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Musawwarat Es-Sufra
Musawwarat es-Sufra (Arabic: , Meroitic: Aborepi, Old Egyptian: jbrp, jpbr-ˁnḫ), also known as Al-Musawarat Al-Sufra, is a large Meroitic temple complex in modern Sudan, dating back to the early Meroitic period of the 3rd century BC. It is located in a large basin surrounded by low sandstone hills in the western Butana, 180 km northeast of Khartoum, 20 km north of Naqa and approximately 25 km south-east of the Nile. Its MGRS coordinates: 36QWD3477214671. With Meroë and Naqa it is known as the Island of Meroe, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. Constructed in sandstone, the main features of the site include the ''Great Enclosure'', the ''Lion Temple of Apedemak'' and the ''Great Reservoir''. Most significant is the number of representations of elephants, suggesting that this animal played an important role at Musawwarat es-Sufra. Research The site of Musawwarat es-Sufra was originally mentioned by Linant de Bellefonds in 1822, and then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apedemak
Apedemak or Apademak was a major deity in the Ancient Nubian Pantheon. Often depicted as a figure with a male human torso and a lion head, Apedemak was a war god worshiped by the Meroitic peoples inhabiting Nubia. He has no Egyptian counterpart. As a war god, Apedemak came to symbolize martial power, military conquest, and empire for the Meroitic peoples. Apedemak is also closely associated with Amun, the state-sponsored Egyptian deity during the preceding Napatan period, and is assumed to hold an equal level of importance. Apedemak primarily appears during the Meroitic Period. It is unknown if worship of Apedemak as a lion god existed before. Some scholars have pointed that the worship of a lion god may be strongly rooted with Egyptian traditions dating before the New Kingdom. Nevertheless, at least by the 3rd century BCE, Apedemak appears to have become an important deity to the peoples living in Upper Nubia. Numerous temples to Apedemak are concentrated in the Butana region, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant De Bellefonds
Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds better known as Linant Pasha (Lorient, France, 23 November 1799 – Cairo 9 July 1883) was an explorer of Egypt and, as the chief engineer of Egypt's public works, 1831–1869, an influential engineer of the Suez Canal. He is listed as a founder of the Suez Canal Company. Biography Having taken advantage of a sound education that emphasized mathematics, drawing and painting, then having been given some experience at sea through the efforts of his father, Antoine-Marie, a naval officer, charting the coastal waters of Newfoundland, in 1814, aged fifteen. Having passed his entrance exams, young Linant embarked as a naval cadet on the frigate ''Cléopâtre'', engaged on a mission to Greece, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, which he spent making drawings and doing relief mapping. One of the artists attached to the expedition having suddenly died, Linant was commissioned to replace him, drawing sites and ruins in Athens, Constantinople, Ephesus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amanishakheto
Amanishakheto was a Kandake of Kush. She seems to have reigned from 10 BC to 1 AD, although most dates of Kushite history before the Middle Ages are very uncertain. In Meroitic hieroglyphs her name is written "Amanikasheto" (''Mniskhte'' or ''(Am)niskhete''). In Meroitic cursive she is referred to as ''Amaniskheto qor kd(ke)'' which means Amanishakheto, Qore and Kandake ("Ruler and Queen").László Török, The kingdom of Kush: handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization Monuments Amanishakheto is known from several monuments. She is mentioned in the Amun-temple of Kawa, on a stela from Meroe, and in inscriptions of a palace building found at Wad ban Naqa, from a stela found at Qasr Ibrim, another stela from Naqa and her pyramid at Meroe (Beg. no. N6). Amanishakheto is best known for a collection of jewelry stolen from her pyramid in 1834 by Italian treasure hunter Giuseppe Ferlini, who destroyed the pyramid in search of its burial goods. It was a treasure that fulfilled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amanirenas
Queen Amanirenas (also spelled Amanirena), described by Strabo as being blind in one eye, was queen of the Kingdom of Kush from c. 40 BC to c. 10 BC. Her full title was ''Amnirense qore li kdwe li'' ("Ameniras, qore and kandake"). Meroitic, the indigenous language of the kingdom of Kush, remains undeciphered; however, inscriptions giving Queen Amanirenas the title of " qore" as well as "kandake" suggest that she was an individually ruling queen. Biography Queen Amanirenas is one of the most famous Meroitic queens because of her role in leading the Kushite army against the Romans in a war that lasted three years (25 BC to 22 BC). This war is largely responsible for halting Rome’s southward expansion in Africa. After an initial victory against Roman Egypt, Prefect Gaius Petronius drove the Kushite army from Egypt and established a new Roman frontier at Hiere Sycaminos (Maharraqa). Strabo’s account of the Meroitic War led against the Roman Empire includes a queen named “Can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Kush
The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX grc, Κυς and Κυσι ; cop, ''Ecōš''; he, כּוּשׁ ''Kūš'') was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered along the Nile Valley in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. The region of Nubia was an early cradle of civilization, producing several complex societies that engaged in trade and industry. The city-state of Kerma emerged as the dominant political force between 2450 and 1450 BC, controlling the Nile Valley between the first and fourth cataracts, an area as large as Egypt. The Egyptians were the first to identify Kerma as "Kush" and over the next several centuries the two civilizations engaged in intermittent warfare, trade, and cultural exchange. Much of Nubia came under Egyptian rule during the New Kingdom period (1550–1070 BC). Following Egypt's disintegration amid the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Kushites reestablished a kingdom in Napata (now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Davidson
Basil Risbridger Davidson (9 November 1914 – 9 July 2010) was a British journalist and historian who wrote more than 30 books on African history and politics. According to two modern writers, "Davidson, a campaigning journalist whose first of many books on African history and politics appeared in 1956, remains perhaps the single-most effective disseminator of the new field to a popular international audience". Biography Early life Basil Davidson was born in Bristol, United Kingdom on 9 November 1914 and left school at 16 and moved to London. In 1938, he gained a job at the Paris correspondent of '' The Economist'' and later as the diplomatic correspondent of ''The Star''. He travelled widely in Italy and Central Europe in the 1930s. Wartime service Davidson was recruited by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and MI6, D Section. As part of his Mission, he was sent to Budapest, Hungary in December 1939 under the cover of establishing a news service. In April 1941 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meroitic Alphabet
The Meroitic script consists of two alphasyllabic scripts developed to write the Meroitic language at the beginning of the Meroitic Period (3rd century BC) of the Kingdom of Kush. The two scripts are Meroitic Cursive, derived from Demotic Egyptian, and Meroitic Hieroglyphs, derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. Meroitic Cursive is the most widely attested script, comprising ~90% of all inscriptions, and antedates, by a century or more, the earliest, surviving Meroitic hieroglyphic inscription. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (ca. 50 BC) described the two scripts in his Bibliotheca historica, Book III (Africa), Chapter 4. The last known Meroitic inscription is the Meroitic Cursive inscription of the Blemmye king, Kharamadoye, from a column in the Temple of Kalabsha (REM 0094), which has recently been re-dated to AD 410/ 450 of the 5th century. Before the Meroitic Period, Egyptian hieroglyphs were used to write Kushite names and lexical items. Though the Kingdom of Kush ended w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zamani Project
The Zamani Project is part of the African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Database. Zamani is a research group at the University of Cape Town, which acquires, models, presents and manages spatial and other data from cultural heritage sites. The present focus of the Zamani project is Africa, with the principal objective of developing “The African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Database”. Zamani comes from the Swahili phrase “Hapo zamani za kale” which means “Once upon a time”, and can be used to mean 'the past'. The word is derived from Arabic root for temporal vocabulary, ‘Zaman,’ and appears in several languages around the world. History The Zamani initiative was conceptualised in the Geomatics Division of the University of Cape Town by Professor Heinz Rüther in 2001 in collaboration with ITHAKA and Aluka ow an initiative of JSTORas the “African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Database” in 2004 with a number of sequential grants from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Courtyard
A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary architects as a typical and traditional building feature. Such spaces in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court. Both of the words ''court'' and ''yard'' derive from the same root, meaning an enclosed space. See yard and garden for the relation of this set of words. In universities courtyards are often known as quadrangles. Historic use Courtyards—private open spaces surrounded by walls or buildings—have been in use in residential architecture for almost as long as people have lived in constructed dwellings. The courtyard house makes its first appearance ca. 6400–6000 BC (calibrated), in the Neolithic Yarmukian site at Sha'ar HaGolan, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnekhamani
Arnekhamani was a Nubian king of the Kushite Kingdom in the third century BC. The king is mainly known from his building activity at the Musawwarat es-Sufra temple complex. The main temple complex at this place was built by Arnekhamani, but was never finished. Most likely the king died before completing the temples. Three names are attested for Arnekhamani. His birth name was ''Arnekhamani'', his throne name ''Kheperkare'' and his Horus name ''Kanakht Merymaat''. His birthname includes several epithets that were changed in his reign. To the birth name was originally added ''beloved of Amun'', later it was extended to ''may he live for ever, beloved of Amun''. Finally it became ''may he live for ever, beloved of Isis''. The Egyptian king Ptolemy IV Philopator (221–204 BC) is also called in his Egyptian name ''beloved of Isis'' and it seems possible that Arnekhamani's name was influenced by the name of the Egyptian king, providing a chronological fixpoint for the rule of Arnek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pylon (architecture)
A pylon is a monumental gate of an Egyptian temple (Egyptian: ''bxn.t'' in the Manuel de Codage transliterationErmann & Grapow, ''Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache'', vol.1, 471.9–11). The word comes from the Greek term 'gate'. It consists of two pyramidal towers, each tapered and surmounted by a cornice, joined by a less elevated section enclosing the entrance between them.Toby Wilkinson, ''The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt'', Thames & Hudson, 2005. p.195 The gate was generally about half the height of the towers. Contemporary paintings of pylons show them with long poles flying banners. Egyptian architecture In ancient Egyptian religion, the pylon mirrored the hieroglyph ''akhet'' 'horizon', which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set". Consequently, it played a critical role in the symbolic architecture of a building associated with the place of re-creation and rebirth. Pylons were often decorated with scenes emphasizing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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