Amazing opportunity for camera buffs  Free photographing allowed in The Egyptian Museum for visitors during the Christmas It has been a long time since photography was allowed in the museum which hosts the largest collection of the ancient Egyptian antiquities. At a press conference held at the Grand Egyptian museum, minister of antiquities Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty announced a big surprise for the Egyptology buffs and visitors to Egypt. The Minister of Antiquities said "For the  Christmas holiday season, photography with no flash will be allowed in the Egyptian museum in Tahrir for all visitors starting from 1st of December 2015 till 7th of January 2016." Is this the best Christmas present or what?!  Book your tour now : info@egyptraveluxe.com

The Valley of the Kings has been a royal burial complex for almost 500 years. The official name for the site in ancient times was The Great and Majestic Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh, Life, Strength, Health in The West of Thebes. Or also, Ta-sekhet-ma’at (the Great Field). The first tomb discovered was of pharaoh Ramses VII designated KV1 Most of the tombs of the Valley of the Kings are not open to the public. Researchers state that the quality of the rock in the Valley is quite inconsistent, ranging from finely grained to coarse stone. Builders took advantage of available geological features when constructing the tombs; due to the lack of specific tools, the builders had to look out for any advantage that could help them achieve their goal. The peak of al-Qurn which watches over the valley is an iconic feature of the region; the tomb police, known as the Medjay, watched over the valley from this location. The tomb of Akhenaten was origi...

The Valley was used for primary burials from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC, and contains some 60 tombs, starting with Thutmose I and ending with Ramesses X or XI   On February 8, 2006, American archaeologists uncovered a pharaonic-era tomb (KV63), the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamen in 1922. The 18th Dynasty tomb included five mummies in intact sarcophagi with colored funerary masks along with more than 20 large storage jars, sealed with pharaonic seals As can be seen, from reference to the Map below, the  excavation in the area between tombs KV. 9 (Ramesses V/VI) & KV. 57 (Horemheb), along the northern side of the spur leading from the Valley centre to KV. 35 (Amunhetep II). As tombs, KV. 56 (The Gold Tomb) & KV. 57 lie within this area it has been decided that clearance & recording of them should also be undertaken by the current excavations Although the area currently under investigation is quite small, being easily walked from end to ...

  The authorities in Luxor are preparing to open the ancient royal tombs, located west of the city, for tourists at night, for the first time in history.   Luxor Governor Mohamed Badr  said the authorities are coordinating with the Antiquities Ministry in order to provide appropriate lighting and open the sites ahead of the start of the tourist season in October. The project is aimed at diversifying the offer of tourist attractions in Luxor and at avoiding the high daytime temperatures. It will also take advantage of the Al-Qama mountain lighting project, which cost LE 56 million.    Speaking to the German news agency DPA, Badr added that the historic Madamod temple, located northeast of the city, might also soon be open for tourists.

Tempel Thutmosis III.: "Botanischer Garten"     http://egyptraveluxe.com/luxor_excursions.htm

Tempel Thutmosis III.: Hieroglyphen an einem Architrav  http://egyptraveluxe.com/luxor_excursions.htm

Vielfach berührter Skarabäus zwischen Hatschepsuts herausgehackten Namen read more at        http://egyptraveluxe.com/luxor_excursions.htm

Hatschepsut-Kapelle: Detail des Thot-Reliefs an der linken Wand - über ihm eine ausgehackte Kartusche mit Hatschepsuts Thronnamen Maat-ka-Re Read more at  http://egyptraveluxe.com/luxor_excursions.htm

The Tomb of Kheruef  is one of the most important, both religiously and historically, in the Theban necropolis.   It has helped us understand the history of  rituals celebrating kingship . The owner was most likely an significant individual who organized the first and third jubilees for  Amenhotep III , though he probably died in during the reign of  Amenhotep IV  (Akhenaten). He was a Royal Scribe and First Herald to the King, he was later appointed Steward to Queen Tiy. The tomb was first explored by the German Egyptologist Adolph Erman in 1885. This investigation was later published by Heinrich Brugsch in his Thesaurus Inscriptionum Aegyptiacarum in 1891. In the 1940s, Alan Gardiner also worked the tomb and then after it was robbed in the 1940s, the Egyptian Department of Antiquities in association with the Epigraphic Survey of the University of Chicago cleared, recorded and finally published their results in 1980. The most important scenes within the to...

Today I received an interesting book from an English friend about The painted Tomb -Chapel of Nebamun . Masterpiece of the ancient egyptian art in the British museum the book is written by Richard Parkinson  Richard Parkinson discusses the history of paintings from the ancient to the modern times .with a detailed description of these fragments from the tomb . www.egyptraveluxe.com the tomb was found in 1820 by Giovanni d’Athanasi . and quickly removed various scenes from the mud-plaster walls. Eleven of these were acquired by the British Museum, and have become some of the most familiar works of Egyptian art The tomb-chapel was in the northern part of the Theban necropolis, but the precise location remains unknown. Various strands of evidence suggest that it was probably in the area of the current Spanish–Egyptian excavations at Dra Abu el-Naga. The tomb commemorated Nebamun, a grain accountant of the Temple of Amun, who probably worked late in the reign of Amenh...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin   Most of the Egyptian elites party through festivals. When they throw a party bash, everyone invited can eat meat and drink beer at their hearts content! They can also savor pastries flavored with honey and ancient fruit cakes. Yummy! The nobles also hire dancers and musicians to make the party much more fun! Egyptian dancing shows more skin than most of us think. Wanna know why? Egyptian dancers do the erotic dances while naked! Talk about the bars on present day! Musicians also play various instruments such as flutes, lutes and harps. You don't have to look far to imagine how they looked like. Much like music bands today, they consist of males and females minus the singer. Obviously, musicians seemed dull, unlike the exciting female dancers! Servants act like customer service professionals in a party. They keep the guests well fed and taken care of much like their bosses. As a warm treatment to the guests, they place perfume cones in ...

According to ancient records, baboons were kept as "police dogs" by authorities, led on leashes and used to help catch suspects. On an Old Kingdom tomb a police baboon is shown helping to arrest a fleeing thief in the village market by seizing his leg.  Baboons were very popular in ancient Egypt, and were sometimes kept as pets.It was only the gentle female baboons that were kept as pets, as male baboons are notoriously aggressive and bad-tempered (in fact, the image of a male baboon with a raised tail serves as the hieroglyph for “enraged.”)  It was thought that baboons were the first creatures to pay proper religious observances.There was a belief that the most learned Egyptian priests understood the secret language of baboons baboons Thought by the Egyptians to be both a lunar and a solar animal, it was observed that baboons “sang” to the moon at night, and taken as a sign of worship. The Egyptians also observed baboons barking at the rising sun, which gave rise to a ...

In ancient Egypt, for example, the Bennu bird –– a mythical phoenix, the ba (manifestation or soul) of Re (the sun god) and a symbol of regeneration –– was sometimes portrayed as a heron. Not only was the heron a symbol of the rising sun, but it also represented life’s renewal on account of its habit of flying away from the rising water over neighbouring fields at the time of the Nile’s annual, ground-fertilising inundation.    In Christian tradition, the heron may represent Christ, for it preys on eels and snakes, serpentine symbols of Satan. Its probing beak has furthermore prompted comparisons with the search for hidden knowledge, and consequently with wisdom (or, less grandly, with nosiness).

A sketch of one of the name rings with the palimpsest of the "Battle of Kadesh" narrative underneath. Unscrambling these two sets of inscriptions is a difficult task. Note the "spikes" on the oval representing crenellations or towers of a fortress.

(Left) photo of a palimpsest showing an Egyptian soldier slaying a Hittite prisoner from the Battle of Kadesh narrative. Superimposed over this image are the legs of the god Amun seated on a throne. Wavy lines behind his feet represent the Orontes river from the Battle of Kadesh. (Right) a drawing of the palimpsest