Ancient Egypt Essay Research Paper One of — страница 2

an expedition to Libya he learned of the king’s assassination (1908 BC) and fled, either from fright or because of his complicity. In his reply to the decree sent by King Senusret he states, “I do not know what separated me from my place. It was like some sort of dream, as when a man of the Delta marshes sees himself in Elaphantine, or a man of the northern swamps in Nubia. I did not take fright, no one was pursuing me, I had heard no reviling word. My name had not been heard in the mouth of the herald.”(Legacy) He intended to travel southward but was blown to the north while crossing the Nile, and he passed into Palestine. After much wandering in Palestine and Lebanon, he was invited to settle with a chieftain of southern Syria, who adopted him and married him to his

eldest daughter. In that land he raised a family and became a patriarch. He defended his father-in-law’s territory and entertained emissaries traveling to and from Egypt. The pharaoh Sesostris I invited Sinuhe to return to Egypt and Sinuhe accepted. The king forgave him his real or imagined crimes and welcomed him with rich gifts; thereafter Sinuhe remarried in his homeland, while the pharaoh ordered a tomb be built for him. While this story may seem ambiguous and obscure, the Egyptians rules and codes for daily life may have helped them to understand why Sinuhe fled. The canonical nature and way of life of the Egyptians helped them to perceive the author’s intended messages. The Ancient Egyptians canonical nature is depicted well in the design, construction and the functions

of the pyramids. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest monument of the Seven Ancient Wonders. The monument was built by the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty around the year 2560 BC to serve as a tomb when he died. The tradition of pyramid building started in Ancient Egypt as a sophistication of the idea of a mastaba or “platform” covering the royal tomb. The Great Pyramid is believed to have been built over a 20 year period. Several theories have been proposed to conclude how the blocks were put in place for the pyramid. One theory involves the construction of a straight or spiral ramp that was raised as the construction proceeded. This ramp, coated with mud and water, eased the displacement of the blocks which were pushed into place. A second theory suggests

that the blocks were placed using long levers with a short angled foot (Clare). When it was built, the Great pyramid was 481 ft high. Each side is carefully oriented with one of the cardinal points of the compass. The horizontal cross section of the pyramid is square at any level, with each side measuring 751 ft in length. The structure consists of approximately two million blocks of stone, each weighing more than two tons. The overwhelming scientific and historic evidence still supports the conclusion that, like many smaller pyramids in the region, the Great Pyramids were built by the Ancient Egyptian civilization off the West bank of the Nile as tombs for their Kings; Tombs where Khufu, Khefre, and Menkaure could start their mystic journey to the afterlife. After a ruler died,

his or her body was carefully treated and wrapped to preserve it as a mummy. According to ancient Egyptian belief, the pyramid, where the mummy was placed, provided a place for the monarch to pass into the afterlife. In temples nearby, priests performed rituals to nourish the dead monarch’s spirit, which was believed to stay with the body after death. In the Old Kingdom, Egyptian artists painted and carved on the walls of the burial chamber, designed to safeguard the dead monarch’s passage into the afterlife (Macaulay). All the pyramids were aligned to the cardinal directions, meaning that their sides ran almost exactly due north-south and east-west. Most pyramids rose from desert plateaus on the west bank of the Nile River, behind which the sun set. The Egyptians believed

that a dead monarch’s spirit left the body and traveled through the sky with the sun each day. When the sun set in the west, the royal spirits settled into their pyramid tombs to renew themselves. The Egyptians canonical nature was well represented in their art, literature, and clearly in the pyramids. The methods used to create the Egyptian tomb paintings as well as the messages embedded within them are excellent representations of the artistic canon in Egyptian life as well as Egyptian after-life. The seemingly ambiguous “Tale of Sinhue” may have been much less ambiguous to the ancient Egyptian civilizations due to their daily rules and codes to which they firmly abided by. The design and construction of the Great Pyramid clearly portray the canonical nature of the