The phenomenal sun shine at Abu Simbel

Tomorrow "22-October" will have the significant event of the phenomenal sun shine on Ramses II face at Abu Simbel new location" chosen by the UNESCO to rescue it in year 1964" where it shines precisely on his statue in the center of the temple's holy of hollies room! . The mentioned date is one of the two dates for such phenomena to occur! Painting and words by Yasser kamel .Read more on my blog http://museumegypt.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-magnificent-scale-of-abu-simble.html

The magnificent scale of Abu Simbel.

The Great temple of Abu simbel" damage minimized" 2013 Painted by Yasser Kamel.

The overwhelming impression that Abu Simbel cause once to be viewed has no match , just a single glimpse on its stunning façade which exceeds 40.M high and spotting the four colossal statutes of the great Ramses which are about 20.M high is a mind boggling moment! Such remote and complete temple that goes back to 1200 B.C and left with intact colours for the interior and minimal damage for the exterior ,then its engineering based astronomy which allowed its architects to align the statue of Ramses II in its innermost room to the sun rise on two certain and special days for the king. One of the days is supposed to be his birthday and the other is supposed to be his coronation day!  Originally the dates were the 21^st of February and the 21st of October which were missed by UNECCO saving project of Abu Simbel between the years 1964-1968 and the phenomenal sun shine on Ramses II face became a day forward for each date. However the great efforts exerted by the rescue team to make a perfect a transfer and reconstruction into a safe spot from the growing man-made lake Naser with a cost exceeded 50 million USD, it failed to re-angle the great Abu Simbel in the right position to keep its aligning with sun accomplished ! The other great challenge and obstacle from an artistic and architectural perspective, is to reveal the method that possibly followed by the artist in order to stereotype such four identical and gigantic statues of the pharaoh . 

Abu-Simbel-Francois-Gau-1819

The possible scope that the artist could have on the narrow Nile bank for Abu Simbel  would be too much vertical in vision than it is required to  make a good judge on the statues proportions which make his task rather impossible.

An imaginary   stone print created by a metal stencil. Painted and designed by Yasser Kamel.

The  scope of the giant  Abu Simbel which naked eyes never can comprehend or realize would force the artist to count on different tools, implements and methods to help him to carry out his plan. The ancient Egyptians were familiar with moulds and stencils methods which enabled to create such stereotyped carvings and specifically the repetitive   Hieroglyphic characters. Ideally two dimensional-metal stencils are suggested for the use in order to accomplish accuracy and the identicalness.  Based on my experience of sketching a part of the Great Abu Simbel on very small scale I believe that such enormous statues would never become identical without following such method!. Written and painted by Yasser kamel for Museumegypt.2006@.All rights reserved.

Seth , the invincible force !

Seth , the invincible force !

Seth is counted evil in common referring to the ancient myth of Osiris, Osiris the heir of Ra and his legal descendant and the good brother for Seth. Osiris death by Seth would not be evadable; his body portions had to be spread around Egypt then to be reassembled by his wife and sister Isis which referred to the unification of Egypt. The ancient Egyptians due to such creed considered Osiris to be the fertility causer and gave him different colours to emphasize his fertility such the blue which indicates the Nile fertility and it’s indigo which was brought by it’s inundation floods or the green to indicate Osiris force that effected vegetation . Seth on the other hand had been sentenced for ostracism and the exile .So due to that destiny Seth’s realm had turned to the wasted lands, the arid and the barren lands as well as the salty water. Looking at the deep meaning behind such isolation for Seth make us more familiar of Seth’s incredible power which Ra had privileged him with , the force that can reclaim arid desert to vegetation ,the force that can desalinate the sea and the force which can hunt and tame the evil. The papyrus scene shows the use of Seth’s force to tame or hunt down the coiled snake of evil. In such notion Ra and Seth refer to the Yen and yang or the positive and the negative forces so there no wonder to find some mighty pharaohs such Seti I to be named and related to the invincible force of Seth. Written by Yasser kamel for Museumegypt.2006@.All rights reserved.

The bent and the red pyramids of Dahshur, the fourth dynasty,reign of King Snefru-2600 B.C.Conducted by Yasser kamel

Famous Prince Abbas cruise-ship in lake Nasser

Famous Prince Abbas cruise-ship in lake Nasser.
Sailing in lake Nasser is the most enjoyable way to visit the Egyptian temples in the Egyptian desert which was named by early explorers as the Nubian Desert! The visits include sites such as the Kalabsha temple, Bait el waly temple, Wadi El Seboa, the Derr site and the great Abu Simble temples and their famous approach from the lake side.
Yasser kamel

Walls and Floors in ancient Egypt-C

The Pyramids of Giza represent a different type of stone interlocking  which is based on a tenon and mortise  method.

                                  Tenon and Mortise method. F-1.

The method of the Tenon and Mortise was used to attach the outer limestone blocks of the pyramids “F-2”.

F-2 shows the deeper stone blocks while the stone tenons being kept.

F

 

F-2

Written by Yasser kamel for Museumegypt.2006 .All rights reserved.

Today ...Museumegypt is 7 years old!

Today ...Museumegypt is 7 years old!-Yasser kamel

The Art of the Egyptian Papyri."Part-3"

The Art of the Egyptian Papyri  

Within the New Kingdom period, 1500- 1100 B.C, the funeral papyri “Book of the dead” became widely spread around the whole country and also it became affordable to others than royals. The popularity and the spread for that type of papyrus books had synchronized with a simplicity trend for the accompanying art of those papyri. The use of the classical drawings in book of the dead, in ancient Egypt, did require a highly skilled artist as well as much of time which had a negative effect on papyrus cost while the use of the simplified art on papyrus which requires less skilled artist and takes less time to finish was a help to allow major number of people to get it. The Egyptian artist used the stroke-order style or the simplified for the repeated and exact god’s figures which used to be made in classical style before. The  figures above show the simplified style for a man  and the possible strokes led to have them drawn. Another example of such stroke-order use is  for the funeral papyrus of khonu ,the 18^th dynasty where the stroke –order rule is applied –F-1

The following stages are the possible ones to create such stereotype images on Khunso Papyrus.

Stage-1 it simply done by drawing the human head and the head dress.

Stage-2. is done by drawing a straight line which ends with a human hand.

 

Stage-3. drawing the disc

 

Stage-4. drawing a slash to represent the torso and the left leg.

Stage-5. is where to draw what looks almost like a straight line which refers to the back and the right leg for the human figure.

Written and painted by Yasser Kamel for www.museumegypt.blogspot.com.All rights reserved.

Just finished two informative and detailed full days of visits where I took the students of the University of Arkansas accompanied by Jerome Carl Rose ,Professor of Anthropology

Just finished two informative and detailed full days of visits to historical sites in Cairo  and Giza  including a lot of mastaba tombs, pyramids and museums where I took the students of the University of Arkansas  accompanied by   Jerome Carl Rose ,Professor of Anthropology.

Yasser kamel
Tour guide and Egyptologist
17-May-2013

Ancient Egyptian Fine Art

A master- piece of fine art represents wife of Assiute’s nomarch and dates back to Middle kingdom ,reign of king Senusert I, which was about 1950 B.C. The statue bears the traditional Egyptian features of art for Assiute Nome . Assiute was the 13th Nome of Upper Egypt and Webwawut jackal god was its own local deity. Written by Yasser Kamel for Museumegypt.2006.

Egyptonews

  

Egyptonews

A new discovery in Luxor by an Egyptian and German  archaeological team. The team succeeded to uncover  14 granite statues, 2 m high, that represent the Egyptian lioness goddess of war, devastation ,havoc and wrath , Sekhmet  . The finds came from the ruins of the funeral temple   of   Amunhotep  III( 1400 B.C) at the west bank.

Pictures and Comments

Pictures and Comments
Photo by Niki Whitehouse

Karnak temple. A wall carving shows the two cartouches of king Seti II who was the son of King Mernptah and the grandson of Ramses II(The great)in about 1200 B.C. It seams that he was not powerful enough as he failed to protect Upper Egypt from his rival and half brother Amunmes who managed to rule Upper Egypt for a short while until Seti II succeeded to return it to his control.
The famous cartouche (from the left, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, first cartouche( User-Khebrow –Ra, Mer-Amun) which means “the mighty existence of Ra and the beloved of Amun) the second cartouche or the famous (Seti-Mer -Ptah ) which means “ The one of Seth and the beloved of Ptah).Written by Yasser Kamel for Museumegypt,Copyright@museumegypt. All rights reserved.