Egyptomania

The Dendera Zodiacs have been one of the most baffling puzzles pertaining to Ancient Egypt. Most people may be familiar with the older circular zodiac which petty astrologers reduce to an Ancient Egyptian Horoscope. You may definitely align your western astrological sign with this zodiac and we may tell you how in a future article, but it certainly does not mean that you share characteristics with the gods of Egypt. The fundamental importance of these zodiacs lies in the actual astronomical science they signify. These zodiacs did not only threaten both established science and Catholic doctrine at some point in time but were also a key Champollion utilized to decipher the Rosetta Stone.  Description The older zodiac, also known as  Le Zodiaque de Paris  (the Zodiac of Paris) is circular and dates to about 50 BCE. It formed half of the ceiling in the Osiris chapel at the Dendera Temple. The second rectangular zodiac, which is about 80 years older is found as part of the Den...

 A meeting point of the khedivate and monarchic eras, the Mohammed Ali Palace in Manial stands witness to the political shifts in the tides of Egypt. Muhammad Ali palace is one of the most beautifully unique palaces in Egypt. It belongs to prince Muhammed Ali Tawfiq, the second son of Khedive Tawfiq , and the brother of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II. The construction of the palace began in 1903 AD and the land of the palace was chosen by Prince Muhammed Ali himself to be a marker of 20th century Egypt. The prince who never made it to kingship chose a very calm location for his palace, a place where he could relax and enjoy the beauty of nature. This land was an island of Manial El Rawda on the shore of the Nile in the Shubra area, extending to Al-Haj lake.  Mohammed Ali Tawfiq, forever a Prince. Photo Attribution: Rais67, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons What makes this palace a unique architectural masterpiece? Prince Mu...

Coptic art is now present in many variations in different churches all around the world but little is known about its Egyptian origins. Jesus Christ Icon depicting Jesus Christ sitting on the throne of glory, with four figures around him refer to the four gospels; the face of the lion that refers to the gospel of "Mark", The human face that refers to the Gospel of "Matthew", the face of the eagle that refers to the gospel of "John" and the face of the bull that refers to the gospel of "Luke." Jesus Christ holds an open book. and is written on his head in red ink: "O Lord, make up for him who has trouble." The icon was made by the artists Ibrahim and Yohanna Al-Armani, and it dates back to the 18th century. It’s located in the Coptic museum, Cairo. Origin: The Christian art originated from the Egyptian churches during the Byzantine, Greco-Roman era in Egypt and it was a mixture of old Egyptian and Greco-Roman mythology art. The fasci...

The Ummayad Caliphate was remarkable for many reasons. I t was the second caliphate in the Islamic history and one of the largest ruling empires known in all of history. Ummayad art was very distinctive Under the Umayyad Caliphate, the first School of the Islamic art was established. Art was influenced by Syrians, Sassanians (Iranians) and Byzantines producing this rich infuse of Artefacts where a lot of different art styles meet. These artefacts are, therefore, very difficult to date except the pieces written in Kufic ( oldest typeface of the Arabic language ) since it most certainly relates to the Islamic era. Pristine artefacts   of the Umayyad Caliphate are now displayed in The Museum of Islamic art in Cairo, Bab Al-Khlaq. The collection spans the floral, animal motifs as well as full on nature-inspired scenery. The most impressive artefact of Umayyad Caliphate was the Ewer of Marwan Ibn Mohamed, found at Abu Sir. It is currently  displayed in the museum of Islamic art i...

The equivalent hieroglyphic alphabet of the letter N is represented by the pictorial surface or ripple of water. "en" can mean "of" "to" or "for" where it can be seen joining long texts as an important preposition. Very rarely used as an ideogram (Gardiner refers to the absence of an ideogram altogether), it should mean water or the surface of water. The letter is more commonly used as a phonetic complement rather than an ideogram, to guide the pronunciation of other hieroglyphs in many instances.  A similar sign with the phonetic value of mu will also have the same pictorial representation but with three repeated ripples instead. The ideograph of a water surface is no longer valid here and we will either be referring to a whole body of water or a watery mass of the sky. This symbol can be seen frequently as a determinative such as at the end of "itrw" (river) where it does not have any phonetic value but is only there to signify water....

Can you imagine that some of these portraits were painted using beeswax? The history of the paintings: Fayoum portraits are unique pieces of art, they belong to the Greco-Roman era in Al Fayoum. These astonishing portraits are painted on thin wooden panels, they depict the entire detailed face of the owner and were believed to be  painted during the owner’s life to be displayed in his/her home then attached later to the owner’s mummy after his/her death. The technique: Some are painted in tempra and others in encaustic (wax). They were painted using thick, fine brushes or painting knives.  The beautiful traces of the brush strokes can be seen on the portraits.  The painters of these portraits must have been skilful to use wax as a painting medium since wax hardens so fast and needs to be applied carefully and quickly in order to obtain a plane painting layer. While the portraits painted using tempra technique have a less thick painting layer, it’s still diffi...

Black is the colour of the land after the flood and is the symbol of the fertility it brings to the land. In Ancient Egypt, the colour was frequently used for eye make-up as well as wall paintings, statues' coatings and tombs.  Black pigment rarely had the inorganic origin of the Pyrolusite (Manganese dioxide) mineral. Galena (lead sulphide) was used a bit more commonly for cosmetic purposes until it was replaced by carbon black and Kohl sticks. All the mineral  ores were simply ground to produce the pigment, whereas Kohl was only soot from burning plant. The most common pigment of all is  carbon black. It was extracted from organic charcoal. Charcoal was made mostly from burned plant material. Pyrolusite appears to have been much less robust than carbon black.  When it comes to coatings on statues and coffins, black was made with bitumen or heated-till-blackened pistacia resin (yellow mastic). The resin was either used as both the pigment and the binding material si...

Ankh is probably the most famous in Egyptian hieroglyphics but do you know why? Ankh is not an alphabet  letter; it belongs to the triliteral class of hieroglyphs. As an ideogram, ankh symbolises life. As to why it depicts life, it is hypothesised that the loop represents the sun over the horizon or the union of heaven and Earth to name two theories. Gardiner had interpreted the symbol's origin to represent a sandal strap tied around the ankle based on linguistic roots. As a phonetic, this hieroglyph is ānχ.  The true reason Ankh is so well engraved into our memories is its use as a very common motif in Ancient Egyptian architecture as well as pictorial representations in the hands of Gods wishing long, prosperous lives for Kings. In tombs, ankh is coupled with the "opening of the mouth ceremony" and the afterlife revival imagery where it is often seen extending down the King's lips. This hieroglyph uniquely remained in use throughout the Christian era in Egypt due to...