the tourist

TOUR IN GREECE

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important to know about Greece
The geography ,population and climate of Greece
map of greece
Politic of Greece
religion in Greece
History of Greece
The Acropolis museum
National Archaelogical Museum in Greece

religion in Greece

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Orthodox religion

Religion for Orthodox Greeks is a word which means the true belief. Sunday mass can last up to 3 hours, but it is not customary to remain for the whole service. Men and women are separated. The priest officiates behind the iconostas, a wall covered in icons which hides the altar. To the right and left of the entrance, St. John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary show the way to Christ. Whereas the bishops remain celibate, the priests can marry and have children. They are easily spotted in their long black robes, with their long hair that they wear in a bun or a pony tail and a long beard which is a sign of maturity among the orthodox. The patriarch, or head, of the orthodox religion is in Istanbul in Turkey. There are many monasteries in Greece, the highest concentration of monks being found on Mount Athos where there are 1700 monks in the 20 monasteries there. Women and children are not allowed on Mount Athos.

The Greek Easter

Easter is the most important celebration for the Greeks. Families get together to share lamb roast on a spit. The masses are particularly impressive. The celebrations last for several days, and even up to Ascension in certain villages, that is 40 days. On Easter Sunday children are given new clothes. At the beginning of Lent, children go to school in disguise and a big carnival is organised in the towns.

Politic of Greece

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Greece is a parliamentarian presidential democracy. The president of the democracy (a republic) is the regulator of their political system. He or she is elected by the parliament every 5 years by nominal vote and shares the legislative power of the country with the deputies and the executive power with the government. To be eligible to stand for election, a candidate must be a politician of Greek nationality, be over forty years of age and must not have lost his eligibility (through having a criminal record, for example).

In order to win the presidential election, the candidate must receive the vote of at least 180 of the 300 deputies of the Greek parliament.

The Greek parliament (House of Deputies) is composed of 300 deputies elected for a four-year period by the direct universal suffrage of the Greek people. In order for a party to govern, they must obtain more than 150 seats in parliament. If no party manages this, the party having obtained the most votes has three days to form a coalition with another party and thus obtain the 150 seats required. If they cannot do this in the time allotted, it is the turn of the second party who will be elected if they manage to form a coalition to obtain the necessary number of seats.

The Prime Minister of Greece was elected as head of the political party which obtained a majority of seats in parliament. During the last few weeks there has been much excitement in Greece, as at every election period. The next parliamentary elections (and at the same time those of the Prime Minister) will take place on 7 March and, Greece being the cradle of democracy, everyone is very preoccupied with the political future of the country. The universities, which are already extremely politically implicated, turn into giant stands for the political parties, as does every street corner in Athens and the other large towns.

So, parliamentary elections take place every 4 years. Any Greek citizen of 18 and over on 1st January of the current year can vote. For example, if an election takes place on 7 March 2004, all those having attained their majority before 1 January 2004 will be able to vote. All citizens eligible to vote have an election card. Voting is obligatory and any citizen failing in their civic duty is liable to be prosecuted. Men and women voted in separate places and mixed voting only came in at the last elections. Election day lasts from sunrise to sunset and everyone goes to vote in a previously designated place (schools, town-halls etc.) in their own district.

Voting is nominative (although anonymous), and takes place in strict privacy. Every voter is given a list for each political party represented in their region of Greece and an envelope. The candidates for each political party are shown on that party’s list and the elector can put a cross against those that he wishes to elect or simply return the whole list.

The geography ,population and climate of Greece

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The rocky coast of Greece is very uneven. It is about 1,500 km long. Three quarters of the Greek territory is covered in mountains. Numerous islands are scattered throughout the Aegean, Ionian and Mediterranean seas. These islands are the summits of mountains which were submerged millions of years ago when the Mediterranean basin was covered with water. Mount Olympus is the highest point in Greece (2,917 m). In mythology, this was the home of the gods. The Pinde mountain range runs right through the middle of the country. Gamilla Peak is covered in snow until mid-June.

The country has a total surface area of 132,000 km2.

There is a total population of 10 million inhabitants.

Greece has been- a member of OTAN since 1951.
see the map

The climate
The mountainous regions have a continental climate. The summers are hot and humid and the winters cold and snowy. The coastal regions and the islands have a Mediterranean climate – hot and dry in summer and mild and rainy in winter.

The Greek population is made up mainly of Greeks.
There are few immigrants – some Russians who came there after the 1917 Revolution, 1% of Turks who stayed on after the Ottoman Occupation and now a few Albanians.
The population of Athens increased considerably in 1960 and consequently,
a large number of high-rise buildings grew up quickly at that time.

important to know about Greece

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Welcome to Greece

The Greek flag
It is composed of 5 stripes which symbolize the five seas (the Mediterranean, the Ionian, the Dodecanese, the Aegean, and the Thracian Seas).

National anthem
The Hellenic Republic (Elliniki Dimokratia) has a total surface area of 131,000 km2. It has a population of 10.6 million inhabitants of which almost half live in Athens, the capital. The language spoken in Greece is Greek (surprisingly!), but the Greeks are so gifted for languages that it is not unusual to find people who speak English, French and German.

The political regime
Greece is a parliamentary pluralistic republic, the head of state being Kostas Stephanopoulos. Voting is compulsory in Greece and failure to do so is sanctioned by the loss of passport and driving license. There are two national holidays :

There are two national holidays
25 March is Independence Day and celebrates the successful rebellion and subsequent independence from the Turks in 1821;
28 October is known as Ochi Day (after the saint of that day) and commemorates the day in 1940 when the Prime Minister said no to the entry of Mussolini’s troops. The day is marked by processions of school children, students and the Greek Armed Forces.

Their motto : Liberty or death. My strength lies in the love of my people.

Some famous Greek musicians : Manos Hatzidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Yannis Xenakis.

Hippocrates was the greatest physician in Ancient Greece. He founded a school of medicine on the island of Kos and devised the Hippocratic Oath, a charter of moral guidelines which doctors swear to follow.

Some famous poets : Homer, Sophocles, Sappho.

A famous millionaire : Aristote Onassis

National Archaelogical Museum in Greece

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The National Archaeological Museum of Athens (Greek: Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο) in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the great museums in the world and contains the richest collection of artifacts from the Greek antiquity worldwide . It is situated in the Exarhia area in central Athens between the streets Epirus, Bouboulina and Tositsa while its entrance is on the Patission Avenue adjacent to the historical building of the Athens Polytechnic. Today the museum is directed by Nikolaos Kaltsas.

History

The first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by prime minister of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. Since then the archaeological collection has been moved to a number of exhibition places until 1858, when an international architectural competition was announced for the location and the architectural design of the new museum [2]. The current location was proposed and the construction of the museum's building began in 1866 and was completed in 1889 using funds from the Greek Government, the Greek Archaeological Society and the society of Mycenae. Major benefactors were Eleni Tositsa who donated the land for the building of the museum, Demetrios and Nikolaos Vernardakis from Saint Petersburg who donated a large amount for the completion of the museum.

The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum and it was renamed to its current name in 1881 by prime minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis . During the World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction. In 1945 exhibits were again displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos. The south wing of the museum houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953-1960 with the architectural designs of Patroklos Karantinos

The building

The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was very popular in Europe at the time and is in full accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was later modified by Panages Kalkos who was the main architect, Harmodios Vlachos and Ernst Ziller. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures .

Expansions and renovations

The building has undergone many expansions. Most important were the construction of new east wing in the early 20th century based on the plans of Anastasios Metaxas and the erection of a two-storeyed building, designed by George Nomikos, in 1932-1939. These expansions were necessary to accommodate the rapidly expanding collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum took more than 1.5 years to complete, during which the museum remained completely closed. It reopened in July 2004, in time for the Athens Olympics and it included aesthetic and technical upgrade of the building, installation of a modern air-conditioning system, reorganisation of the museum's collection and repair of the damage that the 1999 earthquake left to the building. The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005. Today, there is a renewed discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas.

The museum's collections are organized in sections :

Prehistoric collection (Neolithic, Cycladic, Mycenaean)
Sculptures collection
Vase and Minor Objects Collection
Santorini findings
Metallurgy Collection
Stathatos Collection
Vlastos Collection
Egyptian Art collection donated by Demetrios Ioannou and Alexander Rostovich
Near Eastern Antiquities Collection

Some of the ancient artists whose work is presented in the museum are Myron, Scopas, Euthymides, Lydos, Agoracritus, Agasias, Cimon of Cleonae, Damophon, Aison (vase painter), Polygnotos (vase painter).

Collections include sculpture work, Loutrophoros, amphora, Hydria, Skyphos, Krater, Pelike, and lekythos vessels, Stele, frescoes, jewellery, weapons, tools, coins, toys and other ancient items.

Artifacts derive from archaeological excavations in Santorini, Mycenae, Tiryns, Dodona, Vaphio, Rhamnous, Lycosura, Aegean islands, Delos, the Temple of Aphaea in Aegina, the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, Pylos, Thebes, Athens, the Antikythera wreck and from various other places across Greece.

The museum houses the archaic terracota statuette daidala that inspired the designers of the 2004 Athens Olympics maskots Athena and Phevos.

Two of the newest exhibits of the museum include a 4th century BC golden funenary wreath and a 6th century BC marble statue of a woman, which were returned as stolen artifacts to Greece in 2008 by the Getty Museum in California, after a 10 year-old legal dispute between the Getty Center and the Greek Government . One year earlier, the Los Angeles foundation agreed to return a 4th century BC tombstone from near Thebes and a 6th century BC votive relief from the island of Thassos .

There is also a large number of artifacts that are currently not exhibited, at the museum's vast storage rooms.

picture from National Archaelogical Museum in Greece

The Acropolis museum

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The Museum stands in the southeastern corner of the Acropolis and houses priceless archaeological finds kept in chronological order, starting with the Archaic (800-600 B.C.), and going to the Classical (500- 400 B.C.), Hellenistic (300 B.C.) and Roman periods. Among other outstanding works of art housed in the Museum's 9 rooms are sculptures and sculptured reliefs from the pediments, frieze and metopes of the Parthenon, the Erechtheio and the Temple of Athena Nike. Also on display is the unique collection of the "Kore" statues (young girls with the characteristic Archaic smile). Room exhibits the famous "Moschophoros", a man bearing a calf on his shoulders. This is an exceptionally fine work, noted for its composition and elasticity of form.
In Room V are pedimental figures of the "Gigantomachia", or Battle of the Giants from the old Temple of Athena, built by the Peisistratids. More works of the so-called "Severe Style" are on display in Room VI, among them a sculptured relief showing a "Contemplating Athena" who seems absorbed in her thoughts as she is resting her head on her spear. The most characteristic of works belonging to the "severe" style are the "Kritias Boy", and the "blond boy", so called because of the yellow colour of the hair.
In Room IV are the majority of the "Kore" statues, among them the "Peplos Kori", so called from the girded Dorian peplos (mantle) she wears over her chiton. The statue is famous both for its facial expression and its original colours.

Acropolis Museum Pictures

Base of a statue dedicated to the chorus leader Atravos,
in tribute to his victory in theatrical contest.

Atarvos Base

Prokne and her dead son Itys.
Attributed to Alkamenes.

Prokne and Itys

The original Caryatids (Caryatides) statues from the Erechtheion
protected behind glass in the Acropolis Museum.

Caryatids

Lioness attacking a cow. From an unknown temple on the Acropolis

Limestone, c. 600 BCE (Acropolis Museum)

Lioness and Cow Pediment

Hercules killing the Hydra. Iolaos on the left is on the chariot
Shalow relief, original vividly painted, from the pediment
of an unknown building on the Acropolis.

Limestone, c. 600 BCE (Acropolis Museum)

Hercules and Hydra Pediment

Herakles at Olympus, in front of Zeus (seated), Hera, and Athena (missing). Hermes stands at the far right. From an unknown building on the Acropolis.

Limestone, c. 550-540 BCE (Acropolis Museum)

Herakles Pediment

map of greece

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History of Greece

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The infinite variety of the landscape of mainland Greece, ranging from snow-capped rugged mountains to sun drenched idyllic beaches, is equalled, if not surpassed, by the beauty of the seascape of almost one thousand five hundred islands scattered over the translucent waters of the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Close to eleven million inhabitants live on the 132.160 square kilometres, which are blessed by a temperate climate under the blue sky of the Mediterranean.

Five thousand years of dramatic history have left their indelible imprint, rivalling nature in its diversity, from the Minoan palaces, Mycenaean fortresses, classical temples, Hellenistic tombs, Roman towns, Byzantine churches, Crusader castles, Turkish mosques and the picturesque villages of the distinctive island architecture to the pleasing modernity of the main cities, spas and summer resorts.

Each region displays a characteristic brand of natural and artistic features, which, nevertheless, only serve to emphasise the unity of Europe's oldest culture, the cradle of western civilisation. No wonder that a people looking back on such a glorious past has preserved in its purest and most welcome form the traditional hospitality towards all strangers visiting their lovely country.

Between 4.000 and 3.000 B.C. the Minoans settled in the southern island of Crete, with 3.327 square miles Greece's largest, and founded one of the most brilliant and sophisticated civilisations of antiquity, and Europe's first. Mythology and history blend in the Priest -King Minos, the legendary son of Zeus, ruler of the Olympian gods, and Europa, the lovely princess after whom the continent is named.

knossos palace

From his splendid palace at Knossos, successive Minos ruled the world's first naval empire, which was destroyed by the eruption of the island volcano of Thira, a Cretan colony, in about 1450 B.C. According to some archaeologists this was the lost island of Atlantis, and the recent discovery of a whole town under 160 feet of lava and pumice lends credibility to this theory.

History then shifts to the mainland, where for a thousand years Hellenic tribes, Pelasgians, Achaeans, Aeolians and Ionians had infiltrated from the north, subdued the native Celts and established numerous small principalities following the country's natural division by impassable mountain ranges.

In the eighth century B.C. the great epic poet Homer was to immortalise the Mycenaean age in the Iliad and Odyssey, the story of the Trojan War fought by Achilles, Odysseus and countless other heroes under the leadership of the High King Agamemnon to bring back the beautiful Helen,

Achilles in Troia

wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Long believed to be nothing but poetic fantasy, the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann vindicated Homer's historical accuracy by following the poets geographical indications to the letter to unearth in the 1870s the palaces and towns of the epic cycle.

In about 1100B.C. the magnificent Bronze Age civilisation of the Mycenaeans tour fell to the iron weapons of a pew invader from the north, the blond, blue-eyed Dorians. Warlike feudal kingdoms emerged from the Dark Ages at the dawn of recorded history in the ninth century B.C. and in the following six-hundred years the Greeks tried and often invented every political system the human mind has as yet conceived. As a tribute to their experimentations, most forms of government still bear the Greek name indicative of their origin.
Tribal, feudal, absolute and constitutional monarchy, landed and commercial oligarchy, Spartan racism followed by a short spell of communism,

dictatorships of all kinds, democracy where the active participation of all citizens was possible due to slavery, decline into demagogy which made the anachronistic city states an easy prey to the unified Macedonian kingdom of Philip, who laid the foundations on which his son Alexander the Greatcould build his world empire.

Alexander The Great

The great names in this period are Lycurgus, who imposed a totalitarian way of life on Sparta in the eighth century B.C.; Dracon and Solon, the latter one of the Seven Wise of Antiquity, who brought law and order to Athens in the two subsequent centuries; Miltiades, who defeated the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C.in one of the decisive battles in the eternal struggle between Europe and Asia; Themistocles, who brought this struggle to a victorious climax at the battle of Salamis 10 years later, by the use of seapower which assured Athens of mastery in the Aegean for the entire fifth century B.C. Yet like his predecessor Miltiades, who had died in prison, he fell a victim to the jealousy of his ungrateful Athenian compatriots, who not only ostracised him -exile for ten years without any accusation and thus no means of defence -but eventually condemned him to death, so that the saviour of Greece had to seek refuge at the court of the Persian king he had so brilliantly defeated; and Pausanias, the Spartan regent who finally drove the Persians from Greek soil in the battle of Plataea in 479 B.C., but succumbed to Persian bribes and was stoned to death, his mother reputedly throwing the first stone.

The billiant generalship of Kimon extended the Athenian empire along the shores of Asia Minor, so that when he in his turn was ostracised in 461 B.C., Pericles presided over the Golden Age of unparalleled intellectual and artistic achievements coinciding with a political decline, almost imperceptible at first, but leading to the outbreak of the disastrous Peloponnesian War (431-404 B. C.) in which the personification of Greek virtues and vices, Alcibiades, played the leading part.

Pericles

The year of Athens' final defeat and humiliation also witnessed his murder.

Spartan dominance was challenged in the next century by the military genius of Epaminondas, who briefly established Theban supremacy by introducing a new fighting force, the phalanx, which was perfected by Philip of Macedonia and assured his victory over the for once united Greek city states at Chaeronea in 338 B.C. Philip generously forgave his main opponent, the Athenian orator Demosthenes, who yet succeeded in persuading the Greeks to another stand against the Macedonians after Philip's murder two years later.

Young Alexander, who ruthlessly destroyed Thebes but spared Athens for its cultural prestige, swiftly crushed the insurrection. He forced the reluctant Greek states to follow him in his expedition into Persia and in 334 B.C. he crossed the Hellespont at the head of a mere 40.000 men to the greatest conquest the world had ever seen. In eleven years of unbroken victories, Alexander founded an empire that stretched from the Ionian Sea to beyond the Indus, and from the Upper Nile to the Caspian Sea. But the centre of gravity had shifted from Macedonia to Babylon, where Alexander died in 323 B.C., having failed in welding Greeks and Persians into a new imperial master race.

In the deadly struggle for the succession, Demetrius Poliorcetes (Besieger of Towns) lost Asia but gained the Greek-Macedonian kingdom, over which the Antigonid dynasty ruled precariously till the Roman conquest in 146 B.C. Yet Greece achieved a remarkable cultural conquest-in-reverse, and the Roman empire became impregnated with the higher art and thought of Greece, to which the Roman aristocracy sent its sons for education in the schools of Athens and Rhodes.

In exchange the Romans used Greece as the battleground for the momentous civil wars of the first century B.C. In 48 B.C. Julius Caesar at Pharsala in Thessaly crushingly defeated Pompey's numerically superior army. In 42 B.C. Brutus kept his fatal appointment with Caesar's ghost at Philippi in Macedonia, where Brutus and Cassius committed suicide, while Mark Antony and Octavian divided the world in preparation for the final round. That came in 31 B.C. at the naval battle of Actium, where Cleopatra precipitate Mark Antony into unreasonable flight and another double suicide, leaving Octavian sole ruler and at last able to establish the Pax Romana for some four hundred years.

The Roman emperors varied in the treatment of their most precious province from Nero, who shipped priceless statues by the hundred to Italy, to fladrian, who munificently embellished the venerable centres of culture. Roman tourists flocked to the famous sites, so not quite in the same numbers as today.
In the partition of the Roman Empire in the fourth century A.D., Greece was allotted to the Eastern Empire. The new capital, Constantinople, was adorned with the spoils from Greece, while pious Byzantine emperors closed the pagan universities and temples. Successive waves of barbaric tribes, Goths, Huns, Vandals and Avars ravaged the country with fire and sword, joined by Saracen pirates, bringing in their wake Slav settlers who threatened to engulf the mainland till Vasilios the Bulgar-Slayer decisively stopped the flood.
After the conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, feudalism returned to the country, which had experienced an earlier version in Mycenaean times. Under the nominal suzerainty of the Latin emperor, the Frankish lords were fighting each other as much as the renascent Byzantines, Bulgarians, Serbs, Catalan mercenaries and soon the advance guard of the Turks. The dying Byzantine empire achieved a final but hollow triumph with the reconquest of the Peloponnese in 1430, where two brothers of the last emperor ruled for another six years after his death in the defence of his capital. But in 1460 they were driven out by Sultan Mohammed II, who replaced the Frankish and Byzantine nobles with Turkish veterans. The Greek peasants remained serfs, paying besides tithes a poll-tax and a blood tribute of a fifth of their male children, who were brought up as Moslems and enrolled in the corps of Janissaries, the military elite of the Turkish armies. The frequent incursions and temporary occupation by the Venetians only worsened the lot. of the wretched inhabitants, whose only protector was their recognised representative, the Patriarch of Constantinople, while the bishops provided local guidance and the parochial clergy the little education there was.

In their decline the Turks became only interested in the collection of tribute, while the country was reduced to a state of anarchy, from which a military adventurer, Ali Pasha, was able to carve, by unscrupulous treachery and merciless cruelty, a private principality centred on Epirus, where he was visited by Lord Byron. After forty years he was finally reduced by the Turks, but not before the Greek War of Independence had started in 1821.
On the 25th of March, the feast of the Annunciation, the Archbishop of Patras proclaimed Greek independence at the Monastery of Aghia Lavra in the Peloponnese. The Turks retaliated with the massacres of Greeks on Chios, in Macedonia and Constantinople, where the Patriarch was hanged on Easter Sunday.

Lord Byron

The heroic expoits of the Greeks inspired numerous Philhellenic volunteers, especially British, among them Lord Byron who died in Messologi. The intervention by an Egyptian army and fleet in support of the Turks led in 1825 to the formation of a Triple Alliance of Great Britain, France and Russia, whose navy decisively defeated the Turco-Egyptian force at Navarino two years later.
The Protocol of London in 1832 established the frontier of the reborn Greek state, first a republic under the Corfiote nobleman Capodistria, who had for a time been the Czar's foreign minister, and after his murder as a kingdom under the young Bavarian Prince, Otto. After a bloodless revolution in 1843, which culminated in the proclamation of a liberal constitution, Otto was forced to abdicate in 1863.

An overwhelming majority voted to offer the vacant throne to Queen Victoria's second son, the Duke of Edinburgh. But the dynasties of the three Protecting Powers were excluded, and the acceptance of their joint choice, Prince George of Denmark, was made popular by the session of the Ionian Islands by Great Britain to Greece. 1n 1881 Thessaly was incorporated in the Kingdom of the Hellenes, but the Cretan uprising in 1897 led to an unsuccessful war with Turkey and in the following year to the granting of full autonomy to Crete under purely nominal Turkish suzerainty.

The two Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 almost doubled Greece's territory and population, but in the interval King George I was murdered in the newly conquered Thessalonica. His son and heir, King Constantine lacked his father's political foresight; having received his military training in Germany he believed in the final victory of the German Emperor William II, whose sister he had married. The Allies intervened and forced King Constantine to leave the country where his second son, Alexander, became king.

In 1920 he died of blood-poisoning from a monkey bite, and by another of the many plebiscites King Constantine was recalled. After a disastrous war with the resurgent Turks in Asia Minor, in defence of the vast gains made by the Treaty of Sevres, Greece had to resign itself to the frontier of the Evros river in Thrace and an unprecedented exchange of populations, 1,500.000 Greeks against 370.000 Turks, which burdened the small country tremendous social and economic problems. Kind Constantine abdicated now in favour of his eldest son, who briefly ruled as George II before the proclamation of a republic in 1924. But the King was recalled by another plebiscite in 1935, only to leave the country again in 1941 after a heroic resistance against the Italians and Germans.

Returning as the result of the plebiscite of 1946, in the lull between two, Communist rebellions, George II died the following year, before the end of the Civil War in 1949 in the reign of his brother, King Paul, who was succeed in 1964 by his son, King Constantine.

Continual cabinet crises led to the military Revolution of the 21st April 1967 and in December of the same year the King left the country.
The military regime in Athens resigned July 23, 1974. Former President Caramanlis returned to Athens and was sworn in as Premier of Greece's first civilian government since 1967. Since 1981 Greece is an E.U. member country. So long and varied a history naturally left splendid architectural and artistic remains scattered al lover the country.

The Great Pyramid of Menkaure at Giza

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Menkaure apparently intended for his pyramid on the Giza Plateau to be the last of that specific area of the Memphite necropolises which it is, as well as being the smallest. The valley temple lies at the mouth of the main wadi, closing what had been the principal conduit for construction materials brought to Giza for three generations. Named "Menkaure is Divine", the pryamid was thought by some Greeks, according to Herodotus, to belong to the Greek hertaera Rhodopis. Manetho thought that it belonged to Psamtik I's beautiful daughter, Nitokris.

Artist's impression of the main pyramid complex

Diodorus Siculus first described the inscription that bears the name of Mykerinos on this pyramid, but it was not until Vyse in 1837 that anyone actually entered Menkaure's pyramid. He began by investigating its substructure by following a tunnel dug earlier by Caviglia out of a breach in the north wall. The original entrance was not discovered until later. Surprisingly, Lepsius paid almost no attention to this pyramid, and even Petrie worked on it for only a short period in the 1880s. Luckily, George Resiner who was one of the most advanced archaeologists of his time, won the concession for Menkaure's pyramid when archaeologists drew lots for excavating Giza on the balcony of the Mena House Hotel in 1899. He knew beforehand that this pyramid, though small, could provide some rich finds because his assistant, Arthur Mace, had reconnoitered the site. He began a very thorough excavation of the entire complex in 1906 directing a team from Harvard University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Those excavations continued until 1924.

Menkaure's pyramid, with its original height of some 65-66 meters, represents only about 1/10th of the mass we find in Khufu's pyramid. However, this may be the result of a theology which dictated more emphasis on the temples and less on the pyramid, a process evident to us already in the reign of Khafre which continued throughout the Old Kingdom.

Layout of the whole pyramid complex

The Valley Temple

The reconstruction of Menkaure's valley temple is more difficult than any other element within his pyramid complex. The west part of the limestone block base and lower part of the core of the temple's north wall were probably completed during the ruler's lifetime, while the remaining clay masonry would be attributable to his son, Shepseskaf. Just behind the portal to the temple there was a square antechamber adorned with four columns. The alabaster (calcite) bases of these columns, pressed into the clay floor, have been preserved. On either side of this room are four storerooms. Behind the entrance antechamber, the whole middle part of the valley temple consisted of a huge open courtyard with inner walls decorated with niches (similar to the mortuary temple's courtyard). A path, paved with limestone slabs, ran from the pillared antechamber through the center of the courtyard to a low stairway, which in turn led through a portico with two rows of wooden columns. This terminated at an offering hall, in which an alabaster altar may have once stood. To the north of the offering hall were twelve storerooms, and to its south were five additional storerooms. This was the area where Reisner found the famous, mostly triad statues of the ruler, along with four unfinished statuettes of Menkaure, fragments of other statues and stone vessels. Three of the statues discovered by Reisner depicted the goddess Hathor on the ruler's right side, with divinities symbolizing three Upper Egyptian nomes on his left. These may have been part of a larger collection of statues for each of the provinces of Egypt, or perhaps only the nomes that provided endowments for the complex.

Perhaps curiously, the function of the valley temple changed over time. Reisner retraced the process by which houses of the pyramid town first crowded up against the front wall of the temple, and then began to be built within it. People began living in the temple itself, particularly in the courtyard, where grain storehouses and lodgings were built.

Perhaps as early as the 5th Dynasty, the temple was badly damaged by water after a particularly heavy rain tore away the temple's west side. Reisner believes that the temple was rebuilt, at least roughly, during the reign of Pepi II.

More recently, an Egyptian archaeologist, Selim Hassan, while excavating the nearby tomb complex of queen Khentkaues I, discovered a small brick structure with a platform, low benches and a small drainage canal, together with a basin at the northeast corner of Menkaure's valley temple. Stored there were a large number of flint blades and stone vessels. Some Egyptologists believe that this structure was used for a "purification ten" and was only a part of a larger structure where the mummification ritual took place.

Another modification of the valley temple was a brick structure built in front of the temple's west wall. It may have provided a widened portal, giving better access between the temple and the pyramid town.

The Causeway

The causeway of this pyramid complex leading from the Valley temple to the Mortuary Temple was most likely completed by Shepseskaf. It had floors made of limestone blocks and highly compressed clay mixed with limestone fragments. The mudbrick walls that were a little more than two meters thick supported a roof. Reisner believed that the roof was made of wooden beams and mats because he found the remains of such material at the end of the causeway. However, others Egyptologists, because of the width of the side walls and architectural elements of nearby tombs of close family members, believed that there would have been a vaulted roof of brickwork. Nevertheless, the causeway was never completed. Work seems to have stopped at the point where it meets the west side of the old Khufu quarry. From there to down to the valley temple, the causeway was probably never more than a construction ramp for delivering stone. Hence, we really do not know how it was to connect to the valley temple. Yet some Egyptology resources believe that it would have not begun at the west part of the valley temple, but rather would have actually run along its whole south side and part of its west side. They believe it was even accessible from the storerooms in the valley temple's southern section.

The Mortuary Temple

Like Menkaure's predecessors on the Giza Plateau, his mortuary temple was not built adjacent to his pyramid's east wall. The original temple obviously remained partially uncompleted, we believe, as a result of Menkaure's sudden death. Menkaure began this mortuary temple, as had Khafre, with core blocks of limestone that were locally quarried. The heaviest of these, found at the northwest corner of the temple, is the heaviest known at Giza, weighing some 200 tons.

Mortuary Temple (Bottom) at the time of Menkaure's death
and (above) after Shepseskaf completed it.

Though we know the mortuary temple had an almost square ground plan, its appearance can only be partially reconstructed. Reisner believed that an entrance corridor led from the east terminating in an open courtyard that was meant to be ornamented by pillars. The inside wall of this courtyard was lined with plastered and whitewashed brickwork decorated with niches, which was probably added by his successor in order to complete the temple after Menkaure's death. There was also a small shrine built within the courtyard, that Reisner also dated to the reign of Shepseskaf.

In the west part of the temple, a portico made up of two rows of pillars provided access to a long offering hall. According to Reisner, there was a false door in the offering hall's west wall. However, because of statuary fragments, and the fact that the temple was not immediately adjacent to the pyramid, scholars such as Maragioglio and Rinaldi rejected the idea of a false door, instead seeing a statue of the ruler standing in its stead. They do believe that a false door existed, but that it stood on a small, pink granite platform in front of the pyramid's east wall. In Maragioglio and Rinaldi's view, it would have at first been easily accessible from the east wing of the pyramid's courtyard, before additional rooms were built in the area.

A limestone altar and fragments, including a head, chest, lap, knees and shins of a seated statue of Menkaure, rendered in pink granite were found in the five, two story magazines that form a northwestern part of the mortuary temple. This statue was perhaps meant to be the centerpiece of this entire complex. Originally it stood at the back of a tall and narrow east-west hall at the end of the center axis of the temple, so that the king looked across the open country, through the entrance hall, and down the line of the causeway to the land of the living. The southwest part of the temple remained uncompleted.

Reisner, as well as other Egyptologists, thought that the whole mortuary temple was originally meant to be constructed of pink granite. In fact, we can see that Menkaure's masons had just started bringing in a series of granite blocks on both sides of the corridor. They were cutting back the large limestone core blocks to ensure that the front faces of the granite blocks were flush. When Reisner removed the mudbrick from the casing he found bright red paint on the core blocks marking leveling lines, measurements and the names of the work gangs. However, Ricke rejected this analysis, believing that only the dado was to be made of this fine stone. Irregardless, the temple was not completed by Menkaure, but by his son, using mudbrick, evidenced by an inscription on one of the fragments of a stela that Reisner discovered.

Interestingly, there was also within the mortuary temple a small square room with a single pillar. It had a strikingly similar appearance to the antechamber carree that actually first appears in the mor4tuary temples of the 5th Dynasty pyramids.

Some elements within the temple may even be dated beyond the reign of Menkaure's son, including the stelae of Merenre I and Pepi I.

The Pyramid Proper

Isometric drawing of the pyramid chambers

Menkaure's pyramid lies at the far end of the Giza diagonal on the very edge of the Mokattam Formation, where it dips down to the south and disappears into the younger Maadi Formation. Just as with his father, Khafre's nearby pyramid, Menkaure's construct had to have a very well prepared rock subsurface, particularly around the northeast corner. This base is two and one half meters higher than his father's pyramid and and occupies a mere quarter of the area consumed by Khafre and Khufu's pyramids. It has a core of local limestone blocks, with casing made of unfinished pink granite from Aswan up to a height of about fifteen meters. Further up, the casing was probably made of fine, Turah limestone. Because completely finished casing blocks would have probably been damaged during transport and installation, particularly at their edges, the final finishing touches were not completed until the very end of the construction process. This also made it possible to achieve a very accurate fitting along the whole surface of the pyramid walls. There is an inscription on the granite casing of the north wall that dates from the Late period, and may be the one mentioned by Diodorus.

Original access was provided to the inner chambers by an entrance on the axis of the north wall, about four meters above ground level. From there, a descending corridor, only partially lined with pink granite, sloped down at an angle of a little more than 26 degrees for 31 meters through the masonry core to the chambers below. This "lower corridor" terminates in a room with walls that were provided with niches. The purpose of this unusual room is still debated among scholars. However, the niches represent the first purely decorative element inside a pyramid since Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara. At the beginning of the next corridor, there is a granite barrier that is made of three blocks that were lowered after its completion. The following corridor continues at a slight downward angle until it comes out in a relatively small, east-west oriented upper antechamber with wall that are completely undecorated. The east end of this chamber is located directly under the vertical axis of the pyramid.

Here, another passageway known as the "upper corridor" runs over the "lower corridor" through a short horizontal section before climbing in a north-south direction into the pyramid core, were it terminates. It is very likely that this double corridor system signals a change in the original construction plans. The "upper corridor" was probably abandoned when the floor of the antechamber was lowered. From this, Petrie believed that the original pyramid was only about half the size that it is today, though others such as Stadelmann doubt his analysis.

In fact, the substructure of this pyramid underwent significant changes. Investigations of both this pyramid, and the tombs of his royal family that are closest in time (Mastabat Faraun and Khentkaues I's stepped tomb) point to the development of these subchambers in three phases, during which the original plan was enlarged.

In the antechamber, Vyse unearthed the remains of an anthropoid wooden coffin with, Menkaure's name Within were human bones. Most scholars today believe this coffin was inserted, perhaps in an effort of restoration, into the pyramid during the Saite period late in Egypt's ancient history. However, the bone fragments were even more recent as revealed by radio carbon dating, that shows hat they probably date to the Coptic Christian period of some two thousand years ago. There is a rectangular indention in the west section of the antechamber floor, suggesting that a sarcophagus may have once been intended for this room.

However, from the middle of the floor of the antechamber, another granite corridor leads downward before becoming horizontal shortly before the actual burial chamber. Just before the entrance to the burial chamber, a short flight of steps leads to an area with six small, deep niches, sometimes known as the "cellar", which has an undetermined function, though there is a similarity to architectural elements in the Mastabat Faraun of Shepseskaf and the stepped tomb of Queen Khentkaues I. Four of the niches are on the east side, and Ricke believed that these were to hold the four canopic vessels containing Menkaure's entrails. He believed that the two additional niches on the north side may have been graced with the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. However, others believe it may be a forerunner of the three chambers to the left (east) in the standardized substructures of 5th and 6th Dynasty pyramids, though it may have simply been used to store funerary equipment and supplies.

Unlike the pyramids of his father and grandfather (Khufu), the rectangular burial chamber is oriented north-south. It is completely covered in pink granite, including even the gabled ceiling, which was actually hollowed out from beneath to make a round, barrel vault. The chamber lies some 15.5 meters beneath the level of the pyramid's base so that the ceiling could be constructed of nine pairs of enormous granite blocks. This construction was carried out after the modification of the plan for the substructure, which made it both difficult and laborious to complete. It required a large descending tunnel to be built in the west part of the upper antechamber, from which visitors today may actually view the top of the vaulted burial chamber.

It is very possible that both the granite burial chamber and the set of niches were built after the after the death of Menkaure on the instructions of his son and successor, Shepseskaf.

On the burial chamber's west wall, Vyse discovered a wonderful, dark basalt sarcophagus that was decorated with niches in the palace facade style. The sarcophagus was empty, and its lid was missing. However, fragments of the lid were discovered, which indicate that it was ornamented with a concave cornice. Ricke saw in this design certain similarities with the decorations in shrines dedicated to the god Anubis, and thought that they were an attempt to provide additional protection for the tomb by means of that divinity. Alas, we are left with only drawing of this piece of funerary equipment, for the ship, Beatrice, which was taking it from Egypt to the British Museum leaving Leghorn sank somewhere between Malta and Spain in 1838. Fortunately, the anthropoid coffin was sent in a separate ship that reached its destination.

Interestingly, in contrast to Khufu's and Khafre's pyramids, there have been no boat pits discovered in relationship to Menkaure's pyramid, despite intensive investigation by an Egyptian archaeologist named Abdel Aziz Saleh, who obviously thought that they should exist.

Already in the late 1630s, the English scholar and traveler John Greaves noted that the casing had largely been removed. The destruction of the pyramid lasted well into the 19th century, when Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805-1848) used some of the pink granite blocks taken from its casing to construct the arsenal in Alexandria.

The Three Queen's Pyramids

Notable on the Giza Plateau are the three much smaller subsidiary that stand in a row along the south wall of the principal pyramid. Designated G 3a-c, archaeologist attribute them to Menkaure's royal consorts. Of these, only G 3a was a true pyramid, the other two having a four step core, and some Egyptologists believe that it functioned as a cult pyramid, though it was also clearly used for a burial. All three of these pyramids were surrounded by a common perimeter wall.

The Three Queen's Pyramids, from left to right: G 3c, G 3b and G 3a

G 3a, the easternmost, of these pyramids, actually had a small, east-west oriented mortuary temple of its own that was accessible from it's pyramid's courtyard. This mortuary temple was probably partially built of limestone, but was hastily finished with mudbrick. The west end of the mortuary temple was dominated by a fairly large, open courtyard that had niches built into its northern wall. On its south side was a row of wooden columns. A small cult chapel with an entrance adorned with deep, double niches to either side, lead into an offering room that included a false door. storage annexes were located in the northwest part of the temple, and in the southwest a staircase led to the roof terrace.

Pyramid G 3a was the largest of the three constructs, with an entrance situated in the middle of the north wall, only a little above ground level. It has a substructure consisting of a burial chamber dug from the rock under the center of the pyramid's base, which communicates with a descending entrance corridor equipped with a barrier. This burial chamber was originally equipped with a pink granite sarcophagus, embedded in the floor next to the west wall. Unfortunately, it soon fell prey to tomb robbers. There were also fragments of ceramics and charred remains of wood and matting found in this chamber.

We really have little idea who was interred in Pyramid G 3a. Reisner thought that it might be Menkaure's principal consort, Khamerernebti II, but based on a statue of that queen found in the so-called Galarza tomb in the central part of the Giza necropolis, others believe that she was buried alongside her mother, Khamerernebti I in that tomb. In fact, it is not impossible that this pyramid was originally simply a cult pyramid that was latter transformed into a tomb.

Besides being smaller, and lacking the shape of a true pyramid, G 3b also differs in other details. These include the placement of the descending corridor, which lacks a barrier. The bones of a young woman were found in the pink granite sarcophagus which stood against the west wall of the burial chamber that was located under the northwest part of the pyramid. Like G 3a, it also had a small mortuary temple, though in this case it was oriented north-south.

G 3c was never completed with its casing. Like G 3b, the burial chamber was constructed under the northwest part of the pyramid, and was likewise not finished. Though no burial was found within this pyramid, there was clear evidence of a cult following in the small mortuary temple that stood in front of the east side of this pyramid. Also like G 3b, this mudbrick structure was oriented north-south.

Unfortunately, the owners of G 3b-c are completely lost to us and may never be known. We are relatively certain that they were consorts of Menkaure, but otherwise there no information on these royal women.

Recent Excavations

Recent excavations by Mark Lehner's team near the valley temple have again begun to uncover this vast city of workers who built and maintained the pyramids for generations afterwards. Since 1988, excavations have been concentrated around the area about 300m south of the Sphinx and the gigantic structure known as the 'Wall of the Crow', near to a recently discovered 'worker's cemetery'. So far they have uncovered bakeries, a copper workshop, and worker's houses which, in the year 2000 were found to belong to a vast royal complex comprising huge galleries or corridors, separated by a paved street. This may have lead to a Royal Palace.

Other recent excavations around the pyramid of Menkaure have been conducted by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization in search of evidence of the king's funerary boats and the pyramid's construction ramp. They have discovered an unfinished double-statue of Ramesses II, sculpted from a single block of stone and measuring over three meters in height. This was the first large, New Kingdom statues to be discovered at Giza, and yet another mystery.

Technical:

Main Pyramid
Original name: Menkaure is Divine
Date of construction: 4th dynasty
Original height: 66.45 meters
Angle of inclination: 51^{o 20'}
Lengths of sides of base 104.6 meters
Length of Causeway 608 Meters

Pyramid G 3a
Original height: 28.4 meters
Angle of inclination: 52^{o 15'}
Length of sides of base: 44 meters

Pyramid G 3b
Length of sides of base: 31.24 meters

Pyramid G 3c
Length of sides of base: 31.24 meters

The Great Pyramid of Khafre at Giza

2008-07-16T00:38:00.000+03:00

Because its apex is in better condition and it is located on an elevation (of about 10 meters), Khafre's sometimes appears to be the largest of the three great Pyramids of the Giza Plateau. However, originally it was some three meters lower than its neighboring pyramid belonging to Khafre's father, Khufu. In fact, the walls of Khafre's pyramid are steeper than the Great Pyramid of Khufu (53o 10' as opposed to Khufu's 51^o 40^'), so it contains considerably less mass. It's name is "Khafre is Great".

Khafre may have, prior to his succession to the Egyptian throne in the 4th Dynasty, been named Khafkhufu, and according to Stadelmann, may have built a large double mastaba (G 7130-40) in the East section at Giza. However, his older brothers, Kauab and Djedefre apparently died early and upon taking the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt, his name was changed to Khafre.

As one of the grandest pyramids in Egypt, his construct has been much studied, with a history of modern research not unlike that of Khufu's monument. In 1818, the strongman of Egyptology, Giovanni Belzoni, succeeded in penetrating into the pyramid's interior after a failed attempt by Giovanni Caviglia only a year earlier. Belzoni discovered the pyramid's "upper entrance" and managed to investigate its subterranean sections. However, the first extensive exploration of the monument was made in 1837 by Perring.

Mariette directed excavations of the pyramid's Valley Temple, which is also related to the Great Sphinx, in 1853. A year later, he was responsible for unearthing one of ancient Egypt's most famous and beautiful statues, that of Khafre on his throne with the protective outstretched winds of the falcon god, Horus, sheltering his head from behind. While Petrie also worked on this pyramid complex while at Giza, the first systematic modern excavations did not occur until the German Ernst von Sieglin expedition of 1909-1910 under the direction of Uvo Holscher. Later in the 1930s, Hassan unearthed the boat pits associated with the pyramid, and in recent times, Lehner and Hawass have investigated the pyramid complex under the auspices of the American Giza Plateau Mapping Project. Their work has mostly centered around modern geodetic measuring techniques, which has yielded considerable knowledge on both the pyramid, and the archaeology of architecture.

Overall ground plan for the Khafre complex

The Valley Temple

The valley temple of Khafre's Giza complex, which is one of the best preserved Old Kingdom temples in Egypt. As a masterful work of ancient Egyptian monumental architecture, it was cleared of sand and in 1869 this temple, along with other monuments at Giza, became the backdrop for the ceremonial opening of the Suez Canal.

The temple was fronted on the east by a large terrace paved with limestone slabs, through which two causeways led from the Nile canal. Just about in the middle of the terrace, fragments of what may have been a small, simple, wood and matting structure was unearthed that may have been the location of a statue depicting Khafre. However, others believe that this was a tent used for purification purposes, though known examples of such a structure are only found in a few private tombs.

In 1995, Zahi Hawass re-cleared the area in front of the Valley temple and in doing so, discovered that the causeways passed over tunnels that were framed with mudbrick walls and paved with limestone. These tunnels have a slightly convex profile resembling that of a boat. They formed a narrow corridor or canal running north-south. In front of the Sphnix Temple, the canal runs into a drain leading northeast, probably to a quay buried below the modern tourist plaza.

The causeways connected the Nile canal with two separate entrances on the Valley temple facade that were sealed by huge, single-leaf doors probably made of cedar wood and hung on copper hinges. Each of these doorways were protected by a recumbent Sphinx. The northern most of these portals was dedicated to the goddess Bastet, while the southern portal was dedicated to Hathor.

The temple was laid out in almost a square ground plan. It is situated just next to the Great Sphinx and its associated temple. Not surprisingly, since the valley temple was a gateway or portal to the whole complex, it is very similar to the fore part of Khafre's mortuary temple. Its core wall was built of huge blocks that sometimes weighed as much as one hundred and fifty tons. This inner core was then covered by pink granite slabs, a material used extensively throughout the complex that was quarried near Aswan far to the south. This wall was slightly inclined and rounded at the top, making the whole structure appear somewhat like a mastaba tomb.

Between the two entrances to the valley temple was a vestibule with walls of simple pink granite that were originally polished to a luster. Its floors were paved with white alabaster. A door then led to a T-shaped hall that made up a majority of the temple. This area too was sheathed with polished pink granite and paved with white alabaster, though it was also adorned with sixteen single block pink granite pillars, many of which are still in place today, that supported architrave blocks of the same material, bound together with copper bands in the form of a swallow's tail. These in turn supported the roof.

Here, in the dim light provided by slits at the tops of the walls, stood as many as twenty four statues of the king (though one statue base in the middle that is larger than the others may have been counted twice) made from diorite, slate and alabaster. This line of statues continues along the cross of the T shaped hall ending at a doorway that leads to a corridor from which a stairway ramp winds clockwise up and over the top of the corridor before terminating on the roof of the valley temple.

On the south side of the roof was a small courtyard, situated directly over six storage chambers also built of pink granite and arranged in two stories of three units each. These were embedded in the core masonry of the T shaped hall. Symbolic conduits lined in alabaster, a material specifically identified with purification, run from the temple's roof courtyard down into the deep, dark chambers below. These symbolic circuits run through the entire temple, taking in both the chthonic and the solar aspects of the afterlife beliefs and of the embalming ritual for which the valley temple was the stage, according to some Egyptologists.

Hence, the Polish scholar Bernhardt Grdseloff proposed that purification rituals were carried out on the roof terrace in a tent especially constructed for that purpose. Afterwards, he theorized that the body was embalmed in the temple antechamber. A French Egyptologist, Etienne Drioton proposed a similar view, only switching the locations to the antechamber for the purification and the embalming on the roof terrace. However, Ricke correctly pointed out that these types of rituals required considerable water that was only available near the canal, so at best the priests of the valley temple could have only performed the rituals symbolically.

At the other end of the cross in the T shaped hall (north), an opening gave way to a passage, also paved with alabaster, that led to the northwest corner of the temple and there joined the causeway.

The Causeway

A corridor cut from the rock separated the ruined causeway from the Great Sphinx temple and the valley temple. The causeway stretches some forty-six meters connecting these structures with the the mortuary temple just before the main pyramid. It did not run exactly along the east-west axis of the pyramid and mortuary temple, but instead somewhat to the southeast of it due to the fact that the valley temple was erected slightly out of line with the Great Sphinx and the mortuary temple. Archaeologists believe that causeway was probably a covered corridor built of limestone and lined on its exterior by pink granite blocks. Within it may have been decorated with reliefs.

The Mortuary Temple

The causeway enters the mortuary temple near the south end of its front facade.

The mortuary temple, unlike later pyramid complexes, did not border directly against the pyramid but was rather separated from its east wall by the pyramid courtyard. Rectangular in its ground plan, it is oriented east-west and has walls built of local limestone that are cased in finer limestone, a technique introduced in this structure. Inside, the building was almost completely lined with granite. The mortuary temple has, in its elemental design, the basics for the mature mortuary temples ultimately perfected by Sahure at Abusir, including an entrance hall, an open courtyard, five statue chapels, various storehouses and an offering hall. This structure marks a real architectural advance, being both larger then previous examples and for the first time, including all five elements that were to become standard.

The entrance to the mortuary temple in the east led through to a small antechamber adorned with a pair of monolithic pink granite pillars. About the entrance area were a few small chambers (two granite chambers immediately to the left of the entrance, and at the other end of a short corridor running along the front of the temple, four more chambers lined with alabaster) that are thought to have been storage annexes or serdabs. Ricke, in his investigation of the mortuary temple, found this area strikingly similar to the valley temple, and considered it a kind of repetition. He designated this area as the "ante-temple" (Vortempel) and the remaining area of the mortuary temple as the "worship temple" (Verehrungstempel).

This antechamber in turn led into the entrance hall itself where there were twelve more similar pairs of pillars to those in the antechamber. This entrance hall had an original ground plan of an inverted T. Hence, the first part of the entrance hall was transverse, with recessed bays. It led in turn to a rectangular section. Off of the transverse part of the hall, two long, narrow chambers branched off from either end, and it has been suggested that huge statues of the king once graced these dim passages.

After the entrance hall there is a large, open courtyard situated in approximately the middle of the temple. Paved in slabs of alabaster and oriented north-south, along its sides runs a covered ambulatory with a flat limestone roof made of slaps supported by broad pillars of pink granite. The lower part of this ambulatory was formed by a dado in red granite and limestone. It was covered by brilliantly colored reliefs of which only fragments remain. Ricke thought that the ambulatory was fronted by 3.75 meter high statues of Khafre sitting on his throne overlooking the courtyard, but Lehner thinks these were standing statues of the ruler. Lehner bases his belief on the discovery of a small statuette in the workshops west of the pyramid. This artifact shows the ruler, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, standing in front of a kind of pillar. The remains of a small canal suggest that it was drainage for an altar that stood in the middle of the courtyard.

A door in the west side of the ambulatory communicated with five, long chapels (actually niches) that also originally housed statues of the king. Another narrow corridor opens from the southwest corner of the courtyard and led to an offering hall located in the west part of the temple. The hall was a narrow, long room oriented north-south (in contrast to later mortuary temples) with a false door positioned on the west wall, precisely on the pyramid's long axis. Between the five cult chapels and the offering hall, a group of five storage rooms were provided for cult vessels and offerings used during various ceremonies.

A stairway in the northeast corner of the temple led up to the roof terrace, while in the northwest corner of the courtyard, another corridor led to the paved pyramid enclosure.

Though all of them had been plundered apparently in antiquity, there were five boat bits discovered outside of the mortuary temple. Two of these stood on the north of the temple, while three were to its south. Another pit may have been planned. All of these were carved into the rock in the shape of a boat. Two of the pits still retained their roofing slabs, though all of the pits had been looted, probably during antiquity.

The Pyramid Proper

Kafre's pyramid is surrounded by an inner, huge stone perimeter wall, within which is an open courtyard barely ten meters wide that bounds the four sides of he pyramid proper. This courtyard is paved with limestone slabs of irregular form.

Because of the two different entrances to this structure, some Egyptologists believe that the main Pyramid of Khafre was originally meant to be larger and to stand slightly farther north then its completed position. However, modern scholars with considerable expertise on this pyramid, such as Lehner, doubt this assumption. Like the pyramid of Khufu and others in Egypt, Khafre's structure takes advantage of a rock outcropping to both increase the stability of its core, as well as to conserve the amount of necessary building materials needed for its construction. In fact, the lowest levels of its southwest corner are actually hacked out of the rock subsoil. The bedrock surface to the northwest had to be cut down some 10 meters by its ancient builders, while the southeast corner had to be built up using mammoth blocks of masonry. However, by far the substance of the pyramid core is made up of locally quarried limestone blocks of approximately equal height. Nearby to the north of they pyramid, one may still clearly see the traces of how these blocks were quarried. The blocks were not laid with the care that was given to the core of Khufu's pyramid, for the layers do not always run exactly horizontally, and the joints are at times very wide. Often, there is no mortar between the blocks. In fact, because the four corner angles were not quite aligned correctly to meet the pyramid apex, there is a very slight twist at the top.

The base levels of the casing were made of pink granite, while the higher layers, which become much smaller towards the top (about one cubit thick) are of fine Turah limestone. The outside faces of the casing blocks are often staggered by a few millimeters rather than flush, which may mean that they were faced prior to their placement. While the pyramidion and the apex have been lost, at the top of the pyramid, a small portion of the original casing remains in place, which helps us see how the finishing blocks were laid and bound to the pyramid core. However, because it is clear that the remaining casing is eroding, recent investigations by Italian experts have shown that the remaining corner edges of the mantle are not completely straight. Individual blocks are slightly turned in various directions. An analysis of this peculiarity suggests that this was the result of seismic activity. Small earthquakes were not uncommon in ancient Egypt, as they are likewise known to occur in modern times.

The oldest of the two entrances into the subterranean depths of Khafre's pyramid is now located in the ground about thirty meters north of the pyramid. Carved completely out of the rock subsoil, it is sometimes called the "lower entrance". This portal communicates with a corridor that at first descends before running horizontally. In this horizontal leg of the corridor, a passage gives way on the west wall to a small chamber cut from the bedrock and provided with a pented roof, where part of the burial equipment was possibly stored. After the horizontal section of the entrance corridor, it finally ascends into a horizontal corridor shared by the "upper entrance".

The second portal, known as the "upper entrance", is located in the north wall of the pyramid's face about twelve meters above ground level. It communicates with a corridor lined in pink granite that first descends before running horizontally at the base of the pyramid. At the transitional point between its descending and horizontal sections, there is a barrier made of pink granite, which in antiquity, grave robbers managed to dig around. The horizontal passage continues south after the barrier, eventually arriving at the burial chamber, which lies on the vertical axis of the pyramid. Given the location and relatively simple construction of the access corridor and the burial chamber, it is likely that the architects of this pyramid sought to avoid the complications that builders of Khufu's pyramid had encountered with their technically difficult system of passageways, barriers and chambers.

As with earlier pyramids, the burial chamber has a rectangular, east-west oriented ground plan which places it at a right angle to the passage system. With the exception of its ceiling, it was excavated completely out of the rock. Located over the pyramid's base, the burial chamber's gabled ceiling is built from enormous pented, limestone blocks. Originally, the intention may have been to cover the burial chamber's walls of this chamber in pink granite. There are shaft entrances in both the north and south walls of the burial chamber that, at first, appear similar to those in the Queen's and King's cambers of the great Pyramid, but are rather short, horizontal openings that could have been used to reinforce a wooden structure inside the tomb.

Near the west wall of the burial chamber, almost directly under the vertical axis of the pyramid and situated within a niche stands the black granite sarcophagus of the king that originally was surmounted by a sliding lid. The lid was found in two pieces close by. Near the sarcophagus, a small shaft in the floor probably held royal canopic vessel, which would have been the first instance of this funerary equipment placed in a pyramid.. No positively identifiable remains of the king's mummy or his other funerary equipment were found within the pyramid.

The Cult Pyramid

A small, almost completely destroyed cult pyramid (G 2a) sits on the axis of the south side of the main pyramid of Khafre. Cult, or Satellite pyramids as they are sometimes called, are thought to have derived from the south tomb of Djoser's complex at Saqqara, and may have been for the burial of statues dedicated to the ka, or spiritual double, of the king. Originally, it was surrounded by its own enclosure wall. It has a simple substructure that consists of a descending corridor that gives way to an underground chamber with a T-shaped ground plan. Because this chamber contained bits of wood, carnelian beads, fragments of animal bones and vessel lids, Maragioglio and Rinaldi concluded that it must have served as a tomb for one of Khafre's consorts. However, Stadelmann opposed this view, believing that it was a cult pyramid. His opinion is supported by the cult pyramid attached to Khufu's complex on its southeast corner.

More to the point, Lehner believes that the wood made up a frame of cedar in the form of a sah netjer, or divine booth, which was used to transport a statue to be buried in the subsection of this small pyramid.

Other Structures

In the early 1880s, Petrie also discovered west of Khafre's pyramid beyond the so called outer perimeter wall, the ruins of a structure that contained long, mostly east-west oriented rooms. He assumed, as did some later investigators such as Holscher, that this was a worker's village that lodged as many as four to five thousand men in 111 large rooms. However, later work by Lehner and Hawass seem to suggest that that this facility, rather than a settlement, was instead a storehouse as well as the workshops for the pyramid complex. Interestingly, the great number of mollusk shells that were found here also suggest that the surrounding area was, rather than arid desert as it is today, a kind of savanna with the corresponding flora and fauna.

Violation of the Pyramid

Perhaps as early as the First Intermediate Period, as in the case with other pyramids, thieves had probably already broken into Khafre's tomb. Inscriptions by the "overseer of temple construction" indicate that already by the 19th Dynasty, considerable damage had already occurred. In fact, written sources indicate that, on the orders of Ramesses II, casing from Khafre's pyramid was used for the construction of a temple in Heliopolis. Other sources suggest that a large part of the pyramid casing was removed between 1356 and 1362 for use in the Mosque of al-Hassan.

At any rate, the Arab historian Ibn Abd as-Salaam records that the pyramid was opened up in the 774 after the hegira (1372 C.E.), during the reign of the Great Emir Jalburgh el-Khassaki. It is possible that the tunnels going around the granite barriers in the entry passage could have been dug at that time.

The Great Sphinx

Outside perimeter walls may have extended around the entire Khafre pyramid complex, including within it the great Sphinx. Close study by geologist Thmas Aigner of the geological layers of the Sphinx show that it was closely related to the quarrying and building of the Khafre complex.

Hence, there is some indication that it was a part of Khafre's pyramid complex. However, the latter is by no means certain, so here we have avoided the issue for the time being, electing rather to discuss the Great Sphinx separately.

Technical:

Main Pyramid
Original name: Khafre is Great
Date of construction: 4th dynasty
Original height: 1473.5 meters
Angle of inclination: 53^o10'
Lengths of sides of base: 215.25 meters
Length of Causeway: 494.6 Meters

Cult Pyramid
Angle of inclination: 53^o54'
Length of sides of base: 20.9 meters

The Three Queen's Pyramids beside The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt

2008-07-16T00:33:00.001+03:00

Within the overall complex of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza near Cairo in Egypt, a total of five pyramids exist. One, of course, is the primary pyramid of Khufu, and the second is its cult pyramid. The other three, frequently called the Queen's Pyramids, are situated on the main pyramid's eastern side, to the south of his mortuary temple and outside of the main enclosure wall. They have been designated G 1a-c by archaeologists. Interestingly, according to Dr. Zahi Hawass, these pyramids are not so much a part of the inner complex of Khufu's pyramid, but are rather part of the eastern necropolis, which contains the mastabas of Khufu's closest relatives.

As is usual at Giza, there is no archaeological or textual evidence of cultic activity at any of these three pyramids during the Middle Kingdom. It is not until the 18th Dynasty that any interest was taken in them.

In dimensions, design and construction methods, these pyramids are very similar to one another, except that the lowest of them, G 1c, had to have a special foundation surface due to the sloping ground. They seem to have a slope of about 52 degrees, and rise to a height of about one-fifth that of Khufu's pyramid. In contrast to the leveled foundation of the main pyramid, these smaller pyramids accommodate the slope of the ground, so that their bases are neither level nor perfect squares. They appear to be more conventional than the main pyramid, having only substructures, but they also contain other elements, including mortuary temples and boat pits.

G 1a is the northernmost of the small pyramids, lying about 61 meters from the base of Khufu's pyramid. It was, for many years, attributed to Queen Meretites, who was probably one of Khufu's older wives. She may have made the transition from Snefru's harem to Khufu's and is thought to be the mother of Prince Kauab. She was given the title of King's Mother, so she must have been the mother of one of Khufu's successors though we are not completely sure of which one. Some scholars think it may have been Djedefre. The small pyramid was thought to be hers because of the proximity of G 1a to that of her son's.

However, because of recent work attributed to Mark Lehner, G 1a is considered by some to instead be the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, Snefru's wife and probably the mother of Khufu. According to this view, Meretites was buried in Pyramid G 1b. He interprets one particular group of cuttings in the bedrock as evidence that G 1a was begun farther to the east, and notes that the shaft in which her burial equipment, but not her body was found, is aligned with the original position of mastaba on the north. He thinks that later, after G 1a, in its modified position, was completed, her body was moved to its burial chamber with a new set of burial equipment.

The base of G 1a measures 49.5 meters, and it would originally have stood 30.25 meters high. Today, it is stripped of much of its original casing, and has lost almost two thirds of its height. The core of G 1a, which was built using yellowish gray limestone, was originally made of three or perhaps even four steps. Like all of the three pyramids, only fragments of its casing remain. The entrance to this secondary pyramid is in the north wall, located slightly above the base and somewhat east of its north-south axis. Just about under the midpoint of the pyramid, the descending corridor turns to the right and comes out in a small burial chamber that was cut into the rock and surfaced with limestone blocks. However, no sarcophagus was found here, although a recess was carved into the west wall of this chamber to apparently receive one. Fragments of basalt that Vyse found in the burial chamber, and which he thought were fragments of a sarcophagus, are now believed to be the remains of pavement from the upper temple of Khufu.

Very few remains of the small mortuary temple that originally stood before the east wall of his pyramid exist, and its archaeological reconstruction is very difficult. Its center consists of a north-south oriented chapel. In its west wall were two false doors and two niches. This aspect of the chapel is the subject of some debate. Reisner suggested that the main cult site was in the south niche, which was usually larger, and behind which the sarcophagus lay in the underground chamber. The north niche would then have to be related to the 'second' entrance, which is considered the end of the shaft that led into the underground chamber. Others believe that the north niche was for the cult of the ruler.

South of G 1a, as well as to the south of G 1b, pits were built for boat burials, though no traces of boats have been found. At some time, both of these pits were divided by walls into compartments. It has been suggested that they were used in later periods for burials, or possibly as storage magazines during the 26th Dynasty.

In its plan, including the small mortuary temple and the boat pit, G 1b resembles G 1a. It is located about ten meters south of G 1a, and lies on the same north-south axis. Its base is about 49 meters square, and its original height would have been about 30 meters. It is also in poor condition, having lost most of its casing and almost half its height. As in the case for G 1a, all of the subterranean passages were cut from bedrock, and the burial chamber is lined with limestone. While the mortuary temple of G 1a is completely one, save for a few markings on the bedrock, the foundation of G 1b's temple remains. A boat pit similar to the one alongside G 1a was found on the south side of this pyramid by Kamal El Mallakh in 1953, but it was filled with stone and rubble by the excavator due to a proposed road.

Though Meretites may have been buried in this middle, small pyramid, there is no positive proof, and originally Reisner proposed that it was occupied by an unknown queen of Libyan origin. According to him, she would have been the mother of a secondary group of Khufu's children, who would have included Djedefre. However, Reisner's idea of a Libyan origin for this queen has, for the most part, today been disproved. Nevertheless, G 1b could have still been designed for the burial of the unknown queen who bore Djedefre. It should be noted, however, that Stadelmann agrees with Mark Lehner for this being the tomb of Meritites.

The southernmost of the three pyramids is G 1c, which is thought to have been the tomb of Queen Henutsen. According to Reisner, its casing remained unfinished. It is similar to the other two small pyramids, but there are differences. For example, there is no boat pit, perhaps because the rock subsoil on its southern side slopes considerably to the south. It should be noted that Dr. Hawass reports that he did find an area that seems to have been prepared for a pit that was never cut.

Interestingly, it appears that pyramid G 1c was not a part of the original plan of Khufu's complex. Its southern side does not follow the model of the Great Pyramid, as one would expect in a unified concept, but that of the south side of the neighboring double mastaba (G 7130-7140). Stadelmann believes that this double mastaba belonged to Prince Khafkhufu I, who we know better by his name after becoming King Khafre. He may have also been the builder of G 1c. If so, he must have had it built before he ascended the throne, since his mother, Henutsen, on of Khufu's wives, had risen to the level of Queen Mother.

According to Mark Lehner, G 1c, lying about 3.8 meters south of G 1b and slightly offset to the east, is the most complete. It has three inner tiers or steps of mastaba like chunks. Backing stones, equal in size and hue to the nucleus, that obscure the tiers. Near the bottom is a packing layer, between the core and casing, of small blocks of soft yellow limestone, seen on all three pyramids. Finally, there are the remains of fine limestone casing with exquisite joints. G 1c is also the largest of the three Queen's Pyramids of Khufu, with a base length of 46.25 meters. It would have originally stood 29.62 meters high.

The entrance to this pyramid, similar to the the others, is located on the north face, approximately in the center and just above ground level. Several casing blocks remain around the entrance. Just west of the entrance are blocks of limestone at a right angle to the face of the pyramid, which Margioglio and Rinaldi think represent a later addition.

The burial chamber of G 1c is, like the other Queen's Pyramids, lined with limestone. There is a four centimeter deep niche in the south wall of the burial chamber which Maragioglio and Rinaldi think served an unknown ritual purpose.

The mortuary temple of G 1c also differs considerably from those attached to pyramids G 1a and G1b. This small temple has actually received considerable attention. It was partially examined in 1858 by Mariette, when he explored the grounds of the surrounding mastabas in the so-called east field. Petrie also worked here in the early 1880s, and Reisner investigated the ruins during the 1920s. Reisner thinks it was hastily built from mudbricks during the reign of Shepseskaf. However, this structure seems to have evolved. The original structure probably lay in ruins at the end of the Middle Kingdom, but was reconstructed and enlarged during the 18th Dynasty. Additional reconstruction probably occurred during the 21st and 26th Dynasties, when the temple served as a religious site for the cult of Isis as goddess of the Pyramids. At that time, the cult area extended from the east face of G 1c to the west face of mastaba 7130-71400. It received pilgrims who came here to worship the goddess and partake of her magical powers of fertility. Because of its reconstruction, the mortuary temple of G 1c is the only one of the temples connected to these small pyramids which still retains some elements of its walls.

The original entrance to the temple was in the east wall, the outer face of which was decorated with a design of matting carved in shallow relief. On the west wall of the chapel, only one block of limestone from the south end remains. This block has a niched design carved on it. Later additions and modifications have destroyed the original interior plan of the chapel.

Like many other aspects of the Great Pyramid Complex of Khufu, much remains a matter of speculation, including who exactly was buried in each of the tombs. These are issues that more investigation may, or unfortunately may never reveal.

Internal and Substructure of The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt

2008-07-16T00:25:00.002+03:00

One of the most controversial aspects of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt is its internal structure and substructure. Here, we find for the first time a series of upper passageways and chambers that exist within the body of the pyramid, along with elements that are unique in the development of Egypt's pyramids, and at the same time, remarkable architectural achievements. However, it should be pointed out that the walls of the internal structure have almost no decorations, save for various graffiti.

Most of Egypt's royal pyramids varied to some degree in respect to their chambers. Some of this was due to evolutionary structural development, religious innovations, security innovations and early experimentation. In the case of Khufu's pyramid, particularly the internal structure has caused both scholars and layman to speculate about the pyramid's function and purpose, for there are indeed elements of the internal structure that are unique to this one pyramid.

Pyramid Entrance and Descending Corridor

Today, the pyramid is entered through an opening that tradition tells us was cut through the masonry in the ninth century by Caliph al-Ma'mun. Arab historians report that he managed to get in, and at the end of the tunnel found a large key together with some gold coins. The sum was exactly enough to pay for the cost of the operation. Most think that he found nothing, but may have placed enough gold in the tunnel to pay his workmen.

The original descending entrance corridor, surmounted by a double vault and offset by 7.29 meters (24 feet) east from the center axis about 16.76 meters (55 feet) high on the level of the thirteenth pier, first passes through the core masonry and then through the rock underlying it. The descending corridor is about 345 feet in length and slopes downward at an angle of 36^o 31' 23'. The corridor, which is about 1.2 meters high, at a distance of about 18 meters splits into two parts. One corridor descends while the other ascends. The ascending passage, the first seen in a major pyramid, is accessed through a hole in the ceiling of the descending passage.

The Subterranean Chamber

However, continuing down the descending corridor however, a little over thirty meters under the base of the pyramid it turns into a horizontal passage that runs for 29 feet, before passing an unfinished niche an then into chamber, the purpose of which is unclear. It was never finished, and there is no protective blocking at its entrance. We believe that it never held a stone sarcophagus, which could not have passed through the narrow entrance. However, this is the classic pyramid substructure, consisting of a corridor descending to a chamber at or below ground level. Here though, for the first time, the chamber was carved out of the solid bedrock.

From the south wall of the subterranean chamber, an unfinished, dead-end corridor leads south for a distance of 16.15 meters (53 feet). Along the east wall, halfway between the north and south walls, is a square cut shaft that has a depth of 15 ft. The bottom of this shaft is filled with rubble and debris and one account mentions that when cleared the shaft has a depth of almost 60 feet.

The passageway from the subterranean chamber is actually one of the real puzzles associated with this chamber. If it was meant to lead to another room, then the Subterranean Chamber could not have been planned for the king's burial, because the burial chamber was always the last of a series.

Some scholars believe that this chamber was originally intended as a backup in the event that the pharaoh died before the true burial chamber in the upper part of the pyramid was completed. However, Stadelmann believed that the underground chamber represented the symbolic cavern of the death god, Sokar, whose major and possibly even original place of worship was near modern Giza. He thought that the ancient Egyptians believed that the dead pharaoh was supposed to merge symbolically with Sokar.

The Grand Gallery

From the descending entrance corridor, the ascending passage mentioned above, originally sealed with three, seven ton blocks of pink granite which are still in place, branches off. It runs for a length of 129 feet, rising at a gradient of 26°2’30”. Ma'mun's tunnel originally skirted this passageway. Currently, one enters the ascending passageway through a hole that was hewn around these slabs from Ma'mun's tunnel. The ascending passageway leads to the Grand Gallery. One unique and ingenious feature of this passage is that it is supported by a series of four single stones which were hollowed out. Through these the corridor was laid. They have become known as the “girdle stones”. There are also 3 “half girdles” which are actually two stones combined for the same purpose.

There is a seamless transition from this passage to the Great or Grand Gallery, an architectonic masterpiece.

Its ceiling consists of a corbel vault built of seven layers of enormous limestone blocks, each of which projects about seven and a half centimeters. The chamber is 47 meters long and 8.48 meters high.

Low ramps run along both sides of the gallery. On their surfaces, twenty-seven large and small square openings alternate at regular intervals, corresponding to the right-angled niches in the side walls. Their significance has been a matter of debate for some time, yet none of the explanations seem completely satisfactory. Perhaps the most widely accepted is Borchardt's. He believed that a structure of wooden beams and planks was anchored in these openings. Could it have been used to transport building materials or perhaps support blocks while building the corbel vault? So far scholars have been unable to find a reliable answer to such questions, though Mark Lehner seems to believe that these were actually holes for large beams which held blocks that roofed the horizontal passage into the Queen's Chamber, and provided a continuous floor for the Grand Gallery to the Ascending passage.

The Escape Shaft

At the lower end of the Great Gallery is a small opening in the west wall just above the door. This is where a narrow passage known as the service or escape shaft (which has also been termed a well shaft or grotto) opens. It is about 28 inches square throughout its course, and it leads to a corridor deep under the pyramid, near the entrance to the underground chambers. In places along the shaft, there appear to be rough footholes. Petrie thought that this was indeed an escape route for the men who were to lower the granite blocks into the ascending corridor when the burial ritual was over. However, his view has been challenged because it would have not been difficult to fill in the shaft from above once the burial was complete. Other scholars believe that the shaft simply provided fresh air for the workers who were digging the underground chamber out of the rock, but this view has also been challenged. It assumes that the underground chambers and the shaft were built after the Great Gallery, while the current assumption is that they were the first stage in the construction of the Great Pyramid's substructure.

The Middle, or Queen's Chamber

The entrance to the so-called Queen's Chamber, misnamed by Arab explorers and certainly not intended for a queen, is through a horizontal passageway that also begins at the lower end of the Great Gallery between the ramps and leads in a southerly direction for 45.72 meters (150 feet). Here, not long ago a French team carried out geophysical investigations. About five meters from the end of the passage, there is a step, and the passage then slopes downward about sixty centimeters to the floor level of the Queen's Chamber. This is at least a minor mystery. Some scholars think that the pink granite flooring began there and reached into the Queen's Chamber, before it was taken away by thieves. Others believe that the construction plan was altered to make an even more sumptuous burial chamber.

The Queen's Chamber, which is entirely made of limestone blocks and almost completely finished, is located at the 25th course of masonry and is situated very precisely on the pyramid's east-west axis. It is 18 feet, 10 inches by 17 feet, 2 inches by 15 feet high. Like elsewhere in this pyramid, the walls are bare and uninscribed. It includes a gabled ceiling and there is a niche built about four and a half meters up in its east wall with a ceiling built as a corbel vault. Though its purpose is not entirely clear, it is very possible that a statue of the king or his ka (soul) might have stood in it.

Note that in Mark Lehner's opinion, the Queen's Chamber would have been roofed over and therefore totally closed off, a characteristic of a serdab. A serdab was a room for the king's ka (the king's spiritual double) statue, which are found in a number of other pyramid structures.

The Queen's Chamber Shafts

Certainly unclear in significance, but today one of the primary focuses of continuing investigation in the Pyramid's internal structure, are the two narrow shafts, averaging about twenty by twenty centimeters, that begin in the north and south walls of the chamber and climb steeply upwards. These shafts are not entirely straight, as some might believe. For example the north shaft in the Queen's Chamber bends after about seventeen meters. Some experts think that these are ventilation shafts, while others would see an astronomical function. The north shaft is aligned with the the circumpolar stars Minoris, Ursa and Beta, while the south shaft is aligned with Sirius. Still other people think they may have served some unknown religious purpose. The openings of the shafts in the Queen's chamber were originally bricked up and even camouflaged. They were only discovered in 1872 by Dixon, who opened them. Similar shafts can also be found in the King's Chamber.

In the first part of 1993, as part of a project sponsored by the German Archaeological Institute, the engineer Rudolf Gantenbrick used a robot called UPUAUT 2 (Wepwawet), which he had equipped with a camera, to video the inner walls of the queens chamber shafts. The video shows that the southern shaft ended with a small limestone slab in which two heavily corroded pieces of copper had been inserted. Later investigations showed this door to be about six centimeters thick. Considerable speculation followed, with some believing even that behind the entrance there might be a chamber with a statue of the king. However, given the size of the shaft, this was unlikely, and moreover, the end of it is only about six meters from the outer surface of the pyramid. Nevertheless, one very interesting aspect of this shaft is, near the door, it is lined with what appears to be fine white Tura limestone. Prior to this, the walls of the shaft are fairly uneven.

UPUAUT 2 also attempted to explore the northern shaft, but was unable to venture beyond its bend. On September 17, 2002, a National Geographic robot Pyramid Rover), specially designed to traverse the southern shaft to the blocking stone, inserted a miniature fiber-optic camera into a three-quarter-of-an-inch hole to reveal the rough-hewn blocking stone lying 21 centimeters beyond the original southern shaft door. It is not similar to the first in that it looks as if it is screening or covering something. There were also cracks all over the surface.

A few day's later, the robot built by iRobot of Boston was also sent up the length of the north shaft, which had more bends and twists than the southern shaft, discovering at its end a door very similar to that of the southern shaft. The doors are equidistant at about 65 meters (208 feet) from the queen's chamber.

The shaft became even more interesting when three objects were rediscovered not long ago in the British Museum's depository. They were items Dixon had originally taken from the north shaft in the Queen's Chamber, and included a stone (granite) sphere or ball, a wooden slat and a copper object in the form of a swallow's tail which is now usually referred to as a hook. (Actually, only the ball and hook were rediscovered in the British Museum)

These objects, along with the robots' discoveries prompted Stadelmann, who was head of the German Archaeological Institute at the time of the Robot exploration, to conclude that the shafts were in fact model corridors, through which the king's soul could rise to the "stars that never are extinguished", that is, the circumpolar stars in the northern sky as well as the "land of light" in the southern sky". In other words, he reasoned that the shafts were built for the dead king's journey up to heaven.

Of course, various questions remain. Other pyramids lack these shafts, and moreover, the use of false doors, believed to allow the deceased access to his or her offerings, needed not have physical openings. Also, why do the shafts exist in both the Queen's and King's chambers?

It is not impossible that the Queen's Chamber was intended to serve as a backup burial chamber in the event of the pharaoh's sudden death. Perhaps that is why the shafts in the Queen's Chamber were later ritually sealed. It is worth noting that the "stopper" recorded by the robot revealed in the south shaft of the Queen's Chamber is located at about the level of the vertex of the gabled ceiling of the highest relieve chamber over the King's Chamber.

Nevertheless, this still does not explain the function of the shafts. It would seem that the most popular theory among scholars has been that they did indeed serve some sort of ventilation function, but this view seems to be changing. Certainly the circulation of air is made difficult by the location of this chamber, and the King's Chamber, over the level of the pyramid's entrance, which could have made breathing difficult for workmen and during the burial rites. It should also be noted that the dominate winds were from the North, so the alignment of the shafts, while pointing to certain stars in the northern and southern hemisphere, was not unusual in itself. They could have played both a practical and a religious aspect, but their existence in only this pyramid seems to perhaps be their dominate function, since it is also the only such structure where the burial chamber is located above the entrance. Again, however, Egyptologists seem to be moving away from the ventilation theory in favor of a more symbolic role for these shafts.

Next year, a new robot designed in Singapore will further explore the shafts. Interestingly, in several publications, Dr. Hawass is quoted as saying that:

"It is impossible that these doors are only symbolic or were just built for King Khufu... Behind these doors are secrets that the robot can uncover,"

However, in is recent book, The Treasures of the Pyramids, Hawass explains that:

"During recent examinations of the southern shaft in the middle chamber (Queen's Chamber), a small limestone block obstructing the end of the shaft was discovered that shows two copper fittings on its well-polished surface. These fitting were most probably hieroglyphic signs (as opposed to handles), symbols of magic power which enable the soul of the king to pass through the blockage. In the newest investigations, an opening was drilled through this small limestone block and an endoscopic camera inserted. The first pictures show a narrow empty space behind the first blocking and another less smooth limestone that shows faint quarry marks on its surface, which means that this stone is from the core of the pyramid. This would definitely confirm the theory developed after our first examination in 1992 that these shafts are model corridors sealed with model blocking stones. The first well-polished stone might well be a model portcullis stone (as opposed to a door). The examination of the model corridor leading out from the north side of the chamber presented more or less the same results. The corridor ends in front of a white limestone block. On its smooth surface, the traces of two copper fittings of the same kind as those on the southern blocking or porticullis stone are visible. These are surely not handles, but magic hieroglyphic signs for the soul of the king. On the surface, faint traces of quarry marks are detectable, the sign of the work-gang wadi ('the green ones'). and probably the hieroglyph prjj, 'to come out' (of the tomb). One can be absolutely sure that these corridors served only the ascent of the soul of the dead king to the northern and southern sky and that there were definitely no hidden chambers behind these blocks."

Hence, the saga continues, but one may ask, why a new robot project if other possibilities do not exist.

The Upper or King's Chamber

Within the short passageway between the upper end of the Great Gallery and the Queen's Chamber, there is the last plugging block preventing access to the pharaoh's burial chamber. It consists of three pink granite monoliths that were originally held vertical by means of ropes and a pulley and then lowered to form a barrier Beyond it, in the King's Chamber in the 50th course of masonry, Khufu was probably buried, This chamber, which measures 10.45 meters long, 5.20 meters wide and 5.80 meters high, is truly a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian architecture, made entirely of pink granite. It had to be built to resist an enormous amount of pressure. Its flat ceiling is composed of nine huge blocks with a combined weight of over four hundred tons. Above it are no less than five, carefully designed relief chambers which, in modern times, were discovered by the crude act of using dynamite to create an intrusive passageway. So well designed is this structure that, over the past four and a half millennia, there has only been one small crack develop in the ceiling slabs near the south wall.

Here too are shafts, very similar to those in the Queen's chamber, which lead out to the two sides of the pyramid at heights of 71 and 53 meters. The northern channel is only 5" high x 7" wide and ascends at an angle of approximately 31°and is 235' in length. The southern channel measures about 8" high x 12" wide, rises at an angle of 45° and is 175' in length. Presently there is a ventilation fan fitted into the southern shaft and this regulates the moisture in the chamber, minimizing the damage caused by the moisture produced by the breath and sweat of visitors.

The relief chambers are low, each only a few feet high, and their flat upper covering consists of huge, roughly cut blocks of pink granite. Only the highest of the chambers have saddle ceilings. Their side walls are made of limestone and granite. Here, on the walls of these chambers, many builders marks were preserved, along with the graffiti of modern visitors. Petrie claims to have found a cattle census of the seventeenth year, which would have, if proven, be the latest dating of Khufu's reign. It should be noted that the markings in the relief chambers, which were never meant to be entered, provide us with the most compelling evidence of the ownership of the pyramid.

The present entrance to the chambers is located in the south wall of the Great Gallery, under the ceiling, at the upper end. The lowest of the relieve chambers was visited in the eighteenth century by Nathanial Davison, and English diplomat. Today it bears his name, while the lower chambers were later named after England's Lord nelson, Duke Wellington and Lady Ann Arbuthnot. The largest was named after the Scottish diplomat and amateur archaeologist, Patrick Campbell. This whole structure, from the bottom of the King's Chamber to the top of the Campbell Chamber, is about twenty-one meters high.

In the King's Chamber, situated near the west wall, is what we believe to be Khufu's pink granite sarcophagus, oriented north-south. It is 2.24 meters long and .96 meters wide. The cover of the sarcophagus, which would have weight about two tons, is missing, and neither it nor the king's mummy have ever been found (or at least identified). The sarcophagus is very large, weighing about 3.75 tons, and so it was almost certainly installed during the construction of the chamber, rather than having been moved to this location afterwards. Interestingly, considering the sophistication, splendor and meticulous construction of the pyramid as a whole, the sarcophagus is rather plan and modest. Some scholars believe that it was a substitute sarcophagus, hastily prepared after something happened to the original, perhaps on the way from the quarries at Aswan.

However, legends exist, which were recounted by Diodorus Siculus, that Khufu ultimately was not even buried in his pyramid. Medieval Arab historians mention the existence of a mummy-shaped coffin and the king's body, but do not say where they lay. However, this really means very little, as traditions can certainly become distorted over time and one wonders how the Medieval Arabs might have known it to be Khufu's remains. Nevertheless, this fits in with the claims of a Polish architect named Kozinski, who believes that the crack in the ceiling slabs of the King's Chamber had considerably greater consequences than we might at first believe. He suggests that the crack appeared even before the pyramid was finished, accompanied by an ear-splitting noise that must have been audible all about the construction site. If so, this event could have led to the construction of a new burial chamber.

Questions and more Questions

There are numerous questions that remain about the internal structure, particularly of the superstructure, and debate continues to rage both amongst scholars and laymen alike. Most scholarly thinking can be divided into those who believe that the pyramids internal structure was developed in stages, and those who believe it was all done according to a unified plan.

The first group's view is probably best represented by Borchardt, who believed that it was built in three stages. Many Egyptologists have long accepted his suggestion that the pyramid's three chambers represent three different phases in its construction. Borchardt's view is that the location of the burial chamber in particular gradually changed. During the first phase, the burial chamber was planned for the subterranean chamber, but when the superstructure reached a height of about thirteen meters, the builders decided to create instead an internal chamber (the Queen's Chamber, second phase). Then, apparently the Queen's Chamber was abandoned and in the third stage, the builders constructed the Great Gallery and the King's Chamber, as well as the service or escape shaft. One must keep in mind that, at this point, pyramid building was still a relatively young art, and no building of this size had apparently ever been attempted, so it would not be out of the question to have construction changes.

However, Mark Lehner points out, for example, that three chambers seem to have been the rule for Old Kingdom pyramids. Specifically, Maragioglio and Rinaldi offered some very persuasive arguments against Borchardt's theory. They believe that the final internal structure was always planned as we find it today. They think that the underground chamber was a backup burial site to be used in case the king met an unexpected death. They also see the slight narrowing of the lower end of the ascending corridor as evidence that the Great Gallery was already included in the construction plans during this phase, in which the blocks needed to seal the corridor must have been put in place. Furthermore, they believe that the Queen's Chamber was never intended as a burial chamber, and that the niche in the east wall indicates that it had some special, though at this point, unknown function.

Stadelmann is basically in agreement with them, seeing also a unified plan, but according to his theory, the significance of the Queen's Chamber corresponds to that of the second antechamber in the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, which was built by Khufu's father. Gantenbrink's measurements and calculations led him to the same conclusion.

Most of the debate around the Great Pyramid of Khufu centers around these internal structures. Certainly, mostly laymen debate and will continue to debate the purpose of the pyramid, as well as who built it, but for Egyptologists, there remains enough serious questions about the internal structure probably to keep them busy for many more years to come.

The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt

2008-07-16T00:19:00.001+03:00

For many years, the Sound and Light Show at Giza opened with, "You have come tonight to the most fabulous and celebrated place in the world. Here on the Plateau of Giza stands forever the mightiest of human achievements. No traveler, emperor, merchant or poet has trodden on these sands and not gasped in awe".

Though there are many outstanding ancient monuments in Egypt that survive to this day, one in particular is best known and the most closely associated by the general public with ancient Egypt. It is, of course, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), the largest in Egypt, located on the Giza Plateau just outside Cairo. Its name was "Khufu's Horizon" In fact, even if people have very little knowledge of Egypt, they will frequently not only know of this monument, but will also have any number of opinions about how and when it was built, as well as its function. Arguably, it is the best known manmade structure in the world, and for good reason.

The name of the Great pyramid, Khufu's Horizon

Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Khufu's Pyramid is the first, and only survivor. It is indeed impressive, originally standing some 146.59 (481 feet) high and covering about thirteen acres of land , though in the last hundred or so years, modern marvels (the Empire State Building, built in 1930, is over three times as tall though situated on only two acres of land) probably make it seem less impressive to visitors than to those who, for thousands of years, came to visit the pyramid prior to our modern era. In reality, modern scholars for the most part probably find this pyramid less interesting than many other ancient structures in Egypt, mostly because it is not decorated with reliefs and inscriptions (though parts of its subsidiary structures were), and is otherwise, except for some parts of its internal structure, a fairly typical pyramid complex. Other pyramids are almost as large, and many pyramids are really more enigmatic. Khufu's pyramid was not the first, nor was it even the first true pyramid. Other pharaohs, such as Sneferu, Khufu's father, had moved probably as much stone, building three different pyramids himself.

Yet, Khufu's pyramid was, in a line of astonishing architectural leaps forward, a significant link in Pyramid building's evolution. In terms of its size, the technical accomplishments of its construction, the great concern for cardinality and the organization required for its construction, this pyramid represents a phenomenal effort. Like later pyramids, it encompasses all of the standard elements of the pyramid complex, though most have since disappeared. The finished pyramid, which included a superstructure and substructure, was surrounded by an enclosure wall of fine Turah limestone, which enclosed a court paved in limestone. There was a valley temple, a causeway from it leading to a mortuary Temple that was itself situated against the pyramid. There was also a cult pyramid, as well as three pyramids for the burial of queens, a number of boat pit and other structures.

Though we really do not know with absolute certainty, the pyramid complex of Khufu probably remained mostly intact for almost 4,000 years. During that period of time, most visitors to it must have been amazed by its enormity, and probably by the ancient Egyptian's reverence toward the structure.

In the end, the deterioration of this pyramid, like its conception, can be attributed at least partially to religion. It was created to bury the king in a complex that would conform to the ancient Egyptian religion. It probably survived in relatively good shape until that religion was replaced by another, and then another. By the time the Arabs invaded Egypt during the seventh century, there was little or no religious reverence afforded the structure, so casing stones and other building material from the complex were reused for new building projects in the area of Cairo. This process was not exclusive to Khufu's pyramid and in fact, the reuse of material from older structures was not even uncommon during the age of the pharaohs. However, even this did not happen to the Great Pyramids until, in the Middle Ages, a series of earthquakes loosened the casing stones and allowed them to be harvested for other projects.

Most people with a limited knowledge of Egypt believe that the Great Pyramids of Giza lie out in the desert, and are therefore rather surprised when, traveling down Pyramid road to the east, they see them rise up, seemingly among the distant buildings. They in fact sit on the city limits of Greater Cairo, and are threatened by man's expansion, though scholars are very aware of this today, and work to prevent damage to the structure.

For awhile, mankind treated the Great Pyramid with more curiosity than reverence. It was tunneled through, climbed, and generally abused, right up to our modern era. In her book, The Mena House Oberoi, Nina Nelson tells us that,

"Climbing Cheop's Great Pyramid continues all and every day. ... It is a labourious task yet everyone who does it enjoys it. The blocks of stone measure from two to five feet high and certainly one3 should have a guide to help pull one along the difficult places."

At one time, various people even attempted to set records for scaling the monument

During World War II, there were even gun emplacements built on its apex. The Egyptological community, and particularly Zahi Hawass can be credited for bringing that to a halt. No longer are people allowed to climb it (unless very special permission is granted), and its investigation today is always non-intrusive. Planes are not allowed to fly above it and in general, it receives the national protection it deserves.

Nevertheless, it has been and continues to be a place of considerable activity. Races were often held at the pyramids, and in recent years, it has served as a backdrop for artistic displays and musical performances. With Zahi Hawass as Chairman of the SCA, it is doubtful that we will see many more performances by artists such as Sting and the Grateful Dead, but it remains the primary venue for Verdi's Aida opera.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Khufu's pyramid complex is the amazing amount of investigation it has received, and the astonishing degree of controversy that it has inspired. The research of the complex continues even today, and new discoveries, sometimes major ones, have been made even in recent years. For example, only very recently, the estimated number of blocks used to build the pyramid itself has been cut almost in half, while as I write this article, a new robot is being prepared to further investigate the pyramid's internal structure.

The history of man's thoughts about this structure is by far more complex, and often more interesting than the pyramid itself. Even in recent years, speculation that the pyramid was constructed by aliens or perhaps Atlantians continues. Countless books have been written about this Pyramid, many scholarly, but others not.

Take, for example, the matter of the metric system. Used by most countries as the official standard of measure, and by the scientific community worldwide, there has been a reluctance on the part of Americans and the British to incorporate the system. Much of this may be a reluctance on the part of their respective populations to change from the system familiar to them. However, the Great Pyramid of Khufu certainly played a part in all of this.

John Taylor was an eccentric British publisher who, in 1859, produced a work entitled The Great Pyramid: Why Was it Built? And Who Built It? Borrowing from the work of Tompkins, he thought that the Pyramid was actually built by Noah of biblical fame. He thought that the Great Pyramid's dimensions were very purposeful, which they probably were, but he saw in them relationships to many physical measurements, such as the number of days in the year and the radius of the earth. Part of his calculations involved a unit of measure he called the Pyramid Inch which he believed the Egyptians used in building the pyramid, which only differed from the British inch very slightly. He is essentially credited with being one of the founders of modern Pyramidology, but his ideas would probably not have caught on were it not for the work of Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, a British Israelite and the Astronomer-Royal of Scotland. Smyth built on Taylor's ideas. Though Taylor had not traveled to Egypt, Smyth did, and set about measuring every minute detail of Khufu's monument.

Smyth attempted to connect the measurements he made of the pyramid to many different natural aspects of the world and our universe, to the point were even many of his contemporaries thought him ludicrous. A Christian man, Smyth nevertheless though that the number relationships he derived from the pyramid were a record of "perfect" standards of measurement that God intended man to use. In reality, many of Smyth's calculations seem artificial and arbitrary to us today. Smyth was hardly a dispassionate, objective scientist when dealing with the pyramid. His writings shows that he certainly had a deep emotional commitment to demonstrating "scientifically" that the Christian religion is true, and that he saw his work with the pyramid as a means by which he could do so.

In his work, he pointed out that the meter was devised by man, whereas he believed the Pyramid Inch, and thus the British Inch, were a measurement provided by god. And while scientists seem to have in general rejected the work of Taylor and Smyth, a number of Christian religious leaders accepted their theories and made them an article of faith, particularly in England and the US, but also even in France.

Many of Smyth's contemporaries and disciples were as hostile to the metric system as was he. With some amusement Martin Gardner recounts the fact that in the United States the pyramidologist Ohio Auxiliary Society, of which President James A. Garfield was a supporter, published a journal entitled The International Standard to defend the "true inch" and other measurements against the metric system. Thus, the Great Pyramid of Khufu became a star in the arsenal of 19th century Christianity, and at least for a time, helped arrest the expansion of the metric system of measurement. But perhaps more importantly, Taylor and Smyth helped create a mystic association with the Pyramid Khufu that spawned imaginative ideas that continue to this day.

When one visits the Pyramid of Khufu, one is actually walking in the footsteps of the famous, both of the modern and ancient world. Alexandria the Great stood before it, just as modern visitors, and swore to build for his father, the Macedonian king Philip II, a funerary monument as large as the Great Pyramid, though death took him before he was able to do so. Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny certainly all made visits to the pyramid. Doubtless, every famous traveler in antiquity must have visited Khufu's complex. Many later individuals came to see this wonder of the ancient world, and they continue to come today. For years, it was popular for them to climb the pyramid, though this is no longer allowed, but atop it one can see the names etched in stone of those who did.

Ground Plan of the Great Pyramid Complex of Khufu

Though most of the early visitors to the Great Pyramid were non-intrusive, by the time of the Arab Invasion of Egypt, the ancient Egyptian religion was gone and so too was apparently the Egyptian's understanding of the monument. Fables arose of fabulous treasures and immense knowledge contained within the structure, long before Taylor and Smyth's work. Finally, Caliph al-Ma'moun (831-832 AD) is believed to have acted upon this information. Though the pyramid, or at least the substructure had been breached by unknown robbers during antiquity, al-Ma'moun was apparently the first known individual to do so. After having at least looked for the original entrance, but unable to find it, al-Ma'moun instructed his men to tunnel into the pyramid from a point at the center of its north face, seven courses up. Apparently, the pyramid still held at least some of its casing stones, for they had to light fires to heat the blocks before cooling them rapidly with vinegar to induce fractures. Once past the outer core, they dug for about 100 feet, finding nothing in the process. However, one of the workmen heard a muffled thud of something heavy falling within the pyramid, not too far away, and they altered course and eventually broke through into what is now known as the "Descending Passage". While al-Ma'moun's men explored a considerable part of the pyramid's interior structure, they apparently found nothing except an empty coffin, though rumors, legends and fables, also grew from their exploration.

Even though al-Ma'moun apparently found no riches or hidden knowledge within the Great Pyramid, it continued to retain its mysterious, hidden meaning for most travelers. All of the European scientific travelers and pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land seem to have visited it. They are too numerous to mention here. However, the first attempt at an Egyptological study, it seems, was conducted by John Greaves, and English scholar from whom Tomkins would later draw some of more fanciful ideas. he climbed to the top, measured the pyramid's blocks and also made his way inside the pyramid. His sectional drawing of the structure is remarkably accurate for its time.

However, only at the turn of the nineteenth century did true archaeological work begin using scientific methods. Nathaniel Davison discovered a lower relieve chamber as well as a tunnel connecting it with the Great Gallery during the 1760s. The scholars with Napoleon's expedition also measured and described the Great Pyramid again, and made exploratory soundings in and around it. Early in the nineteenth century, Giovanni Battista Caviglia cleaned out many spaces inside the pyramid and in 1937, both Vyse and Perring investigated the structure. Their books, Operations Carried Out on the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837 (3 vols.) and The Pyramids of Gizeh (3 vols.), respectively, are still valuable sources.

Between 1843 and 1844, Lepsius focused his attention primarily on the structure of the Great Pyramid, expressing his view that the core consisted of inclined accretion layers. For the birthday of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the archaeologists honored their prince and patron by scaling the pyramid and flying a flat from its top. Petrie, who carefully examined the Pyramid between 1881 and 1882 did not agree with Lepsius' accretion theory. Petrie, who seems to have always been more interested in his Egyptological studies than comfort, set up his headquarters in one of the nearby rock-cut tombs, and slept on a layer of sand, using a kerosene stove for cooking. The account of his investigations, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, remains even today one of the most important studies on the pyramids.

Borchardt also worked on the famous monument. He first concentrated on explaining the method originally used to measure and orient the ground plan, and on reconstructing the stages in which the pyramid was built.

In 1954, The Egyptian archaeologists Kamal Mallakh and Zaki Iskander and their colleagues discovered on the south side of the Great Pyramid, two pits that contained intact burial boats. Later, in the second half of the 1980s, the French architects, Jean-Ptrice Dormion and Gilles Goidin made precise geophysical measurements of its inner core, which was later confirmed by a Japanese team.

Finally, Zahi Hawass, a longtime investigator at Giza and now the Chairman of the SCA (Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities), focused on the grounds of the presumed valley temple, the causeway and the mortuary temple. It was he who, not so long ago, discovered the cult pyramid as well as its pyramidion. Though he has now moved on to head Egypt's antiquity community, work nevertheless continues.

Today, the Pyramid of Khufu, though lacking its original luster, remains perhaps the most visited site in Egypt. It is said that "Man fears Time, yet Time fears the Pyramids" Hence, the Pyramid of Khufu, though not the oldest in Egypt, nevertheless has become a symbol of long lasting durability, and it is probably for this reason more than any other, that one can still find it pictured on the reverse of the US Dollar Bill.

Technical

The Pyramid

Height: 146.5m
Base: 230.38m
Slope: 51^o 50'

Great Gallery

Height: 8.48 to 8.74m
Length 47.85m
Slope: 26^o 16' 40"

Queens Chamber

Height 6.26m
Length 5.76m
Width 5.23m

King's Chamber

Height: 5.84m
Length: 10.49m
Width: 5.42m

Causeway

Length: 825m

Boat Pits (On Northeast and Southeast Corners of Pyramid

Depth: 8m
Length 52m
Width: 7.5m

The Pyramids of Egypt

2008-07-16T00:09:00.002+03:00

There are no more famous ancient sites within Egypt, or for that matter elsewhere in the world, than the Great Pyramids at Giza. They are, without question, the icon most associated with the Egypt. They have been both the main destination for tourists, and a source of imaginative thought to the world for over three thousand years.

However, there are actually over 100 pyramids in Egypt, many of which are relatively unknown to anyone who is not an ancient Egypt enthusiast. All but a very few are grouped around and near the City of Cairo, just south of the Nile Delta. Otherwise, only one royal pyramid is known in southern Egypt (at Abydos), that being the one built by Ahmose, founder of the 18th Dynasty and Egypt's New Kingdom. It may have also been the last royal pyramid built in Egypt.

Hence, major pyramids were not built throughout Egypt's ancient history. The Pyramid Age began with a burst of building, starting with the 3rd Dynasty reign of Djoser. Some of the early kings, most specifically Snefru, built more than one pyramid. Almost all of the kings added to their number through the end of the Middle Kingdom, with the possible exception of the First Intermediate Period between the Old and Middle Kingdoms. After the first Pharaoh of Egypt's New Kingdom, Ahmose, royal pyramid building by Egyptians ceased entirely. Somewhat abruptly the kings of the New Kingdom chose, rather than making their tombs completely obvious, to hide them in the hills of the West Bank of Thebes (modern Luxor).

However, smaller pyramids were constructed, for example in the Deir el-Medina necropolis, by private individuals. The Late Period Nubians who ruled Egypt also built relatively small pyramids with much steeper sides, though these were in fact constructed in Nubia itself. This tradition was carried on in Nubia after these southern rulers lost control of Egypt, and eventually, more pyramids were actually built in Nubia than Egypt, though on a much smaller scale.

Other pyramids in the world certainly exist, but their purpose, for the most part, was different than those of ancient Egypt. The most famous outside Egypt are probably those located in Mexico and to the south of Mexico, but these appear to have been built more as temples. In Egypt, all but a select few of the pyramids were built as tombs, sometimes to hold the physical body of a pharaoh (as well as other individuals), or to hold the soul of the deceased (as in the case of the small cult pyramids built next to the larger ones). Otherwise, the purpose of only a few small, regional stepped pyramids remains elusive.

While pyramids were, for the most part, tombs for the Pharaohs of Egypt, one must nevertheless question the reason that Egyptian rulers chose this particular shape, and for that matter, why they built them so large. Today, we believe that they chose the shape in order to mimic the Benben, a pyramid shaped stone found in the earliest of temples, which itself is thought to symbolize the primeval mound from which the Egyptians believed life emerged. This also connected the pyramid to Re, the Sun God, as it was he, according to some of the ancient Egypt mythology, who rose from the primeval mound to create life.

As far the great size of many of the pyramids in Egypt, we can really only surmise that the Pharaohs were making a statement about their own power and perhaps, about the glory and strength of their country. However, it should also be remembered that many of the latter pyramids were not nearly as large as the Great Pyramids at Giza (and elsewhere). Pyramids evolved. The first of them was not a perfectly formed pyramid. In fact, the first Pyramid we believe that was built in Egypt, that of Djoser, was not a true pyramid at all with smooth sides and a point at the top. Rather, its sides were stepped, and the top of the pyramid truncated with a flat surface (as best we know). As the Egyptian pyramids evolved, there were failures as well glorious failures until finally, they got it right with what was probably the first smooth sided true pyramid built at Meidum. In fact, pyramids continued to evolve throughout their history, perhaps not always in outward appearances, but in the way that they were built and in the theology surrounding their construction. For example, towards the latter part of Egypt's Pyramid Age, Osirian beliefs seem to have had more and more impact on the arrangement and layout of the subterranean chambers.

However, soon after the first pyramids were built, their form became somewhat standardized. Royal pyramid complexes included the main pyramid, a courtyard surrounding the main pyramid, a much smaller cult pyramid for the king's soul, a mortuary temple situated next to the main pyramid, an enclosure wall and a causeway that led down to a valley temple. Some pyramid complexes included subsidiary, smaller pyramids for family members, and most were surrounded by some sort of tombs for family members.

Our thinking on pyramids has evolved considerably over the years. Many of us who are a bit older were taught that the pyramids were built using Jewish slave labor, which is a fabrication of immense proportions. Most of the pyramids were built long before the Jews made their appearance historically and currently, many if not most scholars believe they were not built using slave labor at all (or perhaps a nominal number of slaves).

Otherwise, we can also dismiss offhand alternative theories related to aliens or some lost culture being responsible for pyramid building. There is just far too much evidence, including tools, drawings, evolutionary changes, and even worker villages that rule these farfetched ideas obsolete.

However, some mysteries remain, even in some of the best well known Pyramids. The most famous of them all, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, continues, year after year, to give up a few more secrets, and there doubtless remains much to learn from these Egyptian treasures. There may even be one or more pyramids yet to be discovered.

Age of the Sphinx

2008-07-16T00:07:00.000+03:00

A sketch of the Great Sphinx as it might
have appeared in about 2,500 BC

Naturally geologists have long taken an interest in the Sphinx and the Giza Plateau as a whole, and the basic geology of the situation is well established. Dr. K.L. Gauri of the University of Louisville in Kentucky worked out the sequence of rock members in the Sphinx and its enclosure in the mid-1980s, alongside the archaeological investigations of Dr Mark Lehner and Dr Zahi Hawass.

Three rock members are represented at the monument. There is a bottom level of hard but brittle limestone, largely hidden under the lower cladding of the Sphinx body but partly seen in the enclosure walls and floor, that was formed many millions of years ago by sedimentation in shoal-water. Above that, the slightly younger middle member, which accounts for the bulk of the body of the Sphinx, is composed of seven separate beds which all have the interesting characteristic of passing from worse to better quality of rock from bottom to top, though the overall quality of the middle member is poor -- which is why the Sphinx gives a general impression of serious erosion and damage.

Joints in the limestone deposition, running criss-cross in the locality of the Sphinx, have in the past caused dislodgment of blocks of the body core and account for the large fissure at the rear of the monument. The top member of the Sphinx site turns into a rather pure and hard limestone above the neck, which makes for the finer preservation of the facial detail, give or take some wind erosion and the physical damage inflicted by the pious medieval sheikh. The stone of the head is not found elsewhere on the Giza Plateau today, probably because its outcrop was entirely quarried away by the necropolis builders with the exception of the knoll they wished to carve into the king's likeness.

The Sphinx buttressed against war damage in the 1940’s. Photo: E. Sved.

The lower part of this top member is not such good rock, and the neck is badly eroded, very evidently by wind-blown sand. All the levels of rock within the Sphinx and its enclosure slope up from east to west and at the same time down from north to south.

The erosional circumstances of the Sphinx today were explored by the team of Egyptologists and geologists in the 1980s. The phenomenon of overnight condensation and absorption by capillary action was noted, with evaporation in the morning sun that leads to crystallization of salts within the rock's pores and spalling off of surface flakes as a result of the expansion of the crystals. It was also noted that condensation on the bedrock of the Sphinx and its enclosure could take place beneath a sand cover, leading to a situation in which the sand might he perfectly dry at the surface but wet through only a few centimeters beneath, while the rock itself could be soaked in water at some depth underneath the wet sand. This circumstance was judged to encourage the migration of salts from the depths of the bedrock towards the surface.

So both the geological structure and the erosional plight (at least in modern times) of the Sphinx were understood by geologists in the later 1980s. Egyptologists such as Dr Lekner concluded that erosional processes essentially similar to today's could account for the decay of the Sphinx between the end of the Old Kingdom and the early centuries of the New Kingdom, when they judged that the first major restoration of the Sphinx was undertaken.

Sphinx Temples at Giza

2008-07-15T00:59:00.001+03:00

The Great Sphinx is, like many other monuments in Egypt, a complex rather than simply a single colossal statue. At the Sphinx on the Giza Plateau near Cairo, there are actually two Sphinx temples. One of them, directly in front of the Sphinx, dates to the time when the Sphinx monument was built, while the other is of New Kingdom construction. In the older of the two temples, the core blocks are of the same generally poorer quality and more easily eroded limestone as the body of the Sphinx. Thus these temple can be regarded as contemporary with the carving of the monument. It should also be noted that the same core blocks also make up Khafre's lower, or valley temple, and thus place it, the Sphinx and the Sphinx temple in the same date range.

Hence, it was probably built by the same men who constructed the Pyramid temples of Khafre and is in fact almost an exact copy of the court of Khafre's mortuary temple. In fact, Khafre's lower temple was at one time thought to be the Sphinx Temple. The two temples are similar in size and both face east in a north-sought alignment. Each has a pair of north and south entrances in their eastern facades. Both temples were faced, inside and out, with finely dressed pink granite form Aswan in the far south of Egypt, and paved with alabaster.

Specifically, the old Sphinx temple was built of local limestone, and cased on the inside with fine Tura limestone, granite and alabaster. On the exterior, only the portals were lined with granite, though apparently the builders intended originally to encase the whole of the exterior in this stone.

The Sphinx temple, which was built on a terrace eight feet lower than the floor of the Sphinx, is very ruined now, with little of its granite facing left and little of its alabaster floor. Any inscriptions it may once have carried, which might have told us much about its purpose, are long gone. Only the eroded limestone core of the structure remains, in part. It is enough to show that this temple once boasted a central court, about 46 meters by 23 meters, which was open to the sky and afforded a good view of the Sphinx. Offerings would have been made on an altar in the court, which was paved with white alabaster. There was also an interior colonnade of rectangular pillars. Large recesses in the inside eastern and western walls suggest the original presence of cult statues.

The temple has two entrances on the east, one on the north, and the other on the south. These may represent doorways for Upper and Lower Egypt. There was no immediate access to the Sphinx from inside the temple. Its western wall was cut to a height of up to 2.5 meters from the living rock, and thereafter topped with limestone blocks. It was necessary to go by passages to the north and south of the temple to reach the Sphinx. There is evidence that this temple of the Sphinx was never finished, and perhaps never even used.

Scholars believe that the temple would have something to do with the solar cycle, which would include Atum and the sun in its other phases, including Khepri, the rising sun, Re, at its zenith and Atum when it sets. If so, it would probably be the first solar temple in Egypt. As with Khafre's other temples, symbolic meaning has been seen several elements of the old Sphinx Temple. The twenty-four columns suggest that there was one for each hour of the day and night. There were also ten to twelve statues, again suggesting a statue for each hour of the day. The court statues sat in sockets cut in the floor in front of each pillar, bringing the base of the statue flush with the alabaster paving covering the bedrock floor. Each court statue was encased in red granite to match the statues. The temple is also unique in having two sanctuaries, one on the east and the other on the west, each at the back of a recessed bay such as that first seen in Khufu's mortuary temple. Perhaps one sanctuary was for the rising sun and one for the setting sun, but most everything about the temple is little more than guesswork. These were very small sanctuaries, and in front of each there were two pillars, which Ricke though represented the arms and legs of the goddess Nut.

The building as a whole is more symmetrical in design than any other temple of its period. Mark Lehner has shown that the temple may well have been solar oriented and the Great Sphinx could have been visualized as an image of the king merging with the sun or perhaps presenting offerings in the temple. However, the temple was left unfinished by its builders, and it is possible that it was never dedicated to service in the age of its construction.

In fact, it is striking that, in the hundreds of Old Kingdom tombs at Giza, Egyptologists have not been able to unearth any titles of priests or priestesses that clearly belong to the Sphinx temple. The temple, which was uncovere

d at the beginning of the 20th century, had large boulders thrown both inside and outside. The Antiquities Department of Giza moved these two to eight ton stones and placed them in their appropriate locations with respect to the temple's original plans. Not long ago, cracks in the walls of the temple have been restored with mortar consisting of lime and sand.

New Kingdom pharaohs, ruling a thousand years after Khufu and Khafre, built new temples close to the Sphinx, who had become in their time (whatever his original significance may have been) a god in his own right. In the latter days of ancient Egypt, two thousand years after Khufu and Khafre, an atavistic passion for an idealized and (not surprisingly) misremembered past led to more rebuilding on the Giza site and fresh interpretations of the origin and meaning
of the Sphinx. During the New Kingdom the Sphinx was called Horem-akhet, "Horus of the Horizon".

The major New Kingdom Sphinx temple sits on a small rise to the northeast of the Great Sphinx. Built by Amenhotep II, is was only a part of a number of building projects, including terraces, enclosures, rest houses and temples the formed almost a royal national park about the Sphinx during the New Kingdom. The temple of Amenhotep II, situated on the higher terrace northeast of the Sphinx, was built during the first year of his reign. Its cult was certainly activated, but the structure was destroyed, with only fragmentary remains surviving. However, today, the temple has been largely restored.

An Introduction to the Great Sphinx

2008-07-15T00:42:00.001+03:00

In a depression to the south of Khafre's pyramid at Giza near Cairo sits a huge creature with the head of a human and a lion's body. This monumental statue, the first truly colossal royal sculpture in Egypt, known as the Great Sphinx, is a national symbol of Egypt, both ancient and modern. It has stirred the imagination of poets, scholars, adventurers and tourists for centuries and has also inspired a wealth of speculation about its age, its meaning, and the secrets that it might hold.

The word "sphinx", which means 'strangler', was first given by the Greeks to a fabulous creature which had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. In Egypt, there are numerous sphinxes, usually with the head of a king wearing his headdress and the body of a lion. There are, however, sphinxes with ram heads that are associated with the god Amun.

The Great Sphinx is to the northeast of Khafre's (Chephren) Valley Temple. Where it sits was once a quarry. We believe that Khafre's workers shaped the stone into the lion and gave it their king's face over 4,500 years ago. Khafre's name was also mentioned on the Dream Stele, which sits between the paws of the great beast. However, no one is completely certain that it is in fact the face of Khafre, though indeed that is the preponderance of thought. Recently, however, it has been argued that Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, may have also had the Great Sphinx built.

The Great Sphinx is believed to be the most immense stone sculpture in the round ever made by man. However, it must be noted that the Sphinx is not an isolated monument and that it must be examined in the context of its surroundings. Specifically, like many of Egypt's monuments, it is a complex which consists not only of the great statue itself, but also of its old temple, a New Kingdom temple and some other small structures. It is also closely related to Khafre's Valley Temple, which itself had four colossal sphinx statues each more than 26 feet long.

The material of the Sphinx is the limestone bedrock of what geologists call the Muqqatam Formation, which originated fifty million years ago from sediments deposited at the bottom of sea waters that engulfed northeast Africa during the Middle Eocene period. An embankment formed along what is now the north-northwest side of the plateau. Nummulites, which are small, disk-shaped fossils named after the Latin word for 'coin', pack the embankment. These were once the shells of now extinct planktonic organisms. There was a shoal and coral reef that grew over the southern slope of the embankment. Carbonate mud deposited in the lagoon petrified into the layers from which the ancient builders, some fifty million years later, carved out the Great Sphinx.

To do so, they trenched out a deep, U-shaped ditch that isolated a huge rectangular bedrock block for carving the Sphinx. This enclosure is deepest immediately around the body, with a shelf at the rear of the monument where it was left unfinished and a shallower extension to the north where important archaeological finds have been made.

The good, hard limestone that lay around the Sphinx's head was probably all quarried for blocks to build the pyramids. The limestone removed to shape the body of the beast was evidently employed to build the two temples to the east of the Sphinx, on a terrace lower than the floor of the Sphinx enclosure, one almost directly in front of the paws, the other to the south of the first one.

It is generally thought that quarrying around the original knoll revealed rock that was too poor in quality for construction. Therefore, some visionary individual conceived of the plan to turn what was left of the knoll into the Sphinx. However, the Sphinx may equally well have been planned from the start for this location, good rock or bad. The walls of the Sphinx enclosure are of the same characteristics as the strata of the Sphinx body and exhibit similar states of erosion.

The bedrock body of the Sphinx became a standing section of the deeper limestone layers of the Giza Plateau. The lowest stratum of the Sphinx is the hard, brittle rock of the ancient reef, referred to as Member I. All of the geological layers slope about three degrees from northwest to southeast, so they are higher at the rump of the Sphinx and lower at the front paws. Hence, the surface of this area has not appreciably weathered compared to the layers above it.

Most of the Sphnix's lion body and the south wall and the upper part of the ditch were carved into the Member II, which consists of seven layers that are soft near the bottom, but become progressively harder near the top. However, the rock actually alternates between hard and soft. The head and neck of the Great Sphinx are made of Member III, which is better stone, though it becomes harder further up.

The Sphinx faces the rising sun with a temple to the front which resembles the sun temples which were built later by the kings of the 5th Dynasty. The lion was a solar symbol in more than one ancient Near Eastern culture. The royal human head on a lion's body symbolized power and might, controlled by the intelligence of the pharaoh, guarantor of the cosmic order, or ma'at. Its symbolism survived for two and a half millennia in the iconography of Egyptian civilization.

The head and face of the Sphinx certainly reflect a style that belongs to Egypt's Old Kingdom, and to the 4th Dynasty in particular. The overall form of his face is broad, almost square, with a broad chin. The headdress (known as the 'nemes' head-cloth), with its fold over the top of the head and its triangular planes behind the ears, the presence of the royal 'uraeus' cobra on the brow, the treatment of the eyes and lips all evidence that the Sphinx was carved during this period.

The sculptures of kings Djedefre, Khafre and Menkaure and other Old Kingdom Pharaohs, all show the same configuration that we see on the Sphinx. Some scholars believe that the Great Sphinx was originally bearded with the sort of formally plaited beard. Pieces of the Sphinx's massive beard found by excavation adorn the British Museum in London and the Cairo Museum. However, it seems to possibly, if not probably be dated to the New Kingdom, and so was likely added at a later date. The rounded divine beard is an innovation of the New Kingdom, and according to Rainer Stadelmann, did not exist in the Old or Middle Kingdom. It may have been added to identify the god with Horemahket.

There is a hole in the top of the head, now filled in, that once provided support for additional head decoration. Depictions of the Sphinx from the latter days of ancient Egypt show a crown or plumes on the top of the head, but these were not necessarily part of the original design. The top of the head is flatter, however, than later Egyptian sphinxes.

The body is 72.55 meters in length and 20.22 meters tall. The face of the sphinx is four meters wide and its eyes are two meters high. The mouth is about two meters wide, while the nose would have been more than 1.5 meters long. The ears are well over one meter high. Part of the uraeus (sacred cobra), the nose, the lower ear and the ritual beard are now missing, while the eyes have been pecked out. The beard from the sphinx is on displayed in the British Museum.

Below the neck, the Great Sphinx has the body of a lion, with paws, claws and tail (curled round the right haunch), sitting on the bedrock of the rocky enclosure out of which the monument has been carved. The enclosure has taller walls to the west and south of the monument, in keeping with the present lie of the land.

When viewed close-up, the head and body of the Sphinx look relatively well proportioned, but seen from further away and side-on the head looks small in relation to the long body (itself proportionally much longer than is seen in later sphinxes). In its undamaged state, the body is likely to have appeared still larger all around in relation to the head, which has not been reduced as much by erosion. The human head is on a scale of about 30:1, while the lion body is on the smaller scale of 22:1. There could be a number of explanations for this discrepancy.

This was, as far as we know, one of the very first of the Egyptian sphinxes, though there is at least one other, attributed to Djedefre, that predates it. The rules of proportion commonly employed on later and smaller examples may not yet have been formulated at the time of the carving of the Great Sphinx of Giza. In any case, the carving of sphinxes was always a flexible formula, to an unusual degree in the context of Egyptian artistic conservatism.

Then again, the Sphinx may have been sculpted to look its best when seen from fairly close by and more or less from the front. There is also the possibility that there was simply insufficient good rock to make the head, where fine detail was required, any bigger. Also, the fissure at the rear of the Great Sphinx may have dictated a longer body, rather than one much too short.

There remains the possibility that the head has been remodeled at some time and thereby reduced in size, but on stylistic grounds alone this is not likely to have been done after the Old Kingdom times in ancient Egypt.

There are three passages into or under the Sphinx, two of them of obscure origin. The one of known cause is a short dead-end shaft behind the head drilled in the nineteenth century. No other tunnels or chambers in or under the Sphinx are known to exist. A number of small holes in the Sphinx body may relate to scaffolding at the time of carving.

The figure was buried for most of its life in the sand. It was King Thutmose IV (1425 - 1417 BC) who placed a stela between the front paws of the figure. On it, Thutmose describes an event, while he was still a prince, when he had gone hunting and fell asleep in the shade of the sphinx. During a dream, the sphinx spoke to Thutmose and told him to clear away the sand. The sphinx told him that if he did this, he would be rewarded with the kingship of Egypt. Thutmose carried out this request and the sphinx held up his end of the bargain. Of course, over time, the great statue, the only single instance of a colossal sculpture carved in the round directly out of the natural rock, once again found itself buried beneath the sand.

In the more modern era, when Napoleon arrived in Egypt in 1798, the Sphinx was buried once more with sand up to its neck, at by this point, we believe the nose had been missing for at least 400 years. Between 1816 and 1817, the Genoese merchant, Caviglia tried to clear away the sand, but he only managed to dig a trench down the chest of the statue and along the length of the forepaws. Auguste Mariette, the founder of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, also attempted to excavate the Sphinx, but gave up in frustration over the enormous amount of sand. He went on to explore the Khafre Valley Temple, but returned to the Great Sphinx to excavate in 1858. This time, he managed to clear the sand down to the rock floor of the ditch around the Sphinx, discovering in the process several sections of the protective walls around the ditch, as well as odd masonry boxes along the body of the monument which might have served as small shrines. However, he apparently still did not clear all the sand.

In 1885, Gaston Maspero, then Director of the Antiquities Service, once again tried to clear the Sphinx, but after exposing the earlier work of Caviglia and Mariette, he also was forced to abandon the project due to logistical problems.

Between 1925 and 1936, French engineer Emile Baraize excavated the Sphinx on behalf of the Antiquities Service, and apparently for the first time since antiquity, the great beast once again became exposed to the elements.

In fact, the sand has been its savior, since, being built of soft sandstone, it would have disappeared long ago had it not been buried for much of its existence.

Nevertheless, the statue is crumbling today because of the wind, humidity and the smog from Cairo. The rock was of poor quality here from the start, already fissured along joint lines that went back to the formation of the limestone millions of years ago. There is a particularly large fissure across the haunches, nowadays filled with cement, that also shows up in the walls of the enclosure in which the Sphinx sits.

Below the head, serious natural erosion begins. The neck is badly weathered, evidently by wind-blown sand during those long periods when only the head was sticking up out of the desert and the wind could catapult the sand along the surface and scour the neck and the extensions of the headdress that are missing altogether now. The stone here is not quite of such good quality as that of the head above.

Erosion below the neck does not look like scouring by wind-blown sand. In fact, so poor is the rock of the bulk of the body that it must have been deteriorating since the day it was carved out of the stone. We know that it needed repairs on more than one occasion in antiquity. It continues to erode before our very eyes, with spalls of limestone falling off the body during the heat of the day.

So, today, much of the work on the Great Sphinx at Giza is not directed at further explorations or excavations, but rather the preservation of this great wonder of Egypt. This is the focus, and while some might even today have the antiquity authorities digging about the monument looking for hidden chambers holding the secrets of Atlantis, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

An Introduction to the Great Sphinx

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In fact, the sand has been its savior, since, being built of soft sandstone, it would have disappeared long ago had it not been buried for much of its existence.

An Overview of the Giza Plateau in Egypt

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"From atop these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte to his soldiers before the Battle of Giza, 1798

When Khufu, perhaps better known by his Greek name, Cheops, became king of Egypt after the death of Sneferu, there was no convenient space remaining at Dahshur, where Sneferu was buried, for Khufu's own pyramid complex. Hence, he moved his court and residence farther north, where his prospectors had located a commanding rock cliff, overlooking present day Giza, appropriate for a towering pyramid. This rock cliff was in the northernmost part of the first Lower Egyptian nome, Ineb-hedj ("the white fortress"). Giza is located only a few kilometers south of Cairo, several hundred meters from the last houses in the southernmost part of the city proper, where a limestone cliff rises abruptly from the other side of a sandy desert plateau. The ancient Egyptians called this place imentet, "The West" or kher neter, "the necropolis".

Clickable Image Map of Giza

According to a treatise on the geology of the pyramid plateau by Thomas Aigner, it is part of the Middle Eocene Mokattam Formation, which dips slightly southeast, comprising limestone and dolomites. To the south, the Mokattam and dolomitic limestones are overlain by the marly limestone and sandy marls of the Upper Eocene Maadi Formation. To the north and east, the Mokattam Formation is characterized by two steep escarpments about 30 meters (92 feet) high. It continues to the Great Sphinx ditch, which must at one time have formed a high peak. From there, the stonemasons cut the core blocks for the Great Pyramid.

Side View of Giza

The older pyramids of the third and early fourth dynasty were built on thick layers of marl and slate. These marl layers were easier to dig than limestone, so excavation of the large shafts that extended as much as 30 meters beneath the step pyramids was accomplished in a reasonable time. However, there was also a serious disadvantage, because the marl layers could not support their weight. The underlayer gave way, and the construction became unstable. This in fact happened with the South Pyramid at Dahshur, where cracks and serious damage appeared in the corridor system and in the chambers so that the pyramid had to be abandoned.

Another view of Giza

Hence, when Khufu planned his own ambitious pyramid, he was looking for a solid rock base, nearby quarries and a dominating position overlooking the Nile Valley, which he of course found at Giza. Giza can be subdivided into two groupings of monuments, clearly defined and separated by a wadi. The larger grouping consists of the three "Great" pyramids of Khufu, Khephren (Khafre), and Menkaure, the Sphinx, attendant temples and outbuildings, and the private mastabas of the nobility. The second grouping, located on the ridge to the southeast, contains a number of private tombs of citizens of various classes. While the majority of the monuments of the larger grouping are made from limestone that was quarried and transported to the site, the tombs of the smaller grouping are simply carved out of the native living rock. Though the three Great Pyramids are the most famous and prominent monuments at Giza, the site has actually been a Necropolis almost since the beginning of Pharaonic Egypt. A tomb just on the outskirts of the Giza site dates from the reign of the First Dynasty Pharaoh Wadj (Djet), and jar sealings discovered in a tomb in the southern part of Giza mention the Second Dynasty Pharaoh Ninetjer. But it was the Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) who placed Giza forever at the heart of funerary devotion, a city of the dead that dwarfed the cities of the living nearby. In order to build his complex, he had to clear away many of the old tombs, filling in their shafts or even totally destroying them. His pyramid, the largest of all the pyramids in Egypt (though it should be noted that it surpasses the Red Pyramid at Dahshur built by his father Snefru by only ten meters), dominates the sandy plain. On its southwest diagonal is the pyramid of his son, Khephren (Chephren, Khafre). Although it is smaller, a steeper angle results in the illusion that they are the same size. In fact, Kephren's pyramid appears taller since it is on higher ground. The notion that this was done on purpose to out-do his father is without question. As it occupies the central point, has the illusion of greater size, and still has some of its casing stones intact, it is frequently mistaken to as the Great Pyramid, something that would no doubt please Khephren were he alive today. Further along the southwest diagonal is the smallest of the three great pyramids, that of Khephren's son, Menkaure. It is also the most unusual. First of all, it is not entirely limestone. The uppermost portions are brick, much like the several Pyramids at Dahshur, though separated from them by several centuries. One theory is that Menkaure died before his pyramid could be completed, and the remaining construction was hastily done to finish it in time for the burial. It is also not along the diagonal line that runs through the Great Pyramid and the Second Pyramid, but instead is nearly a hundred meters to the southeast. This error, if error it is, is of a magnitude not in keeping with the mathematical skill known to have been possessed by the ancient Egyptians. However, an idea has emerged in the last few years that the three large pyramids of Giza are actually meant to be in an alignment resembling that of the three "belt" stars in the constellation Orion: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. This theory is largely discounted by the majority of Egyptologists, but some do believe it is a point to ponder. Actually, it should also be noted that, while the center of the pyramid does not line up with its larger counterparts, the southeast sides of all three pyramids are in alignment. All three pyramids stand empty, probably plundered during the political unrest that ended the Old Kingdom when the monarchy collapsed. Yet there are the occasional surprises. Airtight pits along the southern and eastern walls of Khufu's pyramid contain boats (not small ritual boats, but fully-functional funerary barges with 40-ton displacements. One was excavated in 1954). Exactly how big Giza is may never be known. Excavations have continued to find new tombs and artifacts since Bezoni, Caviglia, Perring, and Vyse began the first systematic study of Giza in the early 1800s. It has been explored and excavated more thoroughly than any other site in Egypt, possibly more than any other site in the world, yet no one believes the research is anywhere near complete today. Throughout the Old Kingdom, the cemetery of Giza remained the most prominent, even when the kings moved again to Southern Saqqara. For example, important officials such as the architects of the 'inti family, who constructed the pyramids of the 5th and 6th Dynasties, continued to live in the pyramid town of Khufu and had their family tombs at Giza. During the First Intermediate Period, the pyramid town of Khufu and the cemetery of Giza were both abandoned, and they remained so during the Middle Kingdom. In fact, the pyra

mids were forcefully opened and plundered, and the private tombs were not ignored by thieves

either. The causeways and temples were in fact even used as quarries by the architects of the kings of the 12th Dynasty. This all changed completely during the New Kingdom. The kings of the 18th Dynasty showed deep respect for the pyramids as monuments of their ancestors at Giza, and the area gained considerable religious significance as the center of royal worship to the Great Sphinx, "Lord of Setpet, the Chosen Place." Princes and kings of the 18th and 19th Dynasties erected stelae between the paws of the Sphinx, which was no longer seen as a royal statue but rather as an image of the sun god Harmachis, "Horus in his Western Horizon", which was actually a reference to the "Horizon of Khufu". Amenhotep II dedicated a small temple to Harcachis to the northeast of the Sphinx. On foundation tables of that temple, the Sphinx is also named Harmachis-Hauron. Hauron was the name of a Syrian-Palestinian god of the netherworld that a community of Syrian-Palestinians living near the Great Sphinx identified with his image. Ramesses II installed a sanctuary within the forepaws of the Sphinx. In the Late period, Osiris became the dominant god of the area, taking over the cult locations of Rostau from Sokar and installing his cult in the Sphinx. High, massive pedestals were actually added to the body of the Sphinx, on which chapels of Osiris and probably Isis stood. Isis became known as the "Lady of the Pyramids."

During the Sixth Century BC onward, Greek travelers admired the pyramids at Giza, and it was they who eventually placed the monuments in the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the Pharonic Period, and up until recently, stone from the monuments were taken and used to build buildings in nearby Cairo. First the polished white limestone "casing" was taken, then the softer core stones. Many of Cairo's oldest buildings are built partly from stones from the pyramids. This destruction continued well into the Nineteenth Century until preservation efforts and a resurgence of national pride put a stop to it. It is believed that had the pyramids not been vandalized, they would still remain to this day much as they were when they were built. As the saying goes, "Man fears Time, but Time fears the Pyramids."

Egypt's history (British Occupation Period)

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The British occupation had no physical changes on Cairo since the British had been ruling Egypt indirectly for years. Tawfik remained the khedive, the consular courts dealt justice, the administration was foreign and the British occupied the Citadel. They did need foreigners to help rule Cairo simply because they did not want the commerce in Cairo to be controlled by the Egyptians. However, it was very important that the city be organized by dependable people that were not Egyptian. Lord Cromer was the man responsible for the consolidation of the absolute rule in Cairo. He became the British Agent in Egypt in 1883 and ruled Egypt for 24 years. Before this, he had been in control of the Public Debt in Cairo as British Commissioner. He was responsible for the manipulation that helped the British occupation of Egypt. He was also responsible for keeping the French, Belgians and Italians away from the Nile. Under Cromer, Cairo was a very political and social city. Cromer left Cairo in 1907 and left control of the city to Sir Eldon Gorst. Cairo began to change its appearance after the English arrived. By the year 1900 there were four tramways in Cairo and a fifth was being built to run from Giza to the pyramids. Trains had been built that ran from Helwan and Tura. English department stores and shopping districts had been set up. After Gorst, Lord Kitchener became resident minister of Egypt and set up a legislative assembly in Cairo. This was the beginning of the parliamentary life of Egypt, which was an imitation of England. The British resident minister was similar to the prime minister in England. Each minister was always afraid that somehow the Egyptian people might discover that there might be another way to rule itself other than the English parliament way. During World War I the people did finally recognize this from the political events that resulted from the war. The war brought many Australian, British, New Zealand and colonial troops to Cairo. In Arabia, the Arabs revolted against the Turks in a fight for national liberation. This soon became a policy that all Egyptians could agree on. European Cairo was a madhouse because of the British and their self-indulgences. However, Egyptian Cairo became a place of politics, preparation and whispers. The prices began to rise steeply in Cairo while the British soldiers were enjoying things that they had never had before. The people in the countryside began to suffer greatly from poverty and malnutrition. It was so bad that during the year 1918 more people died than were born. In the city itself, some things were more prosperous. The Australians that came in 1914 spent a great deal of money each day in Cairo. Eventually the soldiers began to have too much fun and were thinking more of fun than of the job they had been sent to do. The citizens of Cairo watched the soldiers and began to want more and more an independent country. In 1916 martial law was introduced in Cairo. Military courts judged civilians and had them punished. England began to treat Egypt more like a country that was the enemy instead of a friend. In 1917, the British began to encourage the kidnapping of peasants to serve in their labor groups in Palestine. Thousands of fellahin were sent to Syria, Mesopotamia and to France. After the war, U.S. President Wilson's Fourteen Points gave Egypt a hope of independence. Saad Zaghlul went to the British Residency and demanded the Egypt be given the right to self-determination. He was allowed to speak and leave, but was arrested a month later and sent to Malta. Egypt revolted on the news of this. Overnight Cairo became a revolutionary city as every town and city was seized by Egyptians. Everything stopped. Trains and trams stopped, no one went to work and strikes began. Eight British soldiers were killed on March 18, 1919 while on their way to Cairo. Trenches were dug and the city was barricaded. Many people were killed either in the fighting or executed for killing British officers. The resident minister was replaced by General Allenby and he immediately had Zaghlul released from Malta. Allenby was criticized for years for this as being too compromising, but this probably saved Egypt for Britain more than anything else. He declared martial law and stopped the strikes one by one. Zaghlul had been released from Malta, but was not allowed to come to Egypt yet. He went to Paris where he tried to get someone to help him get Egypt's independence. On April 20, 1919 the United States recognized the British protection of Egypt. This all but ended the hope the Egyptians had of being free. After the war, cotton returned to the world market. Food crops were replaced by cotton and fortunes were made. However, no food was grown and people were starving. The politics between the British and the Egyptians were getting worse. In 1922 Egypt was allowed sovereignty and Fuad became king. In the next 18 months, seventeen British officials were killed and twenty more were attacked in broad daylight. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian treaty was signed which gave Egypt a little bit of independence although superficially. In 1937, the Tribunaux Mixtes, which were the foreign courts, were done away with. The Egyptians still were not satisfied. The British were still in occupation, controlled most of the economic life and still controlled the canal. The reason that the British would not give up its hold completely was the cotton, the land and the link to India. The British did very little to improve the way of life for the Egyptian people. They never drilled an artesian well that could pump pure water to a village or set up medical services for Egyptians. They didn't even try to educate or improve the conditions of the majority of the population. They weren't brutal occupiers, but they failed miserably at making the conditions livable to the citizens of Egypt. The Europeans that were born in Cairo were not directly to blame for the situation, but they did contribute to it. They lived, ate and slept well and they thought this was all that was expected of them. When the second World War broke out, there were many soldiers from many different nations in Cairo. The Italians were there, but there were really no serious attempts to help Mussolini by them. The only real enemies in Cairo were the Germans. The British secret police watched them very carefully. There was a political raid in which the British caught German spies that had come to Cairo with money, a radio transmitter and a house boat on the Nile. Because the English were unable to ship all of their supplies in from Britain, they trained and employed thousands of Egyptians in various trades. Some were mechanics, electricians, drivers, engineers and even lens grinders. They repaired military equipment and even built trains and machinery. Egypt started to weave their own cloth out of silk and wool. Advances were made in mining, cement, petroleum refining and chemical industries. In Egypt, the British spent over ten million pounds every year. In July of 1942, the British were pushed back almost to Alexandria. Rommel stopped at Alamein because his troops were exhausted and almost out of supplies. The British rushed to Cairo. Soldiers were sent to various places to train while other got ready to retreat from the city. The British officers went to the banks to try to get their money while at the British headquarters, vital papers were burned. This scare changed Cairo to a point where it would never be the same again. Montgomery took over the Eighth Army in the desert and moved them to Alamein. He won this battle in October or November of 1942. After this battle, Egypt lost most of the fantasy and glamour that had been year during the years of occupation. Now the city settled down to the first order of business, national liberation.

Egypt's history (French Occupation Period)

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When Napoleon arrived in Cairo, he brought with him a wide array of disorders and also Europe. After the three years that he spent in Cairo, the city would never again be the same Oriental town that it had been. The French left a legacy that is written all over the European parts of Cairo. Their tastes were mainly of a French middle class influence. Napoleon came to Egypt on his way to India. Egypt just happened to be in the way and he had to get past this barrier first. The English and the French had a rivalry for an empire. Apparently the French had in mind to create a canal that would connect the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The trade war in Europe had been building for years and it had now come to the point where the east was the highest stakes to be won. Napoleon had been told that a conquest of Egypt would more than make up for the loss of the French West Indian colonies to the British. They were correct in thinking that the route across Egypt would be the fastest and maybe the best trade route to the east. This was all provided that Egypt and the trade itself were in the hands of the Europeans and not someone who would lay ridiculous levies on anything that passed through Egypt. To get to Egypt, Napoleon needed three hundred ships to carry himself and his forty thousand soldiers. Napoleon set out from Toulon and other Mediterranean ports. The British thought that they were going to go through the Straits of Gibraltar to attack England by way of Ireland. There was a fairly small squadron of English ships that were sent out to stop the French from reaching the English Channel. The English did finally determine that Napoleon was sailing east and not west. The English did finally catch up to the French and chased them all the way to the port of Abukir, near Alexandria, Egypt. The English defeated the French fighting fleet. However, Napoleon's own ship L'Orient, narrowly missed the fighting. Had it not, the outcome of the entire battle might have been completely different. Napoleon was never able to get reinforcements from France because of the loss of safe communications with his homeland. He met his first resistance from the Egyptian people in the Delta. The peasants and the townspeople fought him, rather than soldiers. When Napoleon entered Cairo, he sent for the sheikhs of the city. He informed them that he intended to set up a group of ten to rule the country and set up the laws. This was ultimately how he ran the country. He arrived in the city on Wednesday, July 25, 1798 and moved into the Mohammed Bey al Elfi palace, which was brand new. Very few soldiers came into the city with Napoleon, as most of them stayed along the river. The people of Cairo seemed in a kind of shock by the occupation of these new rulers. They did not realize that the Mamelukes, whose job it had been to defend the city and failed miserably, were no longer capable of defending the city. It was the job of the Egyptians. The French also seemed to be cautious as if they didn't know how to go about beginning to occupy the city. In the beginning the French soldiers walked through the city unarmed and paid extremely high prices for everything that they bought. This encouraged the rest of the people to come out of hiding. French restaurants were opened up by the French citizens of Cairo for the new soldiers in their city. This was the first restaurant that Cairo had ever seen. The Egyptians were very excited about this and this allowed the French to come into Cairo very lightly at first. Meanwhile, Napoleon was setting himself up militarily in the city. He began by occupying all of the strategic buildings and began to set up artillery all around the outside of the city. He also began to make stronger contacts with the sheikhs that he had convinced to cooperate with him. The Mameluke sheikhs seemed to be very impressed with the European culture. Napoleon needed some sort of visible sign from the people that they had submitted to his rule. He ordered everyone to wear a sort of badge on their hats as a symbol of friendship and submission. The people for the most part ignored this order and eventually Napoleon was forced to withdraw it. This was the first sign of the unrest the people were beginning to feel. They began to resent everything that he did in the city. He taxed all of the buildings and even tried to level off the graves in a cemetery at Ezbekiya so that he could have level ground around his headquarters. The people became very hostile about the cemetery and he did not go through with his plan. The demonstrations by the people of Cairo became too much for Napoleon and he had one of his generals, Dupuy, go out into the streets to disperse the demonstrators. The people attacked the general, killed him and many of his soldiers. The people then occupied the remaining gates on the streets of Cairo and put up barricades in all parts of the city. The year was 1798 and this was Cairo's first revolt against the occupation of the French. The French responded by setting up cannons in the Citadel and firing them at Azhar and the areas around it. During the night, the French had forces go into the area and destroy the barricades. The cavalry forced their way into the Azhur and killed an unknown number of people. The citizens of Cairo would never rest in their harassment of the French. They had finally learned that it was up to them alone what they did. There were no Mamelukes, soldiers or outsiders to help. The resistance was so violent that Napoleon demanded that the sheikhs tell him who the leaders of the revolts were. They refused at first, but eventually they did betray some. One of the betrayed was the chief of the Corporation of the Blind. He and four others were arrested and shot. The French then set about destroying parts of the city and Giza. They also built forts all around the city and demolished mosques, small palaces and some homes in the city. They even poisoned the dogs in the city because the dogs would sound a warning when a French soldier would approach. Cairo did manage to benefit from the presence of the French. Napoleon had two headquarters, one of which was military and the other intellectual. Even before he had left France, he planned to establish a solid French cultural base for the future. It seemed that the two policies of military and intellect began to grow further apart from each other. The French had to defend themselves more and more against attacks, while the scholars made very deep impressions on Cairo's people in the very wealthy Institut de l'Egypte. This Institut de l'Egypte had been set up in two houses in a part of Cairo called Nasriya. There were four sections; industry, science and mathematics, health, art and literature. There were thirty-six French scholars that were there. In the brand new house of Hasan al Kachef, who was a Circassian Mameluke and had fled with Murad, the industry, health, and science sections set up laboratories, workshops and libraries. In the other house, which belonged to Ibrahim al Sinnari, who a Turkish deputy, the painters and artists worked. The citizens of Cairo continued to openly oppose Napoleon, which caused him to execute more and more people every day. In one day alone he had ninety people shot in the Citadel and five Jews and two women were arrested and thrown in the Nile to drown. The people who worked for the French now rode around on horses and carried weapons. They would insult the Moslems, which must have been encouraged by Napoleon because he always needed these minorities to help him rule. Things continued to deteriorate and it must have been during this time that he decided that he would not be able to stay in Egypt. In 1798 he was beginning to believe that the Turkish and the British, who were working together at this time, were getting ready to attack him from Syria. Thinking that he should attack first, he started preparing an attack on Syria. On September 22, 1798, he left Cairo on a mission to explore the area as far as Suez. He returned to Cairo almost immediately and in February 1799, he along with his army set out to defeat the Turks in Syria. The baggage that he took along with him was incredible. He had beds and mattresses, slaves and women in French clothes. Not much of it was military equipment. The French were defeated at Acre by mostly British soldiers. Napoleon got back to Cairo as quickly as he could with only seven thousand of the twelve thousand that he had left with. The citizens were delighted that he had been beaten. At about the same time that he was arriving back in Cairo, the Turks were arriving in Abukir. Napoleon was completely on the defensive now and quickly went north to face the Turks. These Turks had no British soldiers helping them, and the French easily beat the Ottoman troops. He returned to Cairo with thousands of Turkish prisoners. By this time, it was inevitable that a better prepared Turkish army would beat him. Knowing this, he went home to France where he became the First Consul in 1799. Kleber had been left in charge of Cairo. On the Egyptian borders, Sir Sidney Smith who had defeated Napoleon at Acre, appeared with the Turks. Kleber knew that he could not win the fight so he signed an agreement to evacuate the country. It was the year 1800. As the French began to evacuate the city, the Egyptians didn't even attempt to hide their hatred of the French. They ridiculed and insulted the French. The Mamelukes that had been hanging around outside the city, were ready to reoccupy the city as soon as the French were gone. There was a period of weeks in which the Mamelukes, the French and the Turks watched each other nervously around the city. The French had no ships so this made it very difficult for Kleber to leave the city. The Mamelukes and the Turks began grouping together as if getting ready for an attack on the city. Kleber began to feel trapped so he marched out of Cairo and attacked the Turks at Heliopolis. The Turks left after the first attack and the people of Cairo armed themselves with clubs after hearing the gunshots. The Turks needed someone else to take the heat to divert attention from themselves for failing and their cowardice. The Turks then ordered all the Christians to be killed since there were bad feelings against the Christians that had sided with the French. Moslems were also arrested and killed or manhandled by the same people who were killing the Christians. It turned out to be more of a religious issue that had inspired the brutality. The entire city was in a state of civil war. After sometime, the city began to be without food and the sheikhs were afraid that the city would be reduced to ruins in the bombardment by the French. The people tried to negotiate with Kleber. However the French troops came back to the city and broke through the barricades the people had set up. Finally the Turks and Mamelukes agreed to leave Cairo. The French gave them camels and money to help them get out faster. Once again the French controlled the city, but all they really wanted to do was to leave Cairo. The only way to get out was if the British let them go, and that probably wasn't going to happen. Something dramatic was going to have to happen to stop the atmosphere of mutual hatred that was between the French soldiers and the people of Cairo. This finally happened on June 17, 1800, when General Kleber was stabbed to death at the palace headquarters at Ezbekiya, on his terrace. News spread quickly on the streets of Cairo and the people held their breath waiting for the reaction by the French. The French were afraid to enact any excessive revenge and were only too glad to accept the confession of the killer, who was a student of religion named Suleiman Alepin. He said that he had acted alone, which was virtually impossible scenario in any political assassination. However, Alepin and two accomplices were formally tried and sentenced to death. Alepin was forced to watch his accomplices beheaded and then had to suffer a painfully slow death. Kleber was succeeded by General Jacques Menou. There had never been a person who was left in charge of a city that was in a more dangerous or critical situation. Menou had become a Moslem and had a Moslem wife. Their son, Said Soliman Mourad Jacques Menou was the first citizen recorded by the French in the census of Cairo. The Egyptian Moslems never believed that any Europeans who became Moslems were really Moslems. That left Menou just another Frenchman. The British soldiers led by Sir Ralph Abercromby landed at Abukir on March 8, 1801. The Turks landed at al Arish on the eastern frontier of Egypt. The French knew that it was all over by this point. Menou was not a good general and he was easily beaten when he attacked the English near Alexandria. Abercromby was killed and was succeeded by Sir John Hutchinson as commander. Menou was isolated in Alexandria and was virtually cut off from Cairo by flooding and the sea dikes in the country. The British did not want to get involved in a street fight with the French, so they waited for the French to finally surrender. The city was completely surrounded by the British, Mamelukes and Turks and the people inside the city were beginning to starve. Sir John Hutchinson offered to honor the original evacuation agreement with Kleber and the French agreed happily. The British, Mamelukes and Turks took over Cairo. There was a Colonel Stewart that entered the city first and went to the Citadel. It had been abandoned and no one had the keys, so he was unable to get in. There was a French officer that had been somehow left behind and eventually opened the gates. The British offered to protect the French officer, but he refused their offer and wandered out into the street where he was stoned to death by the people. The Turks went to the Citadel, where they found the British already there. The Turks were furious. The Ottoman flag flew over the city because officially the Turks were in control of Cairo, but the British were in control of the Citadel. Many from the British army followed the French out of the city and all the way to Alexandria to make sure that they were gone. The British stayed in the city only long enough to reestablish the Turks and they were all too happy to leave the city. One of the Turks that was left in charge was a young officer named Mohammed Ali. Ali had proved himself in a cavalry charge against the French and was soon promoted by The Turkish admiral, Husein. Mohammed Ali was an Albanian that was born in the same year as Napoleon and was thirty-three years old when he came to Cairo as an officer of the Turkish forces. Mohammed Ali made himself pasha of Egypt with some help from his Albanian troops in 1806, five years after the British had left Cairo to the Turks. The Porte reluctantly acknowledged him the ruler of an independent state within the Ottoman Empire. He would rule Egypt for forty-three years, in which most of the years Egypt would be his private estate and Cairo would be his private city. Mohammed Ali knew that eventually he would have to contend with the Mamelukes if he ever wanted to control Egypt. They were still the feudal owners of Egypt and the land was still the source of wealth and power in Egypt. In 1804 and 1805, Ali began to attack the Mamelukes. In one of the Mameluke's attempts at a defense, they forced their way into the city to fight him there. Ali's Albanians captured or killed most of the Mamelukes, which was the first serious blow to the Mameluke's. The captured Mamelukes were tortured and killed. During this clash the city was pillaged so badly that the people revolted against the Turkish governor and elected Mohammed Ali as pasha. He was considered to be the only enemy of both the Turks and the Mamelukes. The British were still watching the happenings in Egypt. They attacked Egypt in 1807 with the intentions of overthrowing the Turks and reinstating the Mamelukes in authority. However, the five thousand Albanian troops defeated the British and had the captured British soldiers sold into slavery. Some of the soldiers were led around the city starving and miserable. Some of the people in Cairo took pity on the soldiers, gave them food, helped their sick and gave them donkeys to ride. There were 466 British soldiers and 24 officers that were thrown into the dungeons, but many of them were later ransomed by General Frazer. There were a few that were left behind, including one Scottish soldier, Keith, who became a Moslem and fought as a Moslem. He later became the governor of the Holy City of Medina after showing great bravery in battle. After defeating the British, Mohammed Ali was in a very good position. The Turks were not going to be a problem since technically he was still representing them. The Mamelukes were much weaker after the defeat of the British and he was able to seize their lands in the Delta. By 1808 he was powerful enough to confiscate all of the land in Egypt, even the lands which were part of an Egyptian organization of religious endowment. He destroyed all of the title deeds to the land except his own. He set up a system of omdehs, who were local government representatives, and mudirs, who were provincial governors. This system remained in effect until 1952. As long as enough Mamelukes remained alive to claim their ancient rights to the land and to resist him, the land still didn't completely belong to Ali. He invited five hundred of the leading Mameluke lords to attend a ceremony that was supposedly for his son, Tusun. The lords accepted and arrived wearing their most beautiful clothes and expensive armor, riding decorated horses. On March 1, 1811, Shahin Bey led the military procession of Mamelukes out of the Citadel. He went down a hill to the gate of Azab. The doors of the gate were shut quickly in front of them so that they were trapped with high walls on either side of them and Albanian soldiers behind them. Turks that were up on the high walls, were ordered to killed the Mamelukes as soon as the gate was closed. Five hundred Mamelukes were trapped in a very small space with their horses and all their armor. They removed as much of their armor as they could and tried to hide from the battering that came from above and behind them. Shahin Bey was wounded and then beheaded and presented to Mohammed Ali to claim a bounty. None of the Mamelukes escaped. The houses of the Mamelukes were soon raided and some of the women were murdered. After the fight was over, Mohammed Ali immediately went to find the less important Mamelukes who had remained in the countryside. Thousands of people were killed as well as the Mameluke power in Egypt. Mohammed Ali was in absolute power after their annihilation. He immediately began to spread his new kingdom with his sons Tusun, who was his favorite, and Ibrahim as his best generals. Istanbul invited them to war with the Wahhabis of Arabia and was able to get personal control of the Red Sea coast. This meant that he control the Red Sea on both sides. He occupied Sudan and began to modernize Egypt. There were armories, factories, shipyards and canal systems were built by foreign experts that he imported to help. Some Egyptians were even sent abroad to study, especially in France. The Europeans began to be the privileged class of Egypt. Ali created monopolies in the trading and manufacturing areas which he shared with the European consuls. They had no choice but to agree to his outrageous terms, but they did reap the benefits anyway. The Europeans began to come to Egypt for different reasons than before. They were either the archaeologists or the tourists. The first archaeologist was Giovanni Belzoni. He was the son of a Paduan barber and was a strongman in a traveling fair. He came to Cairo in 1815 and became a fanatic of the ancient ruins. He was one of three people who did a lot to popularize Egypt and Cairo with the Europeans. The other members of the trio were John Lewis Burckhardt who was the Anglo-Swiss traveler, scholar and explorer. He discovered many Pharaonic sites that Belzoni exploited later. Another was Herbert Salt who was the British consul in Cairo. He was a business partner with Belzoni and he made a fortune from the antiquities he shipped to Europe in large amounts. Burckhardt did the discovery and Belzoni and Salt robbed the sites. Belzoni and Salt were the ones who sent to England the head of Memnon, the trunk of Ramses and the straight left Pharaonic arm which is in the British Museum's Egyptian section. Auguste Mariette came to Cairo in 1850 and is probably the most respected archaeologist in Egypt. He is the person who founded the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and collected most of what is inside. In the 1840s and 1850s, Mohammed Ali greatly enjoyed the European attention and interest in Egypt. He knew that it was a gold mine if he could figure out how to attach Egypt to the ever-expanding industrial and trading riches in Europe. There were two things that really made this possible. Ali introduced cotton to Egypt in 1822 and in 1845 Lieutenant Thomas Waghorn carried the mail from Bombay to London in thirty days, which was a record time. He used an overland route through Egypt to do this. The cotton in Egypt was a native form called baladi. The Europeans needed a superior quality of cotton and in 1818, the Ethiopian cotton, called Maho, was shown to Mohammed Ali. Jumel, a Frenchman that had been in America, knew about this kind of cotton and convinced Mohammed Ali to grow a plot near the Heliopolis obelisk. By 1820, three bales had been shipped to Trieste. Mohammed Ali then put Jumel in charge of his cotton plantations. Mohammed Ali began to sell the entire crops for a year at a fixed price. Money began to flow into Egypt. The cotton industry also brought the credit system to Cairo, but not in a good way. Europe kept enticing Mohammed Ali and his successors to continue borrowing at the incredibly high interest rates that eventually gave France and England the excuse to foreclose on the Egyptian economy and control all Egyptian life. Eventually Mohammed Ali was in such debt that an American consul, Gliddon, went to England to interfere in Egypt. No one would do a thing in England. Gliddon said that the peasants in Egypt had a right to plant what they wanted, but to no avail. Another thing that would give Egypt its biggest lift was the direct route from India across Egypt to England. This was the first stage in the step to the Suez Canal. The Canal would not be started until 1859 and after Mohammed Ali's death. It was finally opened in 1869 and thereafter tied Egypt to Europe. By the time the canal was opened, Ismail, Mohammed Ali's grandson was ruling Egypt. The European influence did good and bad for Cairo. Ismail intentionally divided Cairo into east and west areas because he wanted to built a Paris on the Nile. He then built two new boulevards in the old city and cut the city into quarters. Ismail's new quarter was set on a French plan and was the organization of modern Cairo. This area is called Ismailiya. Gas was brought to Cairo by Ismail in 1870, which was eventually replaced in 1898 with electricity. This made Cairo one of the earliest cities in the world to use electricity. Building was very heavy during a period of about ten years. Many homes were built as well as buildings. So much money was spent during this period that there seemed to be an endless supply of money. However, the money came from heavy taxation of everyone and everything and large loans from Europe. He was in such debt that in 1875 Ismail had to sell his shares of the Suez Canal to the British for four million pounds. In 1876, a group of Europeans told Ismail that he owed 91 million pounds. In 1879 the British and French did what Ismail had been expecting them to do for a long time. They told Ismail to abdicate, which he did because there was nothing else that he could do. The people wouldn't even help him because of the heavy taxes that he had levied on them. The people hated him. He finally gave in and left the country for Europe and died in exile in 1895. Ismail's son, Tawfik, inherited what was left of Egypt. The taxes that were placed on the people were even more harsh than before. Everything was taxed. A revolt was started by a man who liked to call himself Ahmad the Egyptian. He was the son of a peasant and became colonel of Tawfik's army. Arabi started speaking out for the peasants. The revolt began in 1881 with mutiny in the army itself. The rest of the country joined in immediately. Four thousand men marched to the square outside Abdin Palace and told the khedive to come out. Tawfik wasn't there, but when he did arrive, the palace was surrounded by soldiers that had cannons pointed at the palace. Tawfik had to sneak into the palace by the back way. He was advised by some of his leaders to appeal to the troops. He walked down the staircase with his British comptroller, Auckland Colvin, on one side and General Charles P Stone on the other. Tawfik asked the troops what they wanted. Arabi told him they wanted liberty, an assembly of notables, a constitution and all Egyptians to be equal under the law. Tawfik asked for time to think about it. Later Arabi was called to the palace and he either apologized to him or thanked him. The Egyptians have never forgotten it or forgiven him. Arabi was made minister for war. The British and French were aware what was happening and sent a fleet of ships to Alexandria. On July 11, 1882, the British bombarded Alexandria. Russian and American warships were in the harbor as well and the Europeans scrambled to get to the ships. Arabi had lined up along the Suez Canal hoping to stop the British. However, the British did go up the canal and landed at Ismailiya. On September 14, the British cavalry reached Abbasiya in Cairo. Arabi went out to Abbasiya and handed his sword over to the British. He has never been forgiven for this action either. Major Watson was an intelligence officer who entered the fortress alone. He ordered the commandant to get up and get out of the Citadel. The keys were handed over to Watson.

Egypt's history (Islamic Period-Ottoman Turk Period)

2008-07-14T14:09:00.000+03:00

Under the Ottoman's Egypt was divided into twenty-four districts and each had its own Mameluke bey, which was formerly called an emir. Each of these beys were governed by the sultan in Istanbul. The Mameluke beys surrounded themselves with slaves who collected taxes for them and had baronial authority. Tributes had to be paid to the Turks as well.

The Ottoman ruler, Sultan Selim liked to keep trouble brewing between the Mameluke beys so that he could keep them divided and controlled. So they kept on fighting among themselves. The leader who was on top, so to speak, was called the Sheikh al Balad, which means "chief of the country". There were times where the Sheikh became more powerful than the sultan in Istanbul, although this only happened when the Turks had their attentions elsewhere, which was actually quite often. The Turks had set about stopping revolts in their empire or spreading their empire even further into the west. The were even able to reach the Danube and plundered every Venetian ship they ran across in the Mediterranean.

Cairo still remained an important city because of the wheat that fed the people of Istanbul, however Venice was almost destroyed. Cairo became once again a port for fruits and grains that headed for Islam, instead of Europe. Life in Cairo was again filled with plunderings, assassinations and killing in the streets. The rivalries among the Mamelukes were compounded when more types of Mamelukes were installed in the Citadel; the Azabs and Janissaries. There were times where the different groups would hold themselves up in the different mosques and fire cannons at each other across the city. The city was to be ruled by the governor with his own men, but this became very difficult to do because the local problems were not important enough to worry with to the colonial loyalists. Tributes were collected by the Turks in the ports, but the Mamelukes took most of the money before the tribute was levied. The ordinary person was left with almost nothing. The peasant was completely exploited.

In 1695, a famine struck Cairo and the people demonstrated outside the Citadel. The pasha refused to acknowledge them and even tried to run them off. The crowd was finally able to break into the stores and took bread and other foods. Finally the revolt got so bad that the pasha was replaced by another pasha that had been sent from the Porte. A self-proclaimed saint, arrived in the city in 1698 and set up a cafe behind the fountain of al Mou'men. He let the men and women dance freely all day and night. The people greatly enjoyed this until the soldiers arrived and beheaded the saint at the Citadel.

For many years, Cairo was divided into two factions, the Kassemites and the Fikarites. The division was originally created deliberately by Sultan Selim between the Kassemites, who were the Mamelukes of Egypt and the Fikarites, who were the Turkish Janissaries. Eventually the Sadites and Haramites were divided with half of them supporting the Kassemites and the other half supporting the Fikarites. Sometimes these conflicts affected the whole city and many people lost their lives in silly battles that accomplished absolutely nothing.

The only good thing that occurred during this time is that the scholars did not give up. Cairo had the reputation of deteriorating intellectually during this time, but that was not the case. The common disrespect for the rulers bound them together. There was almost always mockery of the rulers by the people. The mosques managed to keep everyone committed passionately. In 1705 the river was low and the people went to Mukattam Hills to pray for deliverance. The Sheikh Hasan al Hadji was completely disgusted by this display.

Mohammed Amin Pasha was governor during the period in which some of Cairo's merchants were Moslems, however many were Jews and Copts. Many of them were very wealthy. The Ottomans used Copts as their clerks and civil servants. Some of the more prosperous Copts were allowed by Mohammed Amin Pasha to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Their caravan had many women and children and they had taken a lot of their possessions with them. They set up camp not far outside of Cairo, but while they were there Amin Pasha had encouraged some Moslem zealots to rob the Copts. They attacked their caravan and then looted the homes in the area as well.

Some of the Turkish rulers were not as bad as others. Osman Bey Zulficar was rather intelligent as was Ridwan al Gelfi. Al Gelfi was the chief of the corps of Azabs who were the Turkish mercenaries. He built several beautiful homes. However, his tastes were not on the same scale of excess as al Hakim or Kafour. He did manage to leave a good impression on Cairo. The only monument of his that remains is a gate on the Citadel called Bab el Azab. It was behind this gate that Mohammed Ali massacred the last of the Mamelukes in 1811. He died after being shot by assassins while he was being shaved. He didn't die in the chair, but he managed to get away on his horse and run to the countryside. He died from his wounds.

According to some historians during 1798, a laborer earned about one-seventh of a piaster per day. This came to be about 50 piasters in a year. The leading Mameluke, Murad Bey, took in fifteen hundred piasters every day out of the mint for his daily expenses. The situation in Egypt got to be so bad that the Coptic villages in Upper Egypt refused to pay their taxes. Apparently no one tried to collect from them either.

The Turkish manners and ways of life seemed to make no impression on the Egyptians. They did not use the Turkish language and the people of Cairo managed to keep their own identity. The ruling families did adopt some of the Turkish habits, but by and large the city remained Egyptian. The Turks built mosques but they preferred the public mosque called a masjid, to the college mosque called a madrasa. The Byzantine style was preferred to the traditional Arabian style. The mosques were usually smaller and their artistic creativity was less, not because of a lack of skill, but because of a lack of money.

In the year between 1796 and 1797, the Egyptians revolted against the Turks. They wanted something to be done about the unbearable taxes and the economic misery that had been oppressing them for so long. One of the Egyptian Mamelukes, Ali Bey, occupied Cairo and sent the Turkish pasha back to Porte. He then attacked Arabia and Syria and defeated them soundly. He was called the caliph of Mecca, which made Egypt an essentially independent state within the Ottoman Empire.

Ali Bey was eventually murdered and Ibrahim, who was another Mameluke along with Murad Bey took over the rule of Egypt. It was during this time that Napoleon arrived on the coast of Alexandria. The Mamelukes were not strong enough to fight both the French and the Turks at the same time. Murad would not believe it when he was told that Napoleon had arrived. When he finally believed it, he invited Napoleon to come to Cairo. A man named Rosetti, who was the Tuscan consul, was told by Murad to give each of the French soldiers a handful of silver when they arrived and to ask them to leave because Murad had no desire to kill them. Rosetti then tried to explain to Murad who exactly Napoleon was. Murad knew nothing of Europe or the history, so when the French started their advance on Cairo, Murad sent out ten thousand Mamelukes and thirty thousand irregulars, who were mostly Albanians, Negroes, Bedouins and Egyptians, to fight Napoleons forty thousand veteran troops.

In a suburb of Cairo called Imbaba, the French and the Mamelukes fought it out. The battle was very bloody on both sides. The veteran French soldiers maneuvered all over the place and eventually got the Mamelukes in a crossfire. The citizens of Cairo watched the smoke and dust rise over the city and the sounds of rifle shots and cannon filling the air. At the end of it all, the Mamelukes were beaten and they left the city. Murad Bey rushed to his palace at Giza and gathered up as much of his fortune as he could in about fifteen minutes. He ordered his soldiers to burn all of the military's gunpowder and gunboats along with any other ammunition that were along the river at Giza. He then left the city.

The people of Cairo mistakenly thought the French had set their city on fire. They began to pack their belongings and fled as quickly as they could. They really had no place to go and many of them were attacked by the Bedouins as they left the city. The killings and pillagings began even before the French ever arrived in the city. Several of the sheikhs of Cairo met at Azhar and wrote a letter to Napoleon to negotiate the surrender of the city. The people felt betrayed and deserted and became very angry. They broke into the palaces of Murad and Ibrahim and set them afire. It was on a Wednesday that Napoleon rode into the city and and took possession of the city.

Egypt's history (Islamic Period-Mameluke Period)

2008-07-14T14:08:00.000+03:00

When Shaggar ruled alone, the Mamelukes essentially ruled the city anyway. The white slaves imported by the Egyptian governors now ruled Egypt. As children, they were converted to Islam, educated and given military training. Many worked their way up through the army ranks, and when they reached a high enough rank, were freed by their masters, to whom they pledged their loyalty.

Many were appointed to high governmental posts. Advancement was by individual ability and open only to those who had been indentured. To supply their private armies, the Mamelukes continued to import slaves, creating multiple power groups that dragged the native Egyptians into their fierce and frequent power struggles.

In general, since Mameluke culture was based on slavery, neither wives nor sons had any claim on a Mameluke's political or military power. Mameluke sons, denied both hereditary claims and the slavery that would grant them entry into politics, filtered into the Egyptian population. Although Mamelukes controlled the court and the army, Egyptians continued to staff civil offices, financial agencies, the judiciary and the professions.

Egypt's history (Islamic Period-Ayyubid Period)

2008-07-14T13:59:00.000+03:00

Egypt had become a rich prize for two rival outsiders who were much more powerful and aggressive than the Fatimids. The first Christian crusaders appeared in Palestine in 1096 and began fighting with the Seljuk Moslems over the Holy Land and Egypt as well. These two groups invaded Egypt at the same time and at that point the invasion of Egypt was inevitable. The Fatimids that were still in Kahira preferred the Crusaders to the Seljuks and tried to pay Christian King Amaury two hundred thousand gold pieces to help them get rid of the Seljuks. He agreed to the deal. The first attempt to conquer Egypt ended in a stalemate when both the Christians and the Seljuks withdrew from the area. They had agreed among themselves to withdraw. Amaury the Christian returned in 1168 and killed everyone in Belbeis. He marched on to Kahira and Shawar, the effective ruler of Egypt, ordered Fustat-Misr to be burned to the ground. Shawar had been the Fatimid governor of Upper Egypt five years before, but had deserted them and joined the Seljuks in Damascus. He had made a deal with the Sultan of Damascus, Nur ed Din, for Shawar to become the first minister in Egypt. When Amaury came to attack Kahira, Shawar asked for help from the Sultan and the Sultan agreed. He sent his general Shirkuh and Salah al-Din Yusif al-Ayyubi (Saladin), who was Shirkuh's nephew, to get rid of the crusaders. This turned out to be not very difficult since they had become so unpopular after the massacre of Bilbeis. Amaury fled and the Seljuks were victorious.

Nur ed Din appointed Shirkuh as vizier of Egypt, but he did not live long enough to make any serious decisions. His nephew, Saladin inherited his position and problems. He became vizier on March 2, 1169 when he was thirty-two years old. His first job was to replace the Shi'i doctrines with the orthodox Sunni faith. It took over a year before he ordered Friday prayers to be said for the Abbasid caliph instead of Shi'i. He had been afraid that the people would be very upset after the destruction of Fustat-Misr, but no one got upset. This essentially ended the rule of the Fatimids more than anything else.

The Fatimids still lived in their palaces in Kahira and Saladin didn't bother them at first. It was only when the young Caliph al Adid died that Saladin moved in. He expelled eighteen thousand members of the Fatimid family that lived inside the enclosure. He took none of the wealth for himself and didn't even live in the palaces. He opened the gates and allowed the population to build inside and around the royal city. After two hundred years, Kahira was no longer a royal enclosure. This was the beginning of a city called Cairo, which was Saladin's city.

Saladin had a completely different concept of a city than the Fatimid's did. He wanted a city that was protected by strong walls and defenses, but was a thriving, unified city that had a lot of cultural and commercial freedom. He didn't want private palaces or royal enclaves, but a city that belonged to the people within it with him as absolute ruler. Many historians believe that his reasonings were purely militarily based, but that is not entirely true. The Fatimids were trying to hang onto a corrupt empire while he was defending a culture as well as a territory. He was trying to hold onto a religion as well as ideals. It was also a collecting house for the vast amounts of wealth that he needed to defend this city.

Saladin laid out plans to build a fortress, the Citadel, in 1176 - 1177 on Cairo's most easily defended hill and began expansion of the Fatimid walls to enclose the city. He had the Pharaonic canal that fed the oasis of Fayoum repaired and also built madrasas (colleges), making Cairo a great center for Islamic scholarship. It still retains this position today. Saladin not only fortified the city, but also built five colleges and a mosque in eleven years. Not one of these exists today and only a small part of the Citadel is his. These madrasas that he had built were very important to the re-emergence of Cairo from the position it had been in thanks to the Fatimids. It was in 1176 - 1177 that he ordered a madrasa to be built near the grave of the founder of one of the main schools of the orthodox Sunni sect, Imam el Shafi'i. El Shafi'i had been born in Giza and was buried in the cemetery called Khalifa, which was south of Cairo. The madrasa no longer exists, but the mausoleum is still there with a fairly new mosque.

Saladin did not remain in Egypt long, for as soon as the country was secure, he turned it over to his brother, al-Adil and his vizier, al-Fadil, and left to drive the Crusaders from the Holy Land. He left in 1182 and never returned. He died in Damascus in 1193 after having liberating all Palestine from the English, French, Austrians and Sicilians. Essentially, he liberated them from the power of the Pope. Many times he was aided by the eastern Christians. They were as much the victims of the crusaders as anyone. The epitome of Muslim chivalry, he won the respect of the European knights against whom he fought, and they incorporated many of his ideals into their own codes. He charmed the Westerners with his knowledge and culture and became a primary character in Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Talisman". From Saladin's forces, Christian knights learned firsthand about Islamic improvements in fortifications and arms as well as medical knowledge.

Saladin gave his family name to the Egyptian dynasty that followed him, and his successors were able rulers. They expanded irrigation systems and secured travel and trading routes. The spice trade flourished, and in spite of a bout with famine caused by several low Niles, plague and earthquakes, Egypt prospered. Saladin's brother, al Adil, succeeded Saladin and faced a terrible famine in the Middle Ages. The crusaders returned in 1218 but were thoroughly defeated by Adil's son, al Kamil. Al Kamil is the one responsible for finishing the first Citadel. Al Kamil was knighted by Richard Coeur de Lion on Palm Sunday in 1192.

Al Salih Ayyub and his Mameluke wife, Shaggar ad Durr were partly responsible for the Mameluke slave system becoming a very important part of Egyptian history. Shaggar ad Durr was one of his slaves. Eventually the Ayyubid sultans became too weak to keep the succession of their family going. Cairo became full of Mameluke soldiers and emirs. Al Salih Ayyub died when he was too young to have an heir, so his widow, Shaggar ad Durr decided to rule herself. She was respected enough by the Mameluke lords that they did support her at first. She ruled for eighty days as an absolute monarch.

Eventually the Bahri Mamelukes grew tired of her ruling alone and they elected Ayback, who was their commander in chief, to marry her. She may have married him, but Shaggar went on ruling Egypt alone. She made no secret of her contempt of him and even made him divorce his favorite wife. Later on he wanted to marry another wife and Shaggar had him murdered in the Citadel as he was taking a bath. The Mamelukes were furious and had her locked in the Citadel. Shaggar smashed all of her pearls and jewels into dust so that no other women could have them. They then drug her out into the street and beat her to death with the shoes of the young girls that belonged to the wife of Ayback that Shaggar had made him divorce. She was thrown out of the Citadel and left in the ditch below. Eventually someone took pity on her and took her body to the tomb that had been built for her. Her tomb is on the southern edge of Cairo and was built in 1250.

Egypt's history (Islamic Period-The Fatimid Period)

2008-07-14T13:56:00.000+03:00

In the second half of the tenth century, Egypt in general suffered not only from a number of low Nile floods, which in turn caused famine, but also from poor leadership of these last few Abbasid rulers. While the time was ripe, the Fatimid general Gawhar, a former slave, marched to Fustat-Misr and took the city on August 5th, 969 for his khalif, al-Muiz. But this conquest had really began in the last century. It had been planned by Abdallah Ibn Maymun, a Persian occultist with visions of imperial grandeur, who had established himself in Tunisia. He died in 875, but his descendents continued on. They would create an Egyptian Khaliftate that would last for over 200 years in Egypt, and also an empire that would encompass a considerable area of the Middle East. By this time, most Egyptians were Orthodox Sunni Muslims, and the khalif of their sect was in Baghdad, a regime that the Fatimids bitterly opposed. The Fatimids practiced a more introverted religion, which seems not to have impressed the more practical Egyptians. Then too, we are told that the Fatimids sent out missionaries to the lands still held by the Sunni Abbasids, and were more interested in converting them than their own subjects in Egypt.

El Kahira was founded by a Shi'ite. The difference between the Shi'i and the Sunni is very important during the next 200 years of the history of Cairo. The Sunni believe that the sunna (a path) is considered to be as powerful as the Koran itself. The sunna is a collection of traditions and interpretations of the Koranic law. After Mohammed died, he left no indication about who his successor should be. The Sunni decided that a chosen caliph would be an elected head of all legitimate secular power. The Shi'i believe that the Koran was absolute and divine. They believed that the authority should only continue through Mohammed's family. Mohammed had four daughters of which Fatima was the youngest. Two of his grandsons by Fatima were al Hasan and al Husein. Of course, the Fatimid period is named for this daughter.

General Gawhar, when he seized Fustat-Misr in 969, had no intentions of basing his authority on what was already a powerful city with its traditions already established. The very night that he arrived he placed his army on a site a little north of Fustat-Misr. He wanted to place his own capital there. Historians tell the story of how El Kahira was started. Gawhar had marked out the site where he wanted to place the city. Poles were placed at the corners and ropes were strung to show the perimeters of the walls. Hundreds of workmen were placed around the perimeter and waited to start digging. A special signal was to be given at the moment the digging was to commence. Bells were hung on the ropes and a signal was to be given. The astrologers were waiting for some astrologically correct moment to give the signal. Suddenly the bells started ringing although no one had given the signal. A raven sitting on the ropes had rung the bells, but the diggers took it to be the signal and started digging. The astrologers were terrified. El Kahira, which means Mars, was in the ascendant and this was sure to be a bad omen. The original name of the city was to have been El Mansuriya, which means "the victorious", but instead was called El Kahira, which can also mean "the victorious".

The Fatimid caliph, Muiz, who had sent Gawhar to Egypt, placed himself in the new royal enclosure in El Kahira in 973. For two hundred years after there has been bitter opposition to the Sunni caliphs of Baghdad. The Fatimids' real trouble was that they were so concerned with a "revealed" and "inner" religion that they were unable to convert the practical Egyptians. The Egyptians were still recovering from the same sort of thing from Byzantine Christianity. The Fatimids were only able to rule Egypt by using the Christians and Jews that they had formed a powerful allegiance with. The Fatimids were similar to the Christians in many ways in that they believed that a Messiah was coming to protect them against sin and error and would save them all.

Al Kahira was originally intended to be a private, fortified, royal enclosure, not a public city. Gawhar built palaces for his master so that he and his friends and their armies could be separated from the general public. No ordinary citizen was allowed to set foot in al Kahira unless he was needed for something. Even ambassadors had to be met outside the enclosure and led through the proper gate. It was over 200 years before Fustat-Misr's people overflowed into the city and built mosques, pavilions and houses. In Muiz's time, the population of Kahira was between twenty and thirty thousand people, all of which were court officials, servants, slaves and soldiers.

Gawhar laid the foundation for the Mosque of al Azhar while he was still building the walls of the city and the palace for Muiz. The courtyard for this mosque was where the courtyard still is today. The mosque itself has been considerably rebuilt. When enough of the city had been built, Muiz arrived to take over the city in 975. Fustat-Misr had been decorated to welcome him, but when he arrived he went straight to Kahira, which had not been decorated at all. The people had not expected him to occupy his new city yet.

The original plans for Kahira were very simple. The city measured twelve hundred yards by sixteen hundred fifty yards with a wall surrounding it that was wide enough for two horsemen to ride side by side on top of the wall. The whole west side ran along the old Red Sea canal, which was filled in 1899 and had tramlines placed over it. There were two main gates in the wall; Bab el Zuweila on the south side, through which Muiz entered the city, and Bab el Futuh (the Gate of Succor) on the north. On the east side of the city was the Mukattam Hills. Inside the city walls, each group of the population had their own quarters. The army quarters were known as Harat al Askar and the Greek quarters were called Harat al Rum.

Muiz had invested most of his own fortune to conquer Egypt, so he wanted a return on his investment as quickly as possible. The Red Sea canal was the means in which he implemented his wealth. At a bend in the river near the canal that ran almost up to the walls of Kahira, was a customs port of al Maks. Muiz took this over almost immediately and began to expand it into a proper docking yard. He kept the tax collecting character, but also laid the foundation for a new port of his own. This new port immediately took most of the business that normally went to Fustat-Misr.

In this area he built six hundred ships that were about 275 feet long by 110 feet abeam. These ships were a very wise investment since they could carry large amounts of cargo. Muiz changed the whole tax system into a central collecting body that did away with the local collectors. In one day it is said that he collected over $475,000 (in modern equivalent) in taxes in Fustat-Misr alone.

Muiz only lived for two years after he entered the city. Mostly what he did was lay the foundation that was solid, rich and clever. Seventy-seven years after Muiz died, Khusrau gives a description of a city that literally grew up overnight as the wealth that was amassed was spent lavishly on construction. No buildings were allowed near the palace, but the buildings that were in the enclosure were so tall and numerous that they looked like mountains when approaching the city. There were twelve thousand servants that took care of the caliph in the palace and no one knows how many women were within those palace walls.

The palace had twelve pavilions and ten gates some of which were named; the Gate of Gold, the Gate of Oil, the Gate of the Emerald, the Gate Where You Smell Meat and the Gate of the Slippery Ground. It is said that there was a special gate underground which opened into a tunnel that the sultan rode through to his harem.

The city of Kahira had five gates and the fortified walls did not quite enclose the city. Fifty-two thousand camels were used to bring fresh water to the city. The Fatimids were different from the other foreign invaders of Egypt. The others had built their capitals, but they had not since the Romans built the high walls around their cities the way the Fatimids did. The Fatimids enjoyed the arts and some sciences, especially astronomy. Many writers and artists came to Kahira and the gardens were sometimes filled with poets.

Muiz died at the age of forty-five and his son Aziz ruled after him for about twenty-one years. Aziz was just as much responsible for the financial administration that was organized and has kept Egypt running so effectively for so long. Many of the unusual financial methods that were introduced during this time were the ideas of Aziz's chief minister, Ibn Killis. Kahira prospered very rapidly and bridges, mosques, palaces and a new canal were built. Aziz started the mosque which his son Hakim finished. This mosque is considered to be one of the most romantic ruins in Cairo today.

Hakim was eleven years old when his father died. He was playing in one of the gardens when his tutor, Bargawan came to tell him of the news. Bargawan was a eunuch and had nicknamed his student "little lizard". Aziz looked and acted like a lizard. He had big blue eyes like his father and he scared people. His face was frightening and he preferred darkness to daylight. He went out only at night, wandering through the city on a donkey. He ordered all of the shops to close during the day but to stay open during the night. The people eventually began to grow accustomed to this change but when they began to have parties and entertain at night, he punished them. Hakim began to enjoy his authority and exercised it in very unreal ways. In 1004, he had all of the dogs of Kahira killed. No wine, grapes, beer, mulokhiya, lupin pellets or fish without scales could be sold. All sorts of fruits were to be burned and the vines cut down. Honey, which was a delicacy to the Egyptians, was ordered to be poured into the Nile. Over five thousand jars of it was destroyed. No women could go out onto the streets during the day or night. This restriction lasted for over seven and a half years. One of his favorite challenges to his friends or enemies that were visiting his palace, was to challenge them that for six hundred dinars, they could not jump on a piece of wood that floated on the surface of the pool. A royal challenge could not be refused, but when the challenged jumped in the pool, he would find himself impaled on a spear which was hidden under the floating wood.

Hakim loved to go off alone at night on his gray donkey that he called al Kamr, which means "the moon". He would go out in the Mukkatam Hills. On February 13, 1021, he went out riding alone on Kamr in the Mukkatam Hills. He was seen in the hills near Helwan on the next day, but was never seen again after that. His clothes were found with holes stabbed in them, stuffed in a well.

Hakim's list of horrors is very long but he did also enjoy literature and poetry as well as astronomy. The Hakimite astronomical tables were designed for Hakim by the Arab astronomer al Yunus. Hakim also had built the Hall of Science in the palace grounds for the study of the Shi'i doctrine, science and astronomy. Scholars came here from everywhere to discuss whatever they wanted. The Egyptians of Fustat-Misr always resisted Hakim. He had to stay hidden in his city for days after he had Bargawan killed. The women hated him for the laws forbidding them to leave their homes. One time, they placed a very well made dummy in the middle of the street where they knew that Hakim would see it. He ordered his guards to cut her to pieces and when they tried they found it made of paper. He was so angry that he sent his Sudanese troops to burn Fustat-Misr to the ground. The people resisted and there was a civil war that lasted for about three days.

Hakim's son, Zahir, became caliph after the murder of Hakim. Zahir was much like his father in that he also enjoyed making people suffer. Once he had a huge party at his palace that he invited 2,660 young ladies. They came to the party dressed in their most beautiful clothes. They were all asked to wait in a nearby mosque because of some delay. While they waited inside the mosque, masons bricked up the doors and they were left to die in agony. Six months later their bodies were found still inside the mosque. The Fatimids amassed a great amount of wealth that was mostly cash. They were a very wasteful and extravagant group.

Kahira reached its peak when al Mustansir, Zahir's son, became caliph. Mustansir was just a baby when his father died, but he took over the rule from his mother when he became old enough. He reigned for fifty-eight years. He collected cash rents on twenty thousand boutiques that he owned in Kahira and Fustat-Misr and on twenty thousand houses as well. He also had three hundred sixty-nine villages along the Red Sea canal. The main problem with such a fortune based on a delicate trading economy, is that it could be lost so fast. Mustansir did lose his wealth almost overnight when Egypt's crops failed. The Nile failed to rise as it needed to and caused bad harvests. The peasants revolted and there were shortages. The people of Kahira and Fustat-Misr began to go hungry.

Al Yazury, the first minister of Mustansir managed to keep the grain prices low and the supply still coming in. Yazury built the Joseph's Granaries at Fustat. He was murdered in 1058 and the internal authority began to crumble because the merchants reigned supreme. They didn't care who starved or what happened to Kahira. The merchants encouraged the Turks and the Berber soldiers to revolt and expel fifty thousand Sudani soldiers. The Sudanis went to Upper Egypt and set up a bandit kingdom where they raided the villages nearby. The Sudanese destroyed the irrigation systems there and the Berbers raided the Delta area. Almost no crops were planted in Upper or Lower Egypt and the economy stopped dead in its tracks.

The Turks destroyed the city of Kahira. They stole most of the treasures of Mustansir as well as the library, which as one of the world's most extensive. One hundred thousand books were taken out of the city and piled up on a hill, which was known for years as the Hill of Books. A period of famine went on for seven years. Plagues hit the city. Mustansir sent his family to Baghdad to keep from starving to death and he had to sell everything that he had to survive. Cannibalism became so common that human flesh was sold by butchers.

The Turkish soldiers set parts of Fustat-Misr on fire and then occupied the city. They then rushed to the royal city and found al Mustansir sitting alone in his palace with nothing left. Everything was gone, but they did not dethrone him. They obviously controlled the city. In the year 1073, a good crop made Mustansir send for Badr al Gamali, who was a former slave. Gamali said that he would come only if he could bring his Syrian soldiers with him. Mustansir agreed and Badr arrived in December of 1074. The Turkish soldiers welcomed him, not knowing what he was there for. He told his Syrian officers to entertain a Turkish officer for just one night only. The next morning, the officers brought to him the heads of the Turks that they had entertained.

Mustansir and Badr were responsible for most of the remnants that we have of Kahira today. The city had mostly outgrown its walls so they built a new wall and removed all the old gates. The old brick gates were replaced with stone gates, three of which remain today; Bab el Nasr (the Gate of Victory), Bab el Futuh (Gate of Succor) and Bab el Zuweila (Gate of the tribe Zuweila). Badr was titled Emir Giyushi and built a mosque that is on top of Mukattam Hills. He built it there because he wanted to be able to see the graves of his seven favorite wives in the valley below. Badr and Mustansir died in the same year, 1094. Badr left to his family six million gold dinars, seventy-five thousand satin robes, two hundred fifty bags of silver coins, thirty camel loads of Iraqi golden boxes, one hundred gold nails, each of which held a jeweled turban, and two large trunks of gold needles for his slaves and wives to use. After the deaths of as Mustansir and Badr, six Fatimid caliphs would rule for seventy-five years.

Egypt's history (Islamic Period-Abbasid Period)

2008-07-14T13:52:00.000+03:00

The first and second Muslim civil wars appear to have made little difference in Cairo's life, though the governors of Egypt now received their orders from Damascus instead of Medina. It also changed the nature of the Khalifate from elected to hereditary rule. But these wars did set the stage for the third civil war, which would have considerable effect. The third civil war was a reaction to the extravagance, decadence and what was seen as a deterioration of Islamic faith in the Umayyads rulers. In addition, the civil war brought rulers to the Islamic world which for the first time were not Arabic, but rather Persian and Turks, and Egypt was now ruled from Baghdad. This civil war would create a shift in ruling families, from Umayyads to Abbasid. More importantly, it would give Egyptians their first taste of the Shi'i form of Islam. Most Egyptians prior to this, throughout most of their Islamic history and today, are orthodox Sunni. Actually, the Islamic world was now or soon to be ruled by three (or more) different Khalifs, including a Shi'i Kalif in North Africa (the Aghlabid dynasty), the Abbasids in Baghdad and the Umayyads who still maintained a hold on Islamic Spain. But there was also fragmentation in Morocco, under the Alid dynasty of Idrisids, and the Tahirids of Khurasan.

Fustat was captured by the Abbasid general Saleh in 750 AD. Saleh, like all Muslim rulers, disliked the idea of establishing his authority on the bones of previous rulers, so he made his new headquarters on a flat stretch of dry land on the northern tip of Fustat. This new district was called El Askar, meaning "the Soldiers" in Arabic. As time passed, El Askar became integrated with Fustat, and later still, really lost its identity as a true separate district.

In 779, Abu Salih became the first Turkish-born governor. He was classified as Arabic, but was born a Turk. The Abbasid rule was at once more restrictive for the individuals and more open intellectually. New laws were laid down for living, behavior and dress, and these laws were enforced. All doors and gates were ordered to be left open, however if anyone was caught stealing, they were beheaded. The rulers in Baghdad, including the famous Harun al Rashid, opened their court to Greek classical studies such as the works of Aristotle, as well as poetry from India and Persia. In fact, the Muslim scholars did much more than simply preserve ancient learning. They also expanded upon it, adding to the sciences of medicine, mathematics and astronomy, among others. It is understandable that Islamic intellectuals would flourish at a time when the west was floundering in ignorance. Mohammed's teachings insisted on literacy for all at a time when most leaders cared nothing about the education of the common people. Some of this enlightenment was transferred to the west, which kindled a rebirth of learning and eventually led Christian Europe out of the dark ages and into the Renaissance.

One of the most significant trends established by the Abbasid rule were the use of Turkish war slaves. Later, they would be called the Mamelukes and would be used as a mercenary army, then even as governors and rulers of Egypt. This went on until Mohammed Ali disposed of them in the early 19th century. At first these slave soldiers were simply an accident of the Abbasid system of educating "acquired" children in the court to grow up into a loyal bodyguard. This civil service was therefore without roots in the society itself, so they could be trusted to do as they were told, no matter what was happening outside of the court. These slaves were not beaten, or usually made to do brutal work, but were instead trained in good soldiering. Yet as time passed, they began to rule the rulers, and finally, one of them set himself up in Fustat as the master and not the slave. This was Ahmad Ibn Tulun.

The Tulunids under the Abbasids, Egypt was often loosely governed by the Baghdad Khalif's appointees, many of whom did not rule from Egypt. The administration in Egypt began to disintegrate, with taxes becoming intolerable and inflation on the rise. In the 868, the khalif sent a Turkish governor, Ahmad Ibn Tulun to take charge of the situation. Ibn Tulun was the son of a Turkish slave from Bokhara who was given as a present to the Khalif Mamun in 815. His son, became educated in the highest traditions of the period, and earned considerable respect for his brave and loyal service to the Khalif. He soon consolidated the government, steadied the economy and imposed order. But seeing better uses for Egypt's treasury at home, he sent less and less of the tax revenues to Baghdad. In 868 he declared his independence from the Baghdad Khalifate, but he was also careful to maintain ties with the Abbasids. Actually, he was intelligent enough to maintain the trade with the East which made him rich. It is said that he had to borrow money to make the original trip to Fustat, but by 870, he needed new quarters to house all of his soldiers, ministers, wives and slaves. Therefore, like all notable rulers before him, he also established a new city called al-Qatai (the Quarters).

Qatai's name is derived from the fact that the city was divided between districts, or quarters, each housing a separate segment of its population (soldiers, servants, guards, Greeks or Romans, Nubians, etc). It is said that each segment also had its own gate to enter the city, including a Gate of Nobles, a Gate of Lions, a gate called el Darmun for the captain of the guards, and even a special triple arched gate for Ibn Tulun himself.

This new city was located north of Fustat on a small knoll of high ground called Yeshkur. This knoll, located between Fustat and the Mukattam Hills was considered a holy place, where Moses had conversations with God and where Abraham slew his sacrifice. Ibn Tulun built his palace there, along with a Harem palace, a garden, a racetrack, polo grounds, a zoo, baths, and fine homes for his staff. There was also a Midan (square) el Qatai, which was very popular with the people, and where there was something going on almost all of the time. It is said that Ibn Tulan built a summer home high up on the Gate of Lions, from which he could look down on this square that would be filled with people, lights and gaiety, especially on feast days. He also established a proud tradition of building hospitals, including the first one in Egypt. The story tells of a servant traveling in Upper Egypt one day when his horse fell into a hole. In the hole, he found a treasure worth a million dinars. In gratitude to God, Ibn Tulun built his first hospital, which was free to the civil population of Fustat, using some of this treasure. In 876, he also built his mosque on the crown of the hill, which today is considered to be one of the most important and also most beautiful Muslim monuments in the world.

Though he passed his rule to his sons, they were not great statesman or administers. His son, Khumaraweh, ruled after Ibn Tuluns death, and was one of the "characters" that sometimes grace Egypt's history. He made his father's Midan into an exotic garden, with tropical trees, roses, jasmine, lilies and shrubs. But not liking the stalks of the trees, he had every trunk and branch coated in sheets of copper and lined with water pipes, so that each tree now became a fountain. Since he had built over his father's midan, he built an even larger one a short distance away. There were horse races held there almost every day and night.

It is also said that Khumaraweb's palace had rooms which were coated with thin sheets of gold studded with lapis lazuli. There were also wooden statues of himself and his wives dressed in golden cloth in a suite called the House of Gold. He had a zoo built that had a special house of lions. Each cage contained a lion and a lioness and had a door in which the keeper could clean out the room and put clean sand on the floor. Running water was also in each cage. There were times that Khumaraweh would let all of the lions out to play in the courtyard. The roars of the lions playing and fighting would shake all of Fustat throughout the night. Each lion was trained to go back to his cage when the keeper called him by name. Khumaraweh did have one special lion that he kept as his pet, Zouraik, which means "little blue". Zouraik had blue eyes and was led around by Khumaraweh by a gold collar. The lion slept near Khumaraweh, no matter where he was. Khumaraweh fed him goats and chickens and brushed his coat. There were also camels, leopards, giraffes, elephants, ponies and racehorses in the city.

The epitome of his self indulgence was his sleeping habits. Legend has it that he had trouble sleeping. To correct this, he had a lake dug in the garden of his palace which was thirteen hundred feet square. He filled the lake with mercury and placed an air mattress made of skins. The mercury made small waves which would rock him to sleep, as servants in a nearby alcove sang songs or chanted his favorite verses from the Koran. The mattress was tied to the edges of the lake by cords made of silk. If he still couldn't sleep, he would walk around the palace, entertain his lady friends or sit in his gardens.

Everything seemed to change for Khumaraweh after his favorite wife, Bouran, died. He had built the House of Gold for her. In 896, he was strangled in his bed by his servants and concubines. His bodyguard and lion were not able to save him. His killers were crucified. He was taken home to Fustat and buried near his father, somewhere at the foot of Mukattam.

Egypt was soon engulfed in corruption, while famine and the plague swept the nation. The Abbasids had once again gained strength, and they sent a soldier named Mohammed Ibn Sulyman to regain control of the country, which he did in 905. Mohammed Ibn Sulyman took four months to devastate El-Qatai. Over one hundred and sixty years later, a wall was built around El-Qatai and El Askar to hide them from the rest of the city. Today all that is left is the mosque. The Abbasid's intermediate rule only lasted for thirty years, until the Fatimid conquest of 969.

Egypt's history (The Byzantine Period)

2008-07-14T13:40:00.000+03:00

It is with the ascension of the Roman emperor Constantine that a new era began for Alexandria, as well as for the Empire as a whole. By defeating his co-ruler Licinius (Rome had begun the practice of having two rulers, one for the eastern half of the Empire, and one for the western half), Constantine became sole emperor. He created an eastern capital for the Empire in the city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople (this would not be the last name change the city would go through, after the sack by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 it would be called Istanbul). His new capital, in which he spent much of his remaining life until his death in AD 337, was small but growing, but it was a far cry from the mighty city it would become under the Byzantines. Constantine imported Greek and Roman statuary to decorate the city, ordered the construction of buildings in the traditional Roman style, and had half the grain shipments from Alexandria shipped to Constantinople. Yet what Constantine is most noted for today was his policy towards the various religions in the Empire. He supported both the Roman religion as well as Christianity. Clerics of both faiths were exempted from taxation and having to serve on city councils (a move which prompted a great number of ordinations), the same financial help which had been given to the building of Roman temples was now shared with the Christians, and Constantine himself was responsible for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. Constantine also gave land and money to build a great church in Rome, which would later grow into the headquarters of the Christian religion: the Vatican. With so much emphasis on Constantinople, and the fact that much of the Egyptian grain production was being shipped there, Alexandria began to slip from its position at the center of the Mediterranean world. Meanwhile the old Roman Empire crumbled under barbarian invasions and internal conflict, and the Byzantine Empire rose in its place. The center of the world moved to Constantinople, which under the Byzantines became a center for art, science, and religious and secular learning. Alexandria continued to influence the world, only more subtly now. In 529 the emperor Justinian closed the Academy of Athens, forbidding the teaching of what he called "pagan philosophy", yet Alexandria's schools remained open, teaching Atristotelian and Platonic philosophy well into the eighth century. Alexandria also received another moment of glory during the Byzantine Era, as the Byzantines became rather infatuated with classical Greek culture that had been largely lost under the Romans, but well-preserved by the learned of Alexandria. Royal patronage of the arts and sciences had long disappeared, yet the poets, teachers, and scholars went on for their art's sake, supporting themselves through pedagogy and commissioned writing. But this was not to last. In the early seventh century the most successful Persian attack on the Byzantine Empire took both Jerusalem and Alexandria. The emperor Heraclius managed to beat back the Persians to the point of collapse but a new onslaught began, this time from the south. After battling the Persians, the Byzantine rulers had little hope of defeating the forces that came sweeping north from the deserts of Arabia. The final defeat of the Byzantine armies in 636 left Palestine and Syria open to conquest by the Arabs, and they spread like wildfire over northern Africa, eventually bringing Alexandria under their control in 642.

Egypt's history (The Roman Period)

2008-07-14T12:52:00.002+03:00

The final century or so of Ptolemaic rule from Alexandria is a sad one, primarily because many of the later Ptolemies, Pharaohs they might have appeared to be, were mere puppets of the Roman Empire. With the death of Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemies to rule, and the defeat of the once-mighty Ptolemaic navy at Actium, in 31 BC Egypt became part of the Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar. Military garrisons were stationed at Alexandria to keep the peace in Egypt, and no doubt to keep a close eye on the Alexandrian Mob, which had not diminished over the years, but had stayed very much alive, and would continue to thrive under the Roman dominion. The Ptolemies had succeeded in assimilating the Egyptian culture and thus the respect of the native population, but the new Roman rulers who came after them made little attempt to do so. Certainly they adopted the pharaonic titles and built temples in the traditional style, but as Egypt was now ruled in absentia from Rome, the native population, still deeply rooted in their ancient religion and beliefs, refused to honor rulers who no longer performed the ceremonial roles of divine kingship. Indeed, few of the emperors ever set foot in Egypt, let alone Alexandria, until the famed riots of AD 250. Yet the foundations for knowledge laid by the Ptolemies centuries before allowed the city to continue prospering. The first-century AD scientist Hero, who produced works on everything from steam power to the construction of artillery, was a citizen of Alexandria, and the great physician Galen of Pergamum was educated in Alexandria's famed medical academies. Additionally, a new tradition in learning had begun in Alexandria during the final years of the Ptolemies -- philosophy. One of the reasons for the new surge in philosophy was that due to Mithradates of Pontus' first war against Rome caused many philosophers to leave Athens, and more than a few of them came to settle in Alexandria. It has been said that Augustus Caesar (who was called Octavian at the time) spared Alexandria during his Egyptian campaign largely as a favor to his friend, the philosopher Arius Didymus. Also a citizen of Alexandria was the prolific Jewish author Philo. A member of a wealthy Alexandrian family, Philo was a student of both Platonic philosophy and the Jewish tradition, and he applied one to the other, often with astonishing results. The effects of Greek thought on the early Christian church are largely a result of Philo and other Jewish scholars educated in the Greek tradition of Alexandria. The end of the Roman Era and the beginning of what is called the Byzantine Era is actually quite difficult to pin down, but certainly the high empire of Rome was in decline. A rapid succession of emperors destroyed any hope of stability, with the exception of the twenty-year reign of emperor Diocletian, who stabilized the money supply (all of the Roman Empire now used one coinage, even Alexandria, which up until now had minted its own money) and made great efforts to reorganize the bureaucracy. Rome was falling, and with it the Empire. An emperor was needed who could protect the Empire from outside invasion as well as repair the internal strife between the various factions, religions, and cliques, all of which were represented in Alexandria. Rome found what it needed, though perhaps not exactly what it wanted in Constantine.

ancient Egypt history overview

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Around 3100 BC, two kingdoms that had grown up along the Nile river were united when the ruler of Upper Egypt conquered the kingdom in Lower Egypt. Thus began what is now generally accepted as the first of at least 30 Egyptian dynasties. Ancient Egyptian dynasties are grouped into periods of stability referred to as 'kingdoms' and periods of fragmentation and chaos referred to as 'intermediate periods'.

The Early Dynastic Period (c. 2925 – c. 2575 BC)

The Early Dynastic Period includes the 1st, 2nd and 3rd dynasties. The first king of the 1st dynasty is considered by some experts to be called Menes. Others believe Narmer was the unifier of the two Egyptian kingdoms. Still others consider Menes and Narmer to be the same person.

The Old Kingdom (c. 2600 - c. 2150 BC)

The Old Kingdom lasted approximately 500 years and is sometimes called the "Age of Pyramids". (The Old Kingdom includes the 4th through the 8th dynasties.) Great achievements in art and architecture were realized including the completion of 20 major pyramids. During this time, the kings of Egypt were totalitarian dictators owning all land, minerals and water. The kings shared these resources with the people in return for taxes and obedience.

The strong centralized government of the king was broken down into provinces with appointed officials. Gradually these positions became hereditary and a class of nobles was created. The Old Kingdom ended in confusion as the centralized government lost power to provincial nobles who began to struggle against one another.

First Intermediate Period (c. 2150 - 1938 BC)
The chaotic period between the Old and New Kingdom are known as the First Intermediate Period. It was a time of great upheaval in political, religious and cultural structures. The 9th, 10th and 11th dynasties are included in this time period.

The Middle Kingdom (1938 – c. 1600 BC)

After a century and a half of conflict, Thebian nobles reunited Egypt. During this time period the king had less absolute power and more emphasis was placed on concepts of justice. Unlike the Old Kingdom the Egyptian religion began to accept the idea that the afterlife was for the common people as well as the king. The Middle Kingdom includes the 12th and 13th dynasties.

During this period, under King Amenemhet III (1818 – c. 1770 BC), Egypt began to greatly expand its trade and developed colonies below the third cataract.

The Second Intermediate Period (c. 1600 - c. 1540 BC)
A series of weak rulers causes a new breakdown in centralized authority during the Second Intermediate Period (dynasties 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th.) The Hyksos from Asia took advantage of Egypt's internal conflicts. The Hyksos army used horses, chariots, body armor and new types of bronze weapons - none of which the Egyptians had. The Hyksos advanced military weaponry and the internal turmoil in Egypt allowed the Hyksos to conquer and rule Egypt for 160 years.

The Early New Kingdom (c. 1540 - 1300 BC)

The Egyptians learn to use the same weapons and warfare as their captors and eventually drive the Hyksos from the kingdom. Queen Hatsehpsut again increases trade and begins building new temples and palaces. She rules jointly with her husband King Thutmose III for awhile and their is relative peace in the land. When King Thutmose becomes sole ruler he begins a series of military campaigns. Thutmose conquers land as far as the fourth cataract takes Egypts borders to its largest size.

The Armana Revolution (1370 - 1300 BC)

When Amenhotep IV becomes king he tries to drastically change Egypt's religion from a polythiestic worship of many gods to a montheistic worship of Aton the Sun. He outlaws all other religions and force the people to worship him as a God-king. For the first time Egyptians begin to call their king, Pharoah. During Amenhotep's reign of the outlying control of Egypt's far borders is lost and the Hitites take over portions of Asia. When Tutankhamon becomes king at an early age, the priests force him to return the country to the worship of many gods.

The Later New Kingdom (1300 - 1090 BC)

The Later New Kingdom is also known as "Egypt's Golden Age". Egypt regains its lands in Asia and although Ramses II begins with a very strong reign by 1150 the country again begins to lose control of its outlying areas. This time it isn't bronze weapons but new iron weapons that help others to encroach on Egypt's borders.

Period of Invasions
Sheshonq I of Libya siezes Egypt's throne in 945 BC. During this time period the Sudanese, Assyrians, Persians and then the Greeks take turns ruling Egypt. Alexander the Great's conquest leaves a new dynasty the Ptolemies in control until finally Rome takes Egypt and the death of Cleopatra ends the reign of the Pharoahs.

History of Egypt

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Egypt has caught the attention and fancy of many over the years as the time passes by; their curiosity to know more about the country has risen manifold. The History of Egypt commences from 3300 BC when they had developed the script of symbols to give expressions to their feelings in the form of words. It was also during this period that Pharaoh Menes united the Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt to form one single kingdom. He initiated the construction of his two capitals, Memphis in the North and Abydos in the South. The strong and competent rulers set up an efficient government. The calendar was also introduced during this period. Gradually the grandeur of this period waned in the History of Egypt and gave way to the establishment of the foreign rule.

The History of Egypt is also marked with the rule of the foreigners. Egypt was ruled by quite a few foreign rulers including Alexander the Great and Cleopatra VII for more than 300 years. It also became the province of Rome but the division of power resulted in its abandonment. After this, many foreign countries ruled over Egypt but for short period of times. Egypt finally became an independent country with the President as the leader after series of wars and years of hard work.

Get a deeper insight into the History of Egypt with the Egypt Travel Hub. You will not only learn about the various dynasties that ruled and made their impact on the culture of Egypt but also great contribution made by them to the world in the field of architecture.

Travel to Egypt

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Catch an opportunity to travel to the fabled land of Egypt with the Nile Melody. Egypt is a country with a rich past and an equally prosperous present where the glorious antiquity compliments the contemporary development. Travel to Egypt to witness the historic monuments co-exists in cultural harmony with modern buildings.

Travel to the legendary Egypt where you will get an opportunity to get a close encounter with the celebrated pyramids, Sphinx, Abu Simbel, Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, Giza, Hurghada, Luxor and Sharm el Sheikh. The present day Egypt is the legacy of the Early Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and several other cultures. The country with such a rich cultural heritage, without doubt, will have several interesting places to travel in Egypt. Besides the historic beauty, Egypt also offers to its guests the adventure of the Desert Safaris, the romance of the Nile Cruises and serenity of Beach Retreats. Travel to Egypt to know more about the history, learn about the cultural heritage, explore the monumental wealth, savor the modern pleasures and shop around for souvenirs and specialties with Nile Melody.

Egypt is a highly developed and advanced country with good tourist facilities. There are 89 airports, 2 heliports, well-connected network of railways and 3500 km of waterways in Egypt. The accommodation facilities in Egypt are very excellent with hotels available to suit the budget of all types of travelers. So put on your traveling shoes to Travel to Egypt to explore the length and breadth of this mysterious country. A beautiful and well-preserved combination of the ancient and modern can be found nowhere else except in Egypt.

Culture of Egypt

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The Culture of Egypt enjoys an international reputation for its uniqueness, grandeur and technological skills. Tourists from all over the world come to Egypt to enjoy the beauty and splendor of culture that is more than 7000 years old and is harmonious fusion of the Egyptian, Mediterranean, Greek and Arabic Cultures.

The highlight of the Egyptian Culture is the pyramids. There are several pyramids in Egypt that have created a lot interest in the minds of not just historians and archaeologists but also tourists. The Pyramids are the single largest selling point of tourism industry in Egypt. The paintings have also been associated with the Culture of Egypt. The paintings have always been an integral part of the monuments of Egypt, which were ornamented with symbolic drawings. Modern artists in Egypt keep the culture of painting alive with their skills.

Egyptian dance and music are also a part of its vibrant culture. Belly Dancing that has continued in Egypt for a long time has now become popular all over the world. Egyptian music, although shows strong Arabic influences, is still a part of its modern culture. Egyptian food is influenced by Turkish eating habits because of long Turkish rule.

You can be a part of the colorful, lively and dreamy Culture of Egypt with Egypt ravel Hub. Join us and we will show you the best that Culture of Egypt has for you.

Climate of Egypt

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Egypt generally experiences generally extreme climate due to the presence of desert but with a difference in the climate of the North Egypt and South Egypt. The Summer Season in Egypt is exceptionally hot and dry during the months of May to August. The average temperature during summers in the south can rise up to 41^oC and around 35^oC in the north. The Spring Season experiences temperate climatic conditions accompanied by dust storms. The Winter Season bring with them pleasant climate good for traveling in Egypt. The average temperature during winters is around 21^oC in the south and 13^oC in the north.

Cairo, the capital of Egypt, lies in the middle of the North and South Egypt. Therefore, it enjoys a moderate climate. Alexandria enjoys a relatively mild climate during the summers. Thus, it has become a major destination during the summers when people are on a look out for a retreat. The best season to visit Egypt is during the winter because of sunny days and chilly nights.

Egyptian Geography

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Location:	Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and includes the Asian Sinai Peninsula
Geographic coordinates:	27 00 N, 30 00 E
Map references:	Africa
Area:	total: 1,001,450 sq km land: 995,450 sq km water: 6,000 sq km
Area - comparative:	slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico
Land boundaries:	total: 2,665 km border countries: Gaza Strip 11 km, Israel 266 km, Libya 1,115 km, Sudan 1,273 km
Coastline:	2,450 km
Maritime claims - as described in UNCLOS 1982 (see Notes and Definitions):	territorial sea: 12 NM continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation contiguous zone: 24 NM exclusive economic zone: 200 NM
Climate:	desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters
Terrain:	vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta
Elevation extremes:	lowest point: Qattara Depression -133 m highest point: Mount Catherine 2,629 m
Natural resources:	petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc
Land use:	arable land: 2.85% permanent crops: 0.47% other: 96.68% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land:	33,000 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:	periodic droughts; frequent earthquakes, flash floods, landslides; hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring; dust storms, sandstorms
Environment - current issues:	agricultural land being lost to urbanization and windblown sands; increasing soil salination below Aswan High Dam; desertification; oil pollution threatening coral reefs, beaches, and marine habitats; other water pollution from agricultural pesticides, raw sewage, and industrial effluents; very limited natural fresh water resources away from the Nile which is the only perennial water source; rapid growth in population overstraining the Nile and natural resources
Environment - international agreements:	party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note:	controls Sinai Peninsula, only land bridge between Africa and remainder of Eastern Hemisphere; controls Suez Canal, a sea link between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea; size, and juxtaposition to Israel, establish its major role in Middle Eastern geopolitics; dependence on upstream neighbors; dominance of Nile basin issues; prone to influxes of refugees

Overview of Egypt

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The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C. and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty following World War II. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The government has struggled to ready the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure.

about Egypt

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Egypt is probably the world's oldest civilization having emerged from the Nile Valley around 3,100 BC, historically. Egypt is probably one of the oldest vacation spots. Early Greeks, Romans and others went there just for fun, and to see the wonders of some of mankind's earliest triumphs. But Egypt is much more than Pyramids and monuments. It is also Red Sea scuba diving, hot night spots, luxury hotels and five star restaurants. It is romantic cruises down the Nile on festive river boats, a night at the grand opera and it is a cultural experience like none you have ever experienced. Egypt is a land bustling with life, sound, visual beauty and excitement. More than anything else, we want you to think of Egypt as fun. For thousands of years, it has been the playground of emperors and kings, and we hope you will take the time to find out why.

The Flag of Egypt

The first national flag of modern Egypt was established by a Royal Decree in 1923 when Egypt gained conditional independence from Great Britain in 1922. The color was green with a white crescent and three stars in the middle. In 1958, a Presidential Decree established a new flag for the United Arab Republic which comprised a merger of Syria and Egypt. The new flag had three colors: red, white with 2 green stars and black. The flag was rectangular in shape and the width was one-third of its length. In 1972, the Law was amended to change the flag. The stars were removed from the flag and replaced by a golden hawk. In 1984, the hawk was replaced by a golden eagle on the eagle of Saladdin, the Ayubbid Sultan who ruled Egypt and Syria in 12th Century, the same Saladdin of the Crusades.

Color Symbolism

The color red refers to the period before 1952 Revolution which brought a group of army officers to power after deposing King Farouk, then King of Egypt. This was a period characterized by the struggle against the British occupation of the country. The white symbolizes the advent of the 1952 Revolution which ended the monarchy without bloodshed. The color black symbolizes the end of the opression of the people of Egypt at the hands of the Monarchy and British colonialism.

Rules Governing the Hoisting of the Flag

The national flag is hoisted on all governmental buildings on Fridays, official holidays, on the inauguration of the People’s Assembly session and other occasions on which the Minister of Interior orders that the flag be hoisted. The flag is hoisted daily on border posts and customs buildings. It is also hoisted on Egyptian consulates and embassies overseas on the National Day and other national occasions, as well as during the visit of the President to the country hoisting the diplomatic mission.

Penal Provisions for Contempt of the Flag

Abusing the flag in any way is a criminal offense and is punishable under law as it implies contempt of the power of the state. Penal provisions also govern abuse of foreign flags or national emblems of other countries.

also see

Overview of Egypt

Egyptian Geography

Climate of Egypt

tourism in egypt

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1-about Egypt

Overview of Egypt

Egyptian Geography

Climate of Egypt

2- ancient Egypt touristic places
3- modern Egypt touristic places

Sick or injured abroad

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If you become sick or are injured abroad you should seek medical attention locally if you feel you need it. Your travel insurance should cover most medical expenses if you have taken out a comprehensive policy.

If you have travelled with a tour guide or have a tour representative you should contact them in the first instance if your condition is not serious.

Please be aware that medical facilities abroad may differ from those in your country

In hospital abroad

If you're admitted to hospital abroad you should contact your nearest embassy.

What what you have to do :

contact your family and friends in your country
contact your embassy
contact with your insurance company or medical evacuation company

What your embassy can do to help:

contact you within 24 hours of being told that you have been admitted
contact your family and friends
liaise with your insurance company or medical evacuation company
visit you within 48 hours of being told you have gone into hospital if we feel that this is appropriate to your circumstances and there is an Embassy or consulate in the same city as the hospital you are in.

Eat and drink safely

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Many people suffer from an upset stomach or diarrhoea because of something they have eaten or drunk abroad.

More seriously, cholera, typhoid and hepatitis A can be contracted from contaminated food and water.

Don’t get ill

always wash your hands after going to the toilet, before handling food and before eating
use bottled water if you have any doubts about the quality of the water. Check the seals are unbroken
boil water or filter it using a water 'purifier' – this is more effective than sterilisation tablets
eat fresh, thoroughly cooked food that is still piping hot
avoid food that has been kept warm

You should avoid

ice used in drinks and used to keep food cool, unless you’re sure it is made from treated or chlorinated water
uncooked fruit and vegetables, unless you can peel them yourself
food exposed to flies
ice cream from unreliable sources, such as kiosks or mobile traders
milk, cheese and other dairy products unless they are pasteurised and have been properly refrigerated
undercooked or raw seafood or shellfish
excessive amounts of alcohol

Travel Health

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Travelling to different climates and environments abroad can expose you to disease and health risks. You should be aware of the dangers and how to stay healthy.

Diseases which aren’t present in your country such as yellow fever, malaria, rabies and dengue fever are common in some areas of the world.

Vaccinations and immunisations

Visit your GP as soon as possible to check if you need any vaccinations or other preventive measures (such as malaria tablets).

General travel health tips

You should also make extra preparations if you have an existing medical condition.

take out adequate Travel Insurance or you could face a huge medical bill if you fall ill and need treatment
get a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) to entitle you to free or discounted healthcare in European countries
check the health section of your country travel advice before you travel
drink plenty of water in hot climates to avoid dehydration
be safe in the sun - use a high-factor sunscreen and avoid excessive sunbathing between 11am - 3pm
find out the local emergency services numbers and the number of the local hospital
practice safe sex - take condoms with you as quality varies in different countries. HIV and Aids, and other sexually transmitted diseases can be caught worldwide.

Long-distance journeys

don’t wear tight clothing on long-distance journeys
do regular stretching exercises such as flexing and extending your ankles to avoid circulation problems
walk round at regular intervals on long flights
drink plenty of water on flights and avoid drinking too much alcohol.

Consult your doctor before long-distance travel if you:

are pregnant or have given birth in the last 6 months
have a history of blood disorders, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism
are taking hormonal medication (including the contraceptive pill)
have cancer, heart problems or have recently had surgery.

If you have a pre-existing medical condition

tell your travel insurer about your condition
ask your doctor how the trip might affect you
check local conditions such as climate and pollution levels and consider how you might be affected
carry a doctor’s letter and a copy of any prescriptions
ensure your medication is legal in the country you are visiting
learn key words and phrases in the local language for your condition, medication and emergency help
take the same precautions you normally would in your country if you weren’t going to be at home for a while