Thursday, April 14, 2011

Seven Wonders of the World - Light House of Alexandria By Muthukumar.V

This light house of Alexandria was one of the useful of the seven wonders of the world (for the sailors to return to the Great Harbor), which is a small differentiates it, when compared with the other wonders of the world. The mirror which was mounted on this lighthouse could reflect the light more than 35 miles off-shore. Of the 6 ancient destroyed wonders, this was the last to be destroyed around 1480 AD.

Location:

On the ancient island of Pharos, now a promontory on the harbor of the city of Alexandria in Egypt.

Description:

This lighthouse was built around 280 BC and was around 134 m in height. This was built in the city of Alexandria.

The light house had a good mirror which can reflect the sun light to a very long distance. Mythical stories used to say that this mirror was used to burn the enemy ships.

The Macedonian conqueror, Alexander during his successful reign, had tried establishing approximately 17 cities in the name of Alexandria. The only one survived long was the one in Egypt. That too even this city was not completely built by Alexander. The completion of the construction of this city was achieved by his commander Ptolemy I Soter.

Ptolemy connected Alexandria to the Pharos island by a bridge. It was realized that the sailing in this coastal region is very dangerous. That is why he decided to build a light house. This project was initiated during Ptolemy's reign in 290 BC and completed after his death by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. Sostratus who lived in the same time as Euclid, was the architect. This used to remain in the harbor for centuries. This wonder of the world also depicted in the Roman coins that time.

The writings of the Arab conquerors are very good source of information about this lighthouse. The new rulers moved the capital to the Cairo. So this place had lost its importance. Three earthquakes stuck in various periods (around AD 956, AD 1303 and AD 1323 ) have damaged the lighthouse significantly. The during AD 1480 the Egyptian Mamelouk Sultan, has built a medieval fort at the same place. That was the end to the story of the light house.

There are some more tales to the light house. Sostratus after he completed the lighthouse wanted his name to be carved on the light house. This was not allowed by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Ptolemy II wanted his name to be carved on the structure. But what Sostratus did is he first carved his name underneath, put plasters on it and then carved Ptolemy II's name. After some years, the plasters worn out and his name has come out to be known to all.

The design of the lighthouse was unlike the modern slim lighthouse towers. This was built in 3 stages, each built on top of the lower.

This lighthouse was so popular that the word Pharos came into French, Spanish and Italian to mean lighthouse.

About The Author

Muthukumar.V

Seven Wonders of the world - Ancient Times

Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt: - The Lessons of History

"My glory is declining. This little corner of Europe is too small to supply it. We must go East. All the great men of the world have there acquired their celebrity." Napoleon Bonaparte

One of the fascinating things about the history of Western civilization is its recurrent bouts of manic utopianism.
Stretching back at least to Alexander the Great, movements have appeared with astonishing regularity organized around various abstract philosophies agitating for a new, "higher" stage of human existence and social perfection.
The Inquisitions, the Crusades, communism, fascism, etc., have never brought utopia, but they have left a horrible trail of blood and sorrow.
It is a matter of historical curiosity that this behavior is predominantly a trait of Western civilization.

Only rarely have non-Western societies been consumed by a fiery creed which has prompted them to engage in massive ideological bloodletting or fanatical attempts to convert the world by force of arms.

Pol Pot and Chairman Mao, both of whom engaged in mass ideologically-driven domestic atrocities, are perhaps the exceptions that prove the rule.
What is the origin of this Western neurosis?
Is it nature or nurture?
Can the West be cured?
It was with just such thoughts in my mind that I recently perused Alan Moorehead’s classic book The Blue Nile. First published in 1962, it is a wonderful historical narrative of the storied branch of the Nile River which originates in the highlands of Ethiopia.
While the whole book is filled with fascinating tales and poignant historical anecdotes, the contemporary reader is drawn to the middle portion which tells the story of Napoleon Bonaparte ill-fated attempt at nation-building in Egypt.
The tale reinforces Marx’s dictum that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.
By 1798, the French Revolutionaries had largely succeeded in stamping out any domestic resistance to their radical reconstruction of French society.
The Church was persecuted, "reactionaries" were beheaded, and everything from the calendar to the system of weights and measures was remade in order to create a "more perfect social order".
The time had come to export their revolution to the benighted masses of the world.
Napoleon Bonaparte, a Corsican with proper revolutionary credentials, had just completed a series of stunning victories in Italy. Still only a citizen-General, he cast his eyes about for a new field of conquest.
Eventually, Napoleon Bonaparte settled on Egypt.
At that time, Egypt had been ruled for nearly 500 years by a curious caste of slave-warriors called Mamelukes.
Originally subservient to the Ottoman Sultan, by the late 1700s they had become largely independent of the Turks.

Since Mameluke rule was undeniably brutal and corrupt, Egypt made a nice target for the utopian impulses of the French Revolutionaries.
The fact that Egypt was rich with booty and sat atop the shortest route for the British to get to India was merely a "convenient coincidence".
Napoleon Bonaparte went to great lengths to play up the revolutionary aspect of the expedition. He first went to the intellectuals:

"Bonaparte’s influence upon the intellectuals of the Institut de France seems even more remarkable. Success, of course, is infectious, and in every age intellectuals have always been charmed by literate men of action, but Napoleon Bonaparte appears to have roused the Institut as though it were a corps of cadets about to follow him into battle. They invite him to become a member, and they are delighted by the modest air with which he reads papers, astonished at his knowledge and flattered by his interest in their work. All at once respectable men of science and letters, men like Monge and Berthollet who are many years his senior, can think of nothing so exciting as going off on a military expedition to Egypt.

The young commander is more than welcoming. He wants them all on his staff, engineers, geologists, mathematicians, chemists, zoologists, astronomers, geographers, mineralogists, archaeologists, arabists, poets, and painters; and in the end, almost without realizing what was happening to them, these sedentary and studious men really do become another corps of cadets following young Caesar into battle."

This was no war of banal plunder (at least not on the surface). This was going to be an historic struggle to bring enlightenment to the backwaters of the Middle East.
As Napoleon Bonaparte flagship, appropriately christened L’Orient, approached Egypt, he sent a message to the people stating that his intentions were merely to liberate them from the oppression of the Mamelukes. He played up his friendship with the Sultan and his respect for Islam.
Moorehead notes:

"At this stage, Napoleon Bonaparte still believed that the Sultan might be won over…Bonaparte himself, when he later dressed in Moslem clothes in Cairo and attempted to set up a kind of self-government among the imams and notables there, may really have deluded himself briefly that he might be accepted by the Egyptians as one of themselves."

The major combat operations phase of the expedition went rather smoothly. Napoleon Bonaparte engaged the Mamelukes in a brief series of skirmishes that culminated in the Battle of the Pyramids outside of Cairo.
The Mamelukes were initially unprepared for modern European weapons and tactics, and suffered heavy casualties in mass frontal assaults.
As the French settled into their new role as masters of the Nile, the Egyptian people were not fooled one bit by the propaganda.
They judged Napoleon to be no different than a long line of conquerors going back to Biblical times:

"In this shut-in, hothouse atmosphere, where the people were absorbed to the limit in their own parochial affairs, the energetic, proselytizing spirit of the French made no sense at all, and all their revolutionary talk of liberty, equality, and fraternity was merely rhetoric. This was a truth Napoleon Bonaparte still had to learn. The Egyptian imams and sheikhs who were confused about so much else were not taken in for two minutes by his declaration that he had come to rescue them from the Mamelukes. They knew that he wanted the power for himself and (unlike the Mamelukes), they suspected that it was useless to resist him. Napoleon Bonaparte could come to Cairo as a successful general, as a substitute for the Mamelukes, as one more new tyrant (and an infidel at that) to be added to the rest, or not at all; he could never hope to enter into partnership with Egyptians. It was at the very core of their nature to resist all governments in a passive and dissembling way, to defeat the tax-gatherer, to cheat the magistrates and to avoid military service.

Behind the locked doors of their houses and in their mosques they had their own brand of equality, fraternity, and liberty, and it had nothing to do with their rulers."

As the occupation wore on, the French were ground between the passive resistance of the masses and the new, guerilla tactics of the Mamelukes and the Bedouins.
The French decided to set up a government comprised of "friendly natives" (who were quickly branded as collaborators by the Egyptians).
The people also grew increasingly disillusioned with various French reforms of their government.

Moorehead continues:

"…what the French appeared to be offering them was not freedom but a new sort of subservience, worse than the one they had known before because it was alien and strange. The Mamelukes had been lax in gathering taxes, but the French were proving very thorough; they employed Copts and Greeks to ferret out the last piaster and it was difficult to come to some comfortable arrangement with a bribe. The proposed census was going to make concealment even harder…they had no need for canals, new weights and measures, and new schools. Above all, they hated Christian interference in their private lives.

They did not believe Bonaparte’s protestations of his respect for Muhammad, nor were they much impressed by his dressings-up in turban and caftan or the great celebrations he ordered for the birthday of the Prophet; every move his soldiers made was an affront to the Muhammadan way of life."

Inevitably, an organized resistance began to form. Bit by bit, it became more effective in carrying out surprise attacks on the occupying French army.

"It was soon realized that the campaign which had opened so brilliantly had only just begun, and was about to enter a new phase; in place of pitched battles which were short and victorious they were faced with guerrilla warfare which promised to be long and hard."

Gradually, it began to dawn on Napoleon Bonaparte that the occupation was a no-win situation. Also, he began to receive messages from Paris that the revolutionary government was in a shambles.
Since he had bigger fish to fry, Napoleon Bonaparte decided that it was a good time to make his exit from the Egyptian campaign.
Leaving his army behind to continue slugging it out with the guerrillas, Napoleon Bonaparte gathered his entourage of intellectuals and sycophants and headed home.
Moorehead describes the scene:

"Early on August 22, Napoleon Bonaparte boarded the Murion, which was waiting two miles out from the same beach at Marabu where he had first come ashore in Egypt fourteen months before. All his fellow passengers agreed that the general was in the best of spirits on the hazardous voyage home. As they ran along the North African coast to Cape Bon, he played vingt-et-un, discussed geometry and physics with Monge, and drew them all into his schemes for the future. They hardly saw another ship until they touched in at Corsica, and then, on October 9, seven weeks after leaving Egypt, ran in through the British blockade to St. Raphael. A month later, Bonaparte was dictator of France."

While Napoleon Bonaparte certainly landed on his feet, his army was left trapped behind the British blockade fighting an increasingly desperate war with Egyptian partisans, Mameluke "dead-enders" and Turkish troops sent by the Sultan to recover his lost province.
They struggled on for another year and a half until a negotiated settlement was reached and the survivors could be evacuated back to France.
After their departure, Egypt quickly drifted back to its traditional status-quo.

"It was a sad end to a great adventure, and it created the impression that Napoleon Bonaparte had accomplished nothing very much in Egypt.

The Suez Canal was not dug, the new boulevards and waterways in Cairo were abandoned, French military law was forgotten along with their new scheme for weights and measures, their hospitals, their census and their proposed dams along the river."

Egypt descended into a horrible civil war between various factions in the wake of the French withdrawal.
After a great deal of death and destruction, an Albanian soldier of fortune named Muhammad Ali emerged victorious. Moorehead notes with a sad irony:

"…the Egyptians, after a decade of invasion and civil war, could now subside once more into the familiar comforts and miseries of Oriental despotism."

This story has everything that a modern observer of American Middle Eastern policy could desire.
It was set in an exotic Muslim land enduring many years of an oppressive and corrupt government.
It starred a radical Western leader with dreams of remaking the world.
There was a copious quantity of propaganda that the invasion would bring enlightenment and freedom to a benighted people.
There was a quick and brilliant military "cakewalk" as the invading army used modern tactics and weapons to overwhelm all resistance and set up a puppet government.
There was a gradual erosion of goodwill between the occupier and the occupied, culminating in a vicious guerilla war.
And, in the end, it was the common French soldier and the hapless civilians of the targeted land who paid the price for the whole sordid affair.
Ironically, a French crusade for liberty in the Middle East ended with despotism in Egypt and the lapse of France herself into the grips of a military dictatorship.
There are numerous morals to this story which America would do well to heed, since those who do not learn from history are often condemned to repeat it.
February 21, 2005
Steven LaTulippe is a physician currently practicing in Ohio. He was an officer in the United States Air Force for 13 years.

Mummies Around the World

Mummies are associated with the legends of Egypt, but archaeologists have excavated preserved human remains the world over. Dr Joann Fletcher explores the fascinating and varied history of mummification across continents.

Beyond the Hype

'With 'mummy unwrapping parties' all the rage, otherwise sanctimonious Victorians felt no qualms desecrating pre-Christian bodies...'

Although the recent discovery of a 2500-year-old Persian mummy has proved to be a fake, the word 'mummy' is generally believed to derive from a Persian word, mummiya, meaning 'bitumen', used to describe the blackened state of ancient Egyptian bodies.
The term is now generally applied to all human remains which retain their soft tissue, either by natural means or artificial preservation.

Mummification can be found on every continent of the world, but the process itself is inextricably linked with the culture of ancient Egypt and for many the word 'mummy' is synonymous with Egypt itself.
Indeed, when the first mummy studies began in the early 19th century, those examined were almost always those brought back as souvenirs from wealthy tourists' travels in Egypt.
With 'mummy unwrapping parties' all the rage, otherwise sanctimonious Victorians felt no qualms desecrating pre-Christian bodies and even sent specially-printed invitation cards: 'Lord Londesborough at Home: A Mummy from Thebes to be unrolled at half-past Two'.
Even less fortunate were those mummies exported to the US for use in the papermaking industry or even, as Mark Twain reported, to be burnt as railroad fuel.
In popular fiction mummies were reduced to little more than bandaged corpses with arms outstretched as they staggered towards some hapless victim. In Bram Stoker's 'Jewel of the Seven Stars', his reanimated Egyptian princess established an enduring image of the villainous mummy endlessly repeated by Hollywood, from Boris Karloff's 1932 film 'The Mummy' ('It comes to Life!') to the current big-budget re-makes of recent years..
Yet lost beneath the fiction and the hype is the fact that these totally fascinating, wonderful 'artefacts' were once living people, and preserving them in as lifelike a way as possible was actually regarded as a way of providing a permanent home for the soul whilst effectively denying and ultimately cheating death itself.

A growth industry

'In the deluxe version, the brain was generally extracted down the nose and the entrails removed before the hollow body was dried out with salts.'

Certainly in Egypt mummification was very much a growth industry, with levels of service depending on cost.
In the deluxe version, the brain was generally extracted down the nose and the entrails removed before the hollow body was dried out with salts.
The dried skin was then treated with complex blends of oils and resins whose precise nature is now being studied using the latest analytical techniques.

Mummy of Wah, an Egyptian estate manager, wrapped in 375m of linen, c.2000 © With hairdressers and beauticians called in to restore a groomed, lifelike appearance, the finished body was then wrapped in many metres of linen; one estate manager called Wah (c.2000 BC) had been wrapped in an amazing 375 square metres of material, although this could often be recycled household linen as well as that purpose-made for mummification.
Covered in a range of protective amulets and placed in its coffin, elaborate funeral ceremonies designed to reactivate the soul within the mummy were accompanied by the words 'You will live again for ever. Behold, you are young again for ever', before the mummy was buried with generous supplies of food, drink and everything the soul of the deceased would need for a comfortable afterlife.
The Egyptians buried their dead in the great expanses of desert away from the cultivation on the banks of the River Nile, but whereas the wealthy were artificially mummified and placed in specially built tombs, the majority were simply buried in hollows in the sand.
Yet here they too were mummified by natural means, as corrosive body fluids drained away into the same hot dry sand which desiccated and preserved their skin, hair and nails. Accidentally uncovering such bodies must have had a profound effect upon those able to recognise individuals who had died sometimes years before, quite literally witnessing eternal life in action.

Experiments

'...the Egyptians finally cracked it by removing the internal organs where putrefaction actually begins'

As burial practices for the wealthy became more sophisticated, those once buried in a hole in the ground demanded specially built tombs more befitting their status.Yet here they were no longer in direct contact with the sand so their bodies rapidly decomposed.
This meant that an artificial means of preserving the body was required, and so began a long process of experimental mummification, and a good deal of trial and error!
Although recent excavations at the site of Hierakonpolis suggest that the Egyptians were wrapping their dead in linen as early as c.3400 BC, with linen impregnated with resin or even plaster to retain the contours of the body used by c.3000 BC, it wasn't until around 2600 BC that the Egyptians finally cracked it by removing the internal organs where putrefaction actually begins.
And for the next three millennia they refined and perfected their techniques of embalming both humans and animals to become the greatest practitioners of mummification the world has ever seen.
Yet for all their skill, the Egyptians were comparative latecomers to the art of body preservation, which had already been practised in South America for thousands of years before the Egyptians ever began.

The world's richest man
'In some cases the faces have been repainted several times and damage to the area of the feet suggests they stood upright, perhaps as objects of veneration.'

Discovered on the coastal area of the Atacama desert in northern Chile and southern Peru, the world's oldest mummies were created by small fishing communities known as the Chinchorro.
Although regarded as primitive in the absence of farming, pottery, textiles and literacy, their complex mummification techniques actually reveal a highly sophisticated culture.
From c.6000 BC, the Chinchorro began to 'rebuild' their dead, with bodies carefully defleshed and the skin, brain and internal organs removed. The bones were dried with hot ashes before the whole lot was then reassembled using twigs for reinforcement bound tightly with reeds.
Over this framework the skin was reapplied, and supplemented where needed with sea lion or pelican skin.
A thick layer of ash paste was applied over the body and a stylised clay mask used to cover the face, painted with either black manganese or red ochre to give the mummies a rather clone-like, uniform appearance.

It is difficult to know exactly why such pre-literate societies practised mummification, but it must surely reflect a desire to keep their dead with them since the mummies do not seem to have been buried immediately.
In some cases the faces have been repainted several times and damage to the area of the feet suggests they stood upright, perhaps as objects of veneration.
When finally buried the mummies were interred in family groups, and since the earliest Chinchorro mummies are children and foetuses, it is possible that women were the first to practice mummification in an attempt to keep their dead children with them.
The mummification begun by the Chinchorro continued and evolved throughout pre-Hispanic times amongst localised Peruvian cultures such as the Nazca and Chiribaya of the desert regions, and the Chachapoyas 'Cloud People' whose mummies have been found high above the Amazon rain forests.
Bodies were mummified in a sitting position with knees drawn up under the chin and hands placed near the face, and with jaws often having fallen open, Edvard Munch's celebrated painting 'The Scream' is based on a Peruvian mummy he saw in a Paris museum.
The upright position allowed body fluids to drain away through gravity, with the body itself preserved and protected within masses of superbly decorated textiles.

Ice mummies
'...the majority of European and North American mummies were created by completely natural means...'

Mummies also date from the Inca period, when the habit of offering human sacrifices on mountain tops also produced 'Ice Mummies' through the natural process of freeze-drying.In recent times over 100 such mummies have been found high in the Andes, surrounded by gold and silver figurines and offerings designed to accompany them to the gods.

A mummified Guanche, agreed to be an adult male © The Inca also used artificial techniques to preserve their dead, with mummified royalty regarded as very much alive and fed, clothed, paraded at important events and consulted in times of trouble.
Although the mummies of the Inca kings were 'so intact that they lacked neither hair nor eyebrows and were in clothes just as they had worn when alive', the Spanish conquerors of 1532 could not accept the way in which the dead were treated as living beings and to preserve their mortal souls they destroyed as many mummies as they could find - once stripped of their gold adornments.
Rather closer to home the Spanish also destroyed much of the culture of the Guanches, native inhabitants of the Canary Islands and descendants of the Berbers from nearby North Africa. The cave-dwelling, goat-herding Guanches mummified their dead and although the Spanish again destroyed all the mummies they could find, the few which remain display highly sophisticated techniques of preservation using locally available materials.
Recent examination has also suggested a link with the mummification practices of ancient Egypt, an important connection since the Guanches were still mummifying their dead when the Spanish arrived in the 15th century AD.

Yet the majority of European and North American mummies were created by completely natural means, such as the 'Iceman' whose frozen body was recently discovered high in the Alps near the Austrian-Italian border where he had died some 5000 years ago.
A further 8 frozen bodies of women and children in seal-skin clothing were found at Qilakitsoq in Greenland, although these 'Greenland Mummies' are only 500 years old.
Closest to home are the 'Bog Mummies' of north-western Europe, discovered in peat bogs where the acidic environment has preserved their soft tissue and produced a dark brown leather-like appearance.
Dating largely from the Iron Age (c.400 BC - AD 400), many of these Celtic bodies show evidence of fractured skulls, garrotting and slit throats, their violent deaths suggesting that they were victims of ritual sacrifice.

Face to face with the past
'...human remains were once the very last thing archaeologists were concerned with in their haste to reach the grave goods.'

Other evidence of human sacrifice has been found among a group of superbly preserved mummies some 3500 years old, but whilst they have Caucasian features, red-blond hair and even tartan clothing their discovery in the Takla Makan Desert in China has understandably caused consternation!Yet the presence of ancient Europeans in China must be connected with the fact that the region lay at the crossroads of ancient trade routes between China and Europe.
The vast expanses of the Eurasian Steppes were also inhabited by Scythian nomads who also mummified their dead with great success to judge from mummies such as the so-called 'Ice Maiden', recently discovered in the permafrost in the Altai Mountains between Siberia and Outer Mongolia.

A Peruvian male mummy wearing a textile headband © Mummies have also been found in Alaska, southwest USA, Italy, Australia and Japan, and every one of them can reveal much about the times in which they lived.
Since most of their cultures were pre-literate, their actual remains are often the only means of finding out about them, and bearing in mind that the majority of mummies recovered today are part of rescue excavations, modern examination techniques are now virtually non-destructive.
From the early days of X-ray analysis, CAT-scans (computerised axial tomography), endoscopy, electron microscopy and DNA analysis for example are now used to provide valuable information regarding lifestyle, profession, relationships, health, disease, diet and even drug use of those living thousands of years ago.
'...human remains were once the very last thing archaeologists were concerned with in their haste to reach the grave goods.'

Although it has been said that to look upon a mummy is to come face to face with our own past, human remains were once the very last thing archaeologists were concerned with in their haste to reach the grave goods.
Yet the actual remains of those who created the civilisations in the first place are surely our most precious legacy from the ancient world, and therefore must finally be treated as such.

About The Author
About the authorDr Joann Fletcher is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of York and as part of the University’s Mummy Research Group has undertaken work on human remains in Egypt, Yemen, South America, Italy and Ireland.
She is also consultant Egyptologist to Harrogate Museums and Arts and a number of museum collections in the north of England. Her publications include The Search for Nefertiti (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004), The Egyptian Book of Living and Dying (DBP, 2002), Egypt's Sun King: Amenhotep III (DBP, 2000) and the Lonely Planet Guide to Egypt, and as consultant to the media she makes regular appearances on television and radio.

Ancient Egypt Discovery Champollion and the Rosetta Stone

Egypt discovery is one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of archaeology. The Middle Ages knew of Egypt as a Roman colony and a Christian settlement; the Renaissance presumed that civilization had begun with Greece.

Even the Enlightenment, though it concerned itself intelligently with China and India, knew nothing of Egypt beyond the Pyramids.Egyptology was a by-product of Napoleonic imperialism.
When the great Corsican led a French expedition to Egypt in 1798 he took with him a number of draughtsmen and engineers to explore and map the terrain, and made place also for certain scholars absurdly interested in Egypt for the sake of a better understanding of history.
It was this corps of men who first made Egypt Discovery and revealed the temples of Luxor and Karnak to the modern world; and the elaborate Description de L'Egypte (1809-13) which they prepared for the French Academy was the first milestone in the scientific study of this forgotten civilization.

For many years, however, they were unable to read the inscriptions surviving on the monuments.

Typical of the scientific temperament was the patient devotion with whichChampollion, one of these savants, applied himself to the decipherment of the hieroglyphics.
He found at last an obelisk covered with such "sacred carvings" in Egyptian, but bearing at the base a Greek inscription which indicated that the writing concerned Ptolemy and Cleopatra.
Guessing that two hieroglyphics often repeated, with a royal cartouche attached, were the names of these rulers, he made out tentatively (1822) eleven Egyptian letters; this was the first proof that Egypt had had an alphabet.

Then he applied this alphabet to a great black stone slab that Napoleon's troops had stumbled upon near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile.
This "Rosetta Stone" contained an inscription in three languages: first in hieroglyphics, second in "demotic" the popular script of the Egyptians and third in Greek.

With his knowledge of Greek, and the eleven letters made out from the obelisk, Champollion, after more than twenty years of labor, deciphered the whole inscription, discovered the entire Egyptian alphabet, and opened the way to the recovery of a lost world.
The Egypt Discovery for the world to Marvel and rejoice.

It was one of the peaks in the history of history!

"The Rossetta Stone"

"And the Egyptian Civilisation Was Resurrected Once More!"

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Cairo The Capital of Egypt & Paris of the Middle East

The Egyptian word for both the capital Cairo and the country as a whole is the same: Misr, and at times, when they refer to the city, they add the phrase "the mother of the world" (Um el-dunia).

this is Cairo; Paris of the Middles East, Near East and Africa.As the Egyptian call it, the "Mother of the world"
Perhaps, the Ancient Egyptians were great builders, but no doubt the modern Egyptian if not surpass them in art and science, they are certainly equal to their greatness.
Marvell with me at Cairo, the greatest City in Africa.
With a population of 16 million, Cairo is the largest African city.
The Egyptian capital now extends on either side of the Nile, the two banks connected by a series of bridges supported by Roda and Gezira islands in the middle of the river.
The centre of Cairo is a veritable hive of activity, the traffic is massive and the noise is very live! to say the least.
Nonetheless, this is an impressive great metropolis in which different religions and cultures live side-by-side, though Islam predominates.
The Egyptian word for both the capital and the country as a whole is the same: Misr, and at times, when they refer to the city, they add the phrase "the mother of the world" (Um el-dunia).
This reminds us that in medieval times Cairo was the world's largest city, and that its university, El-Azhar, is the oldest in the world.

The centre of modern Cairo

The renovation of the city centre, carried out to mark the opening of the Suez Canal, transformed an outlying district into the heart of the capital.

In Bab al-Hadid, a square near Central Station, is a great statue of Ramses II.

This granite work stands 10 metres high and was found in the ruins of Memphis.

Further along, the Azbakeya gardens occupy the site in bygone days of a pond around which stood the principal European residences and the Palace of Mohammed Ali.

The pond was drained in 1837 and the gardens are now flanked on all sides by the city's finest cafes,banks, shops and department stores. The city's true heart revolves around the Midan al-Tahrir, however.

It is in and around this square that we find the principal hotels, embassies and out¬standing buildings, such as the Parliament, the Geo¬graphic Society and, to the north, the Egyptian Muse¬um.

When you need a break from city life, try a round of golf on the famous Mena House course overlooking the Pyramids, watch the horse racing at the Gezira Club or visit the Zoo and the Botanical Gardens.

Take a trip on the Nile in a felucca or ride on horseback from the Giza Pyramids to Sakkara.

For a day trip outside Cairo visit Haraniyya village and see the beautiful tapestries and weaving produced by local people.

If you wish, you may get away from it all at the top of the Cairo Tower, a modern 187 meter-high tower with views of the city from all sides, topped by a revolving restaurant.

Cairo comes alive at night, which is the best time to shop, eat delicious Middle Eastern cuisine, or simply watch the world go by from a pavement cafe.

You can dine in a floating restaurant on the Nile, sample an apple-flavored shisha waterpipe at a coffee-shop or see oriental dancers and cabarets at a luxury hotel.

The splendid Opera House complex houses several galleries (including the Museum of Modern Art), restaurants and concert halls. Listening to Arabic music under the stars, in the open-air theater, is a magical experience.

At El-Ghuriya, in the heart of Islamic Cairo, you can watch folk musicians and whirling dervish dancers. And don't forget the most essential after-dark experience, the Sound and Light show at the Pyramids, a dramatic fusion of light and music recounting the story of antiquity.

Many New Mall and Supermarkets

Most of the monuments in Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt are not so difficult to identify.

Most have one of several different types of markers and the more important have full descriptions.

Therefore, walking through one of the historical areas of Cairo, one does not necessarily need a guide, though certainly it helps.

Modern Cairenes consider Central Cairo to consist of the area bordered by Old Cairo to the south, Islamic Cairo to the east and the Nile River to the west, but this covers a number of different districts.

Modern Cairo (Central Cairo)

Islamic Cairo is not the oldest section of Cairo, as that distinction belongs to Old Cairo. Westerners visiting Cairo many not wish to think in terms of Islamic here, but rather medieval. Indeed this area encompasses the medieval history from beginning to end.

Alexandria - Egypt The Pearl of the Meditranion

Egypt's Alexandria, has an atmosphere that is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern; its ambiance and cultural heritage distance it from the rest of the country although it is only 225 km. from Cairo.

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt

Alexandria (Arabic: الإسكندرية al-Iskandariyya; Coptic: Rakotə; Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια; Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya), with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort.
Alexandria extends about 32 km (20 miles) along the coast of the Mediterranean sea in north-central Egypt. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria), and is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez, another city in Egypt.
Alexandria was also an important trading post between Europe and Asia, because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
In ancient times, Alexandria was one of the most famous cities in the world. It was founded around a small pharaonic town c. 334 BC by Alexander the Great.
It remained Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 AD when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat was later absorbed into Cairo).
Alexandria was known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), the Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the ancient world) and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa (one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages).
Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhakotis existed there, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Alexandria Egypt Centeral

ClimateAlexandria has a Mediterranean climate: mild rainy winters and hot dry summers. January and February are the coldest months with high temperatures ranging from 12°C (53°F) to 18°C (64°F). Alexandria experience violent storms, rain and sometimes hail. July and August are the hottest months of the year with a monthly average high temperature of 31°C (87°F). While autumn and spring are the ideal time to visit Alexandria with temperatures averaging 22°C (71°F).

Weather averages for Alexandria

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average high °C (°F)	17 (63)	18 (64)	20 (68)	23 (73)	26 (79)	28 (82)	28 (82)	30 (86)	28 (82)	27 (81)	23 (73)	19 (66)
Average low °C (°F)	09 (48)	10 (50)	11 (52)	14 (57)	17 (63)	20 (68)	22 (72)	23 (73)	22 (72)	18 (64)	15 (59)	11 (52)
Precipitationmm (inches)	55.8 (2.2)	27.9 (1.1)	12.7 (0.5)	5.1 (0.2)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	10.2 (0.4)	27.9 (1.1)	53.3 (2.1

Alexandria Egypt at Night

History

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 332 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexándreia). Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates.
Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley.
An Egyptian townlet, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore and was a resort filled with fishermen and pirates. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt for the East and never returned to his city.
After Alexander departed, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Following a struggle with the other successors of Alexander, his general Ptolemy succeeded in bringing Alexander's body to Alexandria.
Though Cleomenes was mainly in charge of seeing to Alexandria's continuous development, the Heptastadion and the mainland quarters seem to have been primarily Ptolemaic work.
Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage.
In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and for some centuries more, was second only to Rome. It became the main Greek city of Egypt, with an extraordinary mix of Greeks from many cities and backgrounds.
Alexandria, sphinx made of pink granite, Ptolemaic.Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism but was also home to the largest Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, was produced there.
The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic center of learning (Library of Alexandria) but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian.
From this division arose much of the later turbulence, which began to manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater who reigned from 221–204 BC. The reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon from 144–116 BC was marked by purges and civil warfare.
The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction in 80 BC, according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander but only after it had been under Roman influence for more than a hundred years.
It was captured by Julius Caesar in 47 BC during a Roman intervention in the domestic civil war between king Ptolemy XIII and his advisors, and usurper queen Cleopatra VII. It was finally captured by Octavian, future emperor Augustus on August 1, 30 BC, with the name of the month later being changed to august to commemorate his victory.

In 115 AD, vast parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the Jewish-Greek civil wars which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it.
In 215 AD the emperor Caracalla visited the city and, because of some insulting satires that the inhabitants had directed at him, abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms.
On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami (365 Crete earthquake),[3] an event two hundred years later still annually commemorated as "day of horror".
In the late 4th century, persecution of pagans by newly Christian Romans had reached new levels of intensity. In 391, the Patriarch Theophilus destroyed all pagan temples in Alexandria under orders from Emperor Theodosius I.
The Brucheum and Jewish quarters were desolate in the 5th century. On the mainland, life seemed to have centered in the vicinity of the Serapeum and Caesareum, both which became Christian churches. The Pharos and Heptastadium quarters, however, remained populous and were left intact.
The ancient Roman Amphitheatre in Alexandria
Historic map of Alexandria by Piri ReisIn 619, Alexandria fell to the Sassanid Persians.
Although the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general Amr ibn al-As, captured it after a siege that lasted fourteen months.
Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798. French troops stormed the city on July 2, 1798 and it remained in their hands until the arrival of the British expedition in 1801.
The British won a considerable victory over the French at the Battle of Alexandria on March 21, 1801, following which they besieged the city which fell to them on 2 September 1801.
Mohammed Ali, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, began rebuilding the city around 1810, and by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory.
In July 1882 the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied. In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the Lavon Affair. Only a few months later, Alexandria's Mansheyya Square was the site of a failed assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Nice Video of Alexandria Today

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt

None other than Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, Of all the beautiful women of history, has left us such convincing proofs of her charms, for the tide of Rome's destiny, and, therefore, that of the world, turned aside because of her beauty.

Julius Caesar, whose legions trampled the conquered world from Canopus to the Thames, capitulated to her, and Mark Antony threw a fleet, an empire and his own honor to the winds to follow her to his destruction.
Disarmed at last before the frigid Octavius, she found her peerless body measured by the cold eye of her captor only for the triumphal procession, and the friendly asp alone spared her Rome's crowning ignominy.

Who was Cleopatra?
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt VII Thea Philopator was a Hellenistic co-ruler of Egypt with her father (Ptolemy XII Auletes) and later with her brothers/husbands Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV.She later became the supreme ruler of Egypt, consummated a liaison with Gaius Julius Caesar, that solidified her grip on the throne, and, after Caesar's assassination, aligned with Mark Antony, with whom she produced twins.
In all, Cleopatra Queen of Egypt had four children, one by Caesar (Caesarion) and three by Antony (Cleopatra Selene II, Alexander Helios, Ptolemy Philadelphus).
Her unions with her brothers produced no children: it is possible that they were never consummated; in any case, they were not close.
Her reign marks the final end of the Hellenistic Era and the beginning of the Roman Era in the eastern Mediterranean.
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt (her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, ruled in name only before Augustus had him executed).
After Antony's rival and Caesar's legal heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian (who later became the first Roman Emperor, Augustus), brought the might of Rome against Egypt, it is said that Cleopatra took her own life on November 30, 30 BC, allegedly by means of an asp.

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt legacy survives in the form of numerous dramatizations of her story, including William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, several modern films and the HBO series Rome.
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was a direct descendant of Alexander's general, Ptolemy I Soter, son of Arsinoe and Lacus, both of Macedon.
A Greek by language and culture, Cleopatra is reputed to have been the first member of her family in their 300-year reign in Egypt to have learned the Egyptian language.

But was she Loved by the Egyptians?

Early years of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt

ChildhoodCleopatra is an Ancient Macedonian name, frequently used in Macedonia in the time of Philip II of Macedon, and was born by several members of the Hellenistic dynasties; hence the number, a modern device to distinguish her from other Ptolemaic Cleopatras.
She was the third daughter of the king Ptolemy XII Auletes, probably also of her father's sister. Her nickname means "Loving her Father."
Little is known about Cleopatra's childhood, but she would have observed the disordered events and loss of public affection for the Ptolemaic dynasty under the reign of her father.
It is said that her father survived two assassination attempts when a servant found a deadly puff adder in his bed, and a servant who tasted his wine died afterward.
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt eldest sister Tryphaena also tried to poison her, so she began using food-tasting servants.
This disloyalty occurred for many reasons, including the physical and moral degeneration of the sovereigns,centralization of power and corruption.
This led to uprising in and loss of Cyprus and of Cyrenaica, making Ptolemy's reign one of the most calamitous of the dynasty.
When Ptolemy made a journey to Rome with Cleopatra, Tryphaena seized the Crown of Egypt.
Shortly after arrangements for a Roman assistance in Egypt, Ptolemy's followers assassinated Tryphaena and killed her guard. Berenice's guards in turn killed those followers.
In 58 BC Cleopatra's older sister, Berenice IV seized power from her father.
With the assistance of the Roman governor of Syria, Aulus Gabinius, Ptolemy XII overturned his eldest daughter in 55 BC and had her executed.
Cleopatra's other older sister Tryphaena took over shortly after that. She was killed as well, which left Cleopatra queen of egypt with her husband and younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, joint heirs to the throne.

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt Accession to the Throne

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt Accession to the throne.Ptolemy XII died in March 51 BC, making the 18-year-old Cleopatra and the 12-year-old Ptolemy XIII joint monarchs.
The first three years of their reign were difficult, due to economic difficulties, famine, deficient floods of the Nile, and political conflicts.
Although Cleopatra was married to her young brother, she quickly showed indications that she had no intentions of sharing power with him.
In August 51 BC, relations between the sovereigns completely broke down.
Cleopatra dropped Ptolemy's name from official documents and her face appeared alone on coins, which went against Ptolemaic tradition of female rulers being subordinate to male co-rulers.
This resulted in a cabal of courtiers, led by the eunuch Pothinus, removing Cleopatra from power and making Ptolemy sole ruler in circa 48 BC (or possibly earlier, as a decree exists from 51 BC with Ptolemy's name alone).
She tried to raise a rebellion around Pelusium, but she was soon forced to flee Egypt with her only surviving sister, Arsinoë.

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and Julius Caesar

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and Julius Caesar
While Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was in exile, Ptolemy became embroiled in the Roman civil war.
In the autumn of 48 BC, Pompey fled from the forces of Julius Caesar to Alexandria, seeking sanctuary.
Ptolemy, only fifteen years old at that time, had set up a throne for himself on the harbour from where he watched as on July 28, 48 BC Pompey was murdered by one of his former officers, now in Ptolemaic service.
He was beheaded in front of his wife and children, who were on the ship he had just disembarked from.
Ptolemy is thought to have ordered the death as a way of pleasing Julius Caesar and thus become an ally of Rome, to which Egypt was in debt.
This was a catastrophic miscalculation on Ptolemy's part.
When Caesar arrived in Egypt two days later, Ptolemy presented him with Pompey's severed, pickled head.
Caesar was enraged...
This was probably due to the fact that, although he was Caesar's political enemy, Pompey was a Consul of Rome and the widower of Caesar's only legitimate daughter, Julia (who died in childbirth with their son).
Caesar seized the Egyptian capital and imposed himself as arbiter between the rival claims of Ptolemy and Cleopatra.

Caesar and Caesarion Contemporary coin of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt VII, Eager to take advantage of Julius Caesar's anger with Ptolemy, Queen Cleopatra returned to the palace rolled into a Persian carpet and had it presented to Caesar by her servants: when it was unrolled, Cleopatra tumbled out.
It is believed that Caesar was charmed by the gesture, and she became his mistress.
Nine months after their first meeting, Cleopatra gave birth to their baby.
It was at this point Caesar abandoned his plans to annex Egypt, instead backing Cleopatra's claim to the throne.
After a short civil war, Ptolemy XIII was drowned in the Nile and Caesar restored Cleopatra to her throne, with another younger brother Ptolemy XIV as new co-ruler.
Despite the thirty year age difference, Cleopatra and Caesar became lovers during his stay in Egypt between 48 BC and 47 BC.
They met when they were 21(Cleopatra) and 50 (Caesar) On 23 June 47 BC Cleopatra gave birth to a child, Ptolemy Caesar (nicknamed "Caesarion" which means "little Caesar")
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt claimed Caesar was the father and wished him to name the boy his heir, but Caesar refused, choosing his grand-nephew Octavian instead.
Caesarion was the intended inheritor of Egypt and Rome, uniting the East and the West.
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and Caesarion visited Rome between 47 BC and 44 BC and were probably present when Caesar was assassinated on 15 March 44 BC.
Before or just after the assassination she returned to Egypt.
When Ptolemy XIV died due to deteriorating health, Cleopatra made Caesarion her co-regent and successor.
To safeguard herself and Caesarion she also had her sister Arsinoe killed, a common and necessary practice of the times.

Caesar Assassination

it is said that Caeaser stay in Egypt gave him the idea of being a god and that killed him!

Nevertheless, this is the ugliest murder in the history of mankind and will remain unequalled in brutality and uncivility for eternity. This murder alone, singularly have seeded the latent end of the Roman Empire. Executed by men who thought that they were honourable!
(Osama El-Kadi's personal view)

Antony arrives to Rule Egypt After Caesar Death

Cleopatra Queen of Egypt and Mark Antony

Cleopatra Queen of Egypt and Mark Antony

In 42 BC, Mark Antony, one of the triumvirs who ruled Rome in the power vacuum following Caesar's death, summoned Cleopatra to meet him in Tarsus to answer questions about her loyalty.
Cleopatra arrived in great state, and so charmed Antony that he chose to spend the winter of 41 BC–40 BC with her in Alexandria.
On 25 December 40 BC she gave birth to twins, who were named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene II.
Four years later, in 37 BC, Antony visited Alexandria again en route to make war with the Parthians.
He renewed his relationship with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, and from this point on Alexandria would be his home.
He married Cleopatra according to the Egyptian rite (a letter quoted in Suetonius suggests this), although he was at the time married to Octavia Minor, sister of his fellow triumvir Octavian.
He and Cleopatra had another child, Ptolemy Philadelphus.
At the Donations of Alexandria in late 34 BC, following Antony's conquest of Armenia, Cleopatra and Caesarion were crowned co-rulers of Egypt and Cyprus; Alexander Helios was crowned ruler of Armenia, Media, and Parthia; Cleopatra Selene II was crowned ruler of Cyrenaica and Libya; and Ptolemy Philadelphus was crowned ruler of Phoenicia, Syria, and Cilicia.
Cleopatra also took the title of Queen of Kings.
Antony's behavior was considered outrageous by the Romans, and Octavian convinced the Senate to levy war against Egypt.

In 31 BC Antony's forces faced the Romans in a naval action off the coast of Actium.
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was present with a fleet of her own.
Popular legend tells us that when she saw that Antony's poorly equipped and manned ships were losing to the Romans' superior vessels, she took flight and that Antony abandoned the battle to follow her, but no contemporary evidence states this was the case.

Following the Battle of Actium, Octavian invaded Egypt. Thus the Egyptian Empier was ended for ever

As he approached Alexandria, Antony's armies deserted to Octavian on August 12, 30 BC

There are a number of unverifiable but famous stories about Cleopatra, of which one of the best known is that, at one of the lavish dinners she shared with Antony, she playfully bet him that she could spend ten million sesterces on a dinner.
He accepted the bet....
The next night, she had a conventional, unspectacular meal served; he was ridiculing this, when she ordered the second course — only a cup of strong vinegar.
She then removed one of her priceless pearl earrings, dropped it into the vinegar, allowed it to dissolve, and drank the mixture. The earliest report of this story comes from Pliny the Elder and dates to about 100 years after the banquet described would have happened.
The calcium carbonate in pearls does dissolve in vinegar, but slowly unless the pearl is first crushed.

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt Suicide

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt SuicideAccording to the doctor Olympus (an eye-witness), he was brought to Cleopatra's tomb and died in her arms. A few days later, on November 30, Cleopatra also died by snakebite.
The ancient sources generally agree that she had two asps hidden in a fig basket so as she was eating she would never know when she would die.
Her two handmaidens died with her. Octavian, waiting in a building nearby, was informed of her death, and went to see for himself.
Cleopatra's son by Caesar, Caesarion, was proclaimed pharaoh by Egyptians, but Octavian had already won.
Caesarion was captured and executed, his fate reportedly sealed by Octavian's famous phrase: "Two Caesars are one too many."
This ended not just the Hellenistic line of Egyptian pharaohs, but the line of all Egyptian pharaohs.
The three children of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and Antony were spared and taken back to Rome where they were taken care of by Antony's wife, Octavia Minor, who was also Octavian's sister.