- An Egyptian Boat of 6000 B. C.
This drawing was made from what is probably the most ancient known record of a ship. The high bow and stern seem somewhat overdone, and it is likely that they were less elevated than this picture shows them. The carving from which this was taken, however, exaggerates them still more. - An ancient Egyptian Temple complete, from the Description of Strabo
- Amen-Ra, the King of the Gods
- Counting hands
An admirable representation of a battlefield is found on the walls of the pronaos of the great temple of Medient Habou and is thus described by Dr Richardson:-The south and part of the east wall is covered with a battle-scene, and the cruel punishment of the vanquished, by cutting off their hands and maiming their bodies. - Racial Types (after Champollion)
From Egyptian Tomb paintings - The Goddess Apit
- Transporting a huge stone monument in Ancient Egypt
As depicted on a wall-painting at El Bersheh. Notice the overseer on the knees of the colossus giving the 'time' by clapping his hands, and the man pouring oil in front of the runners to ease the passage of the sledge. - The God Amsu
- Egyptian Corset
Egyptian Corset - Ani, a scribe
Ani, a scribe 1450 B.C. - Details of decoration
Details of decoration - A Queen
An Egyptian queen - The Lighthouse of the Harbor of Alexandria in the Hellenistic Age
Alexander died in Babylon when not quite thirty-three years old. In actual and immediate achievement he surpassed perhaps every other man who has ever lived. He founded an empire which he himself had conceived and developed, which covered nearly all the then known world, and which, though it was composed mainly of barbarous and semi-barbarous people, was dominated by Greek thought. It is true that the empire fell apart almost immediately after Alexander died. But it did not fall into anarchy, or revert to its previous state: it was divided into four parts, each of which was distinct, self-governing and well organized. The two larger parts, the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, which occupied approximately the territory of Persia, and the kingdom of the Ptolomies, or Egypt, continued as torch-bearers to civilization for many centuries thereafter. Of the two, the former was the larger and was probably the better, from an administrative point of view; but Egypt represented the finer civilization; for Alexandria, with its library and its wonderful museum, became the seat of learning and the resort of the scholars of the world, and the centre of the Hellenistic civilization that followed that of Greece. - A Queen
Egyptian queen - Serapis
This trinity consisted of the god Serapis (= Osiris + Apis), the goddess Isis (= Hathor, the cow-moon goddess), and the child-god Horus. In one way or another almost every other god was identified with one or other of these three aspects of the one God, even the sun god Mithras of the Persians. - Scepters
His gods (a) carry a staff as a scepter, which every Bedouin still cuts today, and his goddesses (b) are content with a stalk of reeds. - Statuette in wood 2
- A supposed monumental head of Sesostris
The most renowned monarch that ever reigned over Egypt was Sesostris. The date of his reign is not precisely known; but there is a carving in stone, lately found in Egypt among the ruins of an ancient city. which is more than three thousand years old, and supposed to be a portrait of him. It is doubtless the oldest portrait in existence. This king formed the design of conquering the world, and set out from Egypt with more than a million of foot soldiers, twenty-four thousand horsemen, and twenty-seven thousand armed chariots. His ambitious projects were partially successful. He made great conquests, and wherever he went he caused marble pillars to be erected, and inscriptions to be engraved on them, so that future ages might not forget his renown. The following was the inscription on most of the pillars: - SESOSTRIS, KING OF KINGS, HAS CONQUERED THIS TERRITORY BY HIS ARMS. But the marble pillars have long ago crumbled into dust, or been buried under the earth; and the history of Sesostris is so obscure, that some writers have even doubted whether he made any conquest's at all. - An Egyptian goddess
A goddess, 700 B.C., is an exact copy of an Egyptian drawing. - Pectoral in shape of a hawk with a ram’s head
- The Sun-God of Edfu
Another important centre of the worship of the sun god, was Edfu in Upper Egypt, where even now his temple stands complete. Here originated the remarkable figure of the god which represents him as the sun with multicoloured wings as he flies across the heavens triumphant over his enemies. This figure of Horus of Edfu (or, as he was usually styled, he of Edfu) is placed over the gateways of the temples to keep out all evil things. - Ethiopian Noble Lady
- The bark of the sun
To the Egyptians there was no god of higher than the sun god, who was regarded as the sole creator, and ruler of the world; from the bark in which he traversed the heavens, the great god, the gor of heaven governed all things, and who-soeve in daily life merely speaks of the god, he will think of him. - Statuette in wood
- Ancient Egypt’s strange books and pictorial records, made of papyrus
Papyrus, a tall, graceful, sedgy plant, supplied the favourite writing material of the ancient world, and many priceless records of antiquity are preserved to us in papyri. The pith of the plant was pressed flat and thin and joined with others to form strips, on which records were written or painted. The above is a photograph of a piece of Egyptian papyrus, showing both hieroglyphics and picture-writing. The oldest piece of papyrus dates back to B.C. 3500. - Pectoral of Ramses II
- Bronze Cat
- The lady Touî, statuette in wood
- Egyptian jewellery of the XIXTH dynasty
- Gold pectoral inlaid with enamel
- Statue of Rânofir
- Later Costume of Ethiopian Nobles
- Egyptian wine
The Egyptians had several kinds of wine, even as early as the fourth dynasty (above 6000 years ago, according to Mariette), when four kinds of wine, at least, were known. Pliny and Horace say that the wine of Mareotis was most esteemed. - Brawl among Egyptian Boatmen (Pyramid Age)
Brawl among boatmen ... (From tomb of Ptah-hetep——Pyramid Age) - The Soul - front view
- The Soul - back view
- An Example of the Friendly Relations between Syria and Egypt
In the twelfth year of his reign, the tribute of the vassal kingdoms reached such a high value that a particular record was made of it, and scenes showing its reception were sculptured in the tombs of Huya and Meryra II. An inscription beside the scene in the tomb of Huya reads thus:— Year twelve, the second month of winter, the eighth day.... The King ... and the Queen ... living for ever and ever, made a public appearance on the great palanquin of gold, to receive the tribute of Syria and Ethiopia, and of the west and the east. All the countries were collected at one time, and also the islands in the midst of the sea; bringing offerings to the King when he was on the great throne of the City of the Horizon of Aton, in order to receive the imposts of every land and granting them [in return] the breath of life. - An Egyptian Stamp for impressing Bricks
In old Egypt, bricks were impressed by the same method of stamping [as the Assyrians], but not to such an extent as they were in old Assyria. . The cuts annexed represent the face and back of an old Egyptian stamp discovered in a tomb of Thebes. The stamp is five inches long, two and one-quarter inches broad, and half an inch thick, and is fitted to an arched handle. The characters are engraved below the surface of the wood, so that an impression taken from the stamp on the clay would show the engraved characters in relief. The inscription on the stamp has been translated, Amenoph, beloved of truth. Amenoph is supposed, by some authorities, to have been the king of Egypt at the period of the exodus of the Israelites. The characters on the Egyptian and Babylonian bricks are much more neatly executed than would seem necessary for inscriptions on so common a material as clay. - Tablet at Sneferu at Wady-Magharah
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 Egyptians 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 peninsula, may be seen to this day an incised tablet representing the monarch in the act of smiting an enemy, whom he holds by the hair of his head, with a mace. The action is apparently emblematic, for at the side we see the words Ta satu, "Smiter of the nations;" and it is a fair explanation of the tablet, that its intention was to signify that the Pharaoh in question had reduced to subjection the tribes which in his time inhabited the Sinaitic regions. - Thuthu
THuthu, wife of Ani - Egyptian Peasants (Pyramid Age)
Egyptian peasants seized for non-payment of taxes ... (Pyramid Age) - Egyptian
Among the ancient Egyptians very peculiar shaped caps were worn, like from Figures 1 to 7. Some of them would rise to a great height above the head, and then descend very low upon the chest in the shape of lappets. Those of the priests and of their attendants were often loaded with a profusion of symbolical decorations, composed of feathers, lotus leaves and other natural products. - The Colossus of Ramses II emerging from the earth
- Burning of Incense
The conventional Egyptian representation of the burning of incense and the pouring of libations - Egyptian bronze representing a flying man
In the Hall of the Gods, in the Egyptian Museum, there is a small bronze plaque of great antiquity, where we see in relief a man flying the two extended wings. It is true that we agree to consider this piece as a symbolic composition rather than as the representation of an aircraft. - Egyptians’ Early Use of Wine
- A Priestess
A Priestess - The Pyramids of Gizeh
- Egyptian king
Egyptian king - Egyptian Gods—Thoth-lunus, Hathor, Chnemu
Egyptian Gods—Thoth-lunus, Hathor, Chnemu - Boats on Nile about 2500 B.C.
Boats on Nile about 2500 B.C. - The Artist Auta
There are only two artists of the period who are known by name. The one was a certain Auta, who is represented in a relief dating from some eight years after the change in the art had taken place. It is a significant fact that this personage held the post of master-artist to Queen Tiy; and it is possible that in him and his patron we have the originators of the movement. The king, however, was now old enough to take an active interest in such matters; and the other artist who is known by name, a certain Bek, definitely states that the king himself taught him. Thus there is reason to suppose that the young Pharaoh’s own hand is to be traced in the new canons, although they were instituted when he was but fifteen years old - Head of Nefertari-Aahmes
Aahmes, in contracting his marriage with the Ethiopian princess, to whom he gave the name of Nefertari-Aahmes—or "the good companion of Aahmes"—was, we may be tolerably sure, bent on obtaining a contingent of those stalwart troops whose modern representatives are either the Blacks of the Soudan or the Gallas of the highlands of Abyssinia. - The God Osiris
The God Osiris - Pharaoh Rameses III as Osiris (Sarcophagus relief)
Ramses III as Osiris—between the goddesses Nephthys and Isis.... Relief on the cover of the sarcophagus (at Cambridge). After Sharpe. Inscription (round the edges of cover), as far as decipherable. “Osiris, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the two countries ... son of the Sun, beloved of the gods, lord of diadems, Rameses, prince of Heliopolis, triumphant! Thou art in the condition of a god, thou shalt arise as Usr, there is no enemy to thee, I give to thee triumph among them....” Budge, Catalogue, Egyptian Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. - Head of Thothmes II
Hasheps, or Hatasu, was the daughter of the great warrior king, Thothmes the First, and, according to some, was, during his later years, associated with him in the government. Her father had left behind him two sons, as well as a daughter; and the elder of these, according to Egyptian law, succeeded him. He reigned as Thothmes-nefer-shau, and is known to moderns as Thothmes the Second. He was, however, a mere youth, of a weak and amiable temper; while Hatasu, his senior by some years, was a woman of great energy and of a masculine mind, clever, enterprizing, vindictive, and unscrupulous. The contrast of their portrait busts is remarkable, and gives a fair indication of the character of each of them. Thothmes has the appearance of a soft and yielding boy: he has a languishing eye, a short upper lip, a sensuous mouth and chin. Hatasu looks the Amazon: she holds her head erect, has a bold aquiline nose, a firmly-set mouth, and a chin that projects considerably, giving her an indescribable air of vigour and resolution. The effect is increased, no doubt, by her having attached to it the male appendage of an artificial beard; but even apart from this, her face would be a strong one, expressive of firmness, pride, and decision. It is thought that she contracted a marriage with her brother, such unions being admissible by the Egyptian marriage law, and not infrequent among the Pharaohs, whether of the earlier or the later dynasties. In any case, it is certain that she took the direction of affairs under his reign, reducing him to a cipher, and making her influence paramount in every department of the government. - The Art of Akhnaton compared with Archaic Art
1. The head of Akhnaton. From a contemporary drawing. 2. The head of a king. From an archaic statuette found by Professor Petrie at Abydos. 3. The head of Akhnaton. From a contemporary drawing. 4. The head of a prince. From an archaic tablet found by Professor Petrie at Abydos. 5. An archaic statuette found by Professor Petrie at Diospolis, showing the large thighs found in the art of Akhnaton. - Great Hall of Columns at Karnak (Restored)
The greatest of all Seti's works was his pillared hall at Karnak, the most splendid single chamber that has ever been built by any architect, and, even in its ruins, one of the grandest sights that the world contains. Seti's hall is three hundred and thirty feet long, by one hundred and seventy feet broad, having thus an internal area of fifty-six thousand square feet, and covers, together with its walls and pylons, an area of eighty-eight thousand such feet, or a larger space than that covered by the Dom of Cologne, the largest of all the cathedrals north of the Alps. It was supported by one hundred and sixty-four massive stone columns, which were divided into three groups—twelve central ones, each sixty-six feet high and thirty-three feet in circumference, formed the main avenue down its midst; while on either side, two groups of sixty-one columns, each forty-two feet high and twenty-seven round, supported the huge wings of the chamber, arranged in seven rows of seven each, and two rows of six. The whole was roofed over with solid blocks of stone, the lighting being, as in the far smaller hall of Thothmes III., by means of a clerestory. - Egyptian Queen
Egyptian queen - Sewn Sleeveless Kalasiris
Sewn Sleeveless Kalasiris