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Tell Ras Budran
Tell Ras Budran is an Ancient Egyptian site on which an Ancient fort was built. The site is located in the Sinai peninsula and lies 150 meters away from the shore of Gulf of Suez. It is located not far from the most important as well as one of the oldest known mining areas for copper and turquoise in the Sinai Peninsula. Less than 50 km away are the Wadi Maghareh to the southeast and the temple complex of Serabit el-Khadim to the east. History The fort dates back to the Fourth dynasty during the 26th Century B.C. It was contemporary with the Wadi al-Jarf harbor which is on the other side of the Gulf of Suez, thus some suggest that the fort was related to the harbor, since The harbor used to be the headquarters for some mining expeditions in Sinai during the construction of the Great Pyramid. Layout The fort is circular in shape. Its inner diameter is about 30 meters with a 5-meter-thick wall on average, making a total of 40 meters as an external diameter. The fort is among ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae (famous for the huge stone blocks of its 'cyclopean' walls). A Greek ''Towns of ancient Greece#Military settlements, phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the ancient Roman, Roman castellum or English language, English fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Africa. Sinai has a land area of about (6 percent of Egypt's total area) and a population of approximately 600,000 people. Administratively, the vast majority of the area of the Sinai Peninsula is divided into two Governorates of Egypt, governorates: the South Sinai Governorate and the North Sinai Governorate. Three other governorates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt: Suez Governorate on the southern end of the Suez Canal, Ismailia Governorate in the center, and Port Said Governorate in the north. In the classical era the region was known as Arabia Petraea. The peninsula acquired the name Sinai in modern times due to the assumption that a mountain near Saint Catherine's Monastery is the Biblical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf Of Suez
The Gulf of Suez ( ar, خليج السويس, khalīǧ as-suwais; formerly , ', "Sea of Calm") is a gulf at the northern end of the Red Sea, to the west of the Sinai Peninsula. Situated to the east of the Sinai Peninsula is the smaller Gulf of Aqaba. The gulf was formed within a relatively young but now inactive Gulf of Suez Rift rift basin, dating back about 26 million years. It stretches some north by northwest, terminating at the Egyptian city of Suez and the entrance to the Suez Canal. Along the mid-line of the gulf is the boundary between Africa and Asia. The entrance of the gulf lies atop the mature Gemsa oil and gas field. The gulf is considered one of the world's important maritime zones due to being an entrance to the Suez Canal. Geography The gulf occupies the northwestern arm of the Red Sea between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula. It is the third arm of the triple junction rift system, the second arm being the Gulf of Aqaba. The length of the gulf, from its mouth at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement. Copper is one of the few metals that can occur in nature in a directly usable metallic form ( native metals). This led to very early human use in several regions, from circa 8000 BC. Thousands of years later, it was the first metal to be smelted from sulfide ores, circa 5000 BC; the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c. 4000 BC; and the first metal to be purposely alloyed with another metal, tin, to create ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue. Like most other opaque gems, turquoise has been devalued by the introduction of treatments, imitations and synthetics into the market. The robin's egg blue or sky blue color of the Persian turquoise mined near the modern city of Nishapur in Iran has been used as a guiding reference for evaluating turquoise quality. Names The word ''turquoise'' dates to the 17th century and is derived from the French ''turquois'' meaning "Turkish" because the mineral was first brought to Europe through the Ottoman Empire.Turquoise . minerals.usgs.gov Howe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadi Maghareh
Wadi Maghareh (also spelled Maghara or Magharah, meaning "The Valley of Caves" in Egyptian Arabic), is an archaeological site located in the southwestern Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. It contains Pharaoh, pharaonic monuments and turquoise mines dating from the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old, Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Middle and New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians knew the site as "the Terraces of Turquoise."G. D. Mumford: "''Wadi Maghara''", in Kathryn A. Bard and Steven Blake Shubert, eds. ''Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt''(New York: Routledge, 1999), p. 875-876. History The site was rediscovered in 1809 by Ulrich Jasper Seetzen, and since then has seen several excavation teams, Richard Lepsius's excavation in 1845 being the first. Major C. K. McDonald's visits to the site, including residence at the site from 1854–1866 (and an effort to mine turquoise there) resulted in only surface finds (arrowheads and such) with no further excava ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serabit El-Khadim
Serabit el-Khadim ( ar, سرابيط الخادم ; also transliterated Serabit al-Khadim, Serabit el-Khadem) is a locality in the southwest Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, where turquoise was mined extensively in antiquity, mainly by the ancient Egyptians. Archaeological excavation, initially by Sir Flinders Petrie, revealed ancient mining camps and a long-lived Temple of Hathor, the Egyptian goddess who was favoured as a protector in desert regions and known locally as the mistress of the turquoise. The temple was first established during the Middle Kingdom in the reign of Sesostris I (reigned 1971 BC to 1926 BC) and was partly reconstructed in the New Kingdom. Archaeological findings Thirty incised graffiti in a "Proto-Sinaitic script" shed light on the history of the alphabet. The mines were worked by prisoners of war from southwest Asia who presumably spoke a Northwest Semitic language, such as the Canaanite that was ancestral to Phoenician and Hebrew. The incisions date from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fourth Dynasty Of Egypt
The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other countries is documented. The Fourth Dynasty heralded the height of the pyramid-building age. The relative peace of the Third Dynasty allowed the Dynasty IV rulers the leisure to explore more artistic and cultural pursuits. King Sneferu's building experiments led to the evolution from the mastaba-styled step pyramids to the smooth sided “true” pyramids, such as those on the Giza Plateau. No other period in Egypt's history equaled Dynasty IV's architectural accomplishments.Egypt: Land and Lives of the Pharaohs Revealed, (2005), pp. 80–90, Global Book Publishing: Australia Each of the rulers of this dynasty (except for Shepseskaf, the last) commissioned at least one pyramid to serve as a tomb or cenotaph. The Fourth Dynasty was the sec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadi Al-Jarf
Wadi al-Jarf ( ar, وادي الجرف) is the present name for an area on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, south of Suez, that is the site of the oldest known artificial harbour in the world, developed about 4500 years ago. It is located at the mouth of the Wadi Araba, a major communication corridor between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, crossing the Eastern Desert. The site is across the Gulf of Suez from the small Sinai fortress of Tell Ras Budran. A somewhat similar ancient port is at Ain Sukhna, a little north of Wadi al-Jarf. The site was first discovered by J. G. Wilkinson in 1832. It was rediscovered by a French team in the 1950s, who named it Rod el-Khawaga. Archeological work was quickly abandoned when the Suez Crisis broke out in 1956. A joint French–Egyptian team resumed excavation in 2011. The harbor at the site dates to the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, approximately 4,500 years ago. Also discovered at the site were more than 100 anchors, the first Old Kingdom anchors f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Pyramid Of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. As part of the Giza pyramid complex, it borders present-day Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt. Initially standing at , the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 3,800 years. Over time, most of the smooth white limestone casing was removed, which lowered the pyramid's height to the present . What is seen today is the underlying core structure. The base was measured to be about square, giving a volume of roughly , which includes an internal hillock. The dimensions of the pyramid were high, a base length of , with a seked of palms (a slope of 51°50'40"). The Great Pyramid was built by quarrying an estimated 2.3 million large blocks weighing 6 million tonnes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battlements
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals to allow for the launch of arrows or other projectiles from within the defences. These gaps are termed " crenels" (also known as ''carnels'', or ''embrasures''), and a wall or building with them is called crenellated; alternative (older) terms are castellated and embattled. The act of adding crenels to a previously unbroken parapet is termed crenellation. The function of battlements in war is to protect the defenders by giving them something to hide behind, from which they can pop out to launch their own missiles. A defensive building might be designed and built with battlements, or a manor house might be fortified by adding battlements, where no parapet previously existed, or cutting crenellations into its existing parapet wall. A d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
