This sunken relief depicts Hatshepsut offering incense to the fertility god Min-Amun, most often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail. Although it had been demolished and parts were reused in antiquity, following rediscovery, the chapel has...
It is the oldest extant depiction of the act of circumcision from Ancient Egypt. Here is a line-art version of the depiction, which appears on the east thickness of a doorway in the tomb. A bas-relief from Mastaba of Ankhmahor depicting mortuary priests using flint knives to perform the rite of circumcision on a group...
Under a sacred sycamore, the Great Cat of Heliopolis, one of the forms taken by Re called Miw-aa or the great cat, slays the evil serpent Apep (or Apophis), god of the underworld and symbol of the forces of chaos. Section of vignette of chapter 17 of the book of the dead. Apep is sometimes...
It is composed of the globe of the sun, inside which are carved the sun god in two of his guises: his dawn form Khepri, the scarab beetle, and his night form, the ram-headed Re. The scene from the tomb of Seti II is shown the central image of the title illustration associated with the...
Simple in form, muted in color, the art in the Tomb of Thutmose III (KV34) depicts the defeat of the serpent of chaos, Apep, a key episode of the Book of the Dead. The stone sarcophagus in which Thutmose’s body was placed is still in place in the burial chamber, albeit damaged by tomb robbers...
In some interesting facts about ancient Egypt, the history of ancient Egypt was indebted to the Nile River and its dependable seasonable flooding. The river’s predictability and the fertile soils it provided allowed the Egyptians to build an empire on the basis of great agricultural wealth. Egyptians are credited as being one of the first...
Ancient Egypt was a land of plenty – the Nile’s yearly inundation allowed for a wealth of food, making enough food so everyone in the country could be fed for a year and still have more left over. We have a good knowledge of what the ancient Egyptians ate, from inscriptions and depictions in tombs...
Hieroglyphs and artwork have survived the ages depicting Egyptian authorities using baboon on leashes to catch criminals, in much the way modern police would use a dog. The most surprising use for trained baboons was as police animals. One shocking bit of classical Egyptian artwork depicts authorities unleashing a baboon on a thief in a...
In ancient Egypt, gold, silver and electrum were the metals of choice for making jewelry. Due to its brilliance and incorruptibility, gold was associated with the Sun and the concept of immortality (hence the decision to make the bodies of gods from gold). Silver was associated with the Moon, and was used for the bones...
