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Egyptology News / Egypt Travel News
The Total Eclipse of the sun in Egypt, March
2006
Next March 2006, Egypt will witness a total
eclipse of the sun at its north west coast.
The Total eclipse of the sun is one of the
very important phenomena in astronomy and
geophysics. It is also a very rare
phenomena, and often happens in the same
place every 200 years. This the last
recorded eclipse in Egypt goes back to the
year 1798.
Full story
http://www.ask-aladdin.com/egypt_eclipse_2006.htm
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Cairo Museum basement to be opened to
visitors
Zahi Hawass, head of the
Supreme Council of Antiquities, declared
that a contract has been signed with a
state-owned company to insure and reorganize
the Egyptian Museum’s basement before making
it accessible to visitors. The decision
comes after several items from the basement
storage area have been “lost” or stolen in
the past year, to the embarrassment of those
responsible.
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A statue of Egypt's King Neferhotep I found
in Thebes
Buried for nearly 3600 years,
a rare statue of Egypt's King Neferhotep I
has been brought to light in the ruins of
Thebes by a team of French archaeologists.
Officials said on Saturday that the
statue was unusual in that the king is
depicted holding hands with a double of
himself, although the second part of the
carving remains under the sand and its form
has been determined by the use of imaging
equipment.
Archaeologists unearthed the 1.8m-tall
statue as they were carrying out repairs
around Karnak Temple in the southern city of
Luxor, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass
said.
Limestone statue
Francois Larche, one of the team that found
the limestone statue of the king, whose name
means beautiful and good, said it was lying
about 1.6m below ground near an obelisk of
Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to have
reigned as a pharaoh in Egypt, ruling from
1504-1484 BCE.
Karnak, now in the heart of Luxor, was built
on the ruins of Thebes, the capital of
ancient Egypt. The huge temple, dedicated to
the god Amon, lies in the centre of a vast
complex of religious buildings in the city,
700km south of Cairo.
The statue shows the king wearing a funeral
mask and royal head cloth or nemes, said
Larche.
The forehead bears an emblem of a cobra,
which ancient Egyptians used as a symbol on
the crown of the Pharaohs
. They believed
that the cobra would spit fire at
approaching enemies.
Second
time
Larche said this was only the second time
such a statue had been found in Egypt. A
similar one was dug up during the
excavations of the hidden treasures of
Karnak from 1898 to 1904.
But it is not clear when or whether the
statue will be completely unearthed. It is
blocked by the remnants of an ancient
structure, possibly a gate.
"In order to pull it out, a structure on top
of the statue has to be dismantled and then
restored," said Larche, adding that
permission from the Egyptian antiquities
authorities was needed before the team could
go ahead with plans to raise the statue.
King
Neferhotep
"It's up to the Higher Council of Egyptian
Antiquities to decide on the fate of the
statue of Neferhotep I and whether it will
be brought to light or left buried where it
was found," Larche added.
Neferhotep was the 22nd king of the 13th
Dynasty. The son of a temple priest in
Abydos, he ruled Egypt from 1696-1686 BCE.
Experts believe his father's position helped
him to ascend the throne, as there was no
royal blood in his family.
Neferhotep was one of the few Pharaohs
whose
name did not invoke the sun god, Re. It is
written on a number of stones, including a
document on his reign found in Aswan.
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Egypt is to recover more than a 100 stolen
antiquities,
Egypt is to recover more than
a 100 stolen antiquities, smuggled out by a
massive trafficking ring, from the United
States, Canada and Germany.
Some of the antiquities were located after
Egypt's largest-ever trafficking trial in
August, which led to heavy prison sentences
for seven people, antiquities chief Zahi
Hawwas told the official Mena news agency on
Thursday.
He said members of his Supreme Council of
Antiquities (SCA) had found some of the
missing pieces on the websites of several
auctioneers across the world.
Hawwas explained that the pieces to be
recovered from Germany has been seized by
police as they were being sold to a buyer in
the United States.
Some stolen pharaonic antiquities were
intercepted upon arrival in the United
States at a San Francisco airport, while
others were seized from an auction room in
Canada, he added.
Hawwas did not elaborate on the nature of
the stolen pieces nor did he specify when
they would be returned.
He explained that the pieces to be recovered
were smuggled out through a major
trafficking operation masterminded by two
Egyptian antiquities dealers.
Mohammed al-Shaer was sentenced to 55 years
in jail for trafficking antiquities,
corruption and encouraging SCA officials to
forge documents.
A relative, Faruq al-Shaer, was sentenced to
42 years for illegal possession and
trafficking of antiquities.
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Some of Egypt's stolen antiquities might be
returned.
*Some of Egypt's stolen
antiquities might be returned. Switzerland
has recently become party to an
international agreement on the prevention of
antiquity smuggling. The agreement would
give the Egyptians a carte blanche to demand
a return of their country's monuments which
had been smuggled to Switzerland in the
past. Local antiquities' experts are blithe.
"The Swiss signing the agreement would of
course benefit Egypt," says Chairman of the
Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Dr Zahi
Hawass. "There are big antiquities'
smugglers in that country."
Hawass explains that in the course of the
next few weeks the Egyptian government is
due to take measures to retrieve Egyptian
antiquities that had been smuggled to
Switzerland in the past. He also refers to a
problem in relation to unregistered relics.
Because they are unregistered, the
authorities might find it difficult to trace
them.
Away from Hawass' euphoria, a question might
be asked now: how exactly did the
antiquities get out of Egypt in the first
place? How did they reach the hands of the
smugglers thousands of miles away in
Switzerland and other parts of Europe? Can't
we protect our own heritage regardless of
whether other countries sign an agreement or
not?
"An end to the smuggling of antiquities must
start in Egypt itself," suggests
antiquities' expert, Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Bakr.
"The retribution for smugglers must be very
big in a way to scare them away from such
actions.
"We've been waiting for a long time for the
Swiss to sign the agreement on the
prevention of antiquities' smuggling," Bakr
says. "The agreement would put an end to
antiquities' smuggling to this country," he
adds in a recent interview with Rose
el-Youssef magazine.
"Switzerland is famous for smuggled
antiquities auctions," says Dr Ibrahim
al-Nawawi, an adviser to the SCA. "The
government there has previously devised
plans with the aim of legalizing this kind
of activity, which turned into a huge source
of national income.
"The signing of the agreement is a severe
slap on the face of antiquities smugglers
and money launderers in this country,"
al-Nawawi adds. "Egypt must act swiftly to
retain its stolen monuments."
Egypt has recently decided not to cooperate
with archaeological expeditions from museums
or universities that have in the past
smuggled antiquities from Egypt.
"It is time the government approves the new
Antiquities Law," demands al- Nawawi. "We
must tighten the grip on our monuments
internally. Internal laws must precede the
search for the stolen antiquities outside
our own country."
Antiquities' expert Ibrahim Abdel Magid is
overjoyed. The signing of the agreement on
the prevention of the smuggling of
antiquities is to him of special importance.
"Most of the big antiquities' smuggling
cases are related to Switzerland," says
Abdel Magid.
Abdel Magid tells that when he was in
Switzerland recently, he came across a
booklet for a Swiss special monument fair.
Turning the pages of the booklet, which
contained the photos and information about
the relics displayed in the fair, he
discovered that the contents included around
500 original Egyptian relics including pure
gold ones.
"Egypt can recover thousands of its stolen
antiquities in the light of the new
agreement," says Abdel Magid.
Source: The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt,
http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/2/1.asp
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Archeologists uncovered a 5,000-year-old
chamber
*CAIRO, Egypt
(AP) - Archeologists uncovered a
5,000-year-old chamber believed to have been
used in the burial rituals of Egypt's first
major pharaoh, and found a cache of 200
rough ceramic beer and wine jars, Egyptian
authorities said Thursday.
The mortuary enclosure of King Hur-Aha, the
founder of Egypt's First Dynasty, also
included a chapel stained by what are likely
the remains of sacrificial animals, Egypt's
Supreme Council of Antiquities said. "It is
a very important discovery because it would
provide us with new information about the
First Dynasty," said Zahi Hawass, head of
the council.
The beer and wine jars were found in
excavations along the walls of the mortuary
enclosure of King Khasekhemwy, a Second
Dynasty pharaoh who ruled around 2700 BC.
The mud-brick enclosure was discovered by a
joint American excavation from Yale
University, the Pennsylvania University
Museum and New York University at Shunet El-Zebib,
near Abydos. Many of Egypt's earlier
Pharaohs
are buried in Abydos, a holy city
400 kilometres south of Cairo.
The enclosure is believed to be where the
body of King Hur-Aha was kept during burial
rituals. His tomb is nearby in Abydos,
though it's not known whether he was buried
there.
The enclosure also included three
rectangular tombs with wooden ceilings
covered with reed matting - one with a
well-preserved skeleton of a woman and
another tomb with remains of human bones.
Hawass said experts were trying to identify
the remains. The enclosure also contained
pots with hieroglyphs indicating they were
made during the reign of Hur-Aha.
Hur-Aha, who ruled around 3100 BC - some 500
years before the pyramids were built - is
considered the first pharaoh of the First
Dynasty, the first royal family to control
both Upper and Lower Egypt in a unified
kingdom. But little is known of the era.
Later Egyptian dynasties came to identify
Abydos as the burial site of the god Osiris.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2005/05/19/pf-1047249.html
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New discovery Valley at the
Whales (Zeuglodon Valley)
An
Expedition from University of Michigan
was digging in wadi EL-Hitan and had
discovered a large petrified whale
that was
44
million years old, the whales
in this area once had feet
and walked on the shore before getting
into the water.
My
trip to the valley was great adventure,
It was amazing experience, you will all
hear about this discovery in the news
papers very soon.
Press
Releases
Newly discovered mummies include one from
powerful clan
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An Egyptian antiquity
worker cleans the newly discovered
sarcophagus of Badi-Herkhib, a
member of a powerful family that
ruled part of western Egypt. The
sarcophagus was discovered last
week.
Amr
Nabil / the Associated Press
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Bahariya,
Egypt — Archaeologists unveiled the tomb of
a member of a powerful family that governed
a swath of western Egypt about 2,500 years
ago, along with a dozen recently discovered
mummies from Roman times.
The mummies are among 400-500
located thus far in what Egypt has dubbed
the Valley of the Golden Mummies — grounds
where thousands were believed entombed.
The rare limestone
sarcophagus that covered Badi-Herkhib — the
elder brother of a governor of Bahariya who
lived around 500 B.C. — was discovered last
week, allowing archaeologists to more
closely study a family that ruled this part
of Egypt.
"This family was so powerful,
so wealthy, that they could import the
limestone from about 100 kilometers (62
miles) away," said Mansour Boraik, a senior
archaeologist overseeing the Bahariya site.
The large sarcophagus was several inches
thick and weighed an estimated 15 tons.
The cemetery, covering about
2 square miles, is located 235 miles
southwest of Cairo. Egypt's chief
archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the
discovery of Badi-Herkhib's tomb was
unexpected.
"As a matter of fact, the
family tree did not mention the person we
found," Hawass, said. He said the tomb was
robbed during the Roman era.
The mummies, most of them in
a deteriorated condition, were found in
three burial chambers, lying in neat rows.
Boraik estimated the cemetery holds 15,000
mummies.
Source
Antonio Castaneda
The Associated Press
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Press
Release
Excavators
discover 20 mummies in Egypt
CAIRO-Egypt
— Excavators discovered 20 gilded mummies in
the Bahariya oasis in western Egypt, the
government's council of antiquities said
earlier this week .
The find brings the total
number of gilded mummies recovered in the
2000-year-old cemetery to 234. The site,
known as the Valley of the Golden Mummies,
was discovered in 1996.
Zahi Hawass, head of
antiquities council, said excavators also
discovered the tomb of Badiherkhib, the
grandson of former Bahariya Gov. Jed-Khunsu.
Jed-Khunsu's tomb already has been found.
Fifty bronze coins were found
with the mummies, the statement said.
Survivors were believed to leave the money
for the deceased to pay for the trip to the
afterlife.
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King Tut Exhibit Could Prove to Be Gold Mine
The gilded treasures of King
Tutankhamun are on their way back to the
United States in what could prove a gold
rush for Egypt and big business.
"Tutankhamun and the Golden
Age of the Pharaohs
" starts a 27-month tour
of the United States in June 2005 that will
mark the first return here in more than two
decades of the precious artifacts buried
with the mysterious boy king.
The exhibit is twice the size
of the late-1970s King Tut global tour,
which launched an era of "blockbuster"
museum exhibitions. "It is a new business
model. It seems like a lot of museums have
trouble financially in organizing major
exhibits. The costs are getting really
exorbitant," said John Norman, president of
Arts and Exhibitions International, one of
the companies providing the funding.
AEI is joined by Anschutz
Entertainment Group, which operates sports
stadiums, promotes pop concerts and
theatrical productions, and National
Geographic magazine.
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Press Release
Canadian dig unearths
Sinai desert fortress
A
Canadian archeological expedition in Egypt
has uncovered the remains of a
4,200-year-old fortress near the Red Sea
coast in the Sinai Desert, a discovery that
sheds some light on life at the time when
the Great Pyramids were built.
Details of the discovery will
be published soon in the Bulletin of the
American School of Oriental Research, and
archeologists say it offers important clues
on what was going on during the last years
of the period in Egypt called the Old
Kingdom (2700-2200 BC).
The team first learned of the
site two years ago -- and returned this past
summer -- while mapping archeological sites
in the Sinai Desert. Led by a brief report
of ruins in the area of Ras Budran and
information from local Bedouin, they went
south along the Red Sea coast to the remains
of the fort.
Project director Gregory
Mumford recalls shrieking: "Wow, this is
massive!'' when the team first surveyed what
was on the surface.
They did not have time to
conduct a formal excavation and left after
doing a survey of the surface remains with
the belief that the ruins dated from no
earlier than 1500 BC. But this past summer,
the team returned to Ras Budran and
excavated the site.
They found that the fortress
walls were seven
metres
thick and had an unusual circular shape that
gave the fort a diameter of 44 meters. And
the walls were not built with the more
commonly used mud brick but with limestone
blocks.
Geo-archeologist Dr. Lawrence
Pavlish, who was part of the survey team in
the summer of 2003, said it made a "good
checkpoint'' for anyone
travelling
down the Red Sea coast of the Sinai
Peninsula in the ancient world.
The pottery found at the site
indicated that it was older than originally
thought, dating to around 2250 BC, in the
sixth dynasty of Old Kingdom Egypt.
The Sinai expedition was
staffed almost entirely by Canadians with
support from the Egyptian Supreme Council of
Antiquities. It was funded by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, the American Research Centre in
Egypt and private donors.
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NEW FOR GOLFERS IN EGYPT: TABA HEIGHTS
GOLF RESORT
The 18-hole layout centerpiece of the Taba
Heights Golf Resort is the newest addition
to golf courses in Egypt. Located under the
table mountain of Taba Heights at the
northern point of the Gulf of Aqaba near the
border of Egypt.
The resort covers 900 acres with a
three-mile-long secluded beach on a private
bay. Golf course architect John Sanford is
back in Egypt this summer as work resumes on
a pair of golf courses he designed and
plan to open in the near future.” They
restarted the project due to the economic
recovery in the region,” Sanford says.
“Construction is underway and should be
completed in about a year.”
Farther down the Red Sea coast, south of
Cairo, is Makadi Bay Golf Resort near
Hurghada. Sanford’s 18-hole design will be
part of an existing five-hotel resort in
Makadi Bay, a fashionable destination area.
Three new hotels and 200 villas are planned
around the course, which will include a
comprehensive golf academy featuring a
20-acre practice range, nine-hole
pitch-and-putt, and three practice holes.
The 18-hole championship course will have
six sets of tees and reach almost 7,500
yards from the tips. The layout works its
way through existing sand dunes, with
elevation changes of 170 feet affording
views of the hotels, Red Sea and mountains.
It will also be planted with paspalum turf
grass Construction is scheduled to begin in
two months, with the golf academy opening in
a year and the full course in two years. The
sandy topography will require minimal earth
moving. Water will come from a deep well
located in the mountains and be delivered to
an irrigation pond located on the 7th and
8th holes. The course will be planted with
paspalum grasses, which should thrive even
with irrigation water containing 4,000 parts
per million of salt.
Sanford is well known in Egypt as designer
of the 18-hole layout at The Jolie Ville
Movenpick Golf & Resort located between the
Sinai Desert Mountains and Red Sea on the
southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The
course is planted in Bermuda grass and
features six lakes, excellent practice
facilities and a par-3 course.
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Ancient Egyptians enjoyed humour
A recent
series of lectures on ancient Egyptian
humour given by a leading historian reveals
that people thousands of years ago enjoyed
jokes, political satire, parodies and
cartoon-like art.
Related evidence found in texts, sketches,
paintings, and even in temples and tombs,
suggests that humour provided a social
outlet and comic relief for the ancient
Egyptians, particularly commoners who
laboured in the working classes.
The evidence was presented by Carol Andrews,
a lecturer in Egyptology at Birbeck College,
University of London, and former assistant
keeper and senior research assistant in the
Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the
British Museum.
Scott Noegel, and president of the American
Research Center in Egypt's (ARCE) Northwest
Chapter and is an associate professor in the
Department of New Eastern Languages and
Civilizations at the University of
Washington, told Discovery News that ancient
Egyptian humour consisted of at least five
basic categories.
For satire, Noegel explained that commoners
would make fun of leaders by showing
Pharaohs
in an unflattering manner. For
example, some leaders were depicted unshaven
or "especially effeminate."
Slapstick comedy included drawings that
showed people suffering unfortunate
accidents, such as hammers falling on heads,
or passengers tipping out of boats.
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New
Museum for North Sinai
Al-Arish
National Museum for North Sinai history
will be opened by the Minister of
Culture Farouk Hosni, next month.
The museum occupies 2km square and will
contain over 300 antiquities taken from
eight other national museums, the Head of
the Museum Sector, Mahmoud Mabrouk, said.
The museum will include a number of valuable
engravings found in different areas of the
North Sinai governorate, the
Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of
Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass, said.
Al-Arish Museum is part of a larger SCA plan
to establish a number of regional museums
all over the Republic
Source: The
Egypt State Information Service
Spanish
mission excavates 11 ancient tombs in
Ahansia
Te Spanish
archaeological mission under the National
Antiquities Museum in Madrid has unearthed
about eleven tombs built with unburnt bricks
inside a cemetery dating back to 2061- 2190
BC. The mission found fake gates, religious
paintings and courban tables.
The mission has unearthed 12 chambers built
with unburnt bricks with arch ceilings.
The mission also found chains and necklaces
made of precious stones with the shape of
sea shells.
Source: State Information Service, Egypt.
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html12/o310125m.htm
Pharaoh's
Signs of the Zodiac
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Merit Amon
colossus installed at Tel Basta Museum
Source: Egyptian Gazette
The
colossus of Queen Merit Amon, the wife of
Ramses II, was discovered last year by an
Egyptian-German team at Tel Basta in
Sharqia. Since then it has been restored and
placed on a concrete base in Tel Basta's
open museum.
The colossus is three metres high, weighs
seven tonnes and bears inscriptions on its
back revealing the name of the queen and
some aspects of her life.
Tel Basta lies about 80 kilometres northeast
of Cairo and is one of the Delta's richest
archaeological sites. It was of great
significance in the Old Kingdom, flourishing
from the 5th dynasty until the end of the
Roman period. Its primary monument is the
red granite temple of the cat-goddess
Bastet, which was documented by the Greek
historian Herodotus in the fifth century BC.
The site also includes the temples of the
6th dynasty Pharaohs
Teti and Pepi I; a pair
of jubilee chapels built by Amnemhat III and
Amenhotep III; as well as temples dedicated
to the gods Atum and Mihos.
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Mummy
specialists uncover secrets of ancient
Egyptian queen.
Source: The Herald, Scotland,
UK, March 22 2005, via Archaeologica.
By Martin Williams
SKELETAL remains held by the National Museum
of Scotland have been identified as a lost
Egyptian queen and her child.
The discovery has been made by scientists
who used forensic investigative techniques
to attempt to solve the mystery of the
remains.
The bodies were acquired for the collection
a year after being discovered by Sir
Flinders Petrie in 1909 at Qurna, a village
on the west bank of the Nile, which has been
the focus of illegal excavations.
The burial discovery, displayed at the Royal
Museum for decades, consisted of two coffins
containing the skeletal remains with
jewellery, a ceremonial fly whisk, a Syrian
oil horn, furniture, pottery, and food.
While Sir Flinders published an account of
the burial soon after excavation, relatively
little was known about who the mother and
child were.
However, experts from NMS joined those
working for Atlantic Productions, which was
producing a television documentary for the
Discovery channel, and found that the
remains were likely to belong to a queen and
her child.
The lost queen is believed to be a Nubian
princess who joined the Egyptian royal
family through an ancient dynastic marriage.
Using strontium isotope analysis, which
examines the composition of tooth enamel,
and carbon dating, the team was able to
prove the remains were of Egyptians and
dated to around 1650BC.
Infra-red technology was used to read
damaged inscriptions and, through
collaboration with hieroglyphic experts,
they were also able to establish that the
adult remains were likely to be of a lost
queen.
Examination of the bones has also revealed
that the adult was a slender woman, about
five feet tall and in her late teens or
early 20s when she died.
Skeletal reconstruction using 3D laser
technology, completed by Caroline Wilkinson,
a facial anthropologist from Manchester
University, enabled the team to map the
skull and helped to conclude that it was the
lost queen's child.
Studies of the child's skeleton suggests an
age at death of two to three years.
It is believed the child may have died of
gastro-enteritis, which was a common cause
of death at this age, but would not be
evident in the bones.
Dan Oliver, of the Atlantic Productions
team, said: "What we have done is to put
flesh on bones.
"In terms of our understanding of the
ancient dead, it is extremely important.
"The evidence suggests that this was a queen
of Egypt and the child was an heir.
"It is pretty clear that the adult was one
of the most important people of her time.
"It has been thought for a long time that
this woman may have been a Nubian princess,
but we have discovered through our analysis
that she grew up and spent her life in
Egypt.
"We believe it is very likely that she is
one of a very small number of queens.
"But it is a very murky period of history
and to get even vaguely close to putting a
name on a body that old would be difficult.
The facial reconstruction helped create a
picture of the child so that people can
decide whether the mother and child are
related."
Hannah Dolby, a spokeswoman for the national
museum said that research such as this adds
to the debate and mystery surrounding the
Qurna burial. "It is exciting that such an
important collection can be seen here in
Edinburgh," she said.
The documentary, A Lost Queen? will be
broadcast on the Discovery Channel on April
8.It is part of a series called Mummy
Autopsy, which looks at how mummy
specialists investigate and solve cases
across the world.
Source
http://www.theherald.co.uk
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