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 […]
Egypt
Posted inArchaeology
Tomb with a Colorful Funerary Mask, Amulets and Other Objects Found in Saqqara
The joint archaeological mission between the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt and Waseda University in Japan has successfully excavated a rock-cut tomb, various architectural elements, burials, and archaeological findings from different historical periods during the current excavation season within and above the catacombs of the Saqqara archaeological zone in Egypt. As explained by Dr. […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
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 inModern Era
The failed siege of Acre, Napoleon’s first major setback
On May 20, 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the lifting of the siege of Acre, marking the end of a campaign that resulted in his failure to conquer Syria and, along with Egypt, permanently block the British passage to India. This ill-fated adventure cost him almost half of his forces (including those left in the Middle […]
Posted inMedieval Archaeology
Pouches Full of Vandal and Ostrogothic Coins Lost by Pilgrims Discovered in the Ancient City of Marea in Egypt
Researchers from the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw have examined thousands of coins discovered in the ancient city of Marea, located 45 kilometers southwest of Alexandria. Their findings are reshaping the established understanding in literature about monetary circulation in Egypt at the end of antiquity. Marea, known as Filoksenite during the Byzantine […]
Posted inArchaeology
Inscription-filled Tomb of a 2,500-year-old Royal Scribe Discovered in Abusir
In November of last year, the Czech archaeological mission from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague made a significant discovery in the archaeological area of Abusir, south of Cairo. It is the tomb of the royal scribe “Jeghoty Em Hat” dating back to the mid-first millennium BC. This section of the Abusir […]
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 […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
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 […]
Posted inSecond World War
Jasper Maskelyne, the magician who fooled the Germans with his tricks in World War II
In 1983, the famous magician David Copperfield caused a sensation by making the New York City Statue of Liberty disappear in a live television broadcast. It is curious that almost forty years before, in the middle of World War II, another illusionist also performed a magical feat of great proportions, although in his case it […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
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 […]