Researchers have found a new natural method to clean and preserve valuable ancient Egyptian papyri threatened by the action of fungi and bacteria. It involves wasabi, a plant native to Japan known for its bactericidal and fungicidal properties. The papyri are written documents on strips of paper made from papyrus fiber, an aquatic plant that […]
Ancient Egypt
Posted inAncient Egypt
Lord Carnarvon, Howard Carter’s Patron whose Death Gave Rise to the Legend of the Curse of Tutankhamun
How many times have you heard about the curse of Tutankhamun, about the inscription that Howard Carter supposedly found on the door of his tomb, warning that Death will come on swift wings to those who disturb the pharaoh’s peace, or Death will strike with its fear anyone who disturbs the pharaoh’s rest? In reality, […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
The Northernmost Pyramid in Egypt Was also the Tallest, and Today it Lies in Ruins
About eight kilometers northwest of Giza, near the village of Abu Roash, one can see the ruins of an ancient structure. This is the Pyramid of Djedefre, sometimes called the fourth pyramid of Giza despite its distance from the famous structures of Cairo. It has the distinction of being one of the three northernmost pyramids, […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
Megiddo, the First Battle in History for which we have a Detailed Account, in the Annals of the Temple of Karnak
We all know what is said to be the oldest profession in the world, but there is probably one preceding it—the military profession, as the use of violence to resolve conflicts has existed since prehistoric times and is even observed in the animal kingdom. This leads us to wonder which battle could be considered the […]
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How Ancient Egyptians Invented Wine Labels
To many, it may seem strange that Egypt is now one of the world’s largest wine producers, with an annual quantity similar to that of Britain. However, the fact is that wine production has been linked to Egypt for many centuries. Obviously, it was not the ancient Egyptians who invented it. Archaeologists have traced its […]
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The Lepsius List, the First Inventory of Egyptian Pyramids, was Compiled by a Prussian Archaeologist in 1846
How many pyramids are there in Egypt? Most people only know the three at Giza, built by the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. Some also recall the stepped pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara and, perhaps, Sneferu’s bent pyramid in Dashur. However, there are many more, ranging from the Red Pyramid, also in Dashur, to the […]
Posted inAncient Egypt, Science
Natural Erosion May Be at the Origin of the Great Sphinx of Giza
For centuries, historians and archaeologists have explored the mysteries of the Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt. Who or what did it originally depict? What was its true name? However, less attention has been paid to a fundamental question – what was the landscape like when the ancient Egyptians first started building this instantly recognizable […]
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Belzoni, the pioneer of Egyptology who unearthed the temples of Abu Simbel and opened an entrance to the pyramid of Khafre
The beginnings of archaeology in general and Egyptology in particular, beyond the curiosity that the ruins unleashed in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, came between the late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, being vertebrated by a number of names that are almost familiar to fans. We have mentioned some of […]
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Pelusium, the battle the Persians won over the Egyptians by throwing cats at them.
Throughout History, men have not had enough of tearing each other apart in an endless number of wars, but they have incorporated all kinds of animals into the slaughters, from the most orthodox such as horses, mules, elephants and dogs to other rarer ones, such as pigeons wrapped in fire, birds in flames to burn […]
Posted inAncient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Antiquity
Where did the books from the Great Library of Alexandria come from?
The great Library of Alexandria was founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC by Ptolemy I Soter. At its peak it housed an impressive 900,000 manuscripts. It was not only a storehouse of books, but also an entire research and teaching center that brought together numerous scholars from different centers of classical culture. […]
