Secrets of the Pharohs

By Sherif Shaban

For thousands of years and to this day, there have been numerous myths and misconceptions about ancient Egypt in the minds of many around the world. Perhaps it is because of the nature of the ancient Egyptians to keep the secrets of their civilization within the minds of their priests, like the secrets of the ancient Egyptian language and hieroglyphic writing, magical secrets, miracles of architecture, astronomy, and other knowledge that other nations could not understand, and turned into mysteries. This book comes as a serious and sincere attempt to reveal falsehoods and refute the myths surrounding ancient Egyptian civilization, which unfortunately turned into facts in mind of the public and some specialists both inside and outside Egypt. So, let me take you through an interesting journey to discover the secrets of Ancient Egypt and to reveal its mysteries and myths.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kayan for Publishing
• Release date: Apr 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9789778201314

Book preview

Chapter I

Khufu and the Great Pyramid

Khufu and his age

After King Senefru died, his son Khufu assumed the throne of Egypt, in a smooth handling of power.

King Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, is considered one of the greatest kings of ancient Egypt, not because he was the builder of one of the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but because he was able to unite the ancient Egyptians in order to accomplish the noble goal of constructing that giant pyramid. The Turin Papyrus gave King Khufu a term of 23 years, and it seems that this papyrus has some errors, as some ancient historians and scholars have disagreed about the period of King Khufu’s reign. Some of them mentioned 63 years, but modern opinions indicate that King Khufu may have ruled 32 years. In the first year of his reign, the successor to King Senefru held the title Khnum Khufuy, which means God Khnum protects me. And soon, with his accession to the throne, Khufu added his Horus Name, which was Medjido among his titles. This can be translated by the title meaning he who strikes or who attacks, which suggests that Khufu had reached the throne planning to complete his father’s military campaigns abroad. This name was added with the Nebty the two ladies name of upper and lower Egypt. Khufu was also known in his early years as "Horus nb rekho," meaning Horus, the god of Knowledge, which then bears a relationship to his being a scientist and thinker. Like his father, Khufu bore the title of Golden Horus, which was in the form of two falcons standing on the gold symbol.

Both Khufu and his cousin, the genius architect Hemiunu, succeeded in choosing Giza as the site of the new capital, as it was located in the Western Desert, which is the traditional site of the royal tomb, which was linked to the setting sun. The first steps in preparing for the move to Giza were the construction of the palace, administrative quarters, and court houses. It seems that the king, his family, and his nobles had to establish their primary residences. With the construction of the residential neighborhoods, it was planned to build the pyramid and the pyramid complex. One of Hemiunu’s titles, as his father got, was the supervisor of all the king’s works. So we know that he was the chief architect and responsible for all aspects of building the pyramid. The northern end of the plateau was chosen as the site for the construction of the pyramid itself, while the southern side was left for the tombs of Khufu’s successors. We can imagine Hemiunu and his team drawing designs either on papyrus or on large slabs of limestone, to show them to the king and to help them with their work. With the beginning of the pyramid bases establishment of the pyramid, a celebration known as the pulling of the ropes was held. This celebration spread throughout the country, including performances of music and dance, and the preparation and distribution of large quantities of food to the people. The king attended at this ceremony and was assisted by the goddess Seshat, the goddess of writing and measurement in ancient Egypt, whose title was Our Lady of Construction. There was another ritual that was performed in that celebration which is the sacrifice of an animal, where it was slaughtered and cut into pieces and separated into the four corners of the pyramid and then covered with pure sand. It is possible that these rituals can be traced back to a very early period.

It seems that the pyramid was built step by step to ascend slowly towards the sky. As the best way to prepare them, the core blocks are placed in place and the gaps between them were filled with filler materials (such as small stones) and then the casing stones were put in place. The casing prepared from fine white limestone was brought to Giza from Tora quarries. Gangers were gathered on the sides of the pyramid to facilitate the process of casing. It appears that only the base blocks and one side of the casing were prepared before being placed in their places, while the second side and the top were prepared in their places. A line was made at the top of the casing block to determine the point from which the external sloping façade would start, which is considered a support later when that façade is weighted in order to prepare a flat shiny white casing. As the pyramid goes up, the workers used simple diagonal lines to make sure this construction stays balanced.

The construction of the pyramid of Khufu took about 20 years, and the construction of this project did not require hard work of workers and artists only, but there was also a system for workers’ subsistence, both in terms of preparing bread, beer and dried fish, as well as pottery, wood and minerals, in addition to preparing residential villages for workers, artists and preparing employees who oversee this system.

Khufu’s family

What we know about the family and the administration of Khufu comes to us primarily through the tombs of the Giza necropolis, without any documents or information on papyrus, so we must use the scenes and words of the dead in order to try to reconfigure their lives. There are two large cemeteries that house the tombs of the Khufu family and the men of his court. In the cemetery located directly to the east of the Great Pyramid - which began to be built in the fifth year of his reign - the tombs of his wives, sons and grandchildren are located, in addition to some of the noble men of his court.

As for the cemetery to the west of the pyramid - where it was built in the 12th year of his rule - it includes the noble men of Khufu and his priests, including ministers, treasury officials and those responsible for the royal cult. Each of the cemeteries was designed in the form of rows with streets between them. These two cemeteries continued to be used until the end of the Old Kingdom. Over time, smaller cemeteries were built around the large cemeteries, and the apparent order in the planning of the two cemeteries disappeared because of the chaos that followed them, as happens to the planning of neighborhood cities. Close members of the Khufu family were buried in the eastern cemetery, which had a unified layout.

Immediately to the east of the Great Pyramid are the Queen’s Pyramids, which were planned before the change of ideology in the fifth year of Khufu’s rule, as the king declared himself as the Sun god. The secondary pyramid was moved to the far north when the mortuary temple was expanded and it seems that queen pyramid GI-a was built to bury the Queen Mother, Hetepheres. The southern pyramid GI-c appears to have been built for a queen named Henut Sen. As for the middle pyramid GI-b, there are no texts related to it, so it is necessary to search for other sources in order to speculate on the name of the owner of this pyramid.

The owner of the tomb directly east of the Great Pyramid is Prince Kawab. He was the eldest son of King Khufu from his main wife Meritites I, which made him the crown prince. He married his sister, Hetepheres II, and had a daughter, Meresankh III.

There is another son of the king was Baufra, the son of Queen Meritites I, who also never ascended to the throne. There is also Prince Djedefhor, son of Queen Meritites I who was known at later periods as a wise man and a scribe of many teachings, the same Prince Hordjedef, who was mentioned in the Westcar Papyrus.

There is the prince Djedefra, who succeeded King Khufu on the throne. He married his brother Kawab’s widow, Hetepheres II, and another queen named Khentetenka Djedefra moved north in the location of pyramids by building his (now ruined) pyramid at Abu Rawash, (some 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to the north of Giza).

There is also Prince Khufukhaf, the son of an important queen s, although we do not know her name, also didn’t bear the title Vizier inscribed in his tomb.

There are two other princes that should be mentioned, namely: Khafmin, who bore the title of the king’s eldest son from his body, which is the title that only Prince Kawab previously held, and prince Nefermaat I, who was half-brother of Khufu; buried at Meidum and owner of the famous mastaba of the geese.

As for the daughters of Khufu, the most famous is Meresankh II, who was the daughter of the king from his wife Meritites I, and Princess Hetepheres II, who was married two times, from her brother Kawab as mentioned before, and from Djedefra, and was mother of Meresankh III. There is Princess Khamerernebty I, who was the daughter of King Khufu