Upon the west bank at Thebes, in the Tomb of Menkheperraseneb, High Priest of Amun, a vivid procession unfolds across the plastered wall. Here, emissaries of Amurru, a vassal land of Syria-Palestine, approach the Egyptian court bearing tribute to the conquering Thutmose III. The men are rendered with striking individuality: pale-skinned figures in patterned tunics,...
There is something curiously moving about leather; the way it warms to the touch, takes on a soft lustre with age, and carries the faint memory of its maker. And so, amid the gilded splendour of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, it is not the golden mask nor the bejewelled sandals that capture the breath...
This elegant gold signet bears the young king’s throne name, Nebkheperure, identifying him as the earthly manifestation of the sun-god Ra. Each tiny sign, crisply cut into the oval bezel, would have impressed the royal name into clay or wax, sealing decrees with divine authority. When you look closer, one sees the sun disc of...
Exploring the origins and evolution of the word Pharaoh, from the ancient Egyptian pr-ˁˁ (per-ah) meaning “Great House” to its later Greek and modern usage. Once a term for the royal palace, it came to symbolise the living embodiment of kingship itself.
Among the most personal treasures found within the Tomb of Tutankhamun, were his sandals; over eighty pairs of them, discovered neatly stored in a wooden trunk and immortalised in Harry Burton (1879-1940)’s evocative black-and-white photographs. As expected, several pairs were in remarkably delicate condition, and yet, through painstaking modern restoration, their splendour lives again. Some...
This colossal statue of Ramesses II, also known as the illustrious Ramesses the Great (c. 1279–1213 B.C.), is hewn from radiant red granite quarried at Aswan. It was unearthed in 1820 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Caviglia at Mit Rahina, ancient Memphis, where it once stood proudly on the southern flank of the Temple...
November 1st 2025: A New Dawn at Giza, as The Grand Egyptian Museum Opens Its Doors At last, the wait is over. After more than two decades of planning, building, pausing, and dreaming, the Grand Egyptian Museum has opened beside the Giza Plateau, a monument not only to Ancient Egypt but to modern perseverance. The...
In Ancient Egyptian belief, Sopdet was a divine feminine personification of the star Sirius. Representing the star, whose annual heliacal rising coincided with the inundation of the Nile, Sopdet was associated with the most important event in the Ancient Egyptian agricultural year. Because she heralded fertility and renewal, Sopdet was seen as a bringer of...
Each year, on the last night of October, the western world observes Halloween; a festival of flickering lights and shadows, when children dress up in both whimsy and ghoulish costume, and the dead are remembered with sweets, stories, and laughter. Its name derives from All Hallows’ Eve, the vigil before All Saints’ Day, yet its...
In the village of Deir el‑Medina, on the West Bank of ancient Thebes, archaeologists in the early 20th century uncovered something curious: broken pieces of pottery, known as ostraca, inscribed with a tale of a ghost and a high priest. One shard, now held in Turin’s Museo Egizio (S.6619), was discovered in 1905 by Ernesto...
