This sandstone relief comes from the early reign of Amenhotep IV (later known as Akhenaten) and based upon the style it is believed this relief was from Karnak Temple, prior to the founding of the experimental capital of Akhetaten (Amarna). Early in his reign, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), like many kings before him, undertook ambitious building...
The pyramids of Kush at Meroë, dating from around 300 B.C. to A.D. 350, are markedly smaller than their Egyptian counterparts but possess a distinctive elegance of their own. Ranging in height from approximately 6 to 30 metres (20 to 100 feet), with base widths typically between 6 and 12 metres (20 to 40 feet),...
In this finely carved relief, Seti I stands reverently before the enthroned Ra-Horakhty, the composite solar deity crowned with the sun disk and uraeus. The king’s right hand is raised in a delicate gesture: with his little finger, he touches the divine cobra, symbol of celestial fire and royal authority. Far from a casual motion,...
Maru-Aten was not a palace in the traditional domestic sense, but more a ritual garden estate with strong royal and possibly sacred associations. While Princess Meritaten (daughter of Akhenaten & Nefertiti) may have resided there temporarily, but it wasn’t likely a full-time domestic residence like a proper palace, more so a retreat rather than a permeant household.
This striking painting shows multiple black jackal figures, often interpreted as manifestations of Anubis or related necropolis deities, facing the foreman Inherkhau. Each jackal wears a red ribboned collar and stands poised, ears alert and snouts extended in a supernatural confrontation. The tripartite representation may symbolise divine guardianship over all regions of the necropolis; east,...
Reference to Mutbenret as “sister of the Great Royal Wife” comes from an inscription in the tomb of Meryre II at Tell el-Amarna; Tomb 7 in the southern group of Amarna’s private tombs. Meryre II was a Royal Scribe and Overseer of the House of the Great Royal Wife, serving Queen Nefertiti during the reign of Akhenaten.
For the Ancient Egyptians, cyclical time was sacred. The daily rise and fall of the sun, the monthly phases of the moon, the annual flood of the Nile; all were manifestations of divine order. Festivals weren’t simply commemorations, they were re-enactments and activations of the eternal cycles that bound gods and nature together. Even when...
In 1290 B.C., Ramesses I, former general turned Pharaoh, was laid to rest in the Valley of the Kings, wrapped in linen and legacy. But centuries later, tomb robbers stirred, priests panicked, and the royal mummy was whisked away into hiding. Fast-forward to the 19th century, and his remains were quietly sold to curious foreigners and ended up, quite astonishingly, in a dusty glass case in Niagara Falls, Canada, labelled merely as an “Egyptian nobleman.”
The Ancient Egyptian Harem: An Opium-Drenched Fantasy or Refined Commune of Courtly Women?
The Bentresh Stela (also called the Stela of Bakhtan) is one of the most intriguing narrative monuments from Ancient Egypt, blending elements of myth, political theology, and religious propaganda. Though it claims to describe events during the reign of Ramesses II (c. 1279–1213 B.C.), modern scholars agree that it was erected centuries later, during the...
