"The Egyptian tradition tells of a god-king named Menes, a figure whose celebrated feats, including bringing upper and lower Egypt together, may in fact be the those of a succession of ambitious overlords between 3200 and 3000 B.C. -- among them the shadowy kings identified as Narmer and Aha in ancient carvings."
"The earliest Egyptian kings were buried in Mastabas made of sun-baked brick and with a flat top and sloping sides. Surrounding the Mastabas were burial pits for the king's faithful retainers, concubines, court dwarfs, and even pets. There is some evidence that as many as 580 members of King Djer's court (around 2900 B.C.) were put to death so that they could accompany the king in the afterlife."
"The burial chambers of the kings grew larger over the years -- Mastabas grew to as much as 17 feet high with as many as 70 chambers. Some featured a room from which the spirit of the Pharaoh, represented by a statue, could gaze through a slot in an adjoining chamber to consider new supplies brought in by the priests."
"King Djoser's step pyramid held a granite burial chamber flanked by galleries crammed with funerary offerings -- held in over 40,000 stone vases."
"King Djoser's pyramid complex was surrounded by a massive stone wall 30 feet high and a mile long. The wall had thirteen false entries, to discourage intruders, and only one real entry."
"The Egyptians measured the Nile's flood with a nilometer, which was a calibrated stairway that descended into the river. For instance, a flood level of 26 feet was a 'good Nile'. As the Egyptian border was pushed south, more nilometers were built to give the Pharaoh the earliest possible forecast of what the national fate would be for that year."
"The Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty were tireless in their efforts to conserve water. Sesostris II began an ambitious irrigation project in the fertile Faiyum area that was finally completed by Ammenemes III. The project was a canal, 300 feet wide, leading from the Nile to a 670 square mile natural depression. The flow of the water to this basin was regulated by a series of sluice gates and a dam that held water for the dry months."
"The Hyksos invaded Egypt around 1650 B.C. Clad in body armor and wielding scimitars and compound bows they rode to war on chariots. The Egyptians were no match for them. An Egyptian priest of a later generation wrote, 'I do not know why God was displeased with us. Unexpectedly from the regions of the East came men of unknown race. Confident of victory, they marched against our land. By force they took it, easily, without a single battle.'"
"Egypt had no separate navy, but its army was well prepared to fight at sea. In 1190 B.C. Ramses III was threatened by an armada of Mediterranean seafarers. He set up a defense 'like a strong wall, with warships, galleys, and skiffs. They were completely equipped both fore and aft with brave fighters carrying their weapons and infantry of all the pick of Egypt'. This battle was fought near the mouth of the Nile and the Egyptians badly outgunned the invaders with their arrows (the invaders had only swords and spears). Also the Egyptian ships were powered by both oar and sail, making them more maneuverable. The invading ships were trapped between Egyptian sea forces and archers on shore and were 'capsized and overwhelmed in their place'."
"Twenty centuries of architecture are preserved in the ruins of Karnak's Temple of Amon Re. Many pharaohs added to the monuments of this complex which was begun in 2000 B.C. One of the last constructions was the huge entry gate built by the Nubian King Taharqa."
"According to Herodotus, some hosts at the frequently raucous banquets brought out a carved wooden mummy set in a small coffin to remind everyone of their eventual destiny."
"The Greek Herodotus wrote: 'When the Nile inundates the land, all of Egypt becomes a sea, and only the towns remain above water, looking rather like the islands of the Aegean. At such times shipping no longer follows the stream, but goes straight across the country. Anyone, for example, traveling from Naucratis to Memphis sails right alongside the pyramids.'"
"A minstrel's song inscribed in a tomb of 3000 B.C. sings: 'The span of earthly things is as a dream; but a fair welcome is given him who has reached the West'"
"On the walls of the Medinet Habu temple, Ramses III depicted what became of the enemies of Egypt as 'a lesson for a million generations.' Those not 'overthrown in their blood and made into heaps' were captured and 'branded and made into slaves stamped with my name, their women and children treated likewise.'"
"During much of Egypt's history, live animals representing the gods were kept in the temples, living in pampered luxury. A crocodile representing the god of sun, earth, and water basked in the temple pool at Crocodilopolis; the ibis of Thoth was kept at Hermopolis; a cat representing a goddess of joy and love lazed in a temple at Bast; and Apis, the sacred bull, was maintained at Memphis."
"It was standard Egyptian practice for a pharaoh to try to obliterate the name of a discredited predecessor from history. Thus Hatshepsut effaced the name of her servant Senmut, Thutmose diligently effaced the inscriptions and monuments of Hatshepsut, etc. Fortunately, the chiseled effacements often left the original inscriptions still recoverable."
"There were many festivals but perhaps the most famous was held during the time of the Nile flood in honor of Amon. In a colorful procession, Amon's statue was carried from its shrine at Karnak to the banks of the Nile, where it was loaded on a sacred barge and towed upstream to the temple of Luxor. It stayed in Luxor for nearly a month, then returned with equal pomp."
"The ancient papyrus entitled 'The Instruction of King Merikare' says: 'Do justice whilst thou endurest upon earth . . . A man remains over after death, and his deeds are placed beside him in heaps. However, existence yonder is for eternity, and . . . for him who reaches it without wrong-doing, he shall exist yonder like a god.'"
"Wild fowl was a prized delicacy at public feasts. At one opulent public feast, 1,000 geese were consumed in a single day."
"The Pharaohs were not without humor. Pharaoh Achthoes II dryly commented: 'royalty is a good profession'"
"There had always been slaves in Egyptian history, but their numbers increased during the New Kingdom when foreign conquest brought many prisoners of war. The least fortunate slaves were conscripted to work in the awful gold and copper mines of Nubia, the Sudan, and Sinai, where, according to the Greeks, water was strictly rationed and men dropped by the scores in the terrible heat. The most fortunate slaves found their way into menial service for the royal family or the nobility, where they fared bettered than the native Egyptian peasant."
"The Jackal represented Anubis, the god of embalming and the protector of the dead."
"The sphinx, a massive stone figure 240 feet long, has a lion's body but the face of Khafre. The Sphinx was a mythical beast, revered as the guardian of sacred places. It seems to have been shaped from an outcrop of rock left by Khufu's stonecutters."
"The Nile is an especially convenient 'road'. It flows from south to north, but the wind usually blows from north to south. Thus a sailor traveling northwards would have the current with him. If he needed to go south, he could sail."
"Children of ancient Egypt played much as those today. Some toys have survived -- dolls (made of clay or wood) and leather balls seemed to have been particularly popular. But there are wheeled toys and toys with movable parts (like a lion or crocodile that snaps its jaws when you jerk a string). Tomb paintings show children dancing and playing team games and even leap-frog."
"The Egyptians did not have money as we know it. Trading was done by barter. But it did become the custom to decide how much items were worth in terms of copper weights called 'deben'. You could then exchange articles worth the same amount of copper."
"Ramses III, a pharaoh of great military power and conquest, was tragically killed in a harem plot. Evidently one of his wives plotted to make her son king, instead of the chosen heir. Documents still survive that tell of the trial that followed."
"One man generally consumed ten loaves of bread and two jugs of beer a day -- this was a normal, if stark, diet."
"Many Egyptian children died at an early age. They did receive an 'official' name, duly registered by the scribes, but there were no family names and each child's name was different from his father's. When children became no longer nursed, they were fed papyrus shoots and boiled roots."
"Quail of the species 'Coturnix coturnix', a wild bird which now has been practically wiped out, were so plentiful in ancient Egypt that at the time of their migrations, they created clouds large enough to block the sun. Exhausted by their journey, the birds fell to the ground where they were easy prey for hunters. The quail were a great delicacy of ancient Egypt. These great migrations of quail continued into the 20th century, (in 1920 the Egyptians exported a record 3 million of these birds), but about 1930 the massive quail flights ceased."
"BD: 'Save me from that god who steals souls, who laps up corruption, who lives on what is putrid, who is in charge of darkness, who is immersed in gloom, of whom those who are among the languid ones are afraid.'"
"BD: an introductory hymn to the sun-god Re: 'He says: Hail to you, you having come as Khepri, even Khepri who is the creator of the gods. You rise and shine on the back of your mother (the sky), having appeared in glory as King of the gods. Your mother Nut shall use her arms on your behalf in making greeting. The Manu-mountain receives you in peace, Maat embraces you in all seasons. May you give power and might in vindication -- and a coming forth as a living soul to see Horakhty -- to the Ka of Ani."
"BD: The Mansion of the Prince is in festival, the noise of shouting is in the Great Place, the gods are in joy, when they see Re in his appearing, his rays flooding the lands."
"The most famous of the pyramids are those of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaura, all of which (along with three small pyramids of Menkaura's queens) are found a Giza. But the Egyptian kings built about 35 major pyramids most of them spread along the 50-mile stretch of the west bank of the Nile, just south of Cairo. Most of the Kings of the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom built pyramids, but the practice ended with the first kings of the New Kingdom."
"As much as 6,600 feet of material might go into the wrapping of a mummy. Some of these materials were wide sheets, others thin bandages about four inches wide. For mummies from nobility, these would be made of fine linen, and specially woven. For others, from less affluent circumstances, torn-up bed sheets would have been used. In one case, the sail from a boat was used with the rigging loops still visible."
"In 1200 A.D., when Abd al Latif, saw and wrote about it, the Sphinx was still in good condition -- in full glory. He mentions red varnish on its face as bright as if just put on. The nose was there also. Some say the Sphinx lost its looks around 1300 A.D. when it was mutilated by the Sultan Mohammed an-Nasir. Other blame the soldiers of Napoleon's expedition in 1798 for lobbing cannon balls at it."
"There is ancient graffiti in some tombs, recording visits of various people to even more ancient tombs. Some examples: 'The scribe Im??? came to see this tomb of Sobekneferu with his friend Hotep.' 'The scribe Bak came to see this tomb of the time of Sobeknefer. He found it like heaven in its interior.' 'The scribe Djehuti, true of voice, came to see this tomb of the time of Kheperkare -- may he live for all time. And then he praised god greatly for it.'"
"Dogs are shown on some stela and tombs. Some of these have the dog's names inscribed. Some examples: 'Gazelle', 'Hound', 'Black One', 'Kettle', 'The-tail-is-as-a-lion's', 'I-don't-like', 'Lively One', 'Breath-of-life-for-Sonebi', 'He's-a-shepherd', and 'Woofer'"
"Sometimes monuments to ordinary people can be found attached to the monuments of Nobles -- obviously with the Nobel's permission. One example is the stela of the harpist Neferhotep which was built by friends and has a touching dedication: ' . . . and everything good and pure for the spirit of the harpist Neferhotep, true of voice, born of the housewife Henu. It is his friend whom he loved, the Carrier of Bricks, Nebsumenu, who made this for him. Alas! give him love!'"
