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Second Dynasty

Second Dynasty

Known rulers, in the History of Egypt, for the Second Dynasty. The First and Second Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. The capital at that time was Thinis. The period names of the actual rulers of the Second Dynasty are in dispute. For the first five kings, the sources are fairly close in agreement: However, the identity of the next two or three rulers is unclear: we may have both the Horus-name or Nebty (meaning (female) two) -name and their birth names for these rulers; they may be entirely different individuals; or they may be legendary names. On the left are the rulers most Egyptologists place here; on the right are the names that ultimately come from Manetho's Aegyptica: With the last ruler, we return to an agreement: Although Manetho states the capital was at Thinis, the same as during the First Dynasty, at least the first three kings were buried at Saqqara, suggesting the center of power had moved to Memphis. Beyond this, little can be said about the events during this period; the annual records on the Palermo stone only survive for the end of the reign of Raneb and for parts of Nynetier's. One important event possibly happened during the reign of Khasekhemwy: many Egyptologists read his name ("the Two Powers are Crowned") as commemorating the union of Upper and Lower Egypts.

External link


- [http://xoomer.virgilio.it/_XOOM/francescoraf/hesyra/dynasty2.htm Ancient Egypt: The Second Dynasty] #02nd dynasty of Egypt

History of Egypt

] The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. The Nile valley forms a natural geographic and economic unit, bounded to the east and west by deserts, to the north by the sea and to the south by the Cataracts of the Nile. The need to have a single authority to manage the waters of the Nile led to the creation of the world's first state in Egypt in about 3000 BC. Egypt's peculiar geography made it a difficult country to attack, which is why Pharaonic Egypt was for so long an independent and self-contained state. Once Egypt did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 2,300 years Egypt was governed by foreigners: Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and British. When Gamal Abdel Nasser (President of Egypt 1954–1970) remarked that he was the first native Egyptian to exercise sovereign power in the country since Pharaoh Nectanebo II, deposed by the Persians in 343 BC, he was only exaggerating slightly. In this encyclopedia Egyptian history has been divided into seven periods:
- History of ancient Egypt: 3000 BC to 525 BC
- History of Egypt Under Achaemenid Persian Domination: 525 BC to 332 BC
- History of Greek and Roman Egypt: 332 BC to 639 CE
- History of early Arab Egypt: 639 to 1517
- History of Ottoman Egypt: 1517 to 1805
- Egypt under Muhammad Ali and his successors: 1805 to 1882
- History of Modern Egypt: since 1882

See also


- Aegyptus
- Egyptian mythology
- History of Africa
- History of the Middle East
- Pharaoh

External links


- [http://www.badley.info/history/Egypt.country.year.index.html Modern Egypt Chronology World History Database]
- [http://st-takla.org/Egypt-1.html Egypt.. the past and the present] Egypt, history of

Early Dynastic Period of Egypt

The Early Dynastic Period of Egypt is taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from 2920 BC, following the Protodynastic Period of Egypt, until 2575 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom. Some Egyptologists also include the Third Dynasty. Ancient Egyptians record their origin as the Land of Punt, currently thought to be modern day Eritrea or Sudan. They considered themselves to be "the People of Two Lands", these lands being Upper and Lower Egypt. According to Manetho, the first king was Menes. However, the earliest recorded king of the First Dynasty was Hor-Aha, and the first king to claim to have united the two lands was Narmer (the final king of the Protodynastic Period. We know his name because it is written on a votive palette[http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/narmer.htm] used for grinding minerals for kohl (cosmetics), used by ancient Egyptians to outline the eyes. Funeral practices for the peasants would have been the same as in predynastic times, but the rich demanded something more. Thus, the Egyptians began construction of the mastabas. Prior to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in circa 3100 BC, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the first dynasties, the rulers established a national administration and appointed royal governors. The buildings of the central government were typically open-air temples constructed of wood or sandstone.

See also


- Afrocentrism
- Land of Punt Category:Ancient Egypt

Horus

:This page is about the Egyptian deity. For the fantasy character, see Horus (Warhammer 40,000). Horus is an ancient god of Egyptian mythology, whose cult survived so long that he evolved dramatically over time and gained many names. The most well known name is the Greek Horus, representing the Egyptian Heru/Har, which is the basic element in most of the other names of Horus. Horus was so important that the Eye of Horus became an important Egyptian symbol of power.

Mythology

Sky God

Originally, Horus was the god of the sky, and the son of Ra, the creator (whose own birth was thought due to the Ogdoad). His mother was originally said to have been Hathor, since Hathor was considered as a representation of the Milky way, which encirles the sky, specifically as the cow whose milk produced it, and so Hathor was thought of as Ra's wife. One title that was often given to this form was Nenwen (also spelt Nenun), roughly meaning the exposed abyss, a reference to the sky. Milky waySince he was god of the sky, Horus became depicted as a falcon, or as a falcon-headed man, leading to Horus' name, (in Egyptian, Heru), which meant The distant one. Horus was also sometimes known as Nekheny (meaning falcon), although it has been proposed that Nekheny may have been another falcon-god, worshipped at Nekhen (city of the hawk), that became identified as Horus very early on. In this form, he was sometimes given the title Kemwer, meaning (the) great black (one), referring to the bird's colour. As Horus was the son of Ra, and god of the sky, he became closely associated with the Pharaoh of Upper Egypt (where Horus was worshipped), and became their patron. The association with the Pharaoh brought with it the idea that he was married to Isis, in her original form, who was regarded as a deification of the Queen. Due to Egyptian beliefs about the soul, the bodies of the deceased royalty were mummified, and four internal organs were transferred to canopic jars, and so Horus, embodying the Pharaoh, was said to be the father of these four children, deifications of the jars, known as the Four sons of Horus, with Isis, his wife, as their mother. It was said that after the world was created, Horus landed on a perch, known as the djeba, which literally translates as finger, in order to rest, which consequently became considered sacred. On some occasions, Horus was referred to as lord of the djeba (i.e. lord of the perch or lord of the finger), a form in which he was especially worshipped at Buto, known as Djebauti, meaning (ones) of the djeba (the reason for the plural is not understood, and may just have been a result of Epenthesis, or Paragoge). The form of Djebauti eventually became depicted as an heron, nevertheless continuing to rest on the sacred perch.

Sun God

heron Since Horus was said to be the sky, it was natural that he was rapidly considered to also contain the sun and moon. It became said that the sun was one of his eyes and the moon the other, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Thus he became known as Harmerty - Horus of two eyes. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the contestings of Horus and Set, originating as a metaphor for the conquest of Lower Egypt by Upper Egypt in about 3000BC. In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Lower Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Upper Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the gods sided with Horus. As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as Haroersis (Heru-ur, and Har-Wer, in Egyptian), meaning Horus the Great, but more usually translated as Horus the Elder. Meanwhile, in the struggle, Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Set represented is infertile. Horus' right eye had also been gouged out, which explained why the moon, which it represented, was so weak compared to the sun. It was also said that during a new-moon, Horus had become blinded and was titled Mekhenty-er-irty (he who has no eyes), while when the moon became visible again, he was re-titled Khenty-irty (he who has eyes). While blind, it was considered that Horus was quite dangerous, sometimes attacking his friends after mistaking them for enemies. Ultimately, as another sun god, Horus became identified with Ra as Ra-Herakhty, literally Ra, who is Horus of the two horizons. However, this identification proved to be awkward, for it made Ra the son of Hathor, and therefore a created being rather than the creator. And, even worse, it made Ra into Horus, who was the son of Ra, i.e. it made Ra his own son and father, in a standard sexually-reproductive manner, an idea that would not be considered comprehensible until the hellenic era. Consequently Ra and Horus never completely merged into a single falcon-headed sun god. Nevertheless the idea of making the identification persisted, and Ra continued to be depicted as falcon-headed. Likewise, as Ra-Herakhty, in an allusion to the Ogdoad creation myth, Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy, with a finger in his mouth, sitting on a lotus with his mother. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as Neferhor (also spelt Nefer Hor, Nephoros, and Nopheros), which, in the Egyptian language, means beautiful Horus (i.e. youthful Horus). In an attempt to resolve the conflict, Ra-Herakhty was occasionally said to be married to Iusaaset, which was technically his own shadow, having previously been Atum's shadow, before Atum was identified as Ra, in the form Atum-Ra, and thus of Ra-Herakhty when Ra was also identified as a form of Horus. In the version of the Ogdoad creation myth used by the Thoth cult, Thoth created Ra-Herakhty, via an egg, and so was said to be the father of Neferhor.

Conquerer of Set

During the overthrow of the hated Hyksos, foreign rulers over Egypt, Set became demonised by the nationalistic fervour, as he had been chosen by the Hyksos as their favourite god. The previous brief enmity between Set and Horus, in which Horus had ripped off one of Set's testicles, was revitalised as a tale representing the conquest over the Hyksos. Since by this time, Set was considered to have been gay, Set is depicted as trying to prove his dominance, by seducing Horus (with the line how lovely your backside is) and then having Intercrural intercourse with him, in which Set takes the top role. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set's semen, then subsequently cut the hand off, throwing it in the river, so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Subsequently, Horus secretly masturbates, and deliberately spreads his own semen on some lettuce, which was Set's favourite food (the Egyptians thought that lettuce was phallic, since Egyptian lettuce was hard, long, and released a milk substance when rubbed). After Set has eaten the lettuce, they go to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The gods first listen to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answers from the river, invalidating his claim. Then, the gods listen to Horus' claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answers from inside Set. In consequence, Horus is declared the ruler of Egypt.

Brother of Isis

When Ra assimilated Atum into Atum-Ra, Horus became considered part of what had been the Ennead. Since Atum had had no wife, having produced his children by masturbating, Hathor was easily inserted as the mother of the previously motherless subsequent generation of children. However, Horus did not fit in so easily, since if he was identified as the son of Hathor and Atum-Ra, in the Ennead, he would then be the brother of the primordial air and moisture, and the uncle of the sky and earth, between which there was initially nothing, which was not very consistent with him being the sun. Instead, he was made the brother of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys, as this was the only plausible level at which he could meaningfully rule over the sun, and over the Pharaoh's kingdom. It was in this form that he was worshipped at Behdet as Har-Behedti (also abbreviated Bebti). Since Horus had become more and more identified with the sun, since his identification as Ra, his identification as also the moon suffered, so it was possible for the rise of other moon gods, without complicating the system of belief too much. Consequently, Chons became the moon god. Thoth, who had also been the moon god, became much more associated with secondary mythological aspects of the moon, such as wisdom, healing, and peace making. When the cult of Thoth arose in power, Thoth was retroactively inserted into the earlier myths, making Thoth the one whose magic caused Set and Horus' semen to respond, in the tale of the contestings of Set and Horus, for example. Thoth's priests went on to explain how it was that there were 5 children of Geb and Nuit. They said that Thoth had prophecied the birth of a great king of the gods, and so Ra, afraid of being usurped, had cursed Nuit with not being able to give birth at any point in the year. In order to remove this curse, Thoth proceeded to gamble with Chons, winning 1/72nd of moonlight from him. Prior to this time in egyptian history, the calendar had had 360 days, and so 1/72 of moonlight each day corresponded to 5 extra days, and so the tale states that Nuit was able to give birth on each of these extra days, having 5 children. The egyptian calendar was reformed around this time, and gained the 5 extra days, which, by coincidence, meant that this could be used to explain the 5 children of Nuit.

Son of Osiris

Nuit When Isis became identified as Hathor (i.e. Isis-Hathor), Isis became the mother of Horus, rather than his wife, and so, in his place, as Isis had become regarded as one of the Ennead, she was seen as the wife of Osiris. However, it had to be explained how Osiris, who as god of the dead, was dead, could be considered a father to Horus who was very much not considered dead. This lead to the evolution of the idea that Osiris needed to be resurrected, and so to the Legend of Osiris and Isis, a myth so significant that everything else paled in comparison. As the son of Isis, Horus was referred to as Har-sa-Iset (Harsiesis in Greek), literally meaning Horus, son of Isis. There were also titles that differentiated between this form of Horus as an adult, and him as a child, specifically, Harpocrates (Har-Pa-Khered in Egyptian), meaning Horus the child, and Har-nedj-itef, meaning Horus, saviour of his father, i.e. a reference to Horus' actions against Set once Horus had become an adult. Since he had been the son of Hathor, a fertility goddess, the idea that a major event about Horus was when he was a child, Horus sometimes depicted as a fertility god, holding a cornucopia, although it was much more common for him to be shown as being nursed by Isis (more accurately Isis-Hathor, who was depicted as Isis, but with Hathor's horns). In the New Kingdom, Anhur, a war god, gained the title Saviour, due to the feelings of the benefits of going to war to assert your own freedom, and so he became conflated with Horus, who shared both these characteristics, as the warrior against Set, with the title Saviour of his father. The identification of Anhur as Horus, referred to as Horus-Anhur, was given a new name during the egyptian period of dominance over Nubia, when the kushites named him as Arensnuphis (also Arsnuphis, Harensnuphis), Ari-hes-nefer in Egyptian, meaning something along the lines of Horus of the beautiful house. In a certain few areas, Horus was identified as the son of Banebdjed, who was an obscure version of Osiris, technically his Ba, worshipped in Mendes, and consequently also the son of Hatmehit, the local chief goddess of Mendes who had become considered Osiris' wife. Horus became very popular during the time of the Roman Empire, in his form as a child, where he was depicted riding a goose or ram (symbols of Thoth and Banebdjed respectively). Since Horus was sometimes identified as Ra, Isis assimilated the mythos of Neith, Ra's mother. Consequently, Horus was sometimes considered took on the aspects of the tale that Ra exhibited, to have been the son of Neith, who remained a virgin, as a result of Kneph's creative act of breathing Horus' life into her via an ankh. Kneph was connected to the Ba, and became identified with Banebdjed, both being depicted as ram-headed, and consequently this tale became viewed as Osiris, the most important god (at this time), causing Isis to become pregnant, while she still remained a virgin, by breathing Horus' soul into her.

Mystery Religion

Since Horus, as the son of Osiris, was only in existence after Osiris's death, and because Horus, in his earlier guise, was the husband of Isis, the difference between Horus and Osiris blurred, and so, after a few centuries, it came to be said that Horus was the resurrected form of Osiris. Likewise, as the form of Horus before his death and resurrection, Osiris, who had already become considered a form of creator when belief about Osiris assimilated that about Ptah-Seker, also became considered to be the only creator, since Horus had gained these aspects of Ra. Eventually, in the Hellenic period, Horus was, in some locations, identified completely as Osiris, and became his own father, since this concept was not so disturbing to greek philosophy as it had been to that of ancient egypt. In this form, Horus was sometimes known as Heru-sema-tawy, meaning Horus, uniter of two lands, since Horus ruled over the land of the dead, and that of the living. Since the tale became one of Horus' own death and rebirth, which happened partly due to his own actions, he became a life-death-rebirth deity. In the time of Christ the term "son of god" had come to mean the bearer of this title was the father god himself as well as his own son incarnated on earth. Horus was Osiris the father who incarnated as Horus the son. By assimilating Hathor, who had herself assimilated Bata, who was associated with music, and in particular the sistrum, Isis was likewise thought of in some areas in the same manner. This particularly happened amongst the groups who thought of Horus as his own father, and so Horus, in the form of the son, amongst these groups often became known as Ihy (alternately: Ihi, Ehi, Ahi, Ihu), meaning sistrum player, which allowed the confusion between the father and son to be side-stepped. The combination of this, now rather esoteric mythology, with the philosophy of Plato, which was becoming popular on the mediterranean shores, lead to the tale becoming the basis of a mystery religion. Many Greeks, and those of other nations, who encountered the faith, thought it so profound that they sought to create their own, modelled upon it, but using their own gods. This lead to the creation of what was effectively one religion, which was, in many places, adjusted to superficially reflect the local mythology although it substantially adjusted them. The religion is known to modern scholars as that of Osiris-Dionysus.

Horus and Jesus

A connection between Jesus and Horus-Osiris is frequently raised by critics of the historicity of Jesus. Superficially, the death and resurrection of Horus-Osiris, and Horus' nature as both the son of Osiris and Osiris himself, appear to be a template for the idea that this occurred in Jesus. However, there is much more to both deities than this, and so such basic comparisons are not terribly persuasive to most academics. Deeper similarities between Horus and Jesus, which are not at all obvious to those who are not completely familiar with ancient egyptian mythology and linguistics, have been said by some to mean that certain elements of the story of Jesus were embellishments, which were copied from the Horus as syncretism. Indeed, according to a few more radical scholars, Jesus was copied from Horus wholesale, and made into a Jewish teacher. In particular, it is said that Horus is the basis for the elements assigned to the M Gospel (the bits in Matthew which are not in the Q Gospel or Mark) and the L Gospel (the bits in Luke which are not in the Q gospel or Mark), especially the infancy narratives.

Neith's nativity

The nativity sequence itself stands out for comparison with the nativity of Ra, whose mother became thought of as Neith, who had become the personification of the primal waters of the Ogdoad. As the primal waters, from which Ra arose due to the interaction of the ogdoad, Neith was considered to have given birth whilst remaining a virgin. As the various religious groups gained and lost power in Egypt, the legend altered, and, when the cult of Thoth sought to involve themselves in the story, it was said that Thoth's wisdom (which he personified) meant that he foretold the birth of Ra to Neith. Since the later legends had other gods in existence at Ra's birth, it was said that they acknowledged Ra's authority by praising him at his birth. Later, the tale evolved so that the god Kneph was present, who represented the breath of life, which brought new life to things. This was partly to do with the assertion, of the small cult of Kneph, that Kneph was the creator, although it was more accurate to say that Kneph was the personification of the concept of creation of life itself. As a creator, Kneph became identified as the more dominant creator deity Amun, and when Amun became Amun-Ra, so Kneph gained Hathor as a wife. Many of the features look similar to the nativity of Jesus at first glance, such as the continued virginity, lack of father, annunciation, birth of god, and so forth, but others do not. There is much that is more subtle. Although many deities, and indeed people, were referred to as beloved, it was a title which was most frequently applied to Neith, indeed it became something of an alternative name. The word used, in this context, for beloved, is Mery in Egyptian. Meanwhile, Kneph was said by Plutarch to have been understood by the egyptians in the same way as the greeks understood pneuma, meaning spirit, and so it was that Neith became pregnant by the actions of the holy spirit, like Mary does in the Christian story. Thoth himself was identified by the Greeks, due to his association with healing, as Hermes, and consequently, in the hellenic era, Thoth was considered the messenger of the gods. This role was taken by the Archangel Michael in Jewish thought, and so if the Christians copied the tale, it would have been Michael who made the annunciation to Mary. Much criticism of this similarity is leveled at the fact that Neith is a goddess, and not a human mother. However, Pharaohs often attributed tales of divinity to themselves, and their families, and so divine birth stories for themselves were common. Nethertheless, the tale was essentially about Neith rather than the queens of pharoahs, until that is, Amenhotep III applied it to his wife and the birth of his son, whom was consequently identified as Horus, as after the amalgamation of the gods Ra and Horus, the tale became one of Horus too. The significance of Amenhotep making the identification is both that it became a tale of the birth of Akhenaten, who left such an impression that, as the gods evolved further, the tale became remembered as being one of the birth from a human mother of a human son, who was nevertheless divine. Akhenaten

See Also

Heru-Ra-Ha ---- ---- Category:Solar gods Category:Egyptian gods ko:호루스 ja:ホルス

Thinis

Thinis was an ancient Egyptian capital city. Pharaohs ruled from Thinis during the first and second dynasties, often grouped together as the "Early Dynastic Period". The location of this city has been lost to us but it is possibly near or under the modern town of Girga.

Saqqara

Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, featuring the world's oldest standing step pyramid. It is located some 30 km south of modern-day Cairo and covers an area of around 7 km by 1.5 km. Cairo]] While Memphis was the capital of Ancient Egypt, Saqqara served as its necropolis. Although it was eclipsed as the burial ground of royalty by Giza and, later, by the Valley of the Kings in Thebes, it remained an important complex for minor burials and cult ceremonies for more than 3,000 years, well into Ptolemaic and Roman times.

Early Dynastic

Although the earliest burials of nobles at Saqqara can be traced back to the First Dynasty, it was not until the Second Dynasty that the first kings were buried there, including Hotepsekhemwy and Nynetjer.

Old Kingdom

The most striking feature of the necropolis, however, dates from the Third Dynasty. Still visible today, is the Step Pyramid of the Pharaoh Djoser. In addition to Djoser's, there are another 16 pyramids on the site, in various states of preservation or dilapidation. That of the fifth-dynasty Pharaoh Unas, located just to the south of the step pyramid and on top of Hotepsekhemwi's tomb, houses the earliest known example of the Pyramid Texts – inscriptions with instructions for the afterlife used to decorate the interior of tombs, the precursor of the New Kingdom Book of the Dead. Saqqara is also home to an impressive number of mastaba tombs. Because the necropolis was lost beneath the sands for much of the past two millennia – even the sizable mortuary complex surrounding Djoser's pyramid was not uncovered until 1924 – many of these have been superbly preserved, with both their structures and lavish internal decorations intact.

Major Old Kingdom structures


- Gisr el-mudir this massive enclosure may date from the Early Dynastic period.
- Sekhemkhet's Step Pyramid (the Buried Pyramid)
- Step Pyramid of Netjerikhet Djoser
- Shepseskaf's Mastabat Fara'un
- Userkaf's pyramid, now looking like a conical hill.
- Djedkare Isesi pyramid complex, known as Haram el-Shawaf.
- Unas pyramid complex, now mainly collapsed.
- Teti's pyramid complex, looking more like a small hill, rather than a man-made construction.
- Pepi I complex, with its associated queens pyramids.
- Merenre's complex
- Pepi II, last great pyramid built in the Old Kingdom.
- Ibi, built in the Eighth dynasty, it is now almost totally destroyed.

New Kingdom Necropolis

While most of the mastabas date from the Old Kingdom, one major figure from the New Kingdom is also represented: Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, who had a tomb built here for himself before he assumed the throne in his own right, while still serving as one of Tutankhamun's generals.

Later Burials and Monuments

Another major monument at Saqqara is the Serapeum: a gallery of tombs, cut from the rock, which served as the eternal resting place of the mummified bodies of the Apis bulls worshipped in Memphis as embodiments of the god Ptah. Rediscovered by Auguste Mariette in 1851, the tombs had been opened and plundered in antiquity – with the exception of one that lay undisturbed for some 3,700 years. The mummified bull it contained can now be seen in Cairo's agricultural museum. On the approach to the Serapeum stands the slightly incongruous arrangement of statues known the Philosophers' Circle: a Ptolemaic recognition of the greatest poets and thinkers of their Greek ancestors, originally situated in a nearby temple. Represented here are Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, Plato, and others.

External links


- [http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/saqqara.htm Pictures from the Egypt home page]
- [http://www.ancient-egypt.org/saqqara/index.html Information on Saqqara]
- [http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/saqqara/homepage.htm Saqqaea on-line (Leiden University)] Category:Ancient Egypt

Memphis, Egypt

Memphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 1300 BC. Its Ancient Egyptian name was Ineb Hedj ("The White Walls"). The name "Memphis" is the Greek deformation of the Egyptian name of Pepi I's (VIth dynasty) pyramid, Men-nefer. The modern city of Mit-Rahineh, south of Cairo, lies nearby. The ruins are 19 km (12 miles) south of Cairo on the West Bank of the Nile. Nile in the background.]] The city was founded around 3100 BC by Menes of Tanis, who united the two kingdoms of Egypt. Memphis reached a peak of prestige under the 6th Dynasty as a centre of the cult of Ptah. It declined briefly after the 18th Dynasty with the rise of Thebes and was revived under the Persian satraps before falling into firm second place following the foundation of Alexandria. Under the Roman Empire, Alexandria remained the most important city. It remained the second city of Egypt until the establishment of Al Fustat (or Fostat) in 641. Memphis was then largely abandoned and became a source of stone for the surrounding settlements. It was still an imposing set of ruins in the 12th century but soon became little more than an expanse of low ruins and scattered stone. The remains of the temple of Ptah and of Apis have been uncovered at the site as well as a few statues, including two four metre ones in alabaster of Ramesses II. The Saqqara necropolis is close to Memphis. It is believed that Memphis was the largest city in the world from its foundation until around 2250 BC. Its population was over 30,000. The Greek historian Manetho referred to Memphis as Hi-Ku-P'tah ("Place of Ptah"), which he wrote in Greek as Aί γυ πτoς (Ai-gu-ptos), giving us the Latin AEGYPTVS and the modern English Egypt. In the Bible Memphis is called Moph or Noph.

External links


- [http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Memphis.html The History of the Ancient Near East – Memphis]
- [http://www.maat.sofiatopia.org/memphis.htm On the Memphis Theology] Category:Ancient Egypt Category:Cities in Egypt Category:Geography of Egypt Category:World Heritage Sites in Egypt

Palermo stone

The Palermo Stone is an ancient Egyptian stela of black basalt engraved toward the end of the 5th dynasty (twenty-fifth century BC). It is probably the earliest Egyptian historical text. Now in a number of fragments, it details the reigns of the first Egyptian kings through the middle of the 5th dynasty and was doubtless among the documents Manetho used to construct his dynastic chronology. The main fragment has been in Palermo since 1866, though it was discovered by a visiting French archaeologist in 1895 and first published, by Heinrich Schäfer, in 1902. It is currently in the collection of the Palermo Archeological Museum, Sicily, although there are also further sizeable pieces in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, one discovered in 1910 another purchased on the market as recently as 1963, and in the museum of University College London, given by Sir Flinders Petrie. The engraved stone must originally have been about 2.2 m long, 0.61 m wide and 6.5 cm thick, but most of it is now missing, and there is no surviving information about its provenance, though a further fragment was excavated at Memphis [http://www.antiquityofman.com/palermostone.html]. It is a hieroglyphic list of the kings of ancient Egypt before and after Menes, with regnal years and notations of events, and also includes such information as the height of the flooding of the Nile in various years, (see nilometer), information on cult ceremonies, taxation, sculpture, buildings and warfare.

Translations and Monographs


- A partial and dated English translation of this text can be found in J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. I sections 76-167.
- A [http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk//ideology/palermostone.html picture of the so-called annals fragment] of the stele that the Palermo stone belonged to, with translations of the hieroglyphs.
- A [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/071030/0710306679.HTM description of Toby A. H. Wilkinson]'s study that combines for the first time all seven of the fragments.

Further reading


- St. John, Michael, 2003. The Palermo Stone : An Arithmetical View (London:University Museum London).
- Wilkinson, Tony A. H., 2000. Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt, (New York: Columbia University Press).

External links


- [http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/palermo.htm TourEgypt: The Palermo Stone]
- [http://www.antiquityofman.com/palermo-stone.html Extract of a lecture given by T.A.H. Wilkinson, University College London2000] Category:Ancient Egypt

Nynetier

Nynetjer was the third king of the Second dynasty of Egypt. Category:Pharaohs

Khasekhemwy

Khasekhemwy (d. 2686 BC; sometimes spelled Khasekhemui) was the 5th and final Pharaoh of the Second dynasty of Egypt. Little is known of Khasekhemwy, other than that he led several significant military campaigns and built several monuments, still extant, mentioning war against the Northerners. Khasekhemwy is normally placed as the successor of Seth-Peribsen, some Egyptologists believe that another Pharaoh, Khasekhem, ruled between them. However, most Egyptologists believe that Khasekhem and Khasekhemwy are, in fact, the same person. Khasekhem may have changed his name to Khasekhemwy after he reunited Upper and Lower Egypt after a civil war between the followers of the gods Horus and Set. Others believe he defeated the reigning king, Seth-Peribsen, after returning to Egypt from putting down a revolt in Nubia. Either way he ended the infighting of the Second dynasty and reunited Egypt. He is unique in Egyptian history as having both the symbols of Horus and Set on his serekh. Some Egyptologists believe that this was an attempt to unify the two factions; but after his death, Set was dropped from the serekh permanently. Some Egyptologists claim that he, rather than Narmer or Menes, was the first Pharaoh to rule over a united Egypt. He built a 'fort' at Nekhen, and at Abydos (now known as Shunet ez Zebib) and was buried there in the necropolis at Umm el-Qa'ab. Category:Pharaohs

Lower Egypt

Ancient Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper and Lower Egypt. The Pharaohs were known as the rulers of the Two Kingdoms, viz. upper and lower Egypt. While the labelling of "upper" and "lower" might seem counterintuitive, with Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north, the terminology derives from the flow of the Nile from the highlands of East Africa (upstream) to the Mediterranean Sea (downstream). Lower Egypt is to the north and is that part where the Nile Delta drains into the Mediterranean Sea. Upper Egypt is to the south from the Libyan desert down to just past Abu Simbel. Today there are two principal channels that the Nile takes through the river's delta: one in the west at Rashid and one in the east at Damietta. In ancient times, Pliny the Elder (N.H. 5.11) said that upon reaching the delta the Nile split into seven branches (from east to west): the Pelusiac, the Tanitic, the Mendesian, the Phatnitic, the Sebennytic, the Bolbitine, and the Canopic. Upper Egypt was known as Shemau and was divided into twenty-two areas called nomes. The first nome was roughly where modern Aswan is and the twenty-second was at modern Atfih, just to the south of Cairo. The capital of the Middle Kingdom was at a place known as The Fayyum. This is an area of about 850 mile² (2,200 km²) of land that are wartered by an offshoot of the Nile called the Bahr Yusuf. Bahr Yusuf Lower Egypt was known to the Pharaohs as To-Mehu. This part of the country was also divided into nomes; however, as the place was mostly undeveloped scrubland, the organisation of the nomes underwent several changes. Ultimately there were twenty nomes and the first of these was at Memphis. Taken together, the Two Kingdoms formed Kemet ("the black"), the name for the dark soil deposited by the Nile floodwaters. The desert was called Deshret ("the red"), c.f. Herodotus "Egypt is a land of black soil...We know that Libya is a redder earth." (Histories, 2:12). However, Champollion the Younger (who deciphered the Rosetta Stone) in Expressions et Termes Particuliers (Expressions and Particular Terms) claims that Kmt does not actually refer to the soil, but to a negroid population in the sense of "Black Nation". Egyptian history is divided into periods that reflect the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one king. Intermediate periods of Egyptian history were times when Upper and Lower Egypt were not unified under one king.

Lower Egypt

Lower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt stretching from just south of modern-day Cairo to the Nile Delta at Alexandria. Lower Egypt's landscape is dominated by the Nile delta at Alexandria. The deltal region is well watered, crisscrossed by channels and canals. There are marshy areas and the mosquitoes can be very annoying. The climate is milder than the climate in Upper Egypt. Temperatures are less extreme and there is more rainfall in this area. The Lower Egyptians' dialect and customs historically varied from those of the Upper Egyptians. Even in modern times, Lower Egypt is much more industrialized, and influenced by trade and commerce with the rest of the world. The patron goddess of the Ancient Lower Egypt is Wadjet.

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt is a narrow strip of land that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan to the area south of modern-day Cairo. Historically, Upper Egypt's land was more isolated from activities to the north. From around 800 BC to 525 BC, this area was ruled by the High Priestess of Amon and Wife of God (often, these two positions were held by the same woman). There were a number of differences between Upper and Lower Egyptians in the ancient world. They spoke different dialects, and had different customs, needs and interests. Many differences and the tensions they create still exist in modern times. The patron goddess of the Ancient Upper Egypt is Nekhbet. See also Ancient Egypt

External link


- [http://www.website1.com/odyssey/week1/egygeo.html Geography of Egypt] Category:Ancient Egypt

Category:Dynasties of Ancient Egypt

Category:Ancient Egypt

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