A Picture Tour inside the Great Pyramid of Giza

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THE GREAT PYRAMID: Built to Represent the Human Body?

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 A water pump, a power plant, an Extraterrestrial landing strip, a beacon, a weapon, an observatory, a tomb - these are some of the labels assigned to the Great Pyramid of Egypt. But there is one idea that has not been presented or explored, and it is possibly the simplest of all: that it was designed and built to represent us.
Alright. Down to business.

The Human Body: Our Spiritual Anatomy.

According to esoteric tradition, fully realized human beings in heightened states of awareness are composed of eight elements:

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8)

The four elements of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. The twelve signs of the Zodiac. A secret "thirteenth" sign containing the other twelve within itself. Crystals. Chakras, or the body's seven energy centers. Third eye. Kundalini, most often described as a coiled serpent existing within the body in conjunction with the chakras. Androgeny (i.e. two genders in one).

How does the Great Pyramid contain all this? Let's start with the four elements.

The Elemental Pyramid.

Each of the pyramid's four sides represents one element. Our bodies have the four elements of Earth (that which gives us substance), Air (allowing us to breathe), Water (over 85 % of our total body mass), and Fire (what keeps our inner temperature at 98.6 degrees), and the Great Pyramid contains these as well. That's it. Simple as that.

The Astrological Pyramid.

How does the pyramid display the twelve signs? Easy. According to astrology, each element has three signs. Therefore, each side of the pyramid has three signs - one for each corner of the structure. Earth, for instance, has Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. Air has Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra. The Water element contains Scorpio, Cancer, and Pisces. And as for Fire, we find within it the signs of Leo, Aries, and Sagittarius.

The Crystal Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid is shaped like half of a naturally growing octahedron crystal: 51 degrees between its slopes and the base. The message? If the pyramid is a crystal and crystals reside within us (and they do, since our bodies return to the earth once we die and help in the formation of crystals), then we should be able to do everything crystals can. And where do we find crystals? We find them in calculators, watches, computers, cellphones, radios, GPS devices, and so on. Eventually we will discover that we are capable of emulating and surpassing our best technological discoveries and developments - simply with our own minds. This might seem like a far-fetched statement to make, but keep in mind that technology does indeed come from human ingenuity (and some would say, from inspiration).

The Chakra Pyramid.

What happens to light as it passes through a crystal prism? Answer: it refracts (bends) and becomes visible to the naked eye as the rainbow colored spectrum. The Great Pyramid, of course, may not specifically contain this spectrum since it's a mountain of stone, but since the pyramid is crystal shaped and crystals divide light…you get the picture. Basically, The sun shines into the human body (which, again, contains crystals) and reveals the seven chakras.

The All-Seeing Pyramid.

Take a second look at the Great Seal on the back of the American dollar bill. What do you see at the top of the pyramid? An eye. Now why in the world would an inanimate stone structure have an eye - unless the structure itself wasn't inanimate at all? If the Great Pyramid was designed to represent the human body, then it stands to reason that it would be equipped to see as a human would, wouldn't it? After all, they say that the eyes are the gateway to the soul. And no human eye can see as clearly or as deeply as our spiritual third eye.

Random rant: The Great Seal of the United States of America is not an evil symbol. Get over it. It is a divinely inspired image designed by highly learned men (and women) of very elite caliber. Its purpose: to inspire, to protect, and to elevate humanity beyond its current barbaric state.

The Reptilian Pyramid.

Kundalini (or energy serpent) seems unrelated to the Great Pyramid, but the truth is that they're more like kissing cousins. Most people involved in esoteric philosophy for instance, are aware of the Mexican Temple of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan and how twice a year (during the spring and autumn equinoxes, to be more precise) a shadow resembling a snake with wings (i.e. Quetzalcoatl, whom the Toltecs of Mexico revered as a God) slithers its way up and down the 364 steps of the pyramid.

Meanwhile, back in Egypt, the mask of King Tut reveals a cobra protruding from the forehead - with the rest of the reptile's body presumably extending back in the King's body. Just like Kundalini. And then there's Wadjet, the goddess of lower Egypt - another serpent with wings. In fact, there are so many examples of winged serpents or deities with reptilian traits within most cultures of the world that it really makes one wonder if ancient peoples all had access to the same knowledge. I believe they did. The evidence sure shows such.

And that's it. That's how the Great Pyramid contains Kundalini - by association.

The Dual Gendered Pyramid.

If the above wasn't enough to raise hackles, this might. Actually, it's probably the most controversial concept of all in regards to the Pyramid.

 because it seems to me that the best way to create chaos (or a distraction) would be to split what was once whole into two parts - and have these duke it with one another instead.

Needless to say, this is not virgin territory. Plato presented the same scenario during his Symposium dialogue, as have others. The idea of our once being dual gendered sounds too freakishly alien to accept. And yet, right there within the first pages of an ancient text, it clearly states:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
 

Genesis 1 V. 27

"And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
Genesis 2 V.21 to 23
I'm not a religious man. But I'm also not for discarding ancient texts before their time - especially if they possess much we've yet to fully comprehend. All I can say about Genesis is that we are explicitly told of a time when the first human being - a man - was both male and female at the same time - and that at some point, something happened to this being where "he" decided to split up into two parts, whereas each half had what the other lacked.
As for how the Great Pyramid contains this, well, that's easy. At the present time, there are only two main chambers within the Great Pyramid: the King's Chamber, and The Queen's Chamber. Male and female…within one structure. One body. Us. 
                                                             
The Human Pyramid: The Overall Message.


If we become the Pyramid, we save ourselves. That is what I feel the structure is trying (and has tried) to tell us over the centuries. The nice thing about the ideas above is that they aren't really new at all. They've been around forever and simply require an artist's touch to weave together. They also render the Pyramid's age, size, weight, and mass almost irrelevant. It is the implied symbolism and angles that matter. Seen under that light, the "Great" Pyramid could have been built only an inch high and made out of chocolate and the message would be the same. Of course however, having a huge stone structure makes it less likely to be stolen or destroyed.
In the end, Man is not known for his sense of introspection. He is known for reason, force, his lust for control, and war. Fortunately, like nightmares seeping away in the first kiss of the morning sun, old paradigms will fade. Our kind will embrace new ways of thinking and relating with one another, ones allowing us to become - or rebecome - as we once were. And when that day arrives, we will no longer require monoliths of stone to reflect our image.
 

Great Pyramid Facts

*Compared to the Great Pyramid, the Chicago Twin Towers are 4 ' 10" high without the space between floors.

*All the masonry to build a highway from San Fransisco to New York 8' wide and 6" thick - fits inside the Great Pyramid.

*Only a few places on earth could hold the weight of the Great Pyramid.

*The height of the Great Pyramid is equal to the average height of land on earth.

*The Great Pyramid sits in the center of the longest land parallel and meridian, equally dividing all four quadrants of earth's land masses long before Columbus.

*The Great Pyramid was covered with mirror smooth casing stones, 20 tons each, with a smoothness "equal or better to that of your reading glasses."

*There were 144,000 of them.

*It is the only structure that can be seen from space.

*The space between the stones is smaller than a human hair, or piece of tin foil, exact to the thousandth of an inch. Today's technology can move stones 10 to 20 tons each to within 1 or 2 inches of each other.

*The most accurate macro manipulator (precision movement of large objects) from NASA can move items only 1 and a half tons to within 50,000th of an inch, not 1 or 2 thousands as in the pyramid.

*In aiming toward True North, the Pyramid is off by 3 minutes of arc. The best modern science can achieve is 6 minutes off.

*Since the Pyramid was built, there has been a movement of the North Pole. At the time of its erection the Great Pyramid was only .001 off True North.

*The greatest scientist of all time, Sir Isaac Newton, broke the code of the Great Pyramid by discovering what he called "the Sacred Jewish Inch."

*After studying the Great Pyramid, Newton dedicated the rest of his life to Bible study.

*The periphery of the Great Pyramid is 36,524 inches. Moving the decimal reveals the exact length of the earth year.

*The Pyramid is the most heavily measured structure on earth, to within a thousandth of an inch through lasers, etc.

*Measuring up the ascending passage to the year 33 a.d. one finds the start of the Grand Gallery, and the exact date of April 3, 33 a.d. Here is found "the Christ Triangle," incorporating the angle of the passages we find September 29, 2 b.c. as the birth of Christ. The third leg of the triangle points to the date Octover 14, 29 a.d. - the baptism.

*The Pyramid points out 1914 - the start of World War I.

*The three granite plugs of the Pyramid are made from the same mount that the 10 commandments were carved in, being a unique red granite, (though not absolutely provable, tests well against minerals.)

More Great Pyramid Facts

The Great, the Mighty God ...hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day. Jer 32:18-20

The architect of the Great Pyramid knew the exact length of the solar year, even to the tenth part of the second. This is shown in at least six places, and by means of four units of length.

There is a second period known as the stellar year, or sidereal, year, about 20 minutes longer than the solar year. Thirdly there is another length called the orbital or anomalistic, year, which is in turn a few seconds longer still. And these two latter year lengths are also enshrined in the Great Pyramid.

The "Precession of the Equinoxes", a period of 25,827.5 years, the time required for our solar system as a unit to make one revolution around its vastly greater sun, the Pleiades's, is shown exactly in the pyramid in four places.

Other scientific truths enshrined in the pyramid:

1. The mean distance from the earth to the sun.
2. The weight of the earth.
3. The mean density of the earth.
4. The fact of the spherical of the earth.
5. The polar diameter of the earth, or the exact length of earth's polar axis of rotation.
6. The earth's mean orbit and maximum variation.
7. The variation of the earth's ecliptic.
8. The earth's mean temperature (the average temperature of the air in the Kings chamber).
9. The exact inch, foot, yard, furlong and mile, including the true length of the Standard Geographical Mile, a measure of 2917.467+ Pyramid Cubits.
10. The exact grain, ounce, pound, stone, (English weight of 14 pounds) and ton.
11. The standard British (and American) measures of the pint, quart, gallon, bushel and "quarter."
12. The art of squaring the circle in theory and in practice.
13. The art of doubling the cube, likewise in practice as well as in theory.
14. The art of that extremely difficult mathematical feat of offering a practical solution to the baffling problem, the quadrature of the circle.
15. The direction of True North.
16. The Pi Proportion, Pi being the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference, 3.14159+
17. The total land-area of the earth, the pyramid located in such a manner as to divide said land-area into four equal quarters, and in so doing to thus define both the earth's "master-meridian" of longitude, and "master-parallel" of latitude. In other words, the meridian passing over the Great Pyramid from north to south traverses more miles of land, and less of sea, than any other that can be drawn around the earth at any place, and that same distinction holds true of a parallel passing over the Pyramid's apex from east to west, or vice verse.

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Bes a protector of mothers and children .

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Bes (also spelled as Bisu) was an Egyptian deity worshipped in the later periods of dynastic history as a protector of households and in particular mothers and children. In time he would be regarded as the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad. While past studies identified Bes as a Middle Kingdom import from Nubia, some more recent research believes him to be an Egyptian native. Mentions of Bes can be traced to the southern lands of the Old Kingdom; however his cult did not become widespread until well into the New Kingdom.

Iconography

Modern scholars such as James Romano demonstrated that in its earliest inceptions, Bes was a representation of a lion rearing up on its hind legs.
After the Third Intermediate Period, Bes is often seen as just the head or the face, often worn as amulets. It is theorized that the god Bes came from the Great Lakes Region of Africa, coming from the Twa people (a pygmy group) in Congo or Rwanda. The ancient Twa were about the same height as the depictions of Bes.
Dawn Prince-Hughes lists Bes as fitting with other archetypal long-haired Bigfoot-like ape-man figures from ancient Northern Africa, "a squat, bandy-legged figure depicted with fur about his body, a prominent brow, and short, pug nose."

Another theory, connected to Bes's role in both the protection of children and women in labour, is that Bes is the figure of a miscarried fetus^{[citation needed]}.

Worship

Images of the deity were kept in homes and he was depicted quite differently from the other gods. Normally Egyptian gods were shown in profile, but instead Bes appeared in portrait, ithyphallic, and sometimes in a soldier's tunic, so as to appear ready to launch an attack on any approaching evil.
Bes was a household protector, throughout ancient Egyptian history becoming responsible for such varied tasks as killing snakes, fighting off evil spirits, watching after children, and aiding (by fighting off evil spirits) women in labour (and thus present with Taweret at births).
Since he drove off evil, Bes also came to symbolize the good things in life - music, dance, and sexual pleasure. Later, in the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian history, chambers were constructed, painted with images of Bes and his wife Beset, thought by Egyptologists to have been for the purpose of curing fertility problems or general healing rituals.
Many instances of Bes masks and costumes from the New Kingdom and later have been uncovered. These show considerable wear, thought to be too great for occasional use at festivals, and are therefore thought to have been used by professional performers, or given out for rent.
In the New Kingdom, tattoos of Bes could be found on the thighs of dancers, musicians and servant girls.
Like many Egyptian gods, the worship of Bes was exported overseas, and he, in particular, proved popular with the Phoenicians and the ancient Cypriots.

The cult of Saint Bessus in northern Italy may represent the Christianization of the cult associated with Bes; St. Bessus was also invoked for fertility, and Bessus and Bes are both associated with an ostrich feather in their iconography.
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Dendera is a huge temple built for the worship of the female goddess HATHOR , the mistress of love , music & motherhood . the temple it is the most intact temple still in the world back to 180BC. this temple is so famous for its huge scaled outlets and unique rare scenes never found any where else if you are a regular visitor to Egypt and never been to dendera before definitely not been to Egypt , if you are a first time visitor , you should visit it to go back home with a legend of a visit, you will enrich your soul by beautiful intact stories on its enormous huge walls , Queen Cleopatra commemorated her legendary love story on its wall . Dendera temple is very well known for the rare astronomical detailed scenes &the intact Zodiac signs the visit to dendera is a submerge in the beautiful past.you will be picked up from your hotel to go on a drive for one hour to Dendera temple 60km. fare north of luxor you will spend nearly between 2 to 2. 30 hours to visit & explore the site and when the tour is finished we will drive you back to your hotel in luxor

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Isis the matron of nature and magic .

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Isis or in original more likely Aset (Ancient Greek: Ἶσις) was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshiped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, and the downtrodden, and she listened to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats, and rulers. Isis is the goddess of motherhood, magic and fertility.
The goddess Isis (the mother of Horus) was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of the Overarching Sky, and was born on the fourth intercalary day. At some time Isis and Hathor had the same headdress. In later myths about Isis, she had a brother, Osiris, who became her husband, and she then was said to have conceived Horus. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set. Her magical skills restored his body to life after she gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important in later Egyptian religious beliefs.
Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children from whom all beginnings arose. In later times, the Ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of her tears of sorrow for her dead husband, Osiris. This occurrence of his death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals. The worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganis

Origin of the name

The name "Isis" is an anglicized version of the Greek version of her name, which itself changed the original Egyptian name spelling by the addition of a last "-s" because of the grammatical requirements of Greek endings.
The Egyptian name was recorded as ỉs.t or ȝs.t and meant "(She of the) Throne." The true Egyptian pronunciation remains uncertain, however, because hieroglyphs do not have vowels. Based on recent studies which present us with approximations based on contemporary languages (specifically, Greek) and Coptic evidence, the reconstructed pronunciation of her name is *Usat [*ˈʔyːsəʔ]. Osiris's name—that is, *Usir 'Osiris' (ws-ỉr) also starts with the throne glyph ʔs ("-s"). The name survived in Coptic dialects as Ēse or Ēsi, as well as in compound words surviving in names of later people such as "Har-si-Ese", which means "Horus, son of Isis".
For convenience, Egyptologists arbitrarily choose to pronounce her name as "ee-set". Sometimes they may also say "ee-sa" because the final "t" in her name was a feminine suffix, which is known to have been dropped in speech during the last stages of the Egyptian language.
The name Isis means "Throne". Her headdress is a throne. As the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaoh's power, as the pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but the most important sanctuaries were at Behbeit El-Hagar in the Nile delta, in Lower Egypt and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I (380-362 BCE), on the Upper Egyptian island of Philae.
Early history

The Goddess Isis, wall painting, c. 1360 B.C.

Her origins are uncertain, but are believed to have come from the Nile Delta. Like other Egyptian deities she did have a centralized Cult of Isis (New cults) in the Hellenistic Civilization. First mentions of Isis date back to the Fifth dynasty of Egypt which is when the first literary inscriptions are found, but her cult became prominent late in Egyptian history, when it began to absorb the cults of many other goddesses with strong cult centers. This is when the cult of Osiris arose and she became such an important figure in those beliefs. Her cult eventually spread outside Egypt.
During the formative centuries of Christianity, the religion of Isis drew converts from every corner of the Roman Empire. In Italy itself, the Egyptian faith was a dominant force. At Pompeii, archaeological evidence reveals that Isis played a major role. In Rome, temples were built and obelisks erected in her honour. In Greece, traditional centres of worship in Delos, Delphi, and Eleusis were taken over by followers of Isis, and this occurred in northern Greece and Athens as well. Harbours of Isis were to be found on the Arabian Sea and the Black Sea. Inscriptions show followers in Gaul, Spain, Pannonia, Germany, Arabia, Asia Minor, Portugal and many shrines even in Britain.

Temples

Temple of Isis (Pompeii)

Most Egyptian deities first appeared as very local cults and throughout their history retained those local centres of worship, with most major cities and towns widely known as the home of these deities. Isis originally was an independent and popular deity established in predynastic times, prior to 3100 BC, at Sebennytos in the northern delta.
Eventually temples to Isis began to spread outside of Egypt. In many locations, devotees of Isis considered a number of the local goddesses to be Isis, but under different names. The worship of Isis was joined to that of other Mediterranean goddesses, such as Demeter, Astarte, Aphrodite, and more. During the Hellenic era, due to her attributes as a protector and mother, as well as a lusty aspect gained when she absorbed some aspects of Hathor, she became the patron goddess of sailors, who spread her worship with the trading ships circulating the Mediterranean Sea.
Likewise, the Arabian goddess Al-Ozza or Al-Uzza العُزّى (al ȝozza), whose name is close to that of Isis, is believed to be a manifestation of her. This, however, is thought to be based on the similarity in the name.
Throughout the Graeco-Roman world, Isis became one of the most significant of the mystery religions, and many classical writers refer to her temples, cults, and rites.
Temples to Isis were built in Iraq, Greece and Rome, with a well preserved example discovered in Pompeii. On the Greek island of Delos a Doric Temple of Isis was built on a high over-looking hill at the beginning of the Roman period to venerate the familiar trinity of Isis, the Alexandrian Serapis and Harpocrates. The creation of this temple is significant as Delos is particularly known as the birthplace of the Greek gods Artemis and Apollo who had temples of their own on the island long before the temple to Isis was built. At Philae her worship persisted until the 6th century, long after the rise of Christianity and the subsequent suppression of paganism. The cult of Isis and Osiris continued up until the 6th century AD on the island of Philae in Upper Nile. The Theodosian decree (in about 380 AD) to destroy all pagan temples was not enforced there until the time of Justinian. This toleration was due to an old treaty made between the Blemyes-Nobadae and Diocletian. Every year they visited Elaphantine and at certain intervals took the image of Isis up river to the land of the Blemyes for oracular purposes before returning it. Justinian sent Narses to destroy the sanctuaries, with the priests being arrested and the divine images taken to Constantinople. Philae was the last of the ancient Egyptian temples to be closed.

 Priesthood

Little information on Egyptian rituals for Isis survives, however, it is clear there were both priests and priestesses officiating at her cult rituals throughout its entire history. By the Greco-Roman era, many of them were healers, and were said to have many other special powers, including dream interpretation and the ability to control the weather, which they did by braiding or not combing their hair. The latter was believed because the Egyptians considered knots to have magical powers
Iconography

Associations

"tyet" Knot of Isis in hieroglyphs

Due to the association between knots and magical power, a symbol of Isis was the tiet or tyet (meaning welfare/life), also called the Knot of Isis, Buckle of Isis, or the Blood of Isis, which is shown to the right. In many respects the tyet resembles an ankh, except that its arms point downward, and when used as such, seems to represent the idea of eternal life or resurrection. The meaning of Blood of Isis is more obscure, but the tyet often was used as a funerary amulet made of red wood, stone, or glass, so this may simply have been a description of the appearance of the materials used.
The star Sopdet (Sirius) is associated with Isis. The appearance of the star signified the advent of a new year and Isis was likewise considered the goddess of rebirth and reincarnation, and as a protector of the dead. The Book of the Dead outlines a particular ritual that would protect the dead, enabling travel anywhere in the underworld, and most of the titles Isis holds signify her as the goddess of protection of the dead.
Probably due to assimilation with the goddesses Aphrodite and Venus, during the Roman period, the rose was used in her worship. The demand for roses throughout the empire turned rose production into an important industry.

Depictions

Isis nursing Horus, wearing the headdress of Hathor

In art, originally Isis was pictured as a woman wearing a long sheath dress and crowned with the hieroglyphic sign for a throne. Sometimes she was depicted as holding a lotus, or, as a Sycamore tree. One pharaoh, Thutmose III, was depicted in his tomb as nursing from a sycamore tree that had a breast.
After she assimilated many of the roles of Hathor, Isis's headdress is replaced with that of Hathor: the horns of a cow on her head, with the solar disk between them. Sometimes she also was represented as a cow, or a cow's head. Usually, however, she was depicted with her young child, Horus (the pharaoh), with a crown, and a vulture. Occasionally she was represented as a kite flying above the body of Osiris or with the dead Osiris across her lap as she worked her magic to bring him back to life.
Most often Isis is seen holding only the generic ankh sign and a simple staff, but in late images she is seen sometimes with items usually associated only with Hathor, the sacred sistrum rattle and the fertility-bearing menat necklace. In The Book of Coming Forth By Day Isis is depicted standing on the prow of the Solar Bark with her arms outstretched.
Isis in literature
Plutarch, a Greek scholar who lived from 46 A.D. to 120 AD, wrote Isis and Osiris, which is considered a main source about the very late myths about Isis. In it he writes of Isis, describing her as: " a goddess exceptionally wise and a lover of wisdom, to whom, Fas her name at least seems to indicate, knowledge and understanding are in the highest degree appropriate.." and that the statue of Athena (Plutarch says 'whom they believe to be Isis' in Sais carried the inscription "I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, and my robe no mortal has yet uncovered." At Sais, however, the patron goddess of its ancient cult was Neith, many of whose traits had begun to be attributed to Isis during the Greek occupation. In The Golden Ass the Roman writer Apuleius later gives us his understanding of Isis in the 2nd century. The following paragraph is particularly significant:

You see me here, Lucius, in answer to your prayer. I am nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen of the ocean, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens, the wholesome sea breezes. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names ... some know me as Juno, some as Bellona ... the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship call me by my true name...Queen Isis.

 Mythology

When seen as the deification of the wife of the pharaoh in later myths, the prominent role of Isis was as the assistant to the deceased pharaoh. Thus she gained a funerary association, her name appearing over eighty times in the Pyramid Texts, and she was said to be the mother of the four deities who protected the canopic jars—more specifically, Isis was viewed as protector of the liver-jar-deity, Imsety. This association with the pharaoh's wife also brought the idea that Isis was considered the spouse of Horus (once seen as her child), who was protector, and later the deification of the pharaoh. By the Middle Kingdom, the 11th through 14th dynasties between 2040 and 1640 BC, as the funeral texts began to be used by more members of Egyptian society, other than the royal family, her role also grows to protect the nobles and even the commoners.
By the New Kingdom, the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties between 1570 and 1070 BC, Isis gained prominence as the mother and protector of the pharaoh. During this period, she is said to breastfeed the pharaoh and often is depicted doing so.
The role of her name and her throne-crown is uncertain. Some early Egyptologists believed that being the throne-mother was Isis's original function, however, a more modern view states that aspects of that role came later by association. In many African tribes, the throne is known as the mother of the king, and that concept fits well with either theory, possibly giving insight into the thinking of ancient Egyptians.

Sister-wife to Osiris

In the Old Kingdom, the 3rd Dynasty through to the 6th Dynasty dated between 2686 to 2134 BC, the pantheons of individual Egyptian cities varied by region. During the 5th dynasty, Isis became one of the Ennead of the city of Heliopolis. She was believed to be a daughter of Nut and Geb, and sister to Osiris, Nephthys, and Set. The two sisters, Isis and Nephthys, often were depicted on coffins, with wings outstretched, as protectors against evil. As a funerary deity, she was associated with Osiris, lord of the underworld (Duat), and was considered his wife.

Rare terracotta image of Isis lamenting the loss of Osiris (eighteenth dynasty) Musée du Louvre, Paris

A later mythology (ultimately a result of the replacement of another deity, Anubis, of the underworld when the cult of Osiris gained more authority), tells us of the birth of Anubis. The tale describes how Nephthys was denied a child by Set and disguised herself as the much more attractive Isis to seduce him. The plot failed, but Osiris now found Nephthys very attractive, as he thought she was Isis. They coupled, resulting in the birth of Anubis. Alternatively, Nephthys had intentionally assumed the form of Isis in order to trick Osiris into fathering her son. In fear of Set's retribution upon them, Nephthys persuaded Isis to adopt Anubis, so that Set would not find out and kill the child. The tale describes both why Anubis is seen as an underworld deity (he becomes a son of Osiris), and why he could not inherit Osiris's position (he was not a legitimate heir in this new birth scenario), neatly preserving Osiris's position as lord of the underworld. It should be remembered, however, that this new myth was only a later creation of the Osirian cult who wanted to depict Set in an evil position, as the enemy of Osiris.
In another Osirian myth, Set had a banquet for Osiris in which he brought in a beautiful box and said that whoever could fit in the box perfectly would get to keep it. Set had measured Osiris in his sleep and made sure that he was the only one who could fit the box. Several tried to see whether they fit. Once it was Osiris's turn to see if he could fit in the box, Set closed the lid on him so that the box was now a coffin for Osiris. Set flung the box in the Nile so that it would drift far away. Isis went looking for the box so that Osiris could have a proper burial. She found the box in a tree in Byblos, a city along the Phoenician coast, and brought it back to Egypt, hiding it in a swamp. But Set went hunting that night and found the box. Enraged, Set chopped Osiris's body into fourteen pieces and scattered them all over Egypt to ensure that Isis could never find Osiris again for a proper burial. Isis and her sister Nephthys went looking for these pieces, but could only find thirteen of the fourteen. Fish had swallowed the last piece, his phallus, so Isis made him a new one with magic, putting his body back together after which they conceived Horus. The number of pieces is described on temple walls variously as fourteen and sixteen, and occasionally forty-two, one for each nome or district.

 Assimilation of Hathor

When the cult of Ra rose to prominence he became associated with the similar deity, Horus. Hathor had been paired with Ra in some regions and when Isis began to be paired with Ra, soon Hathor and Isis began to be merged in some regions also as, Isis-Hathor.

 Mother of Horus

Isis nursing Horus, (Louvre)

By merging with Hathor, Isis became the mother of Horus, rather than his wife, and thus, when beliefs of Ra absorbed Atum into Atum-Ra, it also had to be taken into account that Isis was one of the Ennead, as the wife of Osiris. It had to be explained how Osiris, however, who (as lord of the dead) being dead, could be considered a father to Horus, who was not considered dead. This conflict in themes led to the evolution of the idea that Osiris needed to be resurrected, and therefore, to the Legend of Osiris and Isis, of which Plutarch's Greek description written in the 1st century AD, De Iside et Osiride, contains the most extensive account known today.
Yet another set of late myths detail the adventures of Isis after the birth of Osiris's posthumous son, Horus. Isis was said to have given birth to Horus at Khemmis, thought to be located on the Nile Delta. Many dangers faced Horus after birth, and Isis fled with the newborn to escape the wrath of Set, the murderer of her husband. In one instance, Isis heals Horus from a lethal scorpion sting; she also performs other miracles in relation to the cippi, or the plaques of Horus. Isis protected and raised Horus until he was old enough to face Set, and subsequently, became the pharaoh of Egypt.

 Magic

In order to resurrect Osiris for the purpose of having the child Horus, it was necessary for Isis to "learn" magic^{[citation needed]} (which long had been her domain before the cult of Ra arose), and so it was said that Isis tricked Ra (i.e. Amun-Ra/Atum-Ra) into telling her his "secret name," by causing a snake to bite him, for which only Isis had the cure. The names of deities were secret and not divulged to any but the religious leaders. Knowing the secret name of a deity enabled one to have power of the deity. That he would use his "secret name" to "survive" implies that the serpent had to be a more powerful deity than Ra. The oldest deity known in Egypt was Wadjet, the Egyptian cobra, whose cult never was eclipsed in Ancient Egyptian religion. As a deity from the same region, she would have been a benevolent resource for Isis. The use of secret names became central in late Egyptian magic spells, and Isis often is implored to "use the true name of Ra" in the performance of rituals. By the late Egyptian historical period, after the occupations by the Greeks and the Romans, Isis became the most important and most powerful deity of the Egyptian pantheon because of her magical skills. Magic is central to the entire mythology of Isis, arguably more so than any other Egyptian deity.
Prior to this late change in the nature of Egyptian religion, the rule of Ma'at had governed the correct actions for most of the thousands of years of Egyptian religion, with little need for magic. Thoth had been the deity who resorted to magic when it was needed. The goddess which held the quadruple roles of healer, protector of the canopic jars, protector of marriage, and goddess of magic previously had been Serket. She then became considered an aspect of Isis. Thus it is not surprising that Isis had a central role in Egyptian magic spells and ritual, especially those of protection and healing. In many spells, she also is completely merged even with Horus, where invocations of Isis are supposed to involve Horus's powers automatically as well. In Egyptian history the image of a wounded Horus became a standard feature of Isis's healing spells, which typically invoked the curative powers of the milk of Isis. (Silverman, Ancient Egypt, 135)

 Greco-Roman world

A priestess of Isis, Roman statue, Second Century, B.C.

Following the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great the worship of Isis spread throughout the Graeco-Roman world. Tacitus writes that after Julius Caesar's assassination, a temple in honour of Isis had been decreed; Augustus suspended this, and tried to turn Romans back to the Roman deities who were closely associated with the state. Eventually the Roman emperor Caligula abandoned the Augustan wariness toward what was described as oriental cults, and it was in his reign that the Isiac festival was established in Rome. According to Josephus, Caligula donned female garb and took part in the mysteries he instituted, and in the Hellenistic age Isis acquired a "new rank as a leading goddess of the Mediterranean world." Vespasian, along with Titus, practised incubation in the Roman Iseum. Domitian built another Iseum along with a Serapeum. Trajan appears before Isis and Horus, presenting them with votive offerings of wine, in a bas-relief on his triumphal arch in Rome. Hadrian decorated his villa at Tibur with Isiac scenes. Galerius regarded Isis as his protectress.
Roman perspectives on cults were syncretic, seeing in new deities, merely local aspects of a familiar one. For many Romans, Egyptian Isis was an aspect of Phrygian Cybele, whose orgiastic rites were long-naturalized at Rome, indeed, she was known as Isis of Ten Thousand Names.
Among these names of Roman Isis, Queen of Heaven is outstanding for its long and continuous history. Herodotus identified Isis with the Greek and Roman goddesses of agriculture, Demeter and Ceres.
In later years, Isis also had temples throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. An alabaster statue of Isis from the 3rd century BC, found in Ohrid, in the Republic of Macedonia, is depicted on the obverse of the Macedonian 10 denars banknote, issued in 1996.
The male first name "Isidore" (also "Isador"), means in Greek "Gift of Isis" (similar to "Theodore", "God's Gift"). The name, which became common in Roman times, survived the suppression of the Isis worship and remains popular up to the present - being among others the name of several Christian saints.

Titles

In the Book of the Dead Isis was described as:

• She who gives birth to heaven and earth,
• She who knows the orphan,
• She who knows the widow spider,
• She who seeks justice for the poor people,
• She who seeks shelter for the weak people
• She who seeks the righteousness in her people

Some of Isis's many other titles were:

• Queen of Heaven,
• Mother of the Gods,
• The One Who is All,
• Lady of Green Crops,
• The Brilliant One in the Sky,
• Star of the Sea,
• Great Lady of Magic,
• Mistress of the House of Life,
• She Who Knows How To Make Right Use of the Heart,
• Light-Giver of Heaven,
• Lady of the Words of Power,
• Moon Shining Over the Sea.

• Depart your Aswan hotel or cruise ship and travel to the High Dam of Aswan, an engineering miracle when it was built in the 1960s. Containing more material than used in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the Dam is 11,811 ft long, 3215 ft thick at the base, 364 ft tall and is carved into from the existing granite, providing irrigation and electricity for the whole of Egypt. From the top of the High Dam you can gaze across Lake Nasser to Kalabsha temple in the south and the huge power station to the north.Continue to the Unfinished Obelisk in the granite quarries of Aswan where much of the red granite used for ancient temples and colossi came from. The Unfinished Obelisk still lies where it was carved when a crack was discovered as it was being hewn from the rock. Your qualified Egyptologist guide will explain how the 1 tonne obelisk was carved, and why the crack caused it to be abandoned.The last of the 3 famous Aswan sites you will see today is generally regarded as the best. Philae Temple was carefully moved to its current location (around 500 meters from the original site) when the construction of the High Dam caused surrounding Nile waters to rise. A short motorboat ride takes you to the island where your guide will take you on a walking tour through the temple before allowing you free time to explore further on your own.Dedicated to the goddess Isis, Philae Temple has a beautiful setting on an island in the river which has been landscaped to match its original site. It's various shrines and sanctuaries celebrate the deities involved in the myth of Isis and Osiris.This is a private tour allowing you to determine the amount of time spent at each of the sites during the tour

• http://www.egyptraveluxe.com/aswan_Private_tour_to_the_unfinished_obeliske.php 

The Nile crocodile God SOBEK

Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet
, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais), and in Greek, Suchos (Σοῦχος)) was the deification of crocodiles, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River. Egyptians who worked or travelled on the Nile hoped that if they prayed to Sobek, the crocodile god, he would protect them from being attacked by crocodiles. The god Sobek, which was depicted as a crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile was a powerful and frightening deity; in some Egyptian creation myths, it was Sobek who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world. As a creator god, he was occasionally linked with the sun god Ra.

Most of Sobek's temples were located "in parts of Egypt where crocodiles were common." Sobek's cult originally flourished around Al Fayyum where some temples still remain; the area was so associated with Sobek that one town, Arsinoe, was known to the Greeks as Crocodilopolis or 'Crocodile Town.' Another major cult centre was at Kom Ombo, "close to the sandbanks of the Nile where crocodiles would often bask. Some temples of Sobek kept pools where sacred crocodiles were kept: these crocodiles were fed the best cuts of meat and became quite tame. When they died, they were mummified and buried in special animal cemeteries. In other areas of Egypt, however, crocodiles were dealt with by simply hunting and killing them.
Gradually, Sobek also came to symbolize the produce of the Nile and the fertility that it brought to the land; its status thus became more ambiguous. Sometimes the ferocity of a crocodile was seen in a positive light, Sobek in these circumstances was considered the army's patron, as a representation of strength and power.
In Egyptian art, Sobek was depicted as an ordinary crocodile, or as a man with the head of a crocodile. When considered a patron of the pharaoh's army, he was shown with the symbol of royal authority - the uraeus. He was also shown with an ankh, representing his ability to undo evil and so cure ills. Once he had become Sobek-Ra, he was also shown with a sun-disc over his head, as Ra was a sun god.
In other myths, which appeared extremely late in ancient Egyptian history, Sobek was credited for catching the Four sons of Horus in a net as they emerged from the waters of the Nile in a lotus blossom. This motif derives from the birth of Ra in the Ogdoad cosmogony, and the idea that as a crocodile, Sobek is the best suited to collecting items upon the Nile.
http://www.egyptraveluxe.com/luxor_day_tour_to_edfu_komombo_and_isis_temples.php

http://www.egyptraveluxe.com/aswan_excursions.php

ELKAB

El Kab is the present name of the ancient site of Nekheb (or Elethya), which was situated in the third nome of Upper Egypt. The city is on the right bank of the Nile, opposite the almost as old town of Nekhen (or Hierakonpolis, present Kom el Ahmar). It is situated 90 km. to the south of Thebes and 32 km. to the south of Esna.
the site was occupied since prehistory with signs of an pre-paleolithic industry dating from about 7000 years B.C., and an important cemetery dating from the time of Nagada III (toward 3300 B.C.). Very numerous prehistoric graffiti also exist on the walls of the wadis.

Constantly occupied during Pharaonic times, the ruin of the city seems to date the VIIIth century, with the Arabian occupation. The scientists of the Expedition of Egypt could have still been able to see significant remains of local temples (which have since disappeared) and had already drawn up a plan of the site. The sebakh researchers found the mud bricks as a resultant manure and the stones of the monuments reused, giving today an impression an ancient city in total ruin and nearly reduced to nothing.

There are a few Temples left from the New Kingdom:

1. THE CHAPEL OF THOT built by setau
   

   at the time of Rameses II. There has been a small courtyard in front of the Temple, but this is now destroyed. On the wall Rameses II with Toth and Horus, on the other wall Toth in the form of Baboons. A statue with three seated persons at the back of the Temple is unfortunately heavily damaged.

   The Chapel of Toth was build by Setau, Governor of Nubie,

   elkab was full of wonders

2. The Temple of Amenhotep III and Tuthmoses IV, a small Temple dedicated to Hathor and Nekhbet

   		The small Temple built by Amenhotep III and Tuthmosis IV, his father, is a Chapel for the Barque of Nekhbet, when she was brought there. The Temple was also dedicated to Hathor. The Temple was restored in the time of Ramses II, there is a text, written by Khaemwaset, the son of Ramses II. The color of the reliefs are well preserved. There is only a single chamber with four Hathor head columns. At the left of the doorway, Amenhotep III and Tuthmosis IV are seated before offering tables. At the right of the doorway also Amenhotep III and Tuthmosis IV On the left wall Amenhotep III is offering, animals, birds, bread, fruit, wine and flowers. And next Amenhotep III offers to Nekhbet, who is represented in the form of a Woman. Behind is Horus of Hieraconpolis who gives Amonhotep III live. On the south wall Amenhotep III is embraced by Amon-Ra, The Sacred Barque and Offerings: Nekhbet and Hathor everywere in the Temple: Graffiti : Beside the Temple remains of the outsite Columns :

3. The Temple built by Rameses II, restored by Ptolemies VIII-X and has a stela of Rameses II, cut into the facade. The reliefs inside the Temple are not very good preserved, but the reliefs near the steps and at the courtyard have been restored.

   		The Rockcut Temple originally built by Rameses II, restored by Ptolemies VIII-X. The steps leading up to it and the courtyard have been restored in modern times. The remains of a rock stele of Rameses II worshipping Re- Harakhte and Nekhbet are at the Courtyard. Beside the doorway remains of Ptolemeic Reliefs: The decoration inside consists of a series of Hathor Heads altennating with the Cartouches of the Pharaoh. The Temple was never finished, as can be seen from the uncompleted ceiling pattern of Vultures with spread wings. Beside the Temple are remains of other buildings and in the front the Chapel of Toth.

There are 4 Tombs open for the public and more Tombs are in restoration and will be opened in the future.

1. Paheri
   
2. Setau
   
3. Ahmose Son of Abana
   
4. Renini

view towards the Nile

The actual city had the shape of a massive square with a large surrounding wall of mud bricks, at the water level, this wall was probably erected by Nectanebo II of the XXXth Dynasty (toward 360-343 B.C.). The heart of the city consisted of two massive temples. The most important was dedicated to Nekhbet and was erected in sandstone; the second to Sobek and to Thoth. To the east of the surrounding wall, two small temples, one dating from Thutmosis I, the other one from Nectanebo.
Further, at the entry of the Wadi Hilal, one finds the repository chapel of Amenophis III, a Ptolemaic hémispéos (= a monument half dug into the cliff, half external structure), and a chapel from the days of Ramesses II.
A great many inscriptions and even engraved stelae also exist on the rocks the the region
The necropolis of El Kab provides the first information of importance about the beginnings of the 18th Dynasty. It shelters several tombs which include unique military chronicles on the expulsion of the Hyksos, notably from that of Ahmose son of Abana and the beautiful tomb of Paheri.
Indeed during the Second intermediate Period an important feudal family held the city, and seem to have given unfailing support for the Theban princes in their struggle against the Hyksos, commencing with Ahmosis (first king of the 18th Dynasty). These victorious princes did likewise for them. It was indeed fundamental to these sovereigns to preserve this city of Nekhen, to establish the legitimacy of their power.

El Kab is indeed the symbolic city of royalty of the South, its tutelary goddess Nekhbet being the counterpart of the goddess Uadjit, representing the North.
The goddess Nekhbet (= the one of Nekhen) was represented by a white vulture. These birds of prey, whose habitat is restricted to the desert, were easily differentiated from the eagle or milan by the white underside of their wings. Nekhbet is equated to the white crown of Upper Egypt.
At the time when Egypt was not yet unified, the ritual of crowning of the king of the South was certainly done in the original temple of El Kab.
From the 3rd Dynasty, the capital of unified Egypt became (and would always be administratively) Memphis. The establishment of the new king inevitably called on the symbols of the North and the South: the crown white, and also certain types of natron purifiers of the region.

---

GODDESS OF ELK AB

   IN THE MOUNTAIN

The goddess of El KAB "lady of the valley" or of "the double valley".  her domain extended not only over the edges of the Nile but into the depths of the mountain of the east. In the tip of the desert delta,, there is even a temple erected by Amenophis III, toward which was transported, at the time of the festivals, the consecrated barque of Nekhabit. It was perhaps, there as a reminder of the day when the great goddess, coming from the area of the east, had made her entry or her re-entry in the land of Egypt, because she is also "lady of Punt". *The importance of the site  suggests to us at least an excursion into the valley. Let us leave the great walls via the eastern door. Before this is a pile of overturned stones, as if by an explosion, constituting the only vestiges of a repository kiosk, constructed by one kings named Nectanebo of the XXXth Dynasty. Beyond the line of the railroad, the surface of the desert shows the traces of a necropolis of the Middle Kingdom, plundered during the past, (and which was explored by Quibell, in modern times) did not give much information of value. Toward the left, on the flank of the mountain, one sees the entrances of several tombs of the princes of El Kab and great priests of Nekhabit.

I the reliefs of Paheri and the historic importance of the biography of Ahmose, a naval officer who distinguished himself during the national war of liberation, at the beginning of the New Kingdom. Except for some tombs, this necropolis has been ravaged savagely; during Roman times, rectangular loculi were dug into the walls of the chambers; in modern times, some quarrymen extracted the stone throughout. One has the impression that the site has never been explored methodically and that, under the debris of the slopes, could hide intact burials; but one has also to understand, the amount of debris to be removed, that no one has yet tempted his luck there.

The east door.

Land and tombs of the Old Kingdom

We now go eastward, staying at the foot of the hills, which hardly exceed hundred metres in altitude, except a summit which reaches one hundred and seventy-three metres. We are more or less at the level of the large village of Hilal, with the aspect of an oasis, which I highlighted, with its few groups bushy palm trees. If we were going to visit its mosque, well built and very picturesque, we would see some blocks of stone pulled from our temples there. Our first stop is more than a kilometre distant. We walk on tortured ground there, everywhere, one notices the traces of an excessive flow of water. These dug many canyons in miniature, gnawing at the rocks, which crumble and then return easily to dust. As Egypt is theoretically a land without rain, one allows ones self to dream of the geological times where all these valleys, now desolate, marked the course of innumerable tributaries of the Nile digging its present bed. But don't let ourselves be mislead; some violent rains fall from time to time on the high Arabian mountains between the Nile and the Red Sea. Waters then look for an exit toward the valley with an irresistible strength. Somers Clarke was a witness, at the beginning of the year 1901, of the following phenomenon: "The torrent", he says, "was of dark yellow colour and its clash with the stones so violent that even the strongest screams were choked by it. Approaching the Nile, it followed its usual route, holding a little to the south of the slightly raised land, on which are built the great walls. It succeeds in digging for itself, in the ground of the alluviun bank, a channel with a depth of three or four metres and at least twenty metre wide. During three days, waters hurled themselves down it with a deafening uproar, before beginning to weaken, but it required at least twenty-five days so that they finally stopped flowing." These last days we have found for ourselves stagnant water in some hollows of the wadi. We approach a place where the mountain carries numerous traces of quarrying operations.

On a platform which one reaches by a well constructed staircase, are the remains of a chapel of which the state of confusion and disorder doesn't do honour to the Service of Antiquities. The Ptolemies, it seems, only had to transform, into a place of divine worship, a former tomb close to which is engraved, in the rock, a stela to a son of Ramesses II, prince Setau. Besides, we find in this very place, some distance in front the mountain, a square kiosk, once preceded by a porch, and dedicated by the same prince to the god Thoth and to the other divinities of El Kab. The locals, always expeditious in local assimilation, called this kiosk El Hammam, which means the bath.

The rock of the vultures

From the place where we reached, the valley divides. We remain to the north of a set of rocky hills which are divided in the middle of the El Kab district, and soon we meet successively two massifs having resisted all the forces of erosion. We arrived at one of the preferred roosts of the great white vultures.
These are magnificent birds of prey when they hover, observing the ground to discover a prey, to the great terror of the birds which then hide themselves against the ground. The wings, of a large span, have their central part of white which shines in the sun and, even from afar, one can distinguish the vulture from the milan and falcon, also of large size which are also themselves "masters of the sky". In the Pharaonic temples, in the royal tombs, on the ceilings of the hypostyle halls and corridors, great vultures spread their multicoloured wings, like true heraldic motifs. One also sees them in the relief paintings of the temples, opening out their wings above the kings who preside, holding in their grasp protection emblems.
The great vulture of Nekhabit alternates, in this sublime role of guardian divinity, with the hawk of Horus or the sun disk flanked by the two uraeus snakes.
White vultures rarely meet out of their desert; we saw some however, on the sandy island, attracted by one or the others prey, and so if by chance an animal falls dead in any point of the valley, the whole group assembles to dismember the carcass. A young camel, killed by the train, was thus reduced to a vivid skeleton of whiteness in less than three days and the dogs attracted by the chance of a lifetime were severely held away from the quarry. The vultures haunt, from time immemorial, these big rock massifs of the valley.

Prehistoric graffiti Temple, Amenophis III

Prehistoric inhabitants had already been there to engrave outline drawings of the animals which they hunted and even sometimes the image of a large boat. These  drawings, cut with the point of a flint, had time to become covered with of a dark patina, long before the dynasties of the Old Kingdom, of which the contemporaries, who always practised the cult of the vulture goddess, came here to write down their names and their titles. This very old graffiti, as ancient as the pyramids, kept, along with the prehistoric, a character of surprising freshness.
Thirty or forty centuries of Pharaonic history took place and pilgrims of Roman times also came to engrave divine images followed of their name, in testimony to their reverence to the sacred vultures. At the upper part of the massifs, long whitish trails show that the great birds of prey are always faithful to their lodging of predilection.

Having passed the last hill, one quickly sees a small oblong construction which occupies the centre of the valley. This is no longer the core of a peripteral  chapel, preceded once with a porch of which only the foundations can now be recognised at ground level. Amenophis III, the powerful sovereign of the 18th Dynasty, the Memnon of the legend whose colossi proclaim the title of King of the Kings, built this repository alter in a particularly sacred place, where the priests transported the goddess's holy ark at the time of the solemn processions. The bas-reliefs have kept a good part of their original painting and give an idea of that which could equal the beauty and splendour of the Luxor temple, also raised by Amenophis III.
Before leaving this colourful sanctuary, let's pass a swift eye on the graffiti of the facade; they come from various times. Prince Setau, son of Ramesses II finds himself part of it; a modern traveller, having some knowledge in hieroglyphics, had fun dating a protocol of Napoleon III. Such fantasies hardly harm the building; but what to think these travellers, from the beginning of the 19th century, who engraved their name in great letters throughout the reliefs of the inside, adding to it jokes of bad taste ?

Let's make even more steps in the direction of a road which looses itself eastward and that is especially frequented by the automotive trucks for exploitation of the mountain. During the war years) this road was the object of great works and it became a strategic way joining Luxor to Kosseir (Quseir) on the Red Sea and the first cataract further to the south.

We follow this road in the direction of Aswan to return towards the Nile, by taking the south borrowing the south diverticulum of the double valley. At approximately two kilometres from the temple of Amenophis III, we find the rock of the Borg el Hamam, of which a part has collapsed at a relatively recent time, and at the base of which can be made out some prehistoric engravings.
The road bends southwards to enter another valley which dominates with a height of two hundred and twenty-eight metres, in the form of natural pyramid.

We appropriately leave the domain of Nekhabit by a path frequented at least since the 4th Dynasty and which lead to the region of the gold mines. Mr. Green found, on a terrace commanding this route, a guard shelter near to which the name of Kheops is engraved in the rock. The mountain has been scraped and has been worked almost everywhere, even rather high on the slopes. Since many surface deposits of phosphate are located in the region, people come with their camels to take full loads which they pour on to the fields or load on barges. The intensity of this traffic is marked by the numerous tracks which intersect on the ground, where the footprints of animals and naked feet of the drovers are imprinted.

Soon we emerge into a vast plain in the middle of which rises more independent hills and which only closes several kilometres to the east. Such a region could be comfortably be given over to culture by irrigation works analogous to those which, for less then half a century, made the whole deserts of Kom Ombo a verdant province.