Free Republic

"To the King of Egypt, my brother. Thus says the King of Alashiya, your brother: ... Send your messenger along with my messenger quickly and all the copper that you desire I will send you." ...these words are from the collection of tablets known as the Amarna Correspondence, a cache of diplomatic exchanges discovered in the late 19th century. Historians identify the king of Egypt as Akhenaten, but who was writing to him? And where was Alashiya? Many historians feel that the most likely candidate for copper-rich Alashiya is in Cyprus. But the story of identifying the lost city near...

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said an archeological mission discovered the remnants of an ancient military town in the governorate of Ismailiya. The discovered military town dates back to the 26th Dynasty (664-625 BC). It was found in Tel Defna between Al-Manzala Lake and the Suez Canal. The area had been chosen by king Rameses II to avoid attacks from the eastern borders. In addition, the area was used as crossing point by trade convoys coming from east. The discovered military city belongs to king Ibsemalik I.

A team of archaeologists digging at Tel-Habuwa, near the town of Qantara East and three kilometres east of the Suez Canal... chanced upon a cachet of limestone reliefs bearing names of two royal personalities and two seated statues of differing sizes. The larger statue is made of limestone and belongs to a yet unidentified personage, but from its size and features archaeologists believe that it could be a statue of Horus, the god of the city. In 2001 archaeologists unearthed remains of a mud-brick temple dedicated to this deity. The second is a headless limestone statue inscribed on the back...

  21 - 27 November 2002 Issue No. 613Heritage Current issuePrevious issueSite map Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 Send a letter to the Editor Recommend this page Print-friendly Fruitful seasons Excavations at Karnak Temple complex have been focusing on areas hitherto little explored, with rewarding results. Nevine El-Aref takes a look Priests of the first millennium BC resided in the area beyond the fourth pylon of the Pharaoh Tuthmosis III. It is here and at the temenos (outer temple) wall built by the same Pharaoh, the Osirian zone, and the courtyard between the eighth and ninth...

Part of one of the inscriptions found at Kom Ombo, a temple in southern Egypt. The image at the top of the inscription appears to show the king Seti I with the gods Horus and Sobek.A giant stone engraving that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, found in a temple in southern Egypt, may reveal new information about a pharaoh named Seti I, who launched a series of military campaigns in North Africa and the Middle East after he became pharaoh in about 1289 or 1288 B.C., several Egyptologists told Live Science. The engraving has both drawings and hieroglyphs...

Egyptian archaeologists digging near the Suez Canal have discovered the remains of what is believed to be the largest fortress in the eastern Delta, Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced. Located at the site of Tell Dafna, between El-Manzala Lake and the Suez Canal, the remains reveal the foundation of a military town about 9 miles (15 kilometers) northeast of the city of western Qantara. "The fortress covers an area of about 380 by 625 meters (1,247 by 2,051 feet), while the enclosure wall is about 13 meters (43 feet) in width," Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, head of the Central...

Archaeologists exploring an old military road in the Sinai have unearthed four new temples amidst the 3,000-year-old remains of an ancient fortified city that could have been used as a stronghold during the Egyptian occupation of Mesopotamia and Canaan, and to impress foreign delegations visiting Egypt, antiquities authorities announced Tuesday. Archaeological findings have determined that a series of fortresses were built in the area and were used as weapons storehouses for soldiers traveling northwards. One source, a wall painting found in the Karnak temple in Luxor, depicts 11 strongholds built in northern Sinai Among the discoveries was the largest mud...

CAIRO: Egyptian archaeologists have discovered what they say was the ancient headquarters of the pharaonic army guarding the northeastern borders of Egypt for more than 1,500 years, the government said on Wednesday. The fortress and adjoining town, which they identify with the ancient place name Tharu, lies in the Sinai peninsula about 3km northeast of the modern town of Qantara, Egyptian archaeologist Mohamed Abdel Maksoud said. The town sat at the start of a military road joining the Nile Valley to the Levant, parts of which were under Egyptian control for much of the period, the government's Supreme Council for...

The tomb is hugely significant, being, well huge. At this point, it is the largest tomb in Egypt and yet we really do not know why the owner of it was so blessed, but perhaps future work may reveal this secret. Indeed, he was a high official, describing himself as "Sealbearer and Sole Beloved Friend, Lector and Scribe of the Records in the Sight of the King". In this inscription the king is not named, but there is an inscription in the northern part of the great outer courtyard, discovered by Lepsius, with a cartouche containing the name of a...

...As for the name rings on the slab no. 21687, three names can be discerned. The first on the left reads... "Ashkelon." A similar writing (but with a vowel marker) is attested on Merenptah's Israel Stele... The name in the central ring reads... "Canaan." This form of the name is well attested during the Eighteenth Dynasty, and finds close parallels under Amenhotep II... Görg derives the name "Canaan"... translating it as "low land"... and suggests that the... ending reflects an Amorite name pattern. This too would underscore the antiquity of the name... As discussed above, evidence of early orthography is...

An Egyptian team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has unearthed the largest tomb yet discovered in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, also known as the "City of the Dead." Filled with skeletons, coffins and eagle mummies, the tomb was found just near the entrance point of the archaeological site. Simply cut into limestone, the burial, which dates to the 26th Dynasty (664 -525 B.C.), extends from a large rock-hewn hall into a number of corridors and small rooms. Inside, the archaeologists found several coffins, skeletons and pots. At the tomb's northern end, the...

Dr. David Neiman explores the historicity of the Biblical accounts of Joseph and the Exodus from Egypt. Joseph rises to the position of "Tzafnat Pa'aneakh" after successfully helping the Pharaoh of Egypt with his economic plans. Under Joseph's guidance all land became the property of Pharaoh. A new Pharaoh comes to power who does not favor the Israelites. They are enslaved and forced to build the storage cities of Pithom and Ramses. These cities were arsenals for the armies of Egypt. Under Seti I and Ramses the II, Egypt was on the warpath. Ramses II was defeated at the battle...

An archaeological mission from Egypt's Ain Shams University has completed the excavation of a shrine to King Ramses II discovered last year in Cairo's Matariya district. The head of the mission Mamdouh El-Damaty explains that the shrine was once used during festivals. The mission has also unearthed a collection of lintels, scarabs, amulets, clay pots and blocks engraved with hieroglyphic text. El-Damaty says the discovery is important because it is a unique shrine from the New Kingdom that was used for the Heb Sed festival, not only during the reign of King Ramses II but throughout the Ramesside period.

Archaeologists in Egypt made a surprising discovery dating back more 2,500 years near the country's famed pyramids south of Cairo. Their findings, which include a mummification workshop and a shaft, used as a communal burial place, are located at the vast Saqqara necropolis part of the Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Memphis was the first capital of ancient Egypt and its large necropolis houses a wide range of temples and tombs as well as the three pyramids of Giza. The latest find, announced at a press conference Saturday, belongs to the Saite-Persian Period, from 664-404 B.C. The site, which...

The faces of disaster through the ages are legion, and the dusty places of archaeological digs in Israel have been no exception, as archaeologists at the Tel Gezer excavation site in central Israel will tell you after they encountered 3,200-year-old skeletal remains of three individuals. As they were conducting excavations during the summer of 2017, traces of human bones emerged as they dug within a stratum that evidenced a fiery destruction. They were articulated skeletons. The archaeologists could see that one of them, an adult, whose remains were badly decomposed and burned, was lying with hands over the head. The...

Foto: (1) The central palace complex from a 3,200-year-old settlement on the island of Salamis, near Athens, Greece, is shown in an undated handout picture provided by excavator Yiannis Lolos. Lolos said on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 that he believes he has found the seat of the mythical King Ajax of Salamis, one of the heroes of the Trojan War. The hilltop site overlooks a small natural harbor. (AP Photo) (2) Hieroglyphs spelling the name of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II appear at the bottom of a bronze piece from an ancient mail shirt, in this undated handout picture provided by...

ATHENS, Greece - Among the ruins of a 3,200-year-old palace near Athens, researchers are piecing together the story of legendary Greek warrior-king Ajax, hero of the Trojan War. Archaeologist Yiannis Lolos found remains of the palace while hiking on the island of Salamis in 1999, and has led excavations there for the past six years. Now, he's confident he's found the site where Ajax ruled, which has also provided evidence to support a theory that residents of the Mycenean island kingdom fled to Cyprus after the king's death. "This was Ajax' capital," excavation leader Lolos, professor of archaeology at Ioannina...

Palace of Homer's hero rises out of the myths From John Carr in Athens ARCHAEOLOGISTS claim to have unearthed the remains of the 3,500-year-old palace of Ajax, the warrior-king who according to Homer’s Iliad was one of the most revered fighters in the Trojan War. Classicists hailed the discovery, made on a small Greek island, as evidence that the myths recounted by Homer in his epic poem were based on historical fact. The ruins include a large palace, measuring about 750sq m (8,000sq ft), and believed to have been at least four storeys high with more than thirty rooms. Yannos...

Dig unearths Mycenaean 'Homeric capital' April 16 2002 at 06:35PM Athens, Greece - An archaeologist thinks he may have found the ancient Mycenaean capital of Salamis, the island where one of the greatest recorded battles of antiquity took place. Archaeologist Yannos Lolos said on Tuesday that he found two buildings and uncovered several small hamlets scattered around the ancient acropolis of old Salamis, now known as Kanakia. The ancient town is on the south-western part of the island, located in the Saronic Gulf. Lolos, assistant professor of archaeology at the University of Ioannina in northern Greece, has been digging at...

Unearthed: the humble origins of world diplomacy By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent 19 January 2003 Archaeologists have discovered evidence of an invasion of the Middle East by one of the world's first superpowers, which destroyed much of the region 33 centuries ago. Under the ruins of a 3,800-year-old royal palace in western Syria they have found part of an ancient diplomatic and administrative library, the most important archaeological discovery of its kind for more than 20 years. Accounts on clay tablets describe the region's conquest by one of the Bronze Age's superpowers, the Hittite Empire, in 1340BC. This helped to...