Ancient Times

thatlittleegyptologist:

Today’s Egypt post comes from Saqqara and the surrounding tombs. 

Saqqara was really early on in the 16 day trip we took (in fact I think it was the first day. Memories are hazy) We’d barely touched down in Cairo and were subsequently whisked off to our hotel from which we could see the Pyramids at Giza. 

After an interesting night with interruptions from various car and taxi horns (admittedly we did spend time on the balcony watching the traffic jam as it was hilarious. Egyptian drivers are badasses) we took the coach to the Imhotep museum, which was blessedly airconditioned, and then onto the Old Kingdom tombs  and the Pyramid of Teti. These were pretty cool and yes we did manage to get photos inside the Pyramid (for some reason we weren’t told we couldn’t and no one stopped us so we did) and then a talk by the bloke who was Hawass’ second in command (I can’t remember his name now) who then took us on a tour of the tombs. 

From there we went across to Djoser’s pyramid complex in which were a lot of dogs. We’d been told by one of our lecturers throughout our undergrad (I was at the end of my 3rd year when I went on this trip which seems so long ago now) told us that the reason they always use the phrase “Anubis on his mound” and the corresponding hieroglyph is that you always find dogs at Saqqara sitting atop the monuments or tombs. He usually told a lot of odd stories which we ignored but to find out that this was true was pretty awesome. 

We wandered about the Heb Sed court for a bit taking pictures of each other and jumping off rocks. I also found a random statue ear on the floor (see last picture) and quite a few other random fragments. It is true that you can dig anywhere in Egypt and uncover its history. 

After that we visited Unas’ causeway. At this point, having only been in the country for 24 hours, the heat was beginning to take it’s toll so we went down to visit the Tomb of the Two Brothers. Universal consensus of people on the trip….not brothers. Definitely not. 

Saqqara: I gave those bitches dogs monuments. Bitches Dogs love monuments. 

(via rudjedet)

thatlittleegyptologist:

Since Beni Hassan was so popular yesterday and I did mention Amarna and its masses of steps I thought I’d bring you pictures. 

Amarna was pretty awesome despite the fact that when I visited I was a) ill, b) functioning on 2 hours sleep having had the alarm sound at 4am and c) we’d been on the coach for approximately 8 hours by the time we got there. 

It was SO hot. And I’m not talking “oh its a hot country of course it’s going to be hot” heat I’m talking “afsgkilsdjfdfbvcx!!” type heat (possibly around 50c which wasn’t the hottest we had on the trip. According to Richard it was 57c when we were at Deir el Medina). Fortunately for us there was also strong gusts of wind which cooled us down and inevitably dried us off yuck 

The tombs were pretty awesome. Sadly not a lot left of Akhenaten’s (water damage) but the tunnels in there were immense! The North tombs (see above) were tricky to climb to, pretty awesome and resulted in a group of 18-23 year old women running for their lives when a poisonous snake came out of it’s burrow. Luckily the guard shot it. Not so lucky for the snake. 

The best tomb there in my opinion is Ay’s. The columns in there were superb and we had free run of it (as we did most temples until we got to Edfu. Oh dear god Edfu. But that’s another story). By this point we were well on our guard for snakes so shrieks were heard every time someone thought there was rustling. 

Overall opinion of Amarna: Pretty tombs…..mostly sand. 

(via rudjedet)

vacuidad:

Bust of Nefertiti in the Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany

“The bust of the lovely queen looks forlorn in her new jail, just as she looked lonely in the one she was imprisoned in while the New Museum was being restored.”

(via melkelley)

dwellerinthelibrary:

P1070837 Philae Temple [b&c,clr] (by LordLiverpool)

Check out the birds parading around the column!

(via queen-rhaella)

aboutegypt:

IMG_5391 (by tom_bennett)

aboutegypt:

518_1145__MG_8279_web (by Bobonacus)

aboutegypt:

Edfu Temple (by masong2011)

aboutegypt:

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