egypt

List of cities in Egypt

2008-09-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

Akhmim
Al `Alamayn (El Alamein)
Alexandria
Arish
Aswan
Asyut
Banha
Cairo
Ad Dakhilah
Damietta
Dendera
Al Ghardaqah (Hurghada)
Al Jizah (Giza)
Kawm Umbu
Al Kharijah
Luxor
El Mansoura
Siwa Oasis
Sharm el-Sheikh
Shibin El Kom
Suez
Taba
Zagazig

Akhmim

2008-09-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

Akhmim (Arabic اخميم, from Egyptian Khent-min, through Coptic Khmin) is a city in the Upper Egyptian Sohag Governorate. The Greek names of the city were Khemmis, Chemmis and Panopolis. It is located the east bank of the Nile, 4 miles to the northeast of Sohag.

1- History

Akhmim was known in Ancient Egypt as Ipu, Apu or Khent-min. It was the capital of the ninth (Chemmite) nome of Upper Egypt. The city is a suggested hometown for Yuya, the official of Tuthmosis IV and Amenhotep III. The ithyphallic Min (whom the Greeks identified with Pan) was worshipped here as "the strong Horus." Herodotus mentions the temple dedicated to Perseus and asserts that Chemmis was remarkable for the celebration of games in honor of that hero, after the manner of the Greeks, at which prizes were given; as a matter of fact some representations are known of Nubians and people of Punt (southern coastal Sudan and the Eritrean coast) clambering up poles before the god Min. Min was especially a god of the desert routes on the east of Egypt, and the trading tribes are likely to have gathered to his festivals for business and pleasure at Coptos (which was really near Neapolis, Qina) even more than at Akhmim. Herodotus perhaps confused Coptos with Chemmis. Strabo mentions linen-weaving and stone-cutting as ancient industries of Panopolis, and it is not altogether a coincidence that the cemetery of Akhmim is one of the chief sources of the beautiful textiles of Roman and Christian age, that are brought from Egypt.

In the Christian Coptic era, Akhmim was known as Khmin or Shmin. Monasteries abounded in this region from a very early date. Shenouda the Archimandrite (348 - 466) was a monk at Athribis near Akhmim. Some years earlier Nestorius, the exiled ex-patriarch of Constantinople, had died at an old age in the neighborhood of Akhmim. Nonnus, the Greek poet, was born at Panopolis at the end of the 4th century. Panopolis is a Catholic titular see, suffragan of Antinoe in Thebais Prima. Among the bishops of Panopolis, Le Quien mentions [1] Arius, friend of Saint Pachomius who had built three convents in the city, Sabinus, and Menas. Excavations at Akhmim have disclosed numerous Christian manuscripts, among them fragments of the Book of Henoch, of the Gospel, and of the Apocalypse according to Peter, the Acts of the Council of Ephesus, as well as numerous other Christian inscriptions.

Akhmim once had a reputation as being home of the greatest magicians in Egypt. A supernatural being that was said to dwell there, the Serpent of Akhmim, was supposedly regarded as an angel by Muslims and as an incarnation of the demon Asmodeus by Christians.

In the 13th century AD, a very imposing temple still stood in Akhmim. Today, little of its past glory remains. Nothing is left of the town, the temples were almost completely dismantled, and their material reused in the later Middle Ages. The extensive cemetries of ancient Akhmim are yet to be fully explored. The destroyed corner of a Greco-Roman period temple with colossal statues of Ramesses II and Meritamen were discovered in 1981.

2- Modern city

Akhmim is the largest town on the east side of the Nile in Upper Egypt, having a population in 1907 of 23,795, of whom about a third were Copts. Akhmim has several mosques and two Coptic churches, maintains a weekly market, and manufactures cotton goods, notably the blue shirts and check shawls with silk fringes worn by the poorer classes of Egypt. Outside the walls are the scanty ruins of two ancient temples. On the west bank of the Nile opposite of Akhmim, there is railway communication with Cairo and Aswan.

3- Gallery

Al `Alamayn (El Alamein)

2008-09-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

El Alamein (or Al Alamayn) (Arabic: العلمين‎) is a town in northern Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea coast in Matruh Governorate. It is located 106 kilometres (66 mi) west of Alexandria and 240 kilometres (149 mi) northwest of Cairo. The population was approximately 7,397 people, as of 2007.

Until recently it has mainly been a port facility for shipping oil, but like the whole north coast of Egypt is now developing as a luxury resort for elite tourism.

El Alamein played a major role in the outcome of World War II. Two extended battles were fought in that area:

At the First Battle of El Alamein (July 1 – July 27, 1942) the advance of Axis troops on Alexandria was blunted by the Allies, when the German Panzers tried to outflank the allied position.
At the Second Battle of El Alamein (October 23 – November 4, 1942) Allied forces broke the Axis line and forced them in a retreat that pushed them all the way back to Tunisia. Winston Churchill said of this victory: "This is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." He also wrote "Before Alamin we had no victory and after it we had no defeats".

1- Tourism

There is a local war museum with collectibles from "the civil war" and other North African battles. Visitors can also go to the Italian and German Military Cemetery on Tel el-Eisa Hill just outside the town. The German cemetery is actually an ossuary containing the remains of 4200 German soldiers, built in the style of a medieval fortress. The Italian cemetery is a mausoleum containing many galleries of tombs. Wherever possible, each tomb bears the soldier's name, but many are simply marked "IGNOTO" – which means "Unknown".

There is also a Commonwealth war cemetery with graves of soldiers from various countries who fought on the British side. This has monuments commemorating Greek, New Zealand, Australian and South African forces. The Commonwealth cemetery, as is common at many such cemeteries in the world, consists of parallel rows of gravestones, each one bearing an engraving of the deceased soldier's unit emblem, his name and an epitaph from his family. Rows upon rows of gravestones stand witness to the battles' human cost.

2- Gallery

Alexandria

2008-09-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Alexandria (Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya; Standard Arabic: الإسكندرية Al-Iskandariyya; Greek: λεξάνδρεια), with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort.

Alexandria extends about 32 km (20 miles) along the coast of the Mediterranean sea in north-central Egypt. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria), and is an important industrial center because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria was also an important trading post between Europe and Asia, because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

In ancient times, Alexandria was one of the most famous cities in the world. It was founded around a small pharaonic town c. 331 BC by Greek Macedonian king Alexander the Great. It remained Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 641 AD when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat was later absorbed into Cairo).

Alexandria was known for the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), the Library of Alexandria (the largest library in the ancient world) and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa (one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages). Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhakotis existed there, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty.

1- History

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 332 BC as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Alexándreia). Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Hellenistic center in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley. An Egyptian townlet, Rhakotis, already existed on the shore and was a resort filled with fishermen and pirates. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt for the East and never returned to his city. After Alexander departed, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the expansion. Following a struggle with the other successors of Alexander, his general Ptolemy succeeded in bringing Alexander's body to Alexandria.

Though Cleomenes was mainly in charge of seeing to Alexandria's continuous development, the Heptastadion and the mainland quarters seem to have been primarily Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the center of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage. In a century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and for some centuries more, was second only to Rome. It became the main Greek city of Egypt, with an extraordinary mix of Greeks from many cities and backgrounds.

Alexandria was not only a center of Hellenism but was also home to the largest Jewish community in the world. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, was produced there. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic center of learning (Library of Alexandria) but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian.[2] From this division arose much of the later turbulence, which began to manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater who reigned from 221–204 BC. The reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon from 144–116 BC was marked by purges and civil warfare.

The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction in 80 BC, according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander but only after it had been under Roman influence for more than a hundred years. In 115 AD Alexandria was destroyed during the Jewish-Greek civil wars which gave Hadrian and his architect, Decriannus, an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215 AD the emperor Caracalla visited the city and, because of some insulting satires that the inhabitants had directed at him, abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. On 21 July 365, Alexandria was devastated by a tsunami (365 Crete earthquake),[3] an event two hundred years later still annually commemorated as "day of horror".[4] In the late 4th century, persecution of pagans by newly Christian Romans had reached new levels of intensity. In 391, the Patriarch Theophilus destroyed all pagan temples in Alexandria under orders from Emperor Theodosius I. The Brucheum and Jewish quarters were desolate in the 5th century. On the mainland, life seemed to have centered in the vicinity of the Serapeum and Caesareum, both which became Christian churches. The Pharos and Heptastadium quarters, however, remained populous and were left intact.

In 616, Alexandria was taken by Khosrau II, King of Persia. Although the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs, under the general Amr ibn al-As during the Muslim conquest of Egypt, captured it decisively after a siege that lasted fourteen months. Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798. French troops stormed the city on July 2, 1798 and it remained in their hands until the arrival of the British expedition in 1801. The British won a considerable victory over the French at the Battle of Alexandria on March 21, 1801, following which they besieged the city which fell to them on 2 September 1801. Mohammed Ali, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, began rebuilding the city around 1810, and by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory. In July 1882 the city came under bombardment from British naval forces and was occupied. In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the Lavon Affair. Only a few months later, Alexandria's Mansheyya Square was the site of a failed assassination attempt on Gamal Abdel Nasser.

2- Ancient remains

Very little of the ancient city has survived into the present day. Much of the royal and civic quarters sank beneath the harbor due to earthquake subsidence, and the rest has been built over in modern times.

"Pompey's Pillar" is the best-known ancient monument still standing today. It is located on Alexandria's ancient acropolis — a modest hill located adjacent to the city's Arab cemetery — and was originally part of a temple colonnade. Including its pedestal, it is 30 m (99 ft) high; the shaft is of polished red granite, roughly three meters in diameter at the base, tapering to two and a half meters at the top. The structure was plundered and demolished in the 4th century when a bishop decreed that Paganism must be eradicated. "Pompey's Pillar" is a misnomer, as it has nothing to do with Pompey, having been erected in 293 for Diocletian, possibly in memory of the rebellion of Domitius Domitianus. Beneath the acropolis itself are the subterranean remains of the Serapeum, where the mysteries of the god Serapis were enacted, and whose carved wall niches are believed to have provided overflow storage space for the ancient Library.

Alexandria's catacombs, known as Kom al-Soqqafa, are a short distance southwest of the pillar, consist of a multi-level labyrinth, reached via a large spiral staircase, and featuring dozens of chambers adorned with sculpted pillars, statues, and other syncretic Romano-Egyptian religious symbols, burial niches and sarcophagi, as well as a large Roman-style banquet room, where memorial meals were conducted by relatives of the deceased. The catacombs were long forgotten by the citizens until they were discovered by accident in the 1800s.

The most extensive ancient excavation currently being conducted in Alexandria is known as Kom al-Dikka, and it has revealed the ancient city's well-preserved theater, and the remains of its Roman-era baths.

3- Antiquities

Persistent efforts have been made to explore the antiquities of Alexandria. Encouragement and help have been given by the local Archaeological Society, and by many individuals, notably Greeks proud of a city which is one of the glories of their national history.

The past and present directors of the museum have been enabled from time to time to carry out systematic excavations whenever opportunity is offered; D. G. Hogarth made tentative researches on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in 1895; and a German expedition worked for two years (1898–1899). But two difficulties face the would-be excavator in Alexandria: lack of space for excavation and the underwater location of some areas of interest.

Since the great and growing modern city stands immediately over the ancient one, it is almost impossible to find any considerable space in which to dig, except at enormous cost. Also, the general subsidence of the coast has submerged the lower-lying parts of the ancient town under water. This underwater section, containing many of the most interesting sections of the Hellenistic city, including the palace quarter, is still being extensively investigated by the French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team and. It raised a noted head of Caesarion. These are being opened up to tourists, to some controversy.

The spaces that are most open are the low grounds to northeast and southwest, where it is practically impossible to get below the Roman strata.

The most important results were those achieved by Dr. G. Botti, late director of the museum, in the neighborhood of “Pompey's Pillar”, where there is a good deal of open ground. Here substructures of a large building or group of buildings have been exposed, which are perhaps part of the Serapeum. Nearby, immense catacombs and columbaria have been opened which may have been appendages of the temple. These contain one very remarkable vault with curious painted reliefs, now artificially lit and open to visitors.

The objects found in these researches are in the museum, the most notable being a great basalt bull, probably once an object of cult in the Serapeum. Other catacombs and tombs have been opened in Kom al-Shoqqafa (Roman) and Ras al-Tiin (painted).

The German excavation team found remains of a Ptolemaic colonnade and streets in the north-east of the city, but little else. Hogarth explored part of an immense brick structure under the mound of Kom al-Dikka, which may have been part of the Paneum, the Mausolea, or a Roman fortress.

The making of the new foreshore led to the dredging up of remains of the Patriarchal Church; and the foundations of modern buildings are seldom laid without some objects of antiquity being discovered. The wealth underground is doubtlessly immense; but despite all efforts, there is not much for antiquarians to see in Alexandria outside the museum and the neighborhood of “Pompey's Pillar”. The native tomb-robbers, well-sinkers, dredgers, and the like, however, come upon valuable objects from time to time, most of which find their way into private collections.

4- Gallery

Arish

2008-09-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Arish or el-Arīsh (Arabic: العريش ) is the capital and largest city (with 114,900 inhabitants as of 2002) of the Egyptian governorate of Shamal Sina', lying on the Mediterranean coast of the Sinai peninsula, 344 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of Cairo. Al `Arīsh is distinguished by its clear blue water, widespread fruitful palmy wood on its coast, and its soft white sand. It has a yacht marina, and many luxury hotels.

The city also has some of the faculties of Suez Canal University.

El Arish is by a big wadi called the Wadi el Arish, which receives flash flood water from much of north and central Sinai.

1- History

The city grew around a Bedouin settlement near the ancient Ptolemaic Dynasty outpost of Rhinocolura. Located halfway between Israel and Egypt, El Arish should be of major archaeological interest - but, surprisingly, no major archaeological project has ever been carried out in it or in its vicinity. In the Middle Ages, pilgrims misidentified the site as the Sukkot of the Bible. Arīsh means "palm huts" in Arabic corresponding to the Hebrew Sukkot.

New fortifications were constructed at the original site by the Ottoman Empire in 1560. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French laid siege to the fort, which fell after 11 days on February 19, 1799. The fort was destroyed by British bombers during World War I.

El Arish was under military occupation by the state of Israel from 1967 to 1979 and briefly in 1956. It was returned to Egypt in 1979 after the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. An increasingly popular tourist destination, El Arish is situated at 31°07′N, 33°48′E.

2- Transport

The city is served by El Arish International Airport. The construction of the northern coast high way in Egypt (North Sinai part) is expected to be finished by 2008 linking Qantara at Suez Canal (in the west) to Gaza strip border passing by Al Arish. The railway line from Cairo is also under re-construction and it recently reached the "Ser and Qawarir zone" west of Al 'Arish. This route was formerly part of the Palestine Railway built during WW1/2 to connect Egypt with Turkey. The railway was cut during the formation of Israel. The North Sinai is a milestone for the Egyptian government planners to re-distribute the high-density population in the Delta, and it is expected that by accomplishing the transportation and Irrigation projects, 3 million Egyptians will settle in North Sinai.

Aswan

2008-09-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Aswan (formerly spelled Assuan), (in standard Arabic: أسوان‎ Aswān) Egyptian: Swenet (trade), Coptic: Swān; Greek: Συήνη Syene; Spanish: Asuán) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.

It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist center. Its ancient name, Swenet, translates as "trade". It contains the island of Elephantine.

Aswan is one of the driest inhabited places in the world; as of early 2001, the last rain there was six years earlier. As of 8 Septmeber 2008, the last rainfall was a thunderstorm on May 13, 2006. In Nubian settlements, they generally do not bother to roof all of the rooms in their houses.

1- History

Aswan is the ancient city of Swenet, which in antiquity was the frontier town of Ancient Egypt to the south. Swenet is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name. This goddess later was identified as Eileithyia by the Greeks and Ilithya by the Romans during their occupation of Ancient Egypt because of the similar association of their goddesses with childbirth, and of which the import is "the opener". The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for trade.[citation needed]

Because the Ancient Egyptians oriented toward the origin of the life-giving waters of the Nile in the south, Swenet was the first town in the country, and Egypt always was conceived to "open" or begin at Swenet.[citation needed] The city stood upon a peninsula on the right (east) bank of the Nile, immediately below (north of) the first cataract of the flowing waters, which extend to it from Philae. Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier.

The Stone quarries of ancient Egypt located here were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the granitic rock called Syenite. They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks, and monolithal shrines that are found throughout Egypt, including the pyramids; and the traces of the quarrymen who wrought in these 3000 years ago are still visible in the native rock. They lie on either bank of the Nile, and a road, four miles in length, was cut beside them from Syene to Philae.

Swenet was as equally important as a military station as that of a place of traffic. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town; and here were levied toll and custom on all boats passing southward and northward. The city is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus (ii. 30), Strabo (ii. p. 133, xvii. p. 797, seq.), Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.), Ptolemy (vii. 5. § 15, viii. 15. § 15), Pliny the Elder (ii. 73. s. 75, v. 10. s. 11, vi. 29. s. 34), De architectura (book viii. ch ii. § 6), and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary (p. 164). It also is mentioned in the Book of Isaiah from the Scriptures (ref. Isaiah 49:12).

The latitude of the city that would become Aswan, located at – 24° 5′ 23″– was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice a vertical staff cast no shadow. They noted that the sun's disc was reflected in a well at noon. This statement is only approximately correct; the ancients were not acquainted with the exact tropic: yet at the summer-solstice the length of the shadow, or 1/400th of the staff, could scarcely be discerned, and the northern limb of the sun's disc would be nearly vertical.

Eratosthenes used measurements at Aswan (Elephantine) to contest the Flat Earth theory and attempted to determine the circumference of the Earth, using Syene (as the Greeks called Swenet) as the originating point and Alexandria as the terminal point of a measured arc (based upon shadow length at the solstice) to make an accurate estimate of the circumference of the Earth.

The Nile is nearly 3000 yards wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt the river flows for more than 750 miles without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually occupied between 21 and 28 days in favourable weather.

2- Gallery

Asyut

2008-09-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

Asyut (Arabic: أسيوط), is the capital of the modern Asyut Governorate, Egypt. The modern city is located at: 27°11′00″N, 31°10′00″E, while the ancient city is located at: 27°10′00″N, 31°08′00″E.

1- Ancient Asyut

Around 3100 BC ancient Asyut was the capital of the Thirteenth Nome of Upper Egypt (Lycopolites Nome), seated on the western bank of the Nile. The two most prominent gods of pre-Christian Asyut were Anubis and Wepwawet, both funerary deities.

During the First Intermediate Period, the rulers of "Zawty"; Khety I, Itefibi, and Khety II were supporters of the Herakleopolitan kings, of whose domain the Nome formed the southern limits. The conflict between this Nome and the southern Nomes under the rule of the Eleventh dynasty ended with the victory of Thebes and the decline of Asyut's importance.

The shield of a king named Recamai, who reigned in Upper Egypt (probably during the "shepherd dynasty" in the "Lower Country"), has been discovered in Asyut . Lycopolis has no remarkable ruins, but in the excavated chambers of the adjacent rocks are found mummies of wolves, confirming the origin of its name, as well as a tradition preserved by Diodorus Siculus , to the effect that an Aethiopian army, invading Egypt, was repelled beyond the city of Elephantine by herds of wolves. Osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf at Lycopolis. He having, according to a myth, come "from the shades" under that form, to aid Isis and Horus in their combat with Typhon . Other Ancient Egyptian monuments discovered in Asyut include; the Asyut necropolis (west of the modern city), tombs which date to dynasties Nine, Ten and Twelve, and Ramessid tombs of Siese and Amenhotep.

In Graeco-Roman times, there was a distinct dialect of Coptic spoken in Asyut, known as "Lycopolitan", after the Greek name for the city. Lesser-used names for this dialect are "Sub-Akhmimic" and "Assiutic".

2- Modern Asyut

Today, the city of Asyut has almost 400,000 inhabitants. It is the Egyptian city with the highest Coptic Christian concentration. It is also home to the University of Asyut, one of the largest universities in Egypt, and to the Lillian Trasher Orphanage.

The Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared in Asyut. This apparition is recognized as official by the Coptic Orthodox Church.

3- Gallery

Banha

2008-09-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

Banha (also spelled Benha) (Arabic: بنها) is a city in northeastern Egypt, also the capital of the Qalyubia Governorate. Egyptians call it Banha Elasal which means "Benha of honey". It is located 48 km (30 mins) north of Cairo. Banha is located on the east bank of the Damietta Branch of the Nile River in the rich farmland of the southern part of the river's delta. Well-irrigated by canals leading off the Delta Barrage, a dam 30 km (20 min) upstream, the surrounding farmland produces wheat and long-staple cotton. Since ancient times, Banha has been known for the production of attar of roses, an ingredient in perfume. Today it is the center of Egypt's electronics industry. Banha is a major junction in the rail network that radiates north from Cairo and it has the 6th biggest train station in Egypt.

The north of Banha is the site of one of several ancient cities called Athribis, the capital of the tenth nome (province) of Lower Egypt in about 1500 BC. The site has never been systematically investigated by archaeologists. Over the years, peasants digging in the area have uncovered a large hoard of silver. About 20 km (12 mi) southwest of Banha is Tall al Yahudiya, the site of Leontopolis, famed for its glazed tiles in ancient times. Population is around 2,479,347. (2005) and Total Area is 16,105 Km2 .

Also there is Benha University which was a branch of Zagazig university , Established in November/1976 and then become stand alone university in 2005 with many collages and Undergraduates 60,500 students , but the most important is Benha Faculty of Medicine which in fact mange the 2 main hospitals in benha Banha University.

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Cairo

2008-09-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

Cairo (Arabic: القاهرة transliteration: Al-Qāhirah), which means "the Victorious" or "the Triumphant", is the capital and largest city of Egypt. It is the Arab World's [3] and Africa's most populous city.[4] While Al-Qahirah is the official name of the city, in Egyptian Arabic it is called by the dialect's name for the country, transliteration: Masr. Within Egypt, residents of Cairo are called Masraweya rather than Masri.

Cairo was founded by the Fatimid caliphs as a royal enclosure. It replaced Fustat as the seat of the government. It later came under the Mamluks, was ruled by the Ottomans 1517 to 1798, and briefly occupied by Napoleon. Muhammad Ali of Egypt made Cairo the capital of his independent empire from 1805 to 1882, after which the British took control of it until Egypt attained independence in 1922.

Cairo has a population of about 16.8 million people, according to the 2006 population census.[1] The number of inhabitants was about a million higher at the time of the census, but this was adjusted downwards on the 17th of April 2008 when the new governorate of Helwan was created from parts of a.o. Cairo governorate. Cairo's metropolitan area has a population of about 17.8 million people.[5] Cairo is the sixteenth most populous metropolitan area in the world. It is also the most populous metropolitan area in Africa.[6]

Today, Greater Cairo encompasses various historic towns and modern districts. A journey through Cairo is virtual time travel: from the Pyramids, the Hanging Church, Saladin's Citadel, the Virgin Mary's Tree, the Sphinx, and Heliopolis, to Al-Azhar, the Mosque of Amr ibn al-A'as, Saqqara, the Cairo Tower, and the Old City. It is the Capital of Egypt, and its history is intertwined with that of the country. Today, Cairo's official name is Al-Qahira (Cairo), although the name informally used by most Egyptians is "Masr" (Egyptian Arabic name for Egypt), from the original name of Egypt's first Arab capital Fustat, Misr al-Fustat, "City of the Tents". It is also titled as "The city of a thousand Mazan [(tower in a mosque, i.e. 1000 mosque towers)]".

1- Etymology

The name Al-Qahirah has been said to mean "the Subduer", and it's often translated as "the Victorious". The origin of Al-Qahirah is said to come from the appearance of the planet Mars during the foundation of the City of Cairo. The planet Mars, which in Greek was called Ares, was associated with ruin or destruction and was called Al Najm Al Qahir in Arabic. Al Najm Al Qahir is transliterated as "the destroyer star [planet]". The legacy of the name evolved into “Qahirat Al Adaa” meaning “the subduer of the enemies”. This title was given to the city as many armies were destroyed in attempts to invade Cairo or defeated elsewhere by troops sent from the settlement.

The Arabic word "qa'id" means commander of the castle or fortress. "Alqaida" means base or camp. The root of these words is seen in the Romanized Arabic word "qa'ad", which means to live, dwell, or sit, which in Swahili is "kaa". "Qa" corresponds to the Latin word "cola" meaning seat [tail] and cultivated land. The prefix of Cairo may also mean the landing or the quay, the small hill by the river, that serves as a wharf. In Swahili, "harabu" means to ruin or destroy, and the Persian word "karo" means army or the camp of an army.

2- History

Cairo was founded in 969 AD as the royal enclosure for the Fatimid caliphs, while the actual economic and administrative capital was in nearby Fustat. Modern Cairo encompasses Fustat, as well as other previous capitals — Al-Askar and Al-Qatta'i. Fustat was established by Arab military commander 'Amr ibn al-'As following the conquest of Egypt in 641, and took over as the capital which previously was located in Alexandria. Al-Askar, located in what is now Old Cairo, was the capital of Egypt from 750 to 868. Ahmad ibn Tulun established Al-Qatta'i as the new capital of Egypt, and remained the capital until 905, when the Fustat once again became the capital. After Fustat was destroyed in 1168/1169 to prevent its capture by the Crusaders, the administrative capital of Egypt moved to Cairo, where it has remained ever since. It took four years for the General Jawhar Al Sikilli (the Sicilian) to build Cairo and for the Fatimid Calif Al Muizz to leave his old Mahdia in Tunisia and settle in the new Capital of Fatimids in Egypt.

After Memphis, Heliopolis, Giza and the Byzantine fortress of Babylon-in-Egypt, Fustat was a new city built as a military garrison for Arab troops. It was the closest central location to Arabia that was accessible to the Nile. Fustat became a regional center of Islam during the Umayyad period. It was where the Umayyad ruler, Marwan II, made his last stand against the Abbasids.

Later, during the Fatimid era, Al-Qahira (Cairo) was officially founded in 969 as an imperial capital just to the north of Fustat. Over the centuries, Cairo grew to absorb other local cities such as Fustat, but the year 969 is considered the "founding year" of the modern city.[7]

In 1250, the slave soldiers or Mamluks seized Egypt and ruled from their capital at Cairo until 1517, when they were defeated by the Ottomans. Napoleon's French army briefly occupied Egypt from 1798 to 1801, after which an Ottoman officer named Muhammad Ali made Cairo the capital of an independent empire that lasted from 1805 to 1882. The city then came under British control until Egypt attained independence in 1922.

3- Geography

Cairo is located on the banks and islands of the Nile River in the north of Egypt, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and breaks into two branches into the low-lying Nile Delta region.

Referring to Cairo often means Greater Cairo, which is composed of Cairo governate, part of Giza and Qaluobyia governates. Since May 2008 Greater Cairo has been divided into 4 new governates: Cairo, Helwan, Giza and 6th of October. Cairo University is in Giza governate, while Cairo governate has the Ain Shams University.

The oldest part of the city is east of the river. The city gradually spreads west, engulfing the agricultural lands next to the Nile. These western areas, built on the model of Paris by Khedive Ismail in the mid-19th century, are marked by wide boulevards, public gardens, and open spaces. The older eastern section of the city is very different: having grown up haphazardly over the centuries, it is filled with small lanes and crowded tenements. While western Cairo is dominated by tater government buildings and modern architecture, the eastern half is filled with hundreds of ancient mosques.

Extensive water systems have also allowed the city to expand east into the desert. Bridges link the Nile islands of Gezira and Roda, where many government buildings are located and government officials live. Bridges also cross the Nile attaching the city to the suburbs of Giza and Imbabah (part of the Cairo conurbation).

West of Giza, in the desert, is part of the ancient necropolis of Memphis on the Giza plateau, with its three large pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Giza. Approximately 11 miles (18 km) to the south of modern Cairo is the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis and adjoining necropolis of Saqqara. These cities were Cairo's ancient predecessors, when Cairo was still in this approximate geographical location.

In Cairo, and along the Nile River Valley, the climate is hot desert (BWh) according to the Köppen climate classification system, but often with high humidity due to the river valley's effects. Wind storms can be frequent, bringing Saharan dust into the city during the months of March and April. High temperatures in winter range from the 13°C to the low 20s, while nighttime lows drop to below 10°C, often to 5°C. In Summer, the highs often surpass 40°C, and lows drop to about 20°C. Rainfall is sparse, but sudden showers do cause flooding.

4-Sports

Football is the most popular sport in Egypt, and Cairo has a number of sporting teams that compete in national and regional leagues. The best known teams are Al Zamalek and Al Ahly, whose annual football tournament is perhaps the most watched sports event in Egypt as well as the African and Arabian World. Both teams are known as the "rivals" of Egyptian football, and are the first and the second champions in the African continent and the Arab World. Both teams play their home games at Cairo International Stadium or Naser Stadium , which is Cairo's, Egypt's, Africa's and the Middle East's largest stadium and one of the largest in the world.

The Cairo International Stadium was built in 1960 and its multi-purpose sports complex that houses the main football stadium, an indoor stadium, several satellite fields that held several regional, continental and global games, including the African Games, U17 Football World Championship and was one of the stadiums scheduled that hosted the 2006 African Nations Cup which was played on January, 2006, which Egypt won its title for the record number of five times in African Continental Competition's history.

Cairo failed at the applicant stage when bidding for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which was hosted in Beijing, China. However, Cairo will host the Pan-Arab Games this year and next year.

There are several other sports teams in the city that participate in several sports including el Gezira Sporting Club, el Shams Club, el Seid Club, Heliopolis Club and several smaller clubs, but the biggest clubs in Egypt (not in area but in sports) are Al Zamalek & Al Ahly. They have the two biggest football teams in Egypt.

Most of the sports federations of the country are also located in the city suburbs, including the Egyptian Football Association. The headquarters of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) was previously located in Cairo, before relocating to its new headquarters in 6 October City, a small city away from Cairo's crowded districts.

5- Culture

Over the ages, and as far back as seven thousand years, Egypt stood as the land where civilizations have always met. The Pharaohs together with the Greeks and the Romans have left their imprints here. Muslims from the Arab Peninsula, led by Amr ibn al-A'as, introduced Islam into Egypt. Khedive Mohammad Ali, with his Albanian family roots, put Egypt on the road to modernity. If anything, the cultural mix in this country is natural, given its heritage. Egypt can be likened to an open museum with monuments of the different historical periods on display everywhere.

5.1 Cairo Opera House

President Mubarak inaugurated the new Cairo Opera House of the Egyptian National Cultural Center on October 10, 1988, seventeen years after the Royal Opera House had been destroyed by fire. The National Cultural Center was built with the help of JICA, the Japan International Co-operation Agency and stands as a prominent feature for the Japanese-Egyptian co-operation and the deep-rooted friendship between these two nations.

Thus, the joint efforts of Japanese and Egyptians has given rise to a unique landmark which celebrates the rich and diverse cultural life not only of Egypt but of neighboring nations in Africa and the Middle East as well.

Egypt is proud to be the only state in the region which built two opera houses within a bit more than a century.

5.2 Khedivial Opera House

The Khedivial Opera House or Royal Opera House was the original opera house in Cairo, Egypt. It was dedicated on November 1, 1869 and burned down on October 28, 1971. After the original opera house was destroyed, Cairo was without an opera house for nearly two decades until the opening of the new Cairo Opera House in 1988.

5.3 Cairo International Film Festival

Egypt's love of the arts in general can be traced back to the rich heritage bequeathed by the Pharaohs. In modern times, Egypt has enjoyed a strong cinematic tradition since the art of filmmaking was first developed, early in the 20th century. A natural progression from the active theatre scene of the time, cinema rapidly evolved into a vast motion picture industry. This together with the much older music tradition, raised Egypt to become the cultural capital of the Arab world.

For more than 500 years of recorded history, Egypt has fascinated the West and inspired its creative talents from play writer William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist John Dryden, and novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell to film producer Cecil B. de Mille. Since the silent movies Hollywood has been capitalising on the box-office returns that come from combining Egyptian stories with visual effects.

Egypt has also been a fount of Arabic literature, producing some of the 20th century's greatest Arab writers such as Taha Hussein and Tawfiq al-Hakim to Nobel Laureate, novelist Naguib Mahfouz. Each of them has written for the cinema.

With these credentials, it was clear that Cairo should aim to hold an international film festival. This dream came true on Monday August 16, 1976, when the first Cairo International Film Festival was launched by the Egyptian Association of Film Writers and Critics, headed by Kamal El-Mallakh. The Association ran the festival for seven years until 1983.

This achievement lead to the President of the Festival again contacting the FIAPF with the request that a competition should be included at the 1991 Festival. The request was granted.

In 1998, the Festival took place under the presidency of one of Egypt's leading actors, Hussein Fahmy, who was appointed by the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, after the death of Saad El-Din Wahba.

Four years later, the journalist and writer Cherif El-Shoubashy became president.

For 29 years, the home of the Pyramids and Nile has hosted international superstars like Nicolas Cage , John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Bud Spencer, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Mutti, Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Victoria Abril, Elizabeth Taylor, Shashi Kapoor, Alain Delon, Greta Scacchi, Catherine Deneuve, Peter O'toole, Christopher Lee, Irene Pappas, Marcello Mastroianni and Omar Sharif, as well as great directors like Robert Wise, Elia Kazan, Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Stone, Roland Joffe, Carlos Saura, Ismail Merchant and Michel Angelo Antonioni, in an annual celebration and examination of the state of cinema in the world today.

5.4 Cairo Geniza

The Cairo Geniza is an accumulation of almost 200,000 Jewish manuscripts that were found in the genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue (built 882) of Fostat, Egypt (now Old Cairo), the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and a number of old documents that were bought in Cairo in the later 19th century. These documents were written from about 870 to as late as 1880 AD and have now been archived in various American and European libraries. The Taylor-Schechter collection in the University of Cambridge runs to 140,000 manuscripts; there are a further 40,000 manuscripts at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

6- Gallery

Ad Dakhilah

2008-09-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Dakhla Oasis (Arabic الداخلة al-Dākhla; BGN: Al Wāḩāt ad Dākhilah), also called the "inner oasis", is one of the seven oases of the Western Desert of Egypt (part of the Libyan Desert). Dakhla Oasis is located at 350 km from the Nile Valley and is also situated between the oases of Farafra and Kharga. It measures some 80 km (50 miles) from east to west and about 25 km (16 mi) from north to south.

Thanks to the discoveries of Ahmed Fakhry and today to the work of the D.O.P (Dakhleh Oasis Project), more is known about the history of that oasis.

Dakhla pertains to the Egyptian Wadi al-Jadid ("New Valley") governorate.

1- History
1.1 Prehistory

The human history of this oasis started during the Pleistocene, when nomadic tribes settled sometimes there, in a time when the Sahara climate was wetter and where humans could have access to lakes and marshes. But about 60 000 years ago, the entire Sahara became drier, changing progressively into a hyper-arid desert (with less than 50 mm of rain per year). However, specialists think that nomadic hunter-gatherers began to settle almost permanently in the oasis of Dakhleh in the period of the Holocene (about 12 000 years ago), during new, but rare episodes of wetter times. In fact, the drier climate didn't mean that there was no more water in what is now known as the Western Desert. The south of the Libyan Desert has the most important supply of subterranean water in the world, and the first inhabitants of the Dakhla Oasis had access to surface water sources.

1.2 Pharaonic Period

First contacts between the pharaonic power and the oases started around 2550 BCE.

1.3 After 1800

The first European traveller to find the Dakhla Oasis was Sir Archibald Edmonstone, in the year 1819.[1] He was succeeded by several other early travellers, but it was not until 1908 that the first egyptologist, Herbert Winlock, visited Dakhla Oasis and noted its monuments in some systematic manner.[1] In the 1950s, detailed studies began, first by Dr. Ahmed Fakhry, and in the late 1970s, an expedition of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale and the Dakhla Oasis Project each began detailed studies in the oasis.

2- Geography

Dakhla Oasis consists of several communities, along a string of sub-oases. The main settlements are Mut, Al-Qasr, Qalamoun, together with several smaller villages. Some of the communities have identities that are separate from each other. Qalamoun has inhabitants that trace their origins to the Ottomans.

Damietta

2008-09-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

Damietta, Damiata, or Domyat (Arabic: دمياط‎) is a port and the capital of the governorate of Domyat, Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Cairo.

1- History

In Ancient Egypt, the city was known as Tamiat, but it became less important in the Hellenic period after the construction of Alexandria.

The Abbasids use Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and China.

Damietta was important in the 12th and 13th centuries during the time of the Crusades. In 1169, a fleet from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with support from the Byzantine Empire, attacked the port, but it was defeated by Saladin.

During preparations for the Fifth Crusade in 1217, it was decided that Damietta should be the focus of attack. Control of Damietta meant control of the Nile, and from there the crusaders believed they would be able to conquer Egypt. From Egypt they could then attack Palestine and recapture Jerusalem. When the port was besieged and occupied by Frisian crusaders in 1219, Francis of Assisi arrived to peaceably negotiate with the Muslim ruler. In 1221 the Crusaders attempted to march to Cairo, but were destroyed by the combination of nature and Muslim defenses.

Damietta was also the object of the Seventh Crusade, led by Louis IX of France. His fleet arrived there in 1249 and quickly captured the fort, though he refused to hand it over to the nominal king of Jerusalem, to whom it had been promised during the Fifth Crusade. However, Louis too was eventually captured and defeated and was forced to give up the city.

Because of its importance to the Crusaders, the Mamluk Sultan Baibars destroyed the city and rebuilt it with stronger fortifications a few kilometres from the river.

2- Monuments

Amr Ibn Al-a'as Mosque (Al-Fateh) the 2nd mosque to be built in Egypt and Africa by the arabs after entering Egypt. It has been converted to a church twice during occupation by the crusaders and Louis IX of France son Jean Tristan was Baptised by vice of the Pope in this Mosque.
Al-Matbuly Mosque dating to Mamluk era.
Al-Maainy Mosque dating to Al-Naser Mohammed Ibn Qalawon regin.
Al-Bahr Mosque dating to Ottmon rule era.
Al--Hadidy Mosque in Faraskour 200 years old.
Tabiet Ahmed Urabi, ruins of Damietta Fort at Ezbet El-Borg.
Al-Radwaniya Mosque dating to Mamluk era.
The Old Bridge " Elkobri Elqadeem" dating to early 1900s.
Souk Al-Hesba, the old dowm town, dating to Abbasi rule era.

3- Gallery

Dendera

2008-09-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Dendera (Arabic: دندرة; also spelled Denderah/Dandarah), is a little town in Egypt on the west bank of the Nile, about 5 km south from Qina, on the opposite side of the Nile.

1- History

Located rather isolated on the desert edge, about 2.5 km south-west of the Town, lay what Dendera is known for, the mostly Greco-Roman Temple Complex, Dendera, known in ancient Egyptian as Iunet or Tantere. The modern Arab town is built on the ancient site of Ta-ynt-netert which means 'She of the Divine Pillar', or Tentyra which is Greek for Dendera. It was once the capital of the 6th Nome (Pharaonic province) of Upper Egypt, also named Nikentori or Nitentori, which signifies willow wood or willow earth. Others give the derivation from the sky and fertility goddess Hathor, also associated with the Greek Aphrodite, who was specially worshiped there. The crocodile is recognized as the deity of the city and was also venerated as such in the other Egyptian cities, which caused many quarrels, notably with Ombos. It is still the seat of a titular see, suffragan of Ptolemais, in the former Roman province of Thebaid Secunda. Little is known of Christianity in that place, as only the names of two ancient bishops are given: Pachymius, companion of Melece at the beginning of the fourth century; and Serapion or Aprion, contemporary and friend of the monk St. Pachomius, who had in his diocese his celebrated convent of Tabennisi. It became the Arab Denderah, under late Ottoman rule a town of 6000 inhabitants in Qina.

2- The Temple

The Dendera Temple complex which contains the Temple of Hathor is one of the best preserved temples, if not the best, in all Egypt. The whole complex covers some 40,000 square meters and is surrounded by a hefty mud brick enclosed wall. The present building dates back to the times of the Ptolemaic dynasty and was completed by the Roman emperor Tiberius, but it rests on the foundations of earlier buildings dating back at least as far as Khufu (pyramid builder Cheops, second king of the 4th dynasty [c. 2613–c. 2494 BC]), in which was found the celebrated zodiac now in Paris; there are also the Roman and pharaonic Mammisi (birth houses), ruins of a Coptic church and a small chapel dedicated to Isis, of the Roman or Ptolemaic epoch. The area around the temple has had extensive landscaping, and now has a modern visitor centre, bazaar and small cafeteria.

3- Gallery

Al Ghardaqah (Hurghada)

2008-09-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

The city was founded in the early 20th century, and since the 1980s has been continually enlarged by Egyptian and foreign investors to become the leading seashore resort on the Red Sea. Holiday villages and hotels provide aquatic sport facilities for sailboarders, yachtsmen, scuba divers and snorklers.

Hurghada stretches for about 36 km along the seashore, and it does not reach far into the surrounding desert. The resort is a destination for Egyptian tourists from Cairo, the Delta and Upper Egypt, as well as package holiday tourists from Europe, notably Italians, Russians, Czechs and Germans. Until a few years ago it was a small fishing village. Today Hurghada counts 248,000 inhabitants and is divided into three parts: Downtown (El Dahar) is the old part; Sekalla is the modern part, and El Korra Road is the most modern part. Sakkala is the relatively modest hotel quarter. Dahar is where the town's largest bazaar, the post office and the long-distance bus station are situated.

The city is served by the Hurghada International Airport with scheduled passenger traffic to and from Cairo and direct connections with several cities in Europe. The airport has undergone massive renovations to accommodate rising traffic. Hurghada is known for its watersports activities, nightlife and warm weather. Daily high temperature hovers round 30 degrees Celsius most of the year. Numerous Europeans spend their Christmas and New Year holidays in Hurghada, primarily Germans and Italians.

1- Aquatic Sports

Hurghada has become an international center for aquatic sports like windsurfing, kiting, sailing, deep-sea fishing, swimming, and above all snorkeling and diving. The underwater gardens offshore are considered some of the finest in the world. The warm waters here are ideal for many varieties of fish and coral, which may also be observed from a glass bottom boat.

The city provides a gateway to diving sites throughout the Red Sea, owing to its central location. In addition, Hurghada is known for providing access to many uninhabited offshore reefs and islands.

2- Projects under construction
2.1 Gamsha Bay

Gamsha Bay will be the region’s largest township, located north of Hurghada; Gamsha Bay will offer its residents a wide array of housing options, entertainment, and recreational amenities, including an extreme sports adventure theme park.

Gamsha Bay will be divided into 9 distinct zones – Gamsha Marina, Marina Park, Coral Golf Course, Sea View Crescent, Creek Retreat, Gamsha Bay, Peninsula Luxury Villas, Downtown Gamsha and Extreme Sports World Theme Park. It will be built in five phases over 10 years, with the initial components of the first phase completed within the next five years.

2.2 Serrenia

Created by British architects Foster and Partners, Serrenia will be a secure, luxurious, sustainable community. It will feature palace-like residences, private villas, as well as apartments. At its heart will be an artificial spa: water in the desert. There will also be a Children’s Club and a Beach Club, as well as a 7-star hotel. There will be an 18-hole championship golf course, featuring an iconic clubhouse and a Golf Academy. The Marina Hub will contain exclusive shops, as well as a private marina. Serrenia will have its own private beach at Sahl Hasheesh.

3- Resorts near Hurghada
3.1 Al Quseir

Al Quseir is one of the Egyptian gateways, and one of the oldest cities on the western coast of the Red Sea. In the past it was known by various names, such as Thagho in the pharonic period, Licos Limen (the white port) in the Ptolemaic period, and Portus Albus in the Roman period. In the Islamic period it was given the name Al Quseir, which means "a small palace or fortress".

Located between Hurghada and Marsa Alam, Quseir used to be an important port. Many people traveled from there to the land of Punt to buy ivory, leather and incense. During the Ottoman and the Islamic periods, Egyptians and Muslims from North Africa traveled from Quesir as pilgrims to Mecca. It was also the only port importing coffee from Yemen. During the French occupation of Egypt, Quseir was the arrival point for Arabs and Muslims from Hegaz coming to fight beside the Mamalic against the French army. The most important sites in Quseir are the fort and the water reservoir. The water reservoir was Quseir's only source of drinking water 100 years ago.

Al Quseir Al Kadima is another important site as well. It was the old Roman port where hundreds of amphora and old pottery artifacts were found. Even the police station is located at a historical site. There are now many bazaars here, as well as cafes, coffee shops and restaurants offering sea food. There are several 300-year-old buildings here: the Ottoman fort and the old mosques Al Farran, Al Qenawi and Al Senousi.

Al Quseir is known for diving, with many miles of unspoiled coral reef. Most hotels have dive centres, and there are some downtown, as well. Safaris are popular here, either by quad bike or jeep, including trips into the desert and visits to a Bedouin village, as is camel-riding.

3.2 Sharm El Naga

A village, around 40 km (25 mi) south of Hurghada. Its beach contains a beautiful reef cliff.

3.3 El Gouna

A privately-owned luxury hotel town, about 25 km north of Hurghada. Quiet and clean, the town consists of several islands separated by channels and connected by bridges. Besides 14 hotels and 2 marinas, there are also 300 private villas and apartments, and some 500 more are under construction.[citation needed] It is promoted by some as Egypt's Venice. It is built on 10 km of beachfront and has unique and diverse architecture.

El Gouna provides diving and watersports centres, horse stables, gokarting, shopping arcades, bazaars, a wide selection of restaurants and bars, night clubs, an internet cafe, an automated teller machine (ATM), a pharmacy, the El Gouna international school, a nursery, a private hospital, a marina, an airport, the only casino on the Red Sea coast, a private radio station, a post office, a real estate office and an 18-hole golf course designed by Gene Bates with a unique aqua driving range.

3.4 Al-Mahmya

A tourist beachfront camp on the protected Giftun island, 45 minutes by boat from Hurghada.

3.5 Soma Bay

A tourist resort situated 45 km (28 mi) south of Hurghada, with various hotels including La Residence des Cascades, Inter-Continental, Robinson Club, Sheraton (Kempinski - opening August 2008) & Caribbean World Resort Soma Bay ( opened December 07). The place is not at all good for either diving or snorkeling.

3.6 Sahl Hasheesh

Sahl Hasheesh is a community resort developed seaside by The Egyptian Resorts Company (ERC). It is a long-term project under development, designed to meet social and environmental objectives.

3.7 Makadi Bay

Sahl Hasheesh is a community resort developed seaside by The Egyptian Resorts Company (ERC). It is a long-term project under development, designed to meet social and environmental objectives.

Al Jizah (Giza)

2008-09-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

Giza or Gizah (Arabic: الجيزة‎, transliterated el-Gīzah) is a town in Egypt on the west bank of the Nile river, some 20 km southwest of central Cairo and now part of the greater Cairo metropolis. It is the capital of the Al Jizah Governorate, and is located near the northeast border of this governorate in coordinates. It is located right on the banks of the Nile River. Its population is 2,681,863 in the 2006 national census, the governate has 4,779,000 (1998). Its large population makes it the 2nd largest suburb in the world, tied with Incheon, Korea and Quezon City, Philippines, second only to Yokohama, Japan.

Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was once advocated (1884) as the location for the Prime Meridian, a reference point used for determining a base longitude.[1]

1- History

Giza's most famous archaeological site, the Giza Plateau, holds some of the most astonishing monuments in Egyptian history. Once thriving with the Nile that flowed right into the Giza Plateau, the Pyramids of Giza were built overlooking the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, which was near modern day Cairo.

The Giza Plateau is also home to many other Ancient Egyptian monuments, including the tomb of Pharaoh Djet of the First dynasty, as well as that of Pharaoh Ninetjer of the Second dynasty.

The city itself has seen some changes over time. Changes in infrastructure during the different occupations of Egypt by various rulers, including the British in the 19th and early 20th century, focused on the construction of roads, streets, and buildings in the area. It is commonly misunderstood that the Giza area is a complete desert area; however, Giza has become a thriving centre of Egyptian culture and is quite heavily populated, with many facilities and buildings in the current area. Giza saw much attention in particular to its vast amount of ancient Egyptian monuments found on the Giza Plateau, and has astonished thousands of visitors and tourists over the years. Giza's infrastructure saw much attention from both the British government prior to the 1952 coup d'etat, as well as the current Egyptian government due to the city's importance in tourism.

Parts of Giza include el Haram, famous for its night clubs, Zamalek, predominantly populated by middle class Egyptians and el Mohandeseen.

2- Gallery

Kawm Umbu

2008-09-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

Kom Ombo (كوم أمبو) (Coptic: Embo; Greek: μβοι Omboi, Ptol. iv. 5. § 73; Steph. B. s. v.; It. Anton. p. 165) or Ombos (Juv. xv. 35) or Latin: Ambo (Not. Imp. sect. 20) and Ombi – is an agricultural town in Egypt famous for the Temple of Kom Ombo. It was originally an Egyptian city called Nubt, meaning City of Gold (not to be confused with the city north of Naqada that was also called Nubt/Ombos). It became a Greek settlement during the Greco-Roman Period. The town's location on the Nile 50 km north of Aswan (Syene) gave it some control over trade routes from Nubia to the Nile Valley, but its main rise to prominence came with the erection of the temple in the 2nd century BC.

1- History

In antiquity the city was in the Thebaid, the capital of the Nomos Ombites, upon the east bank of the Nile; latitude 24° 6′north. Ombos was a garrison town under every dynasty of Egypt, Pharaonic, Macedonian, and Roman, and was celebrated for the magnificence of its temples and its hereditary feud with the people of.

Ombos was the first city below Syene at which any remarkable remains of antiquity occur. The Nile, indeed, at this portion of its course, was ill-suited to a dense population in antiquity. It runs between steep and narrow banks of sandstone, and deposits but little of its fertilizing slime upon the dreary and barren shores. There are two temples at Ombos, constructed of the stone obtained from the neighboring quarries of Hadjar-selseleh. The more magnificent of two stands upon the top of a sandy hill, and appears to have been a species of Pantheon, since, according to extant inscriptions, it was dedicated to Aroeres (Apollo) and the other deities of the Ombite nome by the soldiers quartered there. The smaller temple to the northwest was sacred to Isis. Both, indeed, are of an imposing architecture, and still retain the brilliant colors with which their builders adorned them. They are, however, of the Ptolemaic age, with the exception of a doorway of sandstone, built into a wall of brick. This was part of a temple built by Tuthmosis III in honor of the crocodile-headed god Sobek. The monarch is represented on tress, the door-jambs, holding the measuring reed and chisel, the emblems of construction, and in the act of dedicating the temple. The portions of the larger temple present an exception to an almost universal rule in Egyptian architecture. It has no propylon or dromos in front of it, and the portico has an uneven number of columns, in all fifteen, arranged in a triple row. Of these columns thirteen are still erect. As there are two principal entrances, the temple would seem to be two united in one, strengthening the supposition that it was the Pantheon of the Ombite nome. On a cornice above the doorway of one of the adyta is a Greek inscription, recording the erection, or perhaps the restoration of the sekos by Ptolemy VI Philometor and his sister-wife Cleopatra II, 180-145 BC. The hill on which the Ombite temples stand has been considerably excavated at its base by the river, which here strongly inclines to the Arabian bank.

The crocodile was held in especial honor by the people of Ombos; and in the adjacent catacombs are occasionally found mummies of the sacred animal. Juvenal, in his 15th satire, has given a lively description of a fight, of which he was an eye-witness, between the Ombitae and the inhabitants of Tentyra, who were hunters of the crocodile. On this occasion the men of Ombos had the worst of it; and one of their number, having stumbled in his flight, was caught and eaten by the Tentyrites. The satirist, however, has represented Ombos as nearer to Tentyra than it actually is, these towns, in fact, being nearly 100 miles from each other. The Roman coins of the Ombite nome exhibit the crocodile and the effigy of the crocodile-headed god Sobek.

In Kom Ombo there is a rare engraved image of Cleopatra VII in the walls of the main temple and also the engraving of what is though to be the first representation of medical instruments for performing surgery, including scalpels, curettes, forceps, dilator, scissors and medicine bottles dating from the days of the Roman Egypt.

At this site there is another Nilometer used to measure the level of the river waters. On the opposite side of the Nile was a suburb of Ombos, called Contra-Ombos.

The city was a bishopric before the Muslim conquest, and Ombos was a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church, Ombi; which has been vacant since 1966. Karol Wojtyła (the future Pope John Paul II) was titular bishop of Ombi from 1958 until 1963, when he was appointed Archbishop of Kraków.

2- Gallery

Al Kharijah

2008-09-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

For the poetic style with the same name, see Kharja.

El-Kharga' (meaning the outer oasis) (Arabic الخارجة) is the southernmost of Egypt's five western oases. It is located in the Libyan Desert, about 200 km to the west of the Nile valley, and is some 150 km long. It is located in and is the capital of El Wadi el Gedid governorate.

All the oases have always been crossroads of caravan routes converging from the barren desert. In the case of Kharga, this is made particularly evident by the presence of a chain of fortresses that the Romans built to protect the Darb el-Arbain, the long caravan route running north-south between Middle Egypt and the Sudan. The forts vary for size and function, some being just small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation. Some were installed where earlier settlements already existed, while others were probably founded anew. All of them are made of mud bricks, but some also contain small stone temples with inscribed walls.

Kharga is the most modernized of Egypt's western oases. The main town is a highly functional town with all modern functions, and virtually nothing left of old architecture. Although framed by the oasis, there is no oasis feeling to it; unlike all other oasis in this part of Egypt.

A regular bus service connects the oasis to the other Western oases and to the rest of Egypt. A railway line Kharga - Qena (Nile Valley) - Port Safaga (Red Sea) has been in service since 1996.

Gallery

Luxor

2008-09-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

Luxor (in Arabic: الأقصر al-Uqṣur) is a city in Upper (southern) Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. Its population numbers 376,022 (1999 survey), and its area is about 416 km². As the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterised as the "world's greatest open air museum", the ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor standing within the modern city. Immediately opposite, across the Nile River, lie the monuments, temples and tombs on the West Bank Necropolis, which include the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of international tourists arrive each year to visit these monuments, and their presence represents a large part of the economic basis for the modern city. As a result, Luxor represents an excellent base for touring Upper Egypt, and is a popular holiday destination, both in its own right and as a starting or finishing point for Nile cruises.

1- History

History of Luxor: Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the great capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the glorious city of the God Amon Ra. The city was regarded in the Ancient Egyptian texts as T-APT (meaning “the shrine”) and then, in a later period, the Greeks called it tea pie, which the Arabs later pronounced as Thebes. The importance of the city started as early as the 11th Dynasty by King Mento-hotep The city of Thebes was the capital of the fourth Nome of Upper Egypt. The main local god was the God Amon Ra, who was worshipped with his wife, the Goddess Mutt, and their son, the God Khonsou, the God of the moon. Thebes was also known as “the city of the 100 gates”, sometimes being called the southern city, to distinguish it from Memphis, the early capital of the Old Kingdom. Thebes also played a great role in expelling the invading forces of the Hykos from Upper Egypt. From the time of the 18th Dynasty, through to the 20th Dynasty, the importance of the city had risen as the major political, religious and military capital of Ancient Egypt. Such importance faded during the Late Period, but the God Amon Ra http://www.hamdey.php0h.com/

2- Transportation

Luxor is served by an international airport, Luxor International Airport.

A bridge was opened in 1998, a few kilometres upstream of the main town of Luxor, allowing ready land access from the East Bank to the West Bank.

Traditionally, however, river crossings have been the domain of several ferry services. The so-called 'local ferry' (also known as the 'National Ferry') continues to operate from a landing opposite the Temple of Luxor. The single fare (June 2008) is 1 L.E. - one Egyptian Pound - per passenger for foreigners. This ferry is mainly used by the locals although a number of foreigners do use it. The sites on the West Bank are further than you think and you will need transport--taxi drivers often approach ferry passengers, and it is recommended that a fare be negotiated ahead of time. There are also local cars that reach some of the monuments for 25 piasters, although tourists rarely use them. Alternatively, motorboats line the East Bank of the Nile all day providing a quicker, but more expensive (5 L.E.), crossing to the other side.

The city of Luxor on the East Bank has several bus routes used mainly by locals. Tourists often rely on horse carriages, called "calèches," for transport or tours around the city. Do not ask calèche drivers to go to the west bank, because it is too far for the horses, not to mention illegal. Taxis are plentiful, and reasonably priced, and since the government has decreed that taxis older than 20 years will not be relicensed, there are many modern air-conditioned cabs. Recently, new roads have been built in the city to cope with the growth in traffic.

For domestic travel along the route of the Nile, a rail service operates several times a day. A morning train and sleeping train can be taken from the station situated around 400 metres from Luxor Temple. The line runs between several major destinations, including Cairo to the north and Aswan to the south.

3- Gallery

El Mansoura

2008-09-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

El Mansurah (also spelled as Mansoura; Arabic: المنصورة, al-manṣūrah) is a city in Egypt, with a population of 420,000. It is the capital of Ad Daqahliyah Governorate.

1- Etymology

Mansoura means 'The Victorious (feminine)' from the noun (نصر), meaning 'victory'. This is from the Egyptian victory in the battle of El Mansurah over Louis IX of France during the Seventh Crusade.

2- Location

Mansurah lies on the east bank of the Damietta branch of River Nile, in the delta region. Mansurah is about 120 km northeast of Cairo and 40 km north of the town of Mit Ghamr. Across from El Mansurah, on the opposite bank of the Nile, is the town of Talkha. Mansura and Talkha together form a metropolitan city just like Cairo and Giza.

3- History

Mansurah was established in 1219 by Saladin's brother, Abu-Bakr Malik Al-Adil I (also known as Saphadin) of the Ayyubid dynasty. After the Egyptians defeated the Crusaders on its land during the Seventh Crusade it was named El Mansurah—"The Victorious").

In the Seventh Crusade, the French were defeated and put to flight; between fifteen and thirty thousand of their men fell on the battlefield. Louis IX of France was captured in the main Battle of Mansurah and confined in the house of Ibrahim ben Lokman, secretary to the sultan, and under the guard of the eunuch Sobih. The king's brother was made prisoner at the same time, and carried to the same house. The sultan provided for their sustenance. The house in now the only museum in Al Mansurah, is open to the public and houses articles that used to belong to the French monarch, including his personal thirteenth century toilet.

The Mansura Air Battle on 14 October 1973 occurred during the Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War or the October War. Israeli Air Force fighters attacking Egyptian air bases were intercepted by the Egyptian Air Force. In fifty minutes, outnumbered EAF pilots shot down more than their share of Israeli fighters; Israel acknowledged seven or fewer losses, but Egypt claimed between fifteen and twenty IAF fighters. Egypt announced the loss of only six planes, only three of which fell to Israeli fire. To Arabs, Al Mansura was the greatest and most storied victory of Arab fighter pilots against the IAF.

4- Culture

Dakahliya province is famous for producing some of the most acclaimed Egyptians in the fields of science, engineering, medicine and arts. Most famous among them is the chanteuse Umm Kolthoum. There is a square bearing her name in the city, where her statue stands.

The Egyptian Arabic dialect spoken by Mansurah's population is, broadly speaking, northern Egyptian Arabic but with a noticeable influence from the surrounding rural villages, each of which have, over the years, contributed to the city's population. There are some similarities to Alexandrian Egyptian Arabic in some aspects of pronunciation.

Like Cairo and Alexandria, Mansurah was home to a flourishing Greek community until the Nasser era, when many were forced to leave. Many of the older and best established shops and businesses around the city still bear their original Greek names. The first English school in the city was established on the site of the old Greek school in the Toriel area, one of the traditionally relatively affluent residential districts of the city.

Mansurah University was founded in 1962, initially as a branch of Cairo University. The Urology and Nephrology center of Mansoura University is considered by many as the best kidney center in the Middle East and Africa. Besides being a major commercial and administrative center in the, largely rural, Dakahliya district, it could be described as primarily a 'university town'.

Mansurah also has a sports stadium which is home to its football team. Despite the city's ranking as the 'third Egyptian city'[citation needed], none of the African Nations Cup 2006 games were played there when Egypt hosted the tournament. Dakahliya's most famous beach, Gamasa, is to the north of the city.

Siwa Oasis

2008-09-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

The Siwa Oasis (Arabic: واحة سيوة‎ Wāḥat Sīwah, from Berber Siwa "prey bird; protector of the sun god Amon-Ra") is an oasis in Egypt, located between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert, nearly 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 560 km (348 mil) from Cairo. About 80 km (50 miles) in length and 20 km (12 mi) wide,

Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's isolated settlements, with 23,000 people, mostly ethnic Berbers who speak a distinct language of the Berber family known as taSiwit. Its fame lies primarily in its ancient role as the home to an oracle of Amon, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction and gave the oasis its name.

Agriculture is the main activity of modern Siwa, mostly dates and olives, supplemented by handicrafts (like basketry). Tourism has in recent decades become a vital source of income. Much attention has been given to creating hotels that use local materials and play on local styles.

1- History

Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, the earliest evidence of connection with ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established. The ancient Egyptian name of Siwa was Sekht-am "Palm Land".

Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis around the same time (7th century BC), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek Zeus Ammon) was already famous during the time of Herodotus. Prior to his campaign of conquest in Persia Alexander the Great reached the oasis, supposedly by following birds across the desert. The oracle is said to have confirmed him as both a divine personage and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt.

The Romans later used Siwa as a place of banishment. Evidence of Christianity at Siwa is dubious, but in 708 the Siwans resisted an Islamic army, and probably did not convert until the 12th century. A local manuscript mentions only seven families totalling 40 men living at the oasis in 1203.

The first European to visit since Roman times was the English traveler William George Browne, who came in 1792 to see the ancient temple of the oracle.

The oasis was officially added to Egypt by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1819, but his rule was tenuous and marked by several revolts.

Siwa was the site of some fighting during World War I and World War II. The British Army's Long Range Desert Group was based here, but also Rommel's Afrika Korps took possession three times. German soldiers went skinny dipping in the lake of the oracle, which was considered a sacrilege.

The ancient fortress of Siwa, built of natural rock (inselberg), made of salt, mud-brick and palm logs and known as the Shali Ghali ("Shali" for city, and "Ghali", remote), although now mostly abandoned and 'melted', remains a prominent feature, towering five storeys above the modern town.

Other local historic sites of interest include: the remains of the oracle temple; the Gebel al Mawta (the Mountain of the Dead) Roman-era necropolis featuring dozens of rock-cut tombs; and "Cleopatra's Bath" an antique natural spring. The fragmentary remains of the oracle temple, with some inscriptions dating from the 4th century BC, lie within the ruins of Aghurmi. The revelations of the oracle fell into disrepute under the Roman occupation of Egypt.

Another attraction for tourists is Fatnas Island, which became a palm-fringed peninsula located on the edge of a saltwater lake. The lake had been partially drained in recent years due to a plan to limit the effect of rising water levels in Siwa due to agricultural runoff from uncontrolled wells (a major problem affecting the entire oasis), and Fatnas Island is now surrounded mostly by mud flats.

2- Image gallery

Sharm el-Sheikh

2008-09-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

Sharm el Sheikh (شرم الشيخ', also transliterated as Sharm Al Shaykh), often known simply as "Sharm", is a city situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in Janub Sina', Egypt, on the coastal strip between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai.

Sharm el-Sheikh is the administrative hub of Egypt's Southern Sinai province which includes the smaller coastal towns of Dahab and Nuweiba as well as the mountainous interior, Saint Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai. Sharm el-Sheikh is known as The City of Peace[citation needed] referring to the large number of international peace conferences that have been held there.

1- Geography and history

Sharm el-Sheikh is on a promontory overlooking the Straits of Tiran at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. Its strategic importance led to its transformation from a fishing village into a major port and naval base for the Egyptian Navy. It was captured by Israel during the Sinai conflict of 1956 and restored to Egypt in 1957. A United Nations peacekeeping force was subsequently stationed there until the 1967 Six-Day War when it was recaptured by Israel.

Sharm el-Sheikh remained under Israeli control until the Sinai peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982 after the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979. A prosperous Israeli Settlement had been created there in the 1970s under the name "Ophira", derived from Biblical Ophir. Israeli settlers there had the name of being easy-going, bohemian types and - unlike settlers elsewhere - offered no resistance when evacuated in 1982. Also, unlike the Israeli settlements in North Sinai which were razed to the ground upon evacuation by order of then Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, the Israeli settlement at Sharm el-Sheikh was handed intact to the Egyptians, and some of the buildings erected at the time are still in evidence.

A hierarchical planning approach was adopted for the Gulf of Aqaba, whereby their components were evaluated and subdivided into zones, cities and centers. In accordance with this approach, the Gulf of Aqaba zone was subdivided into four cities: Taba, Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh. Sharm El-Sheikh city has been subdivided into five homogeneous centers namely: Nabq, Ras Nusrani, Naama Bay, Umm Sid and Sharm El Maya.

Sharm El-Sheikh city together with Naama Bay, Hay el Nour, Hadaba, Rowaysat, Montazah and Shark's Bay form a metropolitan area.

The land plan shows that the total area of Sharm El-Sheikh is expected to be about 42 km², in the year 2017. This area is designed to include:

Tourism resorts 8.4%
Tourism Facilities 40.9%
Green & Open areas 12.3%
Social Services 9.9%
Roads 12.2%
Urban Housing 13.7%
Bedouin Housing 1.6%
Hand crafts & small industries 1.0%

Before 1967, Sharm el-Sheikh was little more than an occasional base of operations for local fishermen; the nearest permanent settlement was in Nabk, north of Ras el-Nasrani ("The Tiran Straits"). Commercial development of the area began during the Israeli presence in the area. The Israelis built the town of Ofira overlooking Sharm el-Maya Bay, and the Nesima area, and opened the first tourist-oriented establishments in the area six kilometers north at Naama Bay. These included a marina hotel on the southern side of the bay, a nature field school on the northern side, diving clubs, a now well-known promenade, and the Naama Bay Hotel.

After the Sinai was restored to Egypt in 1982, the Egyptian government embarked on an initiative to encourage continued development of the city. Foreign investors - some of whom had discovered the potential of the locality during the Israeli occupation - contributed to a spate of building projects. Environmental zoning laws currently limit the height of buildings in Sharm el-Sheikh so as to avoid obscuring the natural beauty of the surroundings.

The city has played host to a number of important Middle Eastern peace conferences, including the September 4, 1999 agreement to restore Palestinian self-rule over the Gaza Strip. A second summit was held at Sharm on October 17, 2000 following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, but it failed to end the violence. A summit was held on August 3, 2005 in this city on developments in the Arab world such as the situation in Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

On July 23, 2005, the city was struck by the 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks. In total, 88 people were killed, including foreign tourists. The attacks are believed to have been carried out by a militant Wahabbi group.

2- Economy and tourism

Sharm el-Sheikh was formerly a port, but commercial shipping has been greatly reduced as the result of strict environmental laws introduced in the 1990s. Until 1982, there was only a military port in Sharm el-Sheikh, on the northern part of Marsa Bareka. The civilian port development started in the mid 1980s when the Sharem-al-Maya bay became the city's main yacht and service port.

Sharm el-Sheikh's major industry is foreign and domestic tourism, owing to its dramatic landscape, year-round dry and temperate climate and long stretches of natural beaches. Its waters are clear and calm for most of the year and have become popular for various watersports, particularly recreational scuba diving and snorkelling which some consider to be among the best in the world. Coral reefs, under water and marine life, unmatched anywhere in the world, offer a spectacular and dazzling time for divers. There is wide room for scientific tourism with diversity in marine life species; 250 different coral reefs and 1000 species of fish.

These natural resources, together with its proximity to European tourism markets, have stimulated the rapid growth of tourism that the region is currently experiencing. Guest nights also increased in that period of time from 16 thousands to 5.1 million. The total number of resorts increased from 3 in 1982 to 91 in 2000. Highly reputable management companies have been attracted to invest in this city such as Hyatt Regency, Accor, Marriott, Le Méridien, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, and others, with categories from three to five stars. Franchises like Hard Rock Cafe, McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken can be found in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Sharm is also the home of a state of the art congress center, where many political meetings have been held of international tenure. Peace conferences, ministerial meetings, world bank meetings, Arab league conferences for mentioning a few. It is rightly located along peace road and have been lately re-branded to be a Maritim outlet. The Maritim Sharm el Sheikh International Congress Centre can host events and congresses for up to 4,700 participants.

The night life of Sharm El-Sheikh is also quite attractive. In 2005, Little Buddha, a sushi bar, nightclub, and bar, took the title of having the longest continuous bar in the Middle East. Other popular bars include: Camel Bar, The Tavern, Pirate's Bar, Movenpick Beach, and The Mexican. If dancing is appealing to you, then Sharm has much to offer. Clubs such as world renowned Pacha throw parties almost every night of the year. These nightclubs and restaurants contribute greatly to the lifestyle led by Sharm el-Sheikh's visitors each year.

The colorful handicraft stands of the local Bedouin culture are a popular attraction. Ras Mohammed, at the southern-most tip of the peninsula, has been designated a national park, serving to protect the area's wildlife as well as its natural landscape, shoreline and coral reef. A number of international hotels and noted restaurants are clustered around the centre of Sharm, known as Naama Bay, with golf courses and other leisure facilities further up the coast.

3- Transportation

Sharm's marina has been redeveloped for private yachts and sailboats, with a passenger terminal for cruise ships and scheduled ferry service to Hurghada and Aqaba.

Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport is the second busiest airport in Egypt after Cairo International Airport and is well served predominantly by charter flights to mainland Europe and the United Kingdom, as well as some domestic and international scheduled services. A second terminal was opened in 2007, giving the airport a much-needed capacity boost.

Sharm has frequent good quality coach services to Cairo leaving from the Delta Sharm bus station. There are three companies on the route charging between 70 and 100 LE in 2008 for the 6 hour journey.

4- SCUBA and Water Sports

Sharm el-Sheikh has also become a favourite spot for scuba divers from around the world. Being situated near to the Red Sea, it provides some of the most stunning underwater scenery and warm water making this an ideal place to dive. Visitors to Sharm el-Sheikh can experience a variety of water and activities. Beach seekers find many activities such as diving, snorkeling, wind surfing, para-sailing, boating, and canoeing.

Ras Mohammed is the National Park of South Sinai and located on the very tip of the Sinai Peninsula; it probably represents some of the most famous dive sites in the Red Sea with 800-metre (2,600 ft) deep reef walls and pounding current and coral gardens.

The Sharm el-Sheikh Hyperbaric Medical Center was founded in 1993 with a grant from USAID by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, represented by Dr Adel Taher to assist with diving related illnesses and complete the area's reputation as a full-service dive destination.

5- Neighbourhoods
5.1 Naama Bay

Naama Bay is the central resort area of Sharm el Sheikh and comprises a stylish strip of hotels, with an attractive pedestrian promenade along the sandy beachfront. At the south-western corner of Naama Bay are shops, restaurants, small hotels and a wide choice of dive centres. Naama Bay is 7 km from Sharm El Sheikh Airport. It comprises a number of international clubs, dinners and night attractions like Pacha, Buddha Bar, Hard Rock Café…etc

Properties in Naama Bay are famous for their high rental yields. A number of exclusive high quality compounds; stretched across the street (Peace Road: Sharm's main road) from the main shopping area and within a number of luxury hotels; offer a range of 1, 2 and 3BR apartments for short term or long term lease. Due to the surrounding facilities and location is it the most expensive area yet maintains a high demand. Available Services: Supermarkets Malls Cafés Pharmacies Hotels Banks Schools Church Mosque Public transportation

5.2 Hay el Nour

The first residential area in Sharm El Sheikh and a nature extension of Naama Bay residential area is located about 2.5 km away from Naama Bay with both old and new buildings. Hay el Nour has been recently expanded to include the brand new extension located next to the largest church in Sharm. Although a residential area, a lot of businesses are starting to open up there, as well as new malls that offer office space. Available Services include: Malls, Pharmacies, Nurseries & Schools, and Public Transportation. There is also a El Sama-eyeen (The Heavenly) Cathedral of the Coptic Orthodox Church

5.3 Hadaba

Hadaba is a quiet, sun soaked resort on the outskirts of Sharm el Sheikh. Hadaba's wide range of hotels and holiday villas are situated in beautiful locations on the Ras Om Sid promontory. Staying at Hadaba, holiday residents are a five minute taxi or bus ride to Naama Bay, the bustling heart of beach and dive hotspot Sharm el Sheikh.

Hadaba is not only an appealing relaxed destination for tourists, but also famous with Sharm's prime residential area the Marine Club Villas. Buildings are 2 or 3 storey individually owned villas, studios and apartments by various nationalities and mostly let on long term agreements for residents in Sharm. Prices in Hadaba are affordable yet some properties are more exclusive with outstanding design and breathtaking sea views. Most businesses outside the hotels and diving fields are located in Hadaba

This neighbourhood is completely self-sufficient and also has public transportation, which makes it very easy to move around.

5.4 Shark's Bay

Shark's Bay (also known as the White Night) is an elite touristic area, with a wonderful combination of sea, gulf, and mountain scenery. It encompasses a number of high end 5star hotels and resorts (such as The Hilton Shark's Bay Resort) with a few residential properties that have marvellous views and beach access. The area is originally very famous as a diving destination. Available services: Supermarkets Pharmacies Hotels

5.5 Montazah

One of the upscale neighbourhoods in Sharm, Montaza consists of residential compounds that include everything from studios to big villas with individual gardens overlooking Tiran Island. Located 10 km away from Naama Bay and close to the airport and the 5 stars hotels. Properties in this area are luxurious secluded privately owned plots with apartments and villas that have beach access unlike other neighbourhoods in Sharm el-Sheikh, therefore prices tend to be more expensive. Available services: Supermarkets Pharmacies Hotels

5.6 Rowaysat

This charming area used to be a Bedouin settlement, but is gradually becoming a residential neighbourhood. Located on the mountain side about 7 km away from Naama Bay, houses there are usually quite spacious with a garden and a beautiful view complete with camels and sheep surrounding them, adding a touch of authenticity to the neighbourhood. It is also very famous for the workshops and craftsmanship available for almost any need.

6- Shopping

There are two types of shopping options in the Sinai and Red Sea area and visitors can enjoy each of them for the distinctly different opportunities which they present. The first type of shopping is the kind of mall shopping which visitors frequently engage in during vacation. The other type of shopping for visitors to enjoy in the area is the traditional market shopping at the local bazaars or souks. This shopping takes places with local shopkeepers and is more than just a buying and spending experience.

Naama Bay Naama Bay, also down as the centre of Sharm El Sheikh, this place has an enormous variety of stores selling almost any product you are looking for. Not only that, Naama Bay has endless choices of restaurants and coffee shops that you can stop at for a break during your shopping escapade.

Old Market Once you step into the old market, all you will see is shop after shop after shop, narrow streets and alleyways with more and more shops, usually selling Sinai and Egypt related souvenirs. The Old Market is the cradle of the local fish stores, where you can indulge in a fish and seafood meal at its best, and in its simplest form.

Il Mercato The latest sensation in Sharm el Sheikh, Il Mercato has come to add pizzazz to Sinai, exclusively bringing in the biggest international brands of apparel, food chains, cafés and more. Located in Hadaba, Il Mercato is the open air version of Dubai's Il Mercato, designed by the same architect. They also have special arrangements on Mondays and Fridays for a women's day and children's day consecutively.

Al Khan An outdoor shopping area, Al Khan is a long alleyway with two-storey high bungalows with hatched roofs lined up on both sides creating a nice exotic ambiance.

La Strada It is the new entertainment centre of Nabq, Sharm El Sheikh's new hot spot. With a number of international brands, coffee shops as well as business offices and an upcoming hypermarket across the street. Every Saturday entertainment and activities are arranged for children and families.

7- Image gallery

Shibin El Kom

2008-09-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

Shibin el Kom (Arabic: شبين الكوم) is a city in Lower Egypt and the capital of the Monufia Governorate.

The most important central and local government offices are located in it, as well as the main branches of Menoufia University. The city has several public and private schools, hospitals, a large stadium, telecommunication central office of Telecom Egypt, internet service providers, organized trade unions (medical, commercial, agriculture, engineering, etc.), athletic teams, political parties and social organizations and a chamber of commerce.

While the city is not a new one, its infrastructure is being modernized. The economy of the city depends on industry, commerce and to less extent on agriculture.

Menoufians are active participants in the political process in Egypt. The current president Hosni Mubarak is from Kafr El-Messilha. President Anwar Sadat was also from Menoufia. Recent statistical stimates (2006) show that the city has a population of 0.63 million, which is 18.87% of the total population of the governorate, with a population density of 2010 persons per square kilometer (this includes the El-Batanoon, Bakhaty, Istobari, El-May, El-Messilha, Miligue, Shanawan and Shubrakheet).

Suez

2008-09-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

Suez (Arabic: السويس‎ as-Suways) is a seaport town (population ca. 497,000) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has two harbors, Port Ibrahim and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities. Together they form a metropolitan area. Railway lines and highways connect the city with Cairo and Port Said. Suez has a petrochemical plant, and its oil refineries have pipelines carrying the finished product to Cairo.

1- History

In the 7th century a town near the site of present-day Suez was the eastern terminus of a canal linking the Nile River and the Red Sea. In the 16th century Suez was a Turkish naval station.

Its importance as a port increased after the Suez Canal opened in 1869. The city was virtually destroyed during battles in the late 1960s and early 1970s between Egyptian and Israeli forces occupying the Sinai Peninsula. The town was deserted following the Third Arab-Israeli War in 1967. Reconstruction of Suez began soon after Egypt reopened the Suez Canal, following the October 1973 war with Israel.

2- Suez Canal

There was a canal from the Nile delta to the Gulf of Suez in ancient times, when the gulf extended further north than it does today. This fell into disuse, and the present canal was built in the nineteenth century.

The Suez Canal offers a significantly shorter passage for ships than passing round the Cape of Good Hope. The construction of the Suez Canal was favoured by the natural conditions of the region: the comparatively short distance between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the occurrence of a line of lakes or depressions which became lakes (Lake Manzala in the north, and depressions, Timsah and the Bitter Lakes, part way along the route), and the generally flat terrain. The construction of the canal was proposed by the engineer and French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps, who acquired from Said Pasha the rights of constructing and operating the canal for a period of 99 years. The Suez Canal Company (Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez) was formed. Construction took 11 years, and the canal opened on 17th November 1869. The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade.

In 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the canal, provoking the Suez Crisis. Following the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, the canal was closed, to be reopened only in 1975.

3- Gallery

Taba

2008-09-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

Taba (Arabic: طابا) is a small Egyptian town near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. Taba is the location of Egypt's busiest border crossing with neighboring Israel. Little more than a bus depot and a luxury hotel (complete with casino), Taba is a frequent vacation spot for Egyptians and tourists, especially those from Israel on their way to others destinations in Egypt or as a weekend getaway. It is the northernmost resort of Egypt's Red Sea Riviera.

Taba was the last portion of Sinai to be returned to Egypt under the terms of the 1979 Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

Taba was on the Egyptian side of the armistice line agreed to in 1949, and returned to Egypt when Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1957. However, when Israel reoccupied the Sinai after the Six-Day War (1967), a 400-room hotel was built at Taba. When Egypt and Israel were negotiating the exact position of the border in preparation for the 1979 peace treaty, Israel claimed that Taba had been on the Ottoman side of a border agreed between the Ottomans and British Egypt in 1906 and had, therefore, been in error in its two previous agreements. After a long dispute, the issue was submitted to an international commission composed of one Israeli, one Egyptian, and three outsiders. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypt's favor, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt later that year.

As part of this subsequent agreement, travellers are permitted to cross from Israel at the Eilat - Taba border crossing, and visit the "Aqaba Coast Area of Sinai", ( stretching from Taba down to Sharm el Sheikh, and including Nuweiba, St Catherine and Dahab ), visa-free for up to 14 days, making Taba a popular tourist destination. The resort community of Taba Heights is located some 20 km south of Taba. It features several large hotels, including The Hyatt Regency, Marriott, Sofitel and Intercontinental. It is also a significant diving area where many people come to either free dive, scuba dive or learn to dive via the many PADI courses on offer. Other recreation facilities include a new desert style golf course.

Zagazig

2008-09-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

Zagazig (Zakazik, Arabic الزقازيق az-Zaqāzīq, is a town of Lower Egypt, in the eastern part of the Nile delta, and is the capital of the province of Sharqia Governorate.

As of 1999, its population was approximately 279,000. It is built on a branch of the Fresh Water or Ismaïlia Canal and on al-Muˤizz Canal (the ancient Tanitic channel of the Nile), and is 47 miles by rail north-northeast of Cairo. Situated on the Nile Delta in the midst of a fertile district, Zagazig is a centre of the cotton and grain trade of Egypt. It has large cotton factories and used to have offices of numerous European merchants.

It was the birthplace of Colonel Ahmed Orabi who led the revolt against the British in 1882. It is located on the Muweis Canal and is the chief center of the corn and cotton trade. There is a small museum called the Orabi Museum that contains some interesting archaeological exhibits.

Zagazig University, one of the largest universities in Egypt, is also located in the city, with colleges in different fields of science and arts. Also there is a branch for Al-Azhar University, the largest Islamic university in the world.

Zagazig is the birthplace of famous Coptic Egyptian journalist, philosopher and social critic, Salama Moussa.

1- Ancient Bubastis

The ruins of ancient Bubastis are located 3 km southeast of town. Bubastis was the ancient capital of the 18th nome, and is home to the feast celebrating the cat-goddess Bastet. Bubastis is the Greek name of the Egyptian Per-Bastet. Bubastis became the capital of Egypt in the 22nd and 23rd Dynasties. There are remains of the temples built by Osorkon II and Nectanebo II. Catacombs where the sacred cats were buried are located behind an Old Kingdom chapel remains that are from the period of Pepi I.

2- Notable People from Zagazig

Ahmed Orabi : The notable leader and the first to call for freedom and for a democratic Egyptian modern republic in 1882, suppressed by the British occupation and finished exiled.

Abd el Halim Hafiz : The romantic super star singer, was born and raised in Zagazig suburbs before becoming one of the most prominent figures in the Arabic and Egyptian singers .

Magdy ElShafee: Cartoonist and founder of the first Egyptian graphic novels for adults.

3- Image gallery

History of Egypt

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Prehistory

Early Dynastic Period

Old Kingdom

First Intermediate Period (7th - 11th Dynasties) (2150 -1986 BC)

Middle Kingdom

Second Intermediate Period (13th - 17th Dynasties) (1759 - 1539 BC)

New Kingdom

Third Intermediate Period

Late Period

Ptolemaic Dynasty

Roman Period

Islamic Period

French Occupation Period

British Occupation Period

British Occupation Period

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The British occupation had no physical changes on Cairo since the British had been ruling Egypt indirectly for years. Tawfik remained the khedive, the consular courts dealt justice, the administration was foreign and the British occupied the Citadel. They did need foreigners to help rule Cairo simply because they did not want the commerce in Cairo to be controlled by the Egyptians. However, it was very important that the city be organized by dependable people that were not Egyptian.

Lord Cromer was the man responsible for the consolidation of the absolute rule in Cairo. He became the British Agent in Egypt in 1883 and ruled Egypt for 24 years. Before this, he had been in control of the Public Debt in Cairo as British Commissioner. He was responsible for the manipulation that helped the British occupation of Egypt. He was also responsible for keeping the French, Belgians and Italians away from the Nile. Under Cromer, Cairo was a very political and social city.

Cromer left Cairo in 1907 and left control of the city to Sir Eldon Gorst. Cairo began to change its appearance after the English arrived. By the year 1900 there were four tramways in Cairo and a fifth was being built to run from Giza to the pyramids. Trains had been built that ran from Helwan and Tura. English department stores and shopping districts had been set up.

After Gorst, Lord Kitchener became resident minister of Egypt and set up a legislative assembly in Cairo. This was the beginning of the parliamentary life of Egypt, which was an imitation of England. The British resident minister was similar to the prime minister in England. Each minister was always afraid that somehow the Egyptian people might discover that there might be another way to rule itself other than the English parliament way. During World War I the people did finally recognize this from the political events that resulted from the war.

The war brought many Australian, British, New Zealand and colonial troops to Cairo. In Arabia, the Arabs revolted against the Turks in a fight for national liberation. This soon became a policy that all Egyptians could agree on. European Cairo was a madhouse because of the British and their self-indulgences. However, Egyptian Cairo became a place of politics, preparation and whispers. The prices began to rise steeply in Cairo while the British soldiers were enjoying things that they had never had before. The people in the countryside began to suffer greatly from poverty and malnutrition. It was so bad that during the year 1918 more people died than were born.

In the city itself, some things were more prosperous. The Australians that came in 1914 spent a great deal of money each day in Cairo. Eventually the soldiers began to have too much fun and were thinking more of fun than of the job they had been sent to do. The citizens of Cairo watched the soldiers and began to want more and more an independent country.

In 1916 martial law was introduced in Cairo. Military courts judged civilians and had them punished. England began to treat Egypt more like a country that was the enemy instead of a friend. In 1917, the British began to encourage the kidnapping of peasants to serve in their labor groups in Palestine. Thousands of fellahin were sent to Syria, Mesopotamia and to France.

After the war, U.S. President Wilson's Fourteen Points gave Egypt a hope of independence. Saad Zaghlul went to the British Residency and demanded the Egypt be given the right to self-determination. He was allowed to speak and leave, but was arrested a month later and sent to Malta. Egypt revolted on the news of this. Overnight Cairo became a revolutionary city as every town and city was seized by Egyptians. Everything stopped. Trains and trams stopped, no one went to work and strikes began. Eight British soldiers were killed on March 18, 1919 while on their way to Cairo. Trenches were dug and the city was barricaded. Many people were killed either in the fighting or executed for killing British officers.

The resident minister was replaced by General Allenby and he immediately had Zaghlul released from Malta. Allenby was criticized for years for this as being too compromising, but this probably saved Egypt for Britain more than anything else. He declared martial law and stopped the strikes one by one. Zaghlul had been released from Malta, but was not allowed to come to Egypt yet. He went to Paris where he tried to get someone to help him get Egypt's independence. On April 20, 1919 the United States recognized the British protection of Egypt. This all but ended the hope the Egyptians had of being free.

After the war, cotton returned to the world market. Food crops were replaced by cotton and fortunes were made. However, no food was grown and people were starving. The politics between the British and the Egyptians were getting worse. In 1922 Egypt was allowed sovereignty and Fuad became king. In the next 18 months, seventeen British officials were killed and twenty more were attacked in broad daylight. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian treaty was signed which gave Egypt a little bit of independence although superficially. In 1937, the Tribunaux Mixtes, which were the foreign courts, were done away with. The Egyptians still were not satisfied. The British were still in occupation, controlled most of the economic life and still controlled the canal. The reason that the British would not give up its hold completely was the cotton, the land and the link to India.

The British did very little to improve the way of life for the Egyptian people. They never drilled an artesian well that could pump pure water to a village or set up medical services for Egyptians. They didn't even try to educate or improve the conditions of the majority of the population. They weren't brutal occupiers, but they failed miserably at making the conditions livable to the citizens of Egypt. The Europeans that were born in Cairo were not directly to blame for the situation, but they did contribute to it. They lived, ate and slept well and they thought this was all that was expected of them.

When the second World War broke out, there were many soldiers from many different nations in Cairo. The Italians were there, but there were really no serious attempts to help Mussolini by them. The only real enemies in Cairo were the Germans. The British secret police watched them very carefully. There was a political raid in which the British caught German spies that had come to Cairo with money, a radio transmitter and a house boat on the Nile.

Because the English were unable to ship all of their supplies in from Britain, they trained and employed thousands of Egyptians in various trades. Some were mechanics, electricians, drivers, engineers and even lens grinders. They repaired military equipment and even built trains and machinery. Egypt started to weave their own cloth out of silk and wool. Advances were made in mining, cement, petroleum refining and chemical industries. In Egypt, the British spent over ten million pounds every year.

In July of 1942, the British were pushed back almost to Alexandria. Rommel stopped at Alamein because his troops were exhausted and almost out of supplies. The British rushed to Cairo. Soldiers were sent to various places to train while other got ready to retreat from the city. The British officers went to the banks to try to get their money while at the British headquarters, vital papers were burned. This scare changed Cairo to a point where it would never be the same again.

Montgomery took over the Eighth Army in the desert and moved them to Alamein. He won this battle in October or November of 1942. After this battle, Egypt lost most of the fantasy and glamour that had been year during the years of occupation. Now the city settled down to the first order of business, national liberation.

French Occupation Period

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When Napoleon arrived in Cairo, he brought with him a wide array of disorders and also Europe. After the three years that he spent in Cairo, the city would never again be the same Oriental town that it had been. The French left a legacy that is written all over the European parts of Cairo. Their tastes were mainly of a French middle class influence.

Napoleon came to Egypt on his way to India. Egypt just happened to be in the way and he had to get past this barrier first. The English and the French had a rivalry for an empire. Apparently the French had in mind to create a canal that would connect the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The trade war in Europe had been building for years and it had now come to the point where the east was the highest stakes to be won. Napoleon had been told that a conquest of Egypt would more than make up for the loss of the French West Indian colonies to the British. They were correct in thinking that the route across Egypt would be the fastest and maybe the best trade route to the east. This was all provided that Egypt and the trade itself were in the hands of the Europeans and not someone who would lay ridiculous levies on anything that passed through Egypt.

To get to Egypt, Napoleon needed three hundred ships to carry himself and his forty thousand soldiers. Napoleon set out from Toulon and other Mediterranean ports. The British thought that they were going to go through the Straits of Gibraltar to attack England by way of Ireland. There was a fairly small squadron of English ships that were sent out to stop the French from reaching the English Channel. The English did finally determine that Napoleon was sailing east and not west. The English did finally catch up to the French and chased them all the way to the port of Abukir, near Alexandria, Egypt. The English defeated the French fighting fleet. However, Napoleon's own ship L'Orient, narrowly missed the fighting. Had it not, the outcome of the entire battle might have been completely different.

Napoleon was never able to get reinforcements from France because of the loss of safe communications with his homeland. He met his first resistance from the Egyptian people in the Delta. The peasants and the townspeople fought him, rather than soldiers. When Napoleon entered Cairo, he sent for the sheikhs of the city. He informed them that he intended to set up a group of ten to rule the country and set up the laws. This was ultimately how he ran the country. He arrived in the city on Wednesday, July 25, 1798 and moved into the Mohammed Bey al Elfi palace, which was brand new. Very few soldiers came into the city with Napoleon, as most of them stayed along the river. The people of Cairo seemed in a kind of shock by the occupation of these new rulers. They did not realize that the Mamelukes, whose job it had been to defend the city and failed miserably, were no longer capable of defending the city. It was the job of the Egyptians. The French also seemed to be cautious as if they didn't know how to go about beginning to occupy the city.

In the beginning the French soldiers walked through the city unarmed and paid extremely high prices for everything that they bought. This encouraged the rest of the people to come out of hiding. French restaurants were opened up by the French citizens of Cairo for the new soldiers in their city. This was the first restaurant that Cairo had ever seen. The Egyptians were very excited about this and this allowed the French to come into Cairo very lightly at first.

Meanwhile, Napoleon was setting himself up militarily in the city. He began by occupying all of the strategic buildings and began to set up artillery all around the outside of the city. He also began to make stronger contacts with the sheikhs that he had convinced to cooperate with him. The Mameluke sheikhs seemed to be very impressed with the European culture. Napoleon needed some sort of visible sign from the people that they had submitted to his rule. He ordered everyone to wear a sort of badge on their hats as a symbol of friendship and submission. The people for the most part ignored this order and eventually Napoleon was forced to withdraw it. This was the first sign of the unrest the people were beginning to feel. They began to resent everything that he did in the city. He taxed all of the buildings and even tried to level off the graves in a cemetery at Ezbekiya so that he could have level ground around his headquarters. The people became very hostile about the cemetery and he did not go through with his plan.

The demonstrations by the people of Cairo became too much for Napoleon and he had one of his generals, Dupuy, go out into the streets to disperse the demonstrators. The people attacked the general, killed him and many of his soldiers. The people then occupied the remaining gates on the streets of Cairo and put up barricades in all parts of the city. The year was 1798 and this was Cairo's first revolt against the occupation of the French.

The French responded by setting up cannons in the Citadel and firing them at Azhar and the areas around it. During the night, the French had forces go into the area and destroy the barricades. The cavalry forced their way into the Azhur and killed an unknown number of people. The citizens of Cairo would never rest in their harassment of the French. They had finally learned that it was up to them alone what they did. There were no Mamelukes, soldiers or outsiders to help. The resistance was so violent that Napoleon demanded that the sheikhs tell him who the leaders of the revolts were. They refused at first, but eventually they did betray some. One of the betrayed was the chief of the Corporation of the Blind. He and four others were arrested and shot. The French then set about destroying parts of the city and Giza. They also built forts all around the city and demolished mosques, small palaces and some homes in the city. They even poisoned the dogs in the city because the dogs would sound a warning when a French soldier would approach.

Cairo did manage to benefit from the presence of the French. Napoleon had two headquarters, one of which was military and the other intellectual. Even before he had left France, he planned to establish a solid French cultural base for the future. It seemed that the two policies of military and intellect began to grow further apart from each other. The French had to defend themselves more and more against attacks, while the scholars made very deep impressions on Cairo's people in the very wealthy Institut de l'Egypte.

This Institut de l'Egypte had been set up in two houses in a part of Cairo called Nasriya. There were four sections; industry, science and mathematics, health, art and literature. There were thirty-six French scholars that were there. In the brand new house of Hasan al Kachef, who was a Circassian Mameluke and had fled with Murad, the industry, health, and science sections set up laboratories, workshops and libraries. In the other house, which belonged to Ibrahim al Sinnari, who a Turkish deputy, the painters and artists worked.

The citizens of Cairo continued to openly oppose Napoleon, which caused him to execute more and more people every day. In one day alone he had ninety people shot in the Citadel and five Jews and two women were arrested and thrown in the Nile to drown. The people who worked for the French now rode around on horses and carried weapons. They would insult the Moslems, which must have been encouraged by Napoleon because he always needed these minorities to help him rule. Things continued to deteriorate and it must have been during this time that he decided that he would not be able to stay in Egypt.

In 1798 he was beginning to believe that the Turkish and the British, who were working together at this time, were getting ready to attack him from Syria. Thinking that he should attack first, he started preparing an attack on Syria. On September 22, 1798, he left Cairo on a mission to explore the area as far as Suez. He returned to Cairo almost immediately and in February 1799, he along with his army set out to defeat the Turks in Syria. The baggage that he took along with him was incredible. He had beds and mattresses, slaves and women in French clothes. Not much of it was military equipment. The French were defeated at Acre by mostly British soldiers. Napoleon got back to Cairo as quickly as he could with only seven thousand of the twelve thousand that he had left with. The citizens were delighted that he had been beaten.

At about the same time that he was arriving back in Cairo, the Turks were arriving in Abukir. Napoleon was completely on the defensive now and quickly went north to face the Turks. These Turks had no British soldiers helping them, and the French easily beat the Ottoman troops. He returned to Cairo with thousands of Turkish prisoners. By this time, it was inevitable that a better prepared Turkish army would beat him. Knowing this, he went home to France where he became the First Consul in 1799. Kleber had been left in charge of Cairo.

On the Egyptian borders, Sir Sidney Smith who had defeated Napoleon at Acre, appeared with the Turks. Kleber knew that he could not win the fight so he signed an agreement to evacuate the country. It was the year 1800. As the French began to evacuate the city, the Egyptians didn't even attempt to hide their hatred of the French. They ridiculed and insulted the French. The Mamelukes that had been hanging around outside the city, were ready to reoccupy the city as soon as the French were gone. There was a period of weeks in which the Mamelukes, the French and the Turks watched each other nervously around the city.

The French had no ships so this made it very difficult for Kleber to leave the city. The Mamelukes and the Turks began grouping together as if getting ready for an attack on the city. Kleber began to feel trapped so he marched out of Cairo and attacked the Turks at Heliopolis. The Turks left after the first attack and the people of Cairo armed themselves with clubs after hearing the gunshots. The Turks needed someone else to take the heat to divert attention from themselves for failing and their cowardice. The Turks then ordered all the Christians to be killed since there were bad feelings against the Christians that had sided with the French. Moslems were also arrested and killed or manhandled by the same people who were killing the Christians. It turned out to be more of a religious issue that had inspired the brutality. The entire city was in a state of civil war.

After sometime, the city began to be without food and the sheikhs were afraid that the city would be reduced to ruins in the bombardment by the French. The people tried to negotiate with Kleber. However the French troops came back to the city and broke through the barricades the people had set up. Finally the Turks and Mamelukes agreed to leave Cairo. The French gave them camels and money to help them get out faster. Once again the French controlled the city, but all they really wanted to do was to leave Cairo. The only way to get out was if the British let them go, and that probably wasn't going to happen. Something dramatic was going to have to happen to stop the atmosphere of mutual hatred that was between the French soldiers and the people of Cairo.

This finally happened on June 17, 1800, when General Kleber was stabbed to death at the palace headquarters at Ezbekiya, on his terrace. News spread quickly on the streets of Cairo and the people held their breath waiting for the reaction by the French. The French were afraid to enact any excessive revenge and were only too glad to accept the confession of the killer, who was a student of religion named Suleiman Alepin. He said that he had acted alone, which was virtually impossible scenario in any political assassination. However, Alepin and two accomplices were formally tried and sentenced to death. Alepin was forced to watch his accomplices beheaded and then had to suffer a painfully slow death.

Kleber was succeeded by General Jacques Menou. There had never been a person who was left in charge of a city that was in a more dangerous or critical situation. Menou had become a Moslem and had a Moslem wife. Their son, Said Soliman Mourad Jacques Menou was the first citizen recorded by the French in the census of Cairo. The Egyptian Moslems never believed that any Europeans who became Moslems were really Moslems. That left Menou just another Frenchman.

The British soldiers led by Sir Ralph Abercromby landed at Abukir on March 8, 1801. The Turks landed at al Arish on the eastern frontier of Egypt. The French knew that it was all over by this point. Menou was not a good general and he was easily beaten when he attacked the English near Alexandria. Abercromby was killed and was succeeded by Sir John Hutchinson as commander. Menou was isolated in Alexandria and was virtually cut off from Cairo by flooding and the sea dikes in the country. The British did not want to get involved in a street fight with the French, so they waited for the French to finally surrender.

The city was completely surrounded by the British, Mamelukes and Turks and the people inside the city were beginning to starve. Sir John Hutchinson offered to honor the original evacuation agreement with Kleber and the French agreed happily. The British, Mamelukes and Turks took over Cairo. There was a Colonel Stewart that entered the city first and went to the Citadel. It had been abandoned and no one had the keys, so he was unable to get in. There was a French officer that had been somehow left behind and eventually opened the gates. The British offered to protect the French officer, but he refused their offer and wandered out into the street where he was stoned to death by the people. The Turks went to the Citadel, where they found the British already there. The Turks were furious.

The Ottoman flag flew over the city because officially the Turks were in control of Cairo, but the British were in control of the Citadel. Many from the British army followed the French out of the city and all the way to Alexandria to make sure that they were gone. The British stayed in the city only long enough to reestablish the Turks and they were all too happy to leave the city. One of the Turks that was left in charge was a young officer named Mohammed Ali. Ali had proved himself in a cavalry charge against the French and was soon promoted by The Turkish admiral, Husein. Mohammed Ali was an Albanian that was born in the same year as Napoleon and was thirty-three years old when he came to Cairo as an officer of the Turkish forces.

Mohammed Ali made himself pasha of Egypt with some help from his Albanian troops in 1806, five years after the British had left Cairo to the Turks. The Porte reluctantly acknowledged him the ruler of an independent state within the Ottoman Empire. He would rule Egypt for forty-three years, in which most of the years Egypt would be his private estate and Cairo would be his private city.

Mohammed Ali knew that eventually he would have to contend with the Mamelukes if he ever wanted to control Egypt. They were still the feudal owners of Egypt and the land was still the source of wealth and power in Egypt. In 1804 and 1805, Ali began to attack the Mamelukes. In one of the Mameluke's attempts at a defense, they forced their way into the city to fight him there. Ali's Albanians captured or killed most of the Mamelukes, which was the first serious blow to the Mameluke's. The captured Mamelukes were tortured and killed. During this clash the city was pillaged so badly that the people revolted against the Turkish governor and elected Mohammed Ali as pasha. He was considered to be the only enemy of both the Turks and the Mamelukes.

The British were still watching the happenings in Egypt. They attacked Egypt in 1807 with the intentions of overthrowing the Turks and reinstating the Mamelukes in authority. However, the five thousand Albanian troops defeated the British and had the captured British soldiers sold into slavery. Some of the soldiers were led around the city starving and miserable. Some of the people in Cairo took pity on the soldiers, gave them food, helped their sick and gave them donkeys to ride. There were 466 British soldiers and 24 officers that were thrown into the dungeons, but many of them were later ransomed by General Frazer. There were a few that were left behind, including one Scottish soldier, Keith, who became a Moslem and fought as a Moslem. He later became the governor of the Holy City of Medina after showing great bravery in battle.

After defeating the British, Mohammed Ali was in a very good position. The Turks were not going to be a problem since technically he was still representing them. The Mamelukes were much weaker after the defeat of the British and he was able to seize their lands in the Delta. By 1808 he was powerful enough to confiscate all of the land in Egypt, even the lands which were part of an Egyptian organization of religious endowment. He destroyed all of the title deeds to the land except his own. He set up a system of omdehs, who were local government representatives, and mudirs, who were provincial governors. This system remained in effect until 1952.

As long as enough Mamelukes remained alive to claim their ancient rights to the land and to resist him, the land still didn't completely belong to Ali. He invited five hundred of the leading Mameluke lords to attend a ceremony that was supposedly for his son, Tusun. The lords accepted and arrived wearing their most beautiful clothes and expensive armor, riding decorated horses. On March 1, 1811, Shahin Bey led the military procession of Mamelukes out of the Citadel. He went down a hill to the gate of Azab. The doors of the gate were shut quickly in front of them so that they were trapped with high walls on either side of them and Albanian soldiers behind them. Turks that were up on the high walls, were ordered to killed the Mamelukes as soon as the gate was closed. Five hundred Mamelukes were trapped in a very small space with their horses and all their armor. They removed as much of their armor as they could and tried to hide from the battering that came from above and behind them. Shahin Bey was wounded and then beheaded and presented to Mohammed Ali to claim a bounty. None of the Mamelukes escaped. The houses of the Mamelukes were soon raided and some of the women were murdered.

After the fight was over, Mohammed Ali immediately went to find the less important Mamelukes who had remained in the countryside. Thousands of people were killed as well as the Mameluke power in Egypt. Mohammed Ali was in absolute power after their annihilation. He immediately began to spread his new kingdom with his sons Tusun, who was his favorite, and Ibrahim as his best generals. Istanbul invited them to war with the Wahhabis of Arabia and was able to get personal control of the Red Sea coast. This meant that he control the Red Sea on both sides. He occupied Sudan and began to modernize Egypt. There were armories, factories, shipyards and canal systems were built by foreign experts that he imported to help. Some Egyptians were even sent abroad to study, especially in France.

The Europeans began to be the privileged class of Egypt. Ali created monopolies in the trading and manufacturing areas which he shared with the European consuls. They had no choice but to agree to his outrageous terms, but they did reap the benefits anyway. The Europeans began to come to Egypt for different reasons than before. They were either the archaeologists or the tourists. The first archaeologist was Giovanni Belzoni. He was the son of a Paduan barber and was a strongman in a traveling fair. He came to Cairo in 1815 and became a fanatic of the ancient ruins. He was one of three people who did a lot to popularize Egypt and Cairo with the Europeans. The other members of the trio were John Lewis Burckhardt who was the Anglo-Swiss traveler, scholar and explorer. He discovered many Pharaonic sites that Belzoni exploited later. Another was Herbert Salt who was the British consul in Cairo. He was a business partner with Belzoni and he made a fortune from the antiquities he shipped to Europe in large amounts. Burckhardt did the discovery and Belzoni and Salt robbed the sites. Belzoni and Salt were the ones who sent to England the head of Memnon, the trunk of Ramses and the straight left Pharaonic arm which is in the British Museum's Egyptian section. Auguste Mariette came to Cairo in 1850 and is probably the most respected archaeologist in Egypt. He is the person who founded the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and collected most of what is inside.

In the 1840s and 1850s, Mohammed Ali greatly enjoyed the European attention and interest in Egypt. He knew that it was a gold mine if he could figure out how to attach Egypt to the ever-expanding industrial and trading riches in Europe. There were two things that really made this possible. Ali introduced cotton to Egypt in 1822 and in 1845 Lieutenant Thomas Waghorn carried the mail from Bombay to London in thirty days, which was a record time. He used an overland route through Egypt to do this.

The cotton in Egypt was a native form called baladi. The Europeans needed a superior quality of cotton and in 1818, the Ethiopian cotton, called Maho, was shown to Mohammed Ali. Jumel, a Frenchman that had been in America, knew about this kind of cotton and convinced Mohammed Ali to grow a plot near the Heliopolis obelisk. By 1820, three bales had been shipped to Trieste. Mohammed Ali then put Jumel in charge of his cotton plantations. Mohammed Ali began to sell the entire crops for a year at a fixed price. Money began to flow into Egypt.

The cotton industry also brought the credit system to Cairo, but not in a good way. Europe kept enticing Mohammed Ali and his successors to continue borrowing at the incredibly high interest rates that eventually gave France and England the excuse to foreclose on the Egyptian economy and control all Egyptian life. Eventually Mohammed Ali was in such debt that an American consul, Gliddon, went to England to interfere in Egypt. No one would do a thing in England. Gliddon said that the peasants in Egypt had a right to plant what they wanted, but to no avail.

Another thing that would give Egypt its biggest lift was the direct route from India across Egypt to England. This was the first stage in the step to the Suez Canal. The Canal would not be started until 1859 and after Mohammed Ali's death. It was finally opened in 1869 and thereafter tied Egypt to Europe.

By the time the canal was opened, Ismail, Mohammed Ali's grandson was ruling Egypt. The European influence did good and bad for Cairo. Ismail intentionally divided Cairo into east and west areas because he wanted to built a Paris on the Nile. He then built two new boulevards in the old city and cut the city into quarters. Ismail's new quarter was set on a French plan and was the organization of modern Cairo. This area is called Ismailiya.

Gas was brought to Cairo by Ismail in 1870, which was eventually replaced in 1898 with electricity. This made Cairo one of the earliest cities in the world to use electricity. Building was very heavy during a period of about ten years. Many homes were built as well as buildings. So much money was spent during this period that there seemed to be an endless supply of money. However, the money came from heavy taxation of everyone and everything and large loans from Europe. He was in such debt that in 1875 Ismail had to sell his shares of the Suez Canal to the British for four million pounds.

In 1876, a group of Europeans told Ismail that he owed 91 million pounds. In 1879 the British and French did what Ismail had been expecting them to do for a long time. They told Ismail to abdicate, which he did because there was nothing else that he could do. The people wouldn't even help him because of the heavy taxes that he had levied on them. The people hated him. He finally gave in and left the country for Europe and died in exile in 1895.

Ismail's son, Tawfik, inherited what was left of Egypt. The taxes that were placed on the people were even more harsh than before. Everything was taxed. A revolt was started by a man who liked to call himself Ahmad the Egyptian. He was the son of a peasant and became colonel of Tawfik's army. Arabi started speaking out for the peasants. The revolt began in 1881 with mutiny in the army itself. The rest of the country joined in immediately. Four thousand men marched to the square outside Abdin Palace and told the khedive to come out. Tawfik wasn't there, but when he did arrive, the palace was surrounded by soldiers that had cannons pointed at the palace.

Tawfik had to sneak into the palace by the back way. He was advised by some of his leaders to appeal to the troops. He walked down the staircase with his British comptroller, Auckland Colvin, on one side and General Charles P Stone on the other. Tawfik asked the troops what they wanted. Arabi told him they wanted liberty, an assembly of notables, a constitution and all Egyptians to be equal under the law. Tawfik asked for time to think about it. Later Arabi was called to the palace and he either apologized to him or thanked him. The Egyptians have never forgotten it or forgiven him. Arabi was made minister for war. The British and French were aware what was happening and sent a fleet of ships to Alexandria.

On July 11, 1882, the British bombarded Alexandria. Russian and American warships were in the harbor as well and the Europeans scrambled to get to the ships. Arabi had lined up along the Suez Canal hoping to stop the British. However, the British did go up the canal and landed at Ismailiya. On September 14, the British cavalry reached Abbasiya in Cairo. Arabi went out to Abbasiya and handed his sword over to the British. He has never been forgiven for this action either. Major Watson was an intelligence officer who entered the fortress alone. He ordered the commandant to get up and get out of the Citadel. The keys were handed over to Watson.

Ottoman Turk Period

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Ottoman Rulers

Khayer Pasha (1517-22)
Moustafa Pasha (1522-23)
Kouzlagah Pasha (1523)
Ahmed Pasha (1523)
Ibrahim Pasha (1524)
Suliman Pasha (1524-34)
Khissru Pasha (1524-36)
Suliman Pasha (second time)(1536-38)
Daoud Pasha (1538-49)
Moustafa Pasha (1549)
Ali Pasha (1549-54)
Mohamed Pasha (1554-56)
Iskander Pasha (1556-59)
Ali Pasha (1559-1560)
Mustafa Pasha (1560-63)
Ali Pasha (1563-1566)
Mohamed Pasha (1566-67)
Sanan Pasha (first time)(1567-68)
Garkas Pasha (1568-71)
Sanan Pasha (second time)(1571-73)
Hussein Pasha (1573-74)
Massih Pasha (1575-80)
Hassan Pasha (1580-83)
Ibrahim Pasha (1583-85)
Sanan Pasha (1585-87)
Ouis Pasha (1587-91)
Hafiz Pasha (1591-95)
Mohamed Pasha (1595-96)
Mohamed Pasha El-Sharif (1596-98)
Khedr Pasha (1598-1601)
Ali Pasha (1601-3)
Ibrahim Pasha (1603-4)
Mohamed Pasha (1604-5)
Hassan Pasha (1605-7)
Mohamed Pasha Moamar (1607-11)
Mohamed Pasha Sadafi (1611-15)
Ahmed Pasha (1615-18)
Moustafa Pasha (1618-19)
Gaafar Pasha (1619)
Moustafa Pasha Hamidi (1619-20)
Hussein Pasha (1620-22)
Mohamed Pasha (1622)
Ibrahim Pasha (1622-23)
Moustafa Pasha Qurah (1623)
Ali Pasha (1623)
Moustafa Pasha (1624-25)
Bairam Pasha (1626-28)
Mohamed Pasha (1628-30)
Moussa Pasha (1630)
Khalil Pasha (1631-32)
Bekeirgi Pasha (1632-35)
Hussein Pasha (1635-37)
Mohamed Pasha Gawan (1637-40)
Moustafa Pasha (1640-42)
Mansour Pasha (1642-44)
Ayub Pasha (1644-46)
Haydar Pasha (1646-7)
Moustafa Pasha Sanari (1647)
Mohamed Pasha (1647-49)
Ahmed Pasha (1649-50)
Abd El-Rahman Pasha (1650-52)
Khasky Pasha (1652-56)
Moustafa Pasha (1656-57)
Mohamed Pasha Zada (1657-60)
Moustafa Pasha (1660-61)
Ibrahim Pasha (1661-64)
Omar Pasha (1664-67)
Ibrahim Pasha Sufi (1667-68)
Qurah Qash Pasha (1668-69)
Katkhuda Pasha (1669-73)
Hussein Pasha (1673-75)
Ahmed Pasha (1675-76)
Abd El-Rahman Pasha (1676-80)
Osman Pasha (1680-83)
Hamza Pasha (1683-87)
Katkhuda Hassan Pasha (1687)
Hassan Pasha (1687-89)
Ahmed Pasha (1689-91)
Ali Pasha (1691-95)
Ismail Pasha (1695-97)
Hussein Pasha (1697-99)
Qurah Pasha (1699-1704)
Suliman Pasha (1704)
Mohamed Pasha (1704-06)
Muslim Pasha (1706-07)
Hassan Pasha (second time)(1707-09)
Ibrahim Pasha (1709-10)
Khalil Pasha (1710)
Wali Pasha (1711-14)
Eibedi Pasha (1714-16)
Ali Pasha (1716-20)
Ragab Pasha (1720-21)
Mohamed Pasha (1721-25)
Ali Pasha (1725)
Mohamed Pasha (second time)(1726-27)
Abu Bakr Pasha (1727-29)
Kaburli Pasha (1729-33)
Mohamed Pasha (1733)
Osman Pasha (1733-34)
Abu Bakr Pasha (second time)(1734-36)
Suliman Pasha (1739-40)
Ali Pasha (1740-41)
Yehia Pasha (1741-43)
Mohamed Pasha (1743-44)
Mohamed Ragheb Pasha (1744-48)
Ahmed Pasha (1748-1750)
Abdallah Pasha (1750-52)
Mohamed Amin Pasha (1752)
Moustafa Pasha (1752-55)
Ali Hakim Pasha (1755-57)
Mohamed Said Pasha (1757)
Moustafa Pasha (1757-60)
Ahmed Pasha (1760-61)
Bakir Pasha (1761-62)
Hassan Pasha (1762-65)
Hamza Pasha (1765-67)
Mohamed Raqim Pasha (1767-68)
Mohamed Orphalli (1768)
Mohamed Abu El-Dahab (1773)
Khalil Pasha (1774)
Moustafa Pasha (1774-75)
Ibrahim Pasha (1775-76)
Mohamed Ezzat Pasha (1776-78)
Ra’ef Pasha (1778-79)
Ibrahim Pasha (1779)
Ismail Pasha (1779-81)
Mohamed Yakin Pasha (1781-82)
Sharif Pasha (1782-83)
Mohamed Salahdar (1783-84)
Sharif Mohamed Pasha (1784-86)
Ebeidi Pasha (1786-89)
Ismail Pasha Tunsi (1789-91)
Mohamed Pasha (1791-94)
Salih Pasha (1794-96)

Under the Ottoman's Egypt was divided into twenty-four districts and each had its own Mameluke bey, which was formerly called an emir. Each of these beys were governed by the sultan in Istanbul. The Mameluke beys surrounded themselves with slaves who collected taxes for them and had baronial authority. Tributes had to be paid to the Turks as well.

The Ottoman ruler, Sultan Selim liked to keep trouble brewing between the Mameluke beys so that he could keep them divided and controlled. So they kept on fighting among themselves. The leader who was on top, so to speak, was called the Sheikh al Balad, which means "chief of the country". There were times where the Sheikh became more powerful than the sultan in Istanbul, although this only happened when the Turks had their attentions elsewhere, which was actually quite often. The Turks had set about stopping revolts in their empire or spreading their empire even further into the west. The were even able to reach the Danube and plundered every Venetian ship they ran across in the Mediterranean.

Cairo still remained an important city because of the wheat that fed the people of Istanbul, however Venice was almost destroyed. Cairo became once again a port for fruits and grains that headed for Islam, instead of Europe. Life in Cairo was again filled with plunderings, assassinations and killing in the streets. The rivalries among the Mamelukes were compounded when more types of Mamelukes were installed in the Citadel; the Azabs and Janissaries. There were times where the different groups would hold themselves up in the different mosques and fire cannons at each other across the city. The city was to be ruled by the governor with his own men, but this became very difficult to do because the local problems were not important enough to worry with to the colonial loyalists. Tributes were collected by the Turks in the ports, but the Mamelukes took most of the money before the tribute was levied. The ordinary person was left with almost nothing. The peasant was completely exploited.

In 1695, a famine struck Cairo and the people demonstrated outside the Citadel. The pasha refused to acknowledge them and even tried to run them off. The crowd was finally able to break into the stores and took bread and other foods. Finally the revolt got so bad that the pasha was replaced by another pasha that had been sent from the Porte. A self-proclaimed saint, arrived in the city in 1698 and set up a cafe behind the fountain of al Mou'men. He let the men and women dance freely all day and night. The people greatly enjoyed this until the soldiers arrived and beheaded the saint at the Citadel.

For many years, Cairo was divided into two factions, the Kassemites and the Fikarites. The division was originally created deliberately by Sultan Selim between the Kassemites, who were the Mamelukes of Egypt and the Fikarites, who were the Turkish Janissaries. Eventually the Sadites and Haramites were divided with half of them supporting the Kassemites and the other half supporting the Fikarites. Sometimes these conflicts affected the whole city and many people lost their lives in silly battles that accomplished absolutely nothing.

The only good thing that occurred during this time is that the scholars did not give up. Cairo had the reputation of deteriorating intellectually during this time, but that was not the case. The common disrespect for the rulers bound them together. There was almost always mockery of the rulers by the people. The mosques managed to keep everyone committed passionately. In 1705 the river was low and the people went to Mukattam Hills to pray for deliverance. The Sheikh Hasan al Hadji was completely disgusted by this display.

Mohammed Amin Pasha was governor during the period in which some of Cairo's merchants were Moslems, however many were Jews and Copts. Many of them were very wealthy. The Ottomans used Copts as their clerks and civil servants. Some of the more prosperous Copts were allowed by Mohammed Amin Pasha to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Their caravan had many women and children and they had taken a lot of their possessions with them. They set up camp not far outside of Cairo, but while they were there Amin Pasha had encouraged some Moslem zealots to rob the Copts. They attacked their caravan and then looted the homes in the area as well.

Some of the Turkish rulers were not as bad as others. Osman Bey Zulficar was rather intelligent as was Ridwan al Gelfi. Al Gelfi was the chief of the corps of Azabs who were the Turkish mercenaries. He built several beautiful homes. However, his tastes were not on the same scale of excess as al Hakim or Kafour. He did manage to leave a good impression on Cairo. The only monument of his that remains is a gate on the Citadel called Bab el Azab. It was behind this gate that Mohammed Ali massacred the last of the Mamelukes in 1811. He died after being shot by assassins while he was being shaved. He didn't die in the chair, but he managed to get away on his horse and run to the countryside. He died from his wounds.

According to some historians during 1798, a laborer earned about one-seventh of a piaster per day. This came to be about 50 piasters in a year. The leading Mameluke, Murad Bey, took in fifteen hundred piasters every day out of the mint for his daily expenses. The situation in Egypt got to be so bad that the Coptic villages in Upper Egypt refused to pay their taxes. Apparently no one tried to collect from them either.

The Turkish manners and ways of life seemed to make no impression on the Egyptians. They did not use the Turkish language and the people of Cairo managed to keep their own identity. The ruling families did adopt some of the Turkish habits, but by and large the city remained Egyptian. The Turks built mosques but they preferred the public mosque called a masjid, to the college mosque called a madrasa. The Byzantine style was preferred to the traditional Arabian style. The mosques were usually smaller and their artistic creativity was less, not because of a lack of skill, but because of a lack of money.

In the year between 1796 and 1797, the Egyptians revolted against the Turks. They wanted something to be done about the unbearable taxes and the economic misery that had been oppressing them for so long. One of the Egyptian Mamelukes, Ali Bey, occupied Cairo and sent the Turkish pasha back to Porte. He then attacked Arabia and Syria and defeated them soundly. He was called the caliph of Mecca, which made Egypt an essentially independent state within the Ottoman Empire.

Ali Bey was eventually murdered and Ibrahim, who was another Mameluke along with Murad Bey took over the rule of Egypt. It was during this time that Napoleon arrived on the coast of Alexandria. The Mamelukes were not strong enough to fight both the French and the Turks at the same time. Murad would not believe it when he was told that Napoleon had arrived. When he finally believed it, he invited Napoleon to come to Cairo. A man named Rosetti, who was the Tuscan consul, was told by Murad to give each of the French soldiers a handful of silver when they arrived and to ask them to leave because Murad had no desire to kill them. Rosetti then tried to explain to Murad who exactly Napoleon was. Murad knew nothing of Europe or the history, so when the French started their advance on Cairo, Murad sent out ten thousand Mamelukes and thirty thousand irregulars, who were mostly Albanians, Negroes, Bedouins and Egyptians, to fight Napoleons forty thousand veteran troops.

In a suburb of Cairo called Imbaba, the French and the Mamelukes fought it out. The battle was very bloody on both sides. The veteran French soldiers maneuvered all over the place and eventually got the Mamelukes in a crossfire. The citizens of Cairo watched the smoke and dust rise over the city and the sounds of rifle shots and cannon filling the air. At the end of it all, the Mamelukes were beaten and they left the city. Murad Bey rushed to his palace at Giza and gathered up as much of his fortune as he could in about fifteen minutes. He ordered his soldiers to burn all of the military's gunpowder and gunboats along with any other ammunition that were along the river at Giza. He then left the city.

The people of Cairo mistakenly thought the French had set their city on fire. They began to pack their belongings and fled as quickly as they could. They really had no place to go and many of them were attacked by the Bedouins as they left the city. The killings and pillagings began even before the French ever arrived in the city. Several of the sheikhs of Cairo met at Azhar and wrote a letter to Napoleon to negotiate the surrender of the city. The people felt betrayed and deserted and became very angry. They broke into the palaces of Murad and Ibrahim and set them afire. It was on a Wednesday that Napoleon rode into the city and and took possession of the city.

Burgi (Tower) Mameluke Period

2008-09-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

Circassian (Burgi) Mamlukes Rulers

Sultan Zaher Barqooq (1382-1399)
Sultan Farag Ben Barqooq (first time) (1399-1405)
Sultan Abd El-Aziz Ben Barqooq (1405)
Sultan Farag Ben Barqooq (second time) (1405-1412)
Sultan Muyaid Sheikh (1412-1421)
Sultan Ahmed Ben Muyaid (1421)
Sultan Zaher Tatar (1421)
Sultan Nasser Mohamed Ben Tatar (1421)
Sultan Ashraf Barsbay (1422-1438)
Sultan Aziz Gamal Ben Barsabay (1438)
Sultan Zaher Gaqmaq (1438-1453)
Sultan Mansour Osman Ben Gaqmaq (1453)
Sultan Ashraf Inal (1453-1460)
Sultan Muayaid Ahmed Ben Inal (1460)
Sultan Zaher Khoshkadam (1461-1467)
Sultan Seif Eddin Yalbai (1467)
Sultan Zaher Tamarbagha (1467)
Sultan Khair Bey (1467)
Sultan Ashraf Qaitbay (1468-1496)
Sultan Ashraf Mohamed Ben Qaitbay (first time)(1496-1497)
Sultan Qansuh Khumsamaah (1497)
Sultan Ashraf Mohamed Ben Qaitbay (second time)(1497-1498)
Sultan Qansuh Ashrafi (1498-1500)
Sultan Ganblat (1500-1501)
Sultan Adel Tumanbay I (1501)
Sultan Ashraf Qansuh Ghori (1501-1516)
Sultan Tumanbay II (1517)

From the Citadel tower, the Burgi Mamelukes ruled Egypt for the next 135 years, but their reign proved even more bloody and unstable than that of the Bahris. They were also called the Circassian Mamelukes since most of them came from Caucasus. The period of their rule is said to have been the darkest points in Egyptian history. Even from the beginning of Barkuq, who was the first Burgi Mameluke, Cairo began to be like a dog eat dog world. The Mameluke soldiers from Greek, Turkish, Circassian and Tartar killed each other every day in the streets of Cairo. No one was safe, especially the women. The Circassians had a special taste for rape and murder. All of Barkuq's soldiers were bought sometimes in groups of five thousand. He would send them out in the country to stop revolts and they had free reign. The results were always unbelievable.

To help defend Syria from a new Mongol incursion under Timur-I Lang (Tamerlane), they assessed oppressive taxes. By 1403, famine and plague had combined to undermine the economy. The Christians and Jews were heavily taxed. Christians were required to wear a five pound wooden cross around their necks, while the Jews were required to wear a black ball.

During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Nile had shifted its course to the west of the city and receded almost a mile to where it is at today. A huge ship called the Elephant (Fil) sank at a bend near the port of al Maks. Silt began to form around the ship and within a few years Elephant Island (Gezirat al Fil) had formed. During the inundations the island would be covered but eventually it began to stay above the water even then. This caused the river to straighten out its banks. The parts that formed are what is now referred to as the European part of Cairo, which is from Ezbekiya Gardens to the river. The ground around Elephant Island was soft and marshy. The Mamelukes likes to practice their archery in this area. This area was eventually drained when al Nasir joined the Red Sea canal to the new bank of the river. This new area became the new port of Bulaq and was Cairo's link with the Red Sea traffic. Houses were built along the new riverbanks and the town of Bulaq began to appear.

The Circassian Mamelukes went on building the city. They built a lot of great monuments, but the most luxurious is the mosque of Sultan Mu'aiyad. It was built by the Sultan Mu'aiyad on the site where the prison stood in which he was once a prisoner. It was actually finished a year after his death in 1422. He was an oppressive and pious man who spent a fortune on his mosque. His currency reforms and the plagues that struck during his reign had everyone so engaged in choosing his successor, that no one attended his funeral. He was buried without a towel to wrap his body in.

After forty-nine years and twelve sultans, Qait Bey became sultan. He reigned for twenty-eight years and taxed all the land one fifth of its production. He brutally killed a chemist, Ali Ibn al Marshushi because he was not able to turn lead into gold. His mosque that was built in 1472 is probably the most beautiful and sophisticated building from medieval Cairo.

The amirs expanded state monopolies, but production dropped and the cost of living soared. From 1468 through 1489, under the able Sultan Qait Bey, Egypt experienced a brief revival but the country was headed for crises. In 1488, the Cape of Good Hope was discovered. It was a sea route from Europe to India. The Europeans were desperate for another way to get to India to avoid the heavy taxes and physical tolls that Venice and Cairo placed on their goods. Portuguese traders had already started trading in Calicut. They picked up goods from India and took them to Lisbon at much less cost than it had through Cairo. By 1502 Cairo's trade had decreased so bad that the Mamelukes tried to get help from the ruler of India. He refused. The Venetians brought timber to Alexandria and built a fleet of ships. The Egyptians sailed these ships to India and defeated the Portuguese fleet off of Bombay. However, in 1509 the Mameluke fleet was defeated off Diu. The sultan during this time was al Ashraf Kansuh al Ghury who was elected in 1501 at the age of 60. He was faced with the Portuguese coming from one side and the Ottoman Turks coming from Constantinople.

In May of 1516, al Ghury headed his army to face the Turks. The Mamelukes were badly defeated on August 24, 1516 north of Aleppo. Up to fourteen thousand Mamelukes and a huge army were defeated by treachery and artillery. The Sultan al Ghury was killed on the battlefield.

The Egyptians almost welcomed the Turks. They had suffered from taxation and famine and had grown weary of it. They thought the Turks were possibly the deliverers from the Circassian brutality. They were wrong. When the Turkish Sultan Selim came to Cairo, he started to reduce the city to nothing. This was the longest and heaviest era in Cairo's history.

Bahri (River) Mameluke Period

2008-09-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

Bahari Mamlukes Rulers:

Sultan Ezz Eddin Aybak (1250-1257)
Sultan Nur Eddin ben Aybak (1257-1259)
Sultan Muzafar Seif Eddin Qutuz (1259-1260)
Sultan Zahir Rukn Eddin Bybars (1260-1277)
Sultan Said Nasser Eddin Baraka (1277-1279)
Sultan Adel Badr Eddin Salamish (1279)
Sultan Mansour Seif Eddin Qalawoon (1279-1290)
Sultan Ashraf Salah Eddin Khalil (1290-1293)
Sultan Nasser Mohamed Ben Qalawoon (first time) (1293-1294)
Sultan Adel Zeen Eddin Katubgha (1294-1296)
Sultan Mansour Hossam Eddin Lagin (1296-1298)
Sultan Nasser Mohamed Ben Qalawoon (second time) (1298-1309)
Sultan Muzafar Rukn Eddin Bybars (1309)
Sultan Nasser Mohamed Ben Qalawoon (third time) (1309-1340)
Sultan Mansour Seif Eddin Ben Mohamed (1340-1341)
Sultan Ashraf Alladin Ben Mohamed (1341-1342)
Sultan Nasser Shahab El-Dein Ben Mohamed (1342)
Sultan Saleh Emad Eddin Ben Mohamed (1342-1345)
Sultan Kamil Seif Eddin Ben Mohamed (1345-1346)
Sultan Muzafar Zein Eddin Ben Mohamed (1346-1347)
Sultan Nasser Hassan Ben Mohamed (first time)(1347-1351)
Sultan Salah Eddin Saleh Ben Mohamed (1351-1354)
Sultan Nasser Hassan Ben Mohamed (second time) (1354-1361)
Sultan Salah Eddin Mohamed Ben Hagi (1361-1363)
Sultan Ashraf Zeen Eddin Ben Hassan (1363-1376)
Sultan Mansour Aladin Ben Shaban (1376-1381)
Sultan Salih Zeen Edin Hagi (1381-1382)

Named for their barracks on Roda Island, the Bahri Mamelukes defended the Islamic empire from the Mongols, who in 1258 swept through Persia and captured Baghdad, massacring the khalif and nearly all his family. In 1260, they took Aleppo and Damascus and were launching attacks into the rest of Syria. The Mamelukes were successful in keeping the Mongols out of Egypt. They were saved from the same fate that struck Damascus in the form of Houlagou, the grandson of Genghis Khan. He had made the blood run in the streets of Damascus. In Damascus the Christians had become allies of the Mongols. Houlagou sent a letter by way of four ambassadors to Sultan Moustafa Koutouz that there was no escape from the Mongol forces. Koutouz had all of the ambassadors killed and their heads hung up on the Bab Zuweila. At the end of the year 1260, the Egyptian Mameluke General Emir Zahir Baybars halted the horde at Ayn Jalut (Goliath's Spring), handing the Asians their first defeat. When their Syrian possessions rebelled, the Mongols retreated to Anatolia.

After his return to Cairo, the victorious General Baybars had the current sultan murdered. He had gone to Koutouz to ask for one of the women that had been captured in the war. The favor was granted and Baybars kissed Koutouz's hand in thanks. This was the signal for the assassins to cut off the sultan's head. Baybars then took control of the Citadel and continued fighting the Mongols in Syria and beat them twice. Baybars was born in Mongol Russia in the town of Kipchak. As a child, he had been bought in Damascus at a very cheap price because he had one eye that was covered by a cataract. He had a strong voice, a violent temper and had an insatiable vigor and energy. This is probably what drove him to finally become sultan. He ruled Cairo for seventeen years and his courts were very elaborate and rich. All of his ministers and employees were paid very good salaries and many had to be in attendance whenever he was holding court.

Any of Baybars emirs would have gladly killed Baybars if they had been given the chance. However, Baybars loved to be in several places at the same time and so no one was ever quite certain when he would show up and where. This pretty much stopped any plans to get rid of him. He did rebuild the canals, fortifications and shipyards in Egypt, which were all essential to the public works and the efficient functioning. Because Baybars was so successful abroad, Egypt prospered and so did its people, especially his partners. He was a religious man and ordered all the taverns and brothels closed and ran the European prostitutes out of the city.

Using both belligerence and diplomacy, he controlled the crusading Christians along the north coast of the Mediterranean. He installed the Abbasid Prince al-Mustansir as khalif at Cairo, thereby moving the Sunni religious center to Egypt and gaining control of of the Hajaz and Mecca. The khalif remained a figurehead while the Mameluke sultans continued to rule the remnants of the Islamic Empire. Baybars died when he was fifty years old. He had intended to poison Malik Kaher, who was a rival prince. Baybars had poisoned Kaher's drink, but Kaher cleverly switched their glasses. It took thirteen days for Baybars to die an agonizing death. After Baybar's death, his sons were quickly deposed and one of Baybar's generals, Qalawun was elected as sultan.

Qalawun had been a slave of al Salih. Qalawun had been bought for one thousand gold dinars and was known as "the Thousand Man". He was also from Kipchak and was said to have been a handsome man. One of his sons, Malik Salih, died of dysentery and Qalawun was heartbroken. He ordered court mourning in which no one was to change their clothes or cut their hair until Qalawun said so.

Qalawun, who founded a dynasty that lasted a hundred years, continued Baybar's policies. He kept both the Mongols and Christians at bay and made treaties with Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg as well as other European princes. He continued the building program initiated by Baybars, contributing a hospital as well as a mosque and mausoleum that still stand in Cairo, monuments to the pinnacle of Mameluke architecture. The building complex that he had built is called the Shari' Muiz and was built between 1284 - 1285. Qalawun bought Circassian rather than Turkish Mamelukes and housed them in the great circular keep in the Citadel. Qalawun was followed by his son Khalil in 1290, who captured the Christian port of Acre, razed the Crusaders' castles and drove them to Cyprus.

Muhammad al-Nasir succeeded his brother Khalil, but owing to his age (nine) and internal dissension, the Amir Lagim ruled Egypt in his name. Lagim took part in the murder of Sultan al Khalil, who was Qalawun's son. Lagim was murdered in 1299. Nasir regained control in 1298, only to flee in 1309 before the power of Baybars II. When Nasir returned in 1310, he had Baybars II put to death. Al Nasir was even more of a builder than his father was. He also had a cataract on one of his eyes like his father. He ruled absolutely and brutally and kept the rival Mamelukes under his thumb completely.

Externally, his reign was marked by security and prosperity. He made treaties with the Mongols and strengthened ties with Europe. Trade flourished, and Egypt's borders remained unchallenged. Toward his amirs, however, he was distrustful and capricious, either loading them with rich gifts or ordering their execution. During Nasir's reign, there were demonstrations against the Christians, however these demonstrations may have been against Nasir himself. He had used Christian advisers who made taxes and laws almost unbearable to the people. Naturally the Christians became the scapegoats. Fires began to fire up over Cairo. It was obvious that a group of arsonists were involved and the city began to burn. A Christian was caught in Baybar's mosque with a pot of oil ready to light it. The Christian and some monks were tortured until they admitted to lighting the fires. A Melchite convent in Mukattam was destroyed and four monks were burned to death. Suddenly the entire city hated the Christians and demonstrations started. Stores were closed and two hundred Moslems were arrested. All two hundred of these people were hanged at Bab Zuweila and in the vicinity. The Christians were not executed but they were made to ride around the city backwards on their donkeys and wear blue turbans and bells on their necks. Nasir's respect from the people of Cairo had diminished greatly.

Cairo did flourish during this time due to the trading that came through the port here. Trade with Venice had just begun as Venice was establishing itself on the mainland of Italy. Nasir had a canal dug between Alexandria and the Nile in 1311 as an indication of the importance of the trade in the Mediterranean. This canal took one hundred thousand men to dig. Nasir taxed everything that was sold. The city seemed to thrive during his reign, but after his death it sank from civil wars, famine and plague, known as the Black Death of Europe. Nasir died in 1341.

Turmoil continued under his sons and relatives, who were in general ineffectual or incompetent. The only one of his ten sons that ruled after Nasir and managed to leave anything behind is Hasan. He built what is still possibly the most impressive madrasa in Cairo, which is the Mosque of Sultan Hassan. The madrasa-mosque is considered to be the finest existing monument in Egyptian architecture. The body of Hasan lies in a marble tomb inside the mosque.

None of Nasir's sons reigned for long. The Mameluke emirs kept murdering the sultans as one faction would become more superior than another. Lacking strong sultans to control them, the Bahri (river) and Burgi (Tower) Mamelukes were continually at loggerheads, using their local wars as excuses to plunder the civilian populations. In 1382 a Circassian slave, Barkuq, took the throne and control of Egypt shifted to the Burgi Mamelukes.

Mameluke Period

2008-09-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

When Shaggar ruled alone, the Mamelukes essentially ruled the city anyway. The white slaves imported by the Egyptian governors now ruled Egypt. As children, they were converted to Islam, educated and given military training. Many worked their way up through the army ranks, and when they reached a high enough rank, were freed by their masters, to whom they pledged their loyalty.

Many were appointed to high governmental posts. Advancement was by individual ability and open only to those who had been indentured. To supply their private armies, the Mamelukes continued to import slaves, creating multiple power groups that dragged the native Egyptians into their fierce and frequent power struggles.

In general, since Mameluke culture was based on slavery, neither wives nor sons had any claim on a Mameluke's political or military power. Mameluke sons, denied both hereditary claims and the slavery that would grant them entry into politics, filtered into the Egyptian population. Although Mamelukes controlled the court and the army, Egyptians continued to staff civil offices, financial agencies, the judiciary and the professions.

Ayyubid Period

2008-09-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ayubbide rulers

King Nasser Saladin (1171-1192AD)
King Aziz Emad Eddin (1192-1198AD)
King Mansour Nasser Eddin (1198-1200AD)
King Adel Seif Eddin (1200-1218AD)
King Kamil Nasser Eddin (1218-1238AD)
King Seif Eddin Abu Bakr (1238-1240AD)
King Salih Nigm Eddin (1240-1249AD)
King Turanshah (1250AD)
Queen Shagarat El-Dur (1250AD)

Egypt had become a rich prize for two rival outsiders who were much more powerful and aggressive than the Fatimids. The first Christian crusaders appeared in Palestine in 1096 and began fighting with the Seljuk Moslems over the Holy Land and Egypt as well. These two groups invaded Egypt at the same time and at that point the invasion of Egypt was inevitable. The Fatimids that were still in Kahira preferred the Crusaders to the Seljuks and tried to pay Christian King Amaury two hundred thousand gold pieces to help them get rid of the Seljuks. He agreed to the deal. The first attempt to conquer Egypt ended in a stalemate when both the Christians and the Seljuks withdrew from the area. They had agreed among themselves to withdraw. Amaury the Christian returned in 1168 and killed everyone in Belbeis. He marched on to Kahira and Shawar, the effective ruler of Egypt, ordered Fustat-Misr to be burned to the ground. Shawar had been the Fatimid governor of Upper Egypt five years before, but had deserted them and joined the Seljuks in Damascus. He had made a deal with the Sultan of Damascus, Nur ed Din, for Shawar to become the first minister in Egypt. When Amaury came to attack Kahira, Shawar asked for help from the Sultan and the Sultan agreed. He sent his general Shirkuh and Salah al-Din Yusif al-Ayyubi (Saladin), who was Shirkuh's nephew, to get rid of the crusaders. This turned out to be not very difficult since they had become so unpopular after the massacre of Bilbeis. Amaury fled and the Seljuks were victorious.

Nur ed Din appointed Shirkuh as vizier of Egypt, but he did not live long enough to make any serious decisions. His nephew, Saladin inherited his position and problems. He became vizier on March 2, 1169 when he was thirty-two years old. His first job was to replace the Shi'i doctrines with the orthodox Sunni faith. It took over a year before he ordered Friday prayers to be said for the Abbasid caliph instead of Shi'i. He had been afraid that the people would be very upset after the destruction of Fustat-Misr, but no one got upset. This essentially ended the rule of the Fatimids more than anything else.

The Fatimids still lived in their palaces in Kahira and Saladin didn't bother them at first. It was only when the young Caliph al Adid died that Saladin moved in. He expelled eighteen thousand members of the Fatimid family that lived inside the enclosure. He took none of the wealth for himself and didn't even live in the palaces. He opened the gates and allowed the population to build inside and around the royal city. After two hundred years, Kahira was no longer a royal enclosure. This was the beginning of a city called Cairo, which was Saladin's city.

Saladin had a completely different concept of a city than the Fatimid's did. He wanted a city that was protected by strong walls and defenses, but was a thriving, unified city that had a lot of cultural and commercial freedom. He didn't want private palaces or royal enclaves, but a city that belonged to the people within it with him as absolute ruler. Many historians believe that his reasonings were purely militarily based, but that is not entirely true. The Fatimids were trying to hang onto a corrupt empire while he was defending a culture as well as a territory. He was trying to hold onto a religion as well as ideals. It was also a collecting house for the vast amounts of wealth that he needed to defend this city.

Saladin laid out plans to build a fortress, the Citadel, in 1176 - 1177 on Cairo's most easily defended hill and began expansion of the Fatimid walls to enclose the city. He had the Pharaonic canal that fed the oasis of Fayoum repaired and also built madrasas (colleges), making Cairo a great center for Islamic scholarship. It still retains this position today. Saladin not only fortified the city, but also built five colleges and a mosque in eleven years. Not one of these exists today and only a small part of the Citadel is his. These madrasas that he had built were very important to the re-emergence of Cairo from the position it had been in thanks to the Fatimids. It was in 1176 - 1177 that he ordered a madrasa to be built near the grave of the founder of one of the main schools of the orthodox Sunni sect, Imam el Shafi'i. El Shafi'i had been born in Giza and was buried in the cemetery called Khalifa, which was south of Cairo. The madrasa no longer exists, but the mausoleum is still there with a fairly new mosque.

Saladin did not remain in Egypt long, for as soon as the country was secure, he turned it over to his brother, al-Adil and his vizier, al-Fadil, and left to drive the Crusaders from the Holy Land. He left in 1182 and never returned. He died in Damascus in 1193 after having liberating all Palestine from the English, French, Austrians and Sicilians. Essentially, he liberated them from the power of the Pope. Many times he was aided by the eastern Christians. They were as much the victims of the crusaders as anyone. The epitome of Muslim chivalry, he won the respect of the European knights against whom he fought, and they incorporated many of his ideals into their own codes. He charmed the Westerners with his knowledge and culture and became a primary character in Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Talisman". From Saladin's forces, Christian knights learned firsthand about Islamic improvements in fortifications and arms as well as medical knowledge.

Saladin gave his family name to the Egyptian dynasty that followed him, and his successors were able rulers. They expanded irrigation systems and secured travel and trading routes. The spice trade flourished, and in spite of a bout with famine caused by several low Niles, plague and earthquakes, Egypt prospered. Saladin's brother, al Adil, succeeded Saladin and faced a terrible famine in the Middle Ages. The crusaders returned in 1218 but were thoroughly defeated by Adil's son, al Kamil. Al Kamil is the one responsible for finishing the first Citadel. Al Kamil was knighted by Richard Coeur de Lion on Palm Sunday in 1192.

Al Salih Ayyub and his Mameluke wife, Shaggar ad Durr were partly responsible for the Mameluke slave system becoming a very important part of Egyptian history. Shaggar ad Durr was one of his slaves. Eventually the Ayyubid sultans became too weak to keep the succession of their family going. Cairo became full of Mameluke soldiers and emirs. Al Salih Ayyub died when he was too young to have an heir, so his widow, Shaggar ad Durr decided to rule herself. She was respected enough by the Mameluke lords that they did support her at first. She ruled for eighty days as an absolute monarch.

Eventually the Bahri Mamelukes grew tired of her ruling alone and they elected Ayback, who was their commander in chief, to marry her. She may have married him, but Shaggar went on ruling Egypt alone. She made no secret of her contempt of him and even made him divorce his favorite wife. Later on he wanted to marry another wife and Shaggar had him murdered in the Citadel as he was taking a bath. The Mamelukes were furious and had her locked in the Citadel. Shaggar smashed all of her pearls and jewels into dust so that no other women could have them. They then drug her out into the street and beat her to death with the shoes of the young girls that belonged to the wife of Ayback that Shaggar had made him divorce. She was thrown out of the Citadel and left in the ditch below. Eventually someone took pity on her and took her body to the tomb that had been built for her. Her tomb is on the southern edge of Cairo and was built in 1250.

The Fatimid Period

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Fatimid Rulers

Gawhar El-Sakali (969-973AD)
Al-Mezz Leideinallah (973-975AD)
Al-Aziz Leideinallah (975-996AD)
Al-Hakim Biamrallah (997-1020AD)
Al-Zahir Lazazdinallah ( 1020-1094AD)
Al-Mustansir Biallah ( 1035-1094AD)
Al-Mustali Biallah (1094-1101AD)
Al-Amir Biahkamallah (1101-1130AD)
Al-Hafiz Ledeinallah (1130-1149AD)
Al-Zafir Biamrallah (1149-1154AD)
Al-Faiz Binasrallah (1154-1160AD)
Al-Adid Leideinallah (1160-1171AD)

In the second half of the tenth century, Egypt in general suffered not only from a number of low Nile floods, which in turn caused famine, but also from poor leadership of these last few Abbasid rulers. While the time was ripe, the Fatimid general Gawhar, a former slave, marched to Fustat-Misr and took the city on August 5th, 969 for his khalif, al-Muiz. But this conquest had really began in the last century. It had been planned by Abdallah Ibn Maymun, a Persian occultist with visions of imperial grandeur, who had established himself in Tunisia. He died in 875, but his descendents continued on. They would create an Egyptian Khaliftate that would last for over 200 years in Egypt, and also an empire that would encompass a considerable area of the Middle East. By this time, most Egyptians were Orthodox Sunni Muslims, and the khalif of their sect was in Baghdad, a regime that the Fatimids bitterly opposed. The Fatimids practiced a more introverted religion, which seems not to have impressed the more practical Egyptians. Then too, we are told that the Fatimids sent out missionaries to the lands still held by the Sunni Abbasids, and were more interested in converting them than their own subjects in Egypt.

El Kahira was founded by a Shi'ite. The difference between the Shi'i and the Sunni is very important during the next 200 years of the history of Cairo. The Sunni believe that the sunna (a path) is considered to be as powerful as the Koran itself. The sunna is a collection of traditions and interpretations of the Koranic law. After Mohammed died, he left no indication about who his successor should be. The Sunni decided that a chosen caliph would be an elected head of all legitimate secular power. The Shi'i believe that the Koran was absolute and divine. They believed that the authority should only continue through Mohammed's family. Mohammed had four daughters of which Fatima was the youngest. Two of his grandsons by Fatima were al Hasan and al Husein. Of course, the Fatimid period is named for this daughter.

General Gawhar, when he seized Fustat-Misr in 969, had no intentions of basing his authority on what was already a powerful city with its traditions already established. The very night that he arrived he placed his army on a site a little north of Fustat-Misr. He wanted to place his own capital there. Historians tell the story of how El Kahira was started. Gawhar had marked out the site where he wanted to place the city. Poles were placed at the corners and ropes were strung to show the perimeters of the walls. Hundreds of workmen were placed around the perimeter and waited to start digging. A special signal was to be given at the moment the digging was to commence. Bells were hung on the ropes and a signal was to be given. The astrologers were waiting for some astrologically correct moment to give the signal. Suddenly the bells started ringing although no one had given the signal. A raven sitting on the ropes had rung the bells, but the diggers took it to be the signal and started digging. The astrologers were terrified. El Kahira, which means Mars, was in the ascendant and this was sure to be a bad omen. The original name of the city was to have been El Mansuriya, which means "the victorious", but instead was called El Kahira, which can also mean "the victorious".

The Fatimid caliph, Muiz, who had sent Gawhar to Egypt, placed himself in the new royal enclosure in El Kahira in 973. For two hundred years after there has been bitter opposition to the Sunni caliphs of Baghdad. The Fatimids' real trouble was that they were so concerned with a "revealed" and "inner" religion that they were unable to convert the practical Egyptians. The Egyptians were still recovering from the same sort of thing from Byzantine Christianity. The Fatimids were only able to rule Egypt by using the Christians and Jews that they had formed a powerful allegiance with. The Fatimids were similar to the Christians in many ways in that they believed that a Messiah was coming to protect them against sin and error and would save them all.

Al Kahira was originally intended to be a private, fortified, royal enclosure, not a public city. Gawhar built palaces for his master so that he and his friends and their armies could be separated from the general public. No ordinary citizen was allowed to set foot in al Kahira unless he was needed for something. Even ambassadors had to be met outside the enclosure and led through the proper gate. It was over 200 years before Fustat-Misr's people overflowed into the city and built mosques, pavilions and houses. In Muiz's time, the population of Kahira was between twenty and thirty thousand people, all of which were court officials, servants, slaves and soldiers.

Gawhar laid the foundation for the Mosque of al Azhar while he was still building the walls of the city and the palace for Muiz. The courtyard for this mosque was where the courtyard still is today. The mosque itself has been considerably rebuilt. When enough of the city had been built, Muiz arrived to take over the city in 975. Fustat-Misr had been decorated to welcome him, but when he arrived he went straight to Kahira, which had not been decorated at all. The people had not expected him to occupy his new city yet.

The original plans for Kahira were very simple. The city measured twelve hundred yards by sixteen hundred fifty yards with a wall surrounding it that was wide enough for two horsemen to ride side by side on top of the wall. The whole west side ran along the old Red Sea canal, which was filled in 1899 and had tramlines placed over it. There were two main gates in the wall; Bab el Zuweila on the south side, through which Muiz entered the city, and Bab el Futuh (the Gate of Succor) on the north. On the east side of the city was the Mukattam Hills. Inside the city walls, each group of the population had their own quarters. The army quarters were known as Harat al Askar and the Greek quarters were called Harat al Rum.

Muiz had invested most of his own fortune to conquer Egypt, so he wanted a return on his investment as quickly as possible. The Red Sea canal was the means in which he implemented his wealth. At a bend in the river near the canal that ran almost up to the walls of Kahira, was a customs port of al Maks. Muiz took this over almost immediately and began to expand it into a proper docking yard. He kept the tax collecting character, but also laid the foundation for a new port of his own. This new port immediately took most of the business that normally went to Fustat-Misr.

In this area he built six hundred ships that were about 275 feet long by 110 feet abeam. These ships were a very wise investment since they could carry large amounts of cargo. Muiz changed the whole tax system into a central collecting body that did away with the local collectors. In one day it is said that he collected over $475,000 (in modern equivalent) in taxes in Fustat-Misr alone.

Muiz only lived for two years after he entered the city. Mostly what he did was lay the foundation that was solid, rich and clever. Seventy-seven years after Muiz died, Khusrau gives a description of a city that literally grew up overnight as the wealth that was amassed was spent lavishly on construction. No buildings were allowed near the palace, but the buildings that were in the enclosure were so tall and numerous that they looked like mountains when approaching the city. There were twelve thousand servants that took care of the caliph in the palace and no one knows how many women were within those palace walls.

The palace had twelve pavilions and ten gates some of which were named; the Gate of Gold, the Gate of Oil, the Gate of the Emerald, the Gate Where You Smell Meat and the Gate of the Slippery Ground. It is said that there was a special gate underground which opened into a tunnel that the sultan rode through to his harem.

The city of Kahira had five gates and the fortified walls did not quite enclose the city. Fifty-two thousand camels were used to bring fresh water to the city. The Fatimids were different from the other foreign invaders of Egypt. The others had built their capitals, but they had not since the Romans built the high walls around their cities the way the Fatimids did. The Fatimids enjoyed the arts and some sciences, especially astronomy. Many writers and artists came to Kahira and the gardens were sometimes filled with poets.

Muiz died at the age of forty-five and his son Aziz ruled after him for about twenty-one years. Aziz was just as much responsible for the financial administration that was organized and has kept Egypt running so effectively for so long. Many of the unusual financial methods that were introduced during this time were the ideas of Aziz's chief minister, Ibn Killis. Kahira prospered very rapidly and bridges, mosques, palaces and a new canal were built. Aziz started the mosque which his son Hakim finished. This mosque is considered to be one of the most romantic ruins in Cairo today.

Hakim was eleven years old when his father died. He was playing in one of the gardens when his tutor, Bargawan came to tell him of the news. Bargawan was a eunuch and had nicknamed his student "little lizard". Aziz looked and acted like a lizard. He had big blue eyes like his father and he scared people. His face was frightening and he preferred darkness to daylight. He went out only at night, wandering through the city on a donkey. He ordered all of the shops to close during the day but to stay open during the night. The people eventually began to grow accustomed to this change but when they began to have parties and entertain at night, he punished them. Hakim began to enjoy his authority and exercised it in very unreal ways. In 1004, he had all of the dogs of Kahira killed. No wine, grapes, beer, mulokhiya, lupin pellets or fish without scales could be sold. All sorts of fruits were to be burned and the vines cut down. Honey, which was a delicacy to the Egyptians, was ordered to be poured into the Nile. Over five thousand jars of it was destroyed. No women could go out onto the streets during the day or night. This restriction lasted for over seven and a half years. One of his favorite challenges to his friends or enemies that were visiting his palace, was to challenge them that for six hundred dinars, they could not jump on a piece of wood that floated on the surface of the pool. A royal challenge could not be refused, but when the challenged jumped in the pool, he would find himself impaled on a spear which was hidden under the floating wood.

Hakim loved to go off alone at night on his gray donkey that he called al Kamr, which means "the moon". He would go out in the Mukkatam Hills. On February 13, 1021, he went out riding alone on Kamr in the Mukkatam Hills. He was seen in the hills near Helwan on the next day, but was never seen again after that. His clothes were found with holes stabbed in them, stuffed in a well.

Hakim's list of horrors is very long but he did also enjoy literature and poetry as well as astronomy. The Hakimite astronomical tables were designed for Hakim by the Arab astronomer al Yunus. Hakim also had built the Hall of Science in the palace grounds for the study of the Shi'i doctrine, science and astronomy. Scholars came here from everywhere to discuss whatever they wanted. The Egyptians of Fustat-Misr always resisted Hakim. He had to stay hidden in his city for days after he had Bargawan killed. The women hated him for the laws forbidding them to leave their homes. One time, they placed a very well made dummy in the middle of the street where they knew that Hakim would see it. He ordered his guards to cut her to pieces and when they tried they found it made of paper. He was so angry that he sent his Sudanese troops to burn Fustat-Misr to the ground. The people resisted and there was a civil war that lasted for about three days.

Hakim's son, Zahir, became caliph after the murder of Hakim. Zahir was much like his father in that he also enjoyed making people suffer. Once he had a huge party at his palace that he invited 2,660 young ladies. They came to the party dressed in their most beautiful clothes. They were all asked to wait in a nearby mosque because of some delay. While they waited inside the mosque, masons bricked up the doors and they were left to die in agony. Six months later their bodies were found still inside the mosque. The Fatimids amassed a great amount of wealth that was mostly cash. They were a very wasteful and extravagant group.

Kahira reached its peak when al Mustansir, Zahir's son, became caliph. Mustansir was just a baby when his father died, but he took over the rule from his mother when he became old enough. He reigned for fifty-eight years. He collected cash rents on twenty thousand boutiques that he owned in Kahira and Fustat-Misr and on twenty thousand houses as well. He also had three hundred sixty-nine villages along the Red Sea canal. The main problem with such a fortune based on a delicate trading economy, is that it could be lost so fast. Mustansir did lose his wealth almost overnight when Egypt's crops failed. The Nile failed to rise as it needed to and caused bad harvests. The peasants revolted and there were shortages. The people of Kahira and Fustat-Misr began to go hungry.

Al Yazury, the first minister of Mustansir managed to keep the grain prices low and the supply still coming in. Yazury built the Joseph's Granaries at Fustat. He was murdered in 1058 and the internal authority began to crumble because the merchants reigned supreme. They didn't care who starved or what happened to Kahira. The merchants encouraged the Turks and the Berber soldiers to revolt and expel fifty thousand Sudani soldiers. The Sudanis went to Upper Egypt and set up a bandit kingdom where they raided the villages nearby. The Sudanese destroyed the irrigation systems there and the Berbers raided the Delta area. Almost no crops were planted in Upper or Lower Egypt and the economy stopped dead in its tracks.

The Turks destroyed the city of Kahira. They stole most of the treasures of Mustansir as well as the library, which as one of the world's most extensive. One hundred thousand books were taken out of the city and piled up on a hill, which was known for years as the Hill of Books. A period of famine went on for seven years. Plagues hit the city. Mustansir sent his family to Baghdad to keep from starving to death and he had to sell everything that he had to survive. Cannibalism became so common that human flesh was sold by butchers.

The Turkish soldiers set parts of Fustat-Misr on fire and then occupied the city. They then rushed to the royal city and found al Mustansir sitting alone in his palace with nothing left. Everything was gone, but they did not dethrone him. They obviously controlled the city. In the year 1073, a good crop made Mustansir send for Badr al Gamali, who was a former slave. Gamali said that he would come only if he could bring his Syrian soldiers with him. Mustansir agreed and Badr arrived in December of 1074. The Turkish soldiers welcomed him, not knowing what he was there for. He told his Syrian officers to entertain a Turkish officer for just one night only. The next morning, the officers brought to him the heads of the Turks that they had entertained.

Mustansir and Badr were responsible for most of the remnants that we have of Kahira today. The city had mostly outgrown its walls so they built a new wall and removed all the old gates. The old brick gates were replaced with stone gates, three of which remain today; Bab el Nasr (the Gate of Victory), Bab el Futuh (Gate of Succor) and Bab el Zuweila (Gate of the tribe Zuweila). Badr was titled Emir Giyushi and built a mosque that is on top of Mukattam Hills. He built it there because he wanted to be able to see the graves of his seven favorite wives in the valley below. Badr and Mustansir died in the same year, 1094. Badr left to his family six million gold dinars, seventy-five thousand satin robes, two hundred fifty bags of silver coins, thirty camel loads of Iraqi golden boxes, one hundred gold nails, each of which held a jeweled turban, and two large trunks of gold needles for his slaves and wives to use. After the deaths of as Mustansir and Badr, six Fatimid caliphs would rule for seventy-five years.

Abbasid Period

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The first and second Muslim civil wars appear to have made little difference in Cairo's life, though the governors of Egypt now received their orders from Damascus instead of Medina. It also changed the nature of the Khalifate from elected to hereditary rule. But these wars did set the stage for the third civil war, which would have considerable effect. The third civil war was a reaction to the extravagance, decadence and what was seen as a deterioration of Islamic faith in the Umayyads rulers. In addition, the civil war brought rulers to the Islamic world which for the first time were not Arabic, but rather Persian and Turks, and Egypt was now ruled from Baghdad. This civil war would create a shift in ruling families, from Umayyads to Abbasid. More importantly, it would give Egyptians their first taste of the Shi'i form of Islam. Most Egyptians prior to this, throughout most of their Islamic history and today, are orthodox Sunni. Actually, the Islamic world was now or soon to be ruled by three (or more) different Khalifs, including a Shi'i Kalif in North Africa (the Aghlabid dynasty), the Abbasids in Baghdad and the Umayyads who still maintained a hold on Islamic Spain. But there was also fragmentation in Morocco, under the Alid dynasty of Idrisids, and the Tahirids of Khurasan.

Fustat was captured by the Abbasid general Saleh in 750 AD. Saleh, like all Muslim rulers, disliked the idea of establishing his authority on the bones of previous rulers, so he made his new headquarters on a flat stretch of dry land on the northern tip of Fustat. This new district was called El Askar, meaning "the Soldiers" in Arabic. As time passed, El Askar became integrated with Fustat, and later still, really lost its identity as a true separate district.

In 779, Abu Salih became the first Turkish-born governor. He was classified as Arabic, but was born a Turk. The Abbasid rule was at once more restrictive for the individuals and more open intellectually. New laws were laid down for living, behavior and dress, and these laws were enforced. All doors and gates were ordered to be left open, however if anyone was caught stealing, they were beheaded. The rulers in Baghdad, including the famous Harun al Rashid, opened their court to Greek classical studies such as the works of Aristotle, as well as poetry from India and Persia. In fact, the Muslim scholars did much more than simply preserve ancient learning. They also expanded upon it, adding to the sciences of medicine, mathematics and astronomy, among others. It is understandable that Islamic intellectuals would flourish at a time when the west was floundering in ignorance. Mohammed's teachings insisted on literacy for all at a time when most leaders cared nothing about the education of the common people. Some of this enlightenment was transferred to the west, which kindled a rebirth of learning and eventually led Christian Europe out of the dark ages and into the Renaissance.

One of the most significant trends established by the Abbasid rule were the use of Turkish war slaves. Later, they would be called the Mamelukes and would be used as a mercenary army, then even as governors and rulers of Egypt. This went on until Mohammed Ali disposed of them in the early 19th century. At first these slave soldiers were simply an accident of the Abbasid system of educating "acquired" children in the court to grow up into a loyal bodyguard. This civil service was therefore without roots in the society itself, so they could be trusted to do as they were told, no matter what was happening outside of the court. These slaves were not beaten, or usually made to do brutal work, but were instead trained in good soldiering. Yet as time passed, they began to rule the rulers, and finally, one of them set himself up in Fustat as the master and not the slave. This was Ahmad Ibn Tulun.

The Tulunids under the Abbasids, Egypt was often loosely governed by the Baghdad Khalif's appointees, many of whom did not rule from Egypt. The administration in Egypt began to disintegrate, with taxes becoming intolerable and inflation on the rise. In the 868, the khalif sent a Turkish governor, Ahmad Ibn Tulun to take charge of the situation. Ibn Tulun was the son of a Turkish slave from Bokhara who was given as a present to the Khalif Mamun in 815. His son, became educated in the highest traditions of the period, and earned considerable respect for his brave and loyal service to the Khalif. He soon consolidated the government, steadied the economy and imposed order. But seeing better uses for Egypt's treasury at home, he sent less and less of the tax revenues to Baghdad. In 868 he declared his independence from the Baghdad Khalifate, but he was also careful to maintain ties with the Abbasids. Actually, he was intelligent enough to maintain the trade with the East which made him rich. It is said that he had to borrow money to make the original trip to Fustat, but by 870, he needed new quarters to house all of his soldiers, ministers, wives and slaves. Therefore, like all notable rulers before him, he also established a new city called al-Qatai (the Quarters).

Qatai's name is derived from the fact that the city was divided between districts, or quarters, each housing a separate segment of its population (soldiers, servants, guards, Greeks or Romans, Nubians, etc). It is said that each segment also had its own gate to enter the city, including a Gate of Nobles, a Gate of Lions, a gate called el Darmun for the captain of the guards, and even a special triple arched gate for Ibn Tulun himself.

This new city was located north of Fustat on a small knoll of high ground called Yeshkur. This knoll, located between Fustat and the Mukattam Hills was considered a holy place, where Moses had conversations with God and where Abraham slew his sacrifice. Ibn Tulun built his palace there, along with a Harem palace, a garden, a racetrack, polo grounds, a zoo, baths, and fine homes for his staff. There was also a Midan (square) el Qatai, which was very popular with the people, and where there was something going on almost all of the time. It is said that Ibn Tulan built a summer home high up on the Gate of Lions, from which he could look down on this square that would be filled with people, lights and gaiety, especially on feast days. He also established a proud tradition of building hospitals, including the first one in Egypt. The story tells of a servant traveling in Upper Egypt one day when his horse fell into a hole. In the hole, he found a treasure worth a million dinars. In gratitude to God, Ibn Tulun built his first hospital, which was free to the civil population of Fustat, using some of this treasure. In 876, he also built his mosque on the crown of the hill, which today is considered to be one of the most important and also most beautiful Muslim monuments in the world.

Though he passed his rule to his sons, they were not great statesman or administers. His son, Khumaraweh, ruled after Ibn Tuluns death, and was one of the "characters" that sometimes grace Egypt's history. He made his father's Midan into an exotic garden, with tropical trees, roses, jasmine, lilies and shrubs. But not liking the stalks of the trees, he had every trunk and branch coated in sheets of copper and lined with water pipes, so that each tree now became a fountain. Since he had built over his father's midan, he built an even larger one a short distance away. There were horse races held there almost every day and night.

It is also said that Khumaraweb's palace had rooms which were coated with thin sheets of gold studded with lapis lazuli. There were also wooden statues of himself and his wives dressed in golden cloth in a suite called the House of Gold. He had a zoo built that had a special house of lions. Each cage contained a lion and a lioness and had a door in which the keeper could clean out the room and put clean sand on the floor. Running water was also in each cage. There were times that Khumaraweh would let all of the lions out to play in the courtyard. The roars of the lions playing and fighting would shake all of Fustat throughout the night. Each lion was trained to go back to his cage when the keeper called him by name. Khumaraweh did have one special lion that he kept as his pet, Zouraik, which means "little blue". Zouraik had blue eyes and was led around by Khumaraweh by a gold collar. The lion slept near Khumaraweh, no matter where he was. Khumaraweh fed him goats and chickens and brushed his coat. There were also camels, leopards, giraffes, elephants, ponies and racehorses in the city.

The epitome of his self indulgence was his sleeping habits. Legend has it that he had trouble sleeping. To correct this, he had a lake dug in the garden of his palace which was thirteen hundred feet square. He filled the lake with mercury and placed an air mattress made of skins. The mercury made small waves which would rock him to sleep, as servants in a nearby alcove sang songs or chanted his favorite verses from the Koran. The mattress was tied to the edges of the lake by cords made of silk. If he still couldn't sleep, he would walk around the palace, entertain his lady friends or sit in his gardens.

Everything seemed to change for Khumaraweh after his favorite wife, Bouran, died. He had built the House of Gold for her. In 896, he was strangled in his bed by his servants and concubines. His bodyguard and lion were not able to save him. His killers were crucified. He was taken home to Fustat and buried near his father, somewhere at the foot of Mukattam.

Egypt was soon engulfed in corruption, while famine and the plague swept the nation. The Abbasids had once again gained strength, and they sent a soldier named Mohammed Ibn Sulyman to regain control of the country, which he did in 905. Mohammed Ibn Sulyman took four months to devastate El-Qatai. Over one hundred and sixty years later, a wall was built around El-Qatai and El Askar to hide them from the rest of the city. Today all that is left is the mosque. The Abbasid's intermediate rule only lasted for thirty years, until the Fatimid conquest of 969.

Alexandria: The Byzantine Period

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It is with the ascension of the Roman emperor Constantine that a new era began for Alexandria, as well as for the Empire as a whole. By defeating his co-ruler Licinius (Rome had begun the practice of having two rulers, one for the eastern half of the Empire, and one for the western half), Constantine became sole emperor. He created an eastern capital for the Empire in the city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople (this would not be the last name change the city would go through, after the sack by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 it would be called Istanbul). His new capital, in which he spent much of his remaining life until his death in AD 337, was small but growing, but it was a far cry from the mighty city it would become under the Byzantines. Constantine imported Greek and Roman statuary to decorate the city, ordered the construction of buildings in the traditional Roman style, and had half the grain shipments from Alexandria shipped to Constantinople. Yet what Constantine is most noted for today was his policy towards the various religions in the Empire. He supported both the Roman religion as well as Christianity. Clerics of both faiths were exempted from taxation and having to serve on city councils (a move which prompted a great number of ordinations), the same financial help which had been given to the building of Roman temples was now shared with the Christians, and Constantine himself was responsible for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. Constantine also gave land and money to build a great church in Rome, which would later grow into the headquarters of the Christian religion: the Vatican.

With so much emphasis on Constantinople, and the fact that much of the Egyptian grain production was being shipped there, Alexandria began to slip from its position at the center of the Mediterranean world. Meanwhile the old Roman Empire crumbled under barbarian invasions and internal conflict, and the Byzantine Empire rose in its place. The center of the world moved to Constantinople, which under the Byzantines became a center for art, science, and religious and secular learning. Alexandria continued to influence the world, only more subtly now. In 529 the emperor Justinian closed the Academy of Athens, forbidding the teaching of what he called "pagan philosophy", yet Alexandria's schools remained open, teaching Atristotelian and Platonic philosophy well into the eighth century.

Alexandria also received another moment of glory during the Byzantine Era, as the Byzantines became rather infatuated with classical Greek culture that had been largely lost under the Romans, but well-preserved by the learned of Alexandria. Royal patronage of the arts and sciences had long disappeared, yet the poets, teachers, and scholars went on for their art's sake, supporting themselves through pedagogy and commissioned writing. But this was not to last. In the early seventh century the most successful Persian attack on the Byzantine Empire took both Jerusalem and Alexandria. The emperor Heraclius managed to beat back the Persians to the point of collapse but a new onslaught began, this time from the south. After battling the Persians, the Byzantine rulers had little hope of defeating the forces that came sweeping north from the deserts of Arabia. The final defeat of the Byzantine armies in 636 left Palestine and Syria open to conquest by the Arabs, and they spread like wildfire over northern Africa, eventually bringing Alexandria under their control in 642.

Alexandria: The Roman Period

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The final century or so of Ptolemaic rule from Alexandria is a sad one, primarily because many of the later Ptolemies, Pharaohs they might have appeared to be, were mere puppets of the Roman Empire. With the death of Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemies to rule, and the defeat of the once-mighty Ptolemaic navy at Actium, in 31 BC Egypt became part of the Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar. Military garrisons were stationed at Alexandria to keep the peace in Egypt, and no doubt to keep a close eye on the Alexandrian Mob, which had not diminished over the years, but had stayed very much alive, and would continue to thrive under the Roman dominion.

The Ptolemies had succeeded in assimilating the Egyptian culture and thus the respect of the native population, but the new Roman rulers who came after them made little attempt to do so. Certainly they adopted the pharaonic titles and built temples in the traditional style, but as Egypt was now ruled in absentia from Rome, the native population, still deeply rooted in their ancient religion and beliefs, refused to honor rulers who no longer performed the ceremonial roles of divine kingship. Indeed, few of the emperors ever set foot in Egypt, let alone Alexandria, until the famed riots of AD 250. Yet the foundations for knowledge laid by the Ptolemies centuries before allowed the city to continue prospering. The first-century AD scientist Hero, who produced works on everything from steam power to the construction of artillery, was a citizen of Alexandria, and the great physician Galen of Pergamum was educated in Alexandria's famed medical academies. Additionally, a new tradition in learning had begun in Alexandria during the final years of the Ptolemies -- philosophy. One of the reasons for the new surge in philosophy was that due to Mithradates of Pontus' first war against Rome caused many philosophers to leave Athens, and more than a few of them came to settle in Alexandria. It has been said that Augustus Caesar (who was called Octavian at the time) spared Alexandria during his Egyptian campaign largely as a favor to his friend, the philosopher Arius Didymus. Also a citizen of Alexandria was the prolific Jewish author Philo. A member of a wealthy Alexandrian family, Philo was a student of both Platonic philosophy and the Jewish tradition, and he applied one to the other, often with astonishing results. The effects of Greek thought on the early Christian church are largely a result of Philo and other Jewish scholars educated in the Greek tradition of Alexandria.

The end of the Roman Era and the beginning of what is called the Byzantine Era is actually quite difficult to pin down, but certainly the high empire of Rome was in decline. A rapid succession of emperors destroyed any hope of stability, with the exception of the twenty-year reign of emperor Diocletian, who stabilized the money supply (all of the Roman Empire now used one coinage, even Alexandria, which up until now had minted its own money) and made great efforts to reorganize the bureaucracy. Rome was falling, and with it the Empire. An emperor was needed who could protect the Empire from outside invasion as well as repair the internal strife between the various factions, religions, and cliques, all of which were represented in Alexandria. Rome found what it needed, though perhaps not exactly what it wanted in Constantine.

Alexandria: The Ptolemaic Dynasty

2008-09-15T15:27:00.002-07:00

The achievements of the Greeks in the ancient world, by no means few, may have reached their peak in the city of Alexandria. No less a ruler than its namesake, Alexander III of Macedonia (Alexander the Great), Alexandria dominated the eastern Mediterranean world culturally, politically, and economically for more than nine hundred years, the latter three hundred of which it competed with even the eastern capital of the Byzantine Empire, the famous Constantinople. Few cities in the world can claim success of this magnitude for close to millenium, and even fewer still flourish to this day. Part of the reason for Alexandria's success was its location, both geographically as well as politically. Situated on the coast of the Mediterranean, it was the true bridge between Europe and Africa while still being a world all to itself. It was largely separate from the political upheavals of the Hellenistic kingdoms, and then later shaded by the Pax Romanum, as well as being quite far from the chaos of the barbarian invasions that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. Freed from many of the fetters that chafed against its peers, and enriched by both maritime trade and its Greek intellectual tradition, Alexandria soon earned the title "Queen of the Mediterranean."

Part of Alexandria's power and majesty came from its status as the new capital of Egypt. In 320 BC it replaced Memphis as the seat of rulership for the Ptolemaic dynasty and it remained so throughout the Byzantine period. The rest was largely due to its monopoly on the papyrus industry for the entire Mediterranean world, as well as its hold on the manufacture and export of medicines, perfumes, jewelry, and art. Additionally, many materials and goods prized by the ancient world from the east came into Alexandria and were exported from there.

The arrival of the Greeks brought an unprecedented amount of change in Egypt as they overlaid the existing society with that of their own. At first glance, the Græco-Macedonian period seems to lack the romance and awe of the Pharaohs who came before, but it was during this time, between Alexander's conquest and the Arab takeover of Alexandria in AD 642 that Egypt made some of its most significant contributions to the classical world, as well as absorbing its influences. Change came in many sectors of Egypt and Egyptian life. A new system of roads and canals was created which, coupled with the Nile travel already mastered by the Egyptians, resulted in the ability to move goods and people all over the Nile Valley and the Delta like never before. Better travel resulted in better communications across Egypt, which in turn resulted in greater military security as well as the faster spread of new cultural and social patterns.

Alexander the Great took Egypt from the Persians in 332 BC and made it a part of the the Greek Empire. In the first part of 331 BC, shortly after being crowned Pharaoh in Memphis, he sailed northwards down the Nile and there, prompted by a dream, he began his most lasting contribution to civilization. On the natural harbor near Rhacotis he built a fortified port and named it, in a moment of egotism, Alexandria. Alexander then connected the island of Pharos, located in the center of the bay, to the mainland with a 1,300-meter causeway, the Heptastadion. Thus two great harbors were created for his city and towering over it all, the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Yet Alexander, true to his nature, did not say long enough to see a single building built of his new city. Instead, he traveled to Siwa and then back to Memphis before setting out on his conquest of Asia. He never returned, dying in Babylon at the age of 38.

Following Alexander's death, his generals divided the Empire, each setting up their own kingdoms. One of them, Ptolemy, took Egypt as his share and made Alexandria his capital, ruling as Ptolemy I Soter and thus established the last dynasty that would rule Egypt with the title of Pharaoh. He brought Alexander's body with him to be buried in the city, reuniting the famed conqueror with the city that bore his name. For the next two-and-a-half centuries, the Ptolemaic dynasty of the Greeks would successfully rule Egypt, mingling Hellenic traditions with the mighty legacy of the Pharaohs.

It was under the Ptolemaic Dynasty that Alexandria truly became the cultural and economic center of the ancient world. Egypt was ruled from Alexandria by Ptolemy's descendants until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. The early Ptolemies raised the quality of Egyptian agriculture by reclaiming cultivatable land through irrigation and introduced crops such as cotton and better wine-producing grapes. In addition, they increased the wealth of their population by increasing foreign trade, making more luxury goods available to more people. In return, Egypt enriched their lives as the new rulers absorbed their adopted culture. Egypt had enchanted the Ptolemies, as it had all its foreign rulers before them. Ptolemy and his descendants adopted Egyptian royal trappings and added Egypt's religion to their own, worshipping the gods of Eternity and building temples to them, and even being mummified and buried in sarcophagi covered with hieroglyphs.

This adoption of Egyptian culture was really the secret to Ptolemy's rule (and that of his descendants). Alexander came and left, burning with the desire to bring the rest of the world under his influence, but Ptolemy saw a need to become one of the people he intended to rule. Indeed, the famed Satrap Stele, on which is carved a decree from Ptolemy from the same period as his installation as ruler reads, "I Ptolemy, the satrap, restore to Horus, the avenger of his father, the territory of Patanut [Egypt], from this day forth for ever..." In addition to showing respect for the Egyptian religion and beliefs (something previous conquerors had failed to do), this inscription reminded the people exactly who it was who had liberated Egypt from the Persian Empire, thus ensuring much support for the new ruler and the dynasty that would follow him.

This was quite literally a golden age for the citizens of Alexandria, and for Egypt as a whole. Although Alexander never lived to see its glory, it nevertheless became the racial melting pot he is said to have wanted for his capital city. Ptolemy decided early on that Alexandria would be not just another port capital, but the home of a new age in Greek science and art. It may seem surprising to find such an impulse in a military man, but Ptolemy was more than just another general. He was a great writer of histories, including detailed accounts of Alexander's campaigns, and this love for learning did not die with him. Ptolemy's son and heir, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, for instance, had a passion for science, and Ptolemy III as we shall see, was a manic collector of books. The Greeks had long had a tradition of enlightened rulers, and despite being on foreign soil, the Ptolemies would be no exception. Ptolemy invited scholars and artists from all over the known world to come to Alexandria, not to be mere court window dressing, but to foster the learning culture of Alexandria. The arrival of many of these learned people, and later the successors they found amongst the citizens of their new home, resulted in one of the most famous images of historic Alexandria: the Library.

The Library at Alexandria was conceived largely as an attempt to bring together in Alexandria the whole of the earlier Greek science, art, and literature. Ptolemy I, though respectful as he was of the Egyptian culture, nevertheless believed the Greek culture to be superior in many respects, and thus the preservation of it in Alexandria was of utmost importance. The models for this project may very well have been the research center created by Aristotle at the Lyceum, as well as Plato's Academy. Between these two centers of learning, later joined by the Library, something very close to the modern university was being created, for these centers did not just archive information, they made it accessible to those who sought it, and in return, added to it. And add to it they did. At one point the Library held close to fifty thousand books, not much when compared to the university libraries of today, but for the ancient world it is an astonishing number.

It was the mission of the librarians, as well as of those rulers who supported it, to rescue and archive all Greek knowledge and to obtain copies of every known work. Stories abound about Ptolemy III Euergetes I, grandson of Ptolemy I, who seized cargoes of books from ships docked at Alexandria, had copies made of each volume, returned the copies to the shipmasters and kept the originals for the library. He also borrowed the complete works of Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles from the Athenian collections and never returned them. Yet this is not to say that the Ptolemies hoarded knowledge. The libraries were open to all those who could read and who wished to learn. And learning was easy indeed thanks to the widespread teaching of the Greek alphabet. With only thirty symbols, as compared with the multitudes of hieroglyphs, virtually anyone could learn it, and almost everyone did. A new age of learning had dawned, and Alexandria stood at the bulwark of it.

The eventual fate of the Library is unknown. A significant portion of it is said to have been destroyed during Julius Caesar's war against Pompey, though how significant this portion was, or even the size of it, is not certain. The Library may have perished during the 270s, along with the palace quarter. At the very least, it does not appear to have existed at the time of the Arab conquest in the seventh century AD. Stories do abound, as they always will, that part of the library was rescued and remains hidden, waiting to be discovered.

For the next three centuries the Ptolemaic Dynasty would hold sway over Egypt, surviving both family feuds and external conflicts while living an unusual combination of Hellenic and Egyptian life. And under them Alexandria grew mighty and prosperous, the center of an empire that extended around the coast of Syria to the Aegean Sea. In fact, if Alexandria had been any more prosperous, it might have replaced Rome as the center of the world, as Rome was neither as strategically located nor as culturally diverse. But all this is not to say that Alexandria was a city completely at peace with itself. With the large numbers of people and cultures coming through the city, it was inevitable that conflict would arise. Certainly racial tensions, by no means an invention of the twentieth century, played a strong part. Additionally, a number of more tradition-minded Egyptians resented the presence of the Greeks, nations brought their feuds with them to the streets and businesses of Alexandria, and there was always the wildly unpredictable Alexandrian Mob to lend spice to things.

Little by little however, the glory days of the early Ptolemies came to an end. The later successors to the throne did not live up to the standards set by their forebears and moreover, internal strife took its toll. The Egyptians grew more restless year by year and finally, beginning in 206 BC, Upper Egypt openly rebelled. Suppressing these revolts took more out of the treasury than the Ptolemies could afford and this, combined with the less-than-sound foreign policy of the later Ptolemies, brought Egypt increasingly under the influence of Rome.

Thirty-first Dynasty

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By Ochus's strategical skill and politcal sagacity Egypt was a Persian province once more. Diodorus (xvi. 51) may here be quoted:

Artaxerxes, after taking over all Egypt and demolishing the walls of the most important cities, by plundering the shrines amassed a vast quantity of silver and gold and carried off the inscribed records from the ancient temples, which later on Bagoas returned to the Egyptian priests on the payment of huge sums. Then when he had lavishly rewarded the Greeks who had accompanies him on the campaign, each according to his deserts, he dismissed them to their native lnds; and having installed Pherendates as satrap of Egypt, he returned with his army to Babylon, bearing many possessions and spoils and having won great renown by his successes.

No doubt the hand of the conqueror lay heavy upon the conquered county, and the lamentations of the First Intermediate Period are echoed in the Demotic Chronicle. But there is no reason to believe the later writers who attribute to Ochus the same sort of sacrileges as had been attributed to Cambyses. The later Persian monarch was surely too wise for that. Nevertheless, the immense power and prestige which he had brought to his empire was not destined to last long. In 338 BC, he was poisoned by his intimate Bagoas and his youngest son Arses put in his place, only to be murdered by the same hand two years later. Arses was then replaced by a collateral Darius III Codomannus, the last of the Achaemenids, who promptly poisoned Bagoas, that masterful villain meeting with a well-deserved fate. With Darius III ended the THIRTY-FIRST DYNASTY which later chronographers added to Manetho's thirty. Nominally his reign in Egypt lasted for four years, but before the termination of these the Persian Empire was no more, and the ancient world had started upon an entirely new era. Theoretically, this information was aimed at basing its presentation of Egyptian history solely upon the native sources. However, the information discussed here has demonstrated the impossibility of such an undertaking. Not only has our narrative here been mainly concerned with happenings in the Delta, from where hieroglyphic inscriptions of interest are exceedingly rare, but also the cuneiform inscriptions which have been quoted are always dry annalistic statements of fact. On the other hand, our Greek testimony, though not eschewing colorful description where that seemed pertinent, has invariably been the work of sober professional historians. Projecting this state of affairs backwards, we can now better appreciate how one-sided our knowledge of the earlier periods must necessarily be. It is true that the age of Persian domination is not wholly lacking in historical information of a sort, but a couple of examples will illustrate the difficulties encountered in our attempts to utilize them. A stele preserved in Naples, but originally found at Pompeii, contains the 'biography' of a Samtowetefnakhte. He held important priestly offices in the XVIth nome of Upper Egypt. His name and the prayers which he addresses to Arsaphes, the ram-headed deity of Heracleopolis, show him to have belonged to a family mentioned several times already. In the following excerpt he is speaking to his god:

I am thy servant and my heart is loyal to thee. I filled my heart with thee and did not cultivate any town except thy town. I refrained not from exalting it to everyone, my heart seeking after right in thy house both day and night. Thou didst unto me things better than it a million times. Thou enlargedst my steps in the palace, the heart of the goodly god being pleased with what I said. Thou didst raise me out of millions when thou turnedst thy back to Egypt and placedst the love of me in the heart of the Prince of Asia, his courtiers thanking god for me. He made for me the post of overseer of the priest of Sakhme (i.e. as physician) in place of my mother's brother the overseer of the priests of Sakhme for Upper and Lower Egypt Nekhtheneb. Thou didst protect me in the fighting of the Greeks when thou repelledst Asia and they slew millions beside me, and none raised his arm against me. My eyes followed Thy Majesty in my sleep, thou saying to me 'Hie thee to Heracleopolis, behold I am with thee'. I traversed foreign countries alone and I crossed the sea and feared not, remembering thee. I disobeyed not what thou saidst and I reached Heracleopolis and not a hair was taken from my head.

This narrative illustrates once again the high repute in which Egyptian physicians were held, but loses half its value because there is no certain indication of a date. Scholars have differed upon this point, Erman arguing in favor of the time of Marathon, whereas Tresson, the last editor, identifies the battle between Greeks and Persians as that won by Alexander at Gaugamela. These are extreme differences, but there are others; between them it is impossible to decide. Another distorted problem is raised by a certain Khababash who assumed the title of a Pharaoh. An Apis sarcophagus of his second year is known, and the marriage contract of a petty Theban priest is dated in his first year. More interesting, however, is the information about him disclosed by a stele of 311 BC, when the later Ptolemy I Soter was as yet only the satrap of Egypt. In form, this inscription is a eulogy of Ptolemy's great achievements. Its evident purpose was to record his restitution to the priests of Buto of a tract of country which, after having belonged to them from time immemorial, had been taken from them by Xerxes, who is described as an enemy and malefactor. Khababash, having listened to the priests' plea and having been reminded that the god Horus had expelled Xerxes and his son from Egypt by way of punishment, granted the petition, as was likewise done later by Ptolemy. There are here two clues to the historical position of Khababash: first he was clearly posterior to Xerxes, and secondly he is said to have made his decision after having explored the Delta mouths through which the 'Asiatics', i.e. the Persians, might be expected to attack Egypt. There is a third clue, in fact, that the abovementioned marriage contract was signed by the same notary as signed another document of 324 BC. Various theories have been advanced, but all that can be safely said is that Khababash was one of the latest, if not the very latest, of the non-Persian and non-Greek rulers who dared to assume the titulary of a native-born Pharaoh; but his name is quite outlandish.

Thirtieth Dynasty

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After the four months' reign of his son Nepherites II, the kingship passed into the hands of a general from Sebennytus. Manetho's THIRTIETH DYNASTY consists of three members, the names of the first and third being presented to him in so similar a form (Nectanebes and Nectanebos) that they are best discarded in favor of the etymologically quite distinct Nekhtnebef and Nekhtharehbe. Of these two, though their relative order has often been disputed, it is now certain that Nekhtnebef was the earlier. The multitude of his monuments might leave the impression of unbroken peace and prosperity. The oldest parts of Philae were built by him. At Edfu he was remembered as the donor of much land to the temple of Horus. A great stela at Ashmunen (Hermopolis Magna) records extensive additions to the temples of the goddess Nehmet'away, of the primeval Ogdoad, and of the twice-great Thoth himself; and a finely inscribed inscription from Naucratis commemorates the imposition of a ten (10) percent duty on imports to that town and on good manufactured in it. The proceeds to be devoted to the enrichment of the goddess Neith of Sais. But a very different story emerges from the Greek historians of whom Diodorus is once again the foremost representative. Artaxerxes II (404-359 BC) was still reigning in Persia and as determined as ever that Egypt should be humbled and reduced to her former dependent condition. However, his preparations for the invasion proceeded only very slowly. First he insisted on Athens recalling from Egypt the able Chabrias, who had thereafter to content himself with a military post at home. It was not until 373 BC that the great Persian host, led by the satrap Pharnabazus and the commander of his Greek mercenaries Iphicrates, set forth from Acre. On reaching Pelusium it was realized that an attack from that quarter was hopeless, but that on or other of the less well-fortified Nile mouths held out better prospects. And so it turned out, the barrier of the Mendesian branch was breached, and many Egyptians were killed or captured. Against the will of Pharnabazus Iphicrates sought to push on to Memphis. While the antagonism between the two commanders delayed the Persian effort, Nekhtnebef's forces gathered strength and encircled the besieged invaders on all sides. The inundation of the Nile now intervened as a welcome ally. Such parts of the Delta as were not a lake became a swamp and the Persians were forced to retreat. For the second time Egypt escaped reoccupation.

The next years were marked by rebellions of the satraps everywhere, in the course of which Nekhtnebef found protection for himself by subsidies of gold to the various combatants. When he died in 363 BC he was succeeded by his son Teos, or Tachos as some Greek writers call him, Nehktnebef's father had borne the same name. The time seemed ripe for a direct attack on the Persians. The aged Spartan king Agesilaus arrived in Egypt with 1000 hoplites, where the Athenian Chabrias joined him. In the attack on Phoenicia which ensued (360 BC) Teos insisted on commanding his own Egyptians. Agesilaus, enraged a the mirth excited by his odd appearance and demeanor, lent his support to the young Nekhtharehbe whom a large party of followers put up as a rival to Teos. The entire expedition was a fiasco. Nekhtharehbe returned to Egypt as Pharaoh, and Teos fled to Persia, where he lived and died in exile.

Looked at from the Egyptian angle, the reign of Nekhtharehbe (360-343 BC) might seem an almost exact replica of that of Nekhtnebef. Both kings ruled for eighteen years and the building activity of both was immense. But meanwhile world-shaking events were preparing. The accession of Artaxerxes III Ochus (358 BC) put new life into the tottering Persian Empire. Order was restored among the satraps of Asia Minor, but the energy required for the effort precluded the thought of any attack upon Egypt. By 350 BC, however, Ochus was ready. No details are known, but this was a complete failure, with the result that revolts against the Persian domination broke out everywhere. Phoenicia and Cyprus were in the forefront of the rebels. Long before this Greek soldiers and Greek commanders were the greatest asset upon which either side could count. But Egypt was the most important objective on account of the gold and the corn which she alone could supply in abundance, and a reconquest was an absolute necessity. First, however, Phoenicia and Palestine had to be dealt with. Sidon was the center of the revolt and had invited retaliation by a violently destructive blow against the occupying Persians. In their dread of what was to come of the Sidonians appealed to Egypt, but Nekhtharehbe contented himself with sending a limited contingent of Greek mercenaries under Mentor of Rhodes. Diodorus (xvi. 40-51) tells the story of the next few years in great detail which can only be summarized here. Ochus's preparations were on a vast scale, but even before the arrival of every substantial forces from the Greek cities of the mainland and of Asia Minor he was able in inflict horrible punishment upon Sidon, whose treacherous king Tennes conspired with Mentor to deliver up the city, whereupon the inhabitants burned their ships and many of them sought voluntary death in the flames of their own homes.

In the autumn of 343 BC the Persian army set forth upon its momentous campaign against Egypt, the Great King himself at its head. Pelusium was the first Egyptian town to be attacked and put up a stiff resistance. Ochus had, however, planned simultaneous entry into the Delta at three different places, and it was near one of the western Nile mouths that penetration was achieved. The inundation season was at an end so that the disaster of thirty years earlier was no longer to be feared. Misfortune attended the defenders from the start. Sallying forth from the neighboring fortress the Greek mercenaries under Cleinias of Cos were heavily defeated and he himself was killed. The terror-stricken Nekhtharehbe, instead of standing his ground, retreated to Memphis, which he put in readiness for a siege. But meanwhile Pelusium had been taken, the garrison surrendering under the promise that those who did so would be well treated. A similar assurance was given elsewhere and soon Egyptians and Greeks were vying with one another which of them should be the earliest to avail themselves of this clemency. The third corps under Mentor and Ochus's close friend and associate Bagoas had also met with success. The capture of Bubastis by the combined forces was an important event, after which the other Delta towns capitulated with all haste. Egypt was now at Ochus's mercy, and Nekhtharehbe, realizing the situation to be hopeless, gathered together so much of his belongings as he could and departed upstream 'to Ethiopia', after which nothing more is heard of him.

Twenty-ninth Dynasty

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After conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BC the sole aim of Egypt's foreign policy was to defend her independence against an empire which persisted in regarding her simply as a rebellious province. In this policy Egypt was successful except for a spell of ten years at the very end. A constant obstacle, however, was the rivalry between the different princely families of the Delta. Manetho's TWENTY-NINTH DYNASTY, monuments of which are found as far south as Thebes, hailed from the important town of Mendes and comprises only four kings together totaling barely twenty years (399-380 BC). The first and last kings both have the name Nepherites, of which the etymological meaning is 'His great ones are prosperous' but whereas Nepherites I reigned for six years, Nepherites II ruled for only four months. There is a discrepancy between Manetho's list and that of the Demotic Chronicle which has puzzled some Egyptologists, Manetho placing Achoris, the Egyptian Hakor or Hagor, before Psammuthis (The child of Mut'). The papyrus inverts the order. The probable solution is that the first year of both kings was identical, so that either statement is legitimate. Psammuthis, whose sole existing remains are at Karnak, with the name of Achoris cut above his, reigned only on year. Achoris, whose monuments are numerous and found in all parts of Egypt, maintained his position for thirteen. If we have dwelt at some length on those otherwise none too important Pharaohs, it is on account of the aforementioned moral judgments of the Demotic Chronicle, since these certainly reflect authentic history. Thus of Achoris it is said that he fulfilled the time of his rule 'because he was generous to the temples', but that he 'was overthrown because he forsook the Law, and showed no care for his brethren'.

For less vague information we are wholly dependent upon the Greek authorities. From Xenophon, we learn that Persia had assembled a mighty army in Phoenicia. This had doubtless been intended for the subjection of Egypt, but the project came to naught on account of Cyrus's dangerous and unsuccessful gamble. As a result the Greek cities of Asia Minor, which had sided with him, found themselves in dire peril. To rescue them from Sparta, though deeply in Cyrus's debt, now went to war with his country's still very formidable power (400 BC). The struggle lasted for years. In 396 BC Sparta sought alliance with Egypt, which was readily granted. Diodorus relates that in reply to the Spartan king Agesilaus's request the Egyptian Nephereus, i.e. Nepherites I, placed at his disposal 500,000 bushels of corn, and the equipment for 100 triremes. It was stipulated, however, that this handsome subsidy should be fetched by the Spartan fleet, but before it reached Rhodes that island had gone over to the Persians so that their admiral, the Athenian Conon, was able to annex the whole consignment.

Not long afterwards, in 393 BC, Achoris came to the throne, and the alliance with Sparta having proved unprofitable, he was only too glad to look for assistance elsewhere. This he found through a treaty with Evagoras, the able and ambitious king of Salamis in Cyprus, who had already made himself master of many other towns on the island. Evagoras had been a friend of the admiral Conon, so that collaboration with him carried with it close co-operation with Athens. By this time, however, both Persia and Sparta were tired of war, and in 386 BC the Peace of Antalcidas was arranged, by which a free hand in all the Greek cities of Asia was ceded to Persia in exchange for autonomy in all the other Hellenic states. As a consequence Achoris and Evagoras stood alone, and Artaxerxes was now free to deal with whichever he chose. Egypt was the first to be attacked, but had by this time again become a strong and wealthy country. Chabrias, one of the best generals of the age, left Athens to enter Achoris's service. Little is known about this war except that it dragged on until after 383 BC and was referred to contemptuously by the Athenian pamphleteer Isocrates. Evagoras proved a great help, carrying his arms into the enemy's camp and capturing Tyre and other Phoenician towns. Later, however, his fortune changed and after losing an important sea-battle he was besieged in his own town Salamis. He had defied the Persians for more than ten years, at the end of which dissensions on honorable terms (380 BC). After a considerable time as a faithful vassal of the Persian king he fell victim to a conspiracy. If the Demotic Chronicle can be trusted, misfortune attended Achoris at the last.

Twenty-eighth Dynasty

2008-09-15T15:25:00.001-07:00

The forty years ending with the death of Darius II in 404 BC are a complete blank so far as Egypt is concerned. It is only amid the stirring events attending the accession of Artaxerxes II that she re-enters upon the Middle Eastern stage. Manetho ends at this point his Dyn. XXVII of Persian rulers. He makes his TWENTY-EIGHTH DYNASTY consist of a single king Amyrtaeus of Sais, presumably a kinsman of the Amyrtaeus who carried on the struggle of Inaros after the latter's capture by his enemies. The Greek historians makes only one doubtful allusion to the new Pharaoh, Diodorus (xiv. 35), who is here responsible, mistakenly calling him 'Psammetichus, a descendant of the (famous) Psammetichus. The episode in question tells how after the battle of Cynaxa (401 BC), where the insurgent prince Cyrus was defeated and killed, his friend the Memphite admiral Tamos, whom he had appointed governor of Ionia, fled to Egypt to escape the vengeance of Artaxerxes II's satrap Tissaphernes, taking all his ships with him; but Amyrtaeus, if it was he whom Diodorus referred to as Psammetichus, put Tamos to death. According to a later Egyptian tradition Amyrtaeus in some way offended against the dictates of Law, with the consequence that his son was not suffered to succeed him. The conviction that earthly prosperity and righteous conduct are inexorably bound up together finds expression in the curious and cryptic papyrus passing the inexact name 'The Demotic Chronicle'. That is the papyrus from which we learned about Cambyses' withdrawal of grants to the Egyptian temples and about Darius's command that the laws of the country should be in recorded in writing. It is however, the composition on the recto with which we have hear to deal. This is a strange farrago of calendrical data, festivals, and geographical references which would have no value or meaning for us without the interpretations or prophecies accompanying each item. These are of great historic interest in as much as they include two absolutely correct sequences of the kings 'who came after Medes' (i.e. after the Persians) from Amyrtaeus down to Teos, the second king of Manetho's Dyn XXX. The oracular text thus claiming to find a relation of cause and effect between virtuous conduct and successful life on earth is believed to have been a priestly product of the second century BC Manetho allots to Amyrtaeus a reign of six years, which is probably correct since the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine include a promise of the repayment of a debt dating from his fifth year. Apart from a letter from the same source quoting his name in close proximity to that of Nepherites, his immediate successor, there exists no further reference to him, and he has left no monuments. We are in the dark alike as to how he came by his throne and as to how he lost it .

Twenty-seventh Dynasty

2008-09-15T15:23:00.001-07:00

Difficulties connected with the succession kept Cambyses fully occupied for the next three years, but the murder of his brother Smerdis left his hands free to proceed with the undertaking bequeathed to him by his father. Phoenicia had submitted voluntarily, providing him with a fleet invaluable for his coming operations. Cyprus abandoned its allegiance to Amasis, who died in 526 B.C., escaping only by a few months the shattering blow which was to befall his son Psammetichus III. The battle of Pelusium (525 B.C.) was fought with great stubbornness, but in the end the Egyptians fled in disorder to Memphis, which surrendered only after a siege of some duration. Egypt thus passed into Persian hands, Manetho's TWENTY-SEVENTH DYNASTY. His own reign was to last only three years longer, and each of the further expeditions which he planned proved unsuccessful. A projected attack upon the Carthaginians came to nothing, since the Phoenicians refused to fight against people of their own blood. The far more ambitious campaign against the Ethiopians, in which Cambyses himself took part, proved a perfect fiasco owing to neglect of proper preparation, while a force sent across the desert to the oasis where Alexander the Great consulted the Oracle of Amun two centuries later (Siwa) was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and disappeared. The anger of Cambyses at these failures was boundless and is said to have brought on an attack of madness, but at least the whole of Egypt had been won. According to Herodotus Cambyses was a monster of cruelty and impiety, his folly culminating in the killing of the sacred Apis bull. This act is, however, rendered more than improbable by the evidence from the Serapeum, two of these holy animals being recorded for his reign, and the sarcophagus of one of them being said by its inscriptions to have been dedicated by the Persian king himself. It is true that a Jewish document of 407 B.C. speaks of 'the destruction of all temples of the Egyptian gods' in the time of Cambyses, but by then the king's evil reputation had plenty of time to spread, and the damage done in that direction may have been confined to the withdrawal of the large official grants of materials that has previously been the custom. We shall see that a less severe view of the conqueror was taken by a high official who managed to secure his favor and to retain his important position throughout the following reign. On Cambyses' return to Asia in 522 B.C. Egypt was left in charge of the satrap Aryandes who, however, later fell under suspicion of disloyalty and was executed.

Meanwhile the Magian Gaumata had given himself out to be the real Smerdis and had won wide recognition throughout the Persian provinces. Discordant accounts are given of Cambyses' death, probably on his way home to combat the pretender. The throne now fell to Darius I, the son of Hystaspes and a member of the family of Cyrus. In his long reign of thirty-six years (521-486 B.C.) the Persian Empire was organized with consummate statesmanship, but only comparatively little is known of events in Egypt during this time. His first years were fully occupied in cruelly suppressing revolts and disorders that had followed his slaying of Gaumata, and it was not until 517 B.C. or thereabouts that he was able to visit Egypt. Of real importance, however, as illustrating his interest in the ancient civilization which had now come under his sway is an order sent to the Satrap in his third year bidding him assemble the wisest men among the country's soldiers, priests, and scribes. They were to set forth in writing the complete law of Egypt down to year 44 of Amasis, a task which kept them busy until his own nineteenth year. There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this royal order, although it is made known to us only in a much later copy on the back of a demotic papyrus of miscellaneous contents. Indeed it goes far towards justifying Diodorus's description of Darius as among the greatest of Egypt's law-givers. Equally interesting is the information given by several huge stele confirming what Herodotus has to tell about Darius's completion of the canal leading from the Nile to the Red Sea. Neko II had been compelled to abandon this project, but Darius not only repaired the channel in its entire length, but was also able to dispatch through it twenty-four ships laden with tribute for Persia. The stele commemorating this were erected at intervals along the banks of the canal. Inscribed both in hieroglyphs and in cuneiform they are in deplorable condition, but tell their story in unmistakable fashion. That Darius, in governing Egypt, wisely sought to pose as a legitimate Pharaoh continuing the work of his Saite predecessors is shown by a variety of evidence. He alone of the Persian kings undertook building in the temples of the Egyptian gods. The stately and well-preserved temple of Amun in the oasis of Kharga is almost entirely due to him, and here he, like Cambyses before him, receives a complete royal titulary. A general whose business it was to summon all the mayors of the country to bring gifts for the embalming of an Apis bull bore the same name as King Amasis and wrote it in a cartouche, although his stele alludes to the Persian invasion. Similarly Khnemibre', the superintendent of works in the entire land, whose name is identical with the Prenomen of the same king. His many rock-inscriptions in the Wady Hammamat range from the last year of Amasis to the thirtieth of Darius. But the sole hieroglyphic memorial of the entire Persian period which presents a biography of any length in that inscribed on a fine naophorous statue preserved in the Vatican. Its owner Udjeharresne had been the commander of sea-faring ships under both Amasis and Psammetichus III, but the narrative of his subsequent career starts with the arrival of the Persians in his native land:

There came to Egypt the great chief of every foreign land Cambyses, the foreigners of every country being with him. When he had taken possession of this entire land they settled down there in order that he might be the great ruler of Egypt and the great chief of every foreign land. His Majesty commanded me to be chief of every foreign land. His Majesty commanded me to be chief physician and caused me to be at his side as companion and director of the palace, and I made his titulary in his name of King of Upper and Lower Egypt Mesutire. And I caused him to know the greatness of Sais which is the seat of Neith the great, the mother who gave birth to Re' and who was the initiator of birth after there had been no birth.

The thought contained in the last few words is expanded by the mention of the actual temple of Neith as well as of other shrines in what had been the Saite capital. Then the speaker continues on another part of the statue:

I made petition beside his Majesty the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Cambyses concerning all those foreigners who had settled down in the temple of Neith, that they should be driven thence and that the temple of Neith should be in all its splendor as it was aforetime. And His Majesty commanded that all the foreigners who had settled in the temple of Neith should be driven out and that all their houses and all their superfluities which were in this temple should be thrown down, and that all their own baggage should be carried for them outside the wall of this temple. And His Majesty commanded that the revenues should be given to Neith the great, the god's mother, and to the great gods who are in Sais as they were aforetime. And His Majesty caused that all their festivals and all their processions should be made as they were made aforetime. And His Majesty did this because I caused His Majesty to know the greatness of Said--it is the city of all the gods, they resting on their thrones in it eternally.

Udjeharresne was naturally concerned only to vaunt his influence with his new master, but there is no reason to doubt that Cambyses was willing, whenever it suited his interest, to do honor to the gods of Egypt, and the text goes on to relate that he himself came and prostrated himself before the goddess as every king before had done, after which he made her a great banquet. Obviously biased as these passages are they must be set against the execrations for which Herodotus is responsible. Udjehattesne touches only very lightly upon 'the great trouble that had come about in the entire land of Egypt'. There is much more of interest in this unique inscription, but it must suffice here to make brief reference to the House of Life or scriptoria which Darius, himself in Elam, sent Udjeharresne to re-establish in Egypt. They were to be staffed 'with persons of rank, not a poor man among them'. Apparently it was only in connection with the departments concerned with medicine that Udjeharresne was thus to be employed, for not only was he a chief physician, but also the text names as the purpose of his scriptoria to 'revive all that are sick'. At all events these sentences illustrate once again the enlightened way in which Darius conceived of his duty as King of Egypt. He was no mere despot avid of power and content to leave the welfare of his dominions in the hands of his satraps.

Of equal interest for the history of these times, though of wholly different character, is a great demotic discovered at El-Hiba and brilliantly written in the ninth year of Darius by an elderly temple-scribe named Peteese. He is complaining of wrongs done to himself and his family in connection with the prophetship of Amun of Teudjoi (El-Hiba), his native place, and in connection with the priesthoods of other associated gods, all of which carried with them substantial emoluments. It is an intensely complicated and confused story which Peteese has to tell, and the events that he narrates go back 150 years, to the fourth year of Psammetichus I. At that time his ancestor of the same name had restored the ruined temple of Amun on behalf of his cousin, yet another Peteese, who was the Master of the shipping resident in Heracleopolis Magna and the virtual governor of Upper Egypt. As a reward for these services Peteese I had been accorded all the priesthoods in question. His imprisonment, and tribulation to recount. His enemies have been various personages who had from time to time succeeded with the help of the highest authorities then in power to deprive the Peteese family of their rights, and who had been backed up by others described generally as ‘the priests’. No attempt can here be made to estimate the historical accuracy of all this, but it cannot be disputed that the world to which the papyrus bears witness was one of widespread graft and corruption. One detail corroborated from an outside source is the mention of that same Master of Shipping whom we found arranging the God’s Wife Nitocris’s journey to Thebes.

Wise and enlightened as was Darius’s rule, his empire was too vast not soon to exhibit signs of fragility. Already in 499 BC the Ionian cities were in revolt, and the assistance lent to them by Athens and Eretria made war between Persia and the western Greeks only a matter of time. The resounding defeat of Artaphernes, Darius’s nephew, at Marathon (490 BC) could not fail to have serious repercussions throughout the entire Middle East. In 486 BC the Egyptians rose in revolt, and it was only in the second year of Xerxes, who succeeded his father toward the end of 486 B.C., that the rebellion was finally quelled. Herodotus relates that the new monarch ‘reduced all Egypt to slavery much greater than it had suffered in the reign of Darius’. Needless to say Xerxes made use of his suzerainty there to further his own ends. Before the battle of Salamis (480 B.C.), where he sought to avenge himself upon the Greeks, a large Egyptian fleet was given an important part to play. But for the advantage of the Egyptians themselves Xerxes did little or nothing. The monuments are almost completely silent. No temples were built and but few Egyptian officials were employed. Throughout these years Upper Egypt appears to have been entirely tranquil. Since a Persian who had probably visited the Wady Hammamat for the first time in the sixth year of Cambyses, did so at intervals right down to Xerxes’s twelfth year. He describes himself as governor of Coptos and was very possibly charged with protecting the road the Red Sea. After him his younger brother made similar visits in the reign of Artaxerxes and had now added to his Persian name the truly Egyptian one of Djeho.

A great change had by this time come over there more or less uniform civilization of the land of the Pharaohs. As before, the native population carried on their personal business in their own language, employing the highly cursive style of writing which became known to the Greeks as Enchorial or Demotic. But so far as the government was concerned, Egypt was now only the farthest removed province of a great foreign empire. The Persian king and overlord, residing in Susa or in Babylon, left the actual administration in the hand of a local governor known as the ‘satrap’. For all bureaucratic purposes the Aramaic language and script were employed. Aramaic was a north-Semitic idiom which, after extending widely to Mesopotamia with the peoples deported there, doubtless later spread southward. For example, the exiled Jews whom Cyrus allowed to return to their original home. In the end this idiom completely replaced Hebrew in Palestine. It must not be imagined that in Egypt the use of Aramaic was confined to the Jews, though that impression might be conveyed by the great and sensational find of papyri written in that language discovered on the island of Elephantine just north of the First Cataract. It is true that the persons whose concerns are there displayed in such abundance and variety were all or mainly Jews, but they were members of a frontier garrison and consequently in the service of the Persian regime. The most convincing evidence, however, that Aramaic was the medium in which the Persian administration was carried on is afforded by a bunch of letters mostly addressed to his subordinates in Egypt by the satrap Arsames who was in power throughout the whole last quarter of the fifth century. These letters, written on leather, doubtless emanate from the satrap’s chancery, probably at Memphis; there were purchased from a dealer who either could not or would not reveal the place where they were found.

Little else would be known about Egypt in the fifth century but for the Greek historians, and in them only on account of her relations with the Athenians. Following the disturbances which arose after the murder of Xerxes and the accession of Artaxerxes I (465 B.C.) serious trouble sprang up in the north-western Delta. Here a certain Inaros, the son of Psammetichus-both names are Egyptian, but Thucydides calls him a king of the Libyans-revolted and established his headquarters at the fortress of Marea not far from the later Alexandria. The first clash with the Persians took place at Papremis, an uncertainly identified place somewhere in the west; the force under the satrap Achaemenes, the brother of Xerxes, was defeated and he was killed. The remnant of his army retreated to Memphis and entrenched themselves there. Inaros was now in complete possession of the Delta, but apparently made no claim to the kingship. The inevitable relief from Persia was long in coming, but in expectation of it Inaros called for help upon the Athenians, at that time successfully warring against the Persians in Cyprus. With their aid, two-thirds of Memphis or the ‘White Wall’, as Thucydides correctly termed it, was taken. The rest held out until the Persian general Megabyzus drove off the besiegers, who in their turn found themselves confined within an island in the marshes called Prosopitis. It was not until 454 B.C. that Megabyzus gained the upper hand. Few of the Athenians escaped and a number of ships arriving too late to be of assistance were annihilated. Inaros himself was betrayed into Persian hands and was crucified. This, however, was not quite the end of the revolt. A chieftain named Amyrtaeus-again the name is pure Egyptian-remained undefeated in the extreme western part of the Delta. He once more summoned the Athenians to his support and a number of their ships actually started, but the death in Cyprus of the Greek commander Cimon caused them to turn back. Shortly afterwards peace was declared between Athens and Persia and the interference of the former in Egyptian affairs came to an end (449-448 B.C.).

Excepting the west of the Delta the whole of Egypt was now at peace. Foreigners from all parts were welcome, particularly the Greeks. So widely had the latter extended their commerce that Naucratis could no longer maintain her monopolistic position, and lost her special importance. Herdotus toured Egypt shortly after 450 B.C. Though the undoubtedly fictitious claims that sixth-century philosophers like Thales and Pythagoras derived much of their wisdom from Egypt warn us to be skeptical also in the cases of Democritus of Abdera and Plato. There is little question but that the county would have been open to them. Some xenophobia there doubtless was, possibly once even a petty uprising against the alien rulers, but especially in Upper Egypt it will have required differences of race and religion to fan any unrest into flame. Such a case arose on the island of Elephantine in 410 B.C. Here the worshippers of Yahu and the priests of the ram-headed god Chnum lived cheek by jowl. The native priest took advantage of the absence abroad of the satrap Arsames to bribe the local commandant Vidaranag, with the result that the Jewish temple was completely razed to the ground. Vidaranag was punished, but for a time the temple remained unbuilt. The Aramaic papyri recounting this matter comprise a petition sent to Bagoas, the governor of Judah, pleading for the rebuilding, and it appears that this was ultimately conceded.

Twenty-seventh Dynasty

2008-09-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

Twenty-sixth Dynasty

2008-09-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

At the close of Ashurbanipal's Egyptian campaign the power of Assyria was at its zenith. He had defeated his foes in all directions, but they were too tenacious of their independence to allow him more than a brief breathing-space. The kingdom of Elam, his hereditary enemy to the east, was the first to give trouble. No sooner was this danger overcome than a new coalition of wider scope came into being, part in which was taken by his own treacherous brother Shamashshumukin, the semi-independent ruler of Babylon. It was clear that Ashurbanipal could retain his hold on the Egyptian Delta only through the loyalty of his own nominees. He was able to leave there only very few Assyrian troops. Esarhaddon had initiated the policy of replacing those princes whom he could not trust by others of his own choice. Among these latter was Neko of Sais, not improbably a descendant of Pi'ankhy's adversary Tefnakhte. But this Neko had soon rebelled and been carried away together with others captive to Nineveh. Evidently, however, Ashurbanipal had recognized in him a man of ability and enterprise since he showed him mercy, loaded him with fine raiment, jewels, and other riches and returned to him Sais as residence where my own father had appointed him king. Nabushezibanni his son I appointed for Athribis, treating him with more friendliness and favor than my own father did. Manetho makes this Neko I the third king of his TWENTY-SIXTH SAITE DYNASTY, preceding his name with those of an unidentifiable Stephinates and an equally problematic Nechepsos. There are good historic reasons, however, for taking Manetho's fourth king Psammetichus I as the real founder of the dynasty. The name, for all its outlandish appearance, is an Egyptian one meaning 'the negus-vendor', a designation apparently connected with Herodotus's story of his improvisation of a libation bowl out of his helmet. On an Apis stele he follows immediately upon Taharka, Tanuatamun not being alluded to. Most of Egypt was now in the hands of independent princes whose interest it was to combine against the foreigner rather than to indulge in internecine strife. Thus came about, with Psammetichus as its leader, the 'Dodecarchy' which Herodotus describes in his usual romantic fashion. The Greek historian's statement that Psammetichus had been a fugitive in Syria from Sabacos who had killed his father Nekos is impossible chronologically; when and where Neko found his death is unknown. There is a possibility that Psammetichus was the son to whom the Assyrian name Nabushezibanni had been given; however, in the account of Ashurbanipal's third campaign contained on the Rassam cylinder he appears with a name very different from both this and the Egyptian form. On the cylinder the circumstance which enabled Psammetichus to free himself from the Assyrian domination is recounted in an altogether trustworthy manner. It is there told that Gyges, the King of Lydia, being attacked by the savage Cimmerian hordes had with Ashurbanipal's help succeeded in repulsing them. But then, as Ashurbanipal writes:

his messenger, whom he kept sending to me to bring me greetings, he discontinued because he did not heed the word of Ashur the god who created me, but trusted in his own strength and hardened his heart,

The result being that the Cimmerians invaded and overpowered the whole of his land. The same passage states that Gyges sent his forces to Tushamilki, King of Egypt, who had thrown over the yoke of my sovereignty. A distorted reference to the troops sent to Egypt by Gyges may possibly be found in the bronze-clad Ionians and Carians who according to Herodotus helped Psammetichus to gain the mastery over the other Delta princes. This will presumably have occupied him during the first years of his reign. No monument of his is dated before year 9. In that year he succeeded in extending his influence over the Thebaid by the method employed other Pharaohs before him. A great stele found at Karnak relates how he sent his eldest daughter Nitocris to become the 'God's Wife' of Amun as successor to Shepenwepe II, the sister of Taharka. The journey to Thebes is described in detail. The 'Master of Shipping' Samtowetefnakhte was in charge of the vessels. He was at the same time mayor of the Heracleopolitan nome, and there is evidence that other members of his family also enjoyed this prerogative, which gave them control over all the river traffic upstream. We have seen that Heracleopolis had acquired special importance in the Libyan period. On arrival at Thebes Nitocris was received with great rejoicing, however, than the opulent feast prepared for her on this occasion were the riches now showered upon her, in seven nomes of Upper Egypt no less than 1,800 aurora of land and in four nomes of the Delta 1,400 more. As a landowner she thus became possessed of some 2,000 acres. But this was not all; the most important priests of Amun, with the pliant Mentemhe at their head, provided her with ample rations, to which were added large quantities of bread contributed by the temples of the principal towns. Needless to say, an able chief steward was required to administer such wealth, and Pbes would have been less than human had he refused to avail himself of this opportunity. However, his tomb at Kurna and that of Iba, another chief steward of this long reign, are considerably less pretentious than those of several others of the same dynasty who held the like post. Sixty years later, when Nitocris was an old woman, the same process renewed itself, and she was forced to accept as her future successor 'Ankhnasneferibre', the daughter of Psammetichus II and the owner of a magnificent sarcophagus now in the British Museum. She arrived in Thebes and was received there by her adoptive mother in the first year of her father's reign, and she appears to have had conferred upon her at the same time the dignity of First Prophet of Amun, a position not accorded to any other 'God's Wife'. It was not until Nitocris died in the fourth year of Apries that she attained to the latter even more important post. These facts are related on a stele now in the Cairo Museum, which dwells upon her installation at Karnak and the attendance upon her of the priesthood, but says nothing about the endowments which had figured so largely in the case of Nitocris. The history of Egypt now becomes increasingly merged into that of the Middle East and of Greece, and our main authorities besides Herodotus are the cuneiform chronicles, the Jewish historian Josephus, and the Old Testament. It does not fall within the scope of this Introduction to deal with the principal facts more than sketchily, and we shall concentrate rather upon whatever the hieroglyphs have to contribute to the general picture. Nevertheless, it will be unavoidable to outline the broad trend of the development. We may pass rapidly over such conventionally worded inscriptions at that of Hor, the military commander at Heracleopolis, in the temple of which he erected many buildings. Nor need we dwell at length on the statue of Nesnimu, a prophet of Horus of Edfu, whom Psammetichus I promoted successively to be mayor of eight different towns, some in the Delta and some in Upper Egypt; the significance of this important act remains to be explained. This, however, is the place to expatiate on two related facts, namely the ever-increasing influx of foreigners into the country and the remarkable degree of archaism shown in the art and the religious texts of the period. It is as though the more mixed the blood of the inhabitants became the greater was the nostalgia for the Old Kingdom when the Pharaohs were true-born Egyptians and their monuments displayed a grandeur the decay of which was now all too apparent. It is in the Saite dynasty that the ancient titles of the nobility were revived, that their sculptures and reliefs were deliberately copied from those of the Old Kingdom, and that their tombs were inscribed with extracts from the Pyramid Texts. From this time onward there is a marked increase in Egyptian religiosity. Animal worship was ever more sedulously cultivated, neighboring provinces and villages actually fighting one another in defense of their own particular preferences. Gifts of land to the temples became very frequent, the king willingly accepted such sacrifices on the part of private owners in order to propitiate the hereditary priesthoods. There can be no doubt but that political considerations played a part in all this, for after all Psammetichus was himself half a Libyan, and the intense nationalism of the Egyptian natives found appeasement in this way. Moreover, Syrians and Jews had poured into the country, the latter forming a colony at Elephantine where they were even permitted to build a temple to their god Yahu, the Jehovah of our Authorized Version. We must here to refer to the different hereditary classes of the population upon which Herodotus lays so much stress. From Ramesside times Libyans and other Mediterranean peoples had, as we have seen, contributed a substantial part to the armies on which the Egyptian monarchs relied; land had been bestowed upon them in return for their services, and it is not to be wondered at if their capabilities were now a large element of exaggeration and distortion about the account given by Herodotus of that portion of the population known to the Greeks as machimoi 'warriors'. According to him they were exclusively trained for war and forbidden to learn any other craft. Also, they were settled in different nomes of the Delta, the Hermotybians and the Calasirians in separate districts of their own. The former name has not been identified in the hieroglyphs, but the latter occurs a number of times as a proper name of which -shire, the second half, is the word for 'little'. But even if there was thus a definite section of the people devoted solely to warfare, it cannot be disputed that the Greeks whom Psammetichus deliberately encouraged also played a large part in a situation fraught with both external and internal dangers. In the wake of the troops sent by Gyges there followed Ionian traders only too glad to obtain a permanent foothold in so fertile and wealthy a land. Psammetichus for his part was content to acquire new forces of proven valor to counterbalance the machimoi who were always more or less under the control of the local princes of their particular districts. A great advantage which accrued to the Saite king was the skill of the Greek colonists as mariners. Their ships carried Egyptian corn to their fatherland, which paid for it with silver. Apart from military action which, as we shall see, became necessary on the northeast border, garrisons had to be maintained on both the western and the southern fronts. Herodotus reports such garrisons 'at Daphnae of Pelusium, another towards Libya at Marea', and a third at Elephantine. He goes on to say that the last-named, not having been relieved for three years, revolted and deserted to Ethiopia, which at that time enjoyed the reputation of a kind of El Dorado. Psammetichus is stated of have set forth in pursuit of them, but to have been unsuccessful in persuading them to return. We have hieroglyphic authority for a similar revolt and desertion under Apries, but on that occasion the superintendent of the southern frontier, Neshor, managed to overpersuade the fugitives. An Apis stele proves that Psammetichus died after a reign of fifty-four years and was succeeded by his son Neko II in 610 BC. The new king was hardly less enterprising than his father, but was less fortunate. His native monuments are not very numerous, and are singularly uninformative. For his achievements at home Herodotus is again the main source. A courageous attempt to link the Nile with the Red Sea by a canal had to be abandoned, but it is almost certain that Phoenician ships sent by him to circumnavigate Africa succeeded in doing so, returning through the Pillars of Hercules in his third year. In order to understand the military undertakings in which Psammetichus and Neko found themselves involved on their northeastern front, we must be given a rough idea of what had been happening there since the former's accession. When the victorious Ashurbanipal withdrew his army from Egypt, no serious retaliation from that quarter was to be expected. It appears, however, that Egyptian troops pursued the retreating Assyrians into Philistia as had happened 900 years earlier after the expulsion of the Hyksos. But Herodotus's account of a twenty-nine year siege of Ashdod, the longest in history, can hardly be correct as it stands. Far more dangerous for Assyria was an invasion of Scythians who swept through that country and, according to the Greek writer, were halted at the Egyptian frontier only by gifts and entreaties on the part of Psammetichus. Even more formidable, however, was the emergence in northwestern Iran of the great new empire of the Medes under Phraortes and his son Cyaxares. In 627 BC Ashurbanipal died, and a year later, after an Assyrian army had been decisively beaten by the Babylonians always striving to assert their independence, Nabopolassar 'sat on the throne in Babylon. All attempts on the part of the Assyrians to regain the lost ground were unsuccessful. By 616 BC it had become clear to Psammetichus that an alliance between Medians and Babylonians would be more dangerous than the Assyrians had ever been, so he decided to throw in his lot with his former enemies. The decision was unfortunate because in 612 BC Niniveh fell and was ravaged and looted with characteristic thoroughness. The Assyrian king Ashur-uballit attempted to carry on the struggle from Harran far to the west, and for the next years the issue remained undecided. From 609 BC no further mention is made of his last king of Assyria, and Neko now took his place as the main adversary of Nabopolassar. When 'Pharaoh-necoh, King of Egypt, went up against' the Babylonians, as we read in the Old Testament, all went well with him at first. King Josiah of Judah made the mistake of intervening at this juncture and was slain at Megiddo by Neko. A hieroglyphic fragment from Sidon attests the later's control of the Phoenician coast, made the easier by his possession of a Mediterranean fleet. In 606-605 BC the Egyptians captured the strong-point of Kimukhu and defeated the Babylonians at Kuramati, both places situated on the Euphrates south of Carchemish. There, according to the Babylonian Chronicle, Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabopolassar,

crossed the river to go against the Egyptian army which lay in Carchemish...fought with each other and the Egyptian army withdrew before him. He accomplished their defeat and beat them into non-existence.As for the rest of the Egyptian army which had escaped from the defeat and no weapon had reached them, the Babylonian troops overtook and defeated them in the district of Hamath, so that not a single man escaped to his country. At that time Nebuchadrezzar conquered the whole area of Khatti-land.

or, as 2 Kings xxiv. 7 says,

the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

The great battle of Carchemish took place in 605 BC and Nabopolassar died a month or two later. After Nebuchadrezzar's speedy return to Babylon to assume the kingship he returned to Syria to carry on his campaign against that country. In 604 BC the Babylonians attacked and sacked Ashkelon, an event which may have given rise to an appeal to the Pharaoh for help by a coastal city. We have the authority of the above Old Testament statement for believing that the appeal remained unanswered. Nebuchadrezzar seems never to have given up hope of securing the Egyptian border. In 601 BC, according to the same Babylonian Chronicle, he deliberately marched against Egypt, but was driven back with heavy loss and retired to Babylon. This ended direct hostilities between the two countries for several years to come. The defeat of the Babylonians was probably the cause of Jehoiakim's defection and alliance with Egypt despite the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah. When Neko II died in 595 BC he was succeeded by his son Psammetichus II, whose relatively short reign of six years has frequently been underestimated. In point of fact, the number of monuments naming himself or his officials is considerably greater than that of his two predecessors. Also a much-discussed expedition to Nubia lends it a special interest. Knowledge of this expedition is mainly derived from the longest of a group of Greek inscriptions carved upon one of the colossi of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. In translation this reads:

When King Psammetichus came to Elephantine, this was written by those who sailed with Psammetichus the son of Theocles, and they came beyond Kerkis as far as the river permits. Those who spoke foreign tongues were led by Potasimto, the Egyptians by Amasis. Both Potasimto and Amasis are known to have lived under Psammetichus II and to have held high military posts. The Nubian expedition is recorded also on much-damaged stele form Tanis and Karnak, the former dating it to year 3 and mentioning a native ruler whose forces had been massacred, while the latter states that Pnubs was reached. But if it is thus certain that the campaign (or was it a mere foray?) extended farther south than was formerly supposed, it is unlikely that, as has been suggested, this was Psammetichus's answer to an Ethiopian attempt to regain the hold upon Egypt lost after Tanuatamun's flight from Thebes. Nevertheless, it was in his reign that a marked hostility towards the Ethiopians on the part of the Saites is first noted, the names of Taharka and his predecessors being systematically erased from their monuments. An equally problematic event of Psammetichus II's reign is an expedition to Phoenicia mentioned in a later demotic papyrus. This seems to have been a peaceful affair since priests form many temples were summoned to take part. Meanwhile the situation in the northeast had grown increasingly complicated. In 590 BC the aggressive Median king Cyaxares became engaged in a fierce war against the neighboring kingdom of Lydia, ended five years later by a diplomatic marriage between the two families. In these circumstances clearly Nebuchadrezzar could look for no help from his powerful ally. Nevertheless, it was impossible for him to remain inactive when in 589 BC Zedekiah of Judah rebelled against him, and at the beginning of the following year he invested the Holy City. In 589 BC Psammetichus II died, and was succeeded by his son Apries, the Pharaoh Hophra of the Bible, who at once set about reversing the peaceful, defensive policy adopted by his predecessors. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel are our main authorities for his intervention in Syria. To meet this attempt to relieve Jerusalem, Nebuchadrezzar broke off the siege, only to renew it later. In 587 BC the city fell and was completely destroyed. Zedekiah was taken prisoner at Jericho. The larger portion of the Jewish population was deported to Babylonia, but later some of the remnant, feeling the situation in Judah to be intolerable, fled to Egypt taking the prophet Jeremiah with them. The part played by Apries in all this is obscure, the Egyptian records being completely silent. At the very beginning of his reign he appears to have sent troops to Palestine in support of the Jews, but then to have withdrawn them. An attack of his army upon Sidon and of his fleet upon Tyre is reported, but at least the first half to the statement does not square with the rest of the evidence. Nor perhaps does the second half, since the exiled priest Ezekiel testifies to a siege of Tyre by Nebuchadrezzar lasting thirteen years without his ever succeeding in capturing the island state. In 570 BC Apries became embroiled in a new and unhappy adventure. Herodotus here takes up the story. At Cyrene, far out on the North-African coast, the Greeks had created a large and thriving colony, the reverse of welcome to the indigenous Libyans. One of the Libyan chieftains, Adicran, turned to Apries for protection. The Egyptian army which was sent suffered an overwhelming defeat. For this Apries was rightly blamed and in consequence lost his throne. Monuments from his reign of nineteen years are fairly numerous, but his importance as a Pharaoh is altogether overshadowed by that of the usurper who supplanted him. When Herodotus's account of Amasis (570-526 BC) is shorn of its lively and picturesque gossip, what is left is likely to be sound history. He was a man of the people upon whom acceptance of the Double Crown was thrust by opportunity and the indignation of his compatriots. The native Egyptians were unanimous in his support, while the troops loyal to Apries were chiefly Greeks, somewhat strangely so since he had recently been fighting against a Greek colony. The civil war that ensued cannot have lasted more than a few months and was confined to the northwestern Delta. Herodotus locates the decisive battle at Momemphis, whereas a great red granite stele which narrated the triumph of Amasis placed it at Sekhetmafka near Terana on the Canopic branch. It is regrettable that this important stele is almost illegible, having been used as the threshold of a palace at Cairo. Apries was taken alive and brought to Sais, which had been his own place of residence and now became that of Amasis. We are told that the victor at first treated his royal prisoner kindly, but later handed him over to the fury of the populace. The stele seems to confirm that he buried him with the honor due to a Pharaoh. A cuneiform fragment in the British Museum ascribes to this same year. The thirty-seventh of Nebuchadrezzar's reign (568-567 BC) some sort of military action against Amasis, but it is unlikely that the two powers ever came into conflict with one another either at this time or later. When the great Babylonian monarch was succeeded by three weak kings and them by a fourth, Nabonidus (555-539 BC), whose troubles never took him nearer to Egypt than northern Syria and Edom. As a ruler Amasis proved predominantly a man of peace. In the west he made a treaty of alliance with Cyrene, and if he brought certain towns on the island of Cyprus into subjection that was his only conquest. Certain it is that dependence upon Greek energy and enterprise became more and more indispensable to him. His own prudence and conciliatory nature made him the well-merited epithet of Philhellene. Symptomatic of these good relations were his marriage to Ladice, a Cyrenaean lady, his large contribution to the rebuilding of the destroyed temple of Delphi, and his rich gifts to several other Greek temples. His friendship with Polycrates, the successful but treacherous tyrant of Samos, is the subject of the well-known story of the ring told by Herodotus. Nevertheless, something had to be done in order to mitigate the envy of the native Egyptians to whom, after all, his debt was enormous. As merchants settled in the Delta the Greeks were becoming unduly powerful. Amasis checked this development by confining their activities to the great city of Naucratis rediscovered by Petrie a little distance to the southwest of Sais. Here the population was exclusively Greek. Great temples were built by the different communities of colonists, and Naucratis became the forerunner of Alexandria and, in its own age, of not much inferior importance. Egyptians and Greeks were alike satisfied. This action on the part of Amasis was a political masterpiece. It was doubtless the result of his own sagacity combined, if Herodotus can be believed, with a convivial and light-hearted temperament that he was able to retain his throne for forty-four years, just escaping the catastrophe which only a year later (525 BC) was to overtake his country. The unification of a world torn by unceasing wars was long overdue and was now to be attempted on a grand scale. This initiative came from a most unexpected quarter. Persia, in the original sense of the name, is the land lying along the eastern side of the Persian Gulf and extending far inland, with Persepolis and Pasargadae as its capitals. From this mountainous and in part inhospitable country arose the Aryan family of the Achaemenids from whom the all-conquering Cyrus II (c. 558-529 BC) sprang. The first kingdom to be overrun was Media, where Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, was able to put up only slight resistance before being ousted from his capital Ecbatana, midway between Susa and the Caspian. Next was the turn of Lydia. Foreseeing what was to come, its king Croesus had sought alliances with Egypt, Babylonia, and Lacedaemon, but before help from them could arrive, Sardis was captured (546 BC) and Lydia ceased to exist as a separate kingdom. The cities of the Ionian coast were now at the Persian monarch's mercy; leaving them in the charge of his generals, Cyrus was free to direct his energies elsewhere. Babylon was naturally his next objective, but he was in no hurry to cope with it. Here Nabonidus, the scholar and antiquarian king, was reigning after a ten years' exile at Taima in Arabia, where he returned in 546 BC on the invitation of the subjects with whom he had previously disagreed. In 539 BC Babylon was occupied, Cyrus with characteristic wisdom sparing the king's life and relegating him to distant Carmania either as governor or as exile. So far-flung and empire would naturally demand much consolidation, and little is heard of Cyrus's military activities during the next few years. He was well aware, however, that the conquest of Egypt was a necessity, and this task he entrusted to his son Cambyses. He himself perished in 529 BC whilst combating attacks by Turanian hordes on his northern frontier. Within thirty years he had arisen from humble beginnings to be the most powerful monarch that the world had thus far ever known.

Twenty-fifth Dynasty

2008-09-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

Whether Bochchoris was taken captive by Sabacon (Shabako) and burned alive, as Manetho would have us believe, we have no means of knowing. However, it is certain that this younger brother of Pi'ankhy conquered the whole of Egypt, and established himself there as a genuine Egyptian Pharaoh. The texts of Sargon appear to indicate 711 B.C. as the likely date. Shabako reigned at least fourteen years, when he was succeeded by Shebitku (Sebichos in Manetho). We must assume he held the throne until the accession of Taharka (Tarcos) in 689 B.C., this date fixed by Apis stele. Considering the combined length of these two reigns, it is strange how seldom the names of Shabako and Shebitku are encountered. Apart from the pyramids at Kurru where they were buried and from a horse-cemetery in the same place, their Nubian home has hardly a trace of them to show. There are some indications that Shabako made Memphis his capital, but Thebes also testifies to his building activities. At Karnak and Medinet Habu, there are chapels erected by the same king . There was the less need for the Ethiopian monarchs to keep guard over the temple of their revered god Amen-Re' since their political power at the southern capital was otherwise represented. An essential feature of late Egyptian history is the importance gained by the royal princesses who bore the titles of 'God's Wife of Amun', 'Adorer of the God', or 'Hand of the God'. In earlier days, the epithet 'God's Wife' was commonly accorded to the Pharaoh's spouse, and doubtless carried with it a religious significance that remains to be determined. From Dyn. XXI onwards. However, this epithet was transferred to a king's daughter who became the consecrated wife of the Theban god, and to whom human intercourse was strictly forbidden. Such a one appears to have been earlier Ma'kare' believed to have been the daughter of the Tanite king Psusennes I. Her mummy was found in the Der el-Bahri cache, accompanied by that of an infant which suggests that she had died in childbirth after having offended against the rule of chastity imposed on her. It was only at the beginning of the Ethiopian supremacy, however, that the appointment of a God's Wife became a deliberate instrument of policy, and for this to happen the device of adoption had to be brought into play. Thus Kashta, who before Pi'ankhy had presumably made himself master of the Thebais, caused his daughter of the last Osorkon, and this Amonortais served again as adoptive mother to a second Shepenwepe, the daughter of King Pi'ankhy. Such a God's Wife wielded great influence, and was to all intents and purposes the equal of the king her father. She not only had great estates and officials of her own, but also being authorized to make offerings to the gods, a right elsewhere reserved for Pharaoh himself. The main limitation to her authority was that it was confined to Thebes, where she lived and died, at the end obtaining a burial-place near the temple of Der el-Medina.

The absence of the names of Shabako and Shebitky from the Assyrian and the Hebrew records is no less remarkable that the scarcity of their monuments in the lands over which they extended their sway. It is all the more interesting to find Sabacos mentioned by Herodotus as an Ethiopian whose army drove a rival Pharaoh into the fen-country of the Delta. This marks the point at which the Greek historian begins to show some knowledge of the true sequence of events, though his account never liberates itself from that fanciful anecdotal character which was as great a delight to him as it is to us. With the accession of Taharka, the brother and successor of Shebitku, our documentation becomes abundant. The excavations of F. Ll. Griffith at Kawa midway between the Third and Fourth Cataracts brought to light no less than five great stele. For the most part very well preserved, recounting the occurrences of his early years and the donations which he made to the temple in which they were found. Fragmentary duplicates of the most important of these stele have been found at Mata'ana, at Coptos, and at Tanis, showing that Taharka was nothing loath to publicize his fortunes and his achievements. We learn that at the age of twenty, he and others of the king's brothers were sent for from Nubia to join Shebitku at Thebes, where he quickly won the later's special affection. After Shebitku's death, he was crowned at Memphis and his first act was to remember the ruinous state of the temple of Kawa as he had seen it on his way to Egypt. His restorations and the multitudinous gifts which he heaped upon the local god Amen-Re' attest the devotion which he continued to feel towards the country of his birth. Of particular interest is the mention of 'wives of the princess of Lower Egypt' and of 'children of the princes of the Tjehnu' whom he transported thither as temple-servants, since this seems to imply victories over the mainly Libyan rival princes in the Delta. The sixth year of his reign was for him an annus mirabilis, a specially high Nile in Egypt itself and heavy rain in Nubia providing both lands with exceptional harvests and great prosperity. In that same year, he welcomed to Memphis his mother Abar whom he had not seen since his departure from Nubia. Characteristically, all these hieroglyphic memorials paint a roseate picture. There is no hint of the disasters which Taharka had actually to face. The buildings which he initiated at Karnak and at Medinet Habu prove that in the long-stretched Nile Valley works of peace were still possible even in a period of vital danger from the north-east.

The smoldering hostility of the two great powers flared up afresh under Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.), whose third campaign started with the subjugation of the Phoenician coast-towns. Trouble had, however, arisen farther south. The people of the Philistine city of Ekron had expelled their king Padi on account of his loyalty to Assyria, but Hezekiah of Judah who had received and imprisoned him became afraid and appealed to Egypt for help. A great defeat was inflicted on the Egyptian and Ethiopian forces at Eltekeh. Padi's throne was restored to him. Many towns of Judah were ravaged, though Jerusalem was not taken. To avoid this, Hezekiah submitted to pay a heavy tribute. It has been much disputed whether this was Sennacherib's sole clash with Egypt, but a straightforward reading of 2 Kings xix. 8-35 demands that there was another. It is there recounted that 'Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia', had come out to fight against the Assyrians, but that the angel of the Lord had smitten a vast multitude of them in the night, so that in the morning 'they were all dead corpses'. The next two verses state that Sennacherib thereupon returned to Nineveh and dwelt there until he was assassinated. In the fantastic but amusing account that Herodotus gives of this abortive attack upon Egypt, the Assyrians retreat after reaching Pelusium was due, not to plague as the Old Testament suggests, but to swarms of mice who ate up the invaders' quivers and bows. Since Taharka succeeded Shebitku only in 689 B.C., he cannot well have been the enemy whom Sennacherib defeated at Eltekeh. Short of denying the accuracy of the Biblical story, we must suppose that he aimed at following up that victory by a later blow, which, however, circumstances prevented. The enemies will not have met.

It had long become clear that a decision between the equally pernicious Assyrian and Ethiopian rulers would have to be reached, but in point of fact there was a third party to the dispute and it was with this that the ultimate victory was destined to lie. As in the time of Pi'ankhy Lower Egypt and a part of Middle Egypt had disintegrated into a number of petty princedoms always ready to side with whichever of the two great powers would be the more likely to leave them their independence. One of these was to prevail before long, but for the moment it was Assyria which held the upper hand. Esarhaddon (680-669 B.C.), the son of Sennacherib, continued his father's aggressive policy with even greater success. The Egyptian records are silent, but stele and tablets inscribed in cuneiform give circumstantial accounts of the campaign in which, after subjugating Syria, he drove Taharka reeling back to the south. Here is a shortened excerpt from the best preserved of his inscriptions:

From the town of Ishhupri as far as Memphis, a distance of fifteen days, I fought daily very bloody battles against Tarky, king of Egypt and Ethiopia, the one accursed by all the great gods. Five times I hit him with the point of my arrows inflicting wounds, and then I laid siege to Memphis, his royal residence; I destroyed it, tore down its walls, and burnt it down.

After mentioning the booty which he carried off to Assyria he continues:

All Ethiopians I deported from Egypt, leaving not even one to do homage to me. Everywhere in Egypt I appointed new kings, governors, officers, harbor overseers, officials, and administrative personnel.

Soon after setting out for a further campaign, Esarhaddon fell ill at Harran and died, enabling Taharka to regain Memphis and to occupy it until driven out afresh in Ashurbanipal's first campaign (667 B.C.). The new Assyrian king found that 'the kings, governors, and regents' whom his father had appointed in Egypt had fled and needed to be reinstalled. The famous Rassam cylinder gives an invaluable list of these petty princes, naming all the more important Delta towns besides others farther south such as Heracleopolis, Hermopolis, and Asyut. Thebes (Ni) was occupied for the first time, but only to be surrendered temporarily:

The terror of the sacred weapon of Ashur, my lord, overcame Tarku where he had taken refuge and he was never heard of again. Afterwards Urdamane, son of Shabako, sat down on the throne of his kingdom. He mad Thebes and Heliopolis his fortresses and assembled his armed might.

The narrative goes on to tell that Urdamane, the name given by the Assyrians to the Ethiopian king Tanuatamun, reoccupied Memphis, and it was not until Ashurbanipal returned from Nineveh and started upon his second campaign that the Ethiopian abandoned first Memphis and then Thebes and 'fled to Kipkipi'. That was the last of him so far as the cuneiform records are concerned. Ashurbanipal claims to have conquered Thebes completely and to have carried away to Niniveh a vast booty, but that appears to have been his final appearance in Egypt (663 B.C.). Before describing the arrangements which he had made for reducing the Delta to vassalage, we must follow up the fortunes of Tanuatamun so far as any light is thrown upon them in the Egyptian records.

Found at Gebel Barkal at the same time as the great inscription of Pi'ankhy is one of the reign of Tanuatamun known as the Dream Stele. The facts recorded are the same as those of the cuneiform cylinder above quoted, but it would be difficult to find a great contrast that of the two presentations. Both tell a tale of triumph, but in the one case the victor is Ashurbanipal, in the other Tanuatamun. The Ethiopian relates how, in the first year of his reign, he saw in a dream two snakes, one on his right hand, the other on his left, and this was interpreted to him in the following words:

Upper Egypt belongs to thee, take to thyself Lower Egypt. The Vulture and Uraeus goddesses have appeared on thy head, and the land is given to thee in its length and breadth, and none shall share with thee.

Then Tanuatamun 'arose upon the seat of Horus in this year and went forth from the place where he was even as Horus went forth from Chemmis', and proceeded unopposed to Napata where he made a great feast to Amen-Re'. Faring downstream, he did similar homage to Chnum of Elephantine and to the Amen-Re' of Thebes. On the way to Memphis, he was welcomed everywhere with great rejoicing, and on arrival at the northern capital

the Children of Rebellion came forth to fight with His Majesty, and His Majesty mad a great slaughter among them, their number is unknown.

Thus Tanuatamun took Memphis and made offerings to Ptah and the other gods of the city, after which he sent a command to Napata to build a great portal there in token of his gratitude.

Before commenting upon the story, as here told, it will be as well to summarize with some extracts the rest of Tanuatamun's stele. Next we read:

After this His Majesty fared downstream to fight with the princes of Lower Egypt. Then they entered within their walls, like...entering into their holes. Thereupon His Majesty spent many days beside them. and not one of them came forth to fight with him.

So Tanuatamun returned to Memphis, there to cogitate on his next step. A message then came saying that the princes were ready to wait upon him, and on his asking whether they wished to fight or if they wished to become his servants they assented to the latter course. Thereupon, they were admitted to the palace, where the king told them that victory had been promised him by his god Amun of Napata. In their reply the prince of Pi-Sopd acts as their spokesman, and all undertake to serve him loyally. After being entertained at a banquet, they ask to be allowed to return to their towns so as to get on with their agricultural labors. They then disperse and the inscription comes to an abrupt end.

There is probably much truth in both the Assyrian and the Ethiopian accounts, but the way in which they dovetail into one another is not altogether clear. Taharka and Tanuatamun are mentioned together on a building at Thebes, but there is no reason to suppose a co-regency. Of Taharka's end all we know is that he returned Napata and was buried at Nuri, a short distance to the south. Tanuatamun's successful occupation of Memphis and his reconciliation with the Delta princes preceded Ashurbanipal's thrust southwards to Thebes, but his end was not yet. At Thebes all through these troubled times a man of great ability managed to retain the practical power side by side with the God's Wife, Shepenwepe II, a sister of Taharka. Mentemhe is first mentioned in the Rassam cylinder of Ashrubanipal, where he figures as 'king of Thebes'. In point of fact he was only the 'fourth prophet of Amun', though descended from a distinguished priestly family. However, it is certain that he altogether overshadowed the 'first prophet'. His grandfather bore the title of 'Vizier', while his father Nesptah was merely the 'mayor of Ne' (Thebes). His monuments are numerous, naturally for the most part confined to Thebes. Two short inscriptions from Abydos suggest that his authority may have extended as far north as that city. Of great interest is a long, but unfortunately much-damaged hieroglyphic text occupying the side-walls of a small chamber in the temple of Mut at Karnak, the back-wall showing a scene of Taharka worshipping the goddess and followed by Mentemhe with his father and his son. This proves that Mentemhe, for all his power, regarded himself as no more than a faithful subject of the Ethiopian king. None the less, the inscription boasts of numerous and varied constructions and repairs such as at other times could only have been ascribed to the Pharaoh. Here the sovereign is only indirectly alluded to, and Mentemhe takes all the credit to himself, no doubt justifiably. The references to the topsy-turvy state of the land are few and obscure, and there is, of course, none to the brief occupation of the southern capital by the Assyrians.

Tanuatamun kept up the pretense of being the true Pharaoh for several years after Ashurbanipal's hasty raid upon Thebes. A few inscriptions of his have been found there, one of them recording a sale of land in his eighth year. Long before that, he will have retired in Napata, ultimately dying there and being buried at Kurru. After a little short of seventy years the Ethiopian venture had come to an end. Apparently all direct contact between the two kingdoms now ceased, though some sort of trade relations will have persisted. The northern boundary of the Napatan kingdom was probably Pnubs south of the Third Cataract. Between there and Aswan may have become a sort of no-man's-land inhabited by wild tribes. Henceforth, the Ethiopians began to look southwards instead of northwards, establishing a new capital at Meroe within the fork of the Atbara and the Nile. Here cattle could be raised and crops grown, and there were also abundant deposits of iron. If there was thus politically a scission between Egypt and Ethiopia, nevertheless the old Pharaonic culture died in the latter country only very slowly. The temples exhibited the same stereotyped scenes in relief; the royal tombs were pyramidal in shape. Several fine stele written in passably good Middle Egyptian were found together with that of Pi'ankhy at Gebel Barkal, one of King Aspelta giving a graphic account of his election as king. Some generations later similar hieroglyphic inscriptions, though still using the Egyptian language, are barbaric to the point of unintelligibility. Meanwhile, there had been developed out of the Egyptian hieroglyphs , an alphabetic script used for writing the native language. Side by side with this, there was developed a linear type of writing corresponding to the native hieroglyphic sign for sign. In the decipherment of these two scripts jointly known as Meroitic, F. L. Griffith played the largest part. It does not belong to our task to recount the story of this gradual deterioration, which came to a head with the destruction of Meroe by Aeizanes of Axum about A.D. 350.

Twenty-fourth Dynasty

2008-09-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

The next entries in Manetho as reported by Africanus are brief enough and interesting enough to be quoted in extenso: TWENTY-FOURTH DYNASTY. Bochchoris of Sais, for 6 (44) years: in his time a lamb spoke...990 years. Here at last we are heartened by some resemblance to authentic history. Of course we must disregard the characteristically Manethonian allusion to the lamb which prophesied with a human voice and, as a demotic papyrus tells us, foretold the conquest and enslavement of Egypt by Assyria. It is strange, however, that Manetho makes no mention of the great Sudanese or Cushite warrior Pi'ankhy who about 730 BC suddenly altered the entire complexion of Egyptian affairs. He was the son of a chieftain or king named Kashta and apparently a brother of the Shabako whom Manetho presents under the name Sabacon. But to obtain a rough perspective of the new order of things we must look back some 700 years. Already under the Tuthmosides a flourishing Egyptian town or colony had grown up near the massive rock of the Gebel Barkal, this of no great height, but all the more striking through its isolation in the midst of the plain about a mile from the river. The provincial capital of Napata situated a short distance downstream from the Fourth Cataract at the foot of the 'Holy Mountain', as the Egyptians called it, was sufficiently remote to develop without much danger of interference. Under Tut'ankhamun it was the limit of the Nubian viceroy's jurisdiction. In Ramesside times remain on the spot and references in the texts are infrequent, and under Dyns. XXI and XXII they are completely absent. Still, we may be sure that Egyptian culture still persisted there in a dormant condition coupled with a passionate devotion to Amen-Re', the god of the mother-city Thebes. It was probably that devotion which actuated Pi'ankhy's sudden incursion into the troubled land of his Libyan adversaries. The great stele recovered from the ruins by Mariette is one of the most illuminating documents that Egyptian history has to show, and displays a vivacity of mind, feeling, and expression such as the homeland could no longer produce. The scene at the top already presages the situation reached at the end of the campaign. Amen-Re', accompanied by the goddess Mut, occupies the center of the field, with Pi'ankhy standing in front of the god's seated figure. To the right a woman representing the king's wives advances followed by a king Nemrat leading a horse and holding a sistrum. In the foreground, below the three kings, Osorkon, Iuwapet, and Peftu'abast kiss the ground in front of the conqueror and his deity, and behind the latter five more humbled magnates, two of them mere mayors of towns, but beside them two great princes of the Ma', do homage in similar groveling attitudes. The text of the stele shows that all the Delta and a large part of Middle Egypt had split up into separate principalities. If the rulers of four of these are described as kings, it is doubtless because they, as their names indicate, belonged to the family of Dyn. XXII. Though the connection is far from clear. Pi'ankhy's recital, dated in his twenty-first year, starts by telling how an adventurous Delta prince named Tefnakhte had seized the entire west as far south as Lisht, sailing upstream with a great army. At his approach the headmen of towns and villages had opened their gates and came cringing at his heels like dogs. Then he turned eastwards and after capturing the principal towns on the right bank laid siege to Heracleopolis, which he surrounded on all sides to prevent anyone from entering or leaving. Grave as this news was, it failed to worry Pi'ankhy, who, we are told, 'was in great heart, laughed, and his heart was glad'. The officers of his army in Egypt were unable to take the situation so lightly and asked 'Wilt thou keep silent so as to forget Upper Egypt, while Tefnakhte presses forward unhindered?' They further reported that at Hwer near Hermopolis Magna Nemrat had raised the walls of the neighboring Nefrusy, had cast off his allegiance to his sovereign, and that Tefnakhte had rewarded him with everything that he might chance to find. This was too much for Pi'ankhy, and he now wrote to his commanders in Egypt ordering them to beleaguer the entire Hare nome. At the same time he gave strict instructions as to the strategy they were to pursue: they were to let the enemy choose his own time for the battle, in their sure knowledge that it was Amun who had sent them. But also when they came to Thebes they were to purify themselves in the river, to array themselves in clean linen, to rest the bow and loosen the arrow. Nor were they to boast of their might, for

without him no brave has strength. He maketh strong the weak, so that many flee before the few, and one man overcometh a thousand.

Encouraged by these lofty sentiments the Nubian contingent set out for Thebes, where they did all that had been commanded them. A vast host sailing south to do battle with them was defeated with great slaughter, ships and men being captured, and many prisoners dispatched to Napata where His Majesty was. Heracleopolis, however, remained to be recovered, and the stele at this point gives a long list of Tefnakhte's confederates stating the names of the towns of which they were the rulers. As one might expect, King Osorkon was located at Bubastis, while Tefnakhte himself is now described as 'prophet of Neith, lady of Sais, and setem-priest of Ptah', i.e. as the principal priest at both Sais and Memphis. Again a great slaughter ensued, after which the remnant were pursued and slain in the neighborhood of Pi-pek. But King Nemrat had sailed south to the hare nome, believing that its capital Hermopolis Magna was at grips with the forces of His Majesty, whereupon the whole of the province was invested on all four sides. Nevertheless the news of minor victories which reached Pi'ankhy gave but scanty satisfaction:

Thereupon His Majesty raged like a panther. 'Have they allowed survivors to remain from the armies of Lower Egypt, letting the escaper among them escape to tell the story of his campaign, and not causing them to die so as to destroy the last of them? As I live and as Re' loves me and as my father Amun favors me I will fare downstream myself and will overturn what he has done and will cause him to desist from fighting for all eternity.'

Pi'ankhy goes on to say that he would take part in the New Year's celebrations at Karnak and also those of the feast of Phaophi when Amun went in solemn procession to Luxor, and on the very day of the god's return home he promises,

'I will cause Lower Egypt to taste the taste of my fingers.'

Meanwhile the advance troops had overwhelmed Oxyrhynchos 'like a flood of water', had forced their way into El-Hiba with the help of a scaling ladder, and had also taken the town of Heboinu. These successes brought no contentment to Pi'ankhy's impatient heart. He, however, had to fulfill his vow of attendance at the Theban festivals before he could take ship to Hermopolis. Arrived there, he mounted his chariot and pitched his tent to the southwest of the town, but before taking part in the siege again addressed a thorough scolding to his soldiers for their indolence. Then

a ramp was made to cover the wall and a machine to raise on high archers shooting and slingers slinging stones so as to kill people among them every day.

Soon Hermopolis began to stink, and the inhabitants flung themselves upon their bellies supplicating the king for mercy, and messengers went in and out bringing gifts of gold and chests full of clothing, while the crown on Pi'ankhy's head and the uraeus on his brow inspired unceasing awe. Immediately Nemrat's wife came to supplicate 'the king's wives, the king's harem women, the king's daughters, and the king's sisters' begging them to intercede with 'Horus, lord of the palace, whose power is great and his triumph mighty'. Pi'ankhy seems next to reproach Nemrat for his hostile action to which that humbled the enemy can make no better reply than to bring a horse for the king and a sistrum for the queen as depicted in the scene at the top of the stele. The pious monarch's first act was to sacrifice to Thoth and the other deities of the place, after which he inspected Nemrat's palace and store-houses and had his womenfolk presented to him, but in the latter he took no pleasure. He was, however, aroused to a pitch of fury on finding the horses of Nemrat's stable in a starving condition, and he upbraided him bitterly. The narrative continues in the same vein with an account of Peftu'abast's surrender of Heracleopolis accompanying this with a particularly eloquent speech. El-Lahun at the entrance to the Fayyum was the next place to fall, after Pi'ankhy had urged its inhabitants not to choose death in preference to life. Tefnakhte's own son was among those allowed to escape without punishment. Meidum and Lisht followed suit, but Memphis presented a much tougher undertaking, no heed being paid to Pi'ankhy's protestation that all he wished to do was to make offerings to its god Ptah, and to his assurance that no one would be killed except such rebels as had blasphemed against God. Night gave Tefnakhte the opportunity of intervening with 8,000 picked warriors, but he departed on horseback in a hurry to rally the Delta princes, whom he thought to win over by promises of the rich supplies to be found in the city. When Pi'ankhy reached Memphis in the morning, he found it strongly protected by water reaching up to the walls and by its newly built battlements. Great diversity of counsel existed as to the best way of facing this situation, but Pi'ankhy swore an oath that Amun's help would give him the victory, and this did in fact happen. Mindful as ever of his religious duties, the king purified the entire place with natron and incense and performed all the rites demanded of a monarch. The inhabitants of the surrounding villages fled without its being known where they went, and Iuwapet and other princes came with presents 'to see the beauty of His Majesty'.

Much more space would be required in order even to paraphrase the remaining events of a campaign described with such breath and with such wealth of colorful incident, but we must refrain from anything more than a passing reference to Pi'ankhy's doings in Heliopolis, the holiest of all Egypt's cities, and to the assurance given him by Peteese of Athribis that neither he nor the other princes would conceal any of the things which he might covet, particularly the horses. In the end Tefnakhte himself made a complete submission saying:

I will not disobey the King's command, I will not reject what His Majesty says, I will not do evil to any prince without thy knowing it, and I will do what the King says.

A last trait must not be omitted since it confirms a statement made by Herodotus and other classical writers, but none too well authenticated in the native sources. When two princes from the north and two from the south came as representatives of the entire land to do homage to Pi'ankhy, only Nemrat was admitted to the palace, since the others had eaten fish and were impure. A trifling detail such as this is a salutary reminder that we are here dealing with a moral and intellectual atmosphere vastly different from our own. Much that Diodorus has to say about the strictly regulated life of a Pharaoh may well be true, even if we have no means of verification. It would be interesting to know the actual author of the vivid story recounted in Pi'ankhy's great stele. He was evidently well versed in Middle Egyptian diction, from which various borrowings can be quoted. But behind the verbal expression we cannot fail to discern the fiery temperament of the Nubian ruler, a temperament which had also as ingredients a fanatical piety and a real generosity. His racial antecedents are obscure, the view that he came of Libyan stock resting on very slender evidence. The vigor and individuality shared with him by his successors makes it equally unlikely, however, that they were simple descendants of emigrant Theban priests, as some have supposed. Their names are outlandish and non-Egyptian, and fresh blood must have come in from somewhere to give them such energy. It is strange that after the defeat of Tefnakhte Pi'ankhy appears to have retired to his home at Napata, leaving hardly a trace of himself in Egypt. He was buried at Kurru in the first true pyramid of a series of tombs going back for six generations.

Tefnakhte seems to have been left to his own devices, and a unique stele in the Athens Museum presents him as king making a donation of land to the goddess Neith of Sais in his eighth year . Manetho does not mention him, but Diodorus and Plutarch name Tnephachthos as the father of Bochchoris and as an advocate of the simple life. We have already noted what Manetho has to tell about Bochchoris, who for other Greek writers was proverbial as a judge and a lawgiver. Under the name Bekenrinef he appears on a stele from the Serapeum which records the burial of an Apis-bull in his sixth year, that year will have been his last if Manetho is to be trusted.

Meanwhile a new enemy had loomed up in the east. For two centuries past the small kingdom of Syria and Palestine had been able to subsist with but little outside interference. But now they found themselves faced with a regenerated, ambitious, and tyrannical Assyria. Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BC) in a series of campaigns in the west ravaged Damascus and deported to Assyria a large part of its population. He did the same to Israel, deposing its king Pekah and replacing him by Hoshea (732 BC). For these events and those of the next half-century our sole authorities are the Old Testament and the cuneiform inscriptions. The texts from Egypt never mentioning Assyria, although in the end even Thebes itself was to fall a temporary victim to the far stronger Asiatic power. Yet it was clear to Egypt that the petty rulers in Palestine looked for help against the northern invaders. Under Shalmaneser V, Tiglathpileser's short-lived son, Hoshea broke into open rebellion, with the tragic result that Samaria was captured and destroyed, although it held out for three years and only fell in 721 BC, when Shalmaneser's successor Sargon II 'carried Israel away unto Assyria' and 'shut' Hoshea 'up and bound him in prison'. According to the Biblical account Hoshea 'had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year'. Scholars are agreed to identify this So with the Sib'e, turtan of Egypt, whom the annals of Sargon state to have set out from Rapihu, tore it down and burned it'. For phonetic and probably also chronological reasons So and Sib'e cannot be the Ethiopian king Shabako, so that these names are supposed to have been those of a general. This seems the more probable since the Assyrian text goes on to say 'I received the tribute from Pir'u of Musru', which can hardly mean anything but 'from the Pharaoh of Egypt'.

Twenty-third Dynasty

2008-09-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

What little of the kind we hear of is derived from the Old Testament, as we shall soon see. Manetho's TWENTY-THIRD DYNASTY consists of only four kings, the third (Psammus) being unidentifiable and the fourth (Zet) confined to Africanus and probably an error. At the head of the dynasty is a Petubastis said to have reigned 40 years according to Africanus, but only 25 according to Eusebius. He is mentioned in several of the quay inscriptions at Karnak, one of them of year 23. Serious reasons have been advanced for regarding Dyn. XXIII as contemporaneous with Dyn. XXII, and indeed the second name is given as Osorcho or Osorthon. Matters are complicated by the existence of another Petubastis who had a different Prenomen and is probably to be recognized in the hero of a late demotic romance of which there are several versions. It remains to be mentioned that there are other obscure kings presumably belonging to this period who cannot be placed. They are probably to be accounted for by the ever increasing segmentation of the land, a fact that will be amply demonstrated in the new phase of Egyptian history about to be described.