The Mysteries of Egypt

Mysteries of Egypt
No land on earth possesses more wonders than Egypt. One long hidden but revealed occasionally in a glint of gold or a curious tale. Our story begins with a death, the death of an unusual boy , worshipped as the sun of Ra, the sun god, he was a pharaoh of Egypt three thousand years ago. We don't know how he died, only that his death was sudden and mysterious. His body was preserved in the manner of other pharaohs and priests anointed his coffin to prepare him for his final journey into the world of the dead. The rituals had to be finished before his father, the sun, descended into darkness. So this young pharaoh was secured in his tomb and surrounded by kingly treasures and a seal was pressed into its entrance. From that time on it was to be a place of peace, hidden and undisturbed throughout eternity. This young King's name was Tuntanchamon. For three thousand years King Tut and his tomb in the valley of the kings remained concealed beneath shifting sands. Other tombs were discovered and completely pillaged, but not his. Believing he could find it, an Englishman, named Howard Carter, mounted five arduous expeditions, but they yielded nothing. In 1922 he returned to Egypt for a sixth attempt. That year he bought a beautiful canary to brighten his spirits. The workmen called it "the golden bird" and told Carter it would bring them good luck. But as work began , success seemed a remote prospect and time was running out. Carter's benefactor, lord Caernarvon, was an English earl fascinated by Egypt , but even he was losing faith and had threatened to cut off the money. Yet Carter persisted. Knowing that if found intact, the tomb would be filled with amazing artifacts that would help us peer through the shadow of time to glimpse a world of of human splendour long lost. To glimpse our very beginnings. "That is a great story grandpa, but I want to know more. You live here and I know you can tell me the real story". "So the pharaohs, the tombs , the monuments the great civilization who built them you are not interested in. But the curse you find ....exciting! There I can see that. All right then , you shall hear all about it. But first we must make a trip . Where do we start then?" At the source of the Nile....the source of the Nile..... h

What can you find out about a. Tutanchamon and b. Howard Carter

At the source of the Nile....the source of the Nile..... It is the longest river on earth, the greatest river, crossing nearly half the continent. It is born of two rivers, the white Nile, which rises near lake Victoria and heads north through Uganda and the blue Nile, which descends from the highlands of Ethiopia. They meet in the desert of Sudan forming the main trunk of the Nile. By the time it drains into the mediterranean sea, its waters have journeyed more than 4000 miles.The source of the Nile was an enduring mystery. But to the ancient Egyptians the source was clear, the Nile flows from the realm of the gods. But what has the Nile to do with mummies and curses? Everything, there would be no mummies, no ancient Egypt, in fact no Egypt at all, without them. You see, Egypt without the Nile is a desert. With camels and scorpions, no great civilizations. It is only here , along the floodplains of the Nile that the heat is softened and the arid sand is turned into rich farmland. Nourished by the Nile, Egypt became the longest of the great early civilizations. In ancient times water raced down from the lush valleys of the Nile and overflowed its banks in seasonal floods. Rich silt was carried to the desert of Egypt and upstream where wildlife flourished. Rich land made possible a vast farming culture. And the stable civilization would turn from daily survival to works of the mind. Science, mathematics, engineering, astronomy, they studied that and the seasons, gave us the 24-hour day and the 365 day calendar. Egypt, as the old saying goes, was the gift of the Nile. But the Egyptians believed there was one thing even mightier than the Nile. The sun, the God they called Ra, the god who created everything.

What can you find on this page about a. The Nile b. The Sun c. Floods and farmland.