How pharaoh Khufu boat was found ‘perfectly preserved’ near the Great Pyramid

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a boat, which believed to have been used by Pharaoh Khufu himself  “perfectly preserved,” which helped confirm theories over how the ancient society constructed their wonders.

Probably the most famous and well-known of the many ancient landmarks of Egypt, the Giza pyramid complex is comprised of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure, together with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx of Giza.

Of the three pyramids that still stand today, the Great Pyramid of Giza, or the Pyramid of Khufu, remains a spectacle to people all over the world, who marvel at how a society over 4,500 years ago managed to build such a colossal structure.

However, thanks to a find made more than half a century ago, archaeologists were able to slowly piece together what this ancient civilisation may have looked like and the ingenious way they worked together.

The 2014 series explained: “On this plateau, set on the edge of the desert, the story of the pyramids achieved its finest hour. “It is here that we best appreciate the grandeur and majesty of these constructions, and the organisational skills and methods used to erect them.

“The workers here were organised into teams that hauled blocks of stones on huge sledges mounted on logs of wood.

“Each team was made up of about 1,000 men organised along military lines and led by a master mason and various underlings.

“They were not slaves, they earned a regular wage, bed, and board and it is thanks to their work that these immense structures were ever completed.” The series continued, explaining the clever tactics used by the ancient society to haul together in the building process.

It added: “Even today, such imposing buildings would involve complex engineering problems.

“The Great Pyramid of Cheops, which was the first one to be built in Giza around 2500BC, has a base that covers over 12 acres (48,500 square metres).

“More than 2,300,000 blocks of stone were needed to build the base and weighed between two and 200 tonnes each.

“It may sound incredible, but this was once a lush green land, with neither desert nor buildings.

“Irrigation canals linked the areas to the Nile, and some of the stones used in buildings were transported on these canals.” The documentary went on to reveal how evidence of this was discovered more than 50 years ago.

It added: “A boat made with cedarwood built almost 5,000 years ago was discovered here in 1954 near the Pyramid of Cheops, still in a perfect state of preservation.

“Archaeologists found it belonged to the pharaoh Cheops himself, 140 feet long, equipped with 12 oars and was probably used by Cheops when he travelled along the Nile.

“On those occasions, his subjects could get a glimpse of their Pharaoh and pay homage to him.”

At completion, the Great Pyramid was surfaced with white “casing stones” — slant-faced, but flat-topped, blocks of highly polished white limestone. However, in 1303, a massive earthquake loosened many of the outer casing stones, which were taken away 50 years later to be used in the building of mosques and fortresses in Cairo.

Many other theories have been proposed regarding the pyramid’s construction techniques, disagreeing on whether the blocks were dragged, lifted, or even rolled into place. The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby workers’ camps associated with construction at Giza suggest it was built instead of thousands of skilled workers.

Czech archaeologist, Miroslav Verner, claimed that the labour was organised into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers.

Archaeologists discover a Perfectly Preserved 4,000-year-old tomb in Egypt

Archeological finds in Egypt never stop. This was made all the more apparent by the recent discovery in Saqqara of a vibrant tomb, home to some of the oldest pyramids in Egypt.

There are vivid wall paintings in the amazingly well-preserved tomb that look like they were made yesterday when in reality the tomb was created over 4,000 years ago.

To celebrate the discovery, Prof. Khaled al-Enani—Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities—recently led over 50 foreign dignitaries on a tour through the site.

It’s believed that the tomb, which is located within a large necropolis, was created during the Fifth Dynasty.

This period spanned the early 25th century BCE until the mid 24th century BCE and was known as a time when funerary prayers began to be inscribed on royal tombs. In this particular case, the exceptional tomb was created for a dignitary named Khuwy.

Several aspects of the tomb lead researchers to believe that Khuwy was a man of great importance. Architecturally, it has a tunneled entrance, which is a feature typically reserved for pyramids—the tombs of the pharaohs.

Artistically, the colors of the paintings are considered “royal colors” by officials. These clues bring into question Khuwy’s influence and his relationship with the Fifth Dynasty’s longest-ruling pharaoh, Djedkare Isesi.

Djedkare’s pyramid is located nearby in Saqqara and one theory is that Khuwy was a relative of the leader.

Others believe that the lavishness of the tomb was instead owed to the Djedkare’s reforms on funerary cults. Whatever the cause, what we’re left with are incredible examples of the artistry of ancient Egypt.

In addition to the tomb decoration, archaeologists also found Khuwy’s mummy and canopic jars—used to hold organs—scattered in several fragments.

Egyptologists hope that the newly discovered tomb will give them more insight into Djedkare’s reign, as the pharaoh’s own tomb was raided prior to excavation in the 1940s.

While Djedkare appeared to be held in high regard even after his death—he was the object of a cult until at least the end of the Old Kingdom—he is still a somewhat enigmatic leader.

Egypt unearths 7,000-year-old lost city

The discovery of the ruins of a lost city in Sohag, Upper Egypt Province, considering to be more than 7,000 years old has been announced by Egypt.

The Ancient City, found beside a nearby cemetery, dates back to 5,316 BC and is announced as a major archaeological discovery which predates the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt that began about 5 millennia ago.

During an excavation 400 metres south of the mortuary temple of Seti I, a pharaoh who ruled thousands of years later from 1290 to 1279 BC, a team of archaeologists from the Egyptian ministry of antiquities discovered the ruins of ancient huts and tombs.

Seti I’s temple is located in Abydos – one of the oldest known cities of ancient Egypt and the historic capital of Upper Egypt – and the newly found dwellings and graves could be parts of the long-gone capital now resurfaced, or a separate village that was swallowed by it.

“This discovery can shed light on a lot of information on the history of Abydos,” antiquities minister Mahmoud Afifi said in a press statement.

The recently unearthed structures are thought to have been home to high-ranking officials and grave builders.

In addition to the foundations of ancient huts, the archaeologists found iron tools and pottery, plus 15 giant tombs – the capacious size of which means their intended inhabitants must have been well-established individuals.

“The size of the graves discovered in the cemetery is larger in some instances than royal graves in Abydos dating back to the first dynasty, which proves the importance of the people buried there and their high social standing during this early era of ancient Egyptian history,” the ministry said.

It’s possible that these officials oversaw the construction of royal tombs in nearby Abydos, but the size of their own resting places outside the capital suggests they didn’t want to slum it in eternity either.

“About a mile behind where this material is said to be we have the necropolis with royal tombs going from before history to the period where we start getting royal names, we start getting identifiable kings,” Egyptologist Chris Eyre from the University of Liverpool in the UK, who wasn’t involved with the excavation, told the BBC.

“So, this appears to be the town, the capital at the very beginning of Egyptian history.”

According to the researchers, the ancient tools and pottery are the leftover traces of a once giant labour force that was engaged in the considerable feat of constructing these royal tombs – and if you’ve seen the kinds of structures we’re talking about, you’ll understand they had a pretty epic responsibility:

The nearby cemetery is made up of 15 mastabas, an ancient Egyptian tomb that takes a rectangular shape, made with sloping walls and a flat roof.

According to lead researcher Yasser Mahmoud Hussein, these mastabas are now the oldest such tombs we know about, pre-dating the previous record holders in Saqqara, which served as the necropolis for another ancient Egyptian city, Memphis.

We’ll have to wait for these new findings to be verified by other scientists, but we’re excited to see what new insights further excavations will bring.

Egypt Arrests Photographer Over Pyramid Shoot of Model Wearing Ancient Costume

A photographer was arrested by Egyptian police for disrespect after he took photographs of a model in a revealing ancient outfit at the Djoser Pyramid outside Cairo, a security source reported.

Social media rumours had spread that the Egyptian fashion model, Salma al-Shimi, had been arrested after the shooting in the necropolis of Saqqara, 20 miles south of Cairo, but the source said the photographer was detained by police on Monday.

The model had been pictured wearing a short ‘semi-naked’ Pharaonic-style dress in front of the ancient burial site.

‘A photographer has been arrested after a private shoot with dancer Salma al-Shimi in the archaeological zone,’ the source said, adding that his case had been referred to the courts.

Late last week, Shimi, who boasts thousands of followers on Instagram, had posted photographs from the shoot of her in ancient Egyptian dress at the foot of the 4,700-year-old Step Pyramid of Djoser.

Rumours quickly spread that she had been detained for wearing outfits that betrayed Egypt’s ancient heritage and broke the rules set by the antiquities ministry for photoshoots.

Saqqara was an active burial ground for more than 3,000 years and is a designated Unesco World Heritage Site. 

Social media users who had seen the photographs expressed disbelief and outrage.

“Is there really a ban on taking photographs in archaeological zones, even pictures that are not indecent but completely normal?” one user asked. 

The police are investigating the incident, and are looking to identify the employee responsible for allowing the model and photographer into the archaeological area, according to The Egypt Independent.    

On Monday, the pictures were quietly removed from the model’s Instagram account.

In recent months, Egyptian courts have handed down jail sentences against a dozen social media influencers for sharing content judges deemed offensive.

In December 2018, images of a naked couple embracing at the top of the Great Pyramid of Cheops prompted a media outcry.

The authorities arrested a camel owner and a young female guide for helping the couple to gain access to the site.

‘Oldest tattoo’ found on 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummies

The village of Deir el-Medina in ancient Egypt, 3,000 years ago, housed a community of artisans, all of whom lived and worked together on tombs in the Kings’ Valley. But new evidence has emerged that tombs were not their only creative outlet.

A number of tattoos on the previously unstudied mummified bodies of seven women have been discovered by infrared imaging. The ink was scattered across their bodies, with a range of different motifs.

This is evidence that in ancient Egypt, the art of tattooing might have been more common than we understood, according to University of Missouri anthropologist Anne Austin. At the American Schools of Oriental Science annual meeting in November, she discussed her findings.

The work has been several years in the making. It started in 2014 when Austin and her colleague Cedric Gobeil noticed markings on the neck of a female Deir el-Medina mummy. Closer inspection revealed that the marks were not, as she first thought, painted on – they were tattoos.

But, as we saw with the 5,000-year-old mummies from Gebelein, which had been sitting in a museum for over 100 years before their tattoos were discovered, tattoos on mummies aren’t always easy to see.

Mummified skin becomes discoloured and darkened, especially with mummification resins added to the mix; and tattoos can lighten over time.

Such hidden tattoos can, however, be revealed with infrared photography, which works in wavelengths usually invisible to the human eye.

So, that’s what the researchers did. On that initial female mummy, they catalogued a whopping 30 tattoos, most of which would not have been hidden by clothing, and would have required a second person to perform the tattooing – placed on the neck, back, and behind the shoulders.

The subject of the tattoos included sacred motifs such as Wadjet eyes, baboons, cobras, cows, scarab beetles, and lotus flowers. This combination of motifs and visibility led the researchers to the conclusion that the woman could have been a healer or a priestess of some kind.

But that mummy was just the first. By 2016, Austin had identified three more tattooed mummies from Deir el-Medina. Now, as reported by Science News, she’s added another three to that count, bringing the total to seven.

“The distribution, display, and content of these tattoos reveal how they were used both in religious practice and to forge permanent, public identities,” Austin wrote in her abstract.

“The extensive tattoos on one female mummy demonstrates the use of tattoos for identifying and enabling this woman to act as a key religious practitioner to the Deir el-Medina community. Additional tattoos found and analysed during the 2016 and 2020 seasons using infrared photography indicate that many more individuals were likely tattooed at Deir el-Medina.”

This is pretty significant. Although evidence for tattooing exists in the archaeological record from ancient Egypt, it’s primarily in art and figurines. Actual mummies that have tattoos have been found rarely; in addition to the seven Deir el-Medina mummies, only six other tattooed Egyptian mummies have been identified.

What this research shows is that maybe we haven’t been looking with the right tools.

It also shows that – just like people who get tattooed today – maybe there’s no one single reason the ancient Egyptians tattooed themselves. In addition to the woman’s inferred religious role, some of the motifs on the other mummies suggest healing or protection. (And, well, maybe they just thought the ink looked badass.)

Tattoos have been found on other mummies around the world. The Siberian Ice Maiden and unnamed warrior who died 2,500 years ago on the Ukok Plateau, for instance, had tattoos that anthropologists think signified age and status.

And evidence suggests the 61 tattoos found on Ötzi the Iceman, a mummified man who lived in Europe between 3400 and 3100 BCE, could have been a form of prehistoric acupuncture.

We can learn more about the tattooing practices of ancient Egypt by uncovering more tattooed mummies. And who knows – maybe they’re already sitting in museums, waiting for someone with an infrared camera to find them.