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For centuries, stories have been told about the height of the pyramids and the gaze of the Sphinx. As time progressed, hieroglyphs were deciphered, tombs and temples discovered, and often surprising discoveries, like the intact tomb of Tutankhamun, were added to the list of what was deemed ..."
For centuries, stories have been told about the height of the pyramids and the gaze of the Sphinx. As time progressed, hieroglyphs were deciphered, tombs and temples discovered, and often surprising discoveries, like the intact tomb of Tutankhamun, were added to the list of what was deemed to be Egypt’s unique appeal. But one “Holy Grail” of Egyptology has always evaded detection: the labyrinth. The labyrinth was said to be more impressive than any of these other monuments, and it is alas a fact that the labyrinth is now totally destroyed – or still hidden by the desert’s sands, waiting to be discovered. Erich von Däniken believes that thelabyrinth is “waiting for a modern-day Heinrich Schliemann.” The question is therefore whether the Holy Grail of Egyptology will ever be attained, or is forever lost.
It was the Greek traveller and historian Herodotus who, in Book II of his “Histories”, described a building complex in Egypt, “near the place called the City of Crocodiles”, which he considered to surpass the pyramids in its astonishing ambition, and which he labelled “a labyrinth”. To quote him: “Yet the temple at Ephesus and that in Samos are surely remarkable. The pyramids, too, were greater than words can tell, and each of them is the equivalent of many of the great works of the Greeks; but the labyrinth surpasses the pyramids also.” Many believe that the structure has long beendestroyed, but there is no historical record that suggests or proves this. Herodotus gave a detailed description of the labyrinth: “It has twelve covered courts – six in a row facing north, six south – the gates of the one range exactly fronting the gates of the other. Inside, the building is of two storeys and contains three thousand rooms, of which half are underground, and the other half directly above them. I was taken through the rooms in the upper storey, so what I shall say of them is from my own observation, but the underground ones I can speak of only from report, because the Egyptians in charge refused to let me see them, as they contain the tombs of the kings who built the labyrinth, and also the tombs of the sacred crocodiles. The upperrooms, on the. ...
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It is a mystery that has troubled Egyptologists for generations - just why was this mummy screaming 3,000 years ago? The "Screaming Man" was found buried in a tomb with some of the greatest pharaohs in history, including Rameses the Great, Seti I and Tuthmosis III. Experts have speculated that the figure could be a foreign prince who had offended the Ancient Egyptians in some way.Now facial anthropologistshave created a 3D picture of the Screaming Man's features and performed a CT scan.
The new investigation, detailed on Secrets of Egypt on Channel 5 tonight, found the autopsy report after the mummy was discovered in an unmarked tomb near the Valley of Kings in 1881 was flawed.As the man was buried in an expensive cedar wood coffin with his hands and feet bound, Victorian archaeologists concluded that he was buried with his organs intact, in contravention of normal custom for important Egyptians.
However, the
new analysis has disproved this theory. Facial anthropologist Dr
Caroline Wilkinson also found the bone structure does not correlate
with a Hittite background, undermining the theory he was aforeign
prince. The 3D face shows the typical features of an Ancient Egyptian.
The X-ray and CT scan
results support an alternative theory that the Screaming Man was the
treacherous son of Rameses III at the centre of a coup plot. The son
would have been given the option to take poison rather than face
execution.
Submitted by The Sandman: A new pyramid has been discovered deep beneath Egyptian sands, archaeologists announced. The 4,300-year-old monument is believed to be the tomb of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of Pharaoh Teti, the founder ancient Egypt"s 6th dynasty. Once nearly five stories tall, the pyramid—or at least what remains of it—lay beneath 23 feet (7 meters) of sand as well as a small shrine and mud-brick walls from later periods. The discovery is the third known "subsidiary" pyramid to the tomb of Teti. It"s also the second pyramid discovered this year in Saqqara, an ancient royal burial complex near current-dayCairo.
"I always say you never know what the sands of Egypt might hide," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt"s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). "This might be the most complete subsidiary pyramid ever found at Saqqara," added Hawass, who is also a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence. Surprise in the Sand Archaeologists found remnants of a white limestone casing for the surviving, 16-foot-tall (5-meter-tall) pyramid base. The angle of the base helped them determine that the pyramid"s walls stood at a 51-degree angle. Based on that angle, the team determined that the pyramid was originally 46 feet (14 meters) tall and about 72 feet (22 meters) square at its base. The researchers were somewhat surprised tofind a pyramid here, since they thought the area had been exhausted. Archaeologists had already found subsidiary pyramids for Teti"s two principal wives Iput I and Khuit, a hundred years ago and in 1994, respectively. Teams have been digging in the area for more than 20 years. "One hundred years ago they used to take sand and put it in unexcavated areas," Hawass said. "The archaeologists in the past used this area as a location for the sand.
Using cutting edge technology, Egyptologist Bob Brier of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University delved into the only standing wonder of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid, and uncovered the mystery behind cracks in the massive Egyptian structure, unearthing a new room along the way.Brier, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin and a team of software specialists from Dassault Systems in Paris used 3-D modeling software to determine that the burial chamber's stone support beams cracked as final construction of the Giza wonder was near completion 4,500 years ago.The team discovered that the cracks occurred when three things happened: one wall of KingKhufu's burial chamber settled, stone rafters in a room above the chamber slipped, and the height of the pyramid reached 392 feet.
Brier and Houdin are presenting their findings at a Microsoft Innovation Management Forum in Seattle on Tuesday.
"I thought
it was important to look back in time to look forward in time," said
Simon Floyd, worldwide industry technology strategist for innovation at
Microsoft and one of the organizers of the conference. "The Egyptians
were great innovators. They were perhaps the first documented
innovators that we could look at. I felt that this would be a fantastic
sort of look back in time to see how an ancient civilization was able
to do some incredible things that have been long-standing in time."
Floyd said Brier's
collaboration with Houdin is especially innovative. "They've applied a
fantastic newtechnique ... to help prove out many of his theories," he
said.
The cracks had been a known
but poorly understood fact about the pyramid - the largest and oldest
of the three on that site - since the 1880s. The team found that the
pyramid's architect, Hemienu, cut a tunnel into a sealed space above
the burial chamber to assess the damage and filled the cracks with
plaster that would indicate if the cracks were widening. The ancient
fix-it job worked: the beams held and the pyramid was complete.
The discoveries are
detailed in a book by Brier, released last week, called "The Secret of
the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of
Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery." Brier will also speak Monday at C.W.
Post.
The site of the 5,000-year-old Giza Pyramids is now up to speed with the twenty-first century, complete with cameras, lasers and control rooms. Last month, part of a multi-phase plan to renovate the site of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World was completed, a modern makeover cooked up by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) to make the Giza Plateau more tourist-friendly.The first phase, costing roughly LE 60 million, includes an 18-kilometer-long steel fence equipped with 199 closed circuit TV cameras, infrared motion sensors and elaborate control rooms placed alongside the fence. In addition to the reinforced boundaries, the plan dedicated one ofthree entrances, the one near the Mena House Oberoi Resort, as the primary security entrance, kitted out with x-ray machines and metal detectors.While the modernizing of the most ancient site in the world — one that was previously an uncontrolled sandbox of pandemonium — has tourists and international media impressed, it has left local peddlers and bazaar sellers locked out and worried about their livelihood.
According to
Sabri Abd El Eziz, assistant to SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawass, the
plan was put in motion about seven years ago.
After finishing site
management for all the areas in Upper Egypt — including Abu Simbel,
Luxor, Philae and Kom Ombo — the SCA’s plan for 2008-2009 was to focus
on the pyramids. “There are roughly 6,000 to 10,000 visitors daily at
the Pyramids and though we accommodate themeasily, there was a need
for a [facelift],” says Abd El Eziz.
A principal reason for the
developments was that the SCA, although part of the Ministry of
Culture, needs to find ways to be self-sufficient. “The SCA doesn’t
take money from the government; we depend on entrance fees and
exhibitions both locally and abroad, as well as royalties,” says Abd El
Eziz. With the previously lax control over the Pyramids area, income
from entrance fees was approximately LE 300,000 daily. “After the fence
and the setting-up of a proper entrance, income is now around LE
800,000 and that’s money that we use for maintaining museums and
restoring antiquities.”
The SCA is home-base to
nearly 400 archaeologists in Egypt and supports beginners in the field
as well, even building a school of excavation for hands-on trainingfor
fresh......
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(Read the FULL Article here... | 11194 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0 ) Posted by nuke on Tuesday, October 14 @ 03:20:07 CDT (0 reads)
Recent studies have pointed to a fourth pyramid that was built during the fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt. Local authorities are already talking about plans to open it to visitors next year. Can anybody lose a pyramid in Egypt? Apparently, yes, in a place called Abu Rawash, some 8km north of Giza where the country’s great pyramids are.Recently, media members who congregated in Giza, in the south-west of the capital Cairo in northern Egypt, found themselves coming face to face with an Egyptian man on a mission. Dr Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general ofEgypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, declared that by next year, he wants all the pyramids to be opened to the public.“Anyone who comes to Egypt will be able to go and see Abu Rawash, which will be opened to the public,” he said at a press conference in May, during which newsmen were treated to an abridged version of The History Channel’s new documentary, The Lost Pyramid.
But, really, how can anyone miss a pyramid? After all, it is one of those massive stone structures hundreds of feet tall, right?
The fact is, even though
there are more than 80 of these burial monuments along the Nile River,
they are all in various states of ruin, with some barely recognisable
as pyramids.
Indeed, some resemble little more than mounds of sand.
The most well-known, of
course, are the three locatedon the Giza Plateau, constructed by the
fourth-dynasty pharaohs of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, more than 4,000 years
ago. Indeed, speak the phrase “pyramids of Egypt”, and most people will
think of these imposing triangular structures.
Built by the pharaoh Khufu,
his son Khafre and his grandson Menkaure, they represent the peak of
pyramid-building, both in size and construction techniques, during
their time.
As Dr Peter Brand, from the
University of Memphis in Tennessee, United States, says in the
aforementioned documentary: “When we think of pyramids we think of the
fourth dynasty, because the best pyramids, the largest pyramids, the
most solidly built ones, and the ones that have survived the test of
time, are all from the fourth dynasty.”
The otherson
......
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(Read the FULL Article here... | 8734 bytes more | comments? | Score: 0 ) Posted by nuke on Friday, October 03 @ 02:41:16 CDT (86 reads)
Matthew McClelland unearthed a skull after digging in his garden at his home in Ivygreen Road, Chorlton, last June. Forensic scientists were called in and soon found a second skull at the 28-year-old's residence in Greater Manchester. After analysing them, they found the skulls to be Egyptian artefacts between 2,054 and 2,144 years old.The owner of the skulls turned out to be the house's previous owner Carl Bracey. Dr Bracey had been on holiday in the Sinai peninsula in the Middle East as a teenager when he was offered the skulls. He brought them back to England and had kept them ever since.His partner however was not fond of the skulls and repeatedly asked him to dispose of them as theyfrightened the children.
When the family moved house, he decided rather than take the skulls with him, he would bury them in his garden. And two years later, Mr McClelland discovered them.
Mr McClelland said: "It was totally bizarre. I really began to think we were living on top of some sort of multiple grave. You hear all the stories about grisly mass murders and it felt quite gruesome and horrific."Luckily the neighbours have spoken to us since but I think they were quite worried for a while, especially as there was a 24-hour armed guard outside."Dr Tom Higham, deputy director of the Oxford Radio Carbon Accelerator Unit, used a process called radio carbon dating to verify the skulls' age.He said despite being buried in soil that was wet and cold, the skulls were in good condition.Dr Bracey, 41, who now lives in Exeter with his three children, said: "I have spoken to the police and theyare very happy. I looked after and cherished them but the missus didn't like them." He added: "I'm surprised and delighted they have been found. May they now rest in peace."The skulls have now been repatriated to Egypt, being accompanied back home by an archaeologist from Cairo.A spokesman at the Egyptian embassy said: "The police did a magnificent job and accelerated the procedure to transfer the skulls. "The archaeologist who collected them was very appreciative. We are happy that no further action will be taken."A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "The skulls were examined and found to be genuine Egyptian artefacts. They have been returned to Egypt and they do not wish to pursue a prosecution."
The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has completed the first phase of its historical documentation process of monuments in the city of Habu in the western bank of Luxor using aerial and terrestrial photography. The project comes as part of SCA’s plan to archive Egypt’s monumental areas that will also include the Pyramids and Saqqara.“This project aims at using the advanced techniques of aerial and three dimensional photography in documenting and reconstructing the monumental areas and exploring new archeological sites,” Zahi Hawass, head of theSCA, said.
The SCA will also conduct research to enhance urban planning around archeological sites while studying the effect of sand storms, wind streams.The research will entail suggesting methods to protect them from ecological and human threats especially underground and mineral water. Three dimensional models will be made for these monuments to visualize them at ancient times as well as drawing topographic plans to determine new pathways for visitors’ free roaming in these sites.
“We are
cooperating in this project with the National Authority for Remote
Sensing and Space Sciences and Mubarak City for Scientific Research and
Technological Application to conduct research on four major monumental
areas in Luxor, Kings Valley at the western bank, the Pyramidsand
Saqqara with a cost of LE 950,000,” Hawass added.
Habu city encompasses Habu
temple built by Ramses III and dates back to the eighteenth family.
Parts of the temple were built by King Amonhoteb and several buildings
inscriptions were added during the roman and Ptolemy eras.
“All the project’s
operations will be executed over a period of six to 12 months,” Sabry
Abd El Aziz, head of the Egyptian antiquities department at SCA, said.
The inscriptions on the
Habu temple’s walls depict the advent and defeat of the Sea Peoples
during the reign of Ramses III as well as illustrations of him hunting
wild bulls.
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a granite statue probably depicting the head of Ramses II, one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful pharaohs, the country’s culture ministry said yesterday.Researchers discovered the statue 150cm under ground in the eastern Nile Delta town of Tell Basta, which was once the capital of ancient Egypt, the culture ministry said. The pinkgranite statue had a broken nose and a missing beard, Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement.Archaeologists are continuing to dig around the site in hopes of finding the rest of the statue and possible remains of a temple built by Ramses, he said.
“The discovery is important because it may indicate that the excavators are close to the ruins of a major temple of Ramses II in the area,” Hawass said.
Tell Basta
is going through a major development plan, according to Egyptian
officials, who say that a museum and a visitor’s centre are currently
under construction in the area.
Ramses, one ofEgypt’s
longest-serving pharaohs, is believed to have ruled between 1279 BC and
1213 BC. He built palaces and temples throughout Egypt, including the
famous Abu Simbel temple in the far south.
Also known as Ramses the
Great, he is traditionally believed to be the pharaoh mentioned in the
biblical story of Moses. A popular feature on postcards, he presided
over a period of military expansion in Egypt.
His mummy was discovered in 1881 and shortly afterwards was moved to Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.
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For centuries, stories have been told about the height of the pyramids and the gaze of the Sphinx. As time progressed, hieroglyphs were deciphered, tombs and temples discovered, and often surprising discoveries, like the intact tomb of Tutankhamun, were added to the list of what was deemed to be Egypt’s unique appeal. But one “Holy Grail” of Egyptology has always evaded detection: the labyrinth. The labyrinth was said to be more impressive than any of these other monuments, and it is alas a fact that the labyrinth is now totally destroyed – or still hidden by the desert’s sands, waiting to be discovered. Erich von Däniken believes that thelabyrinth is “waiting for a modern-day Heinrich Schliemann.” The question is therefore whether the Holy Grail of Egyptology will ever be attained, or is forever lost. 
Submitted by The Sandman: A new pyramid has been discovered deep beneath Egyptian sands, archaeologists announced. The 4,300-year-old monument is believed to be the tomb of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of Pharaoh Teti, the founder ancient Egypt"s 6th dynasty. Once nearly five stories tall, the pyramid—or at least what remains of it—lay beneath 23 feet (7 meters) of sand as well as a small shrine and mud-brick walls from later periods. The discovery is the third known "subsidiary" pyramid to the tomb of Teti. It"s also the second pyramid discovered this year in Saqqara, an ancient royal burial complex near current-dayCairo. 
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