TAHRIR SQUARE

Finally, Cairo has an Obelisk like Rome, Paris and London

NEW TAHRIR SQUARE

Pharaoh Ramses II

Also known as Ramses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, itself the most powerful period of Ancient Egypt.

UNFINISHED OBELISK ASWAN
abandonted in granite quarry

Ramses II Obelisk Carved out of pink granite is distinguished by the beauty of its inscriptions depicting Ramses II standing before one of the deities, surrounded by inscriptions of his various titles.

The obelisk installed in “Tahrir Square” is one of many obelisk belonging to King Ramses II this one found in San el-Hagar archaeological area in Sharqiyah is nearly 17 meters (half the hight of Lateran Basilica in Rome at 32.2 m) in  high when fully assembled and weighs an impressive 90 tons.

What exactly is an Obelisk?

INSTALLING RAMSES II OBELISK
IN TAHRIR SQUARE (2020)
CAIRO - EGYPT

An obelisk is a stone rectangular pillar with a tapered top forming a pyramidion, set on a base, erected to commemorate an individual or event and honor the gods. The ancient Egyptians created the form at some point in the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-c. 2613 BCE) following their work in mud brick mastaba tombs and prior to the construction of the Step Pyramid of Djoser (c. 2670 BCE). It is thought that the earliest obelisks served as a kind of training for working in stone on monumental projects, which was a necessary step toward pyramid building.

The name "obelisk" is Greek for "spit", as in a long pointed piece of wood generally used for cooking, because the Greek historian Herodotus was the first to write about them and so named them. The Egyptians called them “tekhenu”, which means, "to pierce" as in "to pierce the sky". The earliest obelisks no longer exist and are only known through later inscriptions but appear to have been only about ten feet (3 meters) tall. In time they would reach heights of over 100 feet (30 meters). 

PLACE CONCORDE, PARIS

Although many cultures around the world from the Assyrian to the Mesoamerican employed the obelisk form, only ancient Egypt worked in monolithic stone, almost always red granite. Each ancient Egyptian obelisk was carved from a single piece of stone, which was then moved to its location and raised onto a base. While archaeologists and scholars understand how these monuments were carved and transported, no one knows how they were raised; modern day efforts to replicate the raising of an obelisk, using ancient Egyptian technology, have failed.

The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, and during the religious reformation of Akhenaten it was said to have been a petrified ray of the Aten, the sundisk.

LONDON OBELISK

Around 30 B.C., after Cleopatra "the last Pharaoh" committed suicide, Rome took control of Egypt. The Ancient Romans were awestruck by the obelisks they saw, and looted the various temple complexes; in one case they destroyed walls at the Temple of Karnak to haul them out. The majorities of obelisks were dismantled during the Roman period over 1,700 years ago and were sent to different locations. More Obelisks and the best were shipped out of Egypt by the Romans than what remain now in Egypt.

TALLSEST EGYPTIAN OBELISK
"LATERAN BASILICA" ROME

The largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square at the west side of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet (32.2 m) tall and a weight of 455 metric tons.

The well-known iconic 25 meters (82 ft), 331-metric-ton is the obelisk at Saint Peter's Square. Brought to Rome by the Emperor Caligula in AD 37,

Pope Sixtus V was determined to erect the obelisk in front of St Peter's, of which the nave was yet to be built. He had a full-sized wooden mock-up erected within months of his election. Domenico Fontana, the assistant of Giacomo Della Porta in charge of the Basilica's construction, presented the Pope with a little model crane, made of wood and a heavy little obelisk of lead, which Sixtus himself was able to raise by turning a little winch with his fingers. Fontana was given the project. Half-buried in the debris of the ages, it was first excavated as it stood; then it took from 30 April to 17 May 1586 to move it on rollers to the Piazza: it required nearly 1000 men, 140 carthorses, and 47 cranes. The re-erection, scheduled for 14 September, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, was watched by a large crowd.

CLEOPATRA NEEDLE - SAINT PETER VATICAN

Here is a list of the many Egyptian obelisks around the world, while a total of eight only are left in Egypt.

Hieroglyphs on
OBELISK

One In France

Pharaoh Ramses II, Luxor Obelisk, in Place de la Concorde, Paris

One in Israel

Caesarea obelisk

Thirteen in Italy

(Includes the one located in the Vatican City).

Eight in Rome.

One in Piazza del Duomo, Catania (Sicily)

One in Boboli (Florence)

One in Urbino

Two in museums.

REMAINING OBELISK IN KARNAK TEMPLE LUXOR EGYPT

  

One in Poland

Ramses II, Poznań Archaeological Museum, Poznań 

(on loan from Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin)

One in Turkey

Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, the Obelisk of Theodosius in the Hippodrome of Constantinople (now Sultan Ahmet Square), Istanbul

Four in United Kingdom

Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, "Cleopatra's Needle", beside the Thames Victoria Embankment, in London

Pharaoh Amenhotep II, in the Oriental Museum, University of Durham

Pharaoh Ptolemy IX, Philae obelisk, at Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne Minster, Dorset

Pharaoh Nectanebo II, British Museum, London (pair of obelisks)

OBELISK IN CENTRAL PARK NY

One in the United States

Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, "Cleopatra's Needle", in Central Park, New York

Tahrir  (Ismaileya) Square 1941

Ismaileya Square (1944) 

Contrary to the beleive that the "Mugamaa" governmental building 
was build after the 1952 revolution. 

The Mugamaa complex replaced
part of this garden and was inaugurated in 1949
by King Farouk

Tahrir square, showing a pedestal and 

the Mugamaa complex. (1967) 

Tahrir (Liberty) Square used to be called Ismailiah square (Khedive Ismail) until the 1952 Revolution. Many projects to beautify the square failed to materialize and Tahrir stayed over 60 years without purpose. In 2011 the people revolution, millions of peaceful demonstrators  came to the square to protest against the regime and eventually toppled the President Hosny Mubarak. 

Some additional notes added to the blog on Juin 3, 2020

Medicine in Ancient Egypt

The medicine of the ancient Egyptians is some of the oldest documented. From the beginnings of the civilization in the late fourth millennium BC until the Persian invasion of 525 BC, Egyptian medical practice went largely unchanged but was highly advanced for its time, including simple non-invasive surgery, setting of bones, dentistry, and an extensive set of pharmacopoeia. Egyptian medical thought influenced later traditions, including the Greeks.

EBERS PAPYRUS (about Cancer)

Pharmacology

Like many civilizations in the past, the ancient Egyptians discovered the medicinal properties of plant life around them. In the Edwin Smith Papyrus there are many recipes to help heal different ailments. In a small section of this papyrus, there are five recipes one dealing with problems women may have had, three on techniques for refining the complexion, and the fifth recipe for ailments that deal with the colon. Ancient Egyptians were known to use honey as medicine, and the juices of pomegranates served as both an astringent and a delicacy. In the "Ebers Papyrus", there are over 800 remedies; some were topical like ointments, and wrappings, others were oral medication such as pastes and mouth rinses; still others were taken through inhalation. The recipes to cure constipation consisted of berries from the castor oil tree, Male Palm, and Gengent beans, just to name a few. Many more other recipes were to help headaches called for "inner-of-onion", fruit-of-the-am-tree, natron, setseft-seeds, bone-of-the-swordfish cooked, redfish cooked, skull-of-crayfish cooked, honey, and many other ointment. 

Some of the recommended treatments have been made with cannabis and incense. Egyptian medicinal use of plants in antiquity is known to be extensive, with some 160 distinct plant products. Amidst the many plant extracts and fruits, the Egyptians also used animal feces and even some metals as treatments. These prescriptions of antiquity were measured out by volume, not weight, which makes their prescription making craft more like cooking than what Pharmacists do today. While their treatments and herbal remedies seem almost boundless, they still included incantations along with some therapeutic remedies.

Practices

Edwin Smith Papyrus documents

Ancient Egyptian medicine, 

including the diagnosis and

treatment of injuries.

Ancient Egyptian medical instruments are depicted in a Ptolemaic period inscription on the Temple of Kom Ombo.

Medical knowledge in ancient Egypt had an excellent reputation. Rulers of other empires would ask the Egyptian pharaoh to send them their best physician to treat their loved ones. Egyptians had some knowledge of human anatomy. For example, in the classic mummification process, mummifiers knew how to insert a long hooked implement through a nostril, breaking the thin bone of the skull and removing the brain. They also had a general idea about inner organs in the body cavity. They removed the organs through a small incision in the left groin. Whether this knowledge was passed down to the practitioners is unknown; yet it did not seem to have had any impact on their medical theories.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
SURGERY TOOLS

Egyptian physicians were aware of the existence of the pulse and its connection to the heart. The author of the Smith Papyrus even had a vague idea of the cardiac system. He did not know about blood circulation and did not   distinguish between blood vessels, tendons, and nerves. He developed a theory of "channels" that carried air, water, and blood to the body by analogies with the River Nile; if it became blocked, crops became unhealthy. They applied this principle to the body: If a person were unwell, they would use laxatives to unblock the channels.

The oldest written text mentioning enemas is the Ebers Papyrus and many medications were administered using enemas. One of the many types of medical specialists was an "Iri", the Shepherd of the Anus.

Many of their medical practices were effective, such as the surgical procedures given in the Edwin Smith papyrus. Mostly, the physician's advice for staying healthy was to wash and shave the body, including under the arms, to prevent infections. They also advised patients to look after their diet, and avoid foods such as raw fish or other animals considered to be unclean.

In 1963 Dr. Paul Ghalioungui M.D, Author, Egyptologist and an authority on Pharaonic medicine found that, whilst urine from non-pregnant women prevented the growth of (modern) barley and wheat, it proved impossible to detect the sex of an unborn child from the rate of growth of either grain. Nevertheless, the fact that the Egyptians recognized that urine carried the pregnancy factor was remarkable. The standardization of reliable urine tests for pregnancy did not occur until 1929. Dr. Ghalioungui also wrote that Egyptians “were the first in History to dare look at the other side of the abyss that separates magic from Medicine”

Surgery

DEPICTION OF SURGICAL
TOOLS ON TEMPLE
IN KOM-OMBO

The oldest metal (Bronze or Copper) surgical tools in the world were discovered in the tomb of Qar. Surgery was a common practice among physicians as treatment for physical injuries. The Egyptian physicians recognized three categories of injuries; treatable, contestable, and untreatable ailments. Treatable ailments the surgeons would quickly set to right. Contestable ailments were those where the victim could presumably survive without treatment, so patients assumed to be in this category were observed and if they survived then surgical attempts could be made to fix the problem with them. They used knives, hooks, drills, forceps, pincers, scales, spoons, saws and a vase with burning incense.

Circumcision of males was  normal practice, as stated by Herodotus in his Histories. Though its performance as a procedure was rarely mentioned, the uncircumcised nature of other cultures was frequently noted, the uncircumcised nature of the Liberians was frequently referenced and military campaigns brought back uncircumcised phallus as trophies, which suggests novelty. However, other records describe initiates into the religious orders as involving circumcision that would imply that the practice was special and not widespread. The only known depiction of the procedure, in The Tomb of the Physician, burial place of Ankh-Mahor at Saqqara, shows adolescents or adults, not babies.

AN ARTIFICIAL TOE

Prosthetics, such as artificial toes and eyeballs, were also used; typically, they served little more than decorative purposes or used in preparation for burial, missing body parts would be replaced; however, these do not appear as if they would have been useful, or even attachable, before death.

The extensive use of surgery, mummification practices, and autopsy as a religious exercise gave Egyptians a vast knowledge of the body's morphology, and even a considerable understanding of organ functions. The function of most major organs was correctly presumed for example, blood was correctly guessed to be a transpiration medium for vitality and waste which is not too far from its actual role in carrying oxygen and removing carbon dioxide—with the exception of the heart and brain whose functions were switched.

Dentistry

DENTISTRY

Dentistry was an important field, as an independent profession it dated from the early 3rd millennium BC, although it may never have been prominent   The Egyptian diet was high in abrasives from sand left over from grinding grain and bits of rocks in which the way bread was prepared, and so the condition of their teeth was poor. Archaeologists have noted a steady decrease in severity and incidence of worn teeth throughout 4000 BC to 1000 AD, probably due to improved grain grinding techniques. 


All Egyptian remains have sets of teeth in quite poor states   Dental disease could even be fatal, such as for Djedmaatesankh, a musician from Thebes, who died around the age of thirty five from extensive dental disease and a large infected cyst. Cavities were rare, due to the rarity of sweeteners   Dental treatment was ineffective and the best sufferers could hope for, was the quick loss of an infected tooth. The Instruction of Ankhsheshonq contains the maxim "There is no tooth that rots yet stays in place”. No  documented records talk about the hastening of this process and no tools suited for the extraction of teeth have been found, though some remains show sign of forced tooth removal. Replacement teeth have been found, although it is not clear whether they are just post-mortem cosmetics. Extreme pain might have been medicated with opium.

Doctors and other healers

The ancient Egyptian word for doctor is "swnw". This title has a long history. The earliest recorded physician in the world, Hesy-Ra, practiced in ancient Egypt. He was "Chief of Dentists and Physicians" to King Djoser, who ruled in the 27th century BC.

There were many ranks and specializations in the field of medicine. Royalty employed their own swnw, even their own specialists. There were inspectors of doctors, overseers and chief doctors. Known ancient Egyptian specialists are ophthalmologist, gastroenterologist, proctologist, dentist, "doctor who supervises butchers" and an unspecified "inspector of liquids". The ancient Egyptian term for proctologist, "neru phuyt", literally translates as "shepherd of the anus". Irynachet, already attests the latter title around 2200 BC.

Institutions, called (Per Ankh) or Houses of Life, are known to have been established in ancient Egypt since the 1st Dynasty and may have had medical functions, being at times associated in inscriptions with physicians, such as Peftauawyneit and Wedjahorresnet living in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. By the time of the 19th Dynasty their employees enjoyed such benefits as medical insurance, pensions and sick leave.

Most information gathered from the internet

SENET

Gaming Board for Amenhotep III with Separate Sliding Drawer, 
ca. 1390-1353 B.C.E.

SENET is a board game from ancient Egypt, whose original rules are the subject of conjecture. The oldest hieroglyph resembling a SENET game dates to around 3100 BC. The name of the game in Egyptian is thought to mean the "game of passing".

SENET is one of the oldest known board games. Fragmentary boards that could be SENET have been found in First Dynasty burials in Egypt, c. 3100 BC. A hieroglyph resembling a SENET board appears in the tomb of Merknera (3300–2700 BC). The first unequivocal painting of this ancient game is from the Third Dynasty tomb of Hesy (c. 2686–2613 BC). People are depicted playing SENET in a painting in the tomb of Rashepes, as well as from other tombs of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties (c. 2500 BC). The oldest intact SENET boards date to the Middle Kingdom, but graffiti on Fifth and Sixth Dynasty monuments could date as early as the Old Kingdom.

SENET GAME

At least by the time of the New Kingdom in Egypt (1550–1077 BC), SENET was conceived as a representation of the journey of the "ka" (the vital spark) to the afterlife. 

This connection is made in the Great Game Text, which appears in a number of papyri, as well as the appearance of markings of religious significance on SENET boards themselves. The game is also referred to in chapter XVII of the ancient Book of the Dead.

People in neighbouring cultures also played SENET, and it probably came to those places through trade relationships between Egyptians and local peoples. It has been found in the Levant at sites such as Byblos, as well as in Cyprus. Because of the local practice of making games out of stone, there are more SENET games that have been found in Cyprus than have been found in Egypt.

        Senet pawns

The SENET game board is a grid of 30 squares, arranged in three rows of ten. A SENET board has two sets of pawns (at least five of each). Although details of the original game rules are a subject of debate, SENET historians Timothy Kendall and R. C. Bell have made their own reconstructions of the game. These rules are based on snippets of texts that span over a thousand years, over which time gameplay is likely to have changed. Therefore, it is unlikely these rules reflect the actual course of ancient Egyptian gameplay. Their rules have been adopted by sellers of modern SENET sets.

Watercolour copy of an ancient painting depicting Queen Nefertari playing SENET. Original in Egypt, Thebes, Valley of the Queens, Tomb of Nefertari; reign of Ramesses II (ca. 1279–1213 B.C.). Watercolour copy painted in 1921–22 by Nina de Garis Davies (1881–1965), a member of the Egyptian Expedition of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tempera on paper, 17 x 18 1/8 in. (43 x 46 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Seems SENET was a very popular board game in ancient Egypt. Queens like Nefertari may have played it using a game box, while ancient Egyptians who were less wealthy may have played on a grid scratched into the floor. 

SENET game board pawns pieces

The original tiles and fragments were found in an ancient Egyptian tomb along with game pieces shaped like cones and spools. They are made of "faience", a ceramic material that was often produced in a blue or blue-green colour that symbolized life, most "scarabs" found in ancient Egypt have this distinguish colour. Conservators have filled in missing tiles and parts of tiles with modern material. You can see the difference, because the colour of the original faience appears darker while the modern ceramic material is a lighter blue. The conservators also used modern wood to reconstruct the box that held the tiles.

Playing SENET

Bird's eye view of the SENET game board

Two players determined their moves by throwing casting sticks or bones. A game piece started at square 1 on the upper left and zig-zagged across each row and down to the next, until it crossed square 30 on the bottom right. Each player could make moves to advance a piece and pass other pieces on the board. Each player could also block other pieces from moving forward or force their opponent backwards.

The last five squares (squares 26–30) are usually decorated. On the board to the right, two marked squares are preserved and a third one is fragmentary. Square 26 is usually marked with the sign for "good" (nefer). Landing in this special square gave the player a free turn. It seems that the players had to reach this sign before they could move on to win the game. Square 27 on this SENET board depicts a water hazard. If a game piece landed on this special square, it was removed from the grid before it could cross the final square on the bottom right. Players competed to cross the final square with all of their pieces.

Game boxes and depictions of SENET are found in a number of tombs. King Tutankhamun was buried with no fewer than five game boxes. The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife, which means an existence after death. To reach the afterlife, a person who died had to perform certain rituals and pass many obstacles. In the New Kingdom, the game SENET, became associated with the journey to the afterlife. Some of the squares of the game corresponded to the hazards a person might meet on their journey to the afterlife, while other squares helped the players. Because of this connection, SENET was not just a game; it was also a symbol for the struggle to obtain immortality, or endless life.

SENET Board on a Clay Tablet

Instruction for playing SENET
_________________________

Information gathered from internet articles and different sources.

CUMIN

* (cuminum cyminum) seeds are native to the Mediterranean region and eastward into India. Cumin is a member of the parsley family. The ancient Egyptians who called it “tpnn” used cumin a lot. Ancient Egyptian king Rameses III offered gifts of cumin to the god Ra at Heliopolis. 

Several grains of ancient cumin are available for inspection at the Agricultural Museum in Dokki, Cairo and in the museum of Florence, Italy.

Cumin Seeds

The ancient Egyptians used cumin to treat gastro-intestinal disease, to expel intestinal parasites, and cumin was included in different medicinal recipes for mouth rinses, suppositories, and ear instillations. Cumin seed is listed in Biblical texts in both the Old and New Testaments. It was said in ancient Greece that if one planted coriander, during the sowing process it must be cursed – if the crop was to be abundant. Medieval healers recommended cumin seeds mixed with barley then boiled in wine as a general cure-all.

According to Keimer, Egyptian cumin (Cuminum cyminum) is different from the European cumin, Carum carvi, From the fact that the Egyptian name “tpjin”, preserved in Coptic “tapen”, is different from the Semitic names of the plant, one could conclude that the Arabs introduced the Semitic appellation kammoun when they invaded Egypt.

Cumin Plantation

The Roman epicurean Apicius reported that the Egyptians of his time used cumin when they cooked marrows and grilled fish. The Roman writer Pliny highly recommended cumin and wrote: Yet of all the seasonings that gratify a fastidious taste, cumin is the most agreeable. Pliny also mentioned that cumin mixed with water commonly was used to treat stomachache. In modern Egypt crushed cumin added to water and medicinal teas is used to treat colic and indigestion, and may be offered to pregnant and recently delivered women.

The Cumin Plant

Ancient Indian Ayurvedic medical texts report that cumin seeds are crushed and prepared as decoctions, sometimes fermented, and may be prepared as pills and mixed with ghee (clarified butter). Such preparations are used to enhance appetite, digestion, lactation, and taste perception. The medicinal use of these cumin-based pills is extended to treat conditions such as appetite loss, diarrhea, and fever. Several recent Indian medical journal reports claim that cumin contains anti-diabetic properties and that consumption improves secretion of saliva.

The Gerarde herbal reports says: cumin seeds scattereth and breaketh all the windiness of the stomachs, belly, guts, and matrix [uterus]; prepared as a broth cumin seeds are good for the chest and cold lungs; when mixed with vinegar and smelled, will stop nosebleeds.

Cumin Flowers

In the Mediterranean and Near Eastern countries, sweetening agents, jams, sweet jellies, or fruits, are not generally eaten with meats or cooked dishes, as they are in northern Europe or America. But spices are used more freely. Speaking in a rather schematic way, mint, oregano, thyme and laurel prevail in Greece; fennel, laurel, tarragon in Southern France; coriander, cumin and black pepper in Egypt; hot peppers in the Sudan and Congo; cardamom and saffron in the Arabian Peninsula; while pine seeds, raisins, pistachio nuts and almonds are often added to rice or to stuffing in Syria and the Lebanon.

A mixture of spices coriander and cumin, along with toasted nuts, salt and garlic was used to sweeten the coarse bread of daily life in ancient Egypt. That tradition lives on today in the Dukkah, a popular spice blend that modern Egyptians enjoy just as their ancestors did thousands of years ago.

The Plant & Seeds

Follow the recipe for Dukkah below to bring a taste of ancient Egypt into your own kitchen. It can be used as a condiment for roasted meat, as a topping for hummus or as a dip with crusty bread.

Ingredients

1-cup whole shelled hazelnuts

1-cup whole shelled almonds

1-tablespoon whole coriander seeds

1-tablespoon whole cumin seeds

1/4-cup whole sesame seeds

1/4-teaspoon salt

Preparation

1.   Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2.   On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spread the sesame seeds out in a single layer.

3.   Roast in the oven for about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

4.   Place the hazelnuts and almonds on the same baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 5 minutes.

5.   Remove and combine with the toasted sesame seeds.

6.   Combine the sesame seeds, hazelnuts, almonds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and salt, in a food processor and grind for 2 to 4 minutes.

7.   Store in an airtight container.

Dokka on Crust