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The Rise of Ancient Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty: Userkaf and Beyond

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The sun priests succeeded in seizing the king, and this conflict ended with the demise of the Fourth Dynasty and the transfer of the throne to the house of another ruler.

The Mysterious Rise of Userkaf and the Political Shift of the Fifth Dynasty

In fact, the monuments do not provide us with sufficient information about this change. We see that Userkaf, the first king of this dynasty, left the Abu Sir region and went to the Saqqara region and chose a place near the Step Pyramid, but his pyramid group and the inscriptions found in his temple do not differ from the pyramids and inscriptions of the Fourth Dynasty in anything important.

The ruined pyramid of Userkaf

Religious Power and the Role of Khentkaus I in Legitimatizing the Throne

We do not know anything about Userkaf's origin or his relationship with the priests of the sun, although it is possible that he held a high position in the temple of the sun and, with the help of the priests, was able to reach the throne and marry Khentkaus I, thus legitimizing his sitting on the throne in the eyes of the people.

Whether this is true or merely conjecture, the unquestionable fact is that Khentkaus I was the mother of two kings, each of whom ruled in his own right. She was the mother of two kings who ruled one after the other, and there is near unanimity among historians that the two kings who ruled after Userkaf were Sahure and Neferirkare.

Palermo Stone mentions that Userkaf built temples in various parts of Egypt, such as Buto in the Delta to worship the goddess Hathor, and that he donated land to the temple of the god Ra.

Userkaf’s Architectural Legacy: The Forgotten Sun Temples of Abusir

As for the Userkaf pyramid, it is in Saqqara, as we said, and in its temple, a large granite statue of this king was found. We know from many sources that he was the first to build a temple to the sun in Abusir, and it is very likely that it is the temple excavated by the Swiss Institute for the Study of Ancient Egyptian Architecture in Cairo in the middle of the last century.

In the last season of excavation in 1957, they found a head of schist stone that was a statue and it is very elaborate representing a king holding the crown on his head, but it is regrettable that the destruction of the temple was complete and no inscriptions were found in it or the name of its owner was found written on any monument so that this temple and this head can be attributed to Userkaf without hesitation or doubt.

Sahure’s Reign: The Expansion of Trade, Military Campaigns, and Temple Innovation

Userkaf ruled for only seven years, then he was succeeded on the throne by Sahure, who ruled for fourteen years, and was the first king of the Fifth Dynasty who chose the Abusir region to build his pyramids, and not far from Userkaf's temple, Sahure built his pyramid on the Abusir plateau between the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara. On the Abusir plateau between the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara, four of his successors, Nefer Ar Kare, Shepseskare, Neferfraf Ra, also built their pyramids there, and at least two of them built sun temples close to their pyramids.

The ruined Pyramid of the Pharaoh Sahure

Why Sahure’s Temples Marked a Turning Point in Ancient Egyptian Architecture

Sahure did not take much care in the construction of his pyramid, as it is not impressive in construction and is small in size when compared to the pyramids of the previous dynasty, but he compensated for this by building a grandiose temple that used the most precious architectural materials and decorated its halls and halls on granite columns with crowns). The architects of the Fifth Dynasty cared for the architecture of this temple and other temples to a great extent that we did not know before, if they did not neglect anything and took precautions against everything that might affect the integrity of the building, so they did not neglect the rain and made it flow from the gutters, each of which is shaped like a lion's head that drops water from its mouths to small channels a little deeper in the floor, and then the water runs downhill to the outside. As for the water that was used inside the temple chambers in its various parts, it ran from pipes under the floor of the temple, and these pipes were made of copper and glued together with lead, and ran to the outside of the temple where the water was emptied in one of the low places in a place out of sight. There is no doubt that the art of temple architecture and construction advanced a lot during the Fifth Dynasty, and the inscriptions on the walls of these temples increased and diversified, and this may undoubtedly explain their departure from interest in the pyramids.

The Military Campaigns of Sahure: From Libya to Phoenicia and Punt

we know from the remains of the inscriptions that covered the walls of the Sahure temples and the road connecting them a lot of the activity of this king, especially in the field of war, as Egypt was invaded in his days from the west when some Libyan tribes came with their leaders, women and animals to attack the delta and settle in the Nile Valley, and Sahure defeated them. We also know from the inscriptions of his temple in Abusir that he sent a fleet to the shores of Phoenicia, then his return and the king's reception of him surrounded by his senior staff, which led some researchers in Egyptian history to believe that this fleet was not sent for war or trade but was on a friendly trip and may have returned with one of the princesses of those countries to become one of Sahure's wives. He did not limit his activities to western Egypt and the Phoenician coast, but also sent another expedition to the south, as its leader left the name of a queen inscribed on a rock near the shore of the Nile in Nubia, and we know from the Palermo Stone that he sent an expedition to the country of Punt. This expedition returned with a lot of incense, gold, and quite a few sticks of wood that the Egyptians were interested in obtaining, some or most of which may have been ebony.

Neferirkare: The Kind-Hearted Pharaoh and the Rise of Priestly Power

King Neferirkare was no less ambitious than his brother, and he contemplated building a pyramid larger than Sahure's, but he died before completing all parts of his pyramid complex. This king was not like his predecessors in his warlike activity, but he was a kind-hearted person who loved to make gifts to the temples, with a genuine sense of love for those around him and admitting his mistake if he made a mistake. As for his love for priests and temples, it is enough to look at his actions recorded in the Palermo Stone and see that most of them in the first year of his reign are nothing more than granting endowments to the gods, once to the people and again to the spirits of Heliopolis. We see him offering an altar to the god Ra and another to Hathor. We also see him offering peasants who work on the land owned by the temples, and even a statue made of a mixture of gold and silver metal. Unfortunately, the preserved part of the Palermo Stone ends there, so we don't know what he offered to the priests and gods in the following years. But this beginning is enough to make us realize that the era of this king was the beginning of the full emergence of the power of the priests and their exploitation of his kindness to obtain everything they want, and we are not surprised after that if we see him issue a royal decree during his reign that records the exemption of clergy and temple peasants from doing any other work required by the reform projects in any of the regions, and threatens all government employees who violate this, so Nefer Ar-Kare helped, by this action, to strengthen and enrich the priests. If we keep in mind that those at the top of the priestly ranks were at the same time the country's top officials, we can easily understand why the king's authority began to weaken over time, why the centralized power of the government began to disintegrate, and why the power of the top officials and provincial governors began to increase.

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Menkaure and the Final Years of the Fourth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt

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The Political Turmoil After Khafre's Death

The opposition party in the royal family was able to seize power after Khafre's death.

Our little information does not allow us to delve into this topic, or to know how long the period of instability lasted, or to say with certainty whether Khafre and Menkaure were ruled by one of Khafre's brothers or by two kings.

Why did Menkaure build a smaller pyramid and how did people perceive him?

The country returned to normal and King Menkaure began to build his pyramid close to the pyramids of his father and grandfather. The engineers designed it to be much smaller in size (66.5 meters high and 108.5 meters long) and they intended to cover it with granite instead of white limestone, but they only completed half of it.

The People’s Perception of Menkaure Compared to Khufu and Khafre

The priests told Herodotus a lot about how Khufu and Khafre oppressed the people and how the people hated them, and he also mentions how Menkaure went against the ways of his predecessors and ended the oppression and opened the temples, so the people loved him.

This story may have some truth to it. There is no doubt that the construction of Khufu and Khafre's pyramidal complexes and the tombs of their officials was a great burden on the country and the treasury, compounded by the rivalry between the two branches of the royal house, which the days could not alleviate.

The Incomplete Pyramid and Funerary Complex of Menkaure

Although Menkaure ruled for more than twenty-one years (and his reign may have extended to twenty-eight years), he was unable to complete the construction of his small pyramid, funerary temple or valley temple for this pyramid is built of adobe bricks and has nothing built with stone except for some floors, columns and lintels of chambers, and George Andrew Reisner found in this temple when he excavated it a number of sets of statues made of Schist stone, each of which represents King Menkaure with a symbol of a region and an important idol.

What happened to Menkaure’s pyramid and what did archaeologists find?

This pyramid was looted as others were looted in the era of the first period, but the thieves left a lot of what they did not need, and when Perring opened this pyramid in 1839, he found some parts of a mummy of a man and a broken wooden coffin that may have remained from the funerary furniture of the pyramid. He also found a sarcophagus of Basalt stone whose inner and outer sides were decorated with the facade of the palace, but this sarcophagus sank with the ship that was carrying it to England when a severe storm hit it off the shores of Spain.

How did political instability mark the final years of the Fourth Dynasty?

Shepseskaf ruled after his father, but he did not last more than four years, and this short period was characterized by an important incident that was a prelude to other incidents of great impact.

How did the rise of Ra priests impact the end of the Fourth Dynasty?

The influence of the sun priests began to increase since the Fourth Dynasty, but this influence was not dangerous in the days of Sneferu or Khufu, but it became strong since the reign of Khafre, and the name of the god Ra not only became part of the names of some kings and princes of the royal house for blessing, but the fifth name of the kings, the name of the son of Ra, also began to appear starting from the reign of King Khafre.

Why did Shepseskaf abandon pyramid building?

Shepseskaf wanted to put an end to this influence and power of the priests, so he abandoned the construction of his tomb in the form of a pyramid because of its connection to the worship of the sun, and wanted to neglect it, so he built his tomb in the form of a large sarcophagus (100 meters x 72 meters and 18 meters high), which is known as Pharaoh's Mastaba. In Saqqara, he built his funerary temple on its eastern side as usual and also erected the Wadi temple and the road connecting them, but the construction was not completed and Shepseskaf may not have been able to be buried in it.

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The Fourth Dynasty: The Era of King Khafre in Ancient Egypt

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We cannot say whether Djedefre died a natural death or was the result of a conspiracy.

He was followed by his brother Khafre, whose reign lasted longer than his father's, not less than twenty-five years, but perhaps as long as twenty-nine.

The Architectural Features and Construction Materials of Khafre’s Pyramid Complex

Khafre chose to build his pyramid on a hill behind the pyramid of his father Khufu, and there is no doubt that Khafre's pyramid group is one of the greatest buildings in the ancient state, but we note that his engineers and craftsmen did not reach the mastery of their colleagues in the era of Khufu. It is only a few meters less in height than his father's pyramid, as its original height was 143.5 meters and the length of the side of its square base is 215.5 meters, while its interior is simple if compared to the Great Pyramid, and it has two entrances from the northern side.

The Preservation and Dismantling of the Pyramids: Medieval Reuse of Limestone Blocks

This pyramid, like other pyramids, was covered on the outside with excellent limestone stones that were removed from it and others in the Middle Ages, starting from the thirteenth century AD, to use them and other remaining stones from the tombs and temples in Giza, Heliopolis, Memphis, its mountain and other monuments, to build the walls of Cairo and some of its mosques and the homes of the rich, but taking stones from pyramids and temples for construction was continuous until the nineteenth century. The rest of the pyramid group is fortunately in a better condition than that of the Khufu pyramid, and the visitor to the area can see the remains of his funerary temple, the Valley Temple, and the remains of the ascending road connecting the two.

The Workers’ Village: Life Behind the Construction of the Second Pyramid at Giza

He can also see around the pyramid the places where the boats needed for the journey of the sun were placed, and at least five of them were found, and he can also see the remains of the workers city on the western side of it, divided into 110 halls and accommodating between 3,500 and 4,000 workers.

The Architectural Layout of Khafre’s Funerary Temple and Its Connection to Royal Palaces

The funerary temple of this pyramid gives us an idea of what the architecture of temples in general reached at that time and also gives us an idea of what the palace of the king or other wealthy people was like.

The Ascending Causeway: The Link Between the Pyramid and the Valley Temple

The visitor enters through its eastern door at the end of the ascending road, and passes through a narrow vestibule that leads to two large halls, each of which had granite columns on its roof, and then sees a large roofless hall with huge stones loaded on large columns, followed by five small rooms, each of which was likely built for one of the names of the five kings, and that their walls were decorated with drawings of the king.

The Religious Role of Funerary Temples in Honoring the King-God

Then comes a special part of the temple that was only allowed to be visited by the priests in charge of serving it, and in it was the temple and the stores in which they put the tools they needed to make offerings or perform prayers to the king-God.

The Historical and Religious Importance of the Valley Temple of Khafre

The road between this temple and the Wadi Temple was roofed, and we see some remnants of its walls at the Wadi Temple, whose walls and columns were built from Aswan granite, and they built some of its rooms and its floor from alabaster blocks that they brought from quarries in the eastern mountain behind Tell el-Amarna This temple was used in some religious rituals related to washing, cleansing and mummifying the body, and at the same time it was an entrance to the pyramid group. It has two doors that lead to a rectangular foyer and then to a hall mounted on square granite columns that extend in its center, forming another foyer, the two forming the shape of the letter (T), next to each column in the rectangular part was a statue of the king.

The Diorite Statue of Khafre: A Masterpiece of Ancient Egyptian Sculpture

The statues of Khafre were scattered throughout this temple, some of which were made of diorite stone, including the famous statue that is considered a sign of Egyptian art and represents its owner sitting on his throne with the god Horus in the form of a falcon behind his head to protect him, and this statue and other statues of this king have survived because the priests of the temple once dug a deep hole in the eastern rectangular lobby or called them those statues that remained in that place until they were found.

The Artistic Achievements of Ancient Egyptian Sculptors in the Reign of Khafre

The art of sculpture reached its peak during the reign of Khafre and the Egyptian artist was able to completely control the toughest types of stone, and it is enough for a person to stand in front of this statue made of diorite, a material harder than granite and basalt, and see the success of the artist in the expressions that appeared on his face and his accuracy in showing the muscles of the body, and his appearance in general, to realize the extent of the progress of the Egyptian artist in his art, a progress that he himself did not surpass in the following eras.

The Symbolism and Mysteries of the Great Sphinx of Giza Associated with Khafre

One cannot mention the Giza pyramids without finding himself obliged to mention the Sphinx, the huge statue crouching on the edge of the desert, which has occupied a great place in the literature of the world, and writers have written about it since the days of the Romans many poems and woven legends around it, and they have always wondered what secrets it hides.

Written by H. Moses

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The Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt: The Era of King Khufu

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Who Was Pharaoh Khufu?

that Khufu was one of Sneferu's sons from his first wife, Queen Hetepheres I. Despite this, some historians still repeat what James Henry Breasted wrote about his belief that Khufu was a leader from the Minya region based on the existence of a country called Menat-Khufu, i.e. Khufu's nanny.

However, it is an established fact that Menat-Khufu was only one of the estates he inherited from his father, called Menat-Sneferu, which he changed its name to Menat-Khufu and the full royal name of King Khufu as it appears on the royal cartouche Ḫnum-Ḫwfw (Ḫwfw).

Khufu's Rise to Power and His Foreign Expeditions

Khufu took the throne of Egypt and reaped the fruits of his father's reforms. If we take a look at his various works, we realize that the construction policy that Sneferu had laid the foundation for continued. His name is found in many countries of Egypt, whether in the Delta or in Upper Egypt, and he also sent expeditions to Wadi Maghareh to bring turquoise and possibly copper from there.

Khufu’s Trade with Byblos and Lebanon

The foreign trade of Egypt, especially with the Phoenician coast, was prosperous, and it is very likely that an Egyptian community has resided in the city of Byblos, north of present-day Beirut, since the days of the Second Dynasty, and Sneferu was interested in building his ships from Oak wood and Cedrus libani wood, and used it in his buildings, but at least since the time of Khufu, an Egyptian temple was built in the center of Byblos, to which those who came after him added, as stones were found from it bearing his name and their names.

Why Is the Great Pyramid So Famous?

But these various works were not the reason for immortalizing his name in history throughout the generations. Rather, it was his pyramid that he built on the Giza plateau, known as the Great Pyramid, which is still standing intact and defying time, capturing our admiration today as it captured the admiration of all ancient peoples. People recognize today as they did yesterday that it is not only one of the seven wonders of the world, but it is the most important of them because it is still alone throughout the generations.

How Was the Great Pyramid of Giza Built?

Sneferu's engineers spent nearly a quarter of a century constructing his pyramids and the tombs of his family and senior officials, during which time they supplemented their great experience in the construction of pyramids. When the day came when they started building the pyramid of his son Khufu, they wanted to make it greater than his father's pyramids, not only in size, but also in design, in the ratio between its parts, and in the complete perfection of the art of construction.

How Many Blocks Were Used in the Great Pyramid?

If we want to describe the pyramid briefly, we mention that it occupies an area of no less than thirteen Feddan ( 1Feddan = 4200 square meters) and that they used in its construction no less than 2,300,000 blocks of stone cut from quarries in the plateau itself, some of which weigh more than eight tons and others (the upper part of the pyramid) weigh less than one ton. The height of the pyramid is 146 meters and the length of the side of its base is 230 meters, but all of this is dwarfed by our admiration for the accuracy of the Egyptians in that distant era and their superiority in the art of construction and its miraculous reach in adjusting angles and dimensions. The visitor will be even more impressed if he visits its interior and makes his way through those low-height roads, then finds himself in that elevated hallway and finally stands looking at the sarcophagus of King Khufu in the burial chamber.

Changes in the Pyramid’s Design During Construction

When Khufu's engineers began to build this pyramid, the original design was not the current building we see in front of us, but it was less than it. His burial chamber was not inside the building, but was cut into the rock and led to it by a sloping corridor in the ground, and during the work they changed the design and increased the building and the burial chamber became inside the building itself, which is now mistakenly known as the queen's chamber.

For the second time, they changed the design, and the engineers made the grand hallway that leads to the burial chamber.

The Pyramid Complex: Temples, Causeways, and Satellite Pyramids

The entire pyramid was covered on the outside with white limestone cladding cut from the quarries of Tura on the eastern shore of the Nile and had a large funerary temple on its eastern side, the remains of which still exist, most notably its floor of black Diorite Rock cut from quarries north of Lake Qarun in Fayoum.

Some of the walls of this temple were inscribed, and some of them were found in the excavations of the Antiquities Authority in 1938, and on the eastern side of the temple they built a huge bridge that descended from the edge of the plateau to the valley, and they used this bridge to be the road to the valley temple, which may have been located under the current houses of Nazlet El-Semman.

There was a small pyramid on the southern side of Khufu's pyramid that was demolished and its stones were removed long ago, and they also cut large places in the rock in which they placed large wooden ships to be at the king's disposal when he made the day and night journeys with the sun god Ra and for various purposes when crossing rivers and lakes in the other world.

The Solar Boats of Khufu

Excavations long ago uncovered three of these boat places on the eastern side of the pyramid. In the summer of 1954, two more were found on the southern side, and the huge stones with which they had roofed one of them were lifted, revealing a large Cedrus libani boat in good condition, with all its oars, ropes, and a seating compartment. oars, ropes, and a seating compartment.

We now know that this boat is forty-three and a half meters long, with a bow height of five meters and a stern height of seven meters. The Palermo Stone from the time of Sneferu himself mentions the construction of many ships, each of which was a hundred cubits long, which is more than fifty-two meters.

The idea of boats in the vicinity of the pyramids was not new to archaeologists.) two on the eastern side and a third beside the road to the Wadi Temple). We also know of at least five in the vicinity of his son Khafre's pyramid.

Some wooden boats were found in the vicinity of Senusret III at Dahshur, two in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and a third in a museum in Chicago, USA, but they are much smaller in size and quality of workmanship, and Khufu's boats are not the oldest we know of, as we know of this type of boat in the vicinity of the First Dynasty tombs at Saqqara and Helwan.

But although the idea was not new to archaeologists, the new discovery is of importance that cannot be underestimated, and this discovery will not only increase our knowledge of shipbuilding and carpentry in that distant era, but our knowledge will increase greatly from the study of the various materials found at the site and used with the ship.

What Is the True Purpose of the Solar Boat?

This ship is often mentioned as the sun boat or the sun ship, but we must be wary of this name; because we have absolutely nothing to prove that it was one of the two ships of the journey of the sun, but there is more than one evidence that indicates the opposite and that it was one of the seven or eight ships mentioned in the pyramid texts associated with the king's journey after his death in the other world, because the specialized sun ships had a special shape and contained special religious symbols erected in them, and all this was not available in the discovered ship.

How Long Did It Take to Build the Pyramid?

As for the time it took to build this pyramid, we only know what the Greek historian Herodotus said he heard from the Egyptian priests that it took ten years to build the lower parts and the ascending corridors, and that it took twenty years to build the pyramid itself, and the number of workers was one hundred thousand working three months a year.

But historians are skeptical about the veracity of this story, because Herodotus did not hear it until more than two thousand years after the pyramid was built, and his interlocutors were only minor priests, and they are no more knowledgeable than the current Tour guide we see around the pyramid, if not less knowledgeable than them.

The priests told him the stories that the people were telling him, some of which are unbelievable, but despite this, architects have studied the subject and are convinced that it took at least as long to build the pyramid. As for the number of laborers, it may be true that they were brought in at the time of the flood, while the specialized quarrymen and sculptors worked throughout the year.

Were Pyramid Builders Slaves or Paid Workers?

Herodotus also told us that Khufu was cruel to his people and that he mocked the people without mercy, which is why they hated and envied him, but whether this is true or not, we have not found any texts that prove it. We often read some writers' scathing criticism of the slave labor in the construction of the pyramid, and of rulers who drain the blood of the people in order to achieve things that are of no benefit to the people, but only to the ruler himself to boast about them.

Others wanted to defend the ancient Egyptians, saying that Khufu and other kings used to build pyramids to help the unemployed in the months of the flood when the fields are covered with water, so there are fewer job opportunities and scarce food for the poor who did not prepare for those days, so the construction of pyramids was a humanitarian act because it guarantees them food and drink.

Both views are far from correct because we cannot judge the past by the logic of the present age, or by its teachings and opinions.

Written by H. Moses All rights reserved ©Mythology and History

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The Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt: The Era of King Sneferu

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The end of the Third Dynasty and the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty

The rule of the Third Dynasty in Ancient Egypt was probably a hundred years long, and it began with a prosperous era, the reign of Djoser, but this renaissance soon stopped and did not continue to progress as we expected.

We have seen how Egypt knew how to build the Step Pyramid, but it was decades later that they did not take the next step of knowing how to build a complete pyramid.

Egypt spent about four hundred years building the tombs of its kings in the first and second dynasties in the form of rectangular terraces until a brilliant architect was born, Imhotep, who raised the tomb of the king and made it a step pyramid.

Imhotep's renovation remained a higher example for nearly a century until the days of the Third Dynasty ended and the Fourth Dynasty began in ancient Egypt. We cannot yet know the factors or circumstances that led to the emergence of the Fourth Dynasty, and we also lack the necessary information to determine the relationship of the founder of the Fourth Dynasty to the last king of the Third Dynasty, although we are sure that it was not a hostile relationship, but perhaps a kinship relationship.

First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt: Pharaohs, Timeline, and Legacy

Sneferu: The Brilliant Founder of Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty

Sneferu married Princess Hetepheres I (very likely Huni's daughter), the princess who held the right of succession to the throne, thus legitimizing his position in the country. We know that his mother was called Meresankh I, and that she was buried in Meidum, but we do not know for sure his relationship with Huni, the last king of the Third Dynasty, although some researchers in Egyptian history see them as related.

The Military and Architectural Achievements of King Sneferu

From the study of the Palermo Stone we know a lot about the activity of this king and we know the large number of palaces and temples that he built in the country, and we also know that he sent a naval fleet of forty ships to bring blocks of cedar wood from the mountains of Lebanon, many of those woods have remained until now inside the Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, and those woods are still in good condition until now, and they still perform the task for which they were built, such as stabilizing some stones or supporting them in their places although more than four thousand six hundred years have passed.

Sneferu is also famous for the campaign he sent to Nubia in the south to restore security and tranquility to Egypt's southern borders, and his army returned with 7,000 captives and 200,000 head of oxen and sheep, and his men left the memory of those expeditions on the rocks of Wadi Maghareh near the copper and turquoise mines in that area.

He also sent mining expeditions to the Sinai Peninsula, and his men left the memory of those expeditions on the rocks of Wadi Maghareh near the copper and turquoise mines in that region. Although Sneferu was not

the first king to exploit Sinai's mines or send expeditions to discipline the lawless Bedouins, later generations saw him as a protective deity of the region alongside the goddess Hathor.

His policy of expanding trade with the Syrian coast and Nubia, exploiting minerals, and organizing the internal affairs of the country soon yielded the best results, and a general renaissance began in Egypt, the most obvious effect of which was the progress we see in the social life of the people in general and in the arts in particular, including architecture.

The Bent Pyramid: Sneferu’s First Step Toward Perfection

This king built his royal tomb near the capital, and the supervisors wanted to build

that tomb to make it a complete pyramid, later known as the Bent Pyramid, and to be greater than any other monument built in Egypt before his days, whether in the size of the part visible to people or in its internal corridors and lobbies.

They started building the lower part of the pyramid, completed the construction of all its internal corridors, and made an entrance to it in the middle of the northern facade like other listed pyramids that were built, and this entrance leads to a long vestibule that slopes downward and then ends with another vestibule and then a burial chamber before it.

The construction of the pyramid rose at an angle of slightly more than 54 degrees until the height of the building reached 48.07 meters, and then the original design changed, so we see them change the angle of construction to forty-three degrees, and when the construction was completed, its shape became irregular to change the angle as if it was a full pyramid over an incomplete pyramid, its total height is 101.15 meters, while the length of the side of its square base is 188.60 meters.

If we wanted to search for a reasonable practical explanation for changing the angle of construction of this pyramid, we would find only one explanation, which is that the angle of 54 degrees was too large and the architects estimated that the height of the pyramid would be large, and this may have affected the safety of construction, especially since some cracks began to appear.

The Bent Pyramid was the school in which they studied the geometry of building another pyramid, the Red Pyramid, less than two kilometers north of it, and they made its angle of inclination almost the same as the angle of inclination of the upper part of the Bent Pyramid, that is, forty-three degrees. They also made another improvement by limiting the entrance on the north side only, and instead of leading to one chamber, it leads to three chambers, one after the other. The height of the Red Pyramid, the first real pyramid in the history of Egyptian architecture, is 99 meters and the length of each side of its square base is 220 meters.

Where Was King Sneferu Buried? Mystery of the Twin Pyramids?

Some researchers believe that he was buried in the Red Pyramid, as we see that the workers had completed all the complementary parts of it, so they built on the southern side of it that small pyramid that some archaeologists wanted to call the pyramid of the soul or the pyramid of rituals, but we do not know exactly what its function was and we are not sure of anything related to it except that it was not used for burial but may have been a shrine to perform special rituals related to sacrificial offerings. They built a large stone wall around the pyramid and built on the eastern side of it a small funerary temple similar to the temple of the Meidum pyramid. They also built a road leading from the northern side of the wall to the valley and deviated to the east, where they built a large temple at a distance of more than seven hundred meters from the pyramid and covered a large part of its walls with inscriptions representing King Sneferu performing some well-known religious rituals. The most important of them are scenes from the Thirtieth Festival, and scenes representing his visit to the temples in the northern and southern capitals (Buto and Nekhen), and we also see in it scenes representing the regions of Egypt and its most important countries at that time in which Sneferu owned one of his estates, and they symbolized each of them with a lady carrying offerings and wrote in front of it the name of the country or region arranged topographically from south to north, which helped determine their current locations. In the excavations of this temple between 1951 and 1953, some shattered statues of King Sneferu and a large number of statues of the temple priests in the days of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, as this temple was still standing and was not destroyed until the New Kingdom. To the east of the pyramid were the tombs of Sneferu's family, including some of his sons and daughters, as well as the tombs of many of his priests and employees, both in his day and in later eras. Many of these mastabas and tombs are still unexplored. In any case, there is an important fact that the ancient texts always mention the two pyramids of Sneferu, and the city that was the center of the administration of the properties of these two pyramids, and we also know that the Egyptians in the Twelfth Dynasty made Sneferu a god, so he became one of the gods, mentioning him and making offerings to him along with other gods such as Osiris, Ra, Sokar, Ptah and others.

The Golden Age of Art in Sneferu’s Reign

It is enough for a person to look at the inscriptions of his temple or the inscriptions of the tombs built in his era, whether in the Dahshur region or in Meidum, to realize the extent to which the art of sculpture has reached, whether in relief inscriptions or in color painting, as the Egyptian artist in the era of Sneferu reached a limit that he could not surpass him in the following eras except in a few cases.

Queen Hetepheres I: Royal Treasures and Tomb Mystery

The relics of Queen Hetepheres I are found in the Egyptian Museum, where the visitor to the Egyptian Museum stands amazed in front of some Meidum relics, but his admiration doubles when he stands in the hall in which the contents of the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, the wife of Sneferu, are lined up in the Egyptian Museum, and he sees in that hall her jewelry, her gold-plated bed, her large chair, her mobile tent with gold-plated columns, and he sees her mattress, as well as some decorative tools made of gold or copper, and he also sees some of her decorations made of gold or copper.

Written by H. Moses

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The Third Dynasty in Ancient Egypt: The Beginnings of Pyramid Building

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The turmoil of the second half of the Second Dynasty had a direct impact on Egypt's future. It is indisputable that Seth-Peribsen's revolt against the worship of Horus affected the course of affairs, and it is also indisputable that the ensuing strife in the country had a negative impact on its progress.

However, it was only a short time after the crisis unfolded that Egypt began to make up for what it had missed, as if that squabbling and instability was a motivation for it later, progressing in all aspects and completing the components of the renaissance.

At this crucial time in the civilized history of the country, a time when Egypt was flowing with youth and vitality, a strong and determined king sat on its throne, marking the beginning of a new era

Djoser, founder of the Third Dynasty

Who founded the Third Dynasty of Egypt?

Although the first king of this dynasty, Djoser, was most likely the son of the last king of the Second Dynasty, the ancients considered him to be the founder of a new dynasty.

Djoser began his life like other kings before him and built a tomb for himself like them in the form of a large mastaba of Mudbrick (95 meters long x 50 meters wide, 10 meters high), but he did not build it in Abydos but built it in the area now known as Beit Khallaf south of Qena, in which many pots were found with seals bearing the name of the king and the names of some of his employees and the various departments that they were in charge of.

What were the major accomplishments of King Djoser?

It is a good fortune for Egypt that one of the geniuses who left a clear impact on the history of mankind appeared in it at that time, the wise Imhotep was ruling a wise-minded king who knew the value of that person's genius and extended a helping hand to him and helped him in realizing his views, so the name of King Djoser was immortalized and his works immortalized, and Egypt advanced during his reign with great progress in all aspects.

Who was Imhotep and what was his role in the Third Dynasty?

Imhotep: We do not know for sure whether Imhotep began his life during the reign of King Khasekhemwy and was among his staff, or whether he appeared only in the days of Djoser. In any case, his name was associated with the name of King Djoser alone, both during his lifetime and in subsequent generations, as the Egyptians immortalized their names together and people kept mentioning them until the last days of Egyptian history. Egyptian writers in the New Kingdom considered Imhotep their symbol and protector, and every writer before starting his work was keen to spill a few drops of water as an offering to him. Until that time, kings were buried in terraced tombs, which did not differ in their general appearance from the tombs of their subjects except for their great size and grandeur, and were built of mudbrick, although some of their internal parts, especially the burial chamber, were built of stone. Djoser built his royal tomb in the south in the style of his predecessors, if the tomb in Beit Khallaf is attributed to him, but Imhotep thought of building another tomb for his master in the northern capital's necropolis and designed it to be more luxurious than any tomb built before that time for any king before him.

What architectural innovations did Imhotep introduce?

The first bold idea in the construction of that tomb was to be built with blocks of stone instead of Mudbrick, so he built a large mastaba of limestone that he cut from nearby quarries and then clad its outer walls with limestone of the excellent white type that they obtained from the quarries of Tura on the eastern side of the Nile. This mastaba was undoubtedly more luxurious and grandiose than any other royal tomb in the region, and underneath the mastaba were corridors and side chambers with a large granite chamber in the center as the king's burial chamber. Unsatisfied with this, Imhotep modified his first design and thought of something new. His master Djoser is a god worshipped by his people, so his tomb must be distinguished from others, and it must rise and rise, and for this he began to build one mastaba on top of another, each of which is less in size than the one below it until the final form of Djoser's tomb became a stepped pyramid with six steps, all covered on the outside with white limestone, thus Imhotep was the first architect in the history of Egypt to build a tomb that resembles a pyramid in its general shape. He did not limit himself to that, but surrounded the pyramid with a large wall built entirely of limestone cut from Tura, ten meters high, and built several buildings inside this wall, some of which were for holding the Thirtieth Festival and others were a symbolic tomb on the southern side or temples also related to the festivals, as he built on the northern side of the pyramid a temple in which statues of the king were erected.

Why is the Step Pyramid at Saqqara historically significant?

The Step Pyramid is considered one of the most important monuments of Egypt, and we see in its buildings the first steps of the Egyptians when they moved from building with bricks to building with stone. We often see the ancient engineer exerting his effort to make his buildings similar to brick buildings, such as the size of the stones (52) cm in length like the size of the bricks in that era or in the formation of the stone roof to be similar to the roof in which they used tree branches, and like the doors that appear as half open and the stone columns that represent those columns that were made of plant sticks and were combined with each other. Most archaeologists tend to accept the opinion that the large outer wall on whose sides they drew the shape of the thirteen gates on its four sides is only a copy of the wall that was around the king's palace in the valley near the capital, and that the main entrance in the southeast corner of the fourteenth gate is similar to the entrance to the royal palace with its columns and places for its guards, and that these buildings built in stone were built on the occasion of the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of King Djoser, since this king had permanently moved the capital of the king to the north in that city that later became called Memphis. Djoser was buried in his pyramid, and in the corridors surrounding the burial chamber, they stacked thousands of vessels made of alabaster and some of diorite, porphyry, granite, basalt and other stones, some of them small and others more than a meter high, and a number of these vessels could be extracted at least twenty thousand, and many of them still remain in the corridors and were broken into small pieces by the fall of the rock above them. Djoser ruled for many years during which the country saw a general renaissance, and his monuments were not limited to Saqqara only, but he built other temples, and we know that he sent an expedition to discipline some Bedouins of the Sinai Peninsula who were exposed to the campaigns that the kings of Egypt sent to bring copper from the mines near Wadi Maghareh there. Djoser's reign in Egypt was a prosperous period, but from his death until the end of the dynasty, he was not succeeded by anyone to whom we can compare him. Manetho mentions the names of eight kings who ruled in this dynasty, while Abydos lists only six, and the fragmented Turin Papyrus preserves only five names.

Which kings followed Djoser in the Third Dynasty?

Djoser was followed by his son, whose name was pronounced until recently: Semrekhet, but after the discovery of his step pyramid at Saqqara in 1954, the pronunciation Sekhemkhet is more likely and is sometimes called Djoser-teti.

What happened to Sekhemkhet’s pyramid project?

Sekhemkhet wanted to build a building similar to that of his father and chose a place near it, but he died without completing it, and instead of seeing progress in architecture from what Imhotep started, we see that they were imitating what was made, and we also see evidence that the king's treasury could no longer afford to spend so much. This king did not complete his pyramid, neither in the construction of the terraces on top of each other nor inside the pyramid, and his coffin was found empty when it was uncovered, but whatever the result of the excavations, this pyramid has added to our knowledge quite a bit about the method of pyramid construction, and we now have confirmed how the Egyptians since ancient times have been building their pyramids by making a long ascending road over which they drag the necessary stones for construction and that this ascending road was longer and higher as construction progressed, and when everything was completed, they removed it from its place. Although no body was found in the coffin, a large number of stone vessels were found, some of which were made and some of which were not, as well as a few gold ornaments that may have been from the Third Dynasty. Sekhemkhet ruled for only a few years, and perhaps the most important monument known to him before the discovery of his pyramid in Saqqara was the inscription he left in Wadi Maghareh, close to the inscription of his father Djoser.

Who were the kings of Egypt’s Third Dynasty?

We know from the names of the kings who ruled in the third dynasty the name of Horus, Sanakht, Hor-Khaba, and Nebka, who wanted to build a pyramid close to the pyramid of his predecessor in the Zawyet El Aryan area as well, but the work did not progress beyond the completion of the lower part carved in the rock underground, in which the sarcophagus carved from granite.

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Second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt: Kings, Chaos, and Religion

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What dynastic changes marked the transition from the First to Second Dynasty?

We do not know the reasons that led to the change of the first dynasty or the events that took place in the days of Qa'a, which ended with the ascension of another family to the throne, and we also do not know the relationship between the two families if there was really a transfer of the king from one family to another, and we follow Manetho in his division of the dynasties, and no doubt he had sufficient documents to justify this division.

In fact, we do not see any change, nor do we feel any trace of a sudden transition, everything continued in its normal course, both in terms of artistic development and in the organization of the government in general.

There is a great difference between the ancient sources in the order of the kings of this dynasty, and the names mentioned by Manetho in their Greek versions are difficult to trace back to their Egyptian origin.

For more details about the First Dynasty in Ancient Egypt First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt: Pharaohs, Timeline, and Legacy

Where were the early royal tombs located and why did they shift?

no one found in Abydos the tombs of some of the kings of this dynasty, which suggests that they preferred the new northern capital, the White Castle, to be their residence during their lifetime, and also preferred to build their tombs in close proximity. We see in what these kings left behind references to palaces built by the kings after the fourth year of their reign, and temples erected for various deities, especially Sokar, one of the greatest deities of the new capital, and we also see from the seals of their employees signs of the progress of governmental organization and the existence of various departments. From the study of the tables of the names of the kings, we see that we know at least eight of them, and there is no doubt about the order of the first three of them, namely Hotepsekhemwy, Nebra and Nynetjer, and we are sure of the order of the last three, Seth-Peribsen, Sekhemib and Khasekhemwy.

What was the political and religious conflict between Horus and Set?

We also know that things in that family did not go smoothly and quietly, but were accompanied by many troubles, but we cannot specify these troubles or mention specific things, except when things reached the point of trying to change the general state system and revolt against the worship of Horus. The god set had a major center in Upper Egypt But the spread of the worship of Horus almost overthrew him and the influence of his priests, especially when the kings before the beginning of the First Dynasty began to represent Horus and live in his shadow, and each of them attributed himself to him. One of the things that complicated the situation - for Upper Egypt - is that the kings preferred the new capital at the meeting of the Delta with Upper Egypt, and it is also possible that they began to be influenced by the culture of the people of the north and showed interest in their idols. In every time there is a group of conservatives who look forward to the old and see in it the ideal, and in every time there are also reactionaries who refuse to introduce any change as long as it affects their personal interests, and there are also in every time and place some clerics who refuse to see that people turn away from them and try to stir up emotions among different groups of people to maintain their influence, wealth, and control.

Who was King Seth-Peribsen and why did he reject Horus?

Therefore, there was a strong reaction against the idol Horus and against the influence of the new capital, and King Seth-Peribsen declared an open war on Horus, removing his name from his titles and replacing it with his old rival, the idol Set. He even goes further and does what no one before or after him did, which is to place the symbol of Set above his name written inside a drawing representing the facade of the palace and declares that it is his symbol and that he represented in it and mentions in some of his monuments that Set is the one who handed over the country to him. Seth-Peribsen did not stop there, but returned to Upper Egypt and returned to the old tradition of building his tomb in Abydos, not Saqqara. Unfortunately, we do not know the reaction that occurred in the north, but this act was a strong departure from the traditions that Egypt has followed since at least the beginning of the first dynasty, as the representation of the king with Horus has been ingrained for generations. Especially since the cornerstone of the continuation of the Egyptian civilization was based on the divinity of the king, who since he took over the country became Horus, and was worshiped by his people on this basis, and became one of the gods not different from his other brothers, and even distinguished from them that he was ruling the people on earth and maintaining order and justice and helping the people in Egypt to carry out their duty to worship him and his brothers of idols. Seth-Peribsen revolted against Horus and the White Castle, and there is no doubt that many people from Upper Egypt, and the priests of Seth in particular, welcomed this change, but we do not know anything about a war or revolution against this king, and what has reached our hands hardly tells us anything except that his name was deleted from some of the names of the kings as a transgressor against the worship of Horus. As the priests did more than a thousand and three hundred years later with Akhenaten and those who ruled after him from his family for trying to change the worship of Amun in the country and glorify Atun instead of him and other idols. For more details about Ancient Egypt Before the Dynasties Ancient Egypt Before the Dynasties: The First Civilizations

How did Sekhemib respond to the religious rebellion?

We do not know for sure how many years he was on the throne and how his days ended, but we do know that the change did not last after his death and that the king who succeeded him, Sekhemib, returned to the worship and glorification of Horus He also returned to the usual activity by conducting campaigns to put down any seditions that may have arisen in the north, because we read on the base of both his statues in the Cairo and Oxford Museums an inscription in which he tells us about his victory over his enemies and killing 47209 northern enemies who may have attacked Upper Egypt, as we know from the inscriptions on some of his vessels. Sekhemib was related to King Seth-Peribsen, and was he his son, or was he a prince or a leader who had to face a fierce revolt in the north against what Seth-Peribsen had done? The answer to these questions is no more than conjecture, because what we have from the documents of that era does not help us at all to answer, and if we return to Manetho, we find only a small quote in it, and if it is true that Sekhemib is the one called by Maniton, Sisu Khris, he was very tall, and perhaps his height was accompanied by physical strength, which helped him in his leadership and his wars that he waged to restore order to the country, and his war against the people of Libya to the west of Egypt.

What was the legacy of King Khasekhemwy in unifying Egypt?

Sitting on the throne of Egypt after Sekhemib, a strong and determined king who wanted to satisfy both the north and the south and put an end to that strife, so he took for himself an emblem, the two idols Horus and Set combined, and he put them together above his name, that is King Khasekhemwy, during whose reign Egypt made great progress in which the use of stone in buildings increased, and Egypt settled on its own artistic conditions, and completed most of its components. His reign was characterized by calm and progress in all aspects of life, and his wife was called Nimaathap, the mother of King Djoser, the founder of the third dynasty

Written by H. Moses

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First Dynasty of Ancient Egypt: Pharaohs, Timeline, and Legacy

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Egyptian documents have not yet provided us with enough evidence to know what happened in those wars between the south and the north that led to the reunification of Egypt, so all our information is derived only from those few monuments of the Scorpion King and similar monuments of that era.

Ancient Egypt Before the Dynasties: The First Civilizations

Who Was Narmer and Why Is He Important?

Egyptians from the days of the New Kingdom mentioned on their monuments the name of a king called Menes as their first king, and they also mentioned it to Herodotus and Manetho in his history, and the Egyptians also wrote his name on their jars in his honor, but we have not found such a name on the monuments of the first kings, but we have not found such a name on them.

Is Narmer the Same as Menes?

All we can offer is that it may have been another name for the king known to us as (Narmer), for whom some important monuments were found in Hierakonpolis (north of Edfu) and Abydos, the most famous of which is his famous painting, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The Narmer Palette

The Narmer Palette: A Record of Victory and Unity

Almost all historians now agree that Narmer is the first king of the first dynasty, and that Menes is just another name that we have not found so far. We see on both sides of his painting two scenes that differ in detail but agree in purpose, which is to record the victory of this king over his enemies at the top of the painting - on both sides - we see his name: Narmer, written inside a rectangle representing the facade of the palace, and to the right and left of the name is a drawing of the head of the goddess Hathor with a human face and the ears and horns of a cow.

Symbols and Scenes on the Narmer Palette

On one of the two faces, which is the back, we see the king standing with the crown of the south on his head, holding a kneeling enemy in front of him, and in his right hand he raised his fighting funnel to hit his head with it.

In front of the king, we see the god Horus in the form of a falcon holding a rope with which he is dragging the head of his enemy, topped by six sticks of papyrus, each of which represents the number of a thousand, meaning that Horus made him capture six thousand of his enemies. Behind Narmer walks one of his followers with a vase in his right hand and the king's shoes in his left.

At the bottom of the painting, we see two of his enemies with his name above each of them. 

The Narmer Palette: A Record of Victory and Unity

Almost all historians now agree that Narmer is the first king of the first dynasty, and that Menes is just another name that we have not found so far. We see on both sides of his painting two scenes that differ in detail but agree in purpose, which is to record the victory of this king over his enemies at the top of the painting - on both sides - we see his name: Narmer, written inside a rectangle representing the facade of the palace, and to the right and left of the name is a drawing of the head of the goddess Hathor with a human face and the ears and horns of a cow.

Symbols and Scenes on the Narmer Palette

On one of the two faces, which is the back, we see the king standing with the crown of the south on his head, holding a kneeling enemy in front of him, and in his right hand he raised his fighting funnel to hit his head with it.

In front of the king, we see the god Horus in the form of a falcon holding a rope with which he is dragging the head of his enemy, topped by six sticks of papyrus, each of which represents the number of a thousand, meaning that Horus made him capture six thousand of his enemies. Behind Narmer walks one of his followers with a vase in his right hand and the king's shoes in his left.

At the bottom of the painting, we see two of his enemies with his name above each of them. 

The other face is different, as the center part is occupied by two animals with long necks that have turned around each other, leaving a circle between them, and both animals have grabbed a follower to pull him away from the other.

In the lower part of the painting, a bull - which also represents the king - smashes a fortress with its horns, and a person representing the owners of the fortress lies at the feet of the bull. The upper third of the painting is filled with another scene in which Narmer, wearing the crown of the north, is walking behind the official we see on the reverse side, and a second official is walking in front of him, preceded by four followers carrying the flags of four gods, and in front of these flags there are five rows with two decapitated bodies in each row.

There is no doubt that the scenes on this painting record Narmer's victory in the war, and also record his celebration of that victory with the crown of the north on his head. Although his name is written at the top of this face, the artist wanted to emphasize to us again that the one wearing the crown of the north is none other than Narmer, so he wrote his name again in front of his face.

Narmer’s Unification of Egypt: Myth or Fact?

We must note that the scenes on the head of the Scorpion King's Macehead, which also records his victory in a war against the people of the Delta and the inhabitants of the desert, and he wears the crown of Upper Egypt only, so perhaps Narmer, who completed what others started from the effort and subdued the Delta completely, was the first of the kings of Upper Egypt to be crowned king of the Delta as well.

The drawings on his battle funnel, which was also found in Hierakonpolis, show scenes of the celebration of his coronation as king of the Delta, where we see him wearing the crown of the north and sitting on the throne, lined up behind him by senior officials, the Rakhma, the goddess of Cap, flying over his head to protect him, and the flag bearers of the four gods stood in front of him, and we also read the numbers of the hundreds of thousands of cattle and goats he captured, as well as the captive people.

Other traces of this king were found when the tombs of Abydos were excavated in the late 19th century, and this raises an important point in Egyptian history. The tomb of Narmer is not the only tomb in Abydos, but there are other tombs of the kings of the First Dynasty and some kings of the Second Dynasty, which proves to us that the family from which Narmer originated took a capital near that place, and that the old capital, Nekhen, (north of Edfu) became a religious capital only.

Where Was the First Capital of Egypt?

The new capital near Abydos, called Thinis, was the first Egyptian capital in its new era, and it remained throughout the days of the First and Second Dynasties as the capital of the country and the official residence of the kings, although the kings of these two dynasties resided from time to time in the north, in a city that was called . The White Castle, which they later attributed to King Menes, was later called Manf by the Egyptians. Whether this northern city was actually established during the reign of Menes or during the reign of one of his successors, and whether it is true that Menes diverted the Nile to create this new capital or whether it was just a matter of digging a canal or a small irrigation project, the choice of location was of great importance. The choice of location was of great importance for the governance of the north and south, as the natural place for the capital of Egypt must be close to the place where the delta meets Upper Egypt, which is the location of the most important capitals of Egypt in all ages from the era of Menes until now. Since Amelineau and Petrie excavated Abydos in 1895 and found in its tombs many important monuments bearing the names of the kings of the First Dynasty, it was believed until 1921 that the tombs of these kings were there. But then it happened that archaeologists found the names of some of these kings also in tombs in Tarkhan and Saqqara, and then the Department of Antiquities since 1930 began to dig regularly in the marine area of Saqqara and W.C. Firth found some tombs, and then W.B. Emery took over (W.B. Emery). Emery) From 1935 until the outbreak of World War II, he found a number of First Dynasty tombs there, and found the names of all the kings of the dynasty starting from Hor-Aha, except for his tombs Djet, Qa'a, and Semerkhet, as well as the tombs of some senior officials such as Hemaka.

Was Narmer Buried in Abydos or Saqqara?

Neither Amelineau nor Petrie found anything in Abydos that proves that the kings of the First Dynasty were really buried in those tombs, and it also turned out that Saqqara tombs are larger and more luxurious than Abydos tombs, so in which area were these kings buried if the Saqqara tombs were really built for these kings and not for their ministers who resided in the new capital in the north? Many archaeologists, led by W.B.Emery, wanted to see the Saqqara tombs as the true burial places of these kings and that the Abydos tombs were only mausoleums or some kind of memorial tombs in the cemetery of the capital of their region where they grew up. W.B.Emery resumed his excavations in 1953 and found two royal tombs, one with many objects from the reign of King Djet and the other with objects from the reign of King Qa'a, both of which were much larger than their respective tombs in Abydos. W.B.Emery's excavations continued until 1955 and provided us with many relics of the First Dynasty, shed much light on the history of that era and its civilizations, and clarified many mysteries, but despite all this, W.B.Emery did not find, either in his excavations before 1939 or between 1953 and 1955, any conclusive evidence that the kings of the First Dynasty were buried in Saqqara.

Kings After Narmer: Aha, Djer, and Others

Narmer was the first king of this dynasty, and his tomb was found in Abydos, and his most important relics came from the temple of Nekhen in Hierakonpolis, then he was followed by King Hor- Aha, (meaning the warrior), a tomb was found for him in Abydos and traces of his name in another larger tomb in Saqqara and we see on his monuments many references to wars against the Libyans and Nubians, and to religious ceremonies, especially those related to his coronation ceremony, and also indicate the construction of some temples for goddesses, especially for the goddess Net, whose clinic was based in the city of Saa al-Hajar in the western Delta, and his wife called him Neithhotep, and she may have been from that city. After Aha came another king, Djer, whose monuments are characterized by many artistic advances, and for some reason the ancient Egyptians in the following ages believed that his tomb in Abydos was the tomb of the idol Osiris and were pilgrimages and offerings to him until Amelineau's excavations in 1895 revealed its true nature.

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Ancient Egypt Before the Dynasties: The First Civilizations

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Prehistoric Egypt Before 4000 BC: The Foundations of Civilization

The period between the beginning of the Neolithic period (i.e. the Neolithic period) and the emergence of dynasties in Egypt, which is close to two thousand years, is sometimes called the Copper Chalcolithic Period, and we are concerned with what was in Egypt before 4000 BC. AD

We can say that both the Delta and Upper Egyptian civilizations had special features. In the Delta, the civilization was influenced by what was in eastern and western Egypt due to its contact with the people of Palestine, Syria and the Mediterranean islands on the one hand and North Africa on the other.

In Upper Egypt, civilization was influenced by what was in eastern and western Egypt due to its contact with the people of Palestine, Syria, and the Mediterranean islands on the one hand, and northern Africa on the other.

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A collage of predynastic artifacts from ancient Egypt

Merimde Culture: Agriculture and Community in the Western Delta

Hermann Junker found out this civilization in 1928. This area is the remains of a Neolithic village on the edge of the western delta, no more than 600 x 400 meters in size, whose inhabitants built their mud-built huts on both sides of a straight main road. It has been proven that Merimde's inhabitants knew agriculture and were cooperative with each other and stored their crops in silos shared by all of them, and had herds of cattle, pigs, and a few goats and sheep.

Life in Merimde: Tools, Weapons, and Clothing

They used a straight tool made of wood with a flint edge to cut wheat stalks that they stored in their wicker silos, which they placed in deep pits below ground level. The Merimde people knew the battle axe, knew how to use arrows, and had war clubs and flint knives. The Merimde people wore spun linen, and their women were adorned with necklaces of oysters or wild boar's teeth, rings of bone and earrings of ivory. Each woman had a slate slab on which she grinded green berries to lubricate her eyes in order to beautify them and protect them from the sun's rays. Their pottery is black and coarse, and its shape is in the form of a water bottle, including some types with bases, and small pots in the form of cups with legs, and sometimes two of them are connected to each other. They had long-necked pots and also made small trays of pottery. The Merimde people did not decorate their vessels and did not make handles on the sides, but made holes in the sides to hang them. Hermann Junker found in the houses of this village that there are columns in some houses to carry the roof. They erected them in the center of the room.

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Burial Practices in Merimde: A Glimpse into Prehistoric Beliefs

He also found in the corner of one of the rooms a large seahorse bone that was fixed to be used as a ladder to climb to the roof. They buried their dead under the floor of their huts, as did many inhabitants of the ancient East, without putting utensils or weapons with them Examination of the skeletal remains of these people proved that they were a branch of the Mediterranean race with elongated heads and broad foreheads, a branch of a civilization that spread on the northern coast of Africa and reached Europe around 3000 BC. The Merimde civilization did not have direct contact with Badarian culture or have a significant impact on it but continued in the Delta.

Badarian Culture: Daily Life in Pre-Dynastic Upper Egypt

The inhabitants of Upper Egypt at that time did not settle in large, fixed cities or villages, but lived in small mobile shops or villages, but they chose places to bury their dead, namely the cemeteries. We do not know of any place north of Assiut governorate that was affected by this civilization, but it was spread to the south, and we see it in Nubia as well, and even further. The weather in that era was rainy and warmer than it is now, and the population lived on the heights that overlook the vast areas of forests and marshes filled with various plants, especially the papyrus plant. Little remains of the village or villages in which they lived, and most of the information we have about their people comes from the excavation of the many cemeteries.

Clothing and Beauty in Badarian Egypt

The people of El-Badari were shorter than tall, averaging no more than 160 centimeters in height. They were slim, with fine facial features, wavy black hair and, in a few cases, chestnut-colored hair. Men wore their hair over their shoulders, while women's hair was shorter than men's, and no woman's hair was more than 20 centimeters long, which they braided in braids, and El-Badari men took care of their appearance, shaving their beards and wearing a hat on their heads. The people of El-Badari knew linen clothes, they wore them for men, women and children, and when the cold was severe, they wore leather and wool inside, and they also knew how to tan leather. They decorated their necks and arms with necklaces and bracelets, often made of glazed beads, and decorated their hair by placing feathers in them, and sometimes by wearing long ivory combs whose heads were decorated with animal figures, and some wore brightly colored bands with shells of the Red Sea around their hair. Among the most important things found in their tombs were some beads of hammered copper, and they also used beads of turquoise, agate, quartz, and beads made of ostrich eggshells in their jewelry. Some women had their noses pierced with a small button, fixing a small protrusion at one end in a hole inside the nose, and women knew how to use kohl for the eyes. As for their dwellings, they were simple and primitive, in which they placed simple furniture, including low-height wooden beds, and they also used leather or linen pillows stuffed with hay. Among their tools, archery sticks, fishing nets, spears and arrows were found, as well as models of boats.

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Burial Customs and Religious Symbols in Badarian Tombs

They placed their dead in their graves, sometimes on top of beds, or wrapped in mats, and the burial was not limited to humans, but some buried deer and cats with them, and they placed the heads of the dead on pillows, and made sure that they were facing the sunrise, regardless of the location or direction of the grave in the cemetery. El-Badari pottery is characterized by its mastery, the beauty of its decorations, the hardness of its material, and the thin walls of pots, and there is no doubt that the people of El-Badari believed in the resurrection, and they put a few statues of animals with them in their graves, especially the hippo, and there are other statues of women and birds, but this does not mean that they must have worshipped those animals.You may also like Mesopotamia Before History: Secrets of the First Civilizations

Early Societal Organization in Prehistoric Egypt

Now that we know something about Merimde and Badarian culture, both dating back to around 4400 BC. We can summarize the life of the ancient Egyptians at that time as having known agriculture and the use of copper metal, albeit on a small scale, and having begun a somewhat civilized life.

They had to cooperate with each other, as they had to build canals to bring the Nile water to places far from the river, they had to drain some swamps and clear them of trees, and they had to cooperate to protect themselves, their villages, and their crops from the dangers of the Nile floods.

All these actions required the cooperation of a large number of people, as well as the presence of a leader whose orders were respected by all and whose punishment was feared if necessary. The nature of Egypt's terrain dictated that a large number of people gathered in villages close to each other in places where the valley widened, and it was not long before regional units were formed, each of which had a leader who had authority over those around him.

The same thing happened in the Delta as well, and the main factor in defining its different regions was the course of rivers or some other geographical features, and it ended up dividing both the Delta and Upper Egypt into specific regions, each of which had a name, but the boundaries of this division were not always fixed, but the boundaries of this division were not always fixed.

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Women's Rights in Ancient Egypt: Marriage, Divorce, Inheritance

The Importance of Marriage in Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptians were always keen on the idea of purity and chastity. If a young man became a man, he had to establish himself, he had to take a wife, and he had to avoid as much as possible illicit relationships, because these relationships would lead him to perdition.

Since the beginning of time, the ancient Egyptians were keen on the social encounter between male and female, and in the case of mutual affection, steps were taken to complete the marriage between male and female.

How Wives Were Chosen in Ancient Egypt?

Ancient documents show that a person establishes a family or establishes a house, and appears in ancient Egyptian texts with the word (ir ḥmt), which means that a man takes a wife or becomes a wife, and the young man was

When he reaches the age of youth, he must join a job or a certain job, and then if he finds a suitable girl, he must build a house for himself, or establish a room for himself within the family home.

Ancient documents showed us that the ancient Egyptians had something similar to courtship in current societies, so if a young man liked a girl, he had to send a relative, his mother or a family member to ask her to marry him, according to what appeared in papyri known as love songs papyri. He could also go directly to the girl's father's house and ask her to marry him.

When the boy met the girl's family, he would swear by all the gods and the power of his faith that this girl would be in his care, that he would never oppress her, never hurt her, never harm her, and that if she needed anything, he would provide everything she needed.

We don't know how long the engagement period was, whether it was a month or a year, we don't know for sure. For them, this period was considered a stage of acquaintance, a stage of study between the girl and the boy in order to get married and succeed in starting a family.For more about relationships between boys and girls in ancient Egypt

love in ancient Egypt

How Were Marriage Contracts Made and Their Types in Ancient Egypt?

When a young man and a girl start to take the first steps to get married, they have to document the marriage and the ancient Egyptians had a document or some form of document that was written to prove the marriage, the first thing that was agreed upon was the social life between the girl and the boy and the economic status of the family. From ancient Egyptian documents, we know that there are three main ways to write a marriage contract

The first method is that the husband provides for the maintenance of the wife and provides her with a certain amount of jewelry or jewelry or whatever is agreed upon from the wife's adornment. What is equivalent in our current society is what is known as a wedding gift. He used to give this money, and this money became the wife's money, and he must give a gift to the wife This gift was agreed upon between the boy and the girl, and in most cases the gift that was given to the bride was a set of toiletries, perfumes and jewelry, and these tools were very important to the wife in her family life. Some ancient Egyptian documents that contain some marriage contracts showed that sometimes the husband would undertake to pay the wife monthly or annually a certain amount of gold or income, this amount with which the wife buys every year what she needs from decorative tools, perfumes and jewelry that she needs in her daily life.

There was another way to finalize the marriage contract in ancient Egypt, which is in the event that the husband's financial capabilities are weak and cannot fully support the wife, so he agreed with the wife's family that the life between the husband and the wife is 50/50, and this 50/50 in which the husband guarantees a certain amount of money, and if the wife has a job, or has an inheritance, she guarantees another similar amount, and this is proven in the marriage contract.

The third way in which the marriage contract was written was if the husband was not very wealthy financially, the wife would pay the entire cost of the marriage. The amount of the dowry was determined by the wife and recorded in the contract, and this dowry became a debt for the husband to pay throughout the marriage in installments until it was paid in full, and in some cases the repayment period reached more than 20 years.

Marital Home Preparation and Bride's Gifts in Ancient Egypt?

There was a very important element in marriage, which was the gift that the husband gave to the bride on the wedding day, and this gift was a certain amount of jewelry or a certain amount of perfume. This amount or this gift was known in the ancient Egyptian language as (nktw) and was presented by the husband to the wife on the wedding day and was a gift that did not agree on a specific amount for its price or amount, it was according to the husband's ability. Marriage contracts were drawn up inside the temples, and they were also drawn up in the state's records department. The records department recorded marriages and divorces and thus could determine the amount of taxes on each family, so the marriage contract had to be recorded by the village clerk or by the city clerk, and therefore the marriage contract had to be recorded by the village clerk or the city clerk. This marriage was announced in the temple, and in the records department, and there must be witnesses, and from the documents we know that the minimum number of witnesses to the marriage contract was one individual, but many times the marriage contract was witnessed by five and six people, and sometimes 14 witnesses to a contract. It was also part of the marriage preparations to agree on all the things required of the husband and wife in this period, the household foundation usually fell entirely on the husband, except for the bedroom and kitchen, the wife was responsible for their furniture. Perfumes, ornaments, and toiletries referred to the husband's gift to the wife, and the ancient Egyptians favored these decorations such as kohl, perfume pots, hair paints and mirrors that were made of gold and made of silver and a flask that was made of precious stones and kept inside it creams and essential oils that were used in the hair. The ancient Egyptians were keen to have a special box for toiletries, this box contains a number of drawers containing women's toiletries. The ancient sages advised the husband that if you want to satisfy your wife, you should saturate her with decorations and perfumes, and saturate her with aromatic fat, because this aromatic fat is good for her and her body. In the period leading up to the wedding, the ancient Egyptians performed a series of prayers, incantations and hymns aimed at removing the evil eye, because if this evil eye hit the wedding party and injured the husband or wife, it could lead to the loss and destruction of the entire ceremony, and the destruction of the marriage relationship.

For more about marriage and divorce in other civilizations

Marriage and Divorce in Ancient Sumerian Civilization

The Rituals of the Wedding Day in Ancient Egypt?

On the wedding day, the groom wore the most luxurious clothes, usually white linen. The bride also wore the most luxurious clothes of white linen, and the bride's body was painted with perfumes and jewelry, and her hair was dyed with henna.

Most ancient Egyptian weddings usually started in the daytime and ended at sunset, and the wedding day started with a ceremony and a large feast, and on the wedding day, the marital home was prepared for the final state.

Weddings took place inside the house and a large party was held, this party had a men's part and a women's part.

At the party, the ladies gather with the singing and dancing girls, and the singers start singing happy songs to cheer up the newlyweds, and all the bride's friends, relatives, and neighbors are present at the party.

A large procession moves from the husband's house to the wife's house to take the wife to their new home, as well as processions carrying the furniture that will be placed inside the house, and the house is furnished to receive the newlyweds, and the house is prepared with readings, spells and incense to ward off any evil that may fall on the new family.

Written by H. Moses

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How Were Clothes Made in Ancient Egypt?

From the first moments of human settlement on the Egyptian land, clothing was a human necessity that humans needed with the first signs of settlement on the land.

What Materials Did Ancient Egyptians Use for Clothing?

The first beginnings of the clothing industry in the whole world and in the land of Egypt were always based on the use of the data found in the surrounding environment, and from prehistoric times, man had begun to recognize life around him and began to form the first societies of life.

What Do Rock Inscriptions Reveal About Prehistoric Clothing?

We do not have clear evidence of the form and nature of the clothes worn by humans at that time, but the rock paintings that appeared on the rocks in the western desert in Egypt showed that most people who lived in that distant time more than 30,000 years ago did not have an urgent need for clothes, and when the need for clothes began, the main material that was used or made as clothing was fur, this fur was obtained from animals.

How Did the Nile River Influence Clothing Production?

When man began to settle around the banks of the Nile Valley more than 20,000 years ago, the first stages of agriculture began, and man began to gradually recognize agricultural crops through which he could replace the manufacture of clothing from animal skins. He began to discover new types of data in nature, from plants and trees that help him to make some form of clothing that he can use in his life.

How Did Fashion Develop in Ancient Egypt?

The ancient Egyptian civilization reached a great and wide extent in the manufacture and manufacture of clothing since very long periods of ancient Egyptian history, and this is evidenced by the monuments and scenes that were found, which showed how creative the ancient Egyptians were in their work, and they were able to give a distinctive form to the ancient Egyptian fashion that distinguished the ancient Egyptians in their civilization from other peoples, which also passed from the ancient Egyptian civilization to the civilizations of the ancient world.

What Was the Role of Papyrus in Ritual Clothing?

With the first beginnings of human settlement on the Egyptian land from pre-dynastic times, archaeological data showed that in the very early stages of settlement on the banks of the Nile Valley more than 15,000 years ago, Egyptians at that time were using the papyrus plant, considering that it is an easy, cheap and available material in the manufacture of cloth form that was used as clothing, which is evidenced by the presence of ritual clothing that was used in temples and in religious rituals, these clothes were made of papyrus, the main parts of which were made of papyrus.

At that distant time, people used fur and leather for clothing, especially in jobs that required hard labor, such as working in the fields, sailors in boats, quarry workers' clothes, and others.

When Was Flax Discovered and Used in Egypt?

In the end, the ancient Egyptians, with the first beginnings of the ancient Egyptian civilization more than 10,000 years ago BC. They discovered the flax plant.

Why Was Linen So Important in Ancient Egypt?

The linen plant in ancient Egypt was considered the beginning of a new phase of fashion in ancient Egypt. Linen was the primary and main material for clothing in ancient Egypt from pre-dynastic times until the early modern era.

Linen was very abundant in the delta, and it is an easy-to-manufacture cheap material, and the ancient Egyptians greatly preferred it as a material used in the fashion industry, and one of the oldest monuments found in ancient Egypt from the second Naqadah civilization around 6000 BC for a piece of linen cloth depicting the journey of one of the boats on the Nile River, which is considered one of the oldest fabrics in the world.

What Is the Oldest Known Garment in the World?

As for the oldest garment that can be almost in the whole world found from the pre-dynastic era in the Tarkhan region, this garment is a shirt made of linen for a woman estimated to be 5000 years BC, and it shows that the ancient Egyptians were very skilled in that distant time in weaving linen to the point that the Egyptian manufacturer reaches a state of delicacy with linen that is close in its delicacy and transparency to silk.

Did Ancient Egyptians Use Sewing Needles?

The ancient Egyptians were very familiar with needlework, and they used to make a sewing needle from bone and ivory, and this began a long time ago, more than about 9000 years BC, and they used it in the process of sewing clothes.

How Was Linen Manufactured in Ancient Egypt?

The flax plant grew at a low elevation of about 50 centimeters above the ground. This plant consists of a number of leaflets and contains flax seeds at the top. When the plant reaches maturity, the ancient Egyptians harvest this plant completely from the ground, and when the plant is plucked from the ground, the plant is taken in bundles that are transported on the backs of animals to the factories where linen will be made.

Most of the textile factories were concentrated in the delta because this plant needs a low temperature and high humidity. In the factory, the plant is inserted into a long net like a fork with this fork into which the plant is inserted and the green leaflets are removed from the plant's body, and the plant becomes only green sticks.

Then the plant is taken to another area or place and they start hitting the plant sticks with hammers in order to separate the seed from the plant sticks themselves, and the seeds of the flax plant are taken and part of it is kept as a crop for the next year to be planted and another part of the plant is squeezed and flax oil is extracted from inside this plant.

Written by H. Moses

All rights reserved ©Mythology and History

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Snakes in Ancient Egypt: Symbols of Power, Protection & Rebirth

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Snakes are one of the symbols that played a big role in Egyptian civilization, and in the ancient Egyptian religion.

The Egyptian environment is characterized by the fact that it contains 36 species of snakes, including seven poisonous species, and these snakes attracted the attention of the ancient Egyptians, because they are found either in the desert or in agricultural land or even in water.

Why were snakes important in ancient Egyptian religion?

The ancient Egyptians chose snakes to play an important role in the ancient Egyptian belief, and this role was imagined by the Egyptians through the nature of snakes, it is known that snakes, every year, change their skin, and this process caught the attention of the ancient Egyptians, because it symbolizes a form of renewal that is equivalent to the renewal of time, and through this, snakes in ancient Egypt, especially the cobra snake, became associated in ancient Egypt with royalty. According to ancient Egyptian belief, the ancient Egyptians called the cobra snake (jꜥrt) meaning raised or rising, and this may symbolize the shape of the Kubra snake's rising or rising body, because it is as if it were standing.

Snakes in Ancient Egypt Symbols of Power, Protection , Rebirth

What is the significance of the Uraeus in ancient Egypt?

The ancient Egyptians envisioned that these snakes, especially the cobra snake in particular, would rise on the head of the god's crown to shoot flames out of its mouth, burning the god's enemies if they approached him in the ancient Egyptian belief.

Who was Wadjet and what was her role in Egyptian mythology?

The ancient Egyptians also expressed the snakes associated with royalty with many symbols, the most important of which was the Wadjet snake, which means the green snake and also means the prosperous snake, and this word expressed by the ancient Egyptians for the oldest goddess of royalty in ancient Egypt, the green or prosperous goddess Wadjet, whom the ancient Egyptians considered the protector of the lower crown of Egypt and is responsible for caring for this crown and crowning the king and protecting him with her magical power. This serpent always adorned the royal crown worn by kings in ancient Egypt.

How did ancient Egyptians view snakes in the afterlife?

Because snakes were changing their skin every year, the ancient Egyptians imagined snakes expressing time, so in the religious books in ancient Egypt, we find that snakes symbolize, in the folds of their skin and their severe twisting, this time that is constantly renewed, and we find that in the journey of the sun god's boat in the sky, he must enter the body of a snake from its end in order to come out of the mouth of this snake.

This body that the sun god enters is the time that the sun god travels in the other world, so the ancient Egyptians imagined that the twists in the snake's body are equivalent to the cycle of time in ancient Egypt.

Since snake's spew venom, the ancient Egyptians envisioned snakes as protectors of the gates and entrances to the other world. For example, in the Book of Gates, we find that each gate or otherworldly region is protected by a large serpent, and this large serpent breathes flame and fire to burn the bodies of enemies. In order to burn the bodies of enemies, and the bodies of those who enter this area, to do evil or for an evil purpose, and to protect the gods who dwell in this place.

Snakes in ancient Egypt were associated with goddesses specifically, and we found that this association has a reason, which is that snakes were laying eggs, and these eggs in ancient Egypt are a symbol of motherhood, and a symbol of femininity in general, and that is why all goddesses are depicted in the form of snakes, such as Hathor, Isis, Wadjet and others, and these goddesses may be depicted as decorated snakes in the other world responsible for caring, feeding and protecting the deceased in the other world.

These snakes appear in otherworldly books and serve as protectors of the bodies of the deceased in the afterlife. Therefore, we find that the deceased god in the form of Osiris, for example, or in the form of the sun god, is surrounded by a large, multifaceted snake. This snake's role or function is to protect the god with his weak body as he goes through the experience of entering the other world, protecting him from any danger or harm. This is why snakes protect the sacred body in the next world.

In order to punish sinners, these sinners are placed in a burning furnace of fire, and this fire is ignited by goddesses in the form of snakes that breathe flames to burn the bodies of these enemies who attacked ancient Egypt, so the snake in ancient Egypt symbolizes the powers of good as depicted in many goddesses, and also symbolizes the power of these goddesses when they express their anger towards sinners, and also symbolizes the evil forces that must be eliminated or controlled in the next world.

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The Scarab: Symbol of Life and Creation in Ancient Egypt

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Thousands of years ago, the land of ancient Egypt was teeming with life in all its forms. Not only large animals, but also small creatures that had great value and symbolism in the eyes of the ancient Egyptians, such as scarabs.

Amidst the desert, oases and the Nile, symbols emerged that were strongly associated with the ancient Egyptian people and were part of their daily and religious beliefs. Among the most prominent symbols were insects, especially the scarab, which was not just an insect for them, but a great symbol of creation, life and rebirth. The scarab was more than just a small creature that walked on the ground, it carried with it very large meanings that illustrate how the ancient Egyptians viewed the world, death and life from a very special perspective.

What Is the Scarab Beetle in Ancient Egyptian Culture?

The scarab was one of the most important sacred symbols of all. The scarab is an insect from the beetle family. The ancient Egyptians called this insect (ḫpr) Kheper, which means scarab, and Kheper, which means arise or become. It carried a very sacred symbolism, because the scarab was always present in all inscriptions, amulets and temples, and people carried it as a symbol of protection from evil.

Therefore, the scarab was considered a symbol of the beginning, the beginning of creation in ancient Egypt. Just as the word ankh in ancient Egypt expressed the scarab insect, it also expressed life, as the word ankh also means life in the ancient Egyptian language. 

Over time, the presence of the scarab in texts and paintings became not just a repetition, but an affirmation of people's deep belief in its symbolic power.

Why Did Ancient Egyptians Revere the Scarab Beetle?

It was no stranger to the ancient Egyptians. They used the scarab in ancient Egyptian writing to symbolize life as well, so the scarab was considered a symbol of life, a symbol of creation. The Egyptians saw in it the power that creates out of nothing, as if life emerges out of nothing, just as a scarab emerges its young from inside a ball of dust.

The ancient Egyptians associated the scarab with life and creation, considering that this winged insect when the mating season comes, this insect lays eggs and takes care of the eggs and makes a ball of clay and dung, this huge ball of clay and dung with the eggs inside, and wherever the insect goes, it pushes this ball in front of it until when the incubation period is completed, these eggs hatch and the small insects inside come out and this clay ball. 

It became a symbol of rebirth, a symbol of birth, that life comes out of this clay ball. This may explain why priests and artists in different eras have focused on depicting the scarab with the sun disk, in a symbolic scene full of energy and hope.

What Is the Connection Between the Scarab and the Sun God Khepri?

When the ancient Egyptians visualized the sun disk, they imagined that the sun disk was a huge ball, and this ball was pushed by an invisible scarab that resembled a real scarab, when it pushed the ball of clay, and that's why it was considered the moment of sunrise. 

The sun is like a huge ball of flame pushed by an invisible scarab beyond the horizon, hence the scarab became the symbol of sunrise. It is a symbol of the god Khepri, the god of the early morning sunrise, and thus the scarab became the beginning and symbol of everything new, the transition from one stage of life to another. 

On important occasions or transitional periods in an individual's life, wearing a scarab amulet was considered a good omen and the beginning of a new page full of blessings.

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The Vulture, Symbol of Goddess Nekhbet in Ancient Egypt’s Religion

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Birds in Ancient Egypt: More Than Just Creatures of the Sky

In ancient Egypt, there were many birds, including birds that the ancient Egyptians sanctified and took them as symbols of the gods and became a special place in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptian was distinguished by his high ability to observe nature and link biological phenomena to human behavior, so birds were not just creatures flying in the sky, but they represented spiritual and philosophical symbols. Each bird reflected a particular value in daily life such as courage, patience, protection, fertility, or even wisdom.

Another very important bird that was revered by the ancient Egyptians was the mwt, which means “mother” in ancient Egyptian.

Why Was the Vulture Sacred in Ancient Egypt?

The bird that symbolizes the mother in the ancient Egyptian language is the Vulture, a species of vulture that lives in the ancient Egyptian lands, and this bird is abundant in the southern parts of the land of Egypt. And in the eastern and western deserts of the Egyptian land.

Surprisingly, the vulture, despite being a carrion-eating bird, was not viewed negatively; on the contrary, the ancient Egyptians understood its ecological function as a natural cleaner of the land. This reveals another aspect of the genius of the ancient Egyptians who valued every living thing according to its role, not its appearance. It was also believed that this bird had the ability to see the unseen, like a guardian between the two worlds, the world of the living and the world of the dead.

What Does the Vulture Symbolize in Egyptian Mythology?

This type of bird is a carrion-eating bird, and it is characterized by very large size, as well as heavy weight. He cannot lie on his eggs after the mating season as a result of the heavy weight, because it may lead to the destruction of the eggs, so during the egg care period, the females of these birds spread their wings to surround their eggs in order to provide them with warmth. So that the bird can take care of the eggs until the hatching stage.

Therefore, the ancient Egyptians considered that this bird's way of protecting and caring for its eggs by spreading its wings and caring for these eggs in this way is the best form of protection and care, especially since this bird is characterized by the length of its wings.

And the ancient Egyptians, when they expressed the word mother in the ancient Egyptian language, took this bird in the word (mwt) to express the word mother, and when they wanted to express protection, they took the same bird to express the word protection in the word (mky). Protect, nurture, or preserve something. The eagle's relationship with the word “mother” (mwt) was not just a linguistic relationship, but it was based on a real and poignant observation of the bird's behavior. It is natural for a mother to provide protection and warmth to her offspring, and this is exactly what the eagle does when it spreads its wings with extraordinary tenderness over the eggs. The ancient Egyptians saw in this act a true embodiment of the idea of “motherhood” and turned it into a sacred symbol.

For more about for more about Motherhood and Childhood

Motherhood and Childhood in Ancient Egypt: Pregnancy, Birth, Care

Who Is Nekhbet and What Is Her Role in Ancient Egypt?

Therefore, this bird had to play an important role in ancient Egyptian civilization by protecting and caring for the royal crown, and the ancient Egyptians considered this bird to symbolize the goddess or goddess Nekhbet, the goddess of the white crown that symbolizes the crown of Upper Egypt, and this goddess was considered the seat of her worship in the Nekheb area in Aswan, which is currently Elkab area north of Aswan. This bird was considered to be the main seat of worship and was also considered to be the protector of the White Crown. The goddess Nekhbet was not only the protector of the White Crown in ancient Egypt, but she was also a constant protective presence at every moment of royal rule. The reliefs depicting her spreading her wings over the king's head were not just a decoration, but a message to all who looked on: The king is protected. The king is a child of heaven. The king is cared for by a sacred symbol representing the Great Mother. This gives us a glimpse of how interconnected religion, politics and art were in ancient Egyptian civilization.

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Animals Considered Evil and Opposed to the Gods in Ancient Egypt

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Animals in Ancient Egypt: From Sacred Symbols to Emblems of Evil

For thousands of years, the ancient Egyptians viewed animals not just as creatures that lived next to them, but as symbols that held deep religious and cultural secrets.

Some were elevated to the status of gods, while others became symbols of evil, the enemy, or even the unwanted stranger.

In this article, we delve into the animal world of ancient Egypt, revealing which creatures were expelled from the sacred list and became symbols of chaos and threat... Were these creatures really worthy of such a view, or is there more to the story than we realize?

The Camel: Enemy of the Gods and Symbol of Set

One of the animals that the ancient Egyptians never used as a symbol of idolatry, although they were known in the Egyptian civilization, was the camel.

The camel was a well-known animal in ancient Egypt, but this animal did not appear in ancient Egyptian scenes at all throughout the Pharaonic era. The earliest depiction of it is a fragment of a statue from the third Naqadah civilization, an inscription found in the tomb of Petosiris in Tuna al-Jabal at the end of the 30th Dynasty and the beginning of the Ptolemaic era.

During the Pharaonic era, the camel was not depicted at all in Egyptian scenes, and this is due to the fact that the camel was not a desirable animal in the Egyptian environment, this animal was associated with the Bedouin and associated with the desert, and the Bedouins were enemies of society in ancient Egypt and considered that they were not of God's creation.

The camel was expressed in the ancient Egyptian language by the word (k3mr). Evil gods such as Set were expressed by the word (bꜥr). It is a word that refers to the camel, and also refers to the camel's waste, so the word (bꜥr) refers to the god Set as one of the symbols of evil in ancient Egypt.

The Donkey: Noisy Foe of the Gods and Emblem of the Hyksos

Another animal that was not associated with the gods in ancient Egypt was the donkey, despite the donkey being the most hardworking animal in the Egyptian environment throughout prehistoric times to the early modern state.

Ancient Egyptians were completely dependent on donkeys in their daily lives, in travel, in transportation, in the field, in business, and in the transportation of stones and goods.

However, the donkey was not sanctified at all, and this is due to the fact that the ancient Egyptians believed that the sound of the donkey was a disturbing sound to the gods, and therefore was a symbol of evil, it was always mentioned in religious books as a symbol of evil, and one of the symbols of the god Set in ancient Egypt, and religious books always refer to the process of donkey sacrifice.

It later became a symbol of the enemies of the ancient Egyptians when the Hyksos entered Egypt, and the Hyksos worshipped the donkey. Hence, this animal also became a symbol of the enemies that occupied the Egyptian land for the first time in ancient Egyptian history.

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Symbols of Anubis and the Jackal in Ancient Egypt's Beliefs

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What is the symbolic meaning of the jackal in ancient Egypt?

In ancient Egypt, an important type of sacred symbols appeared from the beginning of historical times: wolves, foxes, and the jackal. As an essential part of the Egyptian environment, the jackal was an animal that was closely associated with life in the desert. The animal had an exceptional ability to adapt to the harsh desert environment, making it a symbol of resourcefulness and the ability to survive in the most difficult conditions. Therefore, the ancient Egyptians associated it with the idea of survival and wise planning.

The jackal is a carrion eater, and this animal is highly intelligent, as it is considered one of the creatures that live in semi-arid environments, and its yellow color resembles the color of sand, which makes it harmonize with the surrounding environment.

What is the significance of the jackal’s burrow in mythology?

The burrow of this animal is characterized by a unique feature, as it contains more than one door, sometimes reaching about five or six doors, to give it the ability to escape easily if someone tries to hunt it. This form of resourcefulness and intelligence has made the jackal a symbol of strength in the face of environmental challenges.

How did the jackal guide souls to the afterlife in ancient beliefs?

The ancient Egyptians considered the jackal to be a symbol of intelligence and discernment, as they believed it knew the ways of the afterlife and the entrances and exits of the other world. It was seen as a wise being who understood the secrets of life and death, and knew the paths that humans take after death. In addition, they believed that the jackal possessed the ability to understand the ins and outs of roads in everyday life as well, whether these roads were in the physical world or in the spiritual world. This belief in the jackal made it a symbol of assistance in the transition from this life to the afterlife, which earned it a special place in ancient Egyptian beliefs, where it was portrayed as a guide for souls on the journey from the world of the living to the world of the dead.

For more about the god Anubis and his role in ancient Egypt

Anubis: The God of Death in Egyptian Mythology

Why was Anubis important in Egyptian mythology?

Two types or forms of this particular animal appeared to us. The first is the animal called Anubis, which is considered an important symbol in ancient Egyptian beliefs. Anubis is actually a jackal, but it is characterized by two important features. First, he is depicted in a recumbent position, which indicates his connection to the afterlife and the comfort that the deceased must experience after death. The second characteristic is his black color, a color that has been closely associated with mummification and death.

What does the color black symbolize in ancient Egyptian beliefs?

The name Anubis is derived from the ancient Egyptian verb “inpw”, which means “that which helps to decompose” or “that which is associated with black color”. This name is associated with the color of the mummy after the mummification process, as the body turns black due to chemical reactions with the substances used in mummification. The color black had a special significance in Egyptian cultures, as it was considered the color of new life after death. As such, Anubis is the god of mummification and death, symbolizing assistance in the soul's passage to the afterlife.

How did ancient Egyptians view life after death?

Ancient Egyptians noticed that after a person died, began the mummification process, and was buried in Natron salt, the deceased's body turned black, a color that was closely associated with death and the passage to the afterlife. This observation led Egyptians to associate this transformation with the god Anubis, who was considered the master of the entrances to the afterlife.

What is the connection between Anubis and mummification?

Anubis was the main deity of the priests who specialized in mummification, as the deity was believed to guide the souls during the transition from this life to the afterlife. Therefore, the color black was considered a symbol of mortality, but it also carried a connotation of resurrection and immortality, as it was considered the color of the body after the mummification process.

Anubis became a symbol of the entrance to the other world and was depicted at the gates of tombs as a recumbent, guardian figure standing at the entrance that separates life from death. This depiction was meant to mark the entrance to the other world and the beginning of the path that the souls of the dead traveled after their bodies were mummified. Thus, Anubis represented comfort and guidance for the dead on their journey to the afterlife and was considered a symbol of inner peace in the process of transitioning to another world.

Written by H. Moses

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Symbolism of Rams in Ancient Egyptian Religion: Khnum, Amun-Ra

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Introduction: The Role of Animals in Ancient Egyptian Religion

It is well known that animals played a pivotal role in shaping religious thought in ancient Egypt, as each animal was expressed with certain qualities, which were projected onto different gods and religious symbols. Each living creature had a special status that reflected their vision of the natural world and the gods.

What is the significance of rams in ancient Egyptian religion?

The ram is one of the animals that played a major role in symbolism in ancient Egypt in the pre-dynastic era, and the ram became a sacred symbol in ancient Egypt. It was seen as a symbol of strength and fertility, as its appearance was associated with seasons of goodness and abundance, elements that represented life in the eyes of the ancient Egyptian.

What does the ram symbolize in ancient Egyptian culture?

Egyptian rams carried a special symbolism in ancient Egyptian thought and culture, and a large number of gods carried the form of rams in ancient Egypt, and if we look closely in ancient Egypt, we can distinguish that there are two types of rams, and this distinction was not just a formal difference, but had deep religious and spiritual connotations, as the function of each type differed in ancient Egyptian rituals and beliefs. The ram with horizontal horns and this ram, whose characteristic was carried by many Egyptian gods, this ram was known in ancient Egyptian texts by the word (ḥnm), which means ram, and the same word in the ancient Egyptian language means gathering, composing or forming, and therefore it was not strange that the ancient Egyptians when they took the image of the creator god who forms bodies in ancient Egypt, they took him in the form of a ram, which was known to the god Khnum, meaning the god of the forming god or the body-forming god.

Who was Khnum and what was his role in creation myths?

The god Khnum was based in the city of Aswan and the god Khnum always appeared in the form of a ram with horizontal horns, and the god Khnum was his task, and function was to form the bodies and bodies of humans and all creatures from the mud that comes with the flood waters. He shapes these bodies on the potter's wheel, like a potter shapes pots. This ram makes the image of man or the image of the gods, hence the word Khnum, by which this god is known. Khnum was one of the first gods to be worshipped in Upper Egypt, reflecting the age and importance of this symbol in local beliefs, especially in areas around the Nile, where mud and water were the source of life.

For more details about the god Khnum, you can follow the following article:

Khnum: The Creator Deity in Egyptian Mythology

What does the ram symbolize in ancient Egyptian culture?

The symbolism of the rams was also not limited to the god Khnum only, but this symbolism and attribute was for many gods, for example, the god Osiris when he unites with the god Ra, resulting in a ram that appears and is known as (b3 nb ddt).

In the ancient Egyptian language, rams were one of the words expressed by the word (b3) sometimes meaning ram. They often borrowed this word from the sound of the ram itself, which shows how much the ancient Egyptian language is linked to nature and the sounds around them, as the language directly reflected the environment.

The Dual Meaning of 'Ba': Ram and Soul in Ancient Egyptian Belief

When the ancient Egyptians visualize the soul on its way to the other world, it is always visualized in the form of a ram, perhaps because the word (b3) means ram and also means soul, and here it means the essence of life and not (Ka), which refers to the life force. “Ka” was the energy that kept the body alive, while ‘Ba’ was the entity that moved and traveled between worlds, and carried the personal and individual characteristics of the deceased.

In the Fayoum Book papyrus, one of the very important papyri from the Greco-Roman period, an image of this ram when it unites with the goddess, Ra at the time, gives us this peculiar form of ram.

The ram symbol is not limited as an animal symbol to just one form. Because the goal is to collect as many qualities as possible in one image, so we find the head for one animal, the body for another, the feet for another, and the tail for a different animal or bird, in order to give a set of different qualities within one entity.