Horus & Isis

Isis endured a difficult pregnancy with exceptionally long labor and gave birth to Horus alone in the swamps of the Delta. She hid herself and her son from Set and his demons in the thickets, only going out at night for food accompanied by a bodyguard of seven scorpions who were given her by the […]

Art History and Artists

A lot of what we know about the Ancient Egyptians comes from their art. From the many pieces of art they created we can learn things like what they looked like, what kind of clothes they wore, what jobs they worked, and what they considered important.           Similar Art for Over […]

The Armies of the Empire of Egypt

The first standing army in Egypt was established by Amenemhat I (c. 1991-1962 BCE) of the 12th Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. Prior to this time, the army was comprised of conscripts sent to the king by regional governors (called nomarchs) from their districts (nomes) who were often more loyal to their home-ruler and region than […]

Horus & the King

Having conquered Set and restored order, Horus became known as Horu-Sema-Tawy, The Horus, Uniter of the Two Lands. He reinstated the policies of his parents, rejuvenating the land, and ruled wisely. It is for this reason that kings of Egypt, from the First Dynastic Period on, aligned themselves with Horus and chose a “Horus Name” to […]

Ancient Egyptian Art, Painting, Sculpture

Ancient Egyptian art is five thousand years old. It emerged and took shape in the ancient Egypt, the civilization of the Nile Valley. Expressed in paintings and sculptures, it was highly symbolic and fascinating – this art form revolves round the past and was intended to keep history alive. In a narrow sense, Ancient Egyptian […]

Egyptian art and architecture

Egyptian art and architecture, the ancient architectural monuments, sculptures, paintings, and decorative crafts produced mainly during the dynastic periods of the first three millennia BCE in the Nile valley regions of Egypt and Nubia. The course of art in Egypt paralleled to a large extent the country’s political history, but it depended as well on the entrenched belief in the […]

Music & Dance in Ancient Egypt

Music and dance were highly valued in ancient Egyptian culture, but they were more important than is generally thought: they were integral to creation and communion with the gods and, further, were the human response to the gift of life and all the experiences of the human condition. Egyptologist Helen Strudwick notes how, “music was everywhere in Ancient Egypt – at […]

Dancers & The Dance

By the time of the New Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1570 – c. 1069 BCE) music was well established as a part of Egyptian life. The famous poetic genre of the love song, so closely associated with the New Kingdom, may have developed to be sung and accompanied by interpretative dance. Whether the love song developed as a […]

Domestic architecture

Mud brick and wood were the standard materials for houses and palaces throughout the Dynastic period; stone was used occasionally for such architectural elements as doorjambs, lintels, column bases, and windows. The best-preserved private houses are those of modest size in the workmen’s village of Dayr al-Madīnah. Exceptional in that they were built of stone, they […]

Relief sculpture and painting

For Egyptians the decoration of tomb walls with reliefs or painted scenes provided some certainty of the perpetuation of life; in a temple, similarly, it was believed that mural decoration magically ensured the performance of important ceremonies and reinforced the memory of royal deeds. The earliest appearance of mural decoration is to be found in tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis, presumably the grave […]