Sunday, June 24, 2018

Philae Island .. Isis and Osiris .. Part ( 3 )


The worship and priests of Isis
The worship of Isis at Philae was the culmination of the religion of Ancient Egypt . Two thousand years earlier the Ancient Egyptian believed that in the beginning there was nothing but a waste of darkness and chaos . From this, emerged the sun-god Atum, who came into existence by himself and produced a god, Shu, and a goddess, Tefnut ( Tefnet or Tfenet ) .

Friday, June 22, 2018

Philae Island .. Geographical & Historical informations .. Part ( 2 )


Geographical informations about the Philae area
Philae itself is an island situated at the beginning of the First Cataract, from which the river descends on its way to the Mediterranean Sea . Today a modern road skirts the Cataract and follows the crest of the first Aswan Dam, giving a splendid view of the Cataract and the island of Siheil where traders inscribed their names on the numerous rocks and boulders before continuing on their way to Central Africa, the " Land of Ghosts " .

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Philae Island – Historical Notes .. Part ( 1 )

Foreword
It does not often happen that a calamity is reversed, especially in the fields of archaeology and the environment . A barrow ploughed flat by a careless or rapacious farmer can never be reconstituted ; a country house demolished for redevelopment cannot be restored to what it once was, even if it is lovingly rebuilt according to its ancient form ; a countryside ruined by an industrial complex or a motorway can never be quite the same again . Yet a distinction can be made between the destruction of the man-made and the devastation of a landscape ; the former may be thought irrevocable, the latter a change which time will repair . Nature will not restore precisely, but she has the power to rehabilitate, to wipe out the rapacities of man, to replace what has been lost with something perhaps even better .