Owner: Ancient Egypt URL:http://allaboutancientegypt.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:12:16 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: All history of ancient egypt (pharaohs,pyramids,temples,monuments and MORE) Site statistics:Click here
#1 Difficult to realize the conception of a great pyramid 2008-11-08 16:58:39 It is difficult for a European, or an American, who has not visited Egypt, to realize the conception of a Great Pyramid. The pyramidal form has gone entirely out of use as an architectural type of monumental perfection; nay, even as an architectural embellishment. It maintained an honourable position in architecture from its first discovery to the time of the Maccabee kings (1 Mac. xiii. 28); but,
#8 Grandeur Of Khufu's Conception 2008-09-27 06:50:32 The marvel is, how Khufu came suddenly to have so magnificent a thought as that of constructing an edifice double the height of any previously existing, covering five times the area, and containing ten times the mass. Architecture does not generally proceed by "leaps and bounds;" but here was a case of a sudden extraordinary advance, such as we shall find it difficult to parallel elsewhere. An att Read more:Conception
#13 Inferiority of the "Third Pyramid," 2008-09-27 06:50:32 Love Of Menkaura.These remarks apply especially to the first and second pyramids. The "Third" is not a work of any very extraordinary grandeur. The bulk is not greater than that of the chief pyramid of Saccarah, which has never attracted much attention; and the height did not greatly exceed that of the chief Mexican temple-mound. Moreover, the stones of which the pyramid was composed are not exce Read more:Pyramid
#10 The Builders' Hopes Not Realized 2008-09-27 06:50:32 It is by a just Nemesis that the kings have in a great measure failed to secure the ends at which they aimed, and in hope of which they steeled their hearts against their subjects' cries. They have indeed handed down their names to a remote age: but it is as tyrants and oppressors. They are world-famous, or rather world-infamous. But that preservation of their corporeal frame which they especially Read more:Builders
, Realized
#2 Egyptian Idea Of One. 2008-09-27 06:50:32 The Egyptian
idea of a pyramid was that of a structure on a square base, with four inclining sides, each one of which should be an equilateral triangle, all meeting in a point at the top. The structure might be solid, and in that case might be either of hewn stone throughout, or consist of a mass of rubble merely held together by an external casing of stone; or it might contain chambers and passag
#3 Number of pyramids in Egypt: the Principal Three 2008-09-27 06:50:32 There are from 60 to 70 pyramids in Egypt
, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Memphis. Some of them are nearly perfect, some more or less in ruins, but most of them still preserving their ancient shape, when seen from afar. Two of them greatly exceed all the others in their dimensions, and are appropriately designated as "the Great Pyramid" and "the Second Pyramid." A third in their immediate vicinit Read more:Number
, Principal
, Three
#15 Sphinx 2008-09-27 06:50:32 Among the marvels of Egypt perhaps the Sphinx is second to none. The mysterious being with the head of a man and the body of a lion is not at all uncommon in Egyptian architectural adornment, but the one placed before the Second Pyramid (the Pyramid of Shafra), and supposed to be contemporary with it, astonishes the observer by its gigantic proportions. It is known to the Arabs as Abul-hôl, the
#4 Description Of The Third Pyramid (Menkaura). 2008-09-27 06:50:32 Still, the three seem, all of them, to deserve description, and to challenge a place in "the story of Egypt," which has never yet been told without some account of the marvels of each of them. The smallest of the three was a square of 354 feet each way, and had a height of 218 feet. It covered an area of two acres, three roods, and twenty-one poles, or about that of an ordinary London square. The Read more:Pyramid
#9 Cruelty Involved In It 2008-09-27 06:50:32 We must hold, therefore, that Khufu did suddenly conceive a design without a parallel—did require his architect to construct him a tomb, which should put to shame all previous monuments, and should with difficulty be surpassed, or even equalled. He must have possessed much elevation of thought, and an intense ambition, together with inordinate selfishness, an overweening pride, and entire callou Read more:Cruelty
, Involved
#5 Description Of The Second Pyramid (Khafra) 2008-09-27 06:50:32
The "SecondPyramid
," which stands to the north-east of the Third, at the distance of about 270 yards, was a square of seven hundred and seven feet each way, and thus covered an area of almost eleven acres and a half, or nearly double that of the greatest building which Rome ever produced—the Coliseum. The sides rose at an angle of 52° 10'; and the perpendicular height was four 454 feet, or 5
#11 Skill Displayed In The Construction 2008-09-27 06:50:32 Still, whatever gloomy associations attach to the pyramids in respect of the sufferings caused by their erection, as monuments they must always challenge a certain amount of admiration. A great authority declares: "No one can possibly examine the interior of the Great Pyramid without being struck with astonishment at the wonderful mechanical skill displayed in its construction. The immense blocks Read more:Construction
#6 Description Of The First Pyramid (Khufu-The great pyramid) 2008-09-27 06:50:32 Come we now to the "Great Pyramid
," "which is still," says Lenormant, "at least in respect of its mass, the most prodigious of all human constructions," The "Great Pyramid," or "First
Pyramid of Ghizeh," as it is indifferently termed, is situated almost due north-east of the "Second Pyramid," at the distance of about 200 yards. The length of each side at the base was originally 764 feet, or 57 fee
#7 The Traditional Builders, Khufu, Shafra, and Menkaura. 2008-09-27 06:50:32 The "Pyramid Builders
," or kings who constructed the three monuments that have now been described, were, according to a unanimous tradition, three consecutive monarchs, whose native names are read as Khufu, Shafra, and Menkaura. These kings belonged to Manetho's fourth dynasty; and Khufu, the first of the three, seems to have been the immediate successor of Sneferu. Theorists have delighted to in Read more:Traditional
#14 Continuance Of The Pyramid Period 2008-09-27 06:50:32 The fashion of burying in pyramids continued to the close of Manetho's sixth dynasty, but no later monarchs rivalled the great works of Khufu and Shafra. The tombs of their successors were monuments of a moderate size, involving no oppression of the people, but perhaps rather improving their condition by causing a rise in the rate of wages. Certainly, the native remains of the period give a cheerf Read more:Period
, Pyramid
#12 Magnificence Of The Architectural Effect 2008-09-27 06:50:32
The architectural effect of the two greatest of the pyramids is certainly magnificent. They do not greatly impress the beholder at first sight, for a pyramid, by the very law of its formation, never looks as large as it is—it slopes away from the eye in every direction, and eludes rather than courts observation. But as the spectator gazes, as he prolongs his examination and inspection, the pyr
#8 First Historical Egyptian, Sneferu. 2008-09-25 09:12:13 The first living, breathing, acting, flesh-and-blood personage, whom so-called histories of Egypt present to us, is a certain Sneferu, or Seneferu, whom the Egyptian
s seem to have regarded as the first monarch of their fourth dynasty. Sneferu—called by Manetho, we know not why, Soris—has left us a representation of himself, and an inscription. On the rocks of Wady Magharah, in the Sinaitic pen Read more:First
, Historical
#2 The Destruction Of Mankind by Ra 2008-09-25 09:12:13 Another myth had for its subject the proposed destruction of mankind by Ra, the Sun-god. Ra had succeeded Phthah as king of Egypt, and had reigned for a long term of years in peace, contented with his subjects and they with him. But a time came when they grew headstrong and unruly; they uttered words against Ra; they plotted evil things; they grievously offended him. So Ra called the council of th Read more:Destruction
#6 Names Of Memphis 2008-09-25 09:12:13 The new city received from its founder the name of Men-nefer—"the Good Abode." It was also known as Ei-Ptah—"the House of Phthah." From the former name came the prevailing appellations—the "Memphis
" of the Greeks and Romans, the "Moph" of the Hebrews, the "Mimpi" of the Assyrians, and the name still given to the ruins, "Tel-Monf." It was indeed a "good abode"—watered by an unfailing stream Read more:Names
#3 Traditions Concerning M'na, or Menes. 2008-09-25 09:12:13 It would require another Euhemerus to find any groundwork of history in these narratives. We must turn away from the "shadow-land" which the Egyptians called the time of the gods on earth, if we would find trace of the real doings of men in the Nile valley, and put before our readers actual human beings in the place of airy phantoms. The Egyptians themselves taught that the first man of whom they
#1 Early Egyptian myths: the Seb and Thoth legends. 2008-09-25 09:12:13 All nations, unless they be colonies, have a prehistoric time—a dark period of mist and gloom, before the keen light of history dawns upon them. This period is the favourite playground of the myth-spirits, where they disport themselves freely, or lounge heavily and listlessly, according to their different natures. The Egyptian
spirits were of the heavier and duller kind—not light and frolicsom Read more:Early
#4 Site Of Memphis 2008-09-25 09:12:13 If we may believe the tradition, there was, when the idea of building the new capital arose, a difficulty in obtaining a site in all respects advantageous. The Nile, before debouching upon the plain, hugged for many miles the base of the Libyan hills, and was thus on the wrong side of the valley. It was wanted on the other side, in order to be a water-bulwark against an Asiatic invader. The founde Read more:Memphis
#7 Question Of The Existence Of M'na 2008-09-25 09:12:13 The Egyptians knew no more of their first king than that he turned the course of the Nile, founded Memphis, built the nucleus of the great temple of Phthah, and "was devoured by a hippopotamus." This last fact is related with all due gravity by Manetho, notwithstanding that the hippopotamus is a graminivorous animal, one that "eats grass like an ox" (Job xi. 15). Probably the old Egyptian writer w Read more:Existence
, Question
#5 Great Temple of Phthah at Memphis 2008-09-25 09:12:13 In ancient times a city was nothing without a temple; and the capital city of the most religious people in the world could not by any possibility lack that centre of civic life which its chief temple always was to every ancient town. Philosophy must settle the question how it came to pass that religious ideas were in ancient times so universally prevalent and so strongly pronounced. History is onl Read more:Great
, Memphis
, Temple
#9 Hieroglyphics 2008-09-25 09:12:13 In the first place, it is apparent that the style of writing has been invented which is called hieroglyphical, and which has the appearance of a picture writing, though it is almost as absolutely phonetic as any other. Setting apart a certain small number of "determinatives," each sign stands for a sound—the greater part for those elementary sounds which we express by letters. An eagle is a, a
Recommend Site To A Friend
