Famous Pharaohs

Menkaure (2532–2504 B.C.)

After Khafra's passage home to the realm of the dead, where the king of the gods, Osiris, held the sceptre, Men-kau-ra (Menkaure), Mencheres, ascended the throne. This is the Mykerinos, Mencherinos, about whom the Greek authors relate that he erected the third pyramid as a memorial of honour. It is called in the texts by the name of hir, that is, "the high one". When Colonel Vyse found his way to the middle of the chamber of the dead and entered into the silent space of "Eternity", his eye discerned, as the last trace of Menkaura's place of burial, the wooden cover of the sarcophagus, and the stone coffin hewn out of one hard block, beautifully adorned outside in the style of a temple, according to the fashion of the masters of the old empire. The sarcophagus rests now at the bottom of the Mediterranean, the English vessel which was conveying it having been wrecked near Gibraltar. The cover, which was saved, thanks to the material of which it was composed, is now exhibited in the gallery of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum.

Its outside is adorned with a short text conceived in the following terms: "Osiris, who hast become king of Egypt, Menkaura hving eternally, child of Olympus, son of Urania, heir of Kronos, over thee may she stretch herself and cover thee, thy divine mother, Urania, in her name as mystery of heaven. May she grant that thou shouldest be like God, free from all evils, King Menkaura, living eternally". This prayer is of very ancient origin, for there are examples of it found on the covers of sarcophagi belonging to the dynasties of the ancient empire. The sense of it is full of significance. Delivered from mortal matter, the soul of the defunct king passes through the immense space of heaven to imite itself with God, after having overcome the evil which opposed it during its life on its terrestrial journey. According to classic traditions King Mencheres enjoyed a very good reputation among pharaonic ancestors. He is described as a man distinguished for his justice and kindness, as also for his piety in regard to all that concerned the worship of the gods. For this reason the Egyptians after his death accorded him the honors of a god, by establishing a special worship dedicated to his memory. I do not know if we ought to attribute a great importance to this worship. The Egyptians rendered him the same honor which the kings, his predecessors, enjoyed after their decease. For the monuments of the time of the building of the pyramids mention priests and prophets which were devoted to the service of Kheops, Chabryes, and other rulers, and who oflfered them sacrifices and attended to their service, after the "lord of the world" had left the hght and descended to the depth of his grave. As to the religious sentiments which we attribute to the Pharaoh Mencheres, it seems in fact that Mencheres Pius occupied himself during his Ufe by a certain predilection with sacred literature. The book called Pirem-lieru, the so-called "departure from day", recalls his memory particularly in gate 64. According to the words of the text the author finishes the gate with this remark: "This gate was discovered in the town of Hermopolis, engraved on a block of alabaster, and painted in blue color under the feet of this god. It was discovered at the epoch of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Mencheres the defunct, by the prince his son, Hortotef, when he undertook a journey to inspect the temples of Egypt. He brought it as a wonderful thing to the king, after having recognized the contents full of mystery".

Related Pages:

Tjes-Knot Amulet
Tit (Isis knot) amulet
Tile with the Name of Seti I
Tile from Dadoes of Platforms or Stairways to Dais...
Tuthmosis III Offering
Thread ball: New Kingdom
Thirty-two Rosettes: New Kingdom
The Mother and Wife of Userhat, Tomb of Userhat
The Goddess Nekhbet: Temple of Hatshepsut
Tally Stone of Hatshepsut
Table: Early New Kingdom
Sweret Bead on Gold Wire: Dynasty 18
String of tiny disk beads, barrels, and 13 Taweret...
String of Short Cylindrical Beads: New Kingdom
String of Quartz Ball Beads
String of Miscellaneous Beads: Dynasty 18
String of Melon-seed Beads: New Kingdom
String of Leaf Beads: New Kingdom
String of Carnelian Beads and Poppy Pendants: Earl...
String of Beads with Feline-head Amulets
String of Barrel Beads: Dynasty 18
String of Ball Beads: New Kingdom
String of Ball Beads: Dynasty 18
String of 46 round beads in graded sizes: Early Ne...
Strainer: Dynasty 19
Storage jar: Dynasty 18
Stool with woven seat: New Kingdom
Stela of the Sculptor Qen worshipping Amenhotep I ...

Queen Nofretari

The name of the architect Ahmose has not been perpetuated on the walls of the Theban temples, but the rock tablets of Maassara down to the present hour have in the inscriptions preserved the memorial of him, and by the side of him the remembrance of his consort, the great heiress-queen NOFRET-ARI-AHMOSE, that is, "the beautiful companion of Ahmose." Not only the rocky caverns of Toora and Maassara, within sight of Memphis, the capital of the oldest dynasties, but also a number of public monuments in the interior of the dark chambers of the tombs of the Theban Necropolis, have clearly preserved the name of this queen, surrounded by laudatory inscriptions. Long after her decease this great ancestress of the new empire was venerated as a divine being, and her image was placed as an equal among the eternal inhabitants of the Egyptian heaven. In the united assembly of the sainted first kings of the new empire, Nofert-ari-Ahmose, the divine spouse of Ahmose, sits enthroned at the head of all the Pharaonio pairs, and before all the royal children of their race, as the specially venerated ancestress and founder of the eighteenth dynasty. As such she was called "the daughter, sister, wife, and mother of a king," besides her title of "wife of the God Amon," which expression designated the chief priestess of the tutelary God of Thebes (but not more than that).

On several monuments the beautiful companion of Ahmose is represented with a black skin, and the conclusion has hence been drawn that she had to boast or to be ashamed of a negro origin. In spite of the intelligent surmises which have been put forward, on the side of the learned, to discover high state reasons from the color of her skin, namely, that a treaty concluded by the Pharaoh Ahmose with the neighbouring negro peoples for a common effort to drive out the shepherd kings was sealed by this marriage, it seems to me that, in this supposition, two points of view have been entirely neglected. First, the dark color is found not infrequently employed in the paintings in the tombs of the kings at Thebes, so as to offer by the side of the other brightly coloured pictures of the Pharaohs an evident allusion to their stay in the dark night of the grave. This intention of the painter would appear all the more probable in the case of our raven-coloured queen, as she is not on every occasion represented black, but sometimes she appears on the walls of the tombs at Thebes with a yellow color to her skin like all Egyptian women. In the second place, the negroes with their queen, allied to them (as is said) in race, owed small thanks to the house of Egypt, since Ahmose, after conquering his enemies in the north, immediately turned his arms against the brethren and the people of his own wife, by whose help alone, it is supposed, he had been able to obtain a victory over his hereditary enemy. We must therefore consider, and for the sake of King Ahmose we must wish it to be so, that Nofretari, belonging to the Egyptian stock, represented an heiress, to whom had descended by birth and by law the right of succession to" the Theban throne. As the husband of such an heiress Ahmose only occupied the second place by her side, and it was reserved to the son of them both, according to the laws of the Egyptian succession, to bear the sceptre as the legitimate full king over both the great divisions of the empire.

Related Pages:

Transporting Stone and Metal in Ancient Egypt
People of Ancient Egypt
Quartzite in Ancient Egypt
Quarrying Tools in Ancient Egypt
Origins of the Egyptians in Northeastern Africa
Quarries and Mines in Ancient Egypt
Race of the Ancient Egyptians
Qurna
Asiatics
Mediterranean Peoples
Pygmies
Puntites
Paradise in Ancient Egyptians Culture
Papyrus Westcar
Papyrus Rylands IX
Papyrus in Ancient Egypt
Palettes in Ancient Egypt
Temple Palaces in Ancient Egypt
Palaces in Ancient Egypt
Pan-Grave People and Culture
Ancient Egypt videos
Egyptian hieroglyph and Society
Lake Mariotis in Ancient Egypt
The Western Desert in Ancient Egypt
Wadi Natrun in Ancient Egypt
Lake Moeris (Lake Karun)
Writing Palette and Brushes of Princess Meketaten
Wounded Animal in a Hunting Scene: Tomb of Userhat...
Wooden Box, cosmetic: Middle Kingdom
Wooden Box from Ancient Egypt
Woman Carrying a Child on Her Back and Leading an ...
Whip Handle in the Shape of a Horse: Dynasty 18
Weaver's comb: Ramesside Period
Water Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache
Wall Tile with the Cartouche of Seti II
Wall Painting fragment: Dynasty 18
Votive, bird figure: Dynasty 18
Votive stela of Userhat
Votive menat fragment: New Kingdom
Votive Fragment, Hathor
Votive Ear: New Kingdom
Votive cow plaque - New Kingdom
Vessel: Middle Kingdom
Vessel stand naming the scribe Iui
Vase inscribed for the Mistress of the House Amene...
Userhat and Wife Receiving Offerings, Tomb of User...
Upper Part of the Seated Statue of a Queen
Two-Handled Ointment Jar: New Kingdom
Two-handed pottery vase of Amenhotep
Two Princesses: Dynasty 18
Tweezers: Dynasty 18
Turtle amulet: New Kingdom
Tubular beads in Ancient Egypt
Triad: Early New Kingdom
Torso of a High General
Top of a Papyrus Stalk Mirror Handle
Toe fragment: Amarna Period
Tjes-Knot Amulet
Tit (Isis knot) amulet
Tile with the Name of Seti I

Ramses V (c. 1148-1144 BC)

Ramses V the son of Ramses IV (1151–1145). He came to the throne as the fourth pharaoh of the 20th dynasty in the New Kingdom period. In his reign the power of the priests of Amun was increased. he reigned for four years and died with a virus disease discovered in the face of his mummy which staying in Cairo Museum. The Death of Ramses V: In 1888 French Egyptologist Georges Daressy discovered the tomb of Ramses V, the fourth pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt, while excavating in the Valley of the Kings. Archaeologists later determined that Ramses V had died in 1141 BC at the age of 35 after reigning only four years. His mummy provided an explanation for Ramses’ short tenure. It revealed a face covered with pustules characteristic of smallpox. The Wilbour Papyrus (Gardiner 1948; cf. https://famouspharaohs.blogspot.com/2017/07/god-amun.html1989), dealing with land tenancy in Middle Egypt dunng the reign of Ramses V.

The great Wilbour papyrus in the Brooklyn Museum, dated in year 4 of Ramses V reign gives an account of taxing. Its main text records the measurement and assessment of fields extending from near Crocodilonpolis (Medinet el-Fayyum) southwards to a little short of the modern town of El-Minya, a distance of some 90 miles. Taxes were calculated, in part, from flood levels indicated by marks on stone building lining the river., the Nilometres. How the king infected with the smallpox? During the New Kingdom (18-20th dynasties), when the Egyptian Empire expanded to its greatest geographical extent by far, with extensive conquests and expeditions in Africa and Asia. And its believed the smallpox had spread during this extent of the kingdom. And exactly during the reign of Ramses V, Egypt was in a civil war and was attacked by enemies from the north; if the pustular eruption of Ramses V was from smallpox, it could represent a smallpox outbreak from imported cases because of war rather than regional endemic disease. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that only three mummies in that period had similar lesions.

Related Pages:

Menkaure (2532–2504 B.C.)

Queen Nofretari

Ramses V (c. 1148-1144 BC)

Labels

About

Blogroll