THE DEATH OF A PHARAOH
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THE DEATH OF A PHARAOH
Why did the Egyptians embalm their pharaohs? Why did they construct gigantic pyramids? What did they think of the world which surrounded them? The Ancient Egyptians were extraordinary builders. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamon. "The Book of the Dead."
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INTRODUCTION
Man has never satisfied his desire for eternity.
The people which most avidly saught immortality was the Egyptian Civilisation.
The Egyptian Civilisation lasted more than 3,000 years and it invented the calender, mathematics and medicine.
Champollion. The Rosetta Stone. Hieroglyphics.
THE EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION
Egypt did not know inflation. Things did not vary in price for a milenium.
The NILE and a plentiful harvest.
Egypt was surrounded by sea and terrible deserts, something that guaranteed its people the longest period of peace that any nation in the world history has ever known.
The fear of death.
Ancient Egyptians believed that the only way they could fight against the changes that death represented consisted in protecting a Pharaoh’s body at all costs.
THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT
The Egyptian Civilisation had a pyramidal structure: the people, the priests, the warriors, the scribes and the Pharaoh.
A pyramid symbolised a stairway leading to the sky.
The first pyramid. Pharaoh ZOSER. The architect: IMHOTEP.
Pharaoh KHUFU, his son, KHAFRE and his grandson, MENKAURE built the 3 most famous pyramid together.
KHAFRE and the Great Sphynx.
The great pyramid. PHARAOH KHUFU. Features of its construction and of its internal structure.
RE-LOCATION OF ABU SIMBEL
Degree of precision of Egyptian architects.
The temple was saved from the waters of the Assuan Dam.
Difficulties in the temple’s re-location.
For thousands of years, exactly two days a year, the sun’s rays pierced the pyramid’s interior and illuminated the Pharaoh’s statue. Now it happens a day later than before.
THE PROFANATION OF TOMBS
Arabs penetrated the interior of the Great pyramid but found only an empty sarcophagus.
The systematic plundering of royal tombs. Priests hid the remaining the royal mummies in a secret place: The Valley of the Kings.
HOWARD CARTER: the founding of TUTANKHAMON’s tomb.
THE CONQUEST OF ETERNITY
The mummification process.
The dead Pharaoh had to overcome different ordeals: The Book of the Dead. Ramses II the biggest builder in history. |
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