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ok. I luv this topic ask me anything that puzzles you about this era I might just be able to answer it.
go on, test my knowledge!

ok...

what is the real purpose of the great pyramids?

how were they built?

Tell me about Nut. Or Ptah.

Or (here's a great one ) what was the only part of Osiris Isis couldn't find?

Oh, yuk, queeq... next you'll be asking what it is they put in Set's lettuce that made him conceive... weird people.

Why is there so much sand in Egypt

This could be the perfect platform on which to use my old favourite "milk bath" joke.....

The Great Pyramids were the final resting place of the bodies of high ranking eqyptians before they past to the afterlife. In the pyramids there would be everything the deceased would need to enjoy the afterlife. These things would often consit of food, clothes, slaves! and their fourtune.

good, but there is one problem ... nothing was found in those pyramids...

use your general knowledge for that one Finti!
how do you think they were built?
lots and lots of slaves were used to move the blocks of limestone/granite.

which pyramids? there are hundreds of them!

it was finti who said that, not Ush, so don't humiliated him!

which pyramids? there are hundreds of them!

and again I ask the question!

the great pyramids is another name for the pyramids constructed on the plateau of Gizeh

Yerss, its Giza and give me a chance to check that one, what I ment was ask me about most general things about Anicent Eqypt.
you know, religion, hieroglyphs etc.

It's Gizeh in their language...

I see ... ...

how many gods are there?

As I am sure queeq can tell you, there is doubt over the use of Pyramids as tombs. Not to mention their dating...

Are you going to answeer my lettuce question? I hope not, because it is sick.

But not the great pyramids mind you!

Well this is debatable cause new research doubt the fact of slaves building the pyramids, and there were no Hebrew slaves either. (just to question some bible stories )

I saw something on Discovery on this subject but I cant remeber exactly what was said, but they had a theory besides the slaves building the pyramids. Something more like it was common egyptians building them.

Actually dating of the Pyramids is fairly accurate, give or take 200 years. We know for a FACT(!!!!) that the Great Pyramid was built for Kofu (also known by the GReek name Cheops). And yes, it was built as a burial monument. And yes it was completely empty. Grave robbers probably emptied the place.
Trust me, there's not SO much mystery about the pyramids as illustrious researchers as Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval and George West are trying to make us believe.

How they built it? Well, probably by a lot of WORKMEN (NOT slaves!!!!! - this has been proven by the workman's villages that have been discovered near the pyramids) and huge ramps. The one I like and seems most probable is that they built a ramp of sand circling around the pyramid as they got higher and higher. Once they were at the top, they worked their way down again as they applied the smooth white plaster casing stones, that made the pyramid shine like the sun. This plaster may even have featured hieroglyphs but there's no much concrete evidence to support that. So for everyone who's new to this: the pyramids were once entirely white. What a sight that must have been.

hey, you have seen that episode...

ok, how comes that only ONE room has hierogliefs?

queeq:
that's true, they've found out that it's most likely workers who have built it, also indicated by graves of the ones who built the pyramid; the graves were built better than they would've been built for slaves.

Slavery was never very common in Egypt in the first place. It seems peoples from the different regions took turns in a term of full time service to Pharaoh. I doubt they ever found real slave quarters or tombs in the ancient days of Egypt. Only later perhaps, during classical times. And the occasional prisoners from foreign campaigns.

and farmers helped them out when the Nile got flooded
(and they got payed and got beer! )

queeq:
which makes a lot of the stories in the christian religion impossible to have happened.

there are a lot of things that didn't happend but it's about the SYMBOLIC!

You're both wrong actually. There is quite good evidence that the ISraelites sojourned in Egypt. And even though this kind of work labour was normal to Egyptians, it's quite likely that it appeared as slavery to foreigners. And the Israelites were foreigners in Egypt, remember.

doesn't matter what it seemed like to anyone, the bible says that moses released a big bunch of slaves, which is BS.

Not necessarily. I'm, pretty sure the Israelites felt they were enslaved, forced to built cities for Pharaoh while they were once invited by the viceroy to stay there. You would feel the same.

I don't know, I've never been in ancient egypt.
I think the moses-story is made up, anyways.

Sorry to say, but there's good evidence that there is historical truth to it. I mean, what do you base your assumption on?

I can't find any evidence that any of the workers were slaves, only the opposite.
and, I sure as hell can't find any evidence that moses had a stick that turned into a snake, which is another part of the story.

THere is evidence of Israelites in Egypt. And there is evidence they left in a hurry. There is evidence of a famine around the time the Bible says the Israelites came to Egypt because of a famine. There is evidence preparations for a famine were taken by the Egyptians (as was told in the Joseph story). There is evidence that the stepfather that Artepanes mentions for Moses was a genuine pharaoh.
So as a historical frame work, there is room for a story like that of the Exodus.

the stories in the bible are based on happenings, but there is so many fishy things told in it, that you can't trust any of it.

But also you can't just toss it aside as nonsense. It's still a document that contains historical information. And if these stories are an account of what happened or based on certain happenings is not so easily or clearly distinguishable.

true, but when they start to mix 'magic' into the stories, I'd rather leave them alone.

hey, if you check the river he walks through, you will see that when it's "eb" (help me with this word queeq!) you can walk through a big part of it and when it's flood you can't...

He means low tide. And it wasn not a river he walked through. It was a "sea". People think it's the Red Sea, but that's a mistranslation. The original text reads "Reed Sea", a marshy area to the north of the Red Sea.

And many ancient texts include magic, still a lot of them are used for historical research. Wonders can never be proven, but also not disproven. THey just don't make stuff for historical research.

Still no offers on the lettuce, I note... I guess Lara was more into actual history than the stories of the Gods.

And I am sorry, queeq, but serious scientific debate about the dating of the Pyramids is still in progress, and I am about as ready to believe a firm date as I am ready to believe the latest time travel theory (to which my response is always 'interesting, but I bet the next one will be interesting as well')

There are no Egyptian written history of hebrews in Egypt, and that they left in a hurry. And the Egyptians wrote every event down, no way they would have left out a storie like that.
Of course there might have been a bunch of hebrews living in Egypt that decided to go to the promise land. As a amtter of fact most of the hebrews were nomadic people so it would be in their nature to move around a bit.
If you choose to take the biblical version of it go a head, me I stopped beliving in fairy tales at a very young age.

And yes it must have been fantastic to see the pyramides all white.

The bible contradicts itself so keep it out of this.
what I ment by slaves was prisoners/convics and rebels.
they were assisted by craftsmen, sculpters and artists.

*guys my spelling is really slipping at the moment but I'm sure you can understand what I've written*

oh, and Yerss, its Hieroglyphs not what you wrote.!

This I wanna hear. Please explain Lara

yeah, explain!

Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs Hieroglyphs

Yers go watch the mummy and the mummy returns

no! that would give nightmares... of you!!

the bible:
in the old testement it says what you should and shouldnt do and then in the new testement it says something completely different. I tend not to read it because it confuses me.

off the top of my head yerss I can only name a few but there are loads. I'll check it out over the holidays in my long absense from the boards then when I come back I might know most of their names. thats provided that this thread stays open that long!

Hieroglyphs are symbols that dipict writting or events that have happened in actual life(history) or in mythodical context.

Gods/ Goddesses:
Osiris
Anubis
Isis
Iris
Horus
Seth
Sobek
Bastet
and thats all I can think of at the moment!

strange, you forgot Ra, the big chief...

like I said those were the only ones I can think of at the moment.
anyway Ra is the SUN GOD! not the chief god! Thats OSIRIS!

I have been known to make mistakes ... from time to time...

and that part with the bible, what exactly are you talking about? The ten commandments?

like I said, it confuses me SO DROP IT WILL YOU!

what? the bible or the ten commandments?

sorry, had to say it

the bible you ningcompoop!

a what? new nick?

ok, I'll stop talking about the BIBLE

so, what was so important about writers in Egypt?

they were the most advanced culture at the time.
oh and the great pyramids at Giza they are tombs.
they are the tomb of three Pharos:
Khufu (Cheops) (being the largest)
Khafra (Chephren)
Menkaura (being the smallest.)
there have been doubts about the tombs because of the complexity of the tombs.

you haven't watch that thingie on tv then with those 3 writers who think there is much more

no

well, there are three writers, who basicly are saying that there is more then we know; like the Egyptians used Pi and the scale of the pyramids is 1/52000 (the same scale used for the northern part of the world), there are no Hieroglyphs in the great pyramids accept in one room and so one so one...

well Lara why it might confuse you is that the old testament is of an angry and vendictive God. As for the new testament is of a forgiving God.

exactly so thats why it confuses me and why I dont want to involve it in conversation anyway it is not relevant to this thread.

'Chief' God VERY much depends on the period you are talking. There is actually plenty of room to say Ra was the boss. It;s all very complex.

nah, sorry, I thought that I heared it somewhere and also that Ra is the son of the sun or god of the sun and that the sun is the most worshiped object

Indeed. And Ra is often talked of in Egyptian Mythology as the 'Lord of the Gods'. Osiris also came after him, and was his heir.

Or was he? I mean, the whole deal was so screwed up according to who and when and where you were in Egypt, it;s difficult to be definitive about who the actual chief was.

Amun-Ra was the chief god!

wasn't that in the beginning?

I dunno!
but I found a really good site w/ loads of info on about AE.
http://myhome.shinbiro.com/~his96/world/Eqypt.htm
when I say loads it is literally loads.

*gets to the site*
nice site

Hmm. You said Osiris was chief a little while back, Lara. See? I said it was all a bit tricky...

ok, now YOU tell me who the chief-god is!

Blimey, haven't I posted enough about that already? The Nile as a deity was pretty darn important as well.

You just said that it was difficult to tell, I just asked if you knew what it was now

'Now'? I didn't mean it was on rotation. I just meant that one of the variables about whom the 'Chief' deity is is what period of Egypt you are talking about.

Start with Tep-Zeppi and then onwards till where they changed their believes to the Islam

Right... so you want me to go through all the different parts of Egypt and the variouds Gods they worshoipped until the Kingdom was unified with dfue attention paid to Sumerian infleunce and then track various beleif systems through the ages until the whole mythology collapsed.

Not having a spare day, I won't bother.

ow
*sob*
when do you have a spare day then?

I'll have loads in the New Year once my friends go back to Uni.

But I want it now!

Important gods in Egypt eh? Well, Amun was the biggest most of the time. Atum or Aten is actually the creator god and the oldest.

As for the dating of the pyramids, Ush. Trust me. THe Great pyramid is beyond ANY doubt built by Kofu. And give or take two hundred years we can date him pretty well.
If you want to know how certain this is, I'll tell you. The ultimate clue lies in the chambers ABOVE the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid. The King's Chamber is oblong shaped, which has puzzled Egyptologists for a while. How could a flat roof support those tons of weight above it? Rooms in pyramids when not entirely underground generally have pyramid shaped roofs to get the weight off to the sides.
Now, above the King's Chamber they have discovered over the years a number of chambers above it, five I think. And the top one has a small pyramid shaped like roof. A magnificent piece of work. It is actually in these chambers that the ultimate proof lies for it to be built in the time of Kofu. On the back wall of one of these chambers are quarry marks that continue BEHIND another block. This graffiti mentions none other than Kofu. THat's what I call CLINCHING evidence. This evidence has been accepted by all serious scholars and even by Bauval and Hancock.
If you want to read a very good book about all the so-called mysteries of the Pyramids and the Sphinx and what the real deal is here I suggest this book, came out two years ago: "Giza, the Truth."

so that stone that mentions the pharo, why don't they take the stone out? Then they can read the entire line

The problem, queeq, is that the other side puts up evidence that seems equally convincing. I'm not really prepared to decide a final opinion on this; I'll wait it out and watch the arguments go on.

Well Lara, I know your unable to answer any guestions at the moment, but I always wondered where royal Egyptians took shits.

Right on the ground. Then they kick sand over it.

a lovely thought...

Take the block out??????? It's in the middle of the bloody pyramid.

And how much more convincing evidence is there Ush? I mean, a lot is guess work and circumstantial estimates. This graffiti MUSt have been written during construction, that is without ANY doubt.
The other "evidence" I know about dating the pyramids is the location similarity to Orion. Now, for one, those so-called exact alignments aren't that exact. And secondly, it only says something about the locations, not the actual construction of the pyramids themselves.

But I would very much like to know what evidence you refer to.

they can clone people but can't destroy a stone in the pyramid...

They can, but they won't. It's the last remaining "Wonder of the World".

drill in the stone, get wood to support it (or granite) and all is well

Obviously you have no idea how much work that is. Besides, the graffiti isn't that interesting. They know what it says, it's not that they've never seen quarry makrs like this. It just says that the block is intended for the pyramid of Kofu. The thing t'hat makes it interesting is in fact that it continues behind another block, thus proving it to be genuine.

well you lot havent progressed that much in my absense, have you? lets get cracking! any SENSIBLE questions?

HOW did they build the pyramids?

alot of work! there were sribes, sulpters and arcitects that cut the limestone and then the convicts moved the blocks.
does that answer your q queeq?

Partly. I doubt that's entirely correct though.

So how did they move the blocks so high?

Somewhere I either read or heard they built up sand along side the Pyramids and then reversed the action when finished.

you got that from queeq you know

If I knew I would have written that post right

And that is "only" a theory.

How does one pronounce the name of this thread anyway: ancient equipped?

Are you mocking Lara?

Oh shut up, yerssot. What are you, her father?

Dash it all, NO-ONE took me up on that lettuce thing!

I'm not her father, mind you!

Lettuce thing???

Yeah; you'll have to take a look at the start of the thread.

Okay. Lettuce is green.

it is???

And off topic. So closing.

pyramids are just an illusion