Hatmehit, also transliterated Hatmehyt because we have zero idea of how Ancient Egyptians pronounced anything, was a goddess associated with the city of Djedet in the Nile Delta. Her name means something along the lines of “the Foremost of a shoal”, and uses the term mḥyt for “fish”, which in Egyptian is always and only […]
Hatmehit, also transliterated Hatmehyt because we have zero idea of how Ancient Egyptians pronounced anything, was a goddess associated with the city of Djedet in the Nile Delta. Her name means something along the lines of “the Foremost of a shoal”, and uses the term mḥyt for “fish”, which in Egyptian is always and only […]
If you ask anyone to name an iconic symbol connected with Ancient Egypt, some will say the scarab, but many will say the eye. The Egyptian seemed to be positively obsessed with that body part and it’s not very difficult to guess why: it looks like a jewel, and yet it’s soft and vulnerable; it can […]
Sokar was the ancient god of the cemeteries in Memphis and became god of a death seen as a transformative process, the middle ring of a cycle that started with Ptah and ended with reborn Osiris. Alongside Apophis, Anubis, and other Egyptian-inspired characters, Sokar is also a character in Stargate and comes from the Goa’uld, […]
In Egypt, concepts that might in other cultures belong to the realm of ab- stract philosophy were expressed by symbols, images, and, to a lesser extent, myths. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt (2002) While I was at the Aswan airport, waiting to catch my plane […]
Once upon a time, the god Ra started to grow old and humanity plotted to overthrow him. Upon discovering their treachery, he assembled the gods and decided to send against men a female embodyiment of his wrath: the goddess Hathor in the form of the Eye of Ra. The goddess found the rebels hiding in […]
Most people go on vacation to relax, which often requires disconnecting from reality entirely. Being wired that way, they are able to enjoy runaway resorts and places where all you do is sleep. Alas, my brain won’t accept anything of the sort: if you want me to stand still in daylight, with nothing to do, […]
No rest for the wicked. Today we wake up at three in the morning to reach Abu Simbel. Then, if we’re still alive, we’ll visit the High Dam when we return. 1. The High Dam Out with archaeology, in with engineering. The Aswan High Dam is one of the largest in the world when it […]
Today we’ll be in the Dendera Temple complex and if everything goes right we’ll be seeing: The Temple of Edfu, dedicated to the falcon god Horus; The Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek. 1. Temple of Edfu The Temple was built between 237 and 57 BC, during the Ptolemaic Kingdom, when […]
The idea of going down to Luxor is that we take a boat (specifically something like this boat) and we cruise a bit down the Nile. If everything goes right, today our schedule features: Karnak; Luxor (which is ancient Thebes, in case you’re confused); the Valley of Kings and the Hatshepsut mortuary temple; the Memnon […]