Boats Sun Pharaonic
The Curse of the Pharaohs: Truth, Myth or Microbiology?
For only the second time since their discovery, some of the treasures of Tutankhamen are visiting United StatesSoil. Wherever they go, the treasures of Tutankhamen inspire wonder. But when they were first discovered in 1922 they also inspired a little bit of fear – fear of a pharaoh’s curse.
The idea of a pharaoh’s curse didn’t originate with King Tut. The tombs of many pharaohs have carried warnings against thieves who would steal – a common and significant problem in Egypt, where ancient Egyptians buried their royalty with treasures in the belief that the wealth could be taken into the afterlife.
But as the discovery of the undisturbed tomb of “the boy king” created mummy mania around the world, a kind of morbid fascination with curses fueled rumors that the archeologists who opened King Tut’s tomb would soon meet with mysterious fates.
Journalists reporting on the find weren’t above embellishing the truth in an effort to tell a good story. Before the tomb was formally opened, reporters were filling their dispatches with accounts that the pharaoh’s seal contained warnings of death coming on swift wings.
But the morbid fascination with the mummy’s curse really took off several months later with the death of Lord Carnarvon, the expedition’s chief financier. Carnarvon had been present at the opening of King Tut’s tomb where, so the popular story goes he received a mosquito bite which he later nicked while shaving. The wound became infected, and Carnarvon died of blood poisoning on April 5, 1923.
Shortly thereafter, Carnarvon’s death became linked to a series of almost supernatural events. Supposedly, at the time of his death, all the lights of Cairo went out. At his estate back in England, Carnarvon’s dog is said to have howled and then died at the exact moment that he did.
As further proof of a curse, it was said that head archeologist Howard Carter’s pet canary was eaten by a cobra on the day the tomb was opened. Journalists noted that a cobra was often portrayed as sitting on the brow of the pharaoh in protection.
The story of the pharaoh’s curse gained steam with the sudden and unexpected death five months later of Lord Carnarvon’s brother. A handful of other people who either visited the tomb or worked around it also sickened and died, including two workmen and financier George Jay Gould I.
As the years have passed, nay-sayers scoff at the idea of a curse, particularly after compiling a list of the alleged victims of the curse. If there were a curse, why didn’t either Carter or Carnarvon’s daughter, Evelyn die as well? Both were present at the opening of the tomb.
But more recently, scientists are starting to believe in the curse --or at least in an explanation for why the series of curse-like coincidences could have happened.
Here’s a recipe for a curse: Take one coffin filled with human remains. Add in enough food and drink to sustain a person in the afterlife. Bury it in a tomb and let it sit for several thousand years. The result? Deadly, toxic mold and bacteria.
The idea of deadly bacteria fueling a pharaoh’s curse isn’t a new one. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who was also responsible for popularizing the story of the Mary Celeste) speculated that ancient Egyptians may have deliberately put harmful gasses or diseases in the pharaoh’s tombs in retribution for tomb robbers.
Scientists have recently explored newer tombs and found that harmful bacteria and mold is present there. And while the toxic mold and bacteria might not be in levels that would harm most humans, they pose a threat to someone with a compromised immune system – such as someone who may have an infected mosquito bite.
Fortunately, you can see the treasures of King Tut’s tomb (along with several other tombs) without risking a curse, bacterial or otherwise. Two exhibitions are in the United Statesfor limited engagements. Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs will remain in Dallas through May 17 before traveling to San Fransisco, and Tutankamun The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs will also conclude in Atlanta in May and then move to Indianapolis.
Discover of the Pyramid of Djoser
Egyptian Myths
The ancient Egyptian temples were built as cult temples for the worship of pharaohs considered the sons of the god Amun, the principal deity worshiped at Thebes.
The temple of Luxor, built by King AmenhotepIII between 1390-53 BC was the site of a yearly festival bringing together the people with the divine deities and through them, reiterating the divine rule of the current pharaoh. The temple was connected by a sphinx-lined entrance way to the temple of Karnak, and statues of the kings and ancient Egyptian gods were paraded down the Nile river in front of the people. Used as a place of worship continuously up to the present the temple was first a cult temple dedicated to the god of gods, Amun-Ra. During the Roman period it became a Christian church, later turned into a Coptic church. Eventually, a mosque was built over the site which to this day, is an integral part of the complex as a place of worship.
The best preserved of the cult temples is the Temple of Horus at Edfu. Built between 237-57BC, it was dedicated to the original falcon-headed Egyptian god, Horus, who was considered the sky god with eyes that represented the sun and the moon. Ancient Egyptian mythology has it that Horus was the child of the divine couple, Isis and Osiris. Raised by Isis and Hathor after Osiris was murdered by his brother, Seth, Horus avenged his father's death in a great battle at Edfu. Horus took the throne, with Osiris reigning through him from the underworld. Thus, all pharaohs claimed to be the incarnation of the "living king", Horus. The annual Festival of Coronation at Edfu re-enacted the divine birth of Horus and empowered the reigning pharaoh.
The temple of Abu Simbel, built by Ramses II in 1257BC in what was known as Nubia, was dedicated to the Sun god Re. This rock cut temple is the greatest massive façade of the seven temples built by Ramses II and is dominated by four colossal seated statues of the pharaoh and smaller statues of his family.
Among later cult temples built on the east banks of the Nile are those of Kom Ombo and the temple of Philae. These temples, built during the Ptolomaec and Roman periods still followed the more ancient practice by which temples of worship were erected on the east banks of the Nile, associated with life, while the west bank, linked to death, were the places of tombs and funerary rituals.
The unusual double temple of Kom Ombo was dedicated to Horus, the falcon god and Sobek, the crocodile god. A favored spot of crocodiles basking in the sun, Sobek protected locals from the threat of crocodiles. The best preserved Greco-Roman temple of Philae was dedicated to the goddess Isis, the "mother of god" - the giver of life, healer and protector of kings- who was a cardinal figure associated as well with funeral rites in the ancient world.
The Nile river has been pivotal to life and death in Egypt. On its eastern banks, its Egyptian temples were built to honor and worship the gods and living pharaohs. Egypt's tombs and funerary rituals were set on the river's west banks, marking death. Defined by east and west, Egypt's ancient temples tell the tales of its history, culture, mythology and rites of worship.
Story of Tutankhamun's Tomb
Tutankhamun's tomb is one of the most famous and monumental finds in the history of Egyptology, because it is the only undisturbed royal tomb found in Egypt. All the other royal tombs were robbed in antiquity, and indeed so was Tutankhamun's. Luckily, these burglaries were small, and the majority of Tutankhamun's goods were found intact.
In 1914, Egyptologist Howard Carter and his benefactor Lord Carnarvon started excavating in the Valley of the Kings, just after another excavator, Theodore Davis, who had worked in the area for some time, claimed that 'The Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted.' How wrong can one man be?
Carter and his team did uncover a number of tombs in the Valley, and in 1917 Carter began to search for the missing tomb of Tutankhamun (a number of objects had been discovered showing the existence of a tomb in the area).
However, by 1921 the team still had not discovered the tomb, and Lord Carnarvon considered withdrawing his funding. After much debate, Carter convinced him to fund one final season. Luckily for Carter this final season was a cracker. On 4 November 1922 his team uncovered the first stone step of Tutankhamun's tomb. The next day they cleared the steps to reveal the door, complete with ancient seals showing the tomb was intact.
The first doorway was opened on 23 November 1922, and the second doorway within the tomb on 26 November. At the opening of this door, Carter and Carnarvon saw for the first time the wonderful objects hidden for three millennia. These include solid gold coffins, gilded shrines, scores of pieces of golden jewelery, and the famous solid gold death mask.
The first chamber was officially opened on 29 November, and the burial chamber on 17 February 1923. The cataloguing of the objects started, and on 28 October 1925 the team finally opened the coffin and gazed at the face of the king who lived and died so long ago. Cataloguing and recording all the artefacts in the tomb was finally completed on 10 November 1930, eight years after the discovery.
Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo
- The Narmer Palette - This pictorial document represents symbolically what the Egyptians regarded as a 'First Time' event in their history: the political union of the 'Two Lands of Upper and Lower Egypt'. It is also a record of early Egyptian kingship (Lower Floor, room 43).
- The painted limestone statue of King Djoser - Djoser was the builder of the Step Pyramid and this is believed to be the oldest life-size statue found in Egypt (Lower Floor, room 43).
- The Meidum Geese - This magnificently coloured panel of painted plaster, in near pristine condition, reveals the technical ability and observational skills of the leading artists of the day and is the earliest ornithological record in history (Lower Floor, room 32).
- The life-sized double-statue of prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret - The marvellously preserved double-statue is one of the earliest examples of members of the court who were involved in the construction of the pyramids.
- The enthroned statue of King Khafre with Horus falcon - This stunning statue is carved from hard diorite and is the ideal manifestation of an Old Kingdom monarch (Lower Floor, room 42).
- The exceptional bust of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) - This room also features a beautiful unfinished head of Nefertiti and other examples of the revolutionary art of the Amarna period (Lower Floor, room 3).
- The priceless 7.5 centimetre-high ivory statuette of King Khufu - This is the smallest royal statue ever found and the only portrait of the supposed builder of the Great Pyramid (Upper Floor, hall 48).
- The furniture and possessions of Queen Hetepheres - Hetepheres was the most influential and powerful female of the Old Kingdom and her elegant possessions are of the highest quality workmanship. They comprise the most important finds from the old kingdom (Upper Floor, room 2)
- The unique Middle Kingdom painted wooden models - These models are almost perfectly preserved and provide an intimate three-dimensional view of how the Egyptians lived and worked. They are like a modern snap-shot of a life long vanished (Upper Floor, rooms 27 and 37)
- Faiyum mummy portraits - These realistic mummy faces, usually painted on primed wooden panels, are exceptional because they combine Egyptian symbolism, Greek pictorial technique and the social context of the Romans. They engage the modern viewer by the directness of their gaze and their evocation of a long-gone society (Upper Floor, room 14)
Great Sphinx statue
Greek mythology tells of a mythical beast who had the body of a lion and the head of a woman. This beast guarded the city of Thebes, Thebes, but this is Greek, not Egyptian city of the same name. According to the legend of this beast has asked each traveler passing an enigma. "Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at midday on two, and three in the evening, and it has more legs, the lower it?" Any person unable to meet the riddle was immediately strangled and eaten by the monster. According to the legend of Oedipus escaped death with this answer "The man who walks on all fours like a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age. " The monster, then jumped off the cliff where she lived until his death. This monster that the Greeks called a sphinx, the Greek word meaning "strangling" the result is that all these monuments of a mythical beast with the body of a lion, if the Greek state or Egyptian statues are now called "Sphinx .
Anyone who has watched an Egyptian statue of a sphinx may be confused - it does not seem like a statue of a monster. Could there be some sort of error? There are many similar statues showing Egyptian lion-bodied creatures with heads of other animals (often men or rams) as the main avenue of 900 Sphinx at Thebes in Egypt, but the sphinx (we do not really know what 'they Ancient Egyptians called them) were not monsters. A statue of the Egyptian Sphinx was a guardian, the body represented the lion god of the sun And it's not the only difference.
A statue of a sphinx Greek shows a body of lions, a tale of snakes and a woman's face.The lion is sitting, legs vertical font, but its most remarkable feature is the pair of eagles' wings extending over her shoulders. Egyptian statues represent the body of a lion lying down and usually the head of a human or another animal. Specifically, they have no wings at all.
It seems strange that this single word could represent two different forms of these ancient statue, but the Great Sphinx itself has even more mysteries.
In 1950, RA Schwaller de Lubicz noticed traces of what he thought was water erosion inside the Sphinx enclosure. In 1989, a further investigation by geologist Robert Schoch revealed that this "tampering" was caused by rain, but the average annual rainfall in the region since 2600 BC (when archaeologists believe the Sphinx was built) was only an inch. This has led some authors to assert that the Sphinx is actually much older than previously thought and date of the pre-dynastic Egyptian statue making it over 5000 years. While many famous archaeologists say it can not be true and give further explanations for the effect of water erosion, the fact that no other building located on the Giza plateau shows no signs of this alteration leaves the question unanswered.
Although he lacks the flamboyance of a statue of a winged sphinx Greek, the Great Sphinx is magnificent. We do not know it's age or why he was so carefully carved into the rock of the Giza plateau, but we have the chance to enjoy this ancient statue and its mysteries, and I look forward to the day when they can be fully understood
Pyramids
Ak is the first half and comes from Akh, which is "one of the five elements forming the human being seen as an aspect of the sun, the link between the human and the luminous life force. It left the body at death to join the circumpolar stars." Ur is the second half and means city. And so, the location of Akur, where the pyramids are situated means simply the city where the dead leave the body to join the stars. Add this to Rostau, meaning gateway and we truly do have the Stargate.