The various places connected symbolises the ancient Egyptian history of many centuries and dating far earlier than the Christian and Roman Era. In fact, they could precisely have the count of Dynasties from the year 3000 BC.
For those familiar with Oriental civilisations of the past, cannot ignore the fact that Sun had been the important one among the Gods and played a vital role in survival of humanity. The orientals dont have a written down record similar to Egypt, which is more in the form of Hieroglyphs on various monuments. The ancient Egyptians too stressed the importance of Sun God, whom they referred as Ra or Re.
In fact, their belief is that after Sun god appeared on a primeval hill, then he created first Gods - Shu, (Dryness and Air) and Tefnut (Humidity) and other Gods Geb (earth) and Nut (the Sky Goddess). This belief further got changed to God named Amon-Ra, at the period of King ruling Heliopolis. Heliopolis is presently a part of Cairo City. Though there a no. of Gods connected with the civilisation of Egypt, here I am giving only a few:
Ra - God of the Sun.
Anubis - God of the Dead.
Osiris - God of the Underworld.
Horus - God of the Sky.
Isis - Goddess of Good Fortune and Protector of the Dead.
Nut and Geb - God and Goddess of the Sky and Earth.
Amun - God of the Air.
Seth - God of the Desert and Chaos.
Many of these are represented with various figures, some combined with man/animal shapes and will be explained at the appropriate place. These points will help when they are referred with the particular temple attached with them and also about others will be explained at the mention of the them in the blogpost.
The ancient Egyptians beleived that the Sun Ra - had many names, such as Amun-Ra, and Ra-Horakhty. It was said he was born each morning in the East, and died each night in the West and was the king of the deities and the father of all creation. He brought to life two sons, Osiris and Set and two daughters Isis and Nephthys.
The story of how Isis, the wife of Osiris, brought him back to life and the various others involved in the process is the Central Theme of the Egyptian ancient history. There were floods in the Nile and agriculture could not flourish and there was not enough food and people were suffering. Osiris, God came to earth and ruled as a King of Egypt. He was thus referred as God-man. He was a benevolent King and taught the ways of farming successfully even during floods. The people of Egypt thus were respecting him and liked him most for his knowledge and wisdom. God Thoth taught the Egyptians writing. When Osiris felt he had succeeded in imparting the knowledge required to the people, to successfully overcome the floods and also utilise them better for their good, he left the Kingdom to his wife Isis and went towards Mesopatamia for sharing his knowledge with them. Seth was the younger brother of Osiris and was waiting for usurping the power from his brother. When Osiris returned from the east to rule again, Seth tricked him to enter into a box and killed him and cut him to pieces and threw all over Egypt. Isis, with the help of her sister, Nephthys(sometimes referred as Nephtees too and also knew Magic), who was also the wife of Seth managed to get the parts of body of Osiris. They find almost all of the pieces of Osiris, but the phallus was missing. It was thrown into the Nile and devoured by fish. Isis reassembled Osiris, fashioned an artificial phallus to complete him, says magical words, and breathed life into him. Isis too had the magical power and She used them to bring back Osiris to life. The son who was born to them was Horus and thus later he was the one who settled scores with Seth. God Anubis, who was loyal to Osiris helped him to go through to the other world and thus after that, Osiris became the god of world of Dead. It was considered that the first mummy was Osiris and God Anubis was the one in charge of Mummification. In the various historical sites, wherever mummification process was depicted, one could see the figure of Anubis.
Horus. represented as the falcon headed God, was not allowed to straightaway assume as Ruler by Seth, when he became of age and Seth wanted Horus to compete with him on many fronts. Horus won ultimately and assumed as Ruler and followed many of the practices his father had introduced. But he lost his eyes in the process of the battles with Seth but God Hathor restored his vision. Horus also did not kill Seth and allowed him to go free. Hathor is considered as his wife. Goddess Hathor was represented as cow because she is seen as giving sustenance to her people, or a beautiful woman with the horns of a cow on her head. She was very popular with the old kingdom and she represents Upper Egypt.
Similarly, the various historic sites, naturally refer to the different periods and there were about 30 dyanasties from 3000 B.C. and Ptolemy's ruled for about 270 years and then came the absolute rule of Romans. Though there were refereces to the changing strides of power between North and South Egypt is talked about before 3000 B.C., and the capitals too changing from one to another, it is from the 3000 B.C. they have a recorded history of dynasties. Hence it is also necessary to know about these dyanasties especially those of Ptolemy and Ramseys.
3000 BC - 2121 BC Dynasty I to Dynasty X
The first Dynasty starts with Narmer also known as Menes, King of Upper Egypt but conquered Lower Egypt, thus to wear a crown symbolising having absolute power over Upper and Lower Egypt, they wore both Red and White crown togheter as one. Only White Crown indicates the power was over Lower Egypt only and only Red Crown indicates the power was over Upper Egypt only. The capital was Abydos or Thinis. 2nd Dynasty to 6th Dynasty, the capital was Memphis. The main Pyramids in Giza stand in the name of Khafu, Khafre and Menkaure and all three belonged to the 4th Dynasty and 2620 BC.
2120 BC - 1086 BC Dynasty XI to Dynasty XX
A rebirth of centralised power with this Dyansty with Upper Egypt controlling both Upper and Lower with Thebes (present day Luxor) as capital. Sehertani -Antef, Mentuhotep I to III, Amenemhet I to III, Sesostris I and III, Sekhemre, Neferhotep, Salitis and Apohis with Capital as Avaris, Kamose and Ahmose with Thebes as Capital, Amenophis I to IV, Tutmosis I to III, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tutankamen, Horemheb, Ramses I to XI, Seti I and II, Memeptah, Sethnakt and Amenhotep Herihor were the rulers during this period.
(The picture is the funerary mask of Tutankhamen, in Gold and Precious Stones, an exact likeness of the King. Particularly elegant is the heavy nemes headdress in blue and Gold stripes with the Royal symbols on the forehead, inlaid with lapis lazuli, turquoise and carnelian.)
1085 B.C. - to year 0.
Mendes, Pianki, Pinudjem and Menkeperre. Further the rule was with Libyans, Bubastite, Saite, Ethiopian, Persian rule, Sebennyte, Alexander the great from 333 to 323 were the various rulers during the period and finally it went into the hands of Ptolemys'. Ptolemy I to Ptolemy XIII ruled and then the rule went to Cleopatra VII and of course, the Roman took over with Ceaser marrying Cleopatra.
Most Egyptologists, people who study ancient Egypt, think that Menes was the first pharaoh of Egypt, and they know that Cleopatra VII was the last. There were about 170 pharaohs in all. Pharaohs were the King or Queen of Egypt.
Hatshepsut, a child Ruler was One of a few female pharaohs in thousands of years of ancient Egyptian history. Hatshepsut didn't inherit her rulership like a man would have—only sons were allowed to succeed their fathers. Queen Hatshepsut was one of the most powerful black queens and was the fifth pharaoh of Egypt. Hatshepsut married her half-brother, Thutmose II, at 12 and became a queen.
Apart from the various gods and dynasties, a third part which is important with Egyptian civilisation is the way in which they were expressing themselves through Hieroglyphs. The Egyptians say that it was the God Thoth who taught them writing during the reign of Osiris. His symbols are the the ibis of course, the moon disk, writing tablet, stylus and scales - and can be seen from the picture of Gods shown above. The primitive pictographs turned into Hieroglyphic characters around the 4th Millennium BC.
Egyptians were also innovative as early as the first Dynasty, to use the plant Papyrus stems by cutting them in long strips taking the water out of them and allowed to dry and placing them across one over the other and used that as present day paper, now known as Papyrus sheets.
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