Sphinx road missing sections discovered

Sphinx road missing sections discovered

Egyptian archeologists have discovered missing sections of the so-called Sphinx road and the bottom part of an unknown pyramid in Sakkara area.

The road was mentioned in some ancient Greek manuscripts, according to chief of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawwas.

According to him, it is believed that the discovered parts are connected to the passage leading to Anubis Temples of the jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. Sakkara is one section of the great necropolis of Memphis.

The old Kingdom capital and the kings of the 1st dynasty as well as that of the 2nd dynasty are mostly buried in this section of the Memphis necropolis. It is a place that has been of constant interest to Egyptologists. Three major discoveries have recently been made at Sakkara, including a prime minister's tomb, a queen's pyramid, and the tomb of the son of a dynasty-founding king.

Each discovery has a fascinating story, with many adventures for the archeologists as they revealed the secrets of the past. Sakkara is best known for the Step Pyramid, the oldest known of Egypt's 97 pyramids. It was built for King Djoser of the 3rd Dynasty by the architect and genius Imhotep, who designed it and its surrounding complex to be as grand as it was unique and revolutionary.

Source Egypt State Information

The Book of the Dead

This scene, from the Papyrus of Hunefer, shows the Hunefer's heart being weighed against the feather of truth. If his heart is lighter than the feather, he is allowed to pass into the afterlife. Vignettes such as these were a common illustration in Egyptian books of the dead.
'The Book of the Dead' is the common name for the ancient Egyptian funerary text known as 'The Book of Coming '[or 'Going']' Forth By Day'. The book of the dead was a description of the ancient Egyptian conception of the afterlife and a collection of hymns, spells, and instructions to allow the deceased to pass through obstacles in the afterlife. The book of the dead was most commonly written on a papyrus scroll and placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased.[1]
The name "Book of the Dead" was the invention of the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius, who published a selection of the texts in 1842. When it was first discovered, the book of the dead was thought to be an ancient Egyptian Bible. But unlike the Bible, The Book of the Dead does not set forth religious tenets and was not considered by the ancient Egyptians to be the product of divine revelation, which allowed the content of the book of the dead to change over time. The Book of the Dead was thus the product of a long process of evolution from the Pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom to the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom. About one-third of the chapters in The Book of the Dead are derived from the Coffin Texts.[2] The Book of the Dead itself was adapted to The Book of Breathings in the Late Period, but remained popular in its own right until the Roman period.

Source (Wikipédia)

The Rosetta Stone

In 1799, during the Egyptian military campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte, a block of black basalt was discovered at Rosetta. A long message was written on it, with the same text repeated in three languages: Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek. The rock block (today displayed at the British Museum) would become famous under the nickname of "Rosetta stone", as it was the key for the decryption of the old Egyptian Hieroglyphic code.

As in exactly the two following years after the discovery of the stone, Bichat's publications became the foundations for the knowledge of the textures/tissues, it can be said that those manuscripts were a kind of "Rosetta stone" of Histology.

The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing

The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system consists of several hundred picture signs. The signs can be divided into two classes, phonograms and ideograms. Phonograms represent sounds, much as alphabet letters do. Ideograms are signs that represent whole words or concepts. The first hieroglyphs we know about appeared as early as 3100 BC and only the Sumerian language is believed to be older. Hieroglyph also had a variety of definitions of its own they were written in phonographs or ideograms. The Ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphics to make a record of what their view of the universe was. It is believed that the hieroglyphic system of writing was brought to Egypt by invaders who came from the north-east. The word hieroglyphics is made up of two Greek words hieros which means sacred, and glyphe, which means carving. Ancient Egyptian writing used over 2,000 hieroglyphic characters. The hieroglyphics picture signs can be written from right to left; from left to right; or vertically, reading downwards. Hieroglyphs turned out to be a combination of picture-writing and sound-writing.

This knowledge that we have today is all due to the Rosetta Stone without her we can never translate the Hieroglyphics.



I'll be posting about the Rosetta stone soon.

Egypt announces new archaeological discovery in Luxor's Valley of Kings

Egypt announced Thursday 10/4/2008 the discovery of a quartzite Ushabti figure and the cartouche of King Seti I, second king of the 19th Dynasty (1314-1304 BC).They were found inside the corridor of the tomb of Seti I (KV 17) in the Valley of the Kings on Luxor's west bank, read more at http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000001/0203000000000000000979.htm. Leave a Comment.

Giant Statue of Ancient Egypt Queen Found

I've just found out that this 31 of january 2008 on National Geograhpic Archaeologists have uncovered a pristinely preserved statue of a powerful Egyptian queen at the sprawling mortuary temple of Amenhotep III on Luxor's West Bank. You can read the entire story in http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080331-egypt-statue.html. leave a comment.

Burial chamber of the Old Kingdom's Middle class

i've just found that in national geographic this 18 of january 2008 Archaeologists have unsealed the intact burial chamber of an ancient Egyptian official, providing a rare glimpse into the burial customs of the Old Kingdom's middle class. you can read all about it in http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080118-egypt-tomb.html, leave your comment.

My Passion about Egypt

I love everything that has to do with Egypt, and for that reason decided to create a blog on it, with links to museums, pieces of decoration to buy some of which have already bought, books on Egypt and especially fresh news about the latest discoveries.Hope everybody who is a egypt fan loves the blog .