33

Figure 3.1 Amenhotep III and Sobek, from the Temple of Amun, Luxor, c. 1375 BCE.
Luxor Museum of Egyptian Art, Luxor.


34

Chapter 3

ART AND SOCIETY:
EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND CULTURE,
AN OUTLINE WITH OBSERVATIONS



Earth and Sky

This chapter selectively explores aspects of the
political structure, social organization, mythology and
religious customs of ancient Egypt so that their arts can
be experienced in greater dimension.
1
Their political
organization and religion were intimately intertwined
with their written history and reflected in their arts,
consequently a better understanding of these aspects
will allow for a more informed reading of the arts. This
case study will be useful as a guide for exploring other
cultures, particularly the civilizations of Mesopotamia,
Persia, Greece and Rome.
The Egyptian culture is in many ways
characteristic of the earliest known civilizations and is
the best documented, both materially and literally, of
them all. Following a peaceful thousand year formative
period Egypt flourished for some three thousand years
during which it saw relatively brief periods of civil war
and occupation by foreign powers. The Egyptians were
clearly the most sophisticated of all of the archaic
cultures of the Fertile Crescent and may have initiated
the complex patterns of civilization picked up by the
Sumerians of southern Mesopotamia, the Harapans of
India and the Chinese. We are not certain whether it
was the Egyptians or the Sumerians who first initiated
civilization. Whatever the case, the tremendous amount
of cultural material that has survived from the Egyptian
civilization makes them the ideal case study.
Egypt is situated in the desolate north-east
corner of Africa, protected from outside forces by a vast
desert to the west, mountains to the east, and the
Mediterranean Sea to the north, allowing its inhabitants
to live in relative peace for most of its long history.
Egyptian history, like the histories of Mesopotamia,

1. Excellent introductions to the Egyptian world are J . E.
Manchip White, Ancient Egypt, Its Culture and History,
New York, 1970 [1952]; P. A. Clayton, Chronicle of the
Pharaohs, The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and
Dynasties of Ancient Egypt, London, 1994; R. T. Rundle
Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, New York and
London, 1995 [1959]; Mohamed Saleh & Hourig
Sourouzian, The Egyptian Museum Cairo, Mainz/Munich,
1987; Alberto Siliotti, Egypt, Splendors of an Ancient
Civilization, New York and London, 1996; and R. Schulz
& M. Seidel (eds.), Egypt, The World of the Pharaohs,
Kln, 1998.
India and China, is intimately connected with a great
river: in this case the River Nile. This greatest of great
rivers is more than 4000 miles long and originates in
the heart of Africa. Its main tributaries are the Blue
Nile, which originates at Lake Tana; and the White
Nile, which begins at Lake Mabutu Seso Seko. These
tributaries join to become the Nile proper at Khartum,
south of the sixth cataract in central Sudan. The river
then winds its way north through what is now the
largest desert in the world, the Sahara, before dividing
into seven branches that empty into the Mediterranean
Sea. The navigable river runs some 750 miles up to the
first cataract (rapids). The area, on which the two
Egypts flourished, due to a complex system of dams,
canals and holding basins, was wider (about 12 miles)
than it is today.
It is not known what led to the success of the
Egyptians, as White notes:
But it is not the challenge of nature
alone which impelled the ancient
Egyptians towards their ultimate
triumphs. Their inborn genius also
played its part, a genius perhaps
produced and fostered by the
apparently unpromising admixture of
racial strains of different attitude and
experience.
2


Irrigation and the Cycle of Life

The regular flooding of the river fertilized the
Nile valley annually and the Egyptians in time learned
to control and store the waters for irrigation. The river
was predictable to a degree, but had to be watched
closely. It was carefully measured using a device called
a nilometer, one of which was located in the area near
modern Cairo, with another near the first cataract. As
Egypt expanded, others were set up further south. The
importance of these devices for the control of the

2. J . E. Manchip White, 1970 [1952], p. 147. This point
should be taken to heart by all Americans, as we are in a
very similar situation.

35

waters cannot be over-emphasized, as just a few feet
too much water could cause destruction, a few feet too
low meant the catch basins would remain empty,
triggering famine.
The people built dikes to protect the
settlements, and large catch basins to trap the flood
waters for later use. They also sank wells and dug large
canals. The longest canal ran from the Nile to the Red
Sea, joining several lakes at the northern end of the sea
(c. 600-500 BCE).
What is now a barren wasteland to either side
of this narrow strip, was once sprawling grasslands that
supported teaming herds of animals and plants. Vast
wetlands spread to either side of the river, where
hippopotamus, water buffalo and many other animals
lived.
The delta region was over 180 miles wide. It
supported much of the livestock, such as cattle, pigs,
sheep and goats. Also grown here were grapes, dates,
flax, papyrus, and grains. About 60 miles south of the
expansion of the delta area is a large lake called the
Faiyum, which is located in the midst of one of the
great grain producing regions. Also found here is the
site of Crocodilopolis, a city where crocodiles were
worshipped and kept bedecked in jewels.
Their origin myths speak of a great watery
abyss wherein lie the germs of all things, and that out of
this water raised the first land, and time began. It is
believed that this myth had its origins in the annual
flooding of the Nile, out of which the land is reborn
each year. This land is symbolized by the Ben Ben, a
stone in the form of a pyramid that became a fetish of
the sun-disk god Ra.


Pharaoh: Son of the Gods

The word Pharaoh is derived from the two
words "per aa", meaning Great House, as the Emperors
of China were called the Grand Khan (Great Palace).
The Pharaoh had two crowns, one was a high conical
hat, the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and the other
was flat topped with a tall projection, the Red Crown of
Lower Egypt. Sometimes they were worn together to
symbolize the union of the two Egypts, and it was
called the Great Double Crown. Sometimes when he is
before the gods, or in depictions of him on coffins, he is
shown wearing the nemes head covering. When he
goes to war he wears the war crown.
His symbols of power were the crook and the
flail, indications of his dual nature. The crook (heka)
scepter symbolized his desire to lead the people, and the
flail (nekhekha), his willingness to use force when
necessary. These implements were used by pre-
dynastic cattle herders, and symbolized the Pharaoh as
the good herdsman.
"He is exultant, a smasher of
foreheads, so that none can come
close to him. He is a master of
graciousness, rich in sweetness,
conquering by love."
Every Pharaoh claimed direct descent from
Ra, through Horus, and became the actual reincarnation
of the falcon god, living on earth as a semi-divine
being. A story tells of the divine birth of three kings of
the Fifth Dynasty. It was here claimed that the god Ra
impregnated Ruddjedet, the wife of a priest, with triplet
sons. King Khufu (Cheops: 2589-2566 BCE), the famed
Fourth Dynasty King who built the Great Pyramid,
attempted to have these children destroyed. Ra sent Isis
and Nephthys (protective goddesses) along with
Meskhenet and Heqet (goddesses of childbirth) to
protect them from Khufu. The goddesses were
disguised as musicians and after delivering the children
departed but first left three crowns hidden in a sack of
barley as tokens of their destinies.
3
This myth closely
parallels that of the massacre of the innocents by king
Harod in his attempt to destroy the newborn Christ
(Matthew: 2.1-23) some 2500 years later. It is
important in this context to remember that the pharaohs
were anointed with crocodile fat to protect them from
evil forces and to give them the power of the sun. The
ancient Egyptian word for crocodile was messeh,
from which we derive the Hebrew term messiah
(Anointed One) that the Christians use in reference to
J esus Christ. The most powerful of the Crocodile
deities was Sobek, the lord of the waters. There is a
large statue of Amenhotep III and Sobek (figure 3.1)
dating to c. 1375 BCE, at the Luxor Museum of
Egyptian Art, Luxor, that depicts the seated god Sobek
offering an ankh (symbol of life) to the pharaoh, who
stands next to him. The close relationship between the
story of Christs conception and that of the pharaohs is
worth noting through the text on the walls of the
Temple of Amun at Luxor that discuss the theological
basis of the New Kingdom pharaoh Amenhotep III,
who claimed direct descent from the double-natured
god Amun-Ra (see New Kingdom section below). It is
also significant that Djedefre, the son of Khufu that
became the next Pharaoh, was the first to adopt the
name son of Ra.
When a Pharaoh died he ceased to be a
guardian (a Horus), and became an Osiris, while
another Pharaoh took his place on earth. During the
Old Kingdom, only the Pharaoh and his family were
permitted by the religion to ascend to heaven after
death. In the Middle Kingdom the power of the
Pharaoh was seen in the light of an expanding world,
and he was seen as one King among many, and all of
the people were then allowed to ascend into heaven.
Because Upper and Lower Egypt retained
independent identities the Pharaohs maintained a
Double Residence, a Double Treasury, and a Double
Granary. His palace was in the form of a temple, and
his court was by tradition a place of opulence and
refined luxury. At various points during the reign of a

3. See Roy Willis (gen. ed.), World Mythology, New York,
1993, p. 52.

36

pharaoh there were elaborate sed-festivals, or jubilees
of kingly renewal. These festivals worked to reassert
the pharaohs relationship to the gods, and display his
wealth to the country.
As there is no single surviving list of pharaohs,
dates assigned to the early dynasties and to individual
reigns are calculated using information from a number
of sources. It was not until the nineteenth dynasty that
the Egyptians themselves composed a list called the
Turin Canon of Kings. This list, which is not accurate,
and the so-called Palermo Stone, of which only
fragments survive, are the most important sources for
developing a chronology of the pharaohs.
4



Egyptian Religion

The Egyptians developed a complex
polytheistic religion and according to the Greek
historian Herodotus, they were "religious to excess".
There were over 2000 gods in the Egyptian pantheon
that were worshipped at one time or another. In the
earliest days each tribe along the Nile adopted a patron
god, called the "Lord of the City", and used these
characters in transmitting their collective verbal history.
The first representations of Egyptian deities appear
about the middle of the fifth millennium BCE, long
before the first hieroglyphics. They had a creation story
and an order of gods and goddesses that represented
abstract concepts of the cosmos and world, particularly
animals or birds, which at times were presented as part
human. Their gods and goddesses were not always
categorized as good or evil, and the Egyptians did not
search for a universal truth for life on earth, though they
did distinguish between good and evil and aspired to
achieve order in their lives through "Maat", the
personification of both the cosmic and social orders set
in place by the demiurge. The Egyptians saw the
various animals of their world as envelopes for the vital
spirits of the god to whom they were dedicated. These
creatures, because of their identifiable anthropomorphic
characteristics, also provided them with recognizable
objects of worship. The gods lived in the temples,
which were not open to the public, and the priests acted
as representatives of the Pharaoh, who was in turn seen
as the living god.
The Egyptians believed that they were from
birth accompanied by two other selves: a "ba", the soul
or spirit of the living personality; and a "ka", the soul
that inhabited the body after the death of the self. This
was the reason for embalming (mummification) the
body and preparing such elaborate tombs. Their
primary concern was to ensure the safety and happiness
of the "ka" in the next life. Life was expressed by the
"ankh" symbol, a cross with a looped top. Prosperity

4 . For a concise and profusely lustrated history of the
pharaohs see P. A Clayton, Chronicles of the Pharaohs,
The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of
Ancient Egypt, London, 1994.
was expressed by the "Was" Scepter; a forked staff
surmounted by an abstract animal head.
Because the Egyptian pantheon is so
extensive, complex, and not at all ordered, only a small
sample of the major deities is presented here.
5


The Egyptians believed that in the beginning Nun (or
Tum) was Chaos (a demiurge: an autonomous
creative force), the primordial ocean or watery
abyss where there was only darkness and in which,
before the creation, lay the germs of all things and
all beings. The texts call him the 'father of the
gods', but he remained a purely intellectual concept
and had neither temples nor worshippers. He is at
times found represented as a personage standing up
to his waist in water, holding up his arms to
support the gods who he has created. It was out of
this water that the first land rose, marking the
beginning of time [First Time]. It is believed that
this myth had its origins in the annual flooding of
the Nile, out of which the land is reborn each year.
The rising land is symbolized by the Ben Ben, a
stone in the form of a pyramid that became a fetish
of the god Ra.
Ra (also called Re or Atum or the combined name
Atum-Ra): a demiurge that was the sun god. He
was the most important deity of Egypt. The name
Ra seems to come from a root, which signified 'not
to be' and 'to be complete', was originally a local
god of Iunu (Greek: Heliopolis) where his sacred
animal was the bull Merwer (Greek Mneuis), but
was manifest in many forms, of which the solar
disk, the Aten, is the most common. His
importance was as the eye of the sky god Horus,
and was often depicted as a man with the head of a
falcon on which rested the disc of the sun with a
cobra projecting from it, or with a pair of falcon
wings, sometimes supported by a right eye. In this
manifestation he is referred to as Ra-Herakhty
(Horus-Re). The cobra Uraeus was also associated
with the fiery eye of Ra. The Great Sphinx at
Gizah is a representation of Harmakhis, a
manifestation of the sun god Ra symbolizes the
rising sun and in whose direction the Sphinx gazes.
The sun had manifestations for the setting sun, the

5. See P. Vernus, The Gods of Ancient Egypt, New York,
1998; R. T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient
Egypt, New York and London, 1995 [1959]; R. O
Faukner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, London,
1985; S. Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion, London,
1992; S. Quirke, The Cult of Ra, Sun-Worship in Ancient
Egypt, London & New York, 2001, and Richard H.
Wilkinson, Reading Egyptian Art, A Hieroglyphic Guide
to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture, New York
and London, 1992.

37

midday sun, and others, and in the Late Period
developed a different symbol for each of the twelve
hours of the day. After the day was over the Ra
became Ammon and he illuminated the
underworld (see below). The priests of Heliopolis
taught that inside Nun, before the creation, there
had lived a 'spirit, still formless, who bore within
him the sum of all existence'. He was Atum, and
he manifested himself one day under the name of
Atum-Ra and drew from himself gods, men and all
living things. Atum-Ra, "the creator", is said to
have made the cosmos without the aid of a wife.
From very early times his priests identified Atum
with Ra, the great sun god. He was symbolized by
the evening sun that returned to the womb of Nut
each night to be rejuvenated. The Egyptians
claimed him as their first king, a role later followed
by the eldest son of each king. His name means "he
who becomes" or he who came into being. Ra
created Shu [dry air: male] and Tefnut [moist air:
female] without the aid of a female force. This
resulted in time with the creation of the earth and
all that is on it. As in the case of the later Greek
mythology, a rebellion occurred against the great
creator god by the forces of chaos. One narrative
tells that early in creation Ra ruled on the earth.
When he grew old and senile he faced rebellion. In
his anger he sent out his eye in the form of
Sekhmet, the ragging daughter of the sun who
brought death and distruction to all who oppossed
Ras order (see below). After his victory Ra
retreated from earth to the cosmos, and rode his
solar boat across the sky each day to ensure the
continuation of order and creation.
Sekhmet: means she who is powerful. She was the
daughter of Ra and was was identified with the eye
of Ra. She was symbolyzed as a lioness, and
represented the savage power of the animal
unleashed. Sekhmet was sent out by Ra to
suppress the rebellion against his earthly rule. Such
was the destruction that Ra had to bring Sekhmet
back under control. The gods then tricked her by
creating a lake of beer colored with red ocher to
look like blood. Sekhmet drank herself into a
stupor and metamorphed from the embodiment of
hatred to the benign intoxicated force of love in
creationinto Hathor the creative feminine
principle. Sekhmet was put at the service of the
pharaoh to destroy revolts. She retained the power
to inflict pain and meted it out to her slaughterers
at her discretion and according to her own
calendar.
Ammon (Amun): a demiurge, was "the king of the
gods", came to unparalleled power in the First
Intermediate Period and to dominance in the New
Kingdom. His center was in Thebes, but he
originated in the far south. He was an aspect of Ra
who took this form during the night. As the life
force of the sun he symbolized male fertility and
was usually represented as a ram-headed man, but
at other times as a man wearing a plumed
headdress representing the ithyphallic. For 12
hours he was enthroned on the sun's boat, and for
the other 12 hours illuminated the underworld. He
was later combined with Ra to become Ammon-
Ra. The goose was also sacred to him. His
greatest temples were in Karnak, Luxor and
Thebes.
Shu: was created by Ra as the god of the dry air, the
male source of life. He was symbolized by a man
seated on a throne, wearing a single feather on his
head, holding an ankh sign in one hand and a was
scepter in the other. Air was the element or breath
of life, and was the gift of Shu.
Tefnut: was created by Ra as the goddess of moist air,
the female source of life. Tefnut embodied the
concept of sexual difference as an aspect of
creation. She is identified with the eye of Ra
and with Maat, as she represents the formost
aspect of feminine creativity. Tefnut fled from Ra
into the eastern desert of Nubia and made it her
purpose to constantly keep his sexual desire
awakened. For five days of the year Shu and
Tefnut begot Geb [earth] and Nut [sky].
Thoth: was the god of learning and wisdom, and was
associated with the moon. He was the scribe of the
gods, and was depicted as a man with the head of
an ibis or sometimes as a baboon. He was credited
with inventing language, hieroglyphic writing,
mathematics, legal systems, and magic.
Maat: the wife of Thoth and daughter of Ra, was the
judge of the gods. She is represented as a woman
wearing ostrich feathers on her head. She
personified the idea of order and her deified
ideogram meant "truth" or "justice" and it was she
who passed judgment on the ka when a person
died. One of his feathers was used as the weight
against which a soul was measured. Judges were
considered priests of Maat.
Ptah: was the third god credited as being the great
creator. He was represented as a bearded mummy
wearing a skullcap and holding a scepter. He was
credited with creating the world by thought, then
realized that thought in an oral formulation. He
created creatures by thinking of them in his heart
and speaking their names. Much of his power was
due to his native city being Memphis, the city

38

chosen by the pharaohs of the New Kingdom as the
center of administration. Ptah was also a funerary
god and was considered the god of the underworld.
He was also the god of the hearing ears.
Geb: was the son of Shu and Tefnut, and was the spirit
of the earth. The emblem of Geb was the goose,
but he was most often represented as a man
reclining beneath the arching body of his sister and
consort Nut. Geb [earth] and Nut [sky], begot four
very important children in Egyptian mythology:
two male; Osiris and Seth, and two female; Isis
and Nephthys.
Nut: was daughter of Shu and Tefnut, and was
goddess of the sky. Nut was the wife of Amen-Ra,
and the consort of Geb. Her name means,
"mother" and she is depicted as a woman wearing a
deep blue (lapis Lazuli) dress covered with five-
pointed gold stars, or completely nude. She is
often depicted as supporting her body in an arch
over the world as represented by Geb, and often
times decorated the ceilings of tombs, sarcophagi
and coffins. Her symbol is the vulture headdress or
crowns (white or double).
Osiris: was the essential victim, was the most beloved
of the gods, and was considered an aspect of the
King. He was the son of Geb and Nut, seen as the
link between the living and the dead as the
embodiment of the concept of resurrection. He
was the god of the inundation and introduced
agriculture and the arts of life into Egypt. He was
considered a wise king who civilized Egypt and
made it a worldwide empire. Osiris was
handsome, dark-skinned (probably from the south)
and taller than all other men. At first he was
considered a nature god embodied with the spirit of
vegetation. Later he was worshipped throughout
Egypt as god of the dead, in which this capacity he
reached first rank in the Egyptian pantheon. In his
endeavors to civilize Egypt, he built the first
temples and sculptured the first divine images. Not
being satisfied with his accomplishments, he
traveled the whole earth and spread civilization
everywhere. He was noted as the enemy of all
violence, the embodiment of goodness, and by his
gentleness won the hearts of his subjects. Upon his
return, he found his kingdom in perfect order being
governed by his wife Isis. Not long after that, he
became the victim of his brothers evil plot to gain
the throne (see Seth below).
Isis: the wife and sister of Osiris, was the mother of
Horus. She is normally represented as a woman
who bears on her head a throne, which symbolized
her name. She was an Egyptian nature goddess
who was identified as a helper and protector. She
was a beautiful and fair skinned (from the north:
delta region) woman who was given as the wife of
Osiris (the god of the neighboring town). She bore
Osiris a son named Horus who formed the third
member of the trinity. As a simple woman Isis had
been in the service of Ra. She persuaded the great
sun god to reveal his secret name. As a potent
magician even the gods were not immune from her
sorcery. Osiris chose her as his consort in
civilizing Egypt. She taught women to grind corn,
spin flax, and weave cloth. She also taught men
the art of curing disease and by instituting
marriage, accustomed them to domestic life. Isis,
in the Osirian myth represents the rich plains of
Egypt, replenished annually by the Nile (which
became Osiris after his death) who is separated
from her by Seth, the arid desert. It was she who
gathered the pieces of her slain husband and with
the aid of Anubis, performed the first
mummification in Egypt.
Seth (Set): the younger brother and murderer of
Osiris. He was the lord of Upper Egypt, chaotic
forces and as such was seen as the incarnation of
evil. Seth figures as a personification of the arid
desert and storms, of drought and darkness in
opposition to the sun and the fertile earth. All that
is created and blessed comes from Osiris compared
to all that is destructive originating from Seth. He
thus became the embodiment of the troublemaker,
and is depicted as a big-eared long-muzzled
creature resembling a donkey. Seth was deeply
jealous of Osiris, and secretly had aspirations to the
throne. In order to seize it, he invited his brother to
a banquet. During the course of the banquet he
gave orders that a marvelously fashioned coffin
(sarcophagus) be brought in. The coffin, he
explained jokingly, would belong to whomsoever
fitted it exactly. Osiris, falling into it with
merriment lay down in the coffin without
suspicion. The conspirators immediately closed
the lid, and nailed it down. They threw it into the
Nile, so it was carried out to sea, across to Byblos
in Palestine. In another version of the murder Seth
chopped Osiris into pieces and scattered them
across Egypt.
Nephthys: was the sister of Osiris. Nephthys presided,
along with her sister Isis, over the funeral of Osiris.
She protected, mourned and revived the dead. She
is often depicted as a beautiful woman with winged
arms.
Horus: the falcon-headed god was son of Osiris, and
husband of Hathor. Horus was also depicted as
the winged disc of the sun and was worshipped as a

39

cosmic deity whose body represented the heavens
and whose right eye (the Eye of Ra Wadjat) was
the sun, while his left eye (the Eye of Horus
Udjat) was the moon. A myth tells of Seth
damaging the left eye of Horus and of its healing,
symbolizing the waxing of the moon and
represented by the stylized wedjat eye. Horus, in
vengeance, tore of the testicles off Seth, making
him sterile. Horus later avenged the death of his
father Osiris by killing Seth, and in this role of
avenger was seen as the protector of the Pharaoh
whose head he is sometimes shown embracing with
his wings. He is depicted as a falcon-headed man
holding in his right hand the Ankh, symbol of life,
during the weighing of the souls, and guided the
dead on their way to meet Osiris. Horus had four
sons, each with a different animal head, named
Amset (man), Hapi (baboon), Duamutef (jackel)
and Qebehsenuf (falcon), who protected the
internal organs of the dead.
Hathor: the great cow-goddess was wife of Horus,
and Lady of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld.
She protected women during pregnancy and
childbirth, and was the confidant of lovers and
lovely women. She was also a protector of the
Pharaoh, as seen on the Palette of King Narmer
[no. 52].
Anubis: the jackal-headed god (of the cities of This
and Cynopolis) was the divine embalmer. He was
the one who embalmed Osiris and helped bury him.
He presided over embalming and served as the
guide of the dead into the next world, where he
watched over them.
Aker: was a cosmological lion god. He was often
paired with another lion as the guardians of the
gates of the horizon, through which Ra, as the
rising and setting sun, entered and left the world
each day. These lions were named by the gates
that they faced: sef and duau: yesterday and
tomorrow, and were depicted as crouching lions
resting back to back. One aspect of the Great
Sphinx of Gizah, which is facing towards the point
on the horizon of the rising sun, is that of duau.
Sobek: was the most popular of the crocodile gods and
was considered the lord of the waters and was
imagined as a great monster. His most important
cult was in the Faiyum at the city of Crokodilopolis
where crocodiles were raised in temples and were
bedecked in jewels. He was also seen at various
times as manifestations of the gods Ra and Horus,
as well as the creator god, in which guise he
destroyed anyone who attempted to oppose him in
the primeval waters. To protect themselves from
evil and to gain the power of Ra, the Pharaohs
anointed themselves with the fat of crocodiles. The
crocodile was called messeh from which we
derive the word messiah.
Bastet: was goddess of joy and music. Originally she
was depicted as a lioness-headed woman but later
adopted the head of a cat reflecting the change of
her nature from that of the goddess of war to the
tame and more magnanimous aspects of her
character. In the later periods she was depicted as
a cat, and was recognized as the daughter of Amun
and is assimilated to the Eye of Ra.
Bes: protector of pregnant women and babies was a
benevolent demon whose frightful appearance
warded off evil. He was depicted as a short stout
man in a lion skin and broad face.
Teweret: "the Great one" was the goddess of fertility
and assisted in childbirth. She is depicted as an
upright standing hippopotamus with long braided
hair (Nemes), human arms, lion's paws, sagging
breasts, and rounded belly.
Benu: is the name of the blue heron, which symbolized
the rising and setting sun, and was the sacred bird
of Iunu (Heliopolis). Th name benu derives from
the word weben: to rise or shine, and is
directly related to the ben-ben, which was the
sacred pyramidal shaped fetish of the god Ra. In
such a role the heron symbolizes the rejuvenation
of the phaoroh after his first thiry years. This
assocciation with rebirth made the heron the choice
of the Greeks for their legendary phoenix, which
was reborn out of its own ashes. Sometimes the
benu is has the solar disk on his head and at other
times wears the crowns of the phaoroh or the
double plumes of Osiris.
Khepri: means he who comes into existence. The
scarab beetle that rolls the ball of dung across the
ground was seen as a reflection of a great spirit that
pushed the sun across the sky, particularly the
rising sun. She symbolized the renewal of life and
the idea of eternal existence because she lays her
egg in the ball of dung and it is out of this sphere
that new life emerges.
Ammit: was a composite creature with elements of the
crocodile, lion and hippopotamus, which was
called the Eater of the Dead. He was the monster
who was present at the weighing of the souls and
who ate those who were heavier than the feather
of truth.

40

Wadjet: was the winged cobra that symbolized the eye
of Horus and the light rays of the sun, and was the
protectress of the royal power of Lower Egypt, and
the companion of warriors. The cobra was called
the Uraeus when it was placed on the crown of the
pharaoh, where it spit fire at his enemies. Wadjet
was associated with the Red Crown of Lower
Egypt.
Nekhbet: was depicted as a vulture and was
protectress of Upper Egypt. As such she was one
of the tutelary goddesses of the monarchy.
Nekhbet was associated with the White Crown of
Upper Egypt. Along with the cobra goddess
Wadjet, she was depicted on the Double Crown of
the pharaoh.

Mummification

Mummification is the process by which bodies
are prepared for burial, which dramatically slows the
deterioration processes. The practice started in the 4th
dynasty (Old Kingdom) and reached its peak and
classic style in the New Kingdom. Mummification was
the art of the god Anubis, and began as a means of
preserving the remains of the body of the king so that
his "ka" would have a permanent resting place. The rite
fulfilled the religious belief that the pharaoh lived
forever, being manifestations of the gods Horus and
Osiris.
Priests carried out mummification, and the 70-
day process proceeded basically as follows. First the
brain was removed from the skull through the nostrils
with special tools. The body cavity was emptied of its
viscera (intestines, lungs, liver, and stomach), and the
cavity filled with various spices and herbs. Then the
opening was sewn shut. The body and viscera were
then soaked for 40 days in saltpeter and 70 herb wines.
The remains were then removed from the bath and
dried out. To increase the drying it was packed in
natron (hydrous sodium carbonate: a salt like mineral).
The dried remains were then embalmed with resins
(asphaltum - a type of tar), gums, and oils, before being
wrapped in linen strips (mummy wrapping) in a
prescribed pattern. Amulets (symbolic jewelry) were
placed within the wrapping over various parts of the
body for its protection. After the wrapping was
completed, the mummy was given its funerary mask
(covering with a portrait) and adornments before
placement in a linen shroud. The wrapped mummy was
then set in a coffin, and personal items, such as daggers
were placed on it. The coffin was then placed into a
sarcophagus, which may have been set into a shrine that
was placed in the burial chamber of the tomb. The
viscera was placed in separate Canopic J ars, and given
every attention that the body received, including its
own sarcophagus and shrine, and sometimes its own
burial chamber within the tomb. At the end of the
embalming ritual, in order to revitalize the mummified
body, the priests recited the following line: "May you
revive, may you revive forever; you are hereby
rejuvenated for all time."


The Decipherment of Hieroglyphic
Writing

An understanding of Egyptian history, social
structure, religion, and literature began with the
decoding of the hieroglyphic script on the Rosetta Stone
in 1822. The French scholar Pierre Xavier Bouchard
who traveled under Napoleon during his 1799 military
campaign in Egypt made the discovery of the famous
Rosetta Stone. A trench was being dug near the town of
Rosetta on the coast of the delta where they unearthed
this unusually inscribed stone. This fragmentary stone,
measuring 3 feet 9 inches high, 2 feet 4 inches wide, by
11 inches thick (it was originally between 5 and 6 feet
tall when complete), and weighing about three-quarters
of a ton, was inscribed with three different scripts;
hieroglyphics at the top; demotic (the popular cursive
script of c. 200 BCE) at center; and Greek at bottom on
its face. Napoleon then turned the stone over to the
linguists, archaeologists, artists, and other scholars that
he had brought with him, and its importance was
immediately recognized. The Rosetta Stone was taken
to Paris, where rubbings were made of it for distribution
to linguists throughout Europe. This stone entered the
British Museum collection after the defeat of Napoleon.
For 22 years linguists struggled with the puzzle of
deciphering the hieroglyphic section of the inscription.
The first to contribute to its decipherment was the
English scholar Thomas Young, who recognized that
both alphabetic and pictographic symbols were
represented. Jean Francois Champollion, who worked
on the problem for 14 years, finally deciphered the
code. The key to the problem was in recognizing that
the hieroglyphs within a cartouche (the French word for
cartridge, the elongated shape of a bullet casing.)
identified the name of a Pharaoh. Once the names of
Ptolemy and Cleopatra, recognized in the Greek, were
identified as those in the cartouches, it was realized that
by gathering other names of Pharaohs, one could
assemble an alphabet. There are over 700 hieroglyphs,
which are pictures of objects that produce certain
sounds, rather than representations of the objects
themselves. In general vowels were not depicted, and
sometimes a picture of the object represented by the
word was added for clarification.
The Rosetta Stone is a dedicatory stele
celebrating the first anniversary on 27 March 196 BCE
of the Greek general King Ptolemy V Epiphanes, King
of all Egypt. Aside from having been the key to
unlocking the secrets of hieroglyphics, the contents of
this inscription are insightful reading. It states the
relationship of the king to the gods, discusses a specific
feast day, revenues for temples, food for the priests,
freeing of debtors, and other related topics:

41

the Sacred Scribes and all the
priests from the temples throughout
the land who have come to meet the
king at Memphis, for the feast of the
assumption by PTOLEMY, THE
EVER-LIVING, THE BELOVED OF
PTAH, THE GOD EPIPHANES
EUCHARISTOS, of the kingship in
which he succeeded his father, they
being assembled in the temple in
Memphis on this day declared:
Whereas king PTOLEMY, THE
EVER-LIVING, THE BELOVED OF
PTAH, THE GOD EPIPHANES
EUCHARISTOS, the son of King
Ptolemy and Queen Arsinoe, the
Gods Philopatores, has been a
benefactor both to the temple and to
those who dwell in them, as well as
all those who are his subjects, being a
god sprung from a god and a goddess
(like Horus the son of Isis and Osiris,
who avenged his father Osiris) (and)
being benevolently disposed towards
the gods, has dedicated to the temple
revenues in money and corn and has
undertaken much outlay to bring
Egypt into prosperity
6


The Pre-Dynastic Period (c. 6000 -
3150 BCE)

Following a climate crash in the post-glacial
period (c. 6000 BCE) that desiccated the North African
ranges, peoples of African and Asian strains coalesced
in the Nile Valley with Asians in the Lower Nile
[north], and Africans in the Upper Nile [south].
Apparently these peoples began fighting over territorial
boundaries, and eventually established the tradition of
the "Two Egypts". Egyptian mythology speaks of an
invasion of Upper Egypt [south] (the people of Seth) by
Lower Egypt [north] (the followers of Horus), which
apparently happened c. 4245 BCE, when the calendar is
said by the Egyptians to have been invented. The army
from Lower Egypt [north] was from the city of Pe,
whose king wore a Red Crown, and was the follower of
the god Horus. The army from Upper Egypt [south]
came from Hierakonpolis (Falcon City), whose king
wore a White Crown, and was protected by the god
Seth. According to the legend the battle ended with
Horus conquering Seth. The name Hierakonpolis, was
not the original name of the southern capitol, but was
adopted in c. 4245 BCE after Seth was discarded in

6. Carol Andrews, The Rosetta Stone, British Museum
Publications, London, 1981, p. 25. This booklet contains
the complete English translation of the text.
favor of the winning Horus. Soon after the battle the
grip on Upper Egypt was relaxed and the two territories
existed side by side as independent entities for over a
thousand years. During this period the cultures were
based on primitive agriculture, and the people produced
architecture of mud brick and light timber of high
quality. They also built grain silos and cattle pens. The
most significant structures of the time were those
designed for controlling the waters of the Nile River;
the canals, dams and flood basins.
In about 3300 BCE troubles between Upper and
Lower Egypt renewed. This time the armies of the
White Crown [south], led by "King Scorpion", and now
protected by Horus, defeated that of the Red Crown
[north], who had adopted the cobra goddess Buto as
their protector. This event is symbolically referred to
on the Stele of the Scorpion King, of c. 3300 BCE. This
stele depicts a falcon (Horus) perched on an enclosed
palace with a cobra (Buto) in the courtyard. The
stepped-back door of the palace is designed in the same
manner as that on the Stele of The Code of King
Hammurabi [no. 49] of c. 1760 BCE, and the later
Egyptian "false doors".


The Early Dynastic Period (Thinite
Empire c. 3150 - 2681 BCE)

There is an almost total lack of documentary
evidence for this period. Archaeological evidence
indicates that during this early period Egypt established
the trading colony at the city of Byblos on the Lebanese
coast, was actively campaigning in Nubia, and
established the turquoise mines of Wadi Maghara in the
Sinai at the beginning of the third dynasty. Copper
tools and weapons were in use during the first dynasty.
It was during this period that the foundations of the
rapidly developing civilization were formed. By the
beginning of Dynasty III hieroglyphic writing had
developed a complete theory and practice.
The early dynastic kings ruled from the city
called This, but by the beginning of Dynasty III (also
called the Thinite) they moved the seat of power to
Memphis. King Narmer [Menes] (c. 3150 BCE) firmly
united Upper and Lower Egypt, established his capitol
at Memphis (near modern Cairo) in Lower Egypt and
began Dynasty I. The second dynasty saw the first
granite and slate statuary, and skillful metal, wood, and
faience work. A full-blown Egyptian colony dating to
this period has been recently discovered at the 32-acre
Halif Terrace site in southern Israel, demonstrating the
length of the relationship between the two regions that
lasted in its ancient mode for over three millennia.
7

One of the most significant artifacts from this
period is the 25 inch high Palette of King Narmer [no.
52] of c. 3150-3125 BCE, found at Hierakonpolis, Upper
Egypt.


7. B. Bower, Ancient Egyptian outpost found in Israel,
Science News, vol. 150, no. 14, October 5, 1996, p. 215.

42

The Old Kingdom (Memphite Empire:
c. 2686 - 2181 BCE)

This period, reaching unprecedented levels of
architectural and artistic achievement, marks a sharp
contrast to the earlier period. Cedar timber was
imported from Lebanon, copper mined in the Sinai, and
gold and incense imported from Punt (present day
Somalia [East Africa]). By the third dynasty large
irrigation and drainage projects were undertaken, and
the first known treatise on surgery was written.
Sculpture and stone architecture attain the highest level
of technical perfection and monumentality. This period
is also called the Pyramid Age because of the
numerous immense structures of this form erected
during the period.
The second pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, and
the second of the Third Dynasty, King Zoser (2681-62
BCE), was made famous by the great funerary complex
he had built (see below). He was from the city of This,
where he had his burial mastaba erected. He later
moved his residence to Memphis, indicating the rise of
that citys power. It is not known why this dynasty
ended, or the exact nature of the relationship between
the kings and their successors, or between them and the
priesthood. It appears that the priesthood played a
major role in determining who would be king.
King Snoferu, who was a man of great power
and vision, initiated the Fourth Dynasty. He was a
great military leader and was responsible for the
erection of the two large pyramids at Dahshur. That he
oversaw the erection of two pyramids is significant in
that it suggests a purpose other than that of tomb
monument.
King Snoferu was followed by Kings Kafre,
Dedefra, Khafre, and Menkure, who all incorporated
the name of the sun god Ra into their names, indicating
their close association with the priesthood of Iunu
(Greek: Heliopolis Sun City). The last king of the
Fourth Dynasty, Menkures son Shepseskaf, rebelled
against the Heliopolitan power, but died within four
years. Thereafter the kings of the Fifth Dynasty (2563-
2423 BCE) again submitted to their power. Kings Kafre,
Chefren, Menkure were the most powerful kings of the
Old Kingdom and they oversaw the greatest
architectural projects of the entire history of Egypt
(discussed below).
The Old Kingdom had twenty-four pharaohs
take the throne. The last of these pharaohs, Pepi II
(2278-2184), ruled for 94 years, the longest of any
pharaoh. It is believed that stagnation caused by the
combined lengthy rules of two of the last three
pharaohs was in part due to the collapse of the dynasty.


The Origins of the Pyramid

The concept of the pyramid originated when
the central government moved to Memphis. This city is
near the sacred city of Iunu (Heliopolis), where there
was a powerful cult to Ra, the sun god, whose fetish
was a pyramid shaped stone called a Ben Ben. In the
courtyard of the Temple of the Phoenix (Benu) at
Heliopolis was a Ben Ben that was later lost, and by an
obelisk that was inscribed: My beauty shall be
remembered in His House, My Name is the Ben Ben
and my name is the lake
8
It is generally believed
that the Pharaohs, wishing to take advantage of the
powerful cult, claimed they were sons of Ra. They
were interred in the pyramids, which they ordered to be
built in the form of the Ben Ben because it was believed
that this object held the power and spirit of the god Ra.
This force would then be extended to the Pharaoh
throughout his afterlife. There are 26 major pyramids
between Cairo and Dahshur, all of which have a direct
line-of-sight to Heliopolis. Unlike the ziggurats of
Mesopotamia, the pyramids are not temples in
themselves, but rather, were symbolic gifts to the god
Ra, and also functioned as the resting place of his son
the pharaoh. Internment in the pyramids was meant to
provide permanence, durability, immortality, and
protection, though all were robbed in antiquity.
The pyramids were not constructed by slaves,
but rather, by paid workers. Each village sent a quota
of workers, and the royal storehouse provided tools,
clothing, food and shelter. Bringing the agricultural
workers together during the off-season produced the
tremendous work force required to build such
monuments and giving them conscripted jobs (paid
forced labor). This form of social welfare was close to
slavery, but the workers appear to have taken pride in
their achievements and the various gangs of workers
competed with each other in production output and
quality of workmanship. The enormous tasks were
carried out with the implementation of manpower using
logs, flint and copper tools, and without the use of draft
animals, the pulley or the wheel. In employing people
from throughout the realm in the construction of these
enormous monuments the energy and consciousness of
the people of Egypt was focused on a single identifiable
material goal that gave them a sense of pride and
fulfillment by its direct connection to their gods.
In the early part of Dynasty III King Zoser (c.
2630 BCE) built Egypt's first large architectural complex
in stone, the Funerary Complex with Step Pyramid of
King Djoser (Zoser) [no. 54], at the Necropolis (city of
the dead) of Memphis (Saqqarah), c. 2681-2662 BCE.
A 55-inch high painted limestone statue of
King Zoser Enthroned dating to c. 2630 BCE was found
on the north side of the Step Pyramid. This is the oldest
Egyptian life size royal statue known. It still retains
traces of the original polychromy, but is missing the
inlaid eyes of his deeply cut geometrically designed
head. His arms are pulled in close to his body, his feet
are together, and there is no space between his legs.
His symbols of authority are the lion head dress

8. Roberv Bauval and Adrian Gilbert, The Orion Mystery,
Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids, New York, 1994,
p. 213; p. 302, note 3, states that Benben is also translated
Pyramidion.

43

(Nemes) and the beard holder. Below the figure, on the
pedestal, is inscribed his name and title.


The True Pyramids and Their
Environments

The Fourth Dynasty was founded by king
Sneferu and marks a major change in the politico-
religious formula of Egyptian society. The major
evidence for this change is the introduction of the true
pyramid, which has smooth triangular sides and a
square base. The angle of the slopes of the sides varied
from about 50
o
to about 57
o
. The pyramid form
reflects that of the Ben Ben stone, which was the fetish
of the god Ra.
The first attempt at creating a true pyramid
was made by King Sneferu, who, in c. 2613 BCE began
construction of three major pyramids at Meydum and
Dasher. That Sneferu had three pyramids constructed
for himself indicates that their significance was not
simply as a burial place, but rather, as symbols of the
power of the cult of Ra and of the king as his
representative on earth. The earliest of the true
pyramids was constructed at Meydum. It rose to a
height of 307 feet and had a chamber at ground level.
Sneferus Bent Pyramid at Dahshur originally rose to a
height of 336 feet, doubling the size of the Step
Pyramid of King Zoser. The angle of the sides was
changed about half way up from 54
o
27 minutes 44
seconds to 43
o
22 minutes, believed to have been the
result of construction flaws that led to the sides
shearing off and the killing of thousands of workers
(many of their skeletons have been found between the
fallen stones). This pyramid has several underground
chambers and one slightly above ground level. The last
of his pyramids, also a Dashur, rose to a height of 345
feet. The slope of the sides was much reduced and the
chambers are at ground level.
The next few descendants of Sneferu
constructed two monstrously huge pyramids and a
smaller one at Giza [no. 55]. These monuments were
constructed during the reigns of kings Khufu, (Cheops:
c. 2570 BCE), the son of Sneferu; his son Khafre
(Chefren: c. 2530 BCE); and his son Menkure
(Mycerinus: c. 2500 BCE).
On the main side (East) of the Pyramid of
Khafre are a Funerary Temple, the remains of a covered
causeway leading to the Valley Temple and the Great
Sphinx. The Valley Temple is composed in a pure and
static post and lintel system constructed of smooth
sided cubic blocks of pink granite fitted together
without mortar. The space was further defined by a
casing of smooth granite surfaces over the walls and
ceiling, smooth alabaster floors, rigid statues of various
seated figures along the walls, and illumination
provided by sunlight entering through the spaces
between the lintels. This strict geometrical composition
lends it a severe character of austere harmony, and is
expressive of the changeless and eternal. The creation
of this temple poses significant engineering problems
concerning the placement of the hundreds of perfectly
cubic massive stone blocks, calculated to weigh
between 50 and 200 tons each (30 X 10 X 12 feet), that
make up its structure. It is not known how the
Egyptians would have moved them, let alone to lift and
place them in perfect alignment.
9

Less compact and more organic than the statue
of King Zoser is the 66-inch high diorite seated figure
of King Khafre Enthroned [no. 57] of c. 2500 BCE. It,
along with eight other similar statues, was found in the
Valley Temple associated with his pyramid. In this
context the undulating forms of his body provided a
striking contrast to the flat geometry of the architecture.
Behind his head is a hawk, symbol of the sun god Ra,
and the sides of his throne are decorated with the
hieroglyph "sema" =(to join), represented by a knotted
papyrus of Lower Egypt and a lotus of Upper Egypt.
The swelling forms of his torso, arms, and calves makes
the hard stone look soft and alive. His arms hang free
from his body, his feet are apart, and his legs do not
touch each other. Though static in his frontal pose he
retains individuality in his softly smiling face and alert
eyes.
The smallest of the three major pyramids at
Giza is the Pyramid of King Menkure [Mycerinus] of c.
2460 BCE (Dynasty IV). It rose to a height of only 218
feet. As is the case with the Pyramid of Khafre, there
are no internal chambers in this pyramid, but there is a
burial chamber below it. The tomb chamber and the
outer surface of the pyramid were encased in granite,
making it an equally expensive project despite its more
diminutive scale. Nearby are three smaller pyramids
that are believed to have been created for members of
the royal family.
Intimately associated with the pyramids is the
monumental Great Sphinx of Giza [no. 56], which
depicts a couchant lion with a man's head wearing the
Nemes (head-dress) and facing the rising sun (for more
on the Giza plateau complex see Enigmas Wrapped in
Mysteries, Figure 5.3).
By the end of the Old Kingdom the vitality of
the culture had withered and the cost of constructing
pyramids and associated temple structures became a
significant drain on the society. This led to the
construction of ever-smaller stone pyramids, though
some introduced interesting elements, such as the
Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara built in c. 2460 BCE. For
the first time the burial chamber is not devoid of
inscriptions and decoration. The entire walls are
covered with a collection of spells to guaranty the
continued existance of the king in the afterlife, while
the ceiling is covered with a pattern of stars.
The last great pyramid of the Old Kingdom
was that constructed by Pepi II, c. 2230 BCE.
Eventually, in the Middle Kingdom, they were
constructed completely of mud brick with only an outer

9. Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock, 1996, pp. 26-32.
The authors note that it would have required 1800 men
harnessed to move such a load without the wheel, pulley,
or metal tools.

44

casing of limestone. The earliest example of this type
of construction is the now badly deteriorated (missing
the outer casing) Pyramid of Sesostris III, of c. 1860
BCE.


The First Intermediate Period (c.
2181-2040 BCE)

It is not known what brought the Old Kingdom
to an end, but Manchip White lists the following
probabilities:
Perhaps the atmosphere of the court
had grown supine, luxurious and
liberalistic, in contrast to the vigorous
and ascetic spirit which pervaded it in
the heyday of the Memphite
EmpireThe decrepit king [Pepi
II] gave way to the greedy clamor of
the priesthood and the nomarchs for
additional lands and privileges It
is possible also that the economic
structure of the Old Kingdom had
been undermined by excessive
architectural activity from the Fourth
Dynasty onwards... the invader
[Bedouins] flooded into Lower Egypt
at the precise moment when the
populace broke into open
rebellion Their nobles were
dispossessed, a reign of terror
commenced, palaces and temples
were destroyed.
10

To this list of causes might be added
mismanagement of the irrigation system, uncontrolled
floods and rampant famine. Fortified cities became
characteristic, and the provinces became petty
kingdoms, each with its own army and fleet. The 140-
year period is characterized as a "civil war. Asiatics
attacked the Delta from the east. Very little art of
significance was produced during this tumultuous
period.


The Middle Kingdom (c. 2040-1633
BCE)

During this 360-year period Egypt traded in
the Mediterranean with Spain, Palestine, and Crete,
increasing the external influences and making the
country richer in materials and ideas. This was also the
classical period of Egyptian literature, and was, in
general, a period of great artistic splendor, but did
develop many new forms of expression. This period
also saw the rise of a more realistic and inwardly

10. J . E. Manchip White, 1970 [1952], pp. 151-52.
contemplative portraiture. The images of the pharaohs
are characterized by a distinctly more serious tone and
often they appear sullen and nervous, particularly in the
earlier period.
Mentuhotep, who established the Middle
Kingdom, made Thebes (originally called Nut Amun -
"city of Amun"), a city in Upper Egypt, his capital.
Upon moving the seat of the government to Thebes he
adopted a new state deity: Amun, the ram-headed
fertility God of that city. To obviate the rivalry
between the newly adopted god and the long
established sun god Ra, the two were united to form the
composite unity Amun-Ra "king of the gods".
Numerous temples were built and dedicated to him,
forming one of the largest groups of monuments in
Egypt. The largest of these monuments was that begun
by Sesostros I, the Great Temple of Amun-Ra [no. 63]
at Karnak, in about 1950 BCE.
The most spectacular project undertaken
during this period was the construction of the Labyrinth
[no 60], which was commissioned by Amenemhat III
(1842-1797 BCE) and erected near Hawara, not far from
El Faiym. The Greek historian Herodotus of
Halicarnasus, who had traveled there in the fifth
century BCE, visited it. He believed it the greatest
edifice in the world, describes it and tells why it was
built: To bind themselves (the twelve nomes of
Egypt) more closely together, it seemed good to them to
leave a common monument. In persuence of this
resolution they made the Labyrinth which lies a little
above Lake Mris, in the neighborhood of the place
called the city of Crocodiles. I visited this place, and
found it to surpass description: for if all the walls and
other great works of the Greeks could be put together in
one, they would not equal, either for labour or expense,
this Labyrinth: It has twelve courts, all of them
roofed with gates exactly opposite one another, six
looking to the north, and six to the south. A single wall
surrounds the entire building. There are two different
sorts of chambers throughout - half under ground, the
latter built upon the former; the whole number of these
chambers is three thousand, fifteen hundred of each
kind The upper chambers, however, I saw with my
own eyes, and found them to excel all other human
productions; for the passages through the houses, and
the varied windings of the paths across the courts
excited in me infinite admirationAt the corner of the
Labyrinth stands a pyramid forty fathoms high, with
large figures engraved on it; which is entered by a
subterranean passage.
Because of the plundering of the pyrmids
during the civil wars of the First Intermediate Period
(c. 2181-1991 BCE), it was decided to hide the tombs of
the pharaohs underground. A fine example is the Tomb
of Amenemhat III [no. 61], which in time grew in
elaboration and size.



45

The Second Intermediate Period (c.
1633-1567 BCE)

During Dynasty XIII the orderly succession of
rulers broke down, leading to vigorous competition for
the kingship among the bureaucratic elite, and causing
the national government to disintegrate. Eventually the
power of Dynasty XIII was centered in the area around
Thebes, and an independent dynasty was established in
the northwest delta.
The final blow came with the invasion of the
Asiatic peoples called the Hyksos, from Palestine,
whose experience in fortification construction, siege
technology, and especially the introduction of the horse
drawn chariots, brought an end to the Middle Kingdom.
The Hyksos established Dynasty XV in c. 1663 BCE
with the ascent to the throne of Sheshi, the first non-
Egyptian to sit as a pharaoh. Only the Hyksos
controlled the delta region, and a second (Egyptian)
dynastic line ruled in Thebes. The Egyptians developed
a strong hatred for these people, accusing them of
cruelty and oppression.
Theban forces under the leadership of the
Egyptian pharaoh Tao II (Seqenenre) began open
warfare with the Hyksos, but the king was brutally
killed in a battle (his preserved body shows that he was
attacked by at least two men and his skull sustained
damage from a spear, a dagger, an axe, and possible a
mace). His son Kamose continued the war and expelled
the Hyksos in about 1573 BCE. Kamose died three
years later, and his brother Ahmose I established a new
kingdom. Not much native artwork was created during
this intermediate period.


The New Kingdom (c. 1570-1070 BCE)

Ahmose I (c. 1570-1546 BCE), who established
the New Kingdom, expelled the Hyksos. His dynasty is
considered the most glorious in Egyptian history, and
was for the most part centered in Thebes. The 482-year
period of the New Kingdom saw it at its wealthiest and
most powerful. Because of this great power the New
Kingdom also saw a major struggle between the
increasingly wealthy priests of Amun and the power of
the royal house, and this will be the focus of this section
of the chapter. It was during this period that many of
Egypts greatest architectural monuments were erected.
Tuthmosis I, son of Amenhotep I, was the
greatest military leader of the period despite his short
six-year reign. He switched the Egyptian military
attitude from one of defense to offense, claimed support
and blessings of the god Amun for his military prowess.
He expanded the empire to include much of the lands
from the Euphrates River in Northern Mesopotamia to
deep into Nubia along the Nile to the south, and took
much of Palestine, creating the world's first true empire.
In about 1520 BCE Tutmosis I built the central
body with the Great Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak [no.
50], which was begun in the Middle Kingdom. In about
1510 BCE his son, Tuthmosis II, extended the temple to
contain a large court, and a new temple at the far end,
further demonstrating the growing power and influence
of Amun. Being the main monument to Amun-Ra, and
to which the pharaohs wanted to be associated, they
contributed to the construction of this vast complex
with enlargements and elaboration for over 1600 years.
Queen Hatshepsut (Foremost of Noble
Ladies: c. 1473-58 BCE) was the only female ruler to
reign for any real length of time (22 years). Her career
began as the wife and half-sister of King Tutmosis II,
who died young [c. 1500 BCE], leaving his under-aged
child, Tutmosis II, as the heir. His Stepmother, Queen
Hatshepsut, became regent (acting king) to Tutmosis II,
and when he came of age, she refused to relinquish
power to him. This domestic episode was quite
remarkable, as it came about because of a power
struggle that would have wide ranging implications for
the following centuries. The problem arose out of the
power wielded by the priests of Amun, who since the
Middle Kingdom had grown in wealth and influence.
In fact, the god Amun was beginning to assume the
position of a principle deity with the cults of the other
deities falling one-by-one. It was the priests of Amun
and their wealthy bureaucracy that was the power
behind the queen. Hatshepsut was not interested in
military expansion, and her accomplishments here and
in other foreign affairs were not pivotal. She chose to
concern herself with domestic affairs and to focus on
promoting the power of Amun, whose temples she
lavished [no. 50].
The first great architectural achievement of the
New Kingdom is the Mortuary Temple of Queen
Hatshepsut [no. 49] at Deir el-Bahri, of c. 1480 BCE.
Over 200 statues of the Queen as sphinx and as king
(both standing and kneeling) adorned the complex. The
finest of these might be the 77" high limestoneQueen
Hatshepsut Enthroned (Metropolitan Museum, New
York). It shows her as a beautiful young woman with a
petite build and wearing the "Nemes" but without any
other symbols of power. Her idealized face, with
equine nose and soft smile are typical of the relaxed but
self-conscious portrait style of the time.
When Queen Hatshepsut died her nephew and
stepson, Tutmosis III, the legitimate heir of the throne
of Tutmosis II, became king. Tutmosis III (c. 1469-36
BCE), who ruled alone for 32 years, brought Egypt to its
greatest power. He made 17 campaigns into foreign
lands over a 20-year period, making him one of the
greatest warriors in Egyptian history. He won a major
battle at Megiddo against a coalition of Syrian kinglets,
and over a short period of time reasserted Egypt's
boundaries from Nubia to Syria and Mesopotamia. He
attributed his great fortunes to the god Amun, but
attempted to shift the focus away from the god Amun
by making himself a benefactor of the god rather than
vice-versa as had been done under Hatshepsut. Near
the end of his long reign, and after securing the
legitimacy of his heir, he declared her damnatio
memoriae and launched a systematic destruction of
representations of the hated queen, and as a result, her
tomb was badly damaged and the New York statue
mentioned above was smashed (it has been re-

46

assembled from many small fragments). Tutmosis III is
also among the great builders of the period, having
erected, at 105 feet tall, the largest extant monolithic
Egyptian obelisk (it is now outside the church of St.
J ohn Lateran in Rome).
There was apparently some doubt as to the
legitimacy of the Tutmosis IVs succession, a problem
that is expressed in the Dream Stela of Tutmosis IV that
was placed by him between the forepaws of the Old
Kingdom Great Sphinx [no. 43] at Giza. This
monument expresses the continuing movement away
from the benefices of the God Amun, and towards the
solar disk expressed in Harmachis-Khepri-Re-Atum.
Below a bas-relief depicting a double image of
Tutmosis before a sphinx it reads in part:
One of these days it happened that
prince Tuthmosis came traveling at
the time of midday. He rested in the
shadow of this great god [the Giza
Sphinx]. Sleep and dream took
possession of him at the moment the
sun was at its zenith. Then he found
the majesty of this noble god
speaking with his own mouth like a
father speaks to his son, saying:
Look at me, observe me, my son
Tuthmosis. I am your father
Harmachis-Khepher-Re-Atum. I
shall give to you the kingship upon
the land before the living. You shall
wear its white crown and its red
crown upon the throne of Geb, the
heir. The land in its length and
breadth will be yours, and everything
which the eye of the lord-of-all
illuminates. Good provisions will be
for you from within the Two Lands,
and the great produce of every
country, and a lifetime great in years.
My face belongs to you; my heart
belongs to you, and you belong to
me. [But] behold, my condition is
like one in illness, all my limbs being
ruined. The sand of the desert, upon
which I used to be, faces me
aggressively; and it is in order to
make you do what is in your heart
that I have waited. For I know that
you are my son and my protector.
11

Tutmosis IV ruled for 34 years and placed
much of his devotion on the solar cults, particularly
those of Ra at Heliopolis and even in Karnak. He is

11. Nicolas Reeves, Akhenaten, Egypts False Prophet,
London, 2001, p. 46, base on W. J . Murnane, Ancient
Egyptian Coregencies, Chicago, 1977, p. 254.
particularly important in this discussion of the power
struggles between the priests and the pharaoh as the
initiator of the cult of the Aten, the solar disk that
produced the visible light or light-energy, though
Amun-Ra the official deity of the empire.
The power struggle continued with the ascent
of Amenohotep III, the son of Tutmosis IV by one of
his chief wives, Queen Mutemwiya. Amenhotep III
ruled for 37 years and helped bring about a higher
position for the position of pharaoh. At the beginning
of his rule a renewed emphasis of the pharaoh on the
god Amun is made clear through the inscriptions on the
walls of the Temple of Amun at Luxor that discuss the
theological basis of his birth. He claimed descent from
the double-natured god Amun-Ra.
When he had transformed himself
into the majesty of this husband, the
king of Upper and Lower Egypt
Menkheprure [Tuthmosis IV], who
gives life, he found her [Mutemwiya]
as she was resting in the beauty of her
palace. She awoke on account of the
aroma of the god and cried out in
front of his majesty. He went to her
straightaway and caused her to see
him in the form of a god.She
rejoiced at the sight of his beauty, and
love of him coursed through his
limbs. The Palace was flooded with
the gods aroma; all his fragrances
were of Punt.
Words spoken by
Mutemwiya before the majesty of this
august god, Amun-Ra, lord of the
thrones of the Two Lands: How
great is your power! . Your dew
permeates all my limbs. And then
the majesty of this god did all that he
desired with her.
Words spoken by Amun-Ra,
lord of the thrones of the Two Lands,
before her: Amenophis-ruler of
Thebes is the name of this child that I
have placed in your body . He shall
exercise the beneficent kingship in
this whole land . He shall rule the
Two Lands like Ra forever.
12

Upon ascending to the throne Amenhotep III,
not distracted by the problems of warfare and internal
rebellion, began assembling a large and ever growing
harem. His chief wife was a woman of non-royal rank

12. Nicholas Reeves, ibid, p. 53: fromthe Divine birth scenes
of Amenophis III, Luxor: after P. Kozloff & B. M. Bryan,
Egypts Dazzling Sun. Amenhotep III and his World,
Cleveland, 1992, p. 36.

47

named Tiy [see no 51], who was the daughter of one of
Egypts major military men named Yuya and his wife
Tuya. The in-laws were very influential people. Tiys
brother Anen was a Chancellor and Second Prophet of
Amun, as well as sem-priest of Heliopolis, and was also
called a Divine Father. Tiy was held in such esteem
that whenever the kings name was used so was the
queens; even on minor documents, and in some cases
her parents are also named. A shift from a king
focused system to one that focused on the complete
royal family was taking place, and it appears that the
military had a hand in the works.




Figure 3.2 Coronation of Amenhotep III, c. 1370
BCE.
Relief sculpture on the southern wall of the Hall of
Appearances,
Temple of Amun, Luxor.


It appears that Amenhotep III, under the
influence of his wife and in-laws, shifted his focus to
the solar deities. He adopted the throne name of
Nebmaatre, meaning possessor of the maat of Ra
and was perceived as a living god rather than as a semi-
divine being as had been the practice in the past. The
earlier pharaohs had to wait until after death to become
a fully-fledged god. On the southern wall of the
Temple of Amun at Luxor is a relief sculpture depicting
the Coronation of Amenhotep III (figure 3.2) in which
the god Amun places his hand on the crown of the
kneeling pharaoh. The pharaoh holds an ahke symbol
in his left hand and a crook in his right. His heavy
crown rests on the nemes and is composed of the rams
horns and feathers of the god Amun with the Ureus
serpent and the hawk of Horus at the top with the solar
disk resting on his head.
A number of monumental statues of
Amenhotep III were found in 1989 in a shaft under the
Temple of Amun at Luxor. One of these statues,
measuring 83 inches tall, depicts a statue of the
standing pharaoh placed on a sled, which is in turn
placed on a pedestal. The statue wears the collar and
armbands of a deity, and the work is inscribed: Re-
Horakhty, mighty bull who appears in maat, good god
in true fact, the sovereign, ruler of the nine bows,
dazzling sun disc for all lands
Amenhotep III erected a now almost totally
destroyed mortuary temple at Thebes that one of the
grandest edifices ever constructed in Egypt. The
complex covered around 91 acres measuring about
2100 by 1100 feet and was surrounded by a stonewall
24 feet thick. The inscription on a stela of Amenhotep
III tells us that the complex was constructed of the
finest materials throughout: fine sandstone worked in
gold, with pavement made pure with silver and the
doors with fine gold. It was further elaborated with
great monuments and statues carved of costly stones
of every type and cast of every metal. It had
Flagstaffs set before it, worked in gold and It
resembles the horizon of heaven when Re rises in it.
All that now remains of this temple are the two colossal
quartzite statues of Amenhotep III, called the Colossi
of Memnon, which were carved by the sculptor
Amenhotep son of Hapu. These badly damaged works
were set before the entrance pylon, and are among the
largest freestanding statues of the period, measuring
over 69 feet high and weighing more than 700 tons
each. Like the Great Sphinx, they face east to great the
morning sun. A good idea of the expenses levied on
such structures is made clear from the record of
materials for the relatively small Temple of Montu just
outside the complex grounds of the Temple of Amun-
Ra at Karnak: 3.25 tons of electrum (a naturally
occurring mix of gold and silver), 2.5 tons of gold, 10
tons of copper, 1.5 tons of bronze, 1,250 pounds of
lapis lazuli, and 215 pounds of turquoise.


The Heretical "Aten" Period

During the early period of the New Kingdom
the priests and their many gods began to gain incredible
power and absorbing massive amounts of the countrys
wealth, leading to conflicts with the king. To rid
himself completely of these problems Amenhotep IV
(c. 1352-1336/5 BCE), the son of Amenhotep III (c.
1390-52) and Queen Tiy, adopted the god Aten (the
sun disk) as the sole divine spirit of Egypt and
abolished all of the other gods, creating the first known

48

monotheistic religion in history.
13
In 1348 BCE he
changed his name from Amenhotep ("Amun is
Satisfied") to Akhenaten ("The Glory of Aten"),
claimed to be the living son of the Aten and took the
position of a prophet, and claimed to be the only
competent preacher of his god's doctrine. The name of
Akhenatens wife, Nefertiti, means "The Beautiful One
Has Come". New data suggests she may have been the
real power during Akhenatens reign. Akhenaten
closed the temples of all the other gods and did away
with the priesthood except that which followed the
Aten. He than, to get out of harms way, made an
exodus from Thebes and moved his Capitol to a new
location which he called Akhetaten [Horizon of the
Aten: now called Tell El-Amarna] in the center of
Egypt. There he built a completely new city, and
developed a new art style based on less idealization and
a greater abstraction combined with elements of
naturalism, to produce very sensuously delineated
forms. The art of the period of Akhenaten's reign is
referred to as the "Amarna Style", and is mainly known
through numerous fragments, but enough survives to
understand the style, as it is reflected in such painted
limestone reliefs as the Akhenaten and Nefertiti with
Their Children [no. 52]. Akhenaten is one of the most
controversial of the pharaohs and numerous theories
have been put forth to account for the story of his life,
even one suggesting that he was in fact Moses of the
Exodus (see below).
14

The layout of the buildings at Akheteten has
been reconstructed enough to indicate the placement of
the buildings and their sizes, but not their decoration.
The city was clearly demarcated by a series of
boundary stelae, 15 of which have been recovered. In
the lunette of these stelae are depicted mirror images of
the royal family adoring and making offerings to the
Aten. Below the image is an extensive text that tells
how the city, which had never previously existed, came
to be:
Then said his majesty to them:
Behold Aten! The Aten wishes to
have []. Made for him as a
monument with an eternal and
everlasting name. Now it is the Aten,
my father, who advised me
concerning it, namely Akhetaten. No
official had ever advised me
concerning it, nor had any people in
the entire land ever advised me
concerning it, to tell me to make
Akhetaten in this distant place. It was
the Aten, my father, who advised me
concerning it, so that it could be made
for him as Akhetaten. Behold, I did
not find it provided with shrines or

13. Nicolas Reeves, ibid, suggests that Akhenaten made his
religious conversion for political purposes only.
14. Ahmed Osman, Moses Pharaoh of Egypt, London, 1990.
plastered with tombs or porticoes (?)
or covered with or with the
remnant of anything which had
happened to it Behold, it is
pharaoh life! prosperity, health!
when it did not belong to a god, nor a
goddess, when it did not belong to a
male ruler, nor to a female ruler;
when it did not belong to any people
to do business with it I found it
abandoned
15

On the death of Akhenaten, the city of
Akheteten was abandoned and completely destroyed, as
"damnatio memoriae" was proclaimed on him.
Computers are being used to identify the stones and
place them in their original locations. Large sections of
wall reliefs have been reconstructed using this method,
and a good idea of the style has emerged.
Typical of the portraits of Akhenaten is the
colossal 13-foot high fragmentary statue from the
Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak. Its epicene (having
characteristics of both sexes) contours, exaggerated
facial features, and attenuated (elongated) limbs, make
for a more personal image, but remove it from the
tradition of idealized images. His facial features are
very unique (long full lips, heavy eye lids, big chin, and
dreamy expression), and are believed to be
exaggerations of his actual appearance.
Painted figures follow the same formulas, as is
evident in the depiction of Two Daughters of Akhenaten
from the King's house in Amarna. The composition is
made up of brilliant colors, which extended throughout
the decoration of a wall. The backs of the girls heads
have been extended to a grotesque degree (by means of
wrapping), and they have the same steeply angled
profile as Nefertiti. Their bodies are languid and their
bellies protrude. Their sensuous contour, along with
the bright colors and strong predilection for the color
red and a more relaxed brushwork, suggests the
influence of the earthly Minoans from the island of
Crete.


The Tomb of King Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun ["King Tut"] (c. 1336/35-1327
BCE) was the son of Akhenaten by a minor wife names
Kiya. In the third year of his reign, under pressure from
the priesthood, he reopened the temples closed by his
father, destroyed the city of Akhetaten, declared his
fathers name damnatio memoriae, and changed his
own name from Tutankaten to Tutankhamun. He
moved the government to the ancient city of Memphis
and re-established the old priesthood. He was about 19
years old when he died of a massive head wound, and
the evidence suggests that he may have been

15 . N. Reeves, ibid, p. 109.

49

murdered.
16
Because he died so suddenly and had not
prepared an elaborate tomb, all of the funerary items
had to be produced in short order or brought in from the
objects of his daily use, and the tomb in which he was
buried was taken from his wifes grandfather, Ay, who
later married the widow and became the next pharaoh.
Ironically, Ay, who may have been involved in the
murder of Tutankhamun, was buried in the tomb that
had been begun for the young king.
Tutankhamun was immortalized when his
tomb, filled with all of its original funerary treasures
intact, was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in
November 1922 by the English artist and archaeologist
Howard Carter, who was excavating under the
patronage of Lord Carnarvon. The Tomb of King
Tutankhamun, filled with a treasure of gold and
precious items, is the only such tomb ever discovered
with its contents intact.
17
The rock-cut tomb consists
of four chambers at the bottom of a long flight of stairs.
The Antechamber contained supplies of furniture,
chariots, and his thrones. It also had a number of
statues and ritual objects. The Annex was a store room
which contained jars of oil and unguents, wine, and
libations; baskets of food; personal items such as his
slippers, sword, throwing sticks, and games. The
Treasury contained the Canopic Shrine (a large golden
box containing 4 Canopic jars [for internal organs]),
and a hoard of jewels and personal items.
The Tomb Chamber (22 X 13 feet) itself
contained a large gold-plated wooden sarcophagus
shrine, which contained three progressively smaller
shrines. Inside the final shrine a solid stone
sarcophagus within which was a large gold covered
mummy coffin, nesting two other coffins. Inside the
solid gold inner coffin was the mummy wearing a solid
gold mask. The heavy use of gold throughout the
funerary objects is symbolic of the sun, which is that
color and does not deteriorate. The Outer Coffin of
King Tutankhamun, made of gold covered wood,
though impressive in size, does not have the subtlety of
the other two. The 6 foot 7 inch long Second Coffin,
presents the king with his symbols of power and as the
god Osiris, with representations of the gods and
goddesses that protected him in his afterlife. It is the
most sumptuously wrought of the three; it is made of
gilded (about 1/4 ton of gold) wood inlaid with glass
paste, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and carnelian. The Third
Coffin stands 6 feet 1 inch high, is made of solid 22-
carat gold (91.85% pure), weighs 243 pounds and
resembles the Second Coffin in general form, but is
more slender, and has relatively little inlaid material. It
was made to look like a perfectly preserved golden
mummy, showing the young king wearing his royal
attire, and holding the symbols of his power, the crook

16. Bob Brier, The Murder of Tutankhamen, a True Story,
New York, 1998.
17. For an excellent survey of the discovery and an
examination of a selection of works fromthe tomb see I.
E. S. Edwards, Tutankamun: His Tomb and Its Treasures,
New York, 1977.
and flail. On his forehead are the heads of the vulture
goddess Nekhbet (Upper Egypt) and the serpent god
Uraeus (Lower Egypt), which are transformations of
Buto and Horus. Colorfully wrapped around his arms
are the same two gods as great bird-bodied creatures
holding the hieroglyphic symbols of "infinity".
Protecting his lower body are the winged goddesses Isis
(Wife of Osiris) and Nephthys (sister of Osiris).
The head of the mummy was covered with a
24 pound, 21 inch high, solid gold Funerary Mask [no.
54] inlaid with semi-precious stones. This object is the
most outstanding example of goldsmith work from the
tomb. He is evidently depicted very naturalistically,
though idealized, and with eyes open and mouth gently
closed. The corpse was further protected by a magical
formula engraved on the shoulders and the back of the
mask. This formula taken from Chapter 151b of the
Book of the Dead assigns deities to the various parts of
the body and invokes them for protection. The kings
internal organs were stored in Canopic Jars decorated
with the heads of the four children of Horus, that were
in turn set in miniature (9 inches high) coffins
resembling the outermost corpse coffin. These were
placed in a large gilded Canopic Shrine that is protected
by 4 golden goddesses (53 inches high).


The Return to Old Kingdom
Conventions

Following the death of Tutankhamun, the aged
Ay, the former vizier of Akhenaten and the father of
Nefertiti, married his granddaughter Ankhesanamun,
the widow of Tutankhamun, and became the pharaoh
before the seventy-day period of the funerary rites were
completed for the dead pharaoh. Pharaoh Ay died four
years later without having achieved much in the way of
monuments and foreign affairs.
Horemheb, a Great Commander of the Army
under Akhenaten, followed Ay. Horemheb ruled for
thirty years. This period is marked by the intervention
into the theological and political spheres by the
military, a pattern that will be repeated in Rome over a
thousand years later. Horemheb usurped the
monuments of Tutankhamun and Ay for himself:
erasing their names and converting images of them into
ones of himself. His hatred of the Aten period was so
great that he ensured the destruction of many still extant
works in the style and used the stones as fill for the
pylons of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak.
Horemheb also changed the chronology of the king lists
to erase all mention of the heretical pharaohs
Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay, and claimed that
that his reign began at the death of Amenhotep III:
claiming a total of fifty-nine years for his reign. As
Horemheb had no heir he chose his vizier and
confidant, the army officer Rameses I, to take the
throne. He ruled for only two years and was able to
accomplished little.
Seti I had been vizier and Troop Commander
under his father Rameses I, and was quick to take the

50

throne. His long (32 year) reign is marked by great
building projects and military campaigns in foreign
countries, and is considered one of the high points in
Egyptian art. It was Seti I who initiated the
construction of the Hypostyle Hall (completed by
Rameses II) in theGreat Temple of Amun-Ra [no. 50]
at Karnak. Other great works of his include the
Osireion and a Temple to Rameses I, as well as the 300
foot long Tomb of Seti I, which contained a translucent
alabaster sarcophagus. This finely decorated tomb is
the most magnificent in the Valley of the Kings, and his
mummy is the best preserved of all of the pharaohs.
Ramess II (c. 1279-1212 BCE), called
Ramesses the Great, was the last of the great warrior
kings. He brought the empire to its greatest height and
also contributed a number of major building projects.
He fought many battles, attributing his victories to the
glory of Amun. In the 21st year of his reign a peace
treaty was signed with the Hittites, and Nubia remained
under the control of Egypt. To celebrate the
achievements of his long reign (67 years) several great
temples were built and dedicated to him. The
characteristic of gigantism, a tendency to make
excessively large monuments, is typical of all empires
that have reached their peaks and pervades all of the
monuments erected during this period. An excellent
example of this characteristic is found far up the Nile
(166 miles south of the 1st cataract), at Abu Simbel, in
the rock cut Temple of Ramesses II [no. 55] that was
carved between c. 1279 and 1212 BCE.
The centuries that followed the glorious reigns
of Rameses II and Merneptah (1212-1202 BCE) saw
more lean years than fat, and the culture began to
disintegrate. Between 1276 and 1270 BCE, after the
indecisive battle of Kadesh against the Hittites, in
which Ramesses IIs 20,000-troop army fought against
an army twice the size, he was able to reassert Egyptian
hegemony over all of Canaan and force the Hittites to
accept a peace.
Rameses III (1190-1158 BCE) had a rough go
of it, having to face direct attacks against Egypt and
against himself personally. With migration pressures
building up in the Aegean basin, the troubled Egyptian
Empire came under attack from a combined force of the
Libyans and a mixed army from the Aegean and Asia
Minor (Anatolia) known from Egyptian sources as the
"Peoples of the Sea" in c. 1232 and c. 1183 BCE. Both
of these attacks were held off, but later kings found
themselves under constant threat from occasional attack
from the East and West. A conspiracy by the people
close to the king was uncovered that proved an intent to
kill him. There was also a planned revolt outside of the
palace to coincide with the intended coup. Rameses III
drafted workers to build his tomb, but they went on
strike, illustrating how far back the labor movement
goes.
There were eight more Rameses to take the
throne of Egypt, but their period was marked by
corruption and dishonesty. There were even violations
of royal tombs during the reign of Rameses IX.





The Israelites in Egypt

We must remember that Palestinian Asiatics
attacked Egypt during both the First and Second
Intermediate periods, and that they occupied the Delta
during these periods. Following the foreign attacks in
the First Intermediate period Egypt went on the offense
and went to re-establish its trading links with the city of
Byblos in northern Palestine. Later pharaohs continued
asserting Egypts domination over the region. The
history of the Israelites in Egypt begins, depending on
ones Biblical interpretation either before 1933 BCE or in
the late 14th or early 13th centuries BCE. Evidence
indicates that Hebrews lived in the Nile Delta region for
about 400 years before the troubles of the 13
th
century
BCE. Groups of Bedouins were granted permission to
stay in Egypt during the 14th or early 13th centuries
BCE. This occurred in the time of J acob, when a famine
in Canaan forced them to leave their homelands (Ge
12:10). According to the Bible one of J acob's twelve
sons, J oseph, eventually attained a prominent position
in the service of the Egyptian state. The Biblical claim
that J oseph became a governor to the pharaoh and that
all respected him is not supported by a single mention
of someone by that name in any of the Egyptian record.
It has been suggeste that he was the man named Yuya
mentioned above as the grandfather of Amenhotep
VI.
18
His descendants became slave workers (called
aperu [possibly Hebrews]), and according to the Bible
built the cities of Pitom and Rameses (Ex 1:11).
Unfortunately it is not known exactly when these cities
were built or if they were simply enlarged. The Bible
does not name the specific Pharaoh under which the
Israelites labored. We do know that the numbers of
non-Egyptians living in the delta became so much that
Seti I (ruled c. 1291-78 BCE, the father of Ramesses II)
condemned them to hard labor.
It is generally accepted that the Exodus (Ex
2:23; 5:1) of the Hebrews occurred sometime between
1280 and 1250 BCE, during the earlier part of the reign
of Ramesses II (c. 1279-1212 BCE). A man called
Moses led them through the marshy northern end of the
Red Sea that their God Yahweh had caused to be dried
up (parted). This date is not firmly established and
other possibilities remain. The name Moses is a
corruption of the Egyptian term ms'w, meaning heir or
born of; as in the Pharaohs names Ahmose (meaning
The Moon is Born), Tuthmosis (meaning Born of
Truth), and Ramesses (Fashioned of Ra). Who
exactly Moses was is not known. Though there is
archaeological evidence for the Exodus there are no
Egyptian records of it, as it was apparently a minor
event in the Egyptian history.
After their deliverance from the the iron
furnace of Egypt the Israelites began their conquest of
the cursed land of Canaan that was the promised

18 . Ahmed Osman, Moses Pharaoh of Egypt, London, 1990.

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land given them by God (Nu 14:42-45/ 21:1-3). Under
Gods command and the leadership of J oshua (Jo 1:11)
they battled the 31 Canaanite kings (J o 12:24),
completely destroying their cities (J ericho, Hazor,
Makkedh, etc.) and killing most of the inhabitants.
They then took the material wealth of the cities and
presented it to their God as tribute, and distributed the
land among themselves (Jo 14:1-5).
The 10 foot 3 inch tall Victory Stela of
Merenptah, called The Israel Stela, of c. 1224-1214
BCE, contains the only occurrence of the place name of
Israel known to us in the Egyptian sources, hence the
name of the stela. This stela tells of the victories
Merenptah enjoyed, stating: Their chiefs prostrate
themselves and beg for peace, none among the Nine
Bows raises his head any longer. Libya is destroyed,
the Hittite empire is at peace, Canaan is devastated,
Ashkalon is vanquished, Gezer is taken, Yenoam
annialated, Israel is laid waste, its seed exist no more,
Syria is made a widow for Egypt, and all lands have
been pacified.


The Third Intermediate Period (c.
1080-656 BCE)

By 1080 BCE the fragmentation of the empire
was formally acknowledged, and a triple division of
authority, of which one was ruled by the high priest of
Amun. Shortly after this event the Lybians were able to
achieve a peaceful penetration into Egypt, with the
result that some two hundred years after the death of
Rameses III, the chief of one of the Libyan groups of
settlers in the Nile valley was able to ascend to the
throne as the founder of Dynasty XXII (c. 935-730
BCE), which was made up of nine Libyan kings. The
period is typified by artworks that evoke the
conventions of the earlier great periods of Egyptian
power.


The Late Period (c. 656 - 30 BCE)

The last true Egyptian Pharaoh was Nectanebo
II who died in 343 BCE. From this point on Egypt
was a pawn of other powers; used for her great wealth
and grain. The late period saw the country invaded and
ruled by a succession of empires: first by the Assyrians
in 656 BCE; the Persians in 525 BCE; the Greeks under
Alexander the Great in 332 BCE [Ptolemaic Period (332
- 30 BCE)]; and finally the Romans under Octavian in
30 BCE. After this Egypt adopted Christianity with the
conversion of the Roman Empire in the 4
th
century CE,
and in 641 CE Egypt fell to the forces of Islam and has
since followed that religion.
The Ptolemy family that took over control of
Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great was of
Greek ancestry and maintained a Greek court. The
period of their control saw new prosperity, but the
wealth was funneled into the treasuries of these
foreigners. A faade of the old culture was maintained,
and the Ptolemys allowed the old Egyptian temples to
continue, actually giving them certain concessions so as
not to bring about civil disorder (note the text of the
Rosetta Stone above). The last of the true Ptolemy
pharaoh was Queen Cleopatra VII (51-30 BCE). She
enticed both J ulius Caesar and Mark Antony into her
political web in an attempt to control Roman power in
the region and to secure he own position. The plan fell
apart with the murder of J ulius Caesar by members of
the Roman senate on the ides of March 44 BCE. This
resulted in Octavian, the nephew of J ulius, going to was
against the combined forces of Cleopatra and Mark
Antony. Octavian was victorious in the Battle of
Actium on the afternoon of 2 September 31 BCE. The
following year, on 1 August, Octavian entered
Alexandria to claim Egypt. Cleopatra committed
suicide with a poisonous snake and Mark Antony fell
on his sword. The Romans controlled Egypt as a
personal state of the emperor, and used it to provide the
bread for the Roman populace.
There were numerous temples built during the
Ptolomaic Period that reflect the old order. One of
these is the Temple of Horus, c. 237-212 BCE, at Adfu,
one of the oldest cult centers of Horus. This temple is
situated on the site where the ancient battle between
Horus and Seth was said to have taken place. This
temple must be considered the best preserved from
Egyptian antiquity to come down to us. It is over 420
feet long and contains an enclosing wall fronted by a
great Pylon Gate, the largest ever completed (115 feet
high, and 250 feet wide). This pylon enclosed a great
court, a pronaos, a hypostyle hall, and a sanctuary, all
built to the highest standards of the Egyptian style.




























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