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Egypt Holiday 2014: Hawara

Hawara Pyramid, Looking Across the Labyrinth Site The last of the pyramids that we visited on our holiday was the one at Hawara. It’s not that far from Lahun, and was the last stop on that particular day – afterwards we just had lunch and then drove on to the hotel on the lake shore where we were staying at that night. My photos from the site are up on flickr, click here for the full set, or click on any photo to go to the photo page on flickr. Location of Hawara Pyramid This was the most recent of the pyramids we saw – built by the Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Amenemhat III. He was the grandson of Senwosret II who built the Lahun pyramid (post) and ruled for 46 years around 1850BC. This pyramid was his second pyramid, the first one we’d seen from a distance earlier in the… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Hawara

Egypt Holiday 2014: Lahun

Lahun Pyramid The Lahun pyramid, near the modern village of Illahun near Faiyum, was built for Senwosret II. He was a Middle Kingdom Pharaoh who reigned around 1880BC. He was the fourth Pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty coming between Amenemhat II and Senwosret III. The pyramid is clearly visible on the imagery on Google Maps as you can see in the screenshots below. My overall impression of the site from visiting is actually mostly about the colours – the cream of the desert and the limestone, the dark mudbrick pyramid, the red sandstone fragments and the green fertile land on the horizon beneath a blue sky with white clouds. Photos are on flickr, as always, click here for the album which has some more photos than just those in this post. Screenshots from Google Maps showing Lahun Pyramid Like other Middle Kingdom pyramids it is constructed from a mudbrick core… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Lahun

“Ten Years in the Harem: Excavating the Gurob Harem Palace 2005-2015” Hannah Pethen (EEG Meeting Talk)

On Sunday Hannah Pethen came to talk to us at the Essex Egyptology Group about the Harem Palace at Gurob. The first half of her talk gave us context for the site – where it is, what it is and who has excavated there before. And the second half moved on to the work that’s been done there in the last decade. Google Screenshots showing location of Gurob (red dot) Gurob is in the Faiyum near the pyramids at Lahun and Hawara, in fact Lahun pyramid can be seen from the site across the river valley. On the screenshots above the position of Gurob is indicated by the red dot, and the blue dots show Lahun (to the north & east of Gurob) and Hawara (to the north-west). The three sites are on either side of a spur of river that diverges from the main Nile further to the south… Read More »“Ten Years in the Harem: Excavating the Gurob Harem Palace 2005-2015” Hannah Pethen (EEG Meeting Talk)

Egypt Holiday 2014: Dashur

The Bent Pyramid Dashur is a little way south of Cairo, and just south of Saqqara. It’s a site with a few pyramids and other burials, and is notable for having two of the earliest true pyramids – both of which we got to see. There are also other later pyramids in the area, but we didn’t get to go close to them. My photos from this site are now up on flickr, click here for the whole album. Where the pyramids are at Dashur On the screenshots above from Google maps I’ve marked where Dashur is and the names of the three pyramids I have photos of. The plan below I got from wikipedia (drawn by user Janmad) and I’ve labelled the same three pyramids here. Plan of Dashur drawn by Janmad The Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid were both built for the same Pharaoh – Sneferu. He… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Dashur

Egypt Holiday 2014: Giza Plateau

Giza Pyramids The second site of the holiday was the pyramids at Giza, where we not only saw the pyramids from the outside but also got to go into the Great Pyramid, plus an Old Kingdom royal lady’s tomb nearby. The photos in this post are a selection from the whole set which is up on flickr click here to get to it or on any photo. You aren’t allowed to take photos inside the pyramids or other tombs, so these are all of the outsides and the surrounding views. (The plan of the plateau is one I found on Wikipedia with a licence that meant I could use it, if you click on it you go to it’s own page.) Great Pyramid As you can see on the plan below the ticket office is placed so that you walk from there towards the Great Pyramid to get the full… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Giza Plateau

Egypt Holiday 2014: Cairo Museum

Our very first trip of the holiday was to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo. There’s no photography allowed inside the museum, so I didn’t even take my big camera off the coach, but I did take a few photos outside the museum with my phone (up on flickr here). Cairo Museum Once inside the museum the group split into those who wanted to have a tour from our guide, Medhat Saad, or those who wanted to just explore themselves. We opted for the tour to make sure we saw a decent overview of the interesting pieces, rather than just seeing things we already knew were there or wandering round randomly. Medhat spent about two hours taking us around the ground floor in roughly chronological order. We started with the Narmer Palette, which seems appropriate as that’s from the start of Egypt as a unified country. Near the case… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Cairo Museum

Egypt Holiday 2014: Temples and Tombs (Overview: 21st-24th November)

Medinet Habu The last three days of the trip include two of the advertised highlights of the tour – the tomb of Seti I and the tomb of Nefertari. The photos for this overview series are up on flickr, in a set here, they are about half taken by me and half taken by J. Not all of the photos in the set are in these posts, so do go look at the rest 🙂 If you click on any photo it’ll go to its flickr page. Maps are linked to a custom Google map with all the places on, click on any map to go to it. Once there you can click on the place names in the key to the left to zoom to them or turn on & off the visibility of the layers to see particular days on their own. Hotels are green marks, sites are… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Temples and Tombs (Overview: 21st-24th November)

“Uncovering the Quarry Workers at Gebel Silsila” Sarah K Doherty (EEG Meeting Talk)

On Sunday Sarah Doherty came to talk to the Essex Egyptology Group about the ongoing excavations at Gebel Silsila (or Gebel el Silsila, her slides used the two name interchangeably). She split her talk into two halves (so we could have tea and cake in the middle) – the first half was about the work done at the site in 2012 and 2013, the second half covered 2014 and the plans for the future. The first half was also something of an overview of why the site is interesting, and the second half included more details on the day to day life of the archaeologists working there. Gebel Silsila is a large site in Upper Egypt where sandstone has been quarried throughout the majority of Egypt’s history. It’s situated about 40 miles north of Aswan and 500 miles south of Cairo, near Kom Ombo. The site itself is enormous –… Read More »“Uncovering the Quarry Workers at Gebel Silsila” Sarah K Doherty (EEG Meeting Talk)

Egypt Holiday 2014: Temples and Tombs (Overview: 18th-20th November)

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Sunrise in the Hotel Gardens The next three days on our Egypt holiday were the start of the Luxor-based portion of the trip. The photos for this overview series are up on flickr, in a set here, they are about half taken by me and half taken by J. Not all of the photos in the set are in these posts, so do go look at the rest 🙂 If you click on any photo it’ll go to its flickr page. Maps are linked to a custom Google map with all the places on, click on any map to go to it. Once there you can click on the place names in the key to the left to zoom to them or turn on & off the visibility of the layers to see particular days on their own. Hotels are green marks, sites are red. 18th November This was the… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Temples and Tombs (Overview: 18th-20th November)

Egypt Holiday 2014: Temples and Tombs (Overview: 14th-17th November)

Panorama of the Red Pyramid Back in November 2014 John and I went on our second ever holiday to Egypt – the previous one had been five years earlier. It had been a bit of a saga getting to go because we’d booked on two different trips (which were cancelled because of restrictions on travel) before we finally got to go. The official name of the trip we went on was “Daughters of Isis” but I thought “Temples and Tombs” summed it up a bit better (if rather less snappily) particularly as the itinerary had to change from the original one (again because of restrictions) so it was a bit less focussed on Isis or women in Egypt. It was run by Ancient World Tours who I would thoroughly recommend. They’re rather pricey but you get very very well looked after during the trip. Our Egyptian guide was Medhat Saad… Read More »Egypt Holiday 2014: Temples and Tombs (Overview: 14th-17th November)