http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun, boy king, was actually not much of an historical figure, made famous by British archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered his completely intact tomb in 1922 on November 4th, which is why this date is King Tut day in the USA.

This boy king, son of the so-called heretic king Akhenaten, wildly unpopular with his people for doing away with the god Aten and replacing him with another dubbed Amun. This abandoning of traditional gods was a big mistake, causing chaos throughout Egypt, a nasty situation for the nine year-old to take charge of, when his father died.

The lad put the old religion back in place, restoring Memphis as capital city, then rejecting the Tutankhaten name, changing to Tutankhamun to honour the old god. His nine years in power had little historical importance.

The young man was driven to repair the damage done by his father, at the same time having his tomb built in the Valley of the Kings, whist ensuring that the building of the temple of Karnak continued. The fame he enjoys today is a direct result of the staggering amount of treasure found in his tomb.

Archaeologists had never before found an intact tomb still containing treasures, and this one  contained Copious amounts of jewellery, chariots, thrones along with food and furniture items. That iconic, and incredibly heavy death mask, inlaid with coloured glass, carnelian and lapis lazuli, and made from two thick sheets of gold is utterly priceless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun

The much vaunted curse of Tutankhamun came into being when dig sponsor Lord Carnarvon died from pneumonia, media of the time  telling warning ‘Death Shall Come on Swift Wings To Him Who Disturbs the Peace of the King’, written on the tomb wall and taken to imply that trespassers would die, which some naturally did, though Carter himself  reached 65 safely.

The boy king’s life, because of his lunatic father and religious disaffection was barely recorded at all, records erased by  historians of the time. In 1336BC at nine years old he became pharaoh, married his half-sister but had no surviving  children, dying in 1327BC quite suddenly after less than nine years on the throne, possibly from an infection after breaking a leg.

People in the USA commemorate the finding of this tomb every year on November 4th – King Tut Day – the magic and myth surrounding the life of ancient Egyptian rulers still fascinating society to this day. Tutankhamun became a legend, not through what he did in life but what he left behind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutankhamun

One day, Osiris felt the need to leave Egypt to travel around the world and left Isis in charge instead of asking Set. This made him furious. Set decided to get rid of Osiris and take the throne of Egypt.

Isis, Osiris and Set on the right.

When Osiris went back to Egypt, Set made a great feast to honor him. Set made a beautiful carved chest and whichever guest would fit into the chest would get the carved chest. But the guests didn’t know that the chest was made to fit Osiris. When it was Osiris turn to get inside the chest, Set nailed the lid shut and threw it into the Nile. When Set found out that Isis was looking for him, Set went back into the Nile River to look for the chest. When Set found the chest, he opened it and cut the corpse of his brother into tiny pieces, spreading the parts all over Egypt. 

Many reasons are given for Set’s jealousy. The most common one was that Osiris was made the Pharaoh after Geb (their father) resigned the throne. Another reason was that, his wife Nephthys slept with Osiris and had a son- Anubis. Like any other human being, Set was very unhappy about the situation, but it seems that his wife was the one to blame for being unfaithful. Whatever happened, Set decided that his brother had to go. 

Image taken from:

http://www.neferchichi.com/mum2.html

Credits

http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/set.html

Appearance:

A feather or a woman with a feather on her head. 

Ma’at was the goddess of justice, truth and harmony. Her job was to balance things on earth.

Ma’at was the daughter of the sun god Ra.

The ancient Egyptians wanted justice. They felt that everything that was good should be rewarded, and those that were guilty of any crime to be punished. They loved those who defended the weak, helped the poor and took good care of their families. However, they knew that is not possible to be perfect, but balance was always good. 

Each ancient soul was judged in front of the gods at the Hall of Ma’at. According to the book of dead, when people died their heart was their conscience, and it was weighed against one of the feathers of this goddess (Ma’at) The scales represented balance. The heart cannot be heavier than the feather, if it was, the deceased failed to live a balanced life. If you didn’t live a balanced life, you failed the test and you were not granted eternal life.

Osiris was part of judgment day, too. At often times, Osiris sat as judge while Anubis weighed the heart. The scales represented the goddess Ma’at.  

In order to follow the rules of the goddess, the government of ancient Egypt had an advisor for the pharaoh, and they were in charge of the law courts. They were known as “the priest of Ma’at” Their legal system would ensure that Ma’at was always present in their daily lives by punishing people–you were not punished for making a mistake, you were punished for killing and stealing. Also, Pharaohs made offerings to Ma’at to show the other gods that they really wanted harmony and justice on their country. 

Some argue that this goddess is more of an idea and not a goddess, but she represented balance, the center of the universe, and the goddess who brought justice to Egypt. Her name means “that which is straight” or “truth” She was born when Ra rose from the waters of Chaos and because of that, Ma’at was known as the daughter of the sun god. 

References

http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/maat.html

In spite of the many discoveries archeologists have unearthed on ancient Egypt, questions remain unanswered. Still there are gaping holes in the narrative, and shadows from a long lost age are waiting to be named. Writing the complete history of Egypt, recognized as the oldest civilization in the world, is not an easy task.

In fact, scholars admit their own lack of understanding of the time when Egypt was said to have been ruled by gods—creatures with extraordinary powers. These leaders were worshipped by the ancient Egyptians. It is not yet known who these kings were, where they came from or why they seemed to have suddenly disappeared.

An Ancient List

An important artifact called the Ancient Records had served as the basis for this assumption. Listed on this stone tablet are the names of the ancient kings of Egypt before the first dynasty of the pharaohs. It cannot be verified, however, whether these names were held by real historical people, or if they were mere fictional characters of myths and legends that had been passed down the generations.

It only starts to clear up during the time of Menes, the first king of the first dynasty. It isn’t surprising that Menes’s name is listed in the Ancient Records. What’s puzzling is he was listed as the first mortal king. Unlike his predecessors, Menes was not appointed by Ra, the sun god. He was human, who ascended the throne through conquest.

Unifying the Land

During those times, the kingdom was divided into two—Upper and Lower Egypt. Leaders before him had attempted, but it was Menes who succeeded in unifying Egypt. His crown, a combination of the two realms’ tiaras, symbolized this great feat.

Menes was a mighty pharaoh. Some believe he invented hieroglyphics, the ancient writing system that used pictures instead of letters. He built the city of Memphis and made it the capital. Memphis became a glorious center of the kingdom for thousands of years.

Almost everybody has heard of the Rosetta stone, the famous artifact which became the key to decoding Egyptian hieroglyphs. But there is another historical piece of rock that is also important but not as popular. It is called the Palermo stone.

The Palermo stone provided information on the ancient kings of Egypt. More significantly, it contained records of the times before the age of the pharaohs, the reign of the so-called gods.  It depicted the ceremonies, taxation system, buildings, sculpture, trade, wars, and even the flooding of the Nile river.

The Palermo stone portrayed a human king named Menes as the fist pharaoh of Egypt. Menes was said to have succeeded the god-king Horus to the throne.

It is important to realize that Egyptian civilization is so old its beginnings are still shrouded in myths and traditions. Historians have yet to trace how it began and who or what those god-kings really were.

The stone is essentially a book—the oldest ever discovered in Egypt. Scholars now believe it was one of the sources used by the Ptolemaic priest Manetho when he wrote the Aegyptiaca, which has often been referred to by modern Egyptologists who reconstruct the chronology of the pharaohs and the timeline of their reigns.

Unearthed in 1866, the Palermo stone is now in the custody of museums in Sicily, Cairo and London.

The Eye of Horus

When Set and Horus were fighting for the throne of Egypt, Horus lost one of his eyes. Fortunately, his eye was restored. After winning the war against his uncle Set, the Eye of Horus became a symbol of protection for the ancient civilization of Egypt. 

Horus represented the daytime sky and he was also the one who kept things in order. It seems that Horus and Set kept the state of balance between good and evil–both deities represented Upper and Lower Egypt. Horus was the one who kept things in order, while Set represented chaos and disorder. Horus was the daytime sky and Set was the nighttime sky. 

Horus was known as the protector of the Pharaohs. The ruler of ancient Egypt was said to be the living Horus.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

ead king or queen but also many beautifully made objects and treasures which the Pharaohs believed would accompany them to the afterlife.

When building their final resting place the Pharaohs made sure that warnings or curses were engraved at the entrances to their tombs to deter those who wished to disturb them and steal their treasures. Interestingly, such warnings are not only found in tombs in Ancient Egypt but also found in tombs across the world in such places as Mexico, Norway and China.

What many scientists dismiss as just unexplained occurrences holds a fascination for others – is there such a thing as the curse of the Pharaohs? One of the most mysterious tales of the curse of the Pharaohs is the true story of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in November 1922 by a British archaeologist called Howard Carter.

Tutankhamun was a young man and he ruled Ancient Egypt for only a short time before he died but significantly, his tomb was one of the very few tombs which was not disturbed by vandals and was found, still intact, by the archaeologists in the 1920s. On the outside of the tomb the now famous curse was written in hieroglyphics: “Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the King”. This message was viewed with amused scepticism during the excitement of the discovery of the tomb.

Image via Wikipedia

As soon as he made his discovery and realised that the tomb was still intact, Howard Carter contacted his wealthy patron, Lord Carnarvon and together the two men became the first men to enter the tomb for thousands of years. Neither of the men realised that by breaking the seal of the tomb and ignoring the warning inscribed on the outside of the tomb, they were to start a series of events that many people believe were caused by the curse of the Pharaoh.

Lord Carnarvon had taken some steps to find out about the curse and the dangers and had visited two mediums before he had left Britain to join Carter. Both mediums had warned him that this trip to Egypt would be his last.

After visiting the tomb in April 1922 Lord Carnarvon died of a high fever caused by an infected mosquito bite on his cheek. As he died, an unexplained power cut struck Cairo and the city was in darkness. In England, his pet dog, Susie, started barking and by the morning she had died too. Back in Cairo, a cobra ate Carnarvon’s pet canary – the cobra being considered the protector of the Pharaohs. Later, a small blemish was found on Tutankhamun’s cheek in the same spot as the infected mosquito had bitten the archaeologist.

The curse of the Pharaoh has remained the subject of much speculation over the years, fuelled by unexplained occurrences and tragic deaths. Of all the members of the expedition to uncover Tutankhamun’s tomb, by 1969 only two members of the team had avoided the curse. In the 1970s when an exhibition of the treasure of Tutankhamun’s tomb was being held in Britain a successor of one of the original team died the same night as he finished packing the treasures. Two men who were organising the exhibition and who were flying the treasures from Egypt died from heart attacks.

There are theories to explain these occurrences. One scientist put forward the theory that the floors of the tomb were covered with radioactive substances, for example, uranium. However, to this day, no one has managed to explain satisfactorily the occurrences surrounding the strange events following the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb. And perhaps the strangest fact of all is that the man who discovered the tomb, Howard Carter, survived the curse and died of natural causes at the age of 66. Why did the man who made the famous discovery escape the curse while many of his colleagues met untimely and tragic deaths? Only the Pharaohs can say.

Each night, Ra died or was swallowed by Nut (Sky) every evening. It was believed that Ra traveled into the underworld by night and Ra was reborn by the next morning. Nut was his mother and granddaughter. At sunset he had the company of Horus on the Horizon and Atum at dawn time. Also, it was Khepri–the Emerging god, who kept the sun moving each day.

Ra was the ruler of the gods and the patron of the pharaoh. We know that Pharaoh was the vivid image of Horus or the living Horus, but the pharaoh was also the living Ra and because of this the two gods became one– the Ra-Horakhty. Ra was also linked with the god Atum (the creator god) as Atum-Ra. With the arrival of the Fifth Dynasty, the Pharaoh was called the son of Ra and every pharaoh became known as the son of Ra from this point on. Many rulers from the Old Kingdom built sun temples to honor and worship the god Ra.

He was also known as the creator of everything. Ra was so famous and powerful. Many believe that the Pyramids are Ra’s shining rays and light, and because of it, these great monuments left behind were related to the sun god. 

The ancient Egyptians built solar temples to honor the god Ra. These temples had small windows or just open to the sunlight. None of these temples had a statue of Ra because he was already there–he was the sunlight.

It is said that Ra was the ruler of the earth or a pharaoh until he was gray and too tired to rule. Once he was old, the people lost interest in him and no longer worshipped him. Because the people were not obeying his laws, he decided to punish them. He sent his daughter–the Eye of Ra to teach the humans a lesson. She went down to earth and kill thousands of people, but things went out of control and Ra had to get her drunk to prevent her from killing everyone on Earth. Once she was drunk, Ra decided it was time for him to leave Horus his power and the world. Horus agreed and took his place. 

References

http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/ra.html