الأحد، 29 أبريل 2012

Khufu’s pyramid complex

Khufu’s pyramid complex consists of a Valley Temple, now buried beneath the village of Nazlet el-Samman; basalt paving and nummulitic limestone walls have been found but the site has not been excavated.
The Valley Temple was connected to a causeway which was largely destroyed when the village was
constructed.
The Causeway led to the Mortuary Temple of Khufu.
From this temple only the basalt pavement remains. The mortuary temple was connected to the king’s pyramid.
The king’s pyramid has three smaller queen’s pyramids associated with it and five boat pits. 
The boat pits contain a ship, and the two pits on the south side of the pyramid still contained intact ships.
One of these ships has been restored and is on display.
Khufu's Pyramid maintains a limited collection of casing stones at its base.
These casing stones were made of fine white limestone quarried from the nearby Muqattam range

The Egyptian Pyramids

There are 138 pyramids discovered in egypt as of 2008 .Most were built as tombs for the pharaohs and their consorts during the old and middle kingdoms periods.
A single pyramid is built with 2,300,000 blocks , each weighing average of two and one-half tons.
The earliest known egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara , northwest of Memphis.
The earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser, which was built during the third dynasty.
The pyramid and its surrounding complex were designed by the architect Imhotep, and are generally considered to be the world,s oldest monumental structures constructed of  dressed masonry..
The estimate of the number of workers it took to build the pyramids have a wide range from a few thousand, twenty thousand, and up to 100,000.
The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza.
Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built

 

السبت، 28 أبريل 2012

The Great Sphinx of Giza

Sphinx
It is a limestone statue with a Lion,s body and a human head, stands on the giza plateau , on the west bank of the nile,standing 73.5 metres, 6 metres wide and 20.22 m high
it is commonly believed to have been built by ancient egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign
(of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 Bc


The Great Pyramids Of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza 
is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the giza necropolis
It is the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world
Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty : 
Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu
Initially at 146.5 metres (480.6 ft), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man - made structure in the world for over 3,800 years

Major Attractions In Egypt

Saqqara
is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the  Necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian Capital : mEMPHIS.
Saqqara 
features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of mastabas (Arabic word meaning 'bench'). Located some 30 km (19 mi) south of modern-day Cairo
Saqqara covers an area of around 7 by 1.5 km
At Saqqara, the oldest complete stone building complex known in history was built: Djoser's step pyramid, built during the third dynasty
 Another 16 Egyptian kings built pyramids at Saqqara, which are now in various states of preservation or dilapidation
Memphis

 .. was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt
It is also beleived to be the site visited by Abraham to address the pharaoh of Egypt.
Its ruins are located near the town of Mit Rahina , south of Cairo.
 the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the  Old Kingdom , it remained an important city throughout ancient Mediterranean History.
Memphis 
was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen
The ruins of the former capital today offer fragmented evidence of its magnificent past. They have been preserved, along with the pyramid complex at Giza, as a World Heritage Site since 1979. The site is open to the public as an open-air museum.

Major Attrctions In Egypt

The celebrated tourist attractions of Egypt are the millennia-old monuments Principal among them are the Pyramids and The Great Sphinx at Giza, The Cairo Museum and The Mohamed Ali Pasha Mosque at Cairo , Karnak Temple Complex at Luxor, Valley of the kings at Luxor , The High Dam at Aswan & The Abu Simbel Temples, south of Aswan
and the coastal area of Sinai Peninsula
Giza
  It is located on the west bank of the Nile River ,It is the third largest city in Egypt
 Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples

 .

The importance of tourism to Egypt and for the Egyptians

Tourism 
is the most important source of national income in egypt. The Egyptian people are used to the presence of tourists in their midst since antiquity.
More than 12.8 million tourists visited Egypt in 2008, providing revenues of nearly $11 billion. 
The sector employs about 12 percent of Egypt's workforce
.In 2000, there were about 5.5 million foreign tourist arrivals, with over 3.8 million from Europe, and receipts totaled more than $4.3 billion. In that year there were 113,611 rooms in hotels and 227,222 beds with a 73% occupancy rate.
 In 2002, the US government estimated the average daily cost of staying in Cairo to be about $167, around the same as other major cities in Egypt.