Egypt Feature Story The Tomb of Tutankhamun (King Tut) by Mark Andrews

It is not the grandest tomb in Egypt, and was certainly not occupied by one of Egypt's most powerful rulers.  But in general, the population of the world know the tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62) better than any other, because of all the royal tombs, it was found mostly intact. What was found in this tomb surely gives us pause to understand the motive behind ancient tomb robberies.  If such a vast fortune in treasure (in all, some 3,500 items were recovered) was found in this tiny tomb owned by a relatively minor king, what must have dazzled the eyes of the thieves who first entered the huge tomb of Ramesses II, or one of Egypt's other grand kings? Of course, the list of funerary equipment was very useful to Egyptologists, giving them an idea of what had been removed from other royal tombs.

Wonderful Artwork found in the Tutankhamun Tomb

A top from one of the Canopic Jar

The tomb, which lies in an area that was not normally used for royal burials in the Valley center, was apparently quickly buried deep below the surface of the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes). It was forgotten about until Howard Carter discovered it on November 4th, 1922. Part of Howard Carter's luck was that it was not discovered earlier when, his predecessor in the Valley, Theodore Davis who was American, came within little more than a meter of finding it himself.

It is a little known fact that Howard Carter did not excavate every part of the King’s Valley, down to bedrock in his search for Tutankhamun. Having identified the area, in the centre of the Valley, most likely to produce the sort of find his patron desired; & which would indeed do so, many years before he seems to have expended much of his efforts in the search for answers to much more academic questions; such as the hunt for foundation deposits – in order to clarify which king was actually responsible for the construction of which tomb, & only went flat out in his search for Tutankhamun’s tomb, when it became apparent that his source of funds might be about to dry up.

From "Recent Excavations in the Valley of the Kings by the Amarna Royal Tombs Project" by Glen

Howard Carter was told, prior to finding the tomb, that Lord Carnarvon was withdrawing from the project, but after pleading his case, was given one more season of  excavation in order to find it.

Actually, we are told  that after having initially discovered the steps of the tomb on November 4th, Carter initially telegraphed Lord Carnarvon, who was still in England at his Hampshire estate, after which Carter refilled the stairway to await his benefactor's arrival.  Upon Lord Carnarvon's arrival on November 24th, work was resumed and by November 26th, the interior was observed for the first time since antiquity.

After its discovery, the worldwide media spectacle the discovery created along with movies about the curse of the mummies which are still produced every so often, is probably as interesting as the actual tomb itself. What many people do not realize is that it took Carter, with his attention to details, another ten years to fully explore, excavate and clear the tomb. Legend has it that Carter posted the first notice of discovery of the tomb on the bulletin board at the Old Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor.

Tutankhamen was certainly not one of the greatest of Egyptian pharaohs.  In fact, prior to the discovery of his tomb in 1922, little of his life was known.  Today, we know much more about  this king, but surprisingly little of that knowledge comes from the treasures of his tomb.  Tutankhamen died about 1325 BC, after only nine years of rule.  Apparently he died fairly suddenly, because a proper royal tomb, to our knowledge, was never prepared for this pharaoh.  Instead, the tomb of Tutankhamen is relatively small and follows a design more often found in non-royal tombs. Some scholars believe that the tomb that King Ay was eventually interred in was actually begun for Tutankhamen.

Actually, Tutankhamen's tomb is not nearly as interesting as other tombs in the Valley of the Kings.  It consists of an entrance leading to a single corridor, followed by several annexes for funerary equipment.  At a 90 degree right angle is the small burial chamber, with another annex attached leading back in the direction of the entrance.  This is not much of a tomb compared to other royal tombs, and most all of the funerary equipment will not be found here, but rather in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo, if it is not elsewhere on exhib
Only the burial chamber received decorations.  Here, all of the walls have the same golden background.  On the west wall we find scenes depicting the apes of the first hour of the Amduat.  On the south wall the king is followed by Anubis as he appears before Hathor. Here, there is also a scene of the King being welcomed into the underworld by Hathor, Anubis and Isis.  The north wall depicts the King before Nut with the royal ka embracing Osiris.  On the same wall, we also find the scene of Ay performing the opening of the Mouth ritual before the mummy of Tutankhamun.  Finally, on the east wall, Tutankhamun's mummy is depicted being pulled on a sledge during the funeral procession.  Within the procession are two viziers to the king, and a third person who might be Horemheb.

It should be noted that this tomb was not found completely intact.  In fact, there had been at least two robberies of the tomb, perhaps soon after Tutankhamen's burial, probably by members of the tomb workers.

Tutankhamun's Gold Inner Coffin

Headdresses of the Ancient Egyptian Deities by Caroline Seawright

The ancient Egyptian deities tended to each have a distinctive headdress, which can often be used to tell the gods and goddesses apart. The headdress seems to have been strongly linked to the attributes of the particular deity, giving the Egyptians a visual clue as to the powers of the god or goddess. This, then, lead to the mix up of headdresses when different deities took over the attributes and powers of another deity. To the Egyptians it made sense - they could easily tell what the god was worshiped for - but it makes things difficult to identify deities today. Here is a list of the most common headdresses or crowns of the deities of ancient Egypt:

Amentet, the Personification of the West, was depicted as wearing the standard of the west. The standard is usually a half circle sitting on top of two poles of uneven length, the longer of which is tied to her head by a headband. Often a hawk or an ostrich feather is seen sitting on top of the standard. Hathor, the 'Lady of the West', is often depicted as wearing this headdress - in this form, she is known as Hathor-Amentet.

Amen is usually depicted as a man wearing a headdress with two tall plumes rising from a short crown. As Amen-Ra, the sun disk is added between the plumes, showing his connection to the sun. Horus is also seen wearing the headdress of Amen. It is said that also other gods are unaware of his true form, as they were created later than him and by him. His invisibility carries connotations with the wind, or breeze, his element in the Ogdoad, and which is seen in the depictions where he carries two high plumes on top of his head, plumes being a sign for wind or air. -- The Creation Myths, Akhet

Anqet was generally depicted as a woman wearing a tall headdress made either of reeds or of ostrich feathers. It spreads out slightly at the top, where the ends of the feathers or reeds tip outwards. This headdress is thought to be of Nubian origin, linking her to the lands south of Egypt. ... a foreign-looking crown of feathers standing upright in a close ring ... That such is the signification of Anqet is indicated by the crown of feathers, by the meaning of her name "to surround," and by the determinative hieroglyphic of her name, a serpent, signifying "knowledge". -- The Correspondences of Egypt, C. TH. Odhner

Atem is usually depicted as a man wearing the Double Crown (both of the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt). The crowns signify that he is related to rulership over the Two Lands, giving him a close connection with the pharaoh. Horus is also depicted as wearing this crown. The Double Crown - Pschent. With the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, the red crown and the white crown were combined to become the double crown, known as the "Two

Mighty Ones". -- Royal Crowns and Headdresses, Egyptology Online

Geb was depicted wearing the headdress of a goose. Most often he is shown wearing no headdress at all. The goose was Geb's sacredanimal, and it was also the hieroglyph used in his name. He was also sometimes shown wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt combined with the atef crown and long, spiral horns. The Egyptians believed that Geb was one of the first pharaohs of Egypt, and so he was sometimes shown wearing the crown of Lower Egypt, combined with Osiris' atef crown.

ا

HATHEOR 
was pictured as a woman with cow's horns with the sun between them, or as a cow wearing the sun disk between her horns. The horns are her horns, as she was thought to be a bovine goddess, but the solar disk that sits between the horns is her aspect of a solar goddess. Some, though, believe that the horns are yet another symbolism of her celestial role as a goddess:  In the Hermopolitan cosmogonies, a cow [Hathor or Mehet] carried the child Re to the "horizon of heaven" [eclipse]. Thus, it is reasonable to consider that the belief in Hathor had been inspired by the dazzling Diamond Ring effect seen close to totality of an eclipse ... the eclipsed sun looks like a diamond on a ring [or horns] of the solar corona (the outer atmosphere of the Sun). Therefore the horns of Hathor could be the horns of the crescent sun or those of the ring and the face of Hathor would be then the diamond. -- The Solar (Eclipse) Gods of Ancient Egypt, Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem

Hapi was also both god of Upper and Lower Egypt - this duality was shown by having twin Hapi deities, one wearing the papyrus of the north (Lower Egypt) as a headdress, the other wearing the south's (Upper Egypt) blue water lily as a headdress. When the two gods are shown together, they are usually using their respective plants to tie together a set of lungs and windpipe, symbolizing the Two Lands together as one.
Heh

Heh was shown as a man wearing a notched palm frond on his head. The palm frond was an ancient Egyptian symbol for long life. Heh was the god of infinity, and so the palm could also stand for an infinite amount of time.

Many of the gods with the name of Horus were shown as hawk headed men, each Horus having a different headdress. These headdresses did get confused, along with the gods, over time. Horus - son of Isis and Osiris - and Horus the Elder - brother of Isis and Osiris - both wore the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Horakhty, Horus of the Horizon, wore the sun disk on his head with the uraeus. These gods could also be shown wearing the headdress of Amen or no headdress at all.

ISIS

Isis was shown as a beautiful woman, wearing the hieroglyph of the throne of Egypt on her head. Later on when she took on the aspects of Hathor, she started to be shown wearing her headdress - the cow's horns with the sun disk between them - often combined with the vulture headdress of Mut. She took over many of the positions of the goddesses, and so ended up taking on their headdresses as well, though the hieroglyph and the cow horns, solar disk and vulture headdress combination were the most common. Khonsu

Khonsu was generally depicted as a youth or a hawk headed man wearing a lunar
disk and crescent on his head. Thoth and Yah, both moon-related deities, also wore this lunar headdress.  Like the two most important other lunar gods, Yah, whose name simply means "moon", and Khonsu, whose name "the wanderer" refers to the cycles of the moon, Thoth is very closely associated with the calculation of time in specific and arithmetic in general ... As a lunar god, he was responsible for completing the moon during its cycle, that is to say, to make sure that time passes as it is supposed to. -- Thoth, Jacques Kinnaer

Ma'at

Ma'at was shown as a woman with an ostrich feather - the Feather of Ma'at and the symbol of truth - on her head. The tall feather, attached by a headband, is the hieroglyph for truth, order, balance, justice and freedom. The reason for the association of the ostrich feather with Ma'at, the goddess of truth, is unknown, as is also the primitive conception which underlies the name, but it is certainly very ancient, and probably dates from pre-dynastic times. -- The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis Budge


Min
Min was shown as a man wearing a crown with twin plumes, similar to that of Amen, occasionally with a long ribbon trailing down to his feet. When he took the form of Min-Amen, he wore the solar disk between the two tall feathers on his headdress. Min was one of the most ancient of Egyptian deities and is always depicted with an erect phallus, sometimes ejaculating sperm, and wearing a crown topped by two straight plumes: in his right hand he holds a raised flail used to thresh husks from the ears of corn to make it edible - hence the flail, or whip, is a symbol of power and fertility. Min was later joined with the great solar deity Amen to become the sun god's fertility aspect. -- Saint Priapus: An Account of Phallic Survivals within the Christian Church and some of their Pagan Origins, Ian McNeil Cooke Min's other main distinguishing feature, though not part of a headdress, is his symbol, the flail. The way he holds his flail might be symbolic of sexual intercourse - the flail forms the V while his upraised forearm seems to thrust inside the V.

Mut

Mut was often shown wearing the double crown of Egypt or the vulture headdress of the New Kingdom queens. She wore the vulture crown because of the link between her name and the name for mother in Egyptian - they were both mwt, and the vulture was the hieroglyph for mw.  In Southern Africa, the name for an Egyptian vulture is synonymous with the term applied to lovers, for vultures like pigeons are always seen in pairs. Thus mother and child remain closely bonded together... the wide wingspan of a vulture may be seen as all encompassing and providing a protective cover to its infants. The vulture when carrying out its role as a mother and giving protection to its infants may exhibit a forceful nature whilst defending her young. All these qualities inspired the imagination of the Ancient Egyptians. -- Ma-Wetu, The Kiswahili-Bantu Research Unit for the Advancement of the Ancient Egyptian Language

Nefertem

Nefertem was depicted as a beautiful young man with a water lily (lotus) flower on his head. The flower was the floral symbol of Upper Egypt - the Nymphaea caerulea - which the Egyptians related to the sun, healing, perfume and sexuality. The Egyptian idea of sexuality was identified with creation. Being a flower of creation, the flower became linked to human fertility and sexuality. -- Seshen - the Blue Water Lily and Egypt

Nekhbet

Nekhbet was depicted as a woman wearing the crown of Upper Egypt or the vulture headdress, a woman with the head of a vulture. She was shown to wear the vulture crown because she was believed to be the mother - the Egyptian word used the hieroglyph of the vulture - of the pharaoh. Her claim to the crown of Upper Egypt came from the fact that she was one of the pharaoh's 'Two Ladies' - nebty - who was the goddess of all of Upper Egypt. In later times, these two crowns were combined
Nephthys

 
was depicted as a woman with the hieroglyph of her name (a basket and a house on top of each other) on her head. Her name meant 'Mistress of the House' in ancient Egyptian: ...but by the word "house" we must understand that portion of the sky which was supposed to form the abode of the Sun-god Horus. -- Nephthys, TourEygpt

Nit

Nit was shown either wearing her emblem - either a shield crossed with two arrows, or a weaving shuttle - or the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. Linked to royalty since the 1st Dynasty, Nit was a guardian of the Red Crown of Lower Egypt itself. As for the shuttle, her name - nt - was linked to the root of the Egyptian word for 'weave' - ntt. The emblem also could be depicted as that of warfare - the shield and arrows that she was believed to have used to put evil spirits to sleep.

Nut

NUT was sometimes portrayed as a woman wearing her sign - the particular design of an Egyptian pot on her head, though most often she was not shown wearing a headdress at all.

Osiris

OSIRIS
is generally shown as a green man wearing the atef crown on his head. It seems that the atef crown was originally the crown of Ra when the Egyptians believed that he ruled the earth. For Osiris to be pharaoh of Egypt, he had to wear this crown, though it produced much heat, as expected from an object belonging to the sun god.  But, on the very first day that he wore it, Osiris had much suffering in his head from the heat of the atef crown which [he wore] that men and gods should respect him. And when Ra returned in the evening to see Osiris ... he found him sitting in his house with his head angry and swollen from the heat of the atef crown. -- Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, R. T. Rundle Clark

Ptah

 PTAH:
was shown as a mummiform man with a false beard, wearing a close fitting skull cap that exposed only his face and ears. A golden statue of Ptah from the tomb of Tutankhamen has a blue faience cap on his head.

Satet

 
was often shown wearing the crown of the south - Upper Egypt - and a pair of long antelope horns. This crown has a vulture's head and tail peeking out from within it, linking her to the mother goddesses of Egypt. The vulture beneath the crown is the symbol of maternal love and protection, and the horns signify the power of celestial love. -- The Correspondences of Egypt, C. TH. Odhner

Serqet

SERQET was often shown as a woman with a scorpion on her head. During later periods, she was sometimes shown wearing the headdress of Hathor - a solar disk with cow horns.  The goddess Serqet is usually represented as a woman wearing a scorpion-like animal on her head. Contrary, however, to popular beliefs, she was originally associated with the so-called water-scorpion, an aquatic animal that physically resembles but bears no relation to the real scorpion. Only through a (graphical) assimilation between the water-scorpion and the real scorpion in the 19th Dynasty, she would become associated with the real scorpion. -- Serqet, Jacques Kinnaer Seshat

 
was depicted as a woman with a headdress that was also her hieroglyph, which may represent either a stylized flower or seven (or nine) pointed star on a standard that is beneath a set of down-turned horns or a down turned crescent of the moon. Much argument is made over whether the symbol over Her head is a star or a rosette. An article brought to my attention recently has shed an interesting light on this issue. in "Seshat and the Pharaoh" by G.A. Wainwright, he shows the development of Seshat's symbol over time. It first appeared ... on Narmer's palette, perhaps as part of a title. There it is clearly a flower-shape, and not a star. -- Seshat: A Goddess of Ancient Egypt, D. A. Schaefer

Shu

 SHU
was generally depicted as a man wearing an ostrich feather headdress, though sometimes he was shown wearing the sun disk on his head. The feather was the same ostrich feather of Ma'at, but his name might be derived from the word for dryness - shu, the root of words such as 'dry', 'parched', 'withered', 'sunlight' and 'empty'. His name could also mean 'He who Rises Up'.

Thoth

THoth was usually depicted as an ibis headed man or as a full ibis, or with the face of a dog-headed baboon and the body of a man or, again, as a full dog-headed baboon. Each form could have the lunar disk and crescent on his head. Khonsu and Aah, both moon-related deities, also wore this lunar headdress

    wadjet was depicted as a woman wearing the crown of Lower Egypt or with a cobra on her head. Her claim to the crown of Lower Egypt came from the fact that she was one of the pharaoh's 'Two Ladies' - nebty - who was the goddess of all of Lower Egypt. In later times the crown of Lower Egypt was combined with the vulture headdress. The goddess Wadjet comes to you in the form of the living Uraeus to anoint your head with her flames.

The Monastery of St. Paul In Egypt's Eastern Desert by Jimmy Dunn

Egypt's Eastern Desert, at least for now, provides us little in the way of antiquities for travelers. Pharaonically, there are a few trade routes and other ruins. However, it is the home to two of  Egypt's best known Christian monuments which include the well known monastery of St. Anthony (Antonios) and perhaps the less well known Monastery of St. Paul of Thebes.

The Monastery of St. Paul probably dates to the fifth century and was founded in memory of one of Egypt's greatest saints and anchorites, who is said to have lived in a cave over which it was built for a period of some eighty years. We mostly know of his life from the writings of St. Jerome and his work, Vita Pauli (Life of Paul), which was written between 375 and 380 AD. St. Jerome tell us that, while it may have been St. Anthony who founded the monastic way of life by inspiring others, Amathas and Macarius, who were disciples of Anthony, affirm that Paul of Thebes was actually the originator of the practice.
St. Paul was apparently born to rich parents in the year 228, However, by the age of sixteen, he had lost his parents. This would have corresponded with the terrible period of Christian persecution perpetuated by Decius and Valerian between 249 and 260 AD. After the death of his parents, Paul renounced his inheritance and consecrated his life to God, eventually seeking refuge in the wilderness of Egypt's Eastern Desert, where he is said to have lived until the age of one hundred and thirteen. Living in his cave, and clothed in a tunic made of plaited palm leaves, tradition holds that a raven brought a half of a loaf of bread which day for him to eat.


Jerome tells us that Anthony, who was apparently at least a contemporary of Paul, was told of someone living in the desert that was holier then he. Hence, he set out to find Paul and, having succeeded, had a friendly conversation with him. That evening when the Raven came to bring the saint's nourishment, he came with a whole loaf so that both the holy men might have substance.


Apparently, Anthony and Paul continued to be friends for many years. When Paul thought that he was approaching death, he asked Anthony to fetch the cloak which the patriarch Athanasius had given him. However, when Anthony arrived at the cave where Paul had lived those many years, he saw angels carrying the soul of the holy ascetic to heaven. Paul's body remained in the cave, but two lions approached and dug  a grave into which Anthony placed Paul's body wrapped in the cloak he had fetched. Anthony is said to have kept Paul's tunic of palm leaves, which he wore to celebrate the occasions of Easter and Pentecost.

The Monastery of St. Paul (Deir Anba Bula), which has also been called the Monastery of the Tigers (Deir al-Numur), perhaps because of its wilderness location, has always been associated with the Monastery of St. Anthony, usually in a subordinate manner. The first travel narrative we have of the monastery was provided by Antoninus Martyr, a native of Placentia who visited the tomb of St. Paul between the years 560 and 570 AD.  The first monks to occupy the monastery may have been Melchite, but they were followed by Egyptian and Syrian monks. The Syrians may have had a sustained existence at the monastery, for it appears that they also occupied the monastery during the first half of the fifteenth century, after which their presence disappears. It should also be noted that, according to an isolated Ethiopian reference, the seventieth patriarch of the Coptic Church, Gabriel II (1131-45 AD) was banished to the monastery for three years.


Like many of Egypt's earliest monasteries, this one suffered at the hands of Bedouin tribes. One during the year 1484 was particularly destructive, when many of the monks were killed and their library was put to the torch. Afterwards, the monastery was rebuilt under the patronage of Patriarch Gabriel VII, who sent ten monks from the Monastery of the Syrians (Wadi al-Natrun). Yet, during the second half of the sixteenth century, it was again attacked and ransacked twice, forcing the monks to finally leave.


The monastery apparently set deserted for the next 119 years, only to be repopulated by a group of monks from the Monastery of St. Anthony under the patronage of John XVI, who promoted an extensive reconstruction in 1701.

The Walls

Most ancient, remote Egyptian monasteries are in fact fortifications for good reason. Likewise, St. Paul's Monastery has high defensive walls surrounding the monastic buildings. The history of this enclosure is complex and corresponds to various periods. We know that the walls were considerably enlarged during the eighteenth century under John XVI, but the final walls we see today were completed during the nineteenth century. Also like many other monasteries, the fortress appears to have had no original door and therefore we find on the inside of the east wall the ancient hoist used to haul food, goods and even visitors up the wall and into the monastery.


The Tower 

The tower (keep, or qasr) is perhaps one of the most obvious structures within the complex. As usual, it was entered via a drawbridge and represented the last defensive bastion against the desert raiders. Situated next to the church of St. Paul, in the past, its ground floor served as a cemetery for the monks, while the second floor was a storeroom for the food reserves which would sustain the monks through a period of long siege. Traditionally in Coptic monasteries, the highest story is dedicated to the archangel Michael, but since he is already the titular saint of the large church in the center of the monastery, here the third floor has a chapel dedicated to the Holy Virgin, which is roofed with a wooden cupola. There are also cells for the monks on this level of the tower. Churches Altogether, the Monastery of St. Paul has four churches, three of which are situated in the ancient part of the complex. The Church of St. Paul Attesting to its antiquity, the Church of St. Paul , also sometimes referred to as the Cave Church, located next to the tower sits three meters below the current level of the monastery grounds. This is the spiritual center of the monastery. Its southern end is the oldest part, hollowed out of the cave in which St. Paul is believed to have lived. This section of the church, at least, probably dates to the fifth century. The north part of the church dates to medieval times. One enters this church via a staircase attached to the the chapel walls. Within, the church proper consists of one nave in the center and three sanctuaries dedicated to the twenty four elders of Revelation (north, St. Anthony (center), and St. Paul (south). The central and south sanctuaries and the part of the nave facing them were excavated from the rock itself, while the remainder of the building to the north is made of masonry. The wooden cupola which roofs the chapel is decorated with the equestrian figures of Saints Apater and his sister Irene, Isidore, Apa Iskhirun, James and Julius, all warrior saints. These were produced by the monastery monks in 1713, but probably overlay earlier iconography that is lost to us. The paintings on the walls of the cave date to the same restoration work, portraying biblical subjects such as the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, as well as the angel and Aniel's three companions, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, respectively called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego by the officer of King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 3:10-26). However, in the middle sanctuary dedicated to St. Anthony, though in poor condition, are wall paintings that date to the first half of the fourteenth century. Here, we can just make out depictions of Christ enthroned, the annunciation, St. John the Baptist, angles and archangels. The body of St. Paul is kept in a marble shrine on the south side of the nave. One traditional story holds that the saint's relics were taken to Constantinople in 1240, and from there they were sent to Venice in 1381. Indeed, an urn in the church of St. Julian in Venice is believed to contain some of his remains. Recent analysis has shown that the remains in Venice are that of only a leg of a very old man (over eighty) who lived between the first century and the first half of the forth centuries, AD. Hence, they certainly may be a fraction of the body of the saint that mostly rests in the Egyptian monastery that bears his name. The Church of St. Mercurius Located above Paul's cave, and almost atop the Church of St. Paul, the church of St. Mercurius (Abu al-Seifein) dates from the end of the eighteenth century. Hence, it contains few interesting elements, with the exception of a precious iconostasis inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl. This church is connected to the cave by a much older staircase. Many churches in Egypt are dedicated to this saint, the most well known of which is probably in Old Cairo. This church is only used once a year during the week prior to Lent. The Church of St. Michael The Church of St. Michael (al-Malak) was built in 1777, with a roof consisting of twelve cupolas. It has two sanctuaries including one dedicated to St. Michael to the north, and to St. John the Baptist in the south. While the true spiritual center of the monastery is the subterranean church of St. Paul, it is two small for the daily liturgy, so this service is held in the the Church of St. Michael, which is the largest church in the complex. The Refectory and the Mill Within the monastery is an ancient refectory that is no longer in use, but which dates back to medieval times. It is situated in the east wing of the complex. The main axis of the refectory is covered by a barrel vaulted roof. Within, a heavy masonry table with a lectern fashioned on its west end, from which the sacred texts and the lives of the saints and martyres were read during the community meal, dominates the room. The refectory is entered by way of a narrow passage, and on the west side of the passage are two rooms that were once used as mills. Within are big stone millstones which were operated by huge wooden gears turned by draft animals. The Spring of St. Paul An ancient spring named for St. Paul resides in the north wing of the complex. It continues to supply water at the rate of about four cubic meters per day. The water comes from a mountain crevice and flows into a cemented reservoir tank that is used for drinking and cooking. A small drain allows the surplus water into a second reservoir, which is used by the monks for washing, and a final drain carries off the remaining water into a large basin where it is distributed for irrigation. However, a second spring, known as the Pool of Miriam is located about one hundred meters to the south of the monastery. It was named after the sister of Moses and Aaron, who according to tradition washed there during the Exodus.

King Tut's Coffins

When the broken lid of the yellow sarcophagus of King Tut in his tomb was slowly lifted away from its base using an elaborate pulley system, there was an audible gasp from the crowd of dignitaries who had assembled for this very event. What they found, underneath two sheets of linen, was a splendid anthropoid coffin. Its golden surface still shined brilliantly under Burton's arc lamps.

However, the size (and weight, about 1.36 metric tons or 3,000 pounds) of this coffin suggested that it was only the first of several such nested coffins. Nevertheless, the excavators had to be patient. Conservation demands of objects already removed from the tomb meant that it would be another year and a half before work on opening the coffins could begin. This is perhaps one of the greatest curses of such work.

The exposed outer coffin of Tutankhamun, measuring 2.24 meters long with its head positioned to the west, rested on a low leonine bier that was still intact though certainly suffering from the strain of a ton and a quarter worth of weight it had endured over the prior 3,200 years. Fragments chipped from the toe of the coffin lid at the time of the burial, a crude attempt to rectify a design problem and allow the sarcophagus lid to sit properly, were found in the bottom of the sarcophagus. The chippings revealed that the coffin was made of cypress with a thin layer of gesso overlaid with gold foil. The layer of gold varied in thickness from heavy sheet for the face and hands to the very finest gold leaf for the rather curious khat-like headdress. The gold covering also varied in color so that, for example, the hands and face were covered by a paler alloy then the remainder of the coffin. In Howard Carter's words, this gave "an impression of the greyness of death".

The surface area of both the lid and base of the coffin were covered with rishi, a feather decoration executed in low relief. On the left and right sides and superimposed upon this feathering were two finely engraved images of Isis and Nephthys with their wings extended. Their protective embrace is alluded to in one of the two vertical lines of hieroglyphs running down the front of the lid. At the bottom of the coffin under the foot is another depiction of the goddess Isis, kneeling upon the hieroglyph for "gold", and below this are ten vertical columns of text.

The lid of the coffin itself is carved in high relief with a recumbent image of the dead king as Osiris. He wears a broad collar and wrist ornaments carved in low relief, while his arms, crossed on the chest, clutch the twin symbols of kingship, the crook (heqa Scepter) and the flail. The "Two Ladies". Wadjet and Nekhbet, representing the divine cobra of Lower Egypt and the vulture goddess of Upper Egypt, rose from the king's forehead. A small wreath tied around the pair was composed of olive leaves and flowers resembling the blue cornflower, bound onto a narrow strip of papyrus pith. The olive leaves were carefully arranged so that the green front of the leaves alternated with the more silver back surface.

The original design of the outermost coffin's lid had incorporated four silver handles, two on each side, which were used to lower the lid into place. Some three thousand years later, these same handles would be used, once more to raise this lid, by Howard Carter and his team.

The second Outside Coffin (no. 254

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CARTER tells us that "it was a moment as anxious as exciting", when he lifted the lid of the outermost coffin. Within, what was expected to be found was indeed found, a second anthropoid coffin.

Once again, the surface was concealed beneath a decayed shroud of linen, which in turn was obscured by floral garlands, and similar to the first coffin, there was a small wreath of olive leaves, blue lotus petals and cornflowers wrapped around the protective deities on the Pharaoh's brow.

However, even before the linen covering was removed, Carter and his team decided to remove both the delicate lower half and contents of the outermost coffin from the sarcophagus. The fragile gessoed and inlaid surface of this outer relic required that this be performed with as little handling as possible. Therefore, steel pins were inserted through the inscribed tenons of the outermost coffin and pulleys were employed in a process that Carter records as a task "of no little difficulty". Nevertheless, the outer coffin was lifted and then deposited upon trestles resting on the rim of the sarcophagus box without incident.

Afterwards, the second coffin was soon revealed as even more magnificent than the first. It measured 2.04 meters long, and was constructed from a still unidentified wood covered as before with an overlay of gold foil. Here, the use of inlays were far more extensive than on the outermost coffin, even though they had suffered considerably from the presence of dampness within the tomb and showed a tendency to fall out.

It is hard to image the amount of work which must have been put into making this coffin. Carved in wood, it was first overlaid with sheet gold on the thin layer of gesso (a sort of plaster). Then narrow strips of gold, placed on edge, were soldered to the base to from cells in which the small pieces of colored glass, fixed with cement, were laid. The technique is known as Egyptian cloisonne work, but it is not true cloisonne because the glass was already shaped before being put in the cells, and not put in the cells in power form and fused by heating

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Many details, such as the stripes of the nemes-headcloth, eyebrows, cosmetic lines and beard were inlaid with lapis-blue glass. The uraeus on the forehead was of gilded wood, with a head of blue faience and inlays of red, blue and turquoise glass. The head of Nekhbet, the vulture, was also of gilded wood with a beak of dark block wood which was probably ebony. The eyes were set with obsidian. The crook and flail, held respectively in the left and right hands, were inlaid with lapis-blue and turquoise glass and blue faience, while a broad "falcon collar" containing inset pieces of brilliant red, blue and turquoise glass adorned the king's throat. There were also two similarly inlaid bracelets carved onto the wrists. Rishi-pattern decorations covered the entire surface of the king's body though here, unlike the outermost coffin, the feathers were each inlaid with jasper-red, lapis-blue and turquoise glass. However, here replacing the images of Isis and Nephthys as depicted on the outermost coffin, were images of the winged vulture goddess Nekhbet and the winged uraeus, Wadjet, also inlaid with pieces of red, blue and turquoise glass. Unfortunately, there were no handles on the second coffin as there were on the first. Moreover, ten gold-headed silver nails had been used to secure the lid of the second coffin, and these were in a location that could not be accessed easily with the outer shell (bottom portion of the outer coffin) still in place. Therefore, Carter removed these pins just enough to attach a "stout copper wire" to each and then "strong metal eyelets" were screwed into the edge of the outer coffin and the two separated by lowering the outer shell into the sarcophagus while the inner hung suspended. The Innermost Coffin (no. 255) The delicate lid of the second coffin was removed in a similar fashion. Eyelets were screwed into the edge of the lid at four points. The silver pins securing the ten inscribed silver tenons were then removed, and the coffin lid, after some initial flexing, was lifted effortlessly into the air. Thus, the third anthropoid coffin was revealed, though covered once again with fine linen in place above the nemes-headdress. It was tightly encased within the second coffin and a shroud of red linen, folded three times, covered it from neck to feet. However, the face of this coffin had been left bare. The breast was adorned with a very delicate, broad collar of blue glass beads and various leaves, flowers, berries and fruits, including pomegranates, which were sewn onto a papyrus backing. Now this coffin was amazingly different, particularly in one respect, as Howard Carter notes: "Mr. Burton at once made his photographic records. I then removed the floral collarette and linen coverings. An astounding fact was disclosed. The third coffin...was made of solid gold! The mystery of the enormous weight, which hitherto had puzzled us, was now clear. It explained also why the weight had diminished so slightly after the first coffin, and the lid of the second coffin, had been removed. Its weight was still as much as eight strong men could lift." However, as opposed to the outer two coffins, this one, entirely of gold, did not gleam. After the linen shroud and papyrus collar were removed, what was revealed was a coffin covered "with a thick black pitch-like layer which extended from the hands down to the ankles". This was actually a fatty resinous perfume. Howard Carter estimated that up to two bucketfuls of this liquid had been poured over the coffin, filling in the whole space between it and the base of the second coffin and making them solid and causing them to stick firmly together. The removal of this resinous layer was difficult to say the least, according to Carter: "This pitch like material hardened by age had to be removed by means of hammering, solvents and heat, while the shells of the coffins were loosened from one another and extricated by means of great heat, the interior being temporarily protected during the process by zinc plates - the temperature employed though necessarily below the melting point of zinc was several hundred degrees Fahrenheit. After the inner coffin was extricated it had to be again treated with head and solvents before the material could     be completely removed The golden coffin measures about 1.88 meters in length. The metal was beaten from heavy gold sheet, and varies in thickness from .25 to .3 centimeters. In 1929, it was weighed, tipping the scales at 110.4 kilograms. Thus, its scrap value alone would today be in the region of 1.7 million USD. The image of King Tut that was sculpted on this coffin is today oddly ethereal, due to the decomposition of the calcite whites of the eyes. The pupils of the eyes are obsidian, while the eyebrows and cosmetic lines are inlaid with lapis-lazuli colored glass. The beard was worked separately and afterwards attached to the chin. It is also inlaid with lapis colored glass. The headdress on the coffin is the nemes, as was that of the second coffin, though here the pleating is in relief rather than indicated by inlays of colored glass. During this period of Egyptian history, males wore earrings only up until puberty, so when discovered, patches of gold foil concealed the fact that the ears, also cast separately, were pierced. At the neck of the coffin were placed two heavy necklaces of disc beads made of red and yellow gold and dark blue faience, threaded on what looked like glass bound with linen tape. Each of the strings had lotus flower terminals inlaid with carnelian, lapis and turquoise glass. Necklaces of this kind were awarded by Egyptian kings to military commanders and high officials for distinguished services. Below these necklaces was the falcon collar of the coffin itself, again created separately from the lid, and inlaid with eleven rows of lapis, quartz, carnelian, felspar and turquoise glass imitating tubular beadwork, with an outer edge of inlaid drops. been so liberally anointedbeen so liberally anointed

Sinai Major Cities and Towns

El-Arish
Dahab
Noweiba
Rafah
Sharm el-Sheikh
Ras As-Sudr
Taba
El-Tor (Tur Sinai)

About the Area

After 8,000 years at the heart of history, experience the continuing contrasts. Sinai is where rock meets coral reef and the desert stops at the sea. It is the grandeur of granite meeting golden beaches. Here, you will find tropical fish and rare birds, spectacular sunsets and clear starry nights.Meet Sinai and discover yourself.

El-Arish has shady palm beaches, Mediterranean waves and the glowing colors of Bedouin crafts. Sharm el-Sheikh is the simplicity of sun, sea and sand. The luxury of five-star hotels, water sports, shopping and entertainment. Ras Mohamed is a world famous paradise of coral gardens and tropical fish.

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair". - Khalil Gibran.
Sinai is the land of discovery. It is the route to the Promised Land, where Isis sought Osiris and the Pharaohs found gold. It is where Moses witnessed the Burning Bush and the Bedouins camped by Crusader forts. Sinai is the meeting point for three great religions, at the crossroads of Africa and Asia.

How To Get to Sinai

From outside Egypt
Many international flights now go direct to Sharm el-Sheikh, contact us for details.

From Cairo