Smenkhare and Tutankhamon

These two very special Pharaohs were possibly brothers or at the very least half brothers and together they mark the transition from and end of the Armana period. However, they both pose a mystery almost as great as that of Akhenaton. There is much physical evidence that pieces together a good mystery regarding Tutankhamon, including his actual body which to any detective is an essential element in the equation. As for Smenkhare we have a body and a tomb but very little else.
The young Smenkhare was the Co-regent of Akhenaton after the disappearance of Nefertiti but he reigned for only a few months after the ‘departure’ of his predecessor. The nine-year-old Tutankhamon succeeded him. He was more than likely a very close blood relative, possibly his brother, or at least half-brother. Influenced by the high priest Aye to change his name to Tutankhamon, he brought into effect the restoration of the old worship.
The mystery of Smenkhare is so bizarre that in reality it is perhaps the most horrible thing that could ever happen to an Ancient Egyptian. He was buried in a tomb without any inscriptions. Even his face was defaced and the cartouches on the mummyform coffin were removed. This meant that he was condemned to an existence for eternity in the tomb. He quite literally could not escape. Aye had ritually buried the Aton and entombed it forever.
It was more than likely that Smenkhare was murdered by the connivance of Aye and possibly Horemhab. However, there is even greater evidence for the murder of Tutankhamon by Aye, for he stole the young boy king’s tomb and forced his young widow to marry him so he could ascend the throne.
The reason for Tutankhamon's murder was that according to the evidence of his new throne that bore the sacred image of the Aton, he was reverting back to the worship of the Aton. As he reached adolescence he wanted to be free of the restraints placed upon him by the ageing Aye. He perhaps longed for the beauty and freedom of Armana where he undoubtedly spent his infancy and boyhood. That must have been paradise compared with the stuffy pomp of Thebes with the priests of Karnak wanting to rule the country through him in the name of Amon.
Tutankhamon was given a reasonably lavish burial in a hurriedly made vault in the Valley of the Kings. Howard Carter only found it because its entrance was used as a dumping ground for rubble during the construction of the nearby tomb for Horemhab who succeeded Aye after his short reign of 4 years.
What we must note is that very many of the artifacts found in the tomb of the boy king are in fact items belonging to his brother, Smenkhare. Compare the faces on the two coffin lids, they are totally different. The second, more elaborate one bears the features of Smenkhare whilst the solid gold coffin bears the likeness of its occupier Tutankhamon.
This would have been the work of the cunning Aye, not wanting to waste anything from the despoiled tomb of Smenkhare. He simply had the cartouches changed for the new recipient. A simple deception that ensured nothing went to waste, especially as very few people would ever see the middle of the three coffins, so as long as the solid gold innermost and the outermost coffins bore the real likeness then none would be any the wiser.
What a sad end for the two brothers; especially for the hardly known Smenkhare

Akhenaten

Akhenaten is probably the most interesting of Egyptian pharoahs. He was strange in a number of ways, an oddity that upsets the normal course of Ancient Egyptian history and gives rise to theories that are still being argued about amongst archaeologists. It is not for me to enter this great debate; I merely suggest a scenario that fits as well as any other to the known facts.
Akhenaten’s reign (about 1353 BC - 1336 BC) was a hiccup in the great tradition of the pharoahs. For centuries before and after him, little changed in the style of Egyptian art and their beliefs; tradition dictated and the pharoahs followed. Only Akhenaten dared to be different. In his reign art became suddenly more realistic and family-centered. The stiff and formalized depictions that we are so used to in Egyptian art loosened up and we are allowed a glimpse into a more human and natural world.
It is for this reason that we can be fairly certain that the pharoah and his wife, Nefertiti, are accurately portrayed by their artists. And Akhenaton looked weird, to say the least. His body was pear-shaped and his limbs thin and elongated; his face too was long and narrow. There has been much speculation on the cause of these apparent deformities, most settling for Marfan’s Syndrome, a genetic disorder that fits closely with what we observe.

Apis part 2

His birthday was celebrated by an annual feast, the natales Apidis, of seven days’ duration, during which it was supposed the crocodiles were innocuous, and a silver cup was thrown on the occasion into a certain part of the Nile, which was considered a flux of Apis. This festival coincided with the rise of the Nile.
On the mummy coffins an Apis is often seen on the foot-board of those of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. bearing on the back the mummy of the deceased to the sepulcher. The discovery by M. Mariette of the Seraoeum at Memphis described by Strabo has thrown great light on the worship and history of the Apis, the mode of burial, and the sequence of the bulls. (See SERAPEUM.)
The oldest Apis mentioned was one of the reign of Amenophis III., and he was followed in the 18th dynasty by bulls which had died in the reigns of Tutankhamen and Horus. There was a succession under the 19th dynasty, commencing with Seti or Sethos I., besides three which died in the 16th, 26th, and 30th years if Rameses II., and three others, the dates of whose deaths are unknown. Under the 20th dynasty there was an Apis which died in the 26th year of Rameses III., one in the reign of Rameses IX., others of the date of Rameses XI. And XIV., and four others whose dates are not determined, besides three more which died under the 21st dynasty. Of bulls deceased in the 22nd dynasty, there is one of the 23rd year of Osorkon II., another of the 14th year of Takellothis I., and a third of the 28th year of Sheshank or Shishak III.
It is not till the reign of this monarch that the dates connected with the Apis become of chronological importance. On the sepulchral tablet of the Apis which was born in the reign of Shishak III., is found the formula of the date of the birth and inauguration of the bull. It was born on the 20th of the month Payni, in the 28th year of the king’s reign, and enthroned on the 1st of Paophi of the same year, having died in the 2nd year of the king Pamai, and been buried on the 1st of the month Mechir of the same year. It had attained the age of 26 years. Three other bulls died in the 4th, 11th and 37th years of Shishak IV. Important statements like these show the intervals of time which elapsed between the regnal years of different kings, and check the chronology of the 22nd and subsequent dynasties, but owing to unfortunate lacunae the chronology of Egypt is conjectural, and not positive till the reign of Tirhakah. The dates of the other Apis are, one which died on the 5th of the month Thoth, in 6th year of Bekenrenf, or Bocchoris, another of the 2nd year of Shabak or Sabaco, and that buried on the 23rd Pharmouthi of the 24th year of Tirhakah, 730 B.C. The dates of the other bulls prior to the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, 332 B.C., are: one born in the 26th year of Tirhakah, enthroned on the 9th Pharmouthi, the same year deceased, in the 20th year of Psammetichus I., and buried on ! the 25th Paophi, of the 23rd year of Psammetichus; another deceased in the 52nd year of the same king; a third born in the 53d year of Psammetichus I, enthroned on the 12th of Athor of the 54th year, deceased on the 6th of Paophi, and buried on the 10th Choiak of the 16th year of Necho, having lived 16 years 7 months and 17 days; another born on 7th Paophi of the 16th year of Necho, enthroned 9th Epiphi of the 1st year of Psammetichus I., died on the 12th Pharmouthi of the 12th year of Apries, and buried the 21st Payni of the same year, aged 17 years 6 months and 5 days; another born in the 5th year of Amasis, inaugurated on the 18th Payni of the same year, died on the 6th Phamenoth, was buried on the 15th Pashons of the 23rd year of the same king, aged 18 years and 7 months. The Apis which died after this, and of which a sarcophagus was found dated in the 4th year of Cambyses, is the one supposed to have been killed by Cambyses on his return from Aethiopia. Another born in the month Pharmouthi of the 5th year of Cambyses, died in the 4th year of Darius, and was buried on the 2nd Pashons of the 5th year of darius, and had lived upwards of 7 years. It is the Apis of Darius, alluded to by Polyaenus, for the successor of which Darius offered 100 talents as a reward to the fortunate discoverer. Another Persian king Ochus is said to have killed and eaten an Apis, 338 B.C. The death of an Apis soon after the death of Alexander the Great, 323 B.C. is also recorded. The sepulchral tablets in the demotic characters according to M. Brugsch, record the birth of an Apis in the month of Phamenoth, in the 29th year of Ptolemy Euergetes I., 231 B.C., which died in the 51st year, 179 B.C.; and another older, probably of Ptolemy Philadelphus II., 253 B.C.; another of the 14th year of Ptolemy Epiphanes IV., 211 B.C.; another in the 20th year of Ptolemy IV., 185 B.C.; another in the 17th year of Ptolemy Philometor VII., 164 B.C.; and another born in the 53d year (118-117 B.C.) of Ptolemy Euergetes II., died 15 years old, 103 B.C., in the reign of Ptolemy XI. In the Roman times the discovery of an Apis in the reign of Hadrian, 121 A.D., caused a tumult at Alexandria; and the last known Apis is that brought to the Emperor Julian II., 362-363 A.D., after which the Apis disappears from Egypt altogether.
The Apis was embalmed at great cost, but the operation consisted in preparing with bitumen the skull and a few of the principal bones of the bull made up into an appropriate shape. The second genius of the Karneter, or Egyptian Hades, was also called Hapi or Apis, but he was quite distinct from the bull god and the son of Osiris. His type was that of a human mummy with the head of a Cynocephalus ape. Bronze native figures of the Apis are not uncommon, and those of stone are occasionally found, but porcelain ones are extremely rate.
Lepsius, "Ueber den Apiskreis," Zeitsch. D. Morgenl. Gesellsch. vii Bd. 1853; Brugsch, Ibid.; Mariette, Le Sérapéum de Memphis, 1857; Jablonski, Pantheon, ii. (S. B.)The above article was written by Samuel Birch, D.C.L., LL.D., Keeper of the Egyptian and Oriental Antiquities, British Museum, up to 1885; Rede Lecturer at Cambridge, 1876; author of History of Ancient Pottery, The Papyrus of Nashkem, Cypriote Inscriptions, and other works on archaelogy.

Apis part1

APIS, a sacred bull worshipped at Memphis from the earliest period, having probably been introduced into the religious system as early as the 2nd dynasty by the king Kaiechos, who instituted the worship of Apis and the bull Mnevis.
His name in hieroglyphs was Hapi, and meant "the hidden," as he had to be discovered amidst the cattle, which was done by certain diacritical marks. According to the hieroglyphic inscriptions which accompany his form, he was the second birth or living incarnation of the god Ptah, the Egyptian Hephaestos or Vulcan. Apis is first mentioned and appears in the monuments of the 4th dynasty. The two bulls Apis and Mnevis are considered to have respectively represented the moon and sun, and seem both to have been buried at Memphis.
He was supposed to have been born of a virgin cow, rendered pregnant by a moonbeam or a flash of lightning. The mother of Apis, according to Strabo, had a part of the temple of the Apis reserved for her use; and the hieroglyphic inscriptions record a prophet or priest attached to her service. On the monuments she shares the honours of the bull, and is represented under the attributes of Athor as a goddess with a cow’s head. This cow had her especial name, these animals having each a separate appellation. According to the Greek writers Apis was the image of Osiris, and worshipped because Osiris was supposed to have passed into a bull, and to have been soon after manifested by a succession of these animals. The hieroglyphic inscriptions identify the Apis with Osiris, adorned with horns or the head of a bull, and unite the two names as Hapi-Osor, or Apis Osiris. According to this view the Apis was the incarnation of Osiris manifested in the shape of a bull. But besides this title, the monuments style Apis the son of Ptah, who was supposed to be his father by the sacred cow, or the second life of Ptah. Other monuments, indeed, declare him to have had no father, and to have been Onnophris or Osiris, but this conflict of ideas must have arisen from his material and spiritual nature, uniting the soul of Osiris or Ptah mystically with the sacred animal. Besides the mother of the Apis, a cow was annually exhibited to him decorated with the same insignia -- that is, a disk between the horns and a housing on the back, to judge from the insignia found on the bronze figures of the Apis -- and then slaughtered the same day, for no issue of the divine animal was permitted to exist.
According to other authorities several cows were kept in the Apeum on the announcement of the birth of an Apis, the sacred scribes and priests proceeded to verify the characters of the calf. The marks of the Apis were a black coloured hide, with a white triangular spot on the forehead, the hair arranged in the shape of an eagle on the back, and a knot under the tongue in shape of a scarabaeus, the sacred insect and emblem of Ptah, a white spot resembling a lunar crescent at his right side. These marks have been supposed to be for the most part certain arrangements of the hairs of the hide as seen in some animals. A house was built to the calf Apis facing the east, in which for four months he was nourished with milk. When he had grown up he was conducted, at the time of the new moon, to a ship by the sacred scribes and prophets, and conducted to the Apeum at Memphis, where there were courts, places for him to walk in, and a drinking fountain. According to Diodorus, he was first led to Nilopolis, and kept there 40 days, then shipped in a boat with a gilded cabin to Memphis, and he was there allowed to be seen for 40 days only by women, who exposed themselves to him. Like all the sacred animals his actions were oracular, and he had two chambers, his passage into one of which was deemed fortunate, and into the other unlucky. Thus the licking the garments of a visitor was supposed to prognosticate a tranquil but short life, and his refusal of the food offered to him by the hand of Germanicus, the approaching death of that hero. The actions of the children who played around his shrine or accompanied his processions were also considered oracular. The day of his birth was kept as an annual festival.
His life was not allowed to exceed 25 years, and should it have attained that maximum reckoned from the date of his enthronisation, the Apis was killed and thrown into a well, in which the priests asserted he had precipitated himself. This well was known to no one, and no one was allowed to reveal the place of burial. If the Apis died before the 25 years he received a splendid burial at Memphis in the Serapeum, for after death he was called the osor-hapi, or Serapis. This funeral was expensive; his body was placed in a barge, and accompanied by a procession of a Bacchanalian character, passing through the brazen doors of Memphis. As universal joy prevailed at his discovery, so his death threw all Egypt into a general mourning, and every one shaved off his beard. This mourning continued till the discovery of another Apis.

Egypt finds 4 000-yr-old mummy

Cairo - Egyptian archaeologists have discovered the funerary remains of a doctor who lived more than 4 000 years ago, including his mummy, sarcophagus and bronze surgical instruments.
The upper part of the tomb was discovered in 2000 at Saqqara, 20km south of Cairo, and the tomb came to light in the burial pit during cleaning work, said state news agency Mena on Tuesday, quoting Egyptian government antiquities chief Zahi Hawass.
The doctor, whose name was Qar, lived under the 6th dynasty and built his tomb near Egypt's first pyramid. The 6th dynasty ruled from about 2350 to 2180 BC.
Hawass said the lid of the wooden tomb had excellent condition. "The linen wrappings and the funerary drawings on the mummy are still as they were," he said.
"The mask which covers the face of the mummy is in an amazing state of preservation in spite of slight damage in the area of the mouth."
The tomb also had earthenware containers bearing the doctor's name, a round limestone-offering table and 22 bronze statues of gods.

collosal statue of Ramses II at memphis

This too is echoed by the immense private tombs found on the Theban West Bank, dated to this period. I have therefore chosen not to use the name "3rd Intermediate Period" and have the Late Dynastic Period immediately follow the New Kingdom. What is called the "Late Period" in most history books, has also become part of this "Late Dynastic Period". During most of the New Kingdom, the wealth and power of the Theban high-priests had slowly increased. It is possible that 18th Dynasty King Akhenaten’s Amarna-revolution was an attempt to break this power. If so, the attempt failed, for a mere 20 years later, the old temples were reopened and the high-priests were reinstated in their offices. Whatever Akhenaten’s motives for his religious revolution, the reinstatement of the traditional cult was a victory for the high-priests of Thebes. At the end of the New Kingdom, during the later years of Ramesses XI, a Theban high-priest named Herihor, possibly a brother-in-law to Ramesses XI, was able to combine his influential office with the office of vizier and he bore the honorary title of "viceroy of Kush". He was so wealthy that he was able to build parts of the Khonsu-temple in Karnak and he even usurped the royal privilege to have his name written in a cartouche! When Ramesses XI died, the dynasty of high-priests had become a major political factor. The kings of the 21st Dynasty were probably related through marriage to the last Ramessides.
They moved the capital from Pi-Ramesse to Tanis, both in the Nile Delta, probably because the canal neighboring Pi-Ramesse had dried out. At Tanis they launched an elaborate building activity, one that was to rival the temple of Amun in Thebes and which also included the moving of temples and palaces from the old capital Pi-Ramesse to Tanis. They also moved the royal necropolis from the Valley of the Kings on the Theban West Bank to Tanis, where the intact tomb of Psusennes I has been discovered in the late 1930’s. Another important political factor was the Libyan military, which had been integrated into the Egyptian army and police force during the late New Kingdom. At the end of the 21st Dynasty, one of those leaders, who was married to the daughter of the last king of the 21st Dynasty, came to power. He founded a new dynasty, the 22nd, also called the Libyan or the Bubastide Dynasty since the Dynasty was founded by Libyans who lived in the Delta-city of Bubastis. The early Bubastide kings were powerful rulers who were able to re-establish Egyptian presence in Syria-Palestine. They were also able to determine who would be high-priest in Thebes and they often picked someone from their own family, thus reinforcing the Egyptian unity. But dynastic rivalry would soon bring an end to the newly found unity. In Leontopolis, also in the Delta, a 23rd Dynasty was proclaimed. This example would soon be followed by Tefnakht, a prince in the Delta-city of Sais, who founded the 24th Dynasty. Not only was Egypt divided between the Delta and Thebes, now the Delta itself would be divided as well. Taking advantage from these internal conflicts, a new power arose in the South, in Nubia. There a dynasty had come to power intent on conquering Egypt. In an effort to confront this Nubian invasion, the three Delta-dynasties allied themselves, but they were defeated.
The 25th Dynasty would be a Nubian Dynasty. The monarchs of the 25th Dynasty ruled the larger part of Egypt -only the 24th Dynasty from Sais seems to have maintained its independence- from their own capital, Napata, near the 4th cataract, but they would rule it following the old Egyptian traditions. The high quality craftsman-ship of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties, as shown in this death mask of Psusennes I, does not justify this period being dubbed an "inter-mediate" period. The Nubian kings of the 25th Dynasty followed the ancient Egyptian traditions, as is shown by this statue of Taharqa. The peace and stability resulting from the Nubian conquest was brought to an end by another external factor: the Assyrians. Although the presence of the Assyrians in Egypt has been a short one, its results were devastating. The once glorious Thebes was plundered, ransacked and many wonderful temples, among which the mortuary temple of Ramesses II, were destroyed. Fortunately for Egypt, the Assyrians were forced to return to Assur, leaving the king of Sais, Psamtek I, the opportunity to take control of the entire country. With him began the 26th Dynasty and a new era of stability and prosperity in Egypt. For more than a century, the 26th Dynasty would rule over Egypt, until it was defeated by Persian invaders. The latter part of the Late Dynastic Period starts and ends with a Persian occupation. The first Persian occupation, also known as the 27th Dynasty, lasted for more than a century. It was brought to an end by Amyrtaios, the only king of the 28th Dynasty, who succeeded in ridding Egypt of the Persian yoke and was able to re-establish control over the entire country. Egypt’s regained independence lasted some 60 years, during which the kings of the 29th and 30th Dynasties ruled the country and re-established all of its traditions. The second Persian occupation would only last for 10 years, but it was one of the darkest pages in the history of Ancient Egypt: temples were plundered, holy animals were butchered and the people were subjected to demanding tributes. Egypt’s ordeal during this occupation would make it ready to welcome the Macedonian king Alexander the Great as its liberator. With the "conquest" of Egypt by Alexander, Egypt would become a Hellenistic state and a new era had begun

famous bust of nefertiti

famous bust of nefertiti now in the berlin museum
The kings of the Theban dynasty are grouped in the 16th Dynasty. At the same time, the Hyksos pressed on further to the South as well, and after it had been independant for about 20 years, they made an end to the Abydene Dynasty. It would take them another 30 years before they would succesfully end the 16th Dynasty and enforcing their rule upon the entire country. The Hyksos kings, however, were not able to maintain their control over the whole of Egypt, and only a few years after it had been conquered, Thebes again arose as an independent state, and home to the 17th Dynasty. The circumstances that led to Thebes' renewed independance are not clear. A change of power in the 15th Dynasty may hint at some dynastic troubles among the Hyksos, and it is possible that the Thebans took advantage of the situation not only to reclaim their autonomy but also to extend their rule as far North as Abydos. After the Theban conquest of Abydos, a status quo appears to have been established between the 15th and 17th Dynasty and both dynasties even appear to have entered into trade. This situation lasted at least until the reign of Seqenenre, the penultimate king of the 17th Dynasty, during which hostilities between the Thebans and the Hyksos appear to have been reinitiated.

Smenkhare and Tutankhamon

These two very special Pharaohs were possibly brothers or at the very least half brothers and together they mark the transition from and end of the Armana period. However, they both pose a mystery almost as great as that of Akhenaton. There is much physical evidence that pieces together a good mystery regarding Tutankhamon, including his actual body which to any detective is an essential element in the equation. As for Smenkhare we have a body and a tomb but very little else.
The young Smenkhare was the Co-regent of Akhenaton after the disappearance of Nefertiti but he reigned for only a few months after the ‘departure’ of his predecessor. The nine-year-old Tutankhamon succeeded him. He was more than likely a very close blood relative, possibly his brother, or at least half-brother. Influenced by the high priest Aye to change his name to Tutankhamon, he brought into effect the restoration of the old worship.
The mystery of Smenkhare is so bizarre that in reality it is perhaps the most horrible thing that could ever happen to an Ancient Egyptian. He was buried in a tomb without any inscriptions. Even his face was defaced and the cartouches on the mummyform coffin were removed. This meant that he was condemned to an existence for eternity in the tomb. He quite literally could not escape. Aye had ritually buried the Aton and entombed it forever.
It was more than likely that Smenkhare was murdered by the connivance of Aye and possibly Horemhab. However, there is even greater evidence for the murder of Tutankhamon by Aye, for he stole the young boy king’s tomb and forced his young widow to marry him so he could ascend the throne.
The reason for Tutankhamon's murder was that according to the evidence of his new throne that bore the sacred image of the Aton, he was reverting back to the worship of the Aton. As he reached adolescence he wanted to be free of the restraints placed upon him by the ageing Aye. He perhaps longed for the beauty and freedom of Armana where he undoubtedly spent his infancy and boyhood. That must have been paradise compared with the stuffy pomp of Thebes with the priests of Karnak wanting to rule the country through him in the name of Amon.
Tutankhamon was given a reasonably lavish burial in a hurriedly made vault in the Valley of the Kings. Howard Carter only found it because its entrance was used as a dumping ground for rubble during the construction of the nearby tomb for Horemhab who succeeded Aye after his short reign of 4 years.
What we must note is that very many of the artifacts found in the tomb of the boy king are in fact items belonging to his brother, Smenkhare. Compare the faces on the two coffin lids, they are totally different. The second, more elaborate one bears the features of Smenkhare whilst the solid gold coffin bears the likeness of its occupier Tutankhamon.
This would have been the work of the cunning Aye, not wanting to waste anything from the despoiled tomb of Smenkhare. He simply had the cartouches changed for the new recipient. A simple deception that ensured nothing went to waste, especially as very few people would ever see the middle of the three coffins, so as long as the solid gold innermost and the outermost coffins bore the real likeness then none would be any the wiser.
What a sad end for the two brothers; especially for the hardly known Smenkhar

The Sphinx

The ancient Egyptian sculpture called The Sphinx is also located on the Giza plateau, and was probably carved at the request of the 4th dynasty pharaoh Chephren or Khafre. The statue is carved out of the native bedrock, and has the body of a lion and (so is believed) Pharaoh Chephren's face. Later the Sphinx became associated with the Egyptian god Harmakhis

Alphabet

You might imagine that something as simple and basic as the alphabet would have been around forever. But of course it hasn't. As you may well know, the elaborate pictures of Egyptian hieroglyphics and the intricate reed-poked-into-clay marks of Mesopotamian cuneiform used to be the way people communicated in writing. Gradually these were simplified into syllable symbols instead of word symbols, but were still fairly daunting and only a few scholars ever learned to write.
We are often told that the Phoenicians invented the alphabet, though some debate this. Regardless of who put pen to papyrus to create it, the Phoenician contribution was none-the-less major and critical. They were the major sea-traders of the Mediterranean, and they went everywhere.
Every country which had a seashore seems to have done trade with them. When the Phoenicians began using the alphabet as a simple and easy way to keep track of their trades, it was exposed to everyone. And since money and wealth were involved, people were highly motivated to learn the system and make sure it was being accurately written down. This new method proved to be so much better than previous methods that it soon was being used by many people and many languages. It had been given so much momentum that it could not be stopped.
First inventions are sometimes a little rough and need to get the bugs worked out, and so it was with this new alphabet which the Phoenicians made popular. It consisted of 22 consonants . . . but no vowels. The reader was assumed to speak the language, so they would know what sound to put between the consonants. Of course, looking back at their inscriptions a few thousand years later, it is not so obvious. That is one reason why you will see different spellings for the same word or name. The ancient and modern-day translators just did the best they could.
The Greeks adopted this Phoenician alphabet, and added vowels to it. The refined combination worked very well. It enabled the philosophy of Socrates and the theater plays of Euripides -- among many other great works of literature -- to be passed down to us.
The Etruscans in Italy were familiar with the Phoenician alphabet, as shown on the Pyrgi gold plates at the top of this page. Their plate on the left was written in Phoenician, and the other one in Etruscan. After the Etruscans adopted and modified the Greek alphabet, they passed it along to Rome. The Romans made their own refinements to it, and this led to the alphabet we use today.
A fairly eye-opening account of how -- and why -- the alphabet came into being is described in Chapter 16 of Phoenicians: Lebanon's Epic Heritage. Other great events in the ancient Mediterranean are also explored, using the interaction of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians to provide a clearer and more revealing picture of these formative times.

Ancient Ships & Sea Trade

The ancient Phoenician boatbuilding skills are not a lost art . . . in fact they are still in use today. Sanford Holst documented this remarkable experience in Lebanon: "When I was in Tyre in 2004, the local boatmaster was just finishing one-and-a-half years of work constructing a boat by hand using the old Phoenician methods described below. It was an absolutely beautiful vessel, and he took the time to tell me about many of the details that went into it. The maiden voyage was to be two days later. On the second day, I was having lunch at the harbor in Byblos -- about 70 miles (115 km) north of Tyre -- and quite incredibly the Phoenician boat sailed directly into the harbor and docked right in front of my table! The crew was as surprised as I was. We happily celebrated their successful voyage."
Phoenician ships have always been a source of astonishment to the many people who believe history is just one long upward sweep from the primitive past to the cultured present. In fact, it is more a matter of ups and downs, with the present (hopefully) being higher than the past. This was dramatically illustrated by the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Roman Empire. Before that time, ancient ships were quite spectacular.
The rise of the Phoenicians' shipbuilding and sea trade from meager fisherman roots to opulent cargoes of gold, jewels and royal-purple cloth is explored in Chapters 2 through 19 of Phoenicians: Lebanon's Epic Heritage. Shipbuilding and sea trade are woven throughout the Phoenicians' long history due to their vital importance in shaping and supporting early Lebanese society.
Ancient Boatbuilding
An unfortunate hazard of sea trade is shipwrecks, but several of them turned out to be blessings in disguise -- at least for us -- because they preserved excellent examples of early ships and cargoes. And what a remarkable story they tell.
Consider the wreck at Uluburun, just off the coast of what is today called Turkey but back then was on the Byblos - Cyprus - Greece trade route. It showed us how these ships were laboriously and painstakingly built by carving each piece of wood in the hull to create a row of "pockets" along the edge. On the piece of wood beside it, a similar row of pockets was carved, with each one being lined up exactly opposite a pocket in the neighboring board. A small piece of wood (tenon) was then put in each pocket (mortise) of one of the boards, which ended up looking like it had a long row of wooden teeth.
Then the second board was placed beside it and -- with any luck at all -- its own pockets fit perfectly onto the teeth of the other. Finally a round hole was drilled through each pocket-and-tooth, and a wooden peg was placed in the hole. When all the pegs were in place, the two boards could not be separated by any amount of force by wave or cargo. And this was done for virtually every board in the hull. Their craftsmanship was not only beautiful, it was incredibly strong. [Diagram and info from Appendix A: Art of Boatbuilding in Phoenicians: Lebanon's Epic Heritage]
Ocean-going Ships
Nor were these boats tiny. The galley fighting ships, with their rows of galley oars, could have a crew of over a hundred people. That is a pretty good size. But even those were small compared to the Phoenician cargo ships with their vast, rounded hulls. These ocean-going ships were built for huge loads and long hauls. They made the extended trips from Mediterranean ports out to Cadiz, Lixis and other destinations on the Atlantic Ocean coasts of Spain and Morocco, and had to make each trip count.
People have remarked that those cargo ships which sailed the seas for many hundreds of years B.C. were comparable in size to the ones Columbus sailed to America in 1492 A.D. Thor Heyerdahl, the modern-day explorer, noted that the Phoenicians could have sailed to Central America themselves. I don't know if they did or not, but well-informed people see it as being within the capabilities of Phoenician ships and navigators. That is quite a compliment to these early people of the sea and what they were able to accomplish.

The legend of Osiris and Isis

1. The legend of Osiris and Isis
Osiris can be equated to someone who intervened from another planet and in some way not only educated, but probably genetically engineered mankind. There is one very special factor that makes man uniquely special amongst all living creatures and that is his ability to communicate with one another through speech. Was it an accident that St. John’ s opening line to his gospel was.... ‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God’! Is this a divine revelation that God was the divine spark that enabled man to achieve that higher level of understanding that linked him to God.
2. The function of Osiris in death
Osiris, upon his death, became the judge of the dead and his sister, Isis, whom he married, became the mother of their son, Horus, and the Queen of Heaven. Osiris was the original King. He ruled Egypt as the first Pharaoh and those who came after him were the followers of Horus. Consequently all subsequent Kings ruled and reigned as his son Horus and so was born the concept of a divine Kingship. The term ‘Followers of Horus’ specifically apply to the people who gave knowledge to the Ancient Egyptians. If we are to imagine Osiris as being a real, rather than legendary person, then he had to date back to the first time, which was at least 12,000 years ago. He also had to be knowledgeable in the study of the stars, astronomy and astrology as well as farming and in general all things necessary to govern a country.
3. Osiris the creator of man
If we take Osiris a stage further back to a time uncertain, he could have been the originator of man through genetic engineering. In effect, there was at one and the same time, three groups upon Earth. First there was the original inhabitants who were little better than cave dwellers. Then there were the ‘Gods’, the people who visited our planet and wanted to use what they could find from it. In order to make man a more amenable species to their own kind, they genetically engineered him, bestowing upon him intelligence with a mind capable of achieving great things. With that mind came the knowledge of another dimension, which could only be achieved, in a different form, a spiritual form. This dimension was realized through the resurrection of the dead. Consequently the higher beings all had the knowledge of an afterlife that was achieved through spirituality and their realm was the abode of Osiris. It was also very clearly understood where that abode was to be found and that was in the constellation of Orion.
4. The stellar connection
The incredible factor that emanates from this is their belief that the abode of Isis was Sirius, the dog star. They somehow knew that Sirius was a binary star, constantly giving birth to an offspring. How this could have been known without the aid of sophisticated equipment is beyond conjecture. We have only discovered that fact today with the aid of radio telescopes!
However the concept of the divine monarch has passed down through history to our own time today. The most sacred element of any Coronation ceremony is the anointing which in effect imbues the monarch with the spirit of God!
5. The quasi divine nature of the monarch today.

Mummification

In ancient Egypt when a person died it was important that the body was preserved for the 'afterlife'. Ancient Egyptians believed that the body went on a journey to the stars where they then met their god. It was therefore important that the body was in good condition, mummification was therefore dedicated to the prevention of decay. It is thought that this practice was not immediately mastered but took several generations to achieve such a sophisticated level.
The greek historian HERODOTUS (c.450 BC) can provide us with the best explanation to how they achieved such good results, he states:
"There are those who are established in this profession and who practice the craft. When a corpse is brought to them they show the bearers wooden model of mummies, painted in imitation of the real thing. The best method of embalming is said to be that which is practiced on one whose name I cannot mention in this context (i.e. OSIRIS). The second method they demonstrate is somewhat inferior and costs less. The third is the cheapest of all. Having indicated the differences, they ask by which method the corpse is to be prepared. And when the bearers have agreed a price and departed, the embalmers are left to begin their work.
In the best treatment, first of all they draw out the brains through the nostrils with an iron hook. When they have removed what they can this way they flush out the remainder with drugs. Next they make an incision in the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone through which they extract all the internal organs. They then clean out the entire body cavity, rinsing it with palm wine and pounded spices, all except frankincense, and stitch it up again. And when they have done this they cover the corpse with natron for seventy days, but no longer, and so mummify it. After the seventy days are up, they wash the corpse and wrap it head to toe in bandages of the finest linen anointed with gum, which the egyptians use for the most part instead of glue. Finally they hand over the body to the relatives who place it in a wooden coffin in the shape of the man (below) before shutting it up in a burial chamber, propped upright against a wall. This is the most costly method of preparing the dead."
"Those for whom the second and less expensive way has been chosen are treated as follows: the embalmers fill their syringes with cedar oil which they inject into the abdomen, neither cutting the flesh nor extracting the internal organs but introducing the oil through the anus which is then stopped up. Then they mummify the body for the prescribed number of days, at the end of which they allow the oil which has been injected to escape. So great is its strength that it brings away all the internal organs in a liquid form. Moreover the natron eats away the flesh reducing the body to skin and bone. After they have done this the embalmers give back the body without further ado."
"The third method of embalming, which is practiced on the bodies of the poor, is this: the embalmers wash the abdomen with a purge, mummify the corpse for seventy days and then give it back to be taken away."
The embalmers took great pride in their work which is not implied by Herodotus. For example, the overseers held priestly titles, stemmed from the distant past when only the rich and royalty were embalmed. It should also be noted that for most of egyptian history the poor were buried in simple graves in the sand, which had its own effect similar to embalming (below).
The embalming staff consisted of the following :
'overseer of the mysteries' (hery seshta) who took the part of the jackal god ANUBIS.
'seal-bearer of the god' (hetemw netjer) who was Anubbis's assistant.
'lector priest' (hery heb) who read the magical spells.
'bandagers' (wetyw) whose job it was to extract the organs and bandage the corpse.
As you can tell from the above list, mummification was not only a process but was part of a ritual belief. We know from a couple of papyri how the ritual commenced. Shortly after death the body would be taken to a tent which was known as ' Place of Purification' where it would be washed, before being taken to the next tent called 'House of Beauty' this is where the mummification took place. As Herodotus described, the internal organs were removed but these were not discarded, they too were dried, rinsed, bandaged and placed in CANOPIC JARS (below) or parcels. They were then placed with the body or later in Egyptian history, placed back in the body.

the great sphinx

The Sphinx is perhaps the most mysterious and enigmatic object ever created on Earth. Throughout its history people and princes have placed mystical connotations upon it and psychics and mediums have also expressed the very great significance of this the most ancient sculpture on Earth.
The Sphinx is a sculpture and not a building. It was originally carved out of the sandstone of the Plateau of Giza and more than likely had on it the head of a lion.
The lion’s head that I have drawn for the cover is not meant as a joke, it really was carved as a lion and the present head replaced the original structure. The evidence to prove this astounding belief is quite simply if the head is that of Kepheren and the Sphinx is infinitely older than the date of his reign, then he must have changed the head.
What however is of even greater significance is of course the reasons behind the building of the Sphinx and indeed the nature of the people who built it.
As with virtually everything that comes from Ancient Egypt, astronomy and astrology play an inextricable part in it. Everything seems to have something to do with the stars, or at the very least have a close relation that is.
The Sphinx is no exception. However, the two most incredible things about it are the fact that it was in the form of a lion and also the actual time when scientists, not Egyptologists, believe it to have been made. Both add up to one very surprising thing, the people who made it had the most extraordinary knowledge of the stars and the behavior of the Earth, planets and stars in space.
From where did this knowledge come and who had given it to them? To consider that they had worked it out for themselves is indeed a possibility, especially given the amount of time man had been alive on Earth (between one and two hundred thousand years), but man had just experienced the most devastating of tragedies, the Flood.
Yes, even the mystery of the great Flood is able to weave itself into the story of the Sphinx, for it is the only relic on Earth that we can scientifically prove comes anywhere near the date of that event.
Yes the enigmas of the Sphinx are many and we will try to unravel them and throw some light on all the mystery and confusion that has not only surrounded this monarch of the desert even in ancient times, but even in our own century, has become the source of very great excitement.

the great Pyramid

This is perhaps the greatest wonder of all time. One only has to stand next to it to wonder who built it and for what reason and indeed why at all in the first place!?
1. Vital statistics of the Pyramid.
The vital statistics of this great edifice are, if you will forgive me yet again for using the term, ‘mind-blowing’! According to the great Egyptologist Champillion, who deciphered the hieroglyphs, he estimated that there were enough blocks to build a wall 10 meters high all the way round France! He also stated that it would have taken the perfect cutting, maneuvering and positioning of three blocks, ranging in weight from two and a half tons to over 16 tons at the top, every minute, without stopping for the entire duration of Khufu’s 22 year reign. Of course he, like everyone else of that time and indeed subsequently, thought that the pyramids were tombs.
2. The function of the Pyramid
Today, it is believed by those who allow science to invade the great study of Ancient Egypt, that the pyramid is not to have been a tomb but, in some way to have been a star gate, a means of projecting the Pharaoh to his divine progenitors.
3. The design of the Pyramid
There are passages and shafts that were all aligned to the stars at a time suggesting a very much earlier date of creation that of the reign of Khufu. Indeed it is only through the daubing of the name of Khufu in red paint in some tiny chamber that even Egyptologists have given that Pharaoh the privilege of constructing it. It is rather similar to saying that because someone, hundreds of years from now, found a letter signed by Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace, and that was the only thing pertaining to a monarch to be found, that she was responsible for its construction! There is no evidence whatsoever for any pharaoh to have been responsible for the construction of the three Great Pyramids of Khufu, his son Kepheren and his grandson Mencaure. Indeed if we were to accept that they were responsible we would have to accept that they achieved it using the most primitive of tools.
Many scientific Egyptologists now believe that they were the work of a very much more sophisticated race of people thousands of years prior to Khufu. In fact they believe that the people responsible for the construction of the Sphinx are far more likely candidates. One very simple factor denies the involvement of dynastic Egyptians in their construction and that is the fact that the walls are not plastered with inscriptions. Later pyramids that were tombs, had the precursor of the Book of the Dead, known simply as the pyramid texts, on their walls.
However, we have not yet determined the function of the Pyramid of Khufu. It was simply a means of projecting, through the shaft in the King’s chamber, the soul of the dead king to Orion, with whom in death he unites. The new king undergoes a ritual in which his life forces are suspended for twelve hours in order to accompany his dead predecessor to Osiris and be ‘born again’ as the living Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. So, effectively, the Pyramid is a vehicle for Coronation and the projection of the soul to its celestial abode.
4. A Meditation within the Pyramid

Akhenaton

Akhenaton was the great enigma of the eighteenth dynasty. He ruled Egypt for about 25 years in the middle of the 13th century BC and for a great part of that time had with him his consort the beautiful Nefertiti.
What was the enigma of Akhenaton? Why did his reign cause such disruption in the history of Egypt? His reign and the period immediately after it is referred to as the Armana Period. The King’s Court and center of religion was removed from Karnak to Armana a place equidistant between that great city of Amon, the Lord and Giver of Life and Heliopolis, near Cairo the even more ancient center of the worship of Ra.
The King’s new religion, the worship of the Aton, was more akin to the solar cult of Ra but it was in many ways different. The king ultimately forbade the worship of God in any other form and closed down the other temples in Egypt that were not dedicated to the Aton.
What exactly was the Aton? And what made the King so dramatically change the religion of his empire as a result of him ‘seeing the light’ is open to conjecture and is one of the greatest mysteries of Egypt’s history? It was not quite the same thing as Henry VIII wanting an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and forming his own Church in order to achieve his end.
Akhenaton's spiritual metamorphosis from Amenophis IV, as he was known upon ascending the divine throne of Horus to Akhenaton, was a process of religious and spiritual upheaval within himself. It was as if he, like St. Paul, had seen a blinding vision, which changed his life and caused him to impose the true religion of the worship of the Aton upon his people.
The King spent the rest of his life in his pleasure palace and worshipping at the great temple of the Aton at Armana. He ordered all the court artists to depict everything in a more realistic form. It is this one thing that has led to so much speculation about the form of the king for he is depicted as having female hips and breasts. However, he was certainly all male for he sired no fewer than six daughters and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Tutankhamon was his son! Another explanation was that he had himself so depicted as the living image of the Aton, which was both male and female.
What was the Aton? It was the life giving force behind the solar disc. It was represented by rays emanating from the solar disc, terminating in benevolent hands holding an ankh, the sandal strap which is the hieroglyph for life. Even today, the Coptic Church uses this as a form of the cross, which in real terms is a statement that Christ, through His death on the cross, has given us life eternal.
Who was Akhenaton? This is the ultimate question, for his depiction with female hips and breasts is accompanied by another very strange feature. He and his children, all have a very much-elongated skull and a very strangely shaped face with slanting, almost slit eyes and thick lips. So many first hand encounters with alien crafts report the beings as having many of the features of Akhenaton. Could he have been a genetic throw back to the race of Osiris?
Unfortunately, the mummy of Akhenaton does not exist. If it did, then we would be able to examine his skull and also his genetic composition. The skull of Tutankhamon is in the Cairo Museum, and its protrusion at the back is somewhat large