"The Periplus Maris Erythraei (or ‘Voyage around the Erythraean Sea’ [note: the modern Red Sea]) is an anonymous work from around the middle of the first century CE written by a Greek speaking Egyptian merchant." (Source: Washington University) The document describes "the maritime trade-routes following the north-south axis from Egypt down the coast of East Africa as far as modern day Tanzania" and "the routes of the east-west axis running from Egypt, around the Arabian Peninsula and past the Persian Gulf on the west coast of India." The complete translation of this fascinating resource on the ancient sea trade can be found here. A detailed map of the Erythraean Sea in the 1st Century can be found here.
"...members of the Nour (The Light) Salafist party, which won 20 per cent of the vote in recent [Egyptian] elections, are talking about putting an end to the 'idolatry' represented by the pyramids," according to the Daily Mail.
"This means destruction - along the lines essayed by the Afghan Taliban who blew up the Banyam Buddhas - or 'concealment' by covering them with wax. Tourists would presumably see great blobs rather than the perfectly carved steps.
"This last suggestion was made by Abdel Moneim Al-Shahat, a Nour candidate for parliament. Apart from wanting to do away with this 'rotten culture', this gentleman also wants to ban the Nobel prize winning novels of Naguib Mahfouz, one of many great Egyptian writers."
Comment: Screw cultural relativism. The destruction of the Buddha statues in Afghanistan was an atrocity, an act of total lunacy, and I can't even begin to imagine the kind of demented mind that would seriously consider destroying the Egyptian pyramids. And if they'll destroy the pyramids, the Sphinx can't be far behind. These Nour Party fanatics don't belong in the Egyptian government; they belong in an insane asylum.
"Up to 70 percent of British men and half of all Western European men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, geneticists in Switzerland said." (Reuters)
"Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh, who ascended the throne at the age of nine, his father Akhenaten and grandfather Amenhotep III...The results showed that King Tut belonged to a genetic profile group, known as haplogroup R1b1a2, to which more than 50 percent of all men in Western Europe belong, indicating that they share a common ancestor."
In 2009, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquites took DNA samples from Tut and other royal mummies in the Valley of the Kings, but the results were only partially released, probably because the question of Tut's ancestry was considered politically sensitive. The scientists at iGENEA, however, were able to reconstruct Tut's Y-DNA data by reading the background images used in a Discovery Channel television special, a classic example of how the search for truth always trumps political correctness.
"Seventeen lost pyramids are among the buildings identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt," according to BBC World News.
The archaeological team which made the discovery "...analysed images from satellites orbiting 700km above the earth, equipped with cameras so powerful they can pin-point objects less than 1m in diameter on the earth's surface." Using subsurface infrared imagery and test excavations, they discovered what they are calling "one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt."
The discovery of so many new pyramids and other sites in Egypt, one of the most heavily studied areas in the world, proves that we still don't understand the true extent and nature of the ancient world. It also validates the use of satellites to unearth hidden ruins.
"These are just the sites [close to] the surface," said US Egyptologist Dr. Sarah Parcak. "There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt. This is just the beginning of this kind of work."
"An armed gang has attacked two antiquities storage units on the Giza plateau, snatching an undetermined number of artefacts," according to Ahram Online. "Following numerous attacks on antiquities sites during nationwide disturbances, an armed gang of around 60 thieves broke into two storehouses at the southern side of the ramp of the second pyramid of Khafre."
"Mummifying animals was a common practice among ancient Egyptians, who embalmed thousands of crocodiles and buried them in mass graves as offerings to the crocodile god Sobek." (Source: National Geographic News)
CT scans of the the crocodile mummy bundle in the picture "show a 'mishmash of bony parts' from at least two Nile crocodiles, including two skulls, a shoulder bone and possibly a femur, according to conservator Allison Lewis, a fellow at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, California, where the mummies are kept."
"The ancient Egyptians mummified more than just human corpses," according to this National Geographic article on animal mummies. "Animals were viewed not only as pets, but as incarnations of gods. As such, the Egyptians buried millions of mummified cats, birds, and other creatures at temples honoring their deities."
"Egyptian antiquities authorities have obtained eight mummified birds that had been displayed in a textile factory for nearly a century." ("Mummy Birds Recovered From Egypt Factory," National Geographic News.) "'Three ibises and five falcons had apparently been kept in glass display cases since 1927 at the sprawling Mahalla factory, located about 75 miles...north of Cairo,' said Zahi Hawass, director general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities."
My apocalyptic technothriller, Phase Four, is now available from Amazon and UK digital publisher, Blasted Heath. The novel can be downloaded in a variety of ebook formats, including Kindle format from Amazon. My Spinetingler Magazine article on Phase Four can be read here.
Steven Pressfield: Gates of Fire : An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
Steven Saylor: Roman Blood : A Novel of Ancient Rome (A Novel of Ancient Rome)
George Shipway: Imperial Governor: The Great Novel of Boudicca's Revolt
Wallace Breem: Eagle In The Snow : A Novel of General Maximus and Rome's Last Stand
