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ANCIENT EGYPT : Even today, Egypt is still synonymous with the legends of the Pharaohs, the Great Pyramids, treasure-laden tombs and undeciphered hieroglyphs.
5,000 years ago, the first Pharaoh,
King Narmer, founded the world's first nation state, recording it in the
world's first written script. The pharaohs were not just kings or
queens, they were gods and they were worshipped as divine rulers.
It was their sophisticated system of
bureaucracy that enabled the construction of Egypt's greatest monuments,
the pyramids of course and also the tombs in the Valley of the Kings,
the great temples of Karnak, the ruins of
The relics of Ancient Egypt still survive to bear witness to the refinement and beauty of many golden ages. Pyramids : Although the construction of the pyramids was only an episode in the long history of the pharaohs, this period has left us some of the most impressive monuments that can be seen. Besides the three giants of Gizeh, more than 70 pyramids can be counted along the Nile.
The smallest of the three, Mykerinos' Pyramid, makes up for its size with its fine funerary and valley temples.
Dahshur Pyramids : There were originally 11 pyramids at Dahshur, although only the two Old Kingdom Pyramids, the Bent and the Red Pyramid, remain intact. Pharaoh Sneferu, father of Khufu and founder of the 4th Dynasty, built Egypt's first real pyramid, the Red Pyramid, here. It is a quiet place where you will be able to enjoy the monuments in peace.
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Names like Ramses, Cleopatra,
Tutankhamun and Nefertiti, echo through the art and literature of so
many different cultures. Religion was the backbone of life in Ancient
Egypt and mythology its bloodline. Death and the afterlife were
essential to Ancient Egyptian society.
But
they also commanded vast administrative armies, models of modern
management and efficiency.
Thebes not forgetting the
Sphinx at Giza
Al Giza Pyramids : Guarded by
the familiar lone lion-bodied Sphinx are the three Great Pyramids of
Giza. Over 4,000 years ago, the mummified bodies of Kings Cheops, Kefren
and Mykerinos were ferried down the Nile to be buried and prepared for
the journey to the afterlife within these massive monuments.
The largest, oldest and finest of all
three is Cheop's Pyramid, simply known as the "Great Pyramid". It was
the tallest structure in the world until the end of the nineteenth
century (145 meters). But Kefren's Pyramid, Cheop's son and successor,
makes a bigger first impression. On higher ground with its limestone cap
still intact, it looks loftier
even
though it's 4 meters shorter.
What to see in Giza : One of the
three Pyramids, the Solar Barque Museum, the Sphinx Complex and the
Sphinx Sound and Light Show.
But the Giza necropolis is also the
final resting place of the Pharaoh's family and high officials. Buried
inside the mastabas and minor pyramids which dot the plateau are queens
and royal courtiers. There are also tombs of the craftsmen and engineers
who toiled over these epic edifices.
Saqqara Pyramids :
It's eleven pyramids, countless
mastabas and lone Coptic monastery stretch over 7km from north to south,
and span three and a half thousand years of Egyptian civilisation. At
its centre sits King Djoser's "Stepped" Pyramid, the very first pyramid
and the first great stone structure in the world. North of the pyramid,
inside a stone "serdab", sits the Ancient Pharaoh himself.
Saqqara also includes the Serapeum,
represented by a life-sized sculpture of limestone, the original of
which is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and an astonishing collection
of mummified Apis bulls in gargantuan granite coffins. Of its eleven
pyramids, King Teti boasts the best preserved burial chamber, with
pyramid text lined walls mapping out his journey to the afterlife. The
walls of Mereruka's multichambered maze-like tomb are covered with
exquisite murals, showing scenes of everyday life.
Most mummies were found in the Valley
of the Kings, the most renowned necropolis of them all. Home to
Tutankhamun's famous tomb as well as Seti I, Ramses the Great and
Tuthmosis III, and carved deep into the remote limestone hills at
Thebes, the burial city for the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom was designed
to be inaccessible to robbers. Unfortunately, some robbers persevered,
lusting for gold and Lapiz Lazuli encrusted treasures. Luckily, a few
tombs managed to escape their attention and so treasures from Yuya, Taya
and Tuthankhamun's tombs survived. Many of them can be seen in Cairo's
famous museum of Egyptology today.
The Ancient Egyptians sophisticated
knowledge of embalming is nothing short of astonishing. Firstly, all of
the internal organs were carefully removed, mummified and sealed in
canopic jars, but the heart was left inside the body, as Anubis, god of
embalming, needed to weigh the dead heart to judge its owners honesty.
A special combination of dehydrating
salts known as natron was then left on the body for 40 days to draw out
all the moisture. Once dried, the mummy was anointed with oils to make
it watertight, and then rubbed with gum, cedar oil, wax and more natron.
Stuffed with sawdust, draped in funerary jewellery and bandaged in
linen, the mummy was finally sealed in a succession of coffins inside an
ornately decorated sarcophagus.