The Elephantine Triad|The Elephantine Triad~~KHNUM (Khnenum: "To Create")~~Places of worship: The islands of Philae, Esna, and Elephantine~~Khnum was the great ram-headed creator god, who fashioned all the gods and men from clay on a potter's wheel. However, he is also known as the controller of the flow of the Nile. It was said that the Nile emerged from the Underworld through two caverns in Khnum's island of Elephantine, and that he thus controlled the chief source of fertility in Egypt, and that he sent half of the waters to Lower Egypt and half to Upper. Khnum became immensely more respected in the Third Dynasty when he was said to have ended a seven-year drought after King Zoser granted him land in exchange for the return of the Nile's floods. With Anukis and Satis he formed the Elephantine triad, and was said to be married to either the frog goddess Heket, or the fertility goddess Satis. ~~ANUKIS (Anuket: "To Embrace")~~Places of worship: Originally the Sudan, later at Elephantine.~~Anukis, together with Khnum, and Satis as her mother or sister, formed the Elephantine triad. She was a water deity, and was believed to have fertilized the fields during the inundation of the Nile. In her cult, she was worshipped as a goddess of lust, and her attributes and ceremonies were said to be obscene.~~SATIS (Sati or Satet: "to sow seed")~~Places of worship: Islands of Siheil and of Elephantine~~Satis was a goddess of fertility and love, and with Anukis as her sister or daughter, and Khnum as her husband, formed the Elephantine triad. In other mythologies, she was said to be the daughter of Ra as well as Khnum. Satis was generally a goddess of the Nile's inundation, though she later became a hunter-goddess and at one point was even considered as the Queen of the Gods.|Gods|38|||1,2,4,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0038.PIC
The Memphis Triad|The Memphis Triad~~PTAH~~Places of worship: Throughout Egypt, especially Memphis~~Considered one of the oldest of all Egyptian gods, Ptah formed the Memphite triad with Sekhmet and Nefertem, and was one of the most potent creator gods. As a creator god, he was unique in that he created by non-physical means, using his words combined with a spiritual power. In this function, Ptah was called the "Greatest of Craftsmen," and was the special god of craftsmen and artists. Ptah was identified with many of the other gods, but especially with Sokar and Osiris, particularly in their roles as gods of the dead, and thus he was generally depicted as mummified, holding the sacred djed-column. Also like Osiris, Ptah was worshipped in the form of the Apis bull. ~~SEKHMET~~Places of worship: Memphis~~Sekhmet was a fierce lion goddess known as the "Mighty One," and as a defender of the divine order, brought war, strife, and destruction to all of the enemies of Ra. Though she was married to the creator god Ptah in the Memphite triad, she was more closely involved with the sun god, and often became the Eye of Ra. She was also considered to be the royal serpent, or uraeus, on Ra's forehead, who defended him by spitting forth flames at his enemies. Sekhmet was often identified with the cat goddess Bast, and sometimes with her Memphite goddess Mut. She was generally depicted with a lion's head, holding a knife in her upraised hand, although in some cases her head took the form of a crocodile or the Eye of Ra. ~~NEFERTEM ("Lotus")~~Places of worship: Memphis~~The son of Ptah and Sekmet in the Memphite triad, Nefertem was symbolized by the lotus, and in this respect had an important role in many creation myths. Because Ra and Atum both rose from the waters of chaos in a lotus flower, Nefertem was looked upon as their younger equivalent. In one myth in which he was identified as the creator child, Nefertem shed tears which gave birth to mankind. It was said that Nefertem was also the god of beautiful aromas, and because of his beautiful smells he was called "The Watcher at the Nostrils of Ra."|Gods|39|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0039.PIC
The Theban Triad|The Theban Triad~~AMON-RA~~Places of worship: Throughout Egypt, especially in Thebes ~~When Thebes became the center of Egyptian royal power, Amon was elevated to the position of king of all the gods. Amon himself was known as "The Hidden," and his original characteristics are not known; but as he rose in power, he took on the attributes of all the other major gods. Like Geb, he was represented as "The Great Cackler," the goose who laid the cosmic egg; and like Shu, gained the life-giving powers of the wind. Amon was considered to live in all the other gods, and to be able to take their forms whenever he wanted--thus having power over them all. Despite all his power, Amon was also a personal god to the poor, and said to be incorruptible, and dedicated to justice for all. When he came to national power, Amon was also identified with the sun god Ra, and said to sail the heavens and underworld in his solar barque. Amon was generally depicted as a royal human, but his sacred animal was the ram. While originally he was said to be married to the feminine version of himself, Amaunet, he is more well-known as the husband of Mut and the father of Khons, who together with him formed the Triad of Thebes.~~MUT~~Places of worship: Asheru in Thebes~~Mut was considered the great divine mother of all things, and in the Theban triad was the wife of Amon and mother of Khons. Originally, her name meant vulture, and she was often depicted with a vulture-head. In some mythologies, she was also called the Great Sorceress, Mistress of Heaven, and Eye of Ra. ~~KHONS (Khonsu: ‘To traverse")~~Places of worship: Thebes, Hermopolis~~In the Theban triad, Khons was the son of Amon and Mut. His main role was that of a moon god, and in this respect he was identified with Thoth as reckoner of time. In this lunar function, he was seen as a runner who scoured the skies. He was also considered a god of the atmosphere similar to Shu. And in his role as Lord of Truth and maker of destinies, Khons gave oracles and had authority over evil spirits. He was generally represented as a mummified young man wearing the lunar disk, though sometimes he was falcon-headed when identified with Horus.|Gods|40|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0040.PIC
Logograms|Logograms~~The original form hieroglyphs took was that of simple picture writing, or logograms, which conveyed the meaning of the objects they represented through direct symbolic means. There are around 750 of these pictorial characters, usually classified into several basic groups.|Hieroglyphs|41|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0041.PIC
Phonograms|Phonograms~~Unlike primitive cave dwellers who drew simple wall pictures to describe everything in life, the early Egyptians realized that eventualy such pictures would become far too numerous and nearly impossible to memorize, so they created a simple alphabet to supplement their pictorial system. This alphabet actually took images from the pre-existing array of characters and assigned particular values to each. The phonetic alphabet is divided into three basic types: the uniconsonantal, the biconsonantal, and the triconsonantal. The uniconsonantal group, though it consists of less characters than the other two groups, contains the most basic and commonly used of the phonetic signs, and is quite similar to our modern day alphabet. The actual Egyptian alphabet did not include definite vowel sounds, but some are added in this chart to give a better understanding of how the words were pronounced.|Hieroglyphs|42|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0042.PIC
Determinatives|Determinatives~~The last major category of hieroglyphic signs is the determinatives. There were several of these characters, and they were developed to be placed at the end of words composed of logograms and phonograms, when it was necessary to further clarify specific meaning. Some examples of determinatives would be the characters for man, woman, god, wood, town, walk, or eat. However, instead of being placed at the beginning of a word, as determinatives they are placed at the end, signifying their status. ~ With this system, hieroglyphs became an extraordinarily flexible and sophisticated graphic system, only becoming lost after successive waves of foreign invasion (eg, the Greeks and Romans).|Hieroglyphs|43|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||H|AW0043.PIC
Hieroglyphs in STARGATE|Hieroglyphs in STARGATE~~Although the creators of STARGATE generated a whole new form of pseudo-hieroglyphs, the classical form was still used in some instances. The most significant use of classical hieroglyphs in the movie was on the thirteen panels of the StarGate's Cover Stone. Early in the film Daniel Jackson translates these panels to explain that the ancient Egyptians buried the stargate after their revolt against Ra to seal him off from Earth forever.|Hieroglyphs|44|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0044.PIC
Introduction (con't.)|Introduction (con't.)~~The Pyramid's structure contains more stone than has been used in the construction of all of England's churches, cathedrals, and chapels since the time of Christ. Even more impressive, the stones from which it was built weighed between 2 and 70 tons each, and were placed with incredible balance and precision. In its original completed state, the Great Pyramid was covered entirely with a polished white limestone casing that reflected the sun's rays, and made a stunning landmark even from miles away. Records indicate that the flat apex of the Pyramid was topped with a small pyramidal crown made of sheets of electrum (a composite of gold and silver) supported by wooden beams. Thus, the top would shine even brighter than the rest of the Pyramid--representing the sun--it is even said to have been decorated with a large blue depiction of the Eye of Horus (or Ra). The Great Pyramid is geographically aligned, so that a line drawn directly north from it will accurately divide the area of the Nile's delta region; lines drawn from the Pyramid's diagonals fairly accurately delineate the delta's boundaries.|Pyramids|45|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0045.PIC
Introduction (con't.)|Introduction (con't.)~~There are many areas of debate and speculation surrounding the Great Pyramid, but they generally may be distilled into who built it, how they built it, and why. The answers to these questions vary greatly, from the generally accepted views of the orthodox community of Egyptologists at one end of the spectrum, to the ideas of the prophecy pyramidologists, alien theorists, and various occultists on the other. A separate section has been devoted to each of these three fundamental areas of inquiry, and will explore some of the many theories addressing each of these questions.|Pyramids|46|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0046.PIC
How: Problems with the Orthodox Theory|How: Problems with the Orthodox Theory~~Researchers outside of the orthodox camp of Egyptology have pointed out several discrepancies in the traditional theory of pyramid construction. The first and most obvious problem they cite is that the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom only had access to copper tools which, though they work fine for cutting wood, were extremely ineffective in cutting the hard limestone and granite from which the Great Pyramid was constructed. Bronze was not introduced to Egypt until 800 years after the construction of the Pyramid; and even then stone masons were not able to build structures anywhere near as massive as the three original Giza pyramids. In fact, far later in Egypt's history the ambitious Ramesses II, using massive numbers of laborers, could not even come close to matching the monumental accomplishments of his forebears, though he had access to bronze tools and actually built from much softer stone. More stone was used in building the three large Giza pyramids within less than 100 years, than was used for construction during the entire New Kingdom period, despite the softer stone and more "advanced technology" used during this later era. The limestone and granite rock used by the Ancient Egyptians are so hard that even working with modern steel tools is extremely tedious and the tools frequently need to be re-sharpened. ~~A further problem with the stone-cutting theory is that several stone blocks would been mis-hewn, chipped, cracked and otherwise flawed. This would have been especially likely because the sediment from which the blocks were supposedly quarried contained shells and other fossils in its strata, which would have caused fracturing and many imperfections. The Great Pyramid alone contained 2.5 million large blocks; consequently, the construction would have left behind thousands of imperfect blocks the builders deemed unsuitable. Curiously though, no such stones have been discovered, and they were not used in the construction of later monuments because the builders of that period used the softer sandstone almost exclusively. Even more curiously, samples taken of the Great Pyramid's blocks contained no fossilized remains, except for very minute fragments, indicating a material apparently much different than bedrock stone.|Pyramids|48|||1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,45,46,9,47||V|AW0048.PIC
