Egyptomania

 The Ancient Egyptians and their culture have kept us astonished for hundreds of years. This is not limited to their skills in the arts and their construction of majestic temples, pyramids, and tombs with all the detailed histories they entail. The ancient Egyptians basically hacked the entirety of life. They always thought about how to make their lives easier and better. Also, their keen eye for the aesthetic has led them to take good care of their personal grooming, rising above the smelly caveman.  Ancient Egyptians have been doing effective, all-natural lifestyle hacks from more than seven thousand years ago, long before it became a hippie trend!  Ancient Egyptian Kohl pot minature pestle and mortar. Attribution:  Wellcome Collection .  Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) So, let’s learn some of the hacks originating from Ancient Egypt: 1) Milk and honey Milk and honey were used as skin routines back in ancient times. They are still used in some spa treatments and at homes as

  Al-Mummia (The Mummy) or the Night of Counting the Years is the only long feature film directed by the exquisite Shady Abd El Salam. It was produced in 1969 with a plot set in 1881, one significant year before the Anglo-Egyptian war. The photography is done by Abd El Aziz Fahmy and the music score is by  Mario Nascimbene. This movie was selected to be the Egyptian entry for the Academy Awards foreign film nominations, but was sadly overlooked. The movie may be critically acclaimed in Egyptian Cinema but it did not connect with a lot of audience, even in Egypt. This is NOT going to be one of those spoiler-free reviews. Watch the movie right now if you haven't. You have been warned. The simple detailed plot  The movie starts with the Cairene archaeologists discussing the surfacing of some antiquities (specifically a Book of the Dead papyrus) belonging to the never discovered tombs of the 21st dynasty on the black market. This has led the archaeologists to believe that someone in L

 Amenhottep IV  was an unusual king of ancient Egypt of the 18 th dynasty, New kingdom. There was probably a co-regency between Amenhotep IV and his father, Amenhotep III. That way, it would have begun in the twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth year of Amenhotep III’s reign. Others had suggested that this co-regency was in the thirty-seventh or thirty-ninth year. Amenhotep IV became a sole ruler from 1378/1352 BC onwards. From normal beginnings: The Pharoah Akhenaten started his rule with the name of (Amenhotep) like his father which means: the god Amun is satisfied. His coronation name was Nefer Kheperu Re (the transformations of Ra are perfect). Amenhotep IV married his cousin Nefertiti, who was the daughter of Ay and Tiy II and the granddaughter of Yuya and Tuya. He had probably six daughters from her. Amenhotep IV had a secondary wife, Kiya, who was the mother of Tutankhamun. At the beginning of his reign, the young king, Amenhotep IV worshipped the old gods, especially Amun of

Having trouble styling your hair? Hair styling wasn’t of a big problem for the ancient Egyptians because they used hair wigs, adorned with floral garlands, ribbons and beads.  Wigs weren’t only pretty looking but also provided protection from the sun heat and insects. When not using wigs, commoner males wore their hair short. Only priests were strictly forbidden from wearing these wigs because it was believed that   hair attracts impurities. They had to always keep their heads shaved bald, while servants fastened their hair at the back of their neck. As for kids, boys shaved their entire head except for one braided lock that was usually hanging at the left side, while girls kept their hair in a pigtail or ponytail. “With this ring I thee wed” Ancient Egyptians were the first to exchange wedding rings, they considered the circle to be a symbol of eternity “signifying the eternal love of a married couple”, they were also the first to wear the wedding ring on the ring finger of t

The Heb Sed is the Egyptian name for the king's royal jubilee. It is one of the oldest feasts of ancient Egypt. There is clear evidence for early pharaohs celebrating the Heb Sed: such as the pharaoh Den of the First Dynasty and the pharaoh Djoser of the Third Dynasty. Some kings have built a whole new festival temple dedicated to this purpose, while others reconstructed a festival hall on already existing temples. It is noteworthy to know that this festival was a replacement of an ancient ritual of killing the king who became incapable of running the country effectively because of ageing. Becoming an ancient Egyptian King was no joke! Motivation behind the festival: The festival aimed to renew the reigning king's power which was depleted over time, endangering the continued existence of the state. It proved that the king was still capable of running the country. It was celebrated by the king after 30 years of his rule.  Unfortunately, there are no surviving manuscripts or insc

Today, Egypt celebrates the Coptic new year of 1737, the feast of "Nayrouz". A lot of Coptic aspects take after ancient Egypt and the Coptic calendar is no different. The Copts themselves are the reason behind the more modern naming of Egypt derived from "the land of the Copts". Whatever evidence we have of ancient Egyptian pronunciation is based on the Coptic language, which is heavily derived from Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics but written in modified Greek letters. The Coptic Calendar: commemorating the martyrs The Coptic calendar we know today has officially started to commemorate the memory of the martyrs of the widespread persecutions conducted by the Roman empire, especially during the years of emperor Diocletian. Theses events led to the formation of the independent Coptic church and its adoption of the Coptic calendar to start with the month of "Tout", the month of the Martyrs coinciding with the start of Diocletian's bloody reign in 284 AD.  

Origins of the grandest pyramids date back to the modest pit graves of the predynastic  period, which were covered by simple mounds of sand and gravel. A   little later, with the onset of the first dynasty, the graves of the rulers and elite consisted of neat mud brick boxes, sunk in the desert, divided like a house , into several chambers. The tombs of the kings of the first and second dynasties followed this pattern, only with greater added complexity near the high cliffs at Abydos. In the third dynasty, the step pyramid of Djoser heralded the classic pyramid age. As from the 4 th till the 6 th dynasty, the Egyptians built pyramids for their God/kings but on smaller scale and smaller stones. The location of those pyramids lie between Abu roash, north West of Giza to Meidum near the entrance of Fayoum. This trend would soon demise where new kingdom pharaohs built their tombs in a communal royal burial ground mostly at the valley of kings at Thebes. The pyramids remain the most p

Imi dw3t, means the book of what is in the Duat "Netherworld". It also means the book of the hidden chamber. It was an important funerary text of the New Kingdom of Egypt. It tells the journey of the sun god Re through the Netherworld. It is often believed that the king takes the same journey and becomes one with Re in eternal life. The Amduat is divided into twelve hours according to the twelve hours of the night: it begins when the sun sets in the west and rises again in the east. The boat of the sun god faces many obstacles and the journey becomes a drama. The earliest complete copies of the Amduat are retrieved from the tomb of Thutmose the Third. The hours of the Amduat The first hour: the sun god enters into the Netherworld "the gate which swallows all" represented as ram-headed Ba. It describes the Netherworld's inhabitants and there's  a list of 741 deities in the burial chamber. The second and third hour: it describes the  fertile farmlands of the