King Lists Funerary Texts Predynastic Egypt Early Dynastic Period First Dynasty Second Dynasty Old Kingdom Third Dynasty Fourth Dynasty Fifth Dynasty Sixth Dynasty First Intermediate Period Seventh Dynasty Eighth Dynasty Ninth Dynasty Tenth Dynasty Middle Kingdom Eleventh Dynasty Twelfth Dynasty Thirteenth Dynasty Fourteenth Dynasty Second Intermediate Period Fifteenth Dynasty Sixteenth Dynasty...
In Egyptian mythology, Duat (also Tuat and Tuaut) (also called Akert, Amenthes, or Neter-khertet) is the underworld. The Duat is a vast area under the Earth, connected with Nun, the waters of the primordial abyss. The Duat is the realm of the god Osiris and the residence of other gods and supernatural beings. It is the region through which the sun god Ra travels from west to east during the...
The Djed symbol is one of the more ancient and commonly found symbols in Egyptian mythology. It is a pillar-like symbol in hieroglyphics representing stability. It is associated with Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead. It is commonly understood to represent his spine. In the myth of Osiris and Isis, Osiris was killed by Set by being tricked into a coffin made...
There were at least three separate cosmogenies in Egyptian mythology, corresponding to at least two separate groups of worshippers. The Ennead, in which Atum arose from the primordial waters (Neith), and masturbated to relieve his loneliness. His semen and breath became Tefnut (moisture) and Shu (dryness), respectively. From Shu and Tefnut, were born Geb (earth), and Nut (sky), who were born in a...
The beginning of the arts of weaving and dyeing are lost in antiquity. Mummy cloths of varying degrees of fitness, still evidencing the dyer’s skill, are preserved in many museums. The invention of royal purple was perhaps as early as 1600 B.C. From the painted walls of tombs, temples and other structures that have been protected from exposure to weather, and from the decorated surfaces of...
Pre-historic man did not have a need for clocks, but as civilization evolved, that all changed. The historical record reveals that approximately 5000 to 6000 years ago great civilizations in the Middle East and North Africa began to make clocks to augment their calendars. With their attendant bureaucracies, formal religions, and other burgeoning societal activities, these cultures apparently...
The Egyptians were probably the first to adopt a mainly solar calendar. They noted that the Dog Star, Sirius, reappeared in the eastern sky just before sunrise after several months of invisibility. They also observed that the annual flooding of the Nile River came soon after Sirius reappeared. They used this combination of events to fix their calendar and came to recognize a year of 365 days...
The Nile didn’t just provide food for the ancient Egyptians, it also served as a main highway. Too wide to be bridged, a great many ferryboats carried people and wares from one shore to the other. The wind blowing mostly from the North, sailing upriver on the wide, meant travel on the meandering Nile was relatively easy and fast. Boats often carried large crews in case there was no wind or...
The Valley of the Golden Mummies is a huge burial site at Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, discovered by Dr. Zahi Hawass in 1996. Hawass and his Egyptian team found around 250 mummies over several seasons; however, the site has more than this number – according to the excavator even more than 10,000. The site dates to Greco-Roman Egypt where the ruin of a temple to Alexander...
Atef is the specific feathered white crown of the Egyptian Deity Osiris. It combines the Hedjet, the crown of Upper Egypt, with red ostrich feathers for the Osiris cult. The feathers are identified as ostrich from their curl or curve at the upper ends, with a slight flare toward the base. They are the same feather as (singly) worn by Maat. They may be compared with the falcon tail feathers in two...