Talking Pyramids

Last week we looked at Khufu’s Horus name, Medjedu. This week we have a gold signet ring bearing the name of Khufu’s birth name. What is interesting about this ring is that it does not date to the 4th Dynasty, the reign of Khufu as was previously thought. Instead, the inscription tells us that it [...]

The names of ancient Egyptian places, gods and kings are often obscured by the fact that they’ve come down to us via the Greeks, who had a habbit of making up their own versions of the words. And so Iunu became ‘Heliopolis’, Heru became ‘Horus’, … and Khufu, became ‘Cheops’. Khufu’s full birth name, however, [...]

The black basalt pavement on the east side of the Great Pyramid In it’s original form a pyramid traditionally had a mortuary temple on it’s east side, which was connected via a long causeway to it’s valley temple. Today’s photo, taken from the top of satellite pyramid G I-a, shows the black basalt that can [...]

Beside the pyramid of Khufu there are five boat pits. Actually seven pits have been found but two of these belong to the queens’ pyramids being located between satellite pyramids GI-b & GI-c. The two most well known boat pits are on the south side of the pyramid while two more are located in a [...]

First Steps into Khufu’s Pyramid, by Sean Ellis Access to the interior of the Great Pyramid is not through the original entrance as many would think. That entrance is now sealed with a locked gate and instead, tourists enter through the crude tunnel dug by Calif Mamun and his men when they broke into the [...]

Before the invention of fancy 3D animated movies like Avatar there was stereo photography which also required a pair of special glasses to experience the 3D effect. Here, the two parts of the stereoscopic image are combined to form a ‘wiggle view’ by switching back and forth between the left and right eye’s view of [...]

Egyptologist Bob Brier is to teach a course entitled “Ancient Egyptian Architecture” at the University of Louisville. The course will cover architectural aspects of the construction of the ancient Egyptian pyramids. Apparently enrollment for the course has already exceeded the maximum number of students that was scheduled for the course. I wonder if he’ll be [...]