CLEOPATRA

CLEOPATRA

AN EARLIER MODEL

AND IT IS THOUGHT SHE

MIGHT NOT BE AS BEAUTIFUL

AS WAS MADE OUT TO BE OR
WAS IT JUST A BAD ARTIST

Seven queens of Egypt were named Cleopatra. They were all intelligent and determined women but it was the last one who was the most celebrated.

William Shakespeare called her “the serpent of the Nile”.

The seventh Cleopatra (69-30BC) was unkindly treated by some historian especially by her Roman enemies.

In fact, she was a clever, well-educated, ambitious woman. She ruled her country wisely and was determined to regain the provinces Egypt had lost  Palestine and Syria.

Cleopatra came from Macedonia and Greek was her main language but she was the first one to learn Egyptian

Macedonia’s founder was Ptolemy I, who was one of Alexander the Great’s generals.  After Alexander’s death the empire broke apart and Ptolemy took Egypt. After Cleopatra was born her father Ptolemy XII, was just a puppet of Rome. 

In 51 BC Cleopatra ruled with her brother-husband, Ptolemy XII. She married him age 18 and he was 10 years. Cleopatra soon fell out with his council and left Alexandra.

JULIUS CAESAR

When Julius Caesar arrived looking for his rival Pompey. Cleopatra returned. According to historians, she arrived in a tiny boat wrapped in a carpet and was smuggled into the palace.

She persuaded Caesar to act as an arbiter and then as a champion in her quarrel with her brother.

He died during a following war, Cleopatra married her other brother, Ptolemy XIV, but Caesar was the father of her son Caesarion.

When Ptolemy died by sheer chance, she made the baby co-ruler as Ptolemy XV. Cleopatra joined Caesar in Rome. She stayed there till he was murdered in  44 BC.

Caesar installed a gold statue of Venus in the images of Cleopatra and Rome was scandalised.

Cleopatra’s downfall

Cleopatra was still determined to regain the province Palestine and Syria and used Roman might. She went to Tarsus (now Turkey) to meet Mark Antony. He was joined ruler with Julius Caesar’s great nephew Octavius. the emperor Augustus.

MARK ANTONY

Mark Antony fell in love with Cleopatra and they had three children. His divorced of Augustus’s sister Octavia. It caused Augustus to declare war on her in 32 BC.

After the defeat at the battle of Actium in 31 BC, Cleopatra and Mark fled to Egypt where they both committed suicide in 30 BC.

PYRAMID IN ANTARCTICA

A snow covered shape like the Pyramids in Egypt was discovered in the Antarctica. It certainly is a myth and baffles scientists. It needs a great deal of investigation but it makes scientists and experts now wonder if Antarctica was not inhabited by humans millions of years ago.

Sunday Express revealed further that three other structures were found. Two about 10 miles inland and one near the coast.

Evidence from earlier research established that the climate was not as cold as it is today. On further investigation and new evidences being found would through the theory of Global Warming out of the window. It would show that the climate has a natural cycle like everything else.

In 2009 scientists brought back samples, from the Antarctica, with pollens in it. It proves that temperatures must have been higher than the present of -49C. It is thought it could be as high as 20C to create these pollens.

=================================================
PLEASE BE SO KIND AND CLICK ON ADVERTS. THANK YOU
=================================================

In 2012 scientists from Nevada's Desert Research Institute found 32 species of bacteria from Lake Vida, east Antarctica, giving more proof that the climate was a lot different to the frozen Tundra as it is today.

Dr Vanessa Bowman said: "Go back 100 million years ago and Antarctica was covered with lush rainforest similar to the those that exists in New Zealand today."

The theory is now the climate changes transformed global environments, historical discoveries around the world prove different temperatures and eco-systems thousands and millions of years ago. It also proves further that Antarctica could have been a lush, tropical land.

Experts now belief that a civilisation like in Africa, Asia and Europe lived there.

They will now investigate the pyramid structure further and if it proves  that it is man-made; history will have to re-written.

The Egyptian most famous pyramid Giza was built around 2,500 BC and still baffles scientists and experts. They discovered that there is two pyramids built underneath and the big one was built on top of it.

If the Antarctica pyramid structure proves it was not built by humans the explanation will be it is a natural phenomenon known as nunatak which means a mountain peak. It juts up just above massive glaciers.

TOMB RAIDS ALREADY IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Tomb robberies was looked at as the worst sin an Egyptian could commit.

Since they destroyed the body and took their articles; they stole his chances of a  happy afterlife which was the most important thing.

Priest laid curses on tomb robbers at first and when that did not deter them they put the body deep inside the pyramid or rocks. The entrance was blocked and sealed.

Despite of all the effort the temptation was too much and tomb robbing was a common crime along the Nile. They left the seal untouched and borrowed into the tombs.

They threw the mummies out of the coffin and torn off the wrapping to steal the valuable jewellery which were concealed there.

Kings and Nobles of the New Kingdom (1570-332 BC) were buried in the remote rocky Valley of the Kings near Thebes. It was hoped their tombs would be safe there.

According to history, tomb robbery is not a new crime but they were plundered between 1200 and 1000 BC. Priests had to take action and hid 36 Royal mummies deep in a cliff and another 13 in the grave of Amenophis. They were discovered only in the 19th centuries.

The only tomb to remain untouched was that of Tutankhamun

Mummification

Ir is a long and complicated process.

1) Take the body to the embalming house.

2) Soften the brain in a secret chemical ad then draw it out through the nose.

3) Make a slit in the corpse's side and remove the internal organs. Dry, wrap in linen and store in jars - one each for the intestines. The lids of the jars were carvings of the four sons of Honus.

4) Leave the heart - the seat of the intellect and emotions - in place because it will be needed at the judgement.

5) Stuff the inside of the body with sawdust, leaves and linen.
6) Put natron - a salt found in deserts - around it and leave for 40 days.

7) Wash the natron off and remove the stuffing. Anoint the body with sweet smelling oils, Re-stuff it with linen soaked in resin.

8) Wrap the corpse tightly in linen bandages. Place small charms and amulets between bandage layers to guard against evil in the next world. Recite prayers and spells continuously for about 30 days.

9) Place bandaged  corpse in one of or several painted and decorated mummy cases.

Pyramid Workers

To start with  rough blocks of stone from the quarries had to be finely measured and cut by highly skilled masons.

Every stone was marked to make sure it went to the right spot on the pyramid.  The final shaping was done just before the stone was pushed into position.

Apart from masons there were others skilled workers on the site; surveyors; carpenters and metalworkers who made and sharpened tools needed for construction work.

Teams of labourers used sledges, rollers, levers and thick fibre ropes to get blocks of raw stone to the site of the pyramid construction.

EGYPTIANS GODS AND MUMMIES.

Egyptians strong belief in gods and an afterlife led them to preserve the bodies of the dead.

They entombed the mummies with food, jewelleries, board games to help them on their long journeys and endless hours at eternity until their can return.

Ancient Egyptians had 750 gods to worship. The gods had human bodies and animal heads.

Re the sun-god was worshipped in the morning as scarab beetle, at noon as a hawk but his most powerful shape as ram-headed chief god Amun-Re.

It had been  believed that Re travelled across the sky and at night he sank below the horizon to enter the caverns of the underworld.

Journey to the underworld

Their belief in the underworld was the main point in the Egyptian religion. Everybody had a mortal body and immortal soul, called ka. When they die that falcon-headed god Horus led the soul to Osiris, king of the underworld, for judgement.

Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the tombs, weighed the soul's heart against the Feather of Truth. Wicked souls were eaten by crocodile-headed Ammut, while good souls went to Osiris, who gave them eternal happiness.

During their life the people took great care of their bodies with bathing, ointment with perfumes and oils. They painted their faces, hands and feet. In death, they belief the souls, which might live forever, need beautiful bodies to live in. Therefore the highly sophisticated method of mummification was developed.

A dead person needed possessions in the afterlife. Therefore, all depending on the status of the corpse the right goods were buried with them. They were jewels, clothes, weapons, tools, food, drink, games, statues of horses, domestic animals, servants and a map of the underworld.

Mummies were often provided with a special funeral  barge and painted green the colour of new growth, a sign of rebirth. The mummy was placed at the centre of the barge  with a great canopy and female mourners at either side. The procession took them to the final resting place.

Mummification was expensive and only affordable by the rich. Ordinary people were buried in simple graves in the sand. The grieving family would put just a few simple necessities next to their bodies to be used in the underworld. The heat kept their bodies in near perfect preservation.

HOW DID CITIES START?

  

CITIES IN MESOPOTAMIA IN THE 3RD CENTURY 

Cities were built as early as 10-12,000 years ago. People stopped hunting/gathering and settled more in one place. To begin with there were small farms and villages but they were not cities.

The world first great civilization arose in the Middle East, in Mesopotamia and Indus Valley.

Cities started to be built when craftsmen, traders, priests, soldiers and officials came together and were building houses. For cities to survive and prosper farmers had to produce more food and sell them on the market places.

Early large settlements appeared like the town of Jericho was inhabited before 8000 BC. A recently archaeological find in Turkey, a town called Catal Huyuk (pronounced Chatal Hoo-yook) apparently, it flourished from about 6500 to 5500 BC. Unfortunately, the knowledge is limited because there are no written records. A kind of writing started in southern Iraq about 3000 BC at a place called Sumer.

                      

 EMPIRE OF THE THIRD DYNASTY OF UR

The good farmland was in the northern territory of Iraq. Sumer did have rich soil but had to be drained because it was marshland. A highly organized effort must have been made to carefully irrigate the land. It is assumed that the whole population took part and afterwards to maintain it. When it started to be productive and prosperous Sumer was divided into independent-city-states. Walled cities like Ur, Uruk, Kish, Lagash and Nippur had its capital with villages and countryside.

Although rich on food Sumer was had no timber or stones. This meant that large amount of stone were not possible to transport. They used mud bricks which were either baked in the sun or in oven. They managed to build all these big cities with it. However, being a perishable material it did not survive of thousands of years. Surprisingly, some survived at all to give us an idea of the magnificent cities.

There were tall pyramids call ziggurats with steps leading up to the shrine of a god. Each city had its own god. It was built around the temple.

Priests had a good deal of power. Furthermore, the earliest monarchies were established in Sumer and the first known code of law was made in Ur. King Ur-Nammu reign c.2100BC.

RECONSTRUCTED  FACADE  OF THE  NEO-SUMARIAN  GREAT  ZIGGURAT  OF UR  --  NEAR  NASIRIYAH, IRAQ

In Sumer there was also the first wheeled wagon, the potter's wheel and most importantly writing was developed there. At first it was only simple lists and picture writing. Later on they developed a wedge-shaped writing on a wet clay tablet which when dried out was a perfect record. It kept a perfect literature about myth and legends of the Sumarians.

Civilization appeared a few hundred years in Sumer before ancient Egypt.

Another but mysterious civilization was in the Indus Valley (today's Pakistan) around 2500BC. There is only the city-sites of Mhoenjo-Daro and Harappa known of that great civilization. So far there was no possibility of decipher the picture writing of a few examples. It is not know who these people were. Their remarkable cities had straight criss-cross roads at a right-angle. Therefore, it is assumed that these cities must have been built before they were inhabited. Their civilization collapsed about 1700 BC but to these days the reason is no known.

Eventually, Sumer also vanished because they were warring amongst each other which enabled outsiders to conquer. They fought off many a time the invaders. Their golden days were under the third dynasty of Ur. It was established under the Ur-Nammu.

After the defeat by the Amorites about 1900 BC the Sumarians merged with the history of the Babylonia.

PRIESTES   UR-NAMMY - SEATED