Stele Dedicated by Ramose to the goddess Qetesh.

 Stele dedicated by Ramose to the naked goddess identified as ‘Qetesh, the lady of heaven’, standing on a lion, flanked by the ithyphallic Egyptian god Min-Amun and Canaanite god Reshep.

The New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1292-1189 BC. Painted and carved limestone, from Deir el-Medina. Now in the Egyptian Museum of Turin.

Nilotic Scene with Duck and Flowers Bone. Ptolemaic Period - Roman Period, ca. 332 BC-AD 395. From Al Ashmunin. Schiaparelli excavations (1903-1904). Now in the Egyptian Museum of Turin.

 

Statue of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris Statuette of the funerary deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. Wood. Late Period, early 7th century BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum of Turin.

 

Painted limestone statuette of scribe seated, from pharaoh Khufu period, 2589–2566 BC, 4th Dynasty, Old Kingdom, from Giza. De Agostini Picture Library. Now at the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

 

The Goddess Neith Relief depicting the goddess Neith, wearing the Deshret Red Crown of Lower Egypt, detail of a wall carving from the Double Temple of Sobek and Haroeris, Kom Ombo.

Red granite obelisk valley of the kings, Luxor.

 

The Unfinished Egyptian Obelisk of Aswan.

 Lying at the Ancient Egyptian quarries of Aswan is a giant obelisk that, unfortunately, was never erected.  This is a shame because had it been erected, it would have been the largest Egyptian obelisk in the world, with a height of 137 feet while weighing over 1,200 tons.  Fortunately today, the Ancient Egyptian’s loss is our gain.  For historians and archaeologists, the unfinished obelisk is a treasure trove of information on how the Egyptians not only built their obelisks, but how they quarried granite, and what tools they used.  When the Egyptians abandoned the obelisk, they left it behind complete with tool marks, markings left by engineers and architects, as well as a number of stone and copper tools. 

Philae Temple during the night -Aswan Nubia.

Views from the Temple of Isis in Aswan.

An interesting bit of history: when the Aswan Dam was built, the Nile waters flooded parts of Aswan and threatened many historical sites housed in nearby Philae, including the Temple of Isis. Some of the ruins were moved and now are safely situated in their new homes both in Egypt and different museums around the world. The Temple of Isis was one of the lucky sites, transferred to a manmade island in the middle of Lake Nasser.

Considering its massive size, I have great respect for those who moved the temple and rebuilt it piece by piece.

The Aswan Dam.

 During its construction in the 1960s, the Aswan Dam held back greater amounts of water each year. As the water rose, many important archaeological sites were flooded, such as these sphinxes lining the avenue of the Temple at Wadi es-Sebuah. In 1964, the sphinxes and temple were rescued and put on higher ground.