ancient egyptian boat building

In the following passage George Rawlinson described ancient Egyptian boat building.

Boat building must have been a flourishing trade, and have employed the
energies of a large number of persons. Besides their war vessels of galleys,
which were rather large boats than ships, the Egyptians made use of a
great variety of craft, adapted for peaceful purposes, and differing according
to the exact service for which they were wanted. A sort of light canoe, formed
(we are told) of the papyrus plant, and propelled either by a single paddle or a
punting pole, furnished the ordinary means of transport from one side of the
Nile to the other, and was also used by fishermen in their occupation, and by
herdsmen, when it was necessary to save cattle from an excessive inundation. The
stem and stern of these vessels rose considerably above the waters; they must
have been flat bottomed and broad, like punts, or they could have possessed no
stability. They are probably the "vessels of bulrushes ", spoken of by Isaiah,
which were common to the Egyptian with the Ethiopians.

But the ordinary Nile boat of Pharoanic times was built of wood.
Plancks of Acanta or Mimosa nilotica were cut with the hatchet, a yard or two in
length, and arranged in rows one above another, very much as builders arrange
their bricks. These plancks were probably united together by glue or by wooden
bolts or nails, in the same way as articles of furniture; but they were
sometimes further secured by means of a number of short poles or stakes, placed
internally at right angles to the planks, and lashed to them by means of a cord
or string. On a boat of this kind a sort of house of lattice-work was sometimes
raised, and cattle were embarked upon it and conveyed from place to place.
Occasionally the house was of a more solid character, being formed of boards
which were continuous and only pierced by a few windows. Some boats of this
construction had a mast and sail; others were without these conveniences, and
depended entirely upon the rowers. These varied in number from twelve to
forty-four; their oars were of rude construction, and they appear sometimes to
have rowed standing. Steering was managed by a rudder, worked through a notch in
the centre of the stern, or by two or more steering-oars on either side, each
entrusted to a seperate steersman. The only sail used was a square
sail and the rigging was of the most simple character. Sails were often colored,
and sometimes patterned, or embroidered with quaint devices.

History of ancient Egypt, Volume 1 , 1886

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Why do I quote Rawlinson on ancient Egyptian boat building ?

This quote will hopefully serve in a future post on the crossing of the sea to America by the Mormon Lehi and his family. Somehow Joseph Smith claims that Nephi, the son of Lehi, was led by a divine architect to build a boat unlike anything that was being built at the time. Lehi was living in about 600 BC which is during the time when Nebuchadnezzar was conquering the Phoenicians and was holding Zedekiah and Jehoiachin, the kings of Judah, captive in Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar was also preventing Egypt and Syria from conquering more land in the Mesopotamian area. Nebuchadnezzar was empowering the New Babylonians or Chaldeans and through their military and political persuasion they forced the largest Jewish exile since the time of Moses who led the early monotheistic converts out of Egypt in the age of Ramesses II in circa 1250 BC.

Smith, the Mormon founder, claims Lehi, Nephi, Laman were divinely led to the Americas in circa 600 BC. All of this was written on gold plates which were transcribed by Joseph Smith supposedly.

What is an Ibis ?

If you want to know what is an Ibis then read this.



An Ibis is a type of bird and it is found all over the world but not in Australia according to Encyclopedia Americana. These are long legged wading birds with long beaks and can be of various colors depending on their genetic inheritence. The Ibis are found in the sacred myths of certain ancient cultures. They play a great role in the history of the ancient Egyptian culture.



While Encyclopedia Americana claims there are no Ibis in Australia, wikipedia carries a photo of a white Ibis with a black head and black feet which is called the Australian White Ibis.



The ancient Egyptians used hb or hib to describe what later came to be known as the Ibis by the Greeks.





The Sacred Ibis of Africa is also white with a black head and dark feet. The African Sacred Ibis was once found in abundance in Egypt and was honoured as a symbol of the deity Thoth. This bird breeds in the sub Saharan area of Africa. The Sacred Ibis nests in trees and loves to wade in marshlands where it feeds on small reptiles, fish, insects....



According to Herodotus and Pliny the Elder the Sacred Ibis was summoned to protect the Egyptian against the sudden invasion or hostile entrance of serpents into their land or perhaps as a metaphor to protect the psychological impact of demonic infiltration into the psyche.



Another tale has it that the Sacred Ibis was kept close by due to it's insect eating habit. By eating the insects somehow the bird was keeping the Egyptian tribe healthy. Today this might be better understood has a method of preventing malaria which is a mosquito borne infectious disease widespread in subtropical and tropical areas where marshlands are plentiful and bugs even more plentiful.



As a token to lord Thoth the Egyptians took to mummifying the Sacred Ibis as part of their religious death rituals. The Ibis would help the dead to journey safely to the world beyond.



The account of Herodotus is this....



In Arabia, very near to the city of Buto, is a place to which I went to inquire about the winged serpents. On my arrival I saw a great quantity of bones and backbones of serpents scattered about, of all sizes, in a place where a narrow gorge between the hills opens upon an extensive plain contiguous to the valley of Egypt.



These serpents are reported to fly from Arabia into Egypt about the beginning of spring, when the Ibises, meeting them at the opening of this defile, prevent their passing, and destroy them: in gratitude for which service, the Arabs say that the Egyptians have great veneration for the Ibis; and they themselves allow it is for this reason they honour that bird.



There are two kinds of Ibis.



The first is of the size of a crex, with very black plumage; the eggs like those of a crane, and the beak curved. This kind attacks the serpent.



The other Ibises are more common, and often seen. They have the head, and all the neck, without feathers; their plumage is white, except the head, neck, and extremity of the wings and tail, all which are quite black; the legs and beak being the same as in the other species. The winged serpent is in figure like a water snake; its wings are without feathers, and exactly like those of a bat.



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According to Herodotus the Sacred Iris is what the Egyptians mummified to honour the Iris which rescued them each spring from the flying serpent. But in reality it was the other type of Ibis which did the job of keeping them safe. The Northern Bald Ibis is glossy black and feeds on lizards and insects. It is also called the hermit Ibis and was once widespread in northern Africa. Some fossil remains of this Ibis have been dated back a million and a half years. Ironically the Northern Bald Ibis is mostly extinct and one of the main causes is pesticide poisoning. Another great human condition snafu where we kill the beast who kills the pest and do so for the better good, or the better of two evils.



This isn't to say that Herodotus was considering the Northern Bald Ibis as the fighter of the winged serpent ( Apep ). Another interesting thing about the Northern Bald is that it does not wade and prefers to harbor on hillsides than in trees.



The Glossy Ibis is another dark Ibis but does not seem like a serpent killer. It was found in Africa and was very widespread and would migrate.



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What is an Ibis ?







Well it's a bird obviously. But in the case of the Egyptian myths the Ibis is a religiously sacred spirit.

A certain type of Ibis is responsible for fighting off winged serpents. Mythologically speaking anyways. The winged serpent in the Herodotus account has never been identified according to Sir John Gardner Wilkinson who writes of them in a centuries old book called Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians...Volume 2.



Wilkinson goes on to say that Herodotus must have been fooling with peoples minds since no artifacts or archeological evidence exists to demonstrate that such a winged serpent was a concern of the ancient Egyptians.



Yet, in other tales we are told that the very mention or honour of the nonbeing Apep, winged serpent of the night, would bring an end to a person's soul and that there would be no victory in the duat. So just maybe, there was a reason why no inscriptions were located to prove the existence of such a winged serpent.



You asked, What is an Ibis?



I'm just the messenger...don't shoot me......



But wait there is more.



Wilkinson goes on to give clues to what type of Ibis Herodotus was talking about. He speculates that it was either the Numenius Ibis or the Ibis Religiosa (Sacred Ibis).



Numenius Ibis was named by Cuvier in the early 1800's. Cuvier is mentioned in an article by WH Rosser found in the Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 160, of 1836.



This article is full of mysterious information such as:



" the black Ibis of the ancients is probably the bird known in Europe under the name green curlew "



"a bird was discovered ( in Ethiopia ) which is there called Abou-Hannes (father John), and on comparing it with the embalmed individuals, he discovered it to be the the true black and white Ibis of the ancients"



" they (Egyptians) ascribed their deliverance to these creatures; and, to make them a grateful return, it was ordained for a law, that none of these creatures, whose representations were formerly thus carried, should be killed, but religiously and carefully adored. "



Rosser concludes the article by stating that " I cannot but think that the true cause of the veneration for the brute creation among the Egyptians, is among those mysteries of that highly mysterious people which have never yet been fathomed, and probably never will , unless the more perfect knowledge of the hieroglyphic inscriptions shall admit us, among the initiated, to some of the secrets of the Egyptian priests."



Interestingly Thoth is the Egyptian equivalent of Mercury and to the Romans Mercury was the deity who fathered Remus and Romulus. In that tale Romulus kills Remus and founds Rome in the 8th century BC. Mercury, like Thoth, is the protector of sciences, the organizer of human society, the inventor of writing and the written code of law, and the patron of all useful arts.



Again interestingly, some artifacts of the winged serpent and Ibis battles begin to be imprinted in Roman art. Somehow that suggests that the Romans who were rising in power while the Greeks controlled had no fear of honouring the winged serpent. Of course that is just speculation on my part.



The Arabs call the mortuary temple of Ramesses II, Medinet Habu. Since Habu refers to father, I imagine this means "house of the father". Ramesses II was pharoah in the 19th dynasty. He was the son of Seti I. Dynasty 19 Egypt is circa 1250 BC. Seti I was the son of Ramesses I.





All kinds of interesting things are happening when Ramesses II reigns Egypt.

• 1275 BC Khumbannumena expands the Elamite empire
• 1274 BC Ramesses II is defeated by the Hittite king Muwatallis II at the city of Kadesh
• 1259 BC Ramesses II and the new Hittite king Hattusili III sign peace agreements
• 1250 BC the Hebrews return from Egypt and establish a kingdom in Palestine (???)
• 1250 BC the Assyrians make headway with numbers by figuring out the 360 degree circle and gain iron working knowledge which leads to better arms
• 1250 BC the Elamites build the largest Ziggurat of all times at Choga Zambil
• 1237 BC Hattusili III dies, Tudhaliya IV, his son becomes king of the Hittite and erects a palace at the acropolis inbuilds an acropolis at Hattusa
• 1225 BC the Assyrians capture Babylon
• 1200 BC the Phoenician move to the Meditteranean coast from the Arabian peninsula

By some accounts Moses in 1272 BC, the Hebrew leader of the newly formed Jewish people and founder to be of Israel is about to lead the monotheists to the promised land. The reason for leaving is a matter of life and death. The pharoah (not certain whether it is Ramses II or an Hyksos Pharoah ) is on to the conversion schemes of the monotheist and has put a bounty on all converts. The terms of the bounty state that any convert is to be put to death by drowning in the Nile. During this journey Moses goes up on Mount Sinai and receives the commandments of his supreme host. Check out the passage about the mysteries of high priests trained in esoteric arts and laws written of above and consider that the alters of the highest orders of priests were almost always situated high up on mountains. They were fire alters ( consider the precipitation of metals ) and very few select priests knew the incantations or spells required to summon the psychic source.

Then consider what really happened at the fire alters of Mount Sinai. It all just speculation.



What is an Ibis ? If you are still reading and you don't yet know what an Ibis is then I apologize.



We are now in act two, or five, and we are considering the mythical possibility of What an Ibis might have been to the ancients. It's some sort of bird, either real or fictional.



Though Thoth, Theuth as some say, was a deity and a member of the Egyptian pagan pantheon, He was also a supernatural king priest in the eyes of his cult followers in Egypt. Medinet Habu was Djanet to the ancient Egyptians and it is situated only a few kilometers from the Ramesseum where the major cult of influence was to Amun. Today there is a Djanet in Algeria but not the same. It was a place dedicated to Thoth and here Thoth was symbolized with the head of an Isis according to the Gentleman Magazine article referenced before.

The Ramesseum itself was in the time of Ramesses II and earlier a worship center to the eight divinities of creation according to the Ogdoad myths. It was here that the cultists believed these gods of creation had been buried.

Much more could be said about What is an Ibis?.

For instance, much of the ability for the Pharoah to keep Egypt under his rule came by his ability to keep the Nubians, those from Ethiopia, and along the Blue Nile and White Nile into Sudan and closer to the Lake Victoria, at peace, or in balance through the divine law of Ma'at (aka Thoth ), with the people of the North or Lower Nile.

What the true meaning or the true role of the Ibis was in these affairs is a mystery lost in mythos just as much as what the reality of the fire alter sacrifices were to the initiated high priests who climbed mountains only to come back to announce revelation to the sheep flock or cult members.

What is an Ibis ?

It's a bird full of mystery.

Does the Ibis play a role in the story of Apep the fiery demon serpent of the night ?

An equally mysterious possibility which could take volumes to speculate about.

early kings of Nubia

The history of Egypt can't be complete without looking at the influence of the early kings of Nubia.

Lost Kingdom of Africa is a series on that continent and the Nubia episode which aired on TVO yesterday was an excellent way to begin to understand the role of the ancient Nubians.

TVO describes Nubia in the following way.

Nubia, in now what is Northern Sudan, dominated a vast area of the eastern Sahara for thousands of years. Its people were described as barbarians and mercenaries, and yet Nubia has left us some of the most spectacular monuments in the world. Gus Gasely-Hayford discovers that its kings once ruled Ancient Egypt and that it was defeated not by its rivals but by its environment.

After watching the TVO programs on early kings of Nubia and their influence on Egypt I'm left with many curious questions about the Rock Gongs, the rock paintings recently discovered, the mud buildings and palaces of Kush, the old archeological sites around Khartoum, including Karma, Jebel Barkal, and Meroé.

Aswan is at cataract 1, kerma at cataract 3, Jebel Barkal at cataract 4, and Meroe is between cataracts 5 and 6. Khartoum is at the forks of the blue nile and white nile where the tributaries dump their fresh and potable waters highly valued for farming and irrigation into the greater Nile which flows towards Egypt and the Mediterranean.

And there are more question such has ;

Did the Nubian priest caste learn their burial rituals and build their mud mounds by standards learned in Egypt, or did the Egyptians learn their mound building skills from the inhabitants who lived at the forks of the blue nile and white nile?

The end result shows that the Nubia tribes moved with climate changes. Were they moving always towards the south or did they disperse north and south in tribes ??? After thousands of years of interactions with Egyptians, Arabians, Greeks, Romans, Persians, and others, they were all but forgotten except for the archeological artifacts and monuments that lay scattered along the Nile and in the desert proper.

chronological table of egypt evolution

Here is Anne Rosalie David's chronological table of egypt evolution. Anne Rosalie David wrote several books on Egypt and is a professional Egyptologist and University Professor.

Predynastic Period

• 5100 - 3100 BC with unification of upper and lower egypt c. 3100 BC

Archaic Period

• Dynasty 1 begins with unification of Egypt
• Dynasty 2 begins in 2890 BC

Old Kingdom

• Dynasty 3 begins in 2686 BC
• Dynasty 4 begins in 2613 BC
• Dynasty 5 begins in 2494 BC
• Dynasty 6 begins in 2345 BC

First Intermediate Period

• Dynasty 7 begins in 2181 BC
• Dynasty 8 begins in 2173 BC
• Dynasty 9 begins in 2160 BC
• Dynasty 10 begins in 2130 and ends in 2040 BC
• Dynasty 11 begins in 2133 and ends in 1991

Middle Kingdom

• Dynasty 12 begins in 1991 BC and ends in 1786 BC

Second Intermediate Period

• Dynasty 13 begins in 1786 and ends in 1633 BC
• Dynasty 14 begins in 1786 and ends in c.1603 BC
• Dynasty 15 begins in 1674 and ends in 1567 BC
• Dynasty 16 begins in 1684 and ends in 1567 BC
• Dynasty 17 begins in c. 1650 and ends in 1567 BC

New Kingdom

• Dynasty 18 begins in 1567 BC
• Dynasty 19 begins in 1320 BC
• Dynasty 20 begins in 1200 BC

Third Intermediate Period

• Dynasty 21 begins c. 1089 BC
• Dynasty 22 begins in 945 and ends in 730 BC
• Dynasty 23 begins c. 818 and ends in 793 BC
• Dynasty 24 begins c. 727 and ends in 715 BC
• Dynasty 25 begins c. 730 and ends in 656 BC
• Dynasty 26 begins in 664 and ends in 525 BC

Late Period

• Dynasty 27 begins in 525 BC
• Dynasty 28 begins in 404 BC
• Dynasty 29 begins in 399 BC
• Dynasty 30 begins in 380 BC and ends in 343 BC.

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In 343 BC the Greeks led by Alexander the Great and his general's are conquering the world and Ptolemy is the general in charge in Egypt. Alexander dies and his lands are divided amongst the generals. The Ptolemaic Era begins with Ptolemy I Soter.

elephantine

The first of six cataracts or shallows of the Nile is at Aswan and Elephantine Island is close by.

Elephantine island is perfectly located to allow tribes to build barriers of defense against people or animals. It has invited such people since the earliest of times. The ancient Egyptians called this large island Abu or Yabu. The Greeks called it Elephant Island (elephantine).

Khnum was the patron god of the island. Khnum, aka., Khnemu, Chnum, etal., had at least one temple built in his honour on Elephantine Island. Cults adopted a creation myth where Khnum was a ram headed potter, who moulded species on his divine potter's wheel.

John Anthony West explains it this way.

Khnum was the Great Artificer, carrying out the plans of Ptah, the Architect, which were in turn the commands of Re, as uttered by Thoth. By a chain of associations, then Khnum, was an aspect of Re. He is called Supreme One, the One Great God, etc...

West continues to explain the Khnum trinity that exists between Neith, and Satet. Satet is a form of Isis and associated to the star Sirius. In later myths Neith is substituted for Esna, and Satet is substituted for the lion-headed Menhyet.

Sirius is the dog star and the brightest star in the night sky. It goes on to play a big role in the Giza pyramids with the Isis chamber.

Elephantine Island holds clues from as early as the 3rd and 4th dynasties about the offerings made to the Khnum triad. The earliest inhabitants would have been of Nubian decent and most likely influenced by the bird clans who came from the south more than the serpent or lizard lower nile clans who'd moved closer to the Mediterranean. Just speculation.....

dynasty 5 pyramids

Snefru's bloodline passes and we enter into dynasty 5 pyramids.


The image depicts the pyramids at Giza with three smaller pyramids in the forefront dedicated to Menkaure associates.

The fifth dynasty remains a part of the Old Kingdom of Egypt.

Dynasty 4 ends when Menkaura, Shepseskaf, and Djedefptah, in a short spurt of time (untime), turn the Egyptian zeitgeist or spirit of time. We are now in the years 2532 BC to 2500 BC. Political powers are moving quickly within Egypt. The unified kingdom seems to be destabilizing. The central white walled house of Memphis and it's god king is being questioned for it's authority on what is divine law and what isn't divine law. (note to self....why is DiVinCi so close to divine- answer to self..look up grand master of grand masters of the stonemasons... ).

Again we turn to our collective encyclopedia called the Internet wikipedia-how f#%$#^ avant garde is that - for a king list of dynasty 5 pyramids and get the following pyramid structures for dynasty 5 which is focused between Saqqare and Abusir...Abusir seems to be a new addition to the Egyptian lore. It lies north of Saqqara, therefore closer to the Mediterranean which already shows some Mesopotamian or even Greek influence. And already we are only at 2500 BC circa.

The list..

meanwhile...

The king list of dynasty 5 Egypt...

1. Userkaf
2. Sahure
3. Neferirkare Kakai
4. Shepseskare Isi
5. Neferefre
6. Nyuserre Ini
7. Menkauhor Kaiu
8. Djedkare Isesi
9. Unas

Check out the pacific Hawaiin connection here....land of Lemuria etal....

There is debate that the rule of the fifth dynasty comes from behind the white walls of Memphis, but argument as it that fifth dynasty kings ruled form Elephantine (from Manetho's notes). Elephantine is interesting in that it is located on the border of upper egypt and lower egypt.

dynasty 4 pyramids

The great pyramids of Giza are dynasty 4 pyramids. Where Amhotep began the stone pyramid construction in dynasty 3, Sneferu built on the existing pyramids and others added to the list of Egyptian pyramids in the fourth dynasty of Egypt.

Pharoah Snefru is the first king of dynasty four which begins around 2613 BC according to the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho. The fourth dynasty remains part of the Old Kingdom .

As with all things in historical perspective there is confusion in accuracy as to who came when and ahead of who as is the case with Sneferu and Huni. It seems however there is no question that Sneferu led Egypt into the fourth dynasty. The Huni pyramid at Meidum is either a product of the Huni reign or the Sneferu reign. The bent pyramid and the red pyramid at Dashur are somehow lost in this same confusion but it seems that Snefru played a major part in the development of these early limestone pyramids.

From Snefru comes Khufu and Khnum most likely mothered by Hetepheres I. However Sneferu was a king god and a ladies man and had several other children with several others consorts or mistresses. Amongst them are Netjerape and Nefermaat.

The bloodline of the fourth dynasty starts out with Sneferu and links into Khufru, then his son Khafra and then Menkaura. In building dynasties an overlord builds relations with neighbours and subdues the ideologies that oppose his empirical reign. A good king also has the ability to move his own people. In the fourth dynasty it seems that these kings able to move the mass workers without having to use tyrannical rule. Again a point debated. Others claim most of the work was carried out by a slave workforce. Most likely it was a balance of both where prisoners provided hard labor while freemasons led the chain.

Regardless from this bloodline of Egyptian god kings or Pharoah we get the Giza dynasty 4 pyramids.

The kings of the fourth dynasty are

1. Sneferu
2. Khufu
3. Djedefra
4. Khafra
5. Menkaura
6. Shepseskaf
7. Djedefptah

To the Greeks Khufu is Cheops, Khafra is Chephren, Menkaura is Mycerinus.

The location of dynasty 4 pyramids at Giza shows a offers a great deal of knowledge about the move away from the Ogdoad creation myth religious cults centered at Hermopolis and a move towards the acceptance of the Heliopolis Ennead or nine gods of creation cults. Giza is at the end of the Heliopolis arrow in the image of the Nile above.

List of dynasty 4 pyramids according to wikipedia

1. Sneferu Endures
2. The southern shining pyramid
3. The shining pyramid
4. Khufu's horizon
5. Djedefre's Starry Skies
6. Khafre is great
7. Sanakht
8. Menkaure is Divine
9. The purified pyramid
10. Khentkawes

dynasty 3 pyramids

Egypt dynasty 3 pyramids are an advancement on the conventional mastaba chambers used in previous funerary rituals of the royal blood line. Today's archeologists have yet to discover evidence of a pyramid in Egypt that is older than Pharoah Djoser's reign. Djoser was 3rd king of the 3rd dynasty and Amhotep was his architect. It was Amhotep who built the first Egyptian pyramid. Djoser reigned as Pharoah of Egypt from 2630 to 2611 BC and the funerary complex or step pyramid was erected at Saqqara, just outside of the white walled holy compound of Memphis.

The pyramidal monumental structure stands as the first Egyption pyramid to be built of stone. The Djoser dynasty 3 pyramid began as a mastaba inside a mile long complex and was later expanded in at least two stages with the end result turning into a six step stone pyramid structure.

Pharoah Sneferu comes along in egypt dynasty 4 and builds up on three other pyramids that were founded as dynasty 3 pyramids.

One was situated six kms south of Djoser's Saqqara. Likely the pyramid was being built in honor of Pharoah Huni. This old kingdom king was the last Pharoah of the third dynasty. The Huni pyramid is sometimes referred to as the "onion" pyramid due the peeled look the exposed upper steps give it.

Further south from Saqqara and Meidum in Dashur another pyramid was being built in dynasty 3. Again, the Egyptian's were struggling with the physics and this pyramid slanted giving it the name of the "bent" pyramid.

The persisted and began construction on another pyramid complex again in Dashur. This one is sometimes referred to as the third pyramid of Snefru or the "red" pyramid due mainly to the reddish tint it took on when the limestone used in the core oxidized when exposed to sunlight.

So dynasty 3 pyramids include

1. Dsojer's pyramid at Saqqara
2. Huni's pyramid at Meidum
3. The bent pyramid at Dashur
4. The red Sneferu pyramid at Dashur

Meanwhile...the wikipedia dynasty 3 pyramids list goes as follows ( historical hindsight is not 20/20)

1. Pyramid of Dsojer
2. Buried pyramid of Sekhemkhet
3. Layered pyramid of Khaba at Zawiyet el-Aryan

Confused yet.....post dating history and digging up bones is about as valid as predicting the future and manifesting new realities.

See if you can make sense of it by following up into dynasty 4 pyramids in Egypt.

eight Ogdoad deity

Who were the eight gods of the Ogdoad ?

The major cult center of the eight Ogdoad deity was Hermopolis. However a popular website called tourEgypt states Heliopolis as the primary place of worship. In Egyptian myths by Hart it states that the Ogdoad predates the Ennead of Heliopolis. On nemo.com they claim that the Ogdoad were eight reptiles.

Hermopolis was named by the Greeks as the city of Hermes and Hermes was the messenger of the Gods and a guide to the Underworld. The Greeks don't form a culture for thousands of years after the beginning of the Egyptian dynasties however.

The Egyptian creation myth of Ogdoad emphasizes that eight primeval forces or primordial essences or states of chaos were the elements of life which preceded all other life in Egypt and on earth.

So who were the formulators of the Hermopolitan cosmogeny ?

Here's how Hart describes it.

The number of either gods or goddesses in the Hermopolitan myth is far from fortuitous....

The eight of Hermopolis were(structured as four couples) were personified entities within the primeval matter, with the gods envisaged as frogs, and the goddesses as snakes.......

The names of these eight deities survive, but it is difficult in some cases to conjure the exact mental image which ancient Egyptians would have seen.

One frog god and one snake goddess unite in a concept of male/female principles.

The four gods of the Ogdoad are Nu, Heb, Kek, Amun.
The four goddesses of the Ogdoad are Naunet, Haubet, Kauket, Amaunet.

Nu and Naunet unite in primordial waters, Heb and Haubet unite in kinetic flood forces, Kek and Kauket form in darkness, and Amun and Amaunet form in concealed dynamism. All this cosmic energy is dividing the singularity into duality in bursts of energy that occur before the rising of the first sun or the time before the genesis of the solar system. Thus the chaos gods or the eight Ogdoad deity create the Isle of Flame or the fire in the sky. In the Ogdoad myth therefore
Atum is created after the chaos gods explosive dynamo of duality. Like Hart states, they are the father's and mother's of Atum.

The Ogdoad gods were worshipped during the Old Kingdom. During this 550 year period their were cults within united Egypt who worshipped Hathor and Ra, while others moved towards Hathor and Thoth. By 2400 BC when the Old Kingdom is failing as a united kingdom under one Pharoah the emergence of a nine Ennead deity belief is gaining momentum. The Ennead cults are focused in Heliopolis in Lower Egypt, near present day Cairo.

Goddess of the Red Crown

Neith was the goddess of the red crown of lower Egypt and is a predynastic Egypt mythological figure.

She was the patron of weaving, hunting, and of war.

Lower Egypt is that part of Egypt that begins at the Aswan cataract and runs to the shores of the Mediterranean sea.

Kurt Sethe, a German philologist, argues that Neith could be the Canaanites war goddess Anath who was a bloodthirsty and terrifying god figure of war.

The cults to the goddess of the red crown show themselves in early texts of Abydos, according to The Great goddessses of Ancient Egypt by Lesko, but the real influence of Neith is seen at Sais which is much closer to the Mediterranean and the territory where Alexander the Great and the Ptolemy Pharoah chose to rule Egypt from. The lady of Sais was the creator of all.

The earliest images of the goddess of the red crown, again according to the same source, are found at the time of the reigns of Djet and Nynetjer during the Archaic Period. Reverence to the goddess of the delta was also respected at Memphis where an temple of Neith was situated just outside of the white walls.

Those royals who honoured the goddess of the delta or the predynastic goddess of the red crown often took on her name. ie. Meryneith.

The Greek version of Neith might be the strong and independent Athena. Neith in early Egypt is almost as powerful as the king himself.

The Berber culture Africans might have equated Tanit to Neith, where Ta is land and Nit is Neith.

The Phoenician equivalent was likely Ishtarte or Ishtar ( would be interesting this one to see any correlations to the ished tree and Apophis relation). The Ogdoad myths have her as the mother of Ra and of Apep

Neith, the goddess of the red crown, was also Nit, Net, Neit...

From the Pyramid Texts

" My mother is Isis

My nurse is Nephtys

Neith is behind me

Selket is before me"

The image of Neith is often one of a women holding a bow and arrow and a weaver's shuttle above her head. Other images have the goddess of the red crown pictured as a lioness, serpent (snake, lizard), or cow.

Apep

Apep is an ancient Egyptian deity, not mentioned in Egypt until the Middle Kingdom funerary texts. Apep is sometimes associated the goddess Neith and is the arch enemy of Ra. Like Cronos of the Greek myths who swallows up his offsprings, Apep is said to attempt to destroy Ra or slow the advances of Ra by subduing his creation. Apep is always trying to create trouble for Ra. While many Egyptian deities were beings that could exist outside of the godly worlds, Apep was not and whoever became swallowed up by Apep was doomed to a nonexistent state of being with no natural characteristics and never again being able to exist in the natural world or in the heavens.

Apep could only be a bad thing for sun worshipping mortal humans who looked to the Horus god or the Amun Ra god who was represented by the highest of high priests; the pharoah king.

The king who sat on the throne of the great white walled city (Memphis) became the god man who could protect the cult members from arm at the way of the giant snake or serpent demon who plied his magic from the the realm of darkness.

Apep, the one who spits venomous chants of eternal prison poison.

Vizier

A vizier is a high ranking political figure. In the Old Kingdom or even earlier in the Archaic period the king ( later Pharoah ) would appoint an administrator, a type of chancellor, sometimes referred to in Egyptian as " taty".

The "taty" or vizier was appointed by the Pharoah and were not required to be of royal blood. This chief administrator was not considered heir to the throne but like in today's political arena these high ranking government officials often set up the stage for political coup d'etat type revolutionary moves. Inside jobs that change the political paradigm.

Akhet

When the djew is seen with a circular symbol between the peaks of the mountains which flank the Nile, the Egyptian hieroglyph represents the concept of "horizon".

Djew

The djew is a mountain and the Egyptian hieroglyph for this concept is a symbol with two raised peaks. The valley between the peaks might represent the Nile which flows between the western peak or Manu and the eastern peak which is Bakhu.

Old Kingdom Egypt

After the Archaic Period comes Old Kingdom Egypt.

The Thinite period covered 400 years from 3100 BC onwards and the rise and fall of over a dozen kings and the vizier order.

In the Old Kingdom the unity of Egypt grows initially but comes to a revolutionary end with the kings of the sixth and seventh dynasties.

Some egyptologists, people who study egyptian history, consider dynasty 3 to be part of the Archaic period or early dynasties. Others set the beginning of Old Kingdom Egypt at the beginning of the the third dynasty. The first king is called a Pharoah until the fourth dynasty.

The Egyptians under their new one king ruled by Horus who represented in a human god is the divine being of Ptah and rules from "the house of god", the Pr'aa, in the city of the white walls which is Memphis. The king is Pharoah by the fourth dynasty.

Old Kingdom Egypt is the time when the pyramids are believed to have been constructed. The alternate historians might not agree with the conventional egyptologist on this and they might tell you that while the power of the pyramid builder was reawakened in the Old Kingdom, the ideology or the knowledge behind the pyramidal structure holds it's roots in a much...much older world order.

Who's right ? Only time will tell.

The first pyramid definitely demonstrated advancements in the knowledge base and skillset of the Old Kingdom Egypt society. The mud brick huts and structures of the Archaic period has given way to neolithic/ bronze age fine stone cuts along with the smeltering of and crafting in of malleable ores and minerals.

The burial chambers and tombs of the Archaic age and the predynastic Egypt have also been upgraded. This is evident in the pyramids of the Old Kingdom.

Archaic Period

The Archaic Period of Egypt is when small settlements positioned along the Upper Nile and Lower Nile are unified under the rule of a centralized government with the Pharoah being the god man ruler.

The Archaic period is not well understood but it involves the rise of names like Narmer, Menes, Den, and others. By some accounts there are eight kings who rule the first dynasty and eight kings who ruled the second dynasty.

These kings lived in great palaces albeit structures made of mud bricks which have been lost to time. These two dynasties lasted from 3100 BC to 2700 BC approximately.

The Archaic Period is sometimes referred to as the Early dynastic period or the Thinite. It gets the name Thinite from Thinis which was situated near Abydos.



The city of Memphis also took form in the Archaic period. Memphis becomes the throne capital of Egypt. It is fortified by white walls and becomes known as the city of the white walls.

Ptah was the great creator and as the great commander of the pantheon of overlords it was he who manifested other deities.

In the great house inside the white walled city a god man elect would rule Egypt. It was the will of Ptah.

Pr'aa is symbolic of "the great house" and Pharoah is a derivative of Pr'aa and a title that would later be given to the king of all of Egypt.

In predynastic Egypt people used pictographs to communicate. The hieroglyphs were an improvement in communication most likely invented in these early dynasties. The hieroglyphic alphabet was the divine word or the language of the gods.

The entourage of the king priest included a priest class of elite minor rulers who were skilled scribes and highly trained in all types of arts and sciences. The priest class kept the masses convinced that the king was the elect god appointed figure head. They did this through the use hieroglyphic propaganda.

Of course, not all hieroglyphic scribbles were meant to be a means of controlling and while some scribes and artisans continued to serve the king, others would revolt.

These revolts led to seperation and to the decentralization of Egypt but not until the seventh dynasty.

Evolution of the Egyptian king list

The evolution of the Egyptian king list moves through several periods.

In approximately the year 3100 BC the Archaic Period begins. This is when names likes Menes, Narmer, and others get entangled into what become Egypt dynasties 1 and 2. The Old Kingdom of the Egyptian timeline involves dynasties 3 though 6 and by the end of this unified Egypt period we get a Intermediate Period where major dissidence occurs. During this first Egyptian intermediate period loyalty to the Pharoah fades and central government is all but abandonned. This goes on through dynasties 7 through 10.

The Middle Kingdom is a reunificated period of Pharoanic rule and the evolution of the Egyptian king list sees names like Amenemhet, Senwosret, and Nefrusobek, added to it. The Middle Egyptian Kingdom covers dynasties 11 through 13. The centralized government again breaks apart and dynasties 14 through 17 are a Second Egyptian Intermediate Period.

A New Kingdom once again reunifies the centralized one ruler Egypt in dynasty 20 and the following names are added to the evolution of the Egyptian king list.

• Ahmose
• Amenhotep 1, 2, 3
• Thutmose 1, 2, 3, 4
• Khenmetamun
• Akhenaten
• Smenkhkare
• Tutankhamen
• Meryamun 1, 2
• Ramesses
• Seti
• Setepenre

As before the central power of a Pharoanic god man leader can't hold the Egyptians from revolting and a Third Egyptian Intermediate Period seperates the kingdom where dynasty periods 21 through 25 are played out.

Late Period Egypt brings in the Ptolemy rulers and the Greeks influenced followed by Rome and Ceasar. During dynasties 21 through 30 the Cleopatra's and other names are added to the evolution of the Egyptian king list.

How Chaldeans conjure up magic

This is an incantation ritual and how Chaldeans conjure up magic. These verses are found in Chaldean Magic: It's Origin and Development by Francois Lenormant.

Incantation

The wicked god, the wicked demon,
The demon of the desert, the demon of the mountain,
The demon of the sea, the demon of the marsh,
The evil genius, the enormous uruku,
The bad wind by itself,
The wicked demon which seizes the body,
Which disturbs the body.

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

The demon who seizes man, the demon who seizes man,
The Gigim who works evil,
The production of a wicked demon,

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

The consecrated prostitute with the rebellious heart,
Who abandons the place of prostitution,
The prostitute of the god Anna,
Who does not do his service,
To the evening of the beginning of the incomplete month,
The sacred slave who fails to go to his place,
Who does not lacerate his chest,
Who does not...his hand,
Making his chest resound, completing......

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

That which does not go away,
That which is not propitious,
That which grows up ulcers of a bad kind,
Poignant ulcers,
Enlarged ulcers,
Excoriated ulcers,
Ulcers.......
Ulcers which spread,
Malignant ulcers,

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

Disease of the bowels,
The disease of the heart,
The palpitation of the diseased heart,
Disease of the vision,
Disease of the head,
Malignant dysentery,
The tumour which swells,
Ulceration of the reins,
The micturation which wastes,
Cruel agony which never ceases,
Nightmare,

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

He who forges images,
He who bewitches,
The malevolent aspect,
The malevolent tongue,
The malevolent lip,
The finest sorcery,

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

The nurse,
The nurse who's breast withers,
The nurse who's breast is bitter,
The nurse who's breast becomes ulcerated,
The nurse who dies of the ulceration of her breast,
The woman with child whose embryo splits,
The woman with child whose embryo grows rotten,
The woman with child whose embryo does not prosper,

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

Painful fever, violent fever,
The fever which never leaves man,
Unremitting fever,
The lingering fever, malignant fever,

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

Painful plague,
Violent plague,
Plague which never leaves man,
Unremitting plague,
The lingering plague, malignant plague,

Spirit of the Heavens, conjure it!
Spirit of the Earth, conjure it!

........... the incantation verses go on for 28 magical spells.

These verses were encrypted in Accadian text on clay tablets which were found somewhere near Nineveh at the north of Mesopotamia. Accadian or Akkadian language as it is more commonly spelled was a derivative of the earlier Sumerian language. Akkadian made extensive use of cuneiforms. Cuneiform itself is not a language but merely the symbols used in the earliest known languages. Akkadian is considered to be the earliest of the Semitic languages, or AfroAsiatic languages. Other cuneiform based languages evolved including Assyrian, Babylonian, Elamite, Eblaite, Hittite, Hurrian, Utartian, Ugaritic, Old Persian.

Cuneiforms are logograms. They were an evolution of the clay tokens used in accounting between the antidiluvian era and the rise of the first civilizations such as Sumer.

Go here to read the full Lenormant version of How Chaldeans conjure up magic.



There are many ways of interpreting these verses and many have tried. Some have gone as far as to claim that he winds of change and disease were actually the effects of nuclear fallout. Just reading the Chaldean incantations might suggest that they are a way of putting a curse on someone else. The exact opposite could also apply where the person who recites these verses on a daily basis is actually using a form of prayer or mild self hypnosis to remind themselves continually that to not obey certain healing laws could lead to any of these atrocious dis-ease conditions. The incantation certainly do seem to spell out the now familiar condition of cancer.

Berossus by Polyhistor

The following is an extract on Berossus by Polyhistor.
While polyhistor is a term which refers to a person who has a vast base of knowledge in this case it refers to a person named Lucius Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor who lived in c. 100 BC. Lucius Cornelius was a Roman philosopher, geographer, and historian, amongst other things. He was born in Miletus. According to wikipedia Alexander Polyhistor was born a Greek and became a scholar. He earned the title polyhistor due to his productivity in recording historical events.
The Mithridatic War came along and Alexander was captured and became a Roman slave. He was later sold to Cornelius Lentulus who wanted him as a tutor. From here he earned his freedom and returned to a freedman life as a Roman citizen. He died in a house fire and most of his writings have been lost.
This fragment is called Extract from Berossus by Alexander Polyhistor.

There was a time when all was darkness and water, and from the midst thereof issued spontaneously monstrous animals and the most peculiar figures: men with two wings, and others with four, with two faces or two heads, one of a man, and the other of a woman, on one body, and with the two sexes together; men with goat's legs and goat's horns, or with horses's hoofs; others with the hinder parts of a horse and the foreparts of a man, like the hyppocentaurs. There were, besides, human headed bulls, dogs with four bodies and fishes' tails, horses with dog's heads, animals with the head and body of a horse and the tail of a fish, other quadrupeds in which all sorts of animal shapes were confused together, fishes, reptiles, serpents, and every kind of marvelous monster presenting the greatest variety in their shapes, representations of which may be seen in the paintings of the temple of Belos. A women named Omoroca ( Um-Uruk, " the mother of Uruk"), presided over this creation; in the
Chaldean language she bears the name of Thavatth ( Tiamat ), signifying in Greek " the sea," and she is also identified with the moon.

Things being in this condition, Belos (Bel-Marduk) came upon the scene and cut the women in half; of the lower part of her body he made the earth, and of the upper half he made the heavens, and all the creatures that were in her disappeared. This is a figurative way of explaining the production of the Universe and of the animated beings from humid matter. Belos then cut off his own head, and the other gods having kneaded the blood flowing from it with the earth, formed men, who by that means were gifted with understanding, and made participants of divine thought.

[Thus it was that] Belos, interpreted by the Greeks as signifying Zeus, having divided the darkness, separated the heavens and the earth, and ordered the world : and all the animated beings who were not able to handle the action of light perished. Belos seeing that the earth was a desert, though fertile, commanded one of the Gods to cut off his head, and kneading the blood which flowed with earth, he produced men, as well as those animals who are able to live in contact with the air. - Then Belos also formed the stars, the sun, the moon, and the five planets. - ( Ap. Syncell., p. 29; Euseb., Chronic Armen. [ I., 2, 4], p. 10, ed, Mai ; Fragment 1 of my edition. )

Modern map

old map showing mesopotamia and babylonia

The Chaldean were settled near Sumer and were considered to be highly skilled magician or sorcerers. They ruled Babylon for a time after settling the area starting in c. 650 BC.

Click on the tags for more......

This extract is found in a book by Francois Lenormant called The beginnings of History which is public domain and written in the 1880's.

Lenormant was a french Parisian archeologist and assyriologist who followed in his fathers footsteps and who was an Egyptologist.

Another book worthy of thought by Lenormant goes into Chaldean Magic and the ancient history of the east.

Who was Berossus

Berossus was a priest of Bel in the Greek Hellenistic period (c. 332BC to c. 100 BC ). This is the time when Alexander the Great conquers Persia and Egypt but dies and leaves is territories to be split amongst his generals.

Ptolemy I Soter inherits Egypt and goes on to invent an Egyptian/Greek god called Serapis.

Berossus meanwhile is a writer, astronomer, astrologer, and historian who is studying the Enima Elish and king lists dated back to pre dynastic Egypt and as far back as he can find. Berossus is living in Babylon and Alexander the Great has also conquered Babylon. He is recording his findings in the Greek language. It isn't completely certain why these history studies by the Bel priest Berossus were undertaken but some sources state that likely it was a commission from Antichios I Soter who wanted to know more about his newly acquired land where Bel/Marduk cults were the custom.

From Babylon where he is ruled by Antiochus I Soter, Berossos is believed to have relocated to Kos in Asia Minor which would have placed him under the rule of Ptolemy I Soter. Here he sets up a school of astrology ( not well documented).

What is a priest of Bel ?

The Chaldean priest of Bel is a powerful figure in the Akkadian/ Sumerian social caste.

When the earliest civilizations were founded c. 3500 BC in this region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, priest-kings were the norm. These high order priests were full of knowledge and they could sometimes be gifted healers with seemingly miraculous powers. But this priestly role as ruler diminished over time with the ongoing battles. With time the priest class is one step below the elitist king who may or may not be a priest.

Marduk is a Sumerian word which is the equivalent of the Akkadian word AMAR UTU which signifies "solar calf" ( this is interesting when it is correlated to the Apis Bull of Egypt story). Marduk was by some accounts the son of the Akkadian god Ea ( Ea to the Sumerian was Enki). Marduk is often depicted as riding on a dragon.

Enlil is another god figure who is higher up the pantheonic ladder than Marduk in the old Sumerian world. Enlil is recognized as the only god who had the ability to reach the heavenly god An. Enlil became known as father of the gods or king of kings for this unique gift of divinity.

Enlil was by some accounts cast out of the heavenly realm of the Gods, a place called Dilmun, to an underworld called Kur. Is exile was a punishment for having raped Ninlil who was a goddess and got her pregnant. Ninlil meanwhile had to follow him into the underworld of Kur where Nergal/Sin was born.

Nippur becomes a major cult center devoted to Enlil. Nippur is also Nibbur or Nibru. Nippur is a major city in the later Hebrew exodus story where Moses and Lot (c. 2000 BC) lead the righteous out of Egypt in order to relocate to Canaan the promised land.

Interestingly, correlations can be made between Ki, the Sumerian goddess of the earth, and An, the Sumerian god of the Heavens, and Canaan. Kinahhu and other variations are Sumerian roots for the Hebrew word Canaan.

By the c. 1550 BC Marduk is well established as the pantheon leader of the Babylonian order.

Bel is a word which signifies lord or master. More than a name, Bel is a title which became used extensively with the Marduk cults. Bel Marduk.

Bel is to the Greeks, Belos, and to the Latin Romans, Belus.

It is a word found in belial which is a reference to one of the seven princes of hell. Bel is also Ba'al.

So is a Bel priest a satanist since the word seems to be connected to serpents, dragons, and dark lords who seem to have lost the respect of their heavenly forefathers ?

Bel and the Dragon is an ancient manuscript which was an extension of the Book of Daniel and originally written in Aramaic ( forerunner of the Hebrew language) sometime around 200 BC.

Somehow it never made it into the Bible compendium of holy texts. It seems the story of Bel and the Dragon was deemed apocryphal ( having esoteric or hidden meaning ).

" The king has become a Jew; has destroyed Bel, and has killed the Dragon, and slaughtered the [Bel] priests..."

In 300 BC Berossus is a Bel priest writing an history of the Mesopotamian evolution of kings. He isn't overly popular and most of his works end up destroyed.

At one point Ba'al (Bel) is a title given to Hadad, the son of El, a primary God of the Pagan Canaanite pantheon.


See more on Berossus at wikipedia.

Who were the Essenes

The Essenes were one of three religious hebrew Jewish sects along with the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The JewishEncyclopedia claims that the Essenes were " a branch of the Pharisees who conformed to the most rigid rules of Levitical purity".

The word Essene comes from the Greek language and it's adapted to the earlier Aramaic word "hasya" which means pious.

The Essenes are mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls which were discovered only in the last century in caves on the Jordan/Syria border.

Previous to these discoveries only Greek writers such as The elder Pliny, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, and a few others mentioned the Essenes and only in passing.

They seem to have been seperatists and some go as far as saying the Essenes were communists who lived semi nomad lifestyles in communes.

To become an Essene it seems as though one had to progress through stages. The initiate would find a master and learn the rules of being an Essene. Then would come a period where the initiate lived outside the commune and showed himself worthy of the ascetic values within the community.

Having passed the objective the initiate took an oath and joined the "meal" of the Essenes.

The ascetic lifestyle of an Essene was similar to that of other monks where all material possession was deemed unworthy. Any material, including lodging, was shared on a per need basis.

The Essenes were perhaps founded by a powerful lawgiver or Teacher of Rightfulness. They seem to have been founded in the second century BC.

Some believe they were men who wanted to separate themselves from the pagan lifestyle.

Others believe they were Pharisees who split from the Jewish sect to form an order of their own.

Who were the Pharisees and what does this have to do with Egypt ?

In this part of the world somehow everything leads back to either Mesopotamia or Egypt.

The Pharisees originate in c. 550 BC along with the Sadducees with the conquest of Babylon in Mesopotamia by the Persian. Cyrus the Great allows Jews to rebuild temples in Judea. The Jewish priests are exiled from Babylon and immigrated to Judea. When Cyrus the Great took over power his rules gave priests a high political rank where they controlled both religion and monarchy.

Different Jewish sects emerged. While the Sadducees where the elite priests they had a strong competition from the Pharisees.

Egypt is conquered from the Persians by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and the Hellenistic Greek period begins. The Jewish priesthood was struggling between it's Aramaic roots and the Hellenistic Greek pagan values.

The Aramaic language comes from c. 800 BC at about the same time Remus and Romulus are struggling in a political pursuit to separate the Roman ideology from the Greek ideology. The Aramaic language is an offshoot of the Phoenician language. The Aramaic language is however only one of the Semitic AfroAsiatic languages.

The Phoenician language is an attempt at unifying the hieroglyphs of Egypt and likely one would not have to dig very deep to find a path between the Phoenician language and the stories of the Greek god wars of Mount Pelion and Mount Olympus where the story of Chiron ( Chi Rho ) and the centaurs or Nephilim plays out.

If such a connection could be made then it becomes really interesting to think of the implications of the Essene Dead Sea Scroll Roman influence found on the Jordan/Syria border in caves and the caves at Mount Pelion where the Greek evolution stories are playing out.

Likely the Greek Pelion stories are older therefore it would seem that the Phoenician who were seperatists in their own right might have had a role in the settling of the Greeks at Mount Olympus.

Who were the Phoenician ?

The Phoenician alphabet is believed to have been invented c. 1050 BC. The center of Phoenicia was located north of ancient Canaan, the land promised to the Jews according to some. The Phoenician culture started to form in c. 1500 BC or even c. 2000BC and was prominent all the way to 300 BC in some parts of Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Greece, and other parts of the land from Jordan to Egypt, and to Persia (Iran), and Babylon(Iraq). They called themselves Kenaani or Kinaani which is synonymous to Canaanites.

A map of old Phoenician city-states would show names like Meggido near Egypt, Alakh near Turkey and Jordan, Kition on the Greek island of Cyprus, and Byblos somewhere around Israel.

The Phoenician were active traders and made use of or exploited all the Silk Road trading routes which reached all the way to Spain, East Asia, India, Egypt.....

Meanwhile, back the the question of who were the Essenes?

They were a Jewish priest order who became ordained after having passed certain initiation rites.

Temple of Edfu

The year is 237 BC and the Temple of Edfu honoured to Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, is designed and ready to be built in Egypt, between the cataract at
Aswan and Luxor.

In 237 BC is in Cleopatra VII's Ptolemaic dynasty. In 57 BC when the Temple of Edfu is completed.

This is a time of great change in Egypt. In 320 BC the city of Alexandria replaces Memphis as the capital of Egypt as the Greeks were shifting the paradigm of Pharoah rule. Alexander the Great had removed the Persians from Egypt rule in 332 BC. He was named Pharoah of Memphis but found the land which became Alexandria more accomodationg to his style of rule. Part of the Greek changes can be seen in the

infrastructure such as the roads and the methods of travel and trade up and down the Nile and through Greek style canals.

The Greek Pharoah of Memphis dies at the age of 38 (323 BC) and his generals split up his Empire amongst them. Ptolemy takes Egypt as his heritage. Thus we get Ptolemy I Soter. Ptolemy I's rule of Egypt was a transition which took a few decades. The next few centuries of Egypt are a mixture of Egyptian ancient beliefs and Greek philosophy and pantheonic influence.

Ptolemy I Soter's Egyptian monicker was Meryamun Setepenre or "Beloved of Amun, Chosen of Re".

The transition to power was a merger between Monarch Hellenistic rule and Pharoanic god-king rule.

Ptolemy I Soter, the saviour, created a new god named Serapis made up of Greek Egyptian deity rituals. The Egyptian rituals he supposedly learned under the advice of Demetrius Phalereus who was head of the Alexandria Library and the mind behind the Mouseion ( the University of Alexandria). The Serapeion of Alexandria was a temple dedicated to the new god. The Serapis cult seems to have taken off with Greeks but not so much with Egyptians.

Meanwhile back in Edfu, or Edfou as the french would have it.

Can we see this Greco influence in the relatively small city of Edfi and in the Horus Temple of Edfu ?

The Temple of Edfu faces North to South and is built above a New Egypt kingdom smaller temple which faced east to west. A much older structure called the Tell Edfu (tell being synonymous to settlement ). Historians believe this settlement contains evidence that this Wedjeset-Hor Tell was a province and capital of the Second Upper Egypt nome. Such influence goes back all the way to predynastic Egypt or eras predating 3100 BC.

Seven small pyramids dating back to Egypt dynasty 3 and attributed to King Huni are situated 5 kms south of Edfu.

The Greco influenced Temple of Edfu is sometimes referred to as the Temple at Apollonopolis Magna (Edfu to the Greco-Roman) dedicated to the chief god Horus-Apollo.

This size of this Egyptian Temple to Horus Apollo at Edfu is second only to another Temple in Karnak.

more on the Temple of Edfu at wikipedia

Extant pieces of the Royal Annals

What are the extant pieces of the Royal Annals ?

The Royal Annals are lists of Egyptian King's that were carved on stones during the Fifth Dynasty. These stela are fragmented or worn by time.

The Palermo stone or Palermo Stela for example is a piece of black basalt dated to the 25th century BC which is a portion of a wall which had inscriptions on both sides.

There are several fragments but whether all of these fragments are from the same wall is debatable since they were found in antique markets. The largest of these fragments is called the Palermo stone because it is held in a museum in Palermo. There are five other fragments called Cairo stones held in Cairo. The last of the seven fragments is called the London Fragment and held at the University College of London.

The list of king's names inscribed on the stones dates back to pre dynastic Egypt or some time before 3100 BC.

The portions of the wall which held information on the first few Egypt dynasties are missing.

Other similar stones such as the Turin Canon dated to the 13th century BC and the Karnak list of Kings exist.

The Palermo stone and the other fragments are important for scholars and Egyptologists. The debate argues the true role of the Kings of the first dynasty of Egypt. It is possible that King Menes who is often credited as unifying Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt was simply the war strategist who re - unified the bonds of older pre dynastic kings.

Dynasties in Egypt

The dynasties in Egypt is where it all begins for the Pharoah.

The first dynasty in Egypt rises when King Menes unifies regions above Aswan, Upper Egypt, and the delta kingdoms that dot the lower Egyptian lands towards the Meditteranean sea. King Menes is a mythical figure by some accounts and probably an analog of King Narmer.

Narmer was a southern African ruler who began conquering the tribes to the North. The north of Egypt is considered lower Egypt because it lies on land situated down stream on the Nile.

Egypt Dynasty 1 starts in 3050 BC and goes to 2890 BC.

Then there are 30 more dynasties in Egypt followed by the GrecoRoman period that present the Macedonian Kings and the Ptolemaic Dynasties. Inside the Ptolemaic dynasties we find the story of Cleopatra and Ceasar.

Names of importance in these dynasties in Egypt.

See Dynasties in Egypt

coming......

Ethiopia Nile

The Rift Valley separates the Northwestern and Southeastern plateaus of Ethiopia.

Waters from Lake Tana of Ethiopia and other sources run into the Blue Nile and meet up with the waters of the White Nile at Khartoum in Sudan where they continue to flow northwards toward the Meditteranean Sea.

The Great Rift Valley is very susceptible to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and droughts.

Ethiopian archeological artifacts such as fossilized bone shows this region of the world as potentially being the site of the earliest homonids.

The remains of a character called Lucy were located in the Awash valley of the Afar region of Ethiopia. Carbon dating has led scientists to believe Lucy lived in the Ethiopian region some 3.2 million years ago.

In about 3000 BC, at about the time when the Upper and Lower Egypt regions were being united, there is evidence that trade routes were established between Ethiopia and Egypt. By some accounts the Ethiopian influence at this time were the Punt but this is not a proven fact since no one has quite been able to find evidence to pinpoint the origins of the Punt. These people are recorded as being traders of myrrh products, fine metals such as gold, etc....all of which were available in the mountainous terrain of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia doesn't seem to have had a really great culture until the kingdom of Axum came along in the first century AD.


D'mt existed in the northern Ethiopia in the 7th or 8th century BC. The D'mt site shows it to have been a necropolis and a ritual site. The kingdom of Axum seems to be an advancement on the D'mt customs.

A bit of Ethiopia can be sensed through this video.

• The Nile River


• The White Nile


• The Blue Nile


• Uganda Nile


• Sudan Nile


• Egypt Nile


• Zaire Nile


• Kenya Nile


• Tanzania Nile


• Rwanda Nile


• Ethiopia Nile


• Burundi Nile

Burundi Nile

The Burundy topography is similar to that of Rwanda. The Burundy Nile supplies some of the water of the area.

The hills and valleys hold some swampy marshland and fresh water lakes.

The waters in the hills and valleys of Burundy drain ito the bigger Blue Nile tributary which surrounds Lake Victoria. Again like Rwanda the inhabitants of Burundy are made up of Twa, Hutu, and Tutsi tribes. The name Burundy was given to the small country of less than 30 thousand square miles with a population of nearly 9 million after it gained it's independence from European colonies who'd invaded Rwanda and Urundi.

Burundy is amongst the poorest countries in the world. While the land can be farmed year round, domestic problems along with over population can't raise them above this slavery to poverty.

• The Nile River


• The White Nile


• The Blue Nile


• Uganda Nile


• Sudan Nile


• Egypt Nile


• Zaire Nile


• Kenya Nile


• Tanzania Nile


• Rwanda Nile


• Ethiopia Nile


• Burundi Nile

Tanzania Nile

The Tanzania Nile basin consists of several rivers.

Lake Victoria is approximately half into Tanzania territory. There are many rivers that flow through Tanzania and empty into Lake Victoria that can be considered minor Nile sources.

For example the Mara River flows from the southern border of Kenya into Tanzania and then reach Lake Victoria.

Other rivers that flow into Lake Victoria from inside Tanzania.

• Isanga River
• Kadasi River
• Mori River
• Ruwana River
• Simiyu River
• Kagera River

The history of human habitation along these rivers and inside Tanzania.

This like other surrounding African countries is considered to be some of the oldest land on earth to have been occupied by homonids and humans. The earliest hunter gatherers built communities that likely were cushitic or Khoisan speaking.

At the beginning of the Christian Era, some 2000 years ago, Bantu speaking African culture took the land around Tanzania through migrations from the west of Africa. Travellers and merchants have come and gone since and changed the political powers.

This Mara Croc video might be a bit of a tell on what the early inhabitants were up against. Not the best place to go swimming.

• The Nile River


• The White Nile


• The Blue Nile


• Uganda Nile


• Sudan Nile


• Egypt Nile


• Zaire Nile


• Kenya Nile


• Tanzania Nile


• Rwanda Nile


• Ethiopia Nile


• Burundi Nile

Rwanda Nile

Rwanda, land of a thousand hills, has a cool climate considering that it is situated close to the equator. The mountains make this possible.

The Rwanda Nile plays a major role in the water supply to Rwanda people. The Rwanda Nile is part of the White Nile. Rwanda does however have many other sources of water such has fresh water lakes.

There have been inhabitants in the geographic area since the paleolithic stone age.

The Twa or Batwa gatherer hunter tribes were likely the first to settle along the Rwanda Nile and the Great Lakes Region of central Africa.

Evidence indicates that the Twa were overpowered by the Hutu tribes (Bantu speaking and farmers who's numbers grew quicker that the pigmy hunter-gatherers). Another Bantu speaking tribe known as the Tutsi came along in approximately 1500 AD and overpowered the remaining Twa and the Hutu. The Tutsi were cattle ranchers and some sources say they entered Rwanda via the Horn of Africa (northeast Africa/Somali peninsula). Other sources claim they were dissident Twa and Hutu revolutionists.

The Rwanda tribes have been feuding since the subjugation and the Twa, who are small in numbers, have basically been watching their numbers deteriorate with the battles.

This fighting reached an holocaust level in 1994 when hundreds of thousands lost their life in genocidal homicides.

The Rwanda Nile meanwhile continues to flow in this mountainous country of central Africa.

• The Nile River
• The White Nile
• The Blue Nile
• Uganda Nile
• Sudan Nile
• Egypt Nile
• Zaire Nile
• Kenya Nile
• Tanzania Nile
• Rwanda Nile
• Ethiopia Nile
• Burundi Nile