Virtual tours

Virtual Tour of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization: Part I


Virtual Tour of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization: Part II



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The Ka and the Ba

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Understanding the pivotal concepts of Egyptian identity is a necessity to understand hieroglyphic writing. The Ka and the Ba are among the most important and complex hieroglyphic ideograms. "Ka" is a concept deeply rooted in the Ancient Egyptian Persona. In the simplest terms, it is the idea that each one of us has a soul consort mirroring our own souls, our spiritual double. This double takes after our own bodies "ghet" for it can only materialise with it to form us as a whole. This consort lives on even after our own death. Offerings to the Ka were a necessity since, like the person's physical body, the Ka needed nourishment. The idea is a bit similar to the Qareen in Islamic religion, however the nature of the Ka remains much more ambiguous. The phonetic biliteral sign with the predominant ideogram of the Ka represents the breast and outstretched arms of a person pictorially. Ka can also mean personality, individuality and even a man's fortune or his posi
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The myth of Jason and Medea: Love, Sacrifice and Revenge

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Jason and the Golden Fleece  One day there was a king named Aeson who was ruling the province “Iolcus” in Thessaly. Until, Pelias, the half-brother of Aeson deposed him and took the throne of Iolcus, threatening to kill any who disputed his claim.  Meanwhile the queen Alcimede , wife of Aeson was pregnant with a boy. She claimed that the boy died as she was giving birth to protect the child.  Aeson sent his son Jason (Iason in Greek) to the old Centaur Chiron who was living on the mountain of Pelion in Thessaly. Chiron brought up Jason and taught him how to fight and use all kinds of weapons until Jason became a strong, well-built young man.  After many years, Jason decided to return to Iolcus to regain his kingdom from Pelias.  Pelias felt guilty for what he had committed against his half-brother, so he asked his Oracle about the fate of his throne. The Oracle gave him a prophecy warning him of (a man with one shoe). This man was no other than Jason who helped an old woman to cross t
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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
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