Tutankhamen

Tutankamen was one of the great Pharoahs of Egypt. During his life he did many things and after his death he was known for great things. Tutankamen was a inormous figure in Egyptain history.

Not much is known about Tutankhamen's life, but his parents are thought to be Akhenaten and Kiya. He was born in 1370 B.C.E. Thutankamen became pharaoh at a very early age and reigned for eight years. His wife, Ankhnesamon, was often thought to be the cause for Akhenaton's reign as pharaoh.

Early in his reign he changed his name from Tutankhaten , living image of Aten, to Tutankhamun. Ankhesenpaaten changed her name to Ankhnesamun. They did this because Tutankhamen wanted to distinguish a difference between him and his father's religion. He did not worship one god like his father and wanted to make it known to all the people of Egypt. Little was recorded of his reign. His name was even omitted from the king lists of Abydos and Karnak.

Tutankhamun died from natural causes, gangrene caused by a broken leg. However, before recent finds Tutankhamun was thought to be murdered. The two prime suspects were Aye who succeeded him as king, and General Horemhab who in turn succeeded Aye to the throne. They both ruled Egypt during Tutankhamen's childhood. Tutankhamen died in 1352 B.C.E.

On November 22, 1922, Carter found Tutankhamen's tomb.

"Encased in a coffin of pure gold, the Egyptian King lay in the blackest darkness, surrounded by unfathomable silence. He was immersed in a small slice of the royal world of the pharaohs: golden chariots, statues of gold and ebony, a fleet of miniature ships to accommodate his trip to the netherworld, his throne of gold, toys from his youth, bottles of perfume, precious jewelry, and more. Every corner, every niche of this time capsule from ancient Egypt was filled with priceless objects." http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/tut.htm

Tutankhamen had three coffins, the inner most one being made of solid gold of an inch thick. The first coffin was made of wood and was 7ft 4in in length. The second coffin had some forms of dampness, it was 6ft 8in in length and in had gold inlaid on it. On his mummy alone there was outrageous amounts of jewelry. They were an outstanding 146 pieces. There were four rooms in his tomb, Annex, Antechamber, Burial Chamber, and Treasury. (Brandt 151)

In the course of his excavations, Carter observed that two robbers had made their entry into the tomb and made an opinion on what they had stole. On the first occasion the entrance passage had been cleared, then filled it. On the second occasion the filling had been there so the robbers had to dig a small tunnel under the ceiling of the passage and against the left wall. When these robberies were discovered officials entered the tomb and made some attempt to restore it, however there work was perfunctory. After they did this they patched the whole made by the robbers and repeated the act of blocking the inner and outer doorways. (Edwards 42)

Tutankhamen was a great pharaoh. Even though he was not known by many people before his amazing tomb was found, he was still an important figure in Ancient Egyptian history.

Brandt, Anthony, The Tomb of Tutankhamen - Howard Carter. National Geographic Society, London, 1873.

Edwards, I.E.S., The Treasures of Tutankhamun.The Viking Press Inc., New York, 1972.

Ramses II

Egypt went threw many great pharaohs, however one of the greatest was Ramses II. He was thought to be so great that he was often called "Ramses the Great". He expanded Egypt a great deal and built many amazing structures. He had an interesting life and I believe it's worth telling.

Ramses II was the son of Seti I and Queen Tuya. When he was younger he worked as co-ruler beside his father. This enabled him to have experience before he excepted the title of pharaoh. Soon after his father died, in 1290 B.C., Ramses II became pharaoh. He then ruled as the third king of the 19th dynasty. His mother, Tuya went down from the title of Queen to the King;s mother, which acted as his adviser. His first act was to wage war on Syrai, later known as the Battle of Kadesh. This battle would indicate who had control over Syria. Ramses II lead his army of 20,000 to war, all while trying to maintain his empire against the Hittites. In spite of this his tactics were not well planned, therefore he was forced to retreat. This did not slow him down thou, he moved on and started building his empire up through architecture.

After this first battle all stood at a stand still for some time, but there was then a treaty signed that divided the land and stated that Ramses II would marry the daughter of the Hittites king. Later in his reign Ramses II attacked many of his enemies such as the Libyans and the Nubians and also attacked Syria about half a dozen times.



Ramses II had eight royal wives. These eight wives were Nefertari, Istnofret, Bint-Anath, Meryetamun, Nebettawy, Henutmire, Maathorneferure, Name Unknown. He had many other wives, but these were his eight principle wives. Nefertari, however, was his first and favorite wife.



Ramses II accomplished many things in his reign. One of his major ones was he became one of the famous Egyptian pharaohs known for his military strength. He gained back much of the territory that was lost during another pharaohs reign. Another of Ramses II's great accomplishments is he built more monuments than any of the other ancient Egyptian pharaohs. The Ramses II monument at Abu Simbel is the most famous of all. He did this because of his great love for architecture. These are a few of Ramses II's great accomplishments during his reign.





Ramses II lived to be an astonishing ninety-two. Outgrowing some of his children, Ramses II lived almost double the live expectancy back then. Some of the medical problems that studies have found were problems with his heart and hip, and he had a broken nose. This was unusual for a pharaoh to have. Even thou he lived a extremely long life, all must die.

Ramses II's tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings, and remains empty. After being looted by tomb robbers for years, the tomb is now being restored. Even thou the tomb is empty the mummy of Ramses II has been found, and is thought to be the one of the best preserved mummies ever discovered. (Valikovsky 203)

After Ramses II's death there was many confusion about who would be the next Pharaoh, however, with so many sons there was much fighting. For a few years they fought for the throne. Most of their reigns were brief and did not do much for Egypt. When Ramses II died Egypt entered a decline, that it would never fulling recover from. (Lassieur 75)

Ramses II lived a long life and accomplished many things during his reign. He even brought Egypt to one of its highest points in history. To this day Ramses II is remembered as a great man who changed Egypt forever.

Lassieur, Allison. The Ancient Egyptians, Lucent Books, Inc.; San Diego, 2001.

Velikovsky, Immanuel. Ramses II and His Time, Doubleday & Company, Inc.; New York, 1978.

The Reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten

The Egyptians used a system of government that was controled by a person called pharaoh. The pharaoh had much power for the Egyptian believed that they were a god on earth. One of these powerful pharaohs is Akhenaten. He ruled and was looked upon as a very important person in life according to the Egyptians. During his reign many changes occured, even his family changed significantly.









He ruled Ancient Egypt for 17 long years; 1352- 1336 BCE. (Romer 26)



Early in Akhenaten reign he changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, meaning"the Servant of Aten". Towards the beginning he also introduced a monotheistic worship of Aten, the Sun God. He placed temples for Aten by other gods temples at first, but soon he closed all other temples and took their revenues. During this religion revolution he placed himself as the intermediary between his people and Aten. This made him a god-king, and the first king to be called Pharaoh. Akhenaten changed Egypt's religion dramatically throughout his reign.


~ Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their childeren worshiping Aten . ~

Akhenaten and Nefertiti moved out of Thebes to a new capitol called Akhetaton in honor of Aten. They built many extraordinary buildings and conducted remarkable ceremonies in the temples and palaces. Soon the capital Akhetaton gained much power and many things relied on it.

In the course of his reign the art was also changed with great impact. The main motivation why it changed was to accompany the Pharaoh's new religion. One of the ways art was changed during this time was a new exaggerated style. This featured an elongated face, slit like eyes and a pendant chin. This is one of the changes that happened during Akhenaten's reign.

"The period of the rule of King Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti during the Fourteenth Century BCE is known as today the Armana Phase of the Egyptian ruling dynasties, resulting from the King's construction of a new capital city he called Akhetaten (Horizon of the Aten) at an archeological site contemporarily known as Armana."


http://bierwirthtree.tripod.com/webnotes/egyptian.html


Akhenaten was married to Nefertiti at the beginning of his reign. They had six known daughters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten, Neferneferuaten tasherit, Neferneferuaten, and Setepenre. Ankhesenpaaten married Tutankhamun soon after her father died. It is said that he was married to a Women named Kiya, in his later reign.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kiya~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Egyptian did not make a tragic or heroic event of the death of royalty: rather they hushed it up as the triumph of evil over righteousness. . . We have no offical account of Akhenaten's end, but in his case it would have been only fitting if his apotheosis had been into the falcon of Re-Herakhte." (Aldred 290)

Akhenaten ruled Egypt for many year. During this time he influenced the Egypt and its people greatly. Even though he was not looked on as a heroic figure when he died, in my opinion he was still a great pharaoh that changed Egypt forever.











Romer, John,Valley of the Kings, The Orion Publishing Group; London, 1981.

Alreed, Cyril, Akhenaten: King of Egypt, Thames and Hudson Inc.; Germany, 1991.

The Pyramids of Giza

The Ancient Egyptians had a very different view of life in comparison to the present day period. To them life on earth was vastly shorter than life after death. For that reason they went to extreme lengths to ensure a prosperous afterlife. One example of this idea is the remarkable pyramids of Giza. They demonstrated how far these individual Egyptians went for their afterlife.

The pyramids of Giza were constructed during the 4th dynasty, or 2613-2498 B.C. The pharaohs that built them were Cheops (or Khufu), Chephren (or Khafre), and Mycerinus (or Menkaure). Khufu built the largest of the three pyramids. It originally stood at 146.6 meters tall and its base was 230.3 meters around. It sides were covered in fine white polished limestone. The Pyramid of Khafre is often thought to be larger than the pyramid of his father, Khufu, but it is not. It originally only stood at 143.5 meters compared to 146.6 meters.The smallest of the three pyramids is the Pyramid of Menkaure, it originally stood at 66 meters. There are also three smaller pyramids that lay beside the pyramid of Khufu. They were created for the three wives of Khufu. (Hart 20)

Each of these pharaohs obviously cared a great deal about their afterlife and recognition of the ages to come. I believe that they succeeded one of these; no person can see a picture of these extraordinary pyramids and not recognize the greatness of the one who built it.

Monumental tombs were built to house the royal mummies and everything they would need for life in the hereafter - clothes, jewelry, chairs, beds, dishes, even food. (Giblin 12)

The Pyramids of Giza are said to be built by the labor of 100,000 men. This is often hard to believe, but there are various archaeological facts that support this idea. One of them is they have found the camps of the men that built the pyramids. These men shaped the blocks for the pyramid with copper tools. Then using wooden sleds dragged the blocks manually or with oxen along roads to the pyramids construction site. Then they were raised on ramps as the pyramid became larger. When the pyramid was complete these ramps would be disassembled. This is how the pyramids of Giza were built.

Many believe that the Great Pyramid was built by slaves, however 100,000 people worked on it for three months; when the Nile flooded. The flooding made it impossible for farming, thus the building of the pyramid gave jobs to the unemployed.


The Pyramids of Giza have many remarkable features and history, above are a few of the many. This shows how amazing the Pyramids of Giza are.





Giblin, James Cross. Secrets of the Sphinx, Scholastic Press; New York, 2004.



Hart, George. Eyewitness Ancient Egypt, DK Publishing, Inc.; New York, 2004.