Edfu 1839 and completed later in his studio)

Built between 237BC and 57BC by six Ptolemies, this temple is in a fabulous shape and is smaller only than the temple of Karnak in size.

We entered through these gigantic 118 ft pylons and once again got lost in the nebulous world of ancient beliefs.

	Huge 35 feet motifs on the entrance pylon
	Beautiful hieroglyphics and carvings through out the temple walls
	Slaying of the hippopotamus, a symbol of Seth – the mortal enemy of Horus
	The huge status of Horus
	Ancient Egyptians understood the way light plays on stationary objects as well as some of the modern photographers .
	Passageway between the inner temple and outer temple
	Images of the truimp of the Horus, depicted beautifully on the temple walls

At the end of the day, we were very close to monument exhaustion. There is only so much a mind can take …

Egypt::Day 6:: Colossi of Memnon

On the way back from the Habu Temple, almost as an after thought, the driver stopped at the Colossi of Memnon. Used to seeing the smallest of the monuments in US taken care of like crown jewels, I was surprised to see the bust road passing by so close to the monument.

The statues are awe inspiring, like most other things in Egypt. At the same time, the quartzite sculptures, which once upon a time framed the entrance to Amenhotep III’s temple, look desolate and lonely.

(Believe it or not: The statues were called Shammy and Tammy, a possible corruption of Arabic words for left and right)

The northern colossus lost a part of its torso during an earthquake in 27BC. Sometime after that the status started emitting a strange musical note (widely believed to be Amenhotep greeting his mother EOS). In 299BC, Roman emperor Septimus Severus “repaired” and silenced the ancient king.

I wanted to go down to the statue to see the ancient Greek graffiti left by tourists visiting the signing statue, but ran out of time.

A video captured on the way back from the colossi

Egypt::Day6::Valley of Kings and Deir-El Bahri

(Photos @: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunilshinde)

In the Old Kingdom, the pharoahs built soaring pyramids. The buried the pharoahs in them with untold wealth. The pyramids took a toll on the economies of the country as well as the psyche of the people. This led to a major backlash in the Middle Kingdom. Civil wars broke out. Anarchy begins. Tombs were raided and mummies uprooted and thrown into Nile. Towards New Kingdom, the pharoahs were more inclined at “hiding” their tombs. They selected the area now known as the valley of the kings for it. the valley has a natural pyramid shaped mountain overlooking it. Tombs were dug in unaccessible areas. the pharoahs concentrated on making the tomb richer through paitings and carvings.

A visitor is allows entry to three tombs on a day on a ticket. We visited two. The tomb of “Tausert and Setnakht” and Ramses IV.

Both the tombs are lovely.

Theirs is is one of the largest tomb of the valley.

The tomb was originally commisioned for Tausert who was the queen and wife of Seti II. Setnakht the father of Ramses III had commisioned a tomb for him seld though Ramses III against the wishes of his father interred his father in Tauserts tomb and took over Setnakht’s tomb for himself.

Cameras are not allowed inside the tomb which clearly did not prevent from Vijay reeling of two two quick shots.

We then moved to Deir-El Bahri to see queen Hatshepsut’s temple.

Hers is a story of grit and ambition and corruption and deceipt and pursuite of power. Jackie Collins woud have been prud to have penned it

She was daughter of Tuthmoses I and Aahmes. WHen she lost both her two brothers and her father, she married her half brother Tuthmoses II. Tuthmoses took over the throne and records show that Hatshepsut ruled alongside the king, albeit, behind the scenes. Tuthmoses II died of a skin disease within 3/4 years of becomg the king. WHile he had not children with Hathshepsut, he has sired a son, Tuthmoses III, through a concubine Isis.

Hatshepsut sent Tuthmoses III first to Cairo and then to Karnak to learn military and religion respectively and took over the thrown in lieu of her stepson/nephew.

She ruled for about 15 tears untill her death is 1458. And she ruled with charisma. She was an able administrator and politician. She left behind more monuments and works of art than any ther women ruler. She undertook non-military campaigns to Punt (present day somalia) in search of ivory, spices, gold and aromatic trees.

As a women king, she faced turmoil and resistance. She used every trick in the book and inventing a few to stay in control. She annoited herself as the direct daughter of God Amun-Ra. She completely hid her feminity and depicted herself as a man in every statue and monument. She wore the entire pharao regalia including the false beard. She used the festival of Opet to show that god was on her side. Mesmerizing stuff.

She was the target of Tuthmoses IIIs wrath once he ascended the throne. He destroyed her monuents, and tried to systematically erase all mention, text and scukptures of hers from the temples.

How she died is not known and  her mummy was never found

Her lover and architect in chief, Senenumut, built the extremely modern looking temple at Dar-El Bahiri 

Here are two more monuments she built. The one on the left is a Sphinx at Memphis, while the one on the right is the obelisk in the temple of Karnak. The wall Tuthmoses III built around it is visible in the picture.

Egypt::Day 5 :: Luxor East bank

(Photos @: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunilshinde)

A red-eye brought us to the city of Luxor (derived from Al-uk sur – meaning fortifications in Arabic).

After checking into our cruise, we started the day with Karnaka temple.  Karnak temple is the largest temple complex in the world spread over 247 acres and built over several hundred years by several kings.

Every buildings, pillar, pylon, obelisk in this temple is huge. It was impossible to shoot a piece without adding an item for scale.

The hypostye hall is considered one of the most amazing architectural feat. This place requires eyes and imagination in equal part as the cieling above the 82 feet high papyrus column is now missing. The ceiling would ensure complete darkness in the hall with the traceried windows throwing a pencil of light here and there like a wealthy squandering coins to at barefooted derelicts on an evening walk.

The columns symbolized the force of life with their roots plunged in the water of nun (underground water table) and stems thrust upwards with the corolla opened to the sky of the blue plaited cieling.

Karnak temple also has Queen hatshepsut’s obelisk along with a wall built around it by her stepson Tuthmosis III. Hathshepsut is an interesting story and will cover it under a separate blog.

I liked the temple of Luxor for its imperfection. Rather, one imperfection. The axis of the temple is tilted, unlike Egyptian architecture that was paranoid about truw north and linearity and symmetry. While there are a bunch of theories, the one that makes sense to me if that the colonnade and the courtyard was build by Amenhotep III much after the temple was built by Ramses II.

Ramses II build the temple independent of the Karnak temple. The dromos which connects the two temple was an afterthought. The change of axis was to aligning the courtyard with the dromos. Simple.