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When you make your living unearthing the royal riches of ancient Egypt, the beginning is a very distant place indeed – more than four millennia away, during the time of the 6th dynasty. We are standing on the rim of the necropolis of King Teti at Saqqara, where Karar and his team of archaeologists are excavating the tomb of Queen Sesheshet, Teti's mother. The tomb, and the once five-story-high pyramid that accommodates it, was until recently a dump for the sand and detritus of surrounding digs. But the intuitive power of Karar and his inimitable boss, Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, rescued it from oblivion last November. It was a once-in-a-lifetime strike – how often does one "discover" a pyramid? – and it may shed light on a particularly notorious episode in a pharaonic tradition of court intrigue and murder most foul.
[...]
Hawass, who began working at the Saqqara necropolis in 1988, says Sesheshet's pyramid "might be the most complete subsidiary pyramid ever found" in the area. It is certainly one of the largest. The remains of its 72-square-foot base suggests a pitch of 51 degrees, a common feature of 5th and 6th century pyramidal design, and a height of 46 feet. Large, smoothly carved blocks of limestone around the southern end of its foundation is all that's left of the casing that gave Egyptian pyramids of the time their clean, elegant lines. The entire structure would have been built with bronze tools.
Karar and his team waited several weeks before opening the tomb's burial chamber so as not to disrupt the remains while the surface excavation was going on. In January, when they finally entered the chamber, they found a mummy inside wrapped in linen and conclusive evidence to suggest it is Sesheshet, Hawas told the Cairo-based Al Ahram Weekly.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Discovering Pyramids - The Tomb of Queen Sesheshet
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Three Decades of Discovery - New Insight to Egypt’s Past
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Lectures - Zahi Hawass in Canada, Germany, and the US
- Date: March 26, 2010
Lecture: Dr. Zahi Hawass: My Discoveries
Time: 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Location: Am Dammtor, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
Venue: Congress Centre Hamburg
Ticket & more info - Date: March 8, 2010
Lecture: Mysteries of Tutankhamun Revealed
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California
Venue: War Memorial Auditorium Opera House
Ticket & more info - Date: March 6, 2010
Lecture: Mysteries of Tutankhamun Revealed
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: 31 King's College Circle, Toronto, Ontario
Venue: Convocation Hall
Ticket & more info
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Egypt Relics Chief Pulls in Revenue as He Fights for Nefertiti
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx
After decades of research, American archaeologist Mark Lehner has some answers about the mysteries of the Egyptian colossus.
The Sphinx was not assembled piece by piece but was carved from a single mass of limestone exposed when workers dug a horseshoe-shaped quarry in the Giza plateau. Approximately 66 feet tall and 240 feet long, it is one of the largest and oldest monolithic statues in the world. None of the photos or sketches I’d seen prepared me for the scale. It was a humbling sensation to stand between the creature’s paws, each twice my height and longer than a city bus. I gained sudden empathy for what a mouse must feel like when cornered by a cat.
Nobody knows its original name. Sphinx is the human-headed lion in ancient Greek mythology; the term likely came into use some 2,000 years after the statue was built. There are hundreds of tombs at Giza with hieroglyphic inscriptions dating back some 4,500 years, but not one mentions the statue. “The Egyptians didn’t write history,” says James Allen, an Egyptologist at Brown University, “so we have no solid evidence for what its builders thought the Sphinx was....Certainly something divine, presumably the image of a king, but beyond that is anyone’s guess.” Likewise, the statue’s symbolism is unclear, though inscriptions from the era refer to Ruti, a double lion god that sat at the entrance to the underworld and guarded the horizon where the sun rose and set.
Friday, January 15, 2010
More Regarding Pyramid Builders' Tombs
Video: Tombs of the Pyramid Builders
Upcoming Lectures and Events in Egyptology
If you have any free time, you may wish to attend any or all of the following upcoming lectures and events around the world (to attend them all, you would need to spend some money on plane tickets, so perhaps it is silly to encourage visiting them all):
When: January 27
Where: Our Lady of Lourdes High School Auditorium in Poughkeepsie, NY
Lecture: Dr. Bob Brier's The Secret of the Great Pyramid
Price: Free admission
When: January 16
Where: press room of the Palma-Arena, C/ de l'Uruguai s/n, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Lecture: Marina Escolano Poveda's Beyond the Rosetta Stone. The Fundamental Role of the Coptic Language in the Decipherment of the Hieroglyphic Script
When: Through May 2010
Where: Greece (contact info is provided at Challenging the Past)
Seminars: Hellenic Society for the Study of Ancient Egypt
When: February 20
Where: University of London, Garden Halls - London, England
Workshop: Forensic Aspects of Ancient Egypt
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Video - The Unfinished Pyramid at Saqqara
Dr. Hawass tells the story of the Unfinished Pyramid and its discoverer, Zakaria Goneim, sharing this story so that everyone will understand that fame can be a burden and making discoveries is not an easy thing. It's a sad story and only goes to show that the scholastic world is not as romantic as it appears in books and movies. Poor man.
The original video is at Heritage Key, paired with a transcript.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Hawass' Trip to Moscow for the International Egyptology Conference
Monday, October 5, 2009
Videos - National Geographic's Egypt Unwrapped
I recommend Egyptomaniacs of all kinds to hop on over to Bennu's Talking Pyramids Blog. He has posted a few excerpted videos which feature a behind-the-scenes look with Dr. Zahi Hawass at the Pyramid of Unas. Chicago's Field Museum replica has nothing on this, that's for sure!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Egypt to Combat Emissions With Solar Power
The Pyramids of Dashur 3: The Black Pyramid
Monday, September 28, 2009
Perserving Giza's Archaeological Heritage
I recommend hopping over to the Giza Archives web site; it is truly amazing! I've been working on a novel of the historical fiction kind for a few years now and it will prove very useful to me indeed. By the way, my novel is set at the end of (roughly around October/November) 1926 and takes place at the Giza Necropolis, specifically at camp Emile Baraize and the Great Sphinx. I can't believe the diary pages in this archival database describe a very jovial Baraize, ever-willing to point out the details of the Great Sphinx ;) And what he points out to the diary writer is exactly what he points out to the main characters in my book! That is just too weird. I know I'll be using this as a resource for the remainder of my writing, particularly since Baraize is a hard man to peg in terms of finding his publications, which are mainly unpublished. Good thing that web site has this media too.
Oh yeah, and Dr. Hawass has some great ideas and things to say about the preservation of the Giza Necropolis and the dissemination of information and images on it.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
EES 2010 Tour to Egypt
When: Saturday, March 13 - 27, 2010; Key Figures: Professor Alan Lloyd, Faten Saleh, and Ros Phipps; Contact: Emily Feasey (The Traveller) +44 (0)20 7436 9343 or email info@the-traveller.co.uk; Cost: £2635 (per person)/Single room supplement £332. The program guide offers more details and descriptions about this trip; click the link to access it.
Exact Date Pinned to Great Pyramid's Construction?
Sothis, the Dog Star, turns out to be the variable that solves the problem of the exact dating of the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza for one Egyptian team. Like any good debate, this article examines both sides: the Egyptians present their evidence and others counteract.
I like to stray from saying "a culture always did something this way" when describing a peoples' endeavors because people are quite unpredictable (even Ancient Egyptians, who seemed to be very purposeful when it came to all aspects of the humanities!). Although scholars like to pin things down (or try to), sometimes one has to be satisfied with words like "probably," "about," "perhaps" and the like.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Cultural Exchange with the USA
The following is an excerpt from Zahi Hawass' Blog; click on the above link to read his blog post in its entirety:
I think these study trips are very important for the young people of Egypt. It is important for them to travel abroad and befriend diverse people; it opens their minds to have international friends and increases their knowledge of the outside world. I can see how much Rania has changed; she has applied what she learned on the study tour to her work here, and I can see that she will have a very bright future. Helen and I talked about how we will send more young Egyptians for training in the future, and it is my hope that we will continue to work with the American people to promote cultural exchange through these study trips.
Dr. Hawass also talks about his meeting with President Obama and the pictures taken during that time and his hopes that he will inspire people to donate to the Childrens Museum in Cairo so that it will thrive.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Hawass Debunks Collins' Cave Controversy
Dr. Hawass describes in detail why Andrew Collins' observation about a "cave complex" under the Giza Plateau. Hawass is right to call the theory out for what it is: hokum, if you know anything about the Giza Plateau; although I think his words are a bit snooty. Not everyone is a scholar like you and I dear reader ;)
He provides an example of good reading, and I will provide just the opposite because I think it is a terribly amusing book, albeit very old, out of date, and a sign of the times: Everett W. Fish's, The Egyptian Pyramids, an Analysis of a Great Mystery.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Alternatives to the World's Worst Tourist Traps
It mostly speaks of the Meroe pyramids in the Sudan; it's less an article that bashes the pyramids (as the title seems to suggest), more one that gives detailed information about the Meroe pyramids in the Sudan and the Meroe civilization.
The following is a preview of the contents of the article; click the above link to read it in its entirtey:
Some ideas are too good to be forgotten. When Egypt’s pyramid boom burnt out in 2500BC, the country’s signature tomb design found its way up the Nile to northern Sudan, where it was embraced more than 2,000 years later by the Kushite Kingdom.
Evidence of this architectural revival can be found at the great royal cemeteries of Bagrawiya, better known as the pyramids of Meroe, where dozens of steep-sided pyramids litter the desert. This may be Sudan’s most iconic sight, but visitors are likely to have the tombs all to themselves, with only the sound of the desert wind in their ears.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Explore Ancient Egypt with Fairmont & National Geographic
If you're willing to spend $960 and would like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the secrets of Egypt through lectures, tours, and a felucca ride in the company of Zahi Hawass, then this offer is certainly for you. This Global Explorer Series from Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and the National Geographic Society runs from November 27 - 30, 2009 and has many fabulous incentives (as if Dr. Hawass wasn't enough, my goodness!). Click on the above link to read more on this offer.
The following is a direct link to the Fairmont Towers web site, where you can book the tour.