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Religion played a more than crucial role in the lives of the Ancient Egyptians, and the overwhelming costs and labor needed to produce, transport and erect religious artifacts, such as obelisks and pyramids, was insignificant compared to its final gratification to the Egyptian people and their rulers. Obelisks where placed, in pairs, in front of or into temples, such as the temple of Karnak in Luxor. They were believed to act as antennas that channeled cosmic energy down to Earth.

An obelisk is a single, quadrangular, monolithic stone wider at the base, tapering gently as it rises upwards, ending with a pyramidion summit. Sometimes the pyramidion was covered with a gold and silver alloy called electrum. The electrum cap duplicates the glare of the Sun as it emits its rays to the earth. The four sides of the obelisk were inscribed and decorated with hieroglyphs. The inscriptions were usually dedications to the Sun god, Amun-Ra or commemorations of a life of a king or queen.

According to the ancient mythology of Egypt, and from the belief in the concept of “Ma’at” (harmony and truth), we know that the obelisks came in pairs and that there were two in heaven and two on earth in every age. The obelisk was associated with the worship of the solar cult, and were called tekhenu by the Egyptians. The Greeks were the ones who called them “obelisk” or little spits (items used for roasting meat over a fire). The oldest obelisk was discovered in Abusir, dating back from the Old Kingdom during the reign of King Niuserre (2449-2417 BC), but it was only 10 feet tall.

To be a success the obelisk had to be a giant single piece of rock, if the cosmic energy was to travel down through it. If completed, the Unfinished Obelisk would have been the largest yet at 1,168 tones and standing 137 feet tall. The tallest today is the Lateran Obelisk in Rome, at 105 feet and weighing 455 tons, which originally stood at the temple of Karnak in Luxor. The project of the Unfinished Obelisk was abandoned because during its extraction, a profound crack was discovered near the center of the obelisk. The bottom side of The Obelisk is still attached to the bedrock, giving insight into the stone-work techniques adopted by the ancient Egyptians.

The Unfinished Obelisk is located in the Northern Quarry in Aswan. It was commissioned by Queen Hatshepsut to commemorate her 16th anniversary on the throne, and would have been the world’s largest piece of stone ever handled. The Obelisk if finished would have had to be transported by boat on the Nile, to be erected at the Karnak Temple.

The marks left behind on the rock face by ancient rock cutters and the tools they left behind sheds light on how such an accomplishment was undertaken. To carve out the huge stone block as a single piece, a row of holes were made with wooden wedges driven into them. Water was then poured on to the wood and as the wood expanded it caused the rock to split. The obelisk was then chiseled into shape by workers with dolomite rock, which is even harder than granite. Heated bricks were then placed on the surface of the obelisk and when it was sufficiently hot, water was poured on, causing the uneven parts to flake off, giving the granite a smooth finish.

The quarry site has been recently renovated and equipped to accommodate tourists. Being an open-air museum it is protected by the Egyptian government as an archaeological site. Although The Obelisk never came out of its bedrock it was not a complete failure for today we are grateful, as this Unfinished Obelisk has taught us more than any other monument in Egypt!

About the Author:
Gawhara Hanem
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Egypt Tours

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After entering Egypt, in January 331BC the Egyptians hailed Alexander the Great as their ruler, pharaoh and god. He sailed down the western branch of the Nile to inspect the Greek trading colony of Naucratis, but he saw no space for development there, so Alexander pressed on toward the coast to reach the Egyptian fort of Rhakotis referred to by both Herodotus and Thucydides, close to Lake Mareotis where a narrow ridge divides its waters from the sea. He had arrived on the coast at a site mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey: “Out of the sea where it breaks on the shores of Egypt rises an island from the waters: the name men give it is Pharos” (Odyssey IV.354-355). Alexander noticed the deep waters of its well-sheltered, natural harbor and saw opportunity. Alexandria was to be the capital of his new Egyptian dominion and a naval base from where he would control the Mediterranean.

In ancient times, Alexandria was one of the most famous cities in the world. Founded around a small pharaonic town it became and remained Egypt’s capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 AD when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat was later absorbed into Cairo).

During Alexandria’s heydays it was the leading cultural centre of the world, housing people of different religions and philosophical orientations. It was famous for the extensive library, which in the 3rd century BC was said to contain 500,000 volumes. Additionally, Alexandria was renowned for the lighthouse of Pharos, listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as antiquity. Alexandria’s Mouseion was a centre of research, with laboratories and observatories. Alexandria was the very first centre for Biblical studies, and it was where the Old Testament was assembled in a form very similar to its present one. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, was produced there too plus it was also home to the largest Jewish community in the world, but most have now migrated to Israel. It was (and remains today) the seat of a patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Although Alexandria witnessed a 1,000 years of prosperity, it then fell into decline over a time span covering centuries, and when Napoleon landed, he found a sparsely populated fishing village. It wasn’t until in 1819 the city gradually regained importance, when the Mahmudiyah Canal to the Nile was completed by Muhammad Ali Pasha (the Ottoman Governor of Egypt), who developed Alexandria as a deepwater port and a naval station.

Very little of the ancient city has survived into the present day. Much of the royal and civic quarters sank beneath the harbor due to earthquake subsidence, and the rest has been built over in modern times.

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt, known as “The Pearl of the Mediterranean”, and it has an atmosphere that is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern; its ambience and cultural heritage separate it from the rest of the country although it is actually only 225 km. from Cairo.

Through out its history Alexandria has been invaded by many a different culture. Starting with Julius Caesar in 47 BC and was under Roman influence for more than a hundred years. With the persecution of pagans by newly Christian Romans, in 391 Emperor Theodosius I ordered the destruction of all pagan temples in Alexandria. In 619, Alexandria fell to the Sassanid Persians but was recovered by the Byzantine Emperor Heracles in 629, and in 641 the Arabs under the general Amr ibn al-As, captured it after a siege that lasted fourteen months. Napoleon’s troops stormed the city on July 2, 1798 and it remained in their hands until in 1801 when the British expedition won a considerable victory over the French at the Battle of Alexandria, but after 6 months and a siege of the city it fell back to the French.

The city gradually regained some of its former glory after Mohammed Ali Pasha rebuilding the city around 1810. During the 17th century, the plague killed many of the cities inhabitants. Then again in July 1882 the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied. In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the Lavon Affair. Although during the 19th century many foreigners settled in Alexandria, and in 1907 they made up about 25% of the population. During World War II, as the chief Allied naval base in the Mediterranean, Alexandria was bombed by the Germans.

Today Alexandria remains one of the most beautiful cities in the country and popular summer destination for most Egyptians, attracted by its 32 km (20 mile) coast line.

About the Author:
Gawhara Hanem
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Egypt Tours

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Crocodilopolis ….yes it’s a real place you can visit, and I won’t keep you guessing, it was the official head-quarters for a crocodile worship cult! The city of Crocodilopolis was located on the western bank of the Nile, southwest of Memphis in Egypt. During ancient time it was known by the name of Shedet and was the center of worship for the Egyptian water-god Sobek, or the crocodile god. It was the Greeks that dubbed it “Crocodile City”, or “Crocodilopolis”, but over time it has been given many names.

Its Greek name was Krokodilopolis but when the city passed into Ptolemy hands in the 3rd century BC, it was renamed Ptolemais Euergetis and then renamed again by Ptolemy Philadelphus II to Arsinoe in honor of his wife and sister Arsineo II of Egypt, and during its heyday it had a population of more than 100,000. In modern time, its Arabic name is now Medinet El-Fayoum.

Life in Crocodilopolis has always rotated around Lake Moeris which was in the thin ridge that separated the city from the Nile Valley. During the Middle Kingdom it gained prominence when the oasis swamp of Fayoum was drained, creating a new fertile province. The level of the lake was artificially regulated, and large monuments were built around its shore, although the level of the lake was lower than in the past but still higher than today. In the 12th Dynasty the city became the capital of Egypt.

Crocodilopolis may not have become a major city and may not have had any major political standing in the area, but it was located in the most fertile region in Egypt, which made it a haven for farmers growing vegetables, corn, roses, vineyards and olives.

The protective deity of the whole of the lake area was the crocodile headed god Sobek (Suchos) and his sacred animal was the crocodile of course! The people of Crocodilopolis worshiped a manifestation of Sobek through a sacred crocodile named “Petsuchos” (or “son of Sobek”).The crocodile lived in a special temple, with sand, a pond and food, and was embellished with gold and jewels and had special priests to serve his food. When the Petsuchos died the body would be mummified and given a special burial, and replaced by another promptly.

Beside the lake where the sacred crocodile was kept, was the principle temple, dedicated to the cult of Sobek. During the 12th dynasty the temple already existed but was rebuilt by Ramses II. Sadly what currently remains of Crocodilopolis is no more than several mounds of ruins, a few column bases here and there and a stone obelisk erected by Senusret I during the 12th Dynasty and a few sculptured blocks. Between 1877 and 1878 a great number of papyrus manuscripts were discovered, some of which are important to the earliest Christian history of Egypt.

Fayoum may not attract visitors on account of Crocodilopolis but on account of its waterwheels, there are approximately 200 of these great waterwheels located throughout the oasis. The Seven Waterwheels, which are Fayoum’s landmark and the main attraction to the area, are surrounded by mangos, palms and willows. Fayoum remains one of the most fertile banks on the Egyptian Nile.

About the Author:
Gawhara Hanem
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Egypt Tours