A Glimpse Of Egypt Historical Sites
Without a doubt Africa's finest ancient monuments are the pyramids
in Egypt, not only the oldest but also the only fully surviving member of the
'Seven Wonders of the Ancient World'.
More than 80 pyramids can be found
in Egypt, but the Pyramid of Cheops at Giza on the outskirts of Cairo is
the biggest. it is, in fact, the
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world's largest stone monument.
It was built from around 2.3 million blocks
of stone, each weighing an average of 2.5 tonnes, and reaches a height equivalent to a 40-storey building.
Some of the stone used to erect this pyramid was quarried around Aswan High Dam before being transported
more than 900 kilometres (560 miles) down the Nile to Giza.
Built over 4500 years ago, the Pyramids of Giza were preceded by the first pyramid to be constructed,
the 62-metre-high (203 feet) pyramid of Djoser, erected around 2650BC at Saqqara, Memphis, near Cairo. Two millennia
after the Great Pyramids of Giza were built the Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt 'the gift of the Nile', because
virtually all life in Egypt is sustained by the Nile - a quote that holds true even today, 2500 years later.
The narrow, green strip of land that borders the Nile (just three percent of Egypt) supports 98 percent of the
country's population. While people have lived on the banks of the Nile for millennia, it is only relatively recently
that its source was discovered. In the second century AD, a Greek geographer, Ptolemy, guessed that the source of the
Nile was two great lakes that received their water from the 'Mountains of the Moon', or Ruwenzoris. Without leaving
Alexandria he had predicted what was only fully realized 17 centuries later.
The Blue Nile rises from Lake Tana in the
Ethiopian Highlands and the White Nile from the vast
Lake Victoria, shared by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Many other sources also feed these lakes and the river, among
them the Ruwenzori Mountains. The furthest source of the Nile was not discovered until 1937. From a small spring in
Burundi, the Nile begins its 6670-kilometre-long (4145 mile) journey to the Mediterranean Sea.
Along the Nile in Egypt several other noteworthy historical sites can be found. Near the border of Sudan at
Abu Simbel, two major temples were moved to higher ground in the 1960s to avoid flooding by the Aswan High Dam.
These temples of Ramses II and his wife Queen Nefertari - had been carved deep into cliffs at the edge of the Nile,
and a massive 400 000 tonnes of temple had to be cut into pieces and erected at a higher level.
Built around 1300BC, these magnificent shrines were buried in sand and lost to the world until they were
rediscovered in 1813. Perhaps because of their remote location, it was not until they were threatened with flooding
that their true majesty became known world-wide. Sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), the salvage operation also took on another 30 or so smaller temples and monuments that would
otherwise have been lost under the rising waters of the Aswan High Dam.
Approximately 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Aswan lies Luxor (meaning 'place of palaces'), the Egyptian Empire's
capital for nearly five centuries - from 1567BC to 1085BC. It is believed that Luxor has a higher concentration of
ancient monuments and tombs than anywhere else in the world. The Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple Complex and
Queen Hatshepsut's Temple are just three of the more outstanding examples.
It was in Luxor, in the Valley of Kings where over 30 royal tombs are sited, that the Tomb of Tutankhamen was
unearthed in 1922. He was only 16 or 17 years old when he died, but what made his tomb stand apart from 61 others
was that it had not been robbed of its treasures. It was discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter who, after digging
unsuccessfully for six years, was about to have his funding ended when his search bore fruit. It took 10 years to remove
and document the 1700 treasures, which included a gold effigy of Tutankhamen, a solid gold coffin and two golden chariots.
Some 700 kilometres (440 miles) down-stream from Luxor, Egypt's modern capital Cairo has asserted its dominance in the
region. At the crossroads of Africa, Asia and Europe, its strategic position has been instrumental in it becoming the
largest city in Africa, and bigger than any in the Middle East (to which it is perhaps more closely allied). Sitting
astride the Nile, Cairo is a melting pot of East and West, old and new, Muslim and Christian. Minarets compete for
space with modern apartment blocks, and cars choke the roads while people and markets fill the maze of narrow streets
that form continuous bazaars. Museums hold the treasures of ancient dynasties while other monuments nearby remain in situ.
Cairo, like the whole of North Africa, remains culturally distinct from the rest of the continent. Even with
modern technology and transport, the Sahara continues to separate and preserve the North as a unique region of Africa.
Extract from “Visions of AFRICA”, Written by David Wall. New Holand (Publishers) Ltd, London: 1998.
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