Abydos

 

Interior Wall Scenes

Sety I is admired by many art historians for the superb quality of the relief carvings made during his reign. This pharaoh's high standards is especially appreciated when it is compared to the often poor quality of reliefs carved during the reign of his son Ramesses II and later in the Ramesside era. One scholar, Herbert Winlock, went so far as to write an elaborate description of Sety as an art connoisseur! The finest reliefs made during the reign are found in the temple of Sety I at Abydos. In this temple, flawless blocks of limestone were used to their full advantage by sculptors who embellished the reliefs with exquisite details usually done in paint. Only the fine grain of the limestone permitted this high level of detail. A highly detailed relief of the goddess Isis offering life to Sety I's in his temple at Abydos. The fine grain of the limestone used to build the temple allowed for the intricacy of the work. Relief showing Sety I offering Maat, from his Abydos temple. Note the intricate carving of his shebyu and broad collar as well as the wig of the Maat figure. The reliefs in the Karnak Hypostyle Hall are typical of the excellent quality we expect from Sety I, although they are not quite as fine as the Abydos reliefs. The reason for this is that the Hypostyle Hall was built of sandstone, which is much coarser than limestone. Sandstone is made of compacted sand crystals, while limestone is basically compacted chalk powder. Sety had reliefs inside the Hypostyle Hall carved in the bas relief style where the figures and hieroglyphs stand out against a flat background. They are very elegant, but take longer to make than sunk relief. Priests carrying the barque shrine of the god Khonsu. Relief of Sety I on the north interior wall. All of Sety's inscriptions inside the Hypostyle Hall are in bas relief, but a closer look reveals some interesting changes along the way. We know that the first wall scenes were carved on the north gateway (for more information, click here). Some reliefs on the north gateway and on the east half of the north wall just to the right of the gate were carved with the high level of detail found in the Abydos temple. But soon, it was decided that this method was too laborious or that the sandstone was too coarse for such elaborate relief. Other reliefs of Sety I in the hall have a more usual level of carved detail. The rest was done in paint. The ram-headed prow of the processional barque shrine with a number of statuettes on the deck behind it. This is one of the more elaborate reliefs of Sety I from the north wall. Detailed view from one of the bark procession scenes on the north wall. The fans next to the bark shrine have been only rendered in paint, parts of which survived. The sculptors had completed all of the walls and smaller columns in the south wing of the Hypostyle Hall and had just started on the walls in the south wing when Sety I died. Although the clerestory roof was inscribed in his name, the twelve great columns were not carved until Ramesses II became king. The great columns were the first inscriptions carved in the name of the young king. Ramesses bows to the gods in the scenes on the great columns. This bowing pose is typical of Sety I's work but not of Ramesses II's own reliefs. The most likely explanation is that Sety's artists had drawn cartoons for the scenes, but had not yet carved them. In fact, they may have also colored these drawings as a temporary substitute for genuine relief carving. With so much work to complete, this is hardly surprising and similar colored cartoons are found in parts of the Abydos temple of Sety that were never carved in relief. Example of a polychrome cartoon from one of the side rooms of the Abydos temple of Sety I where the sculptors never got around to carving the reliefs. The lion-headed goddess Weret-hekau. Her name means "The Great Enchantress." After his father Sety I died, Ramesses II continued the decoration of the southern wing of the Hypostyle Hall. Originally, he used the same high quality of bas relief favored by Sety. Very soon, he changed his mind and began to have all the decoration made in sunk relief. Sunk relief is less elegant, but can be made more quickly. Visitors will not find any of these bas reliefs in the south wings because Ramesses later had them changed into sunk relief. We know they were originally carved as bas relief from the numerous carved lines and raised edges surrounding the carvings in this part of the hall. The figure of Ramesses II from a scene he converted from bas relief to sunk relief. the raised edges and engraved lines around the king's face are traces of the raised original. Although the basic themes remained mostly the same, Ramesses II's made other changes to his style of decoration as well. Ramesses completed the Hypostyle Hall in the first two years of his reign. At the same time, he was experimenting with the way his royal names were written in his cartouches. In his first year or so, his throne name was User-maat-re, meaning something like "Powerful-of-Truth-is-the-Sun-God-Re." The name is "spelled" with different combinations of hieroglyphs in the scenes carved at this time.     Early variants of Ramesses II's cartouches. On the right, his throne name is spelled out phonetically. On the left, it is spelled with the goddess Maat holding the jackal headed user-staff. The second cartouche from the left is a variant of his personal name, spelled Ra-mes-su. He also spelled his personal name in two different ways. Sometimes he was Ra-mes-su, like his father Ramesses I, elsewhere the cartouche is in the more familiar written Ra-mess-es    Different spellings of Ramesses II's nomen, on the left  Ra-mes-su, on the right spelled Ra-mess-es. The prenomen cartouche in the center is yet another of its many variant spellings.   Sometime during his second year on the throne, Ramesses II decided on the final form of his cartouches. Now, Ra-mess-es was used consistently. He had also been experimenting with adding different epithets on to his throne name. His final choice was Setep-en-Re, "The-Chosen-One-of-Re." The full throne name was therefore always written User-Maat-Re-Setep-en-Re until the end of his reign (right). Once he had decided the permanent form of his cartouches, Ramesses II went about making the different styles of decoration in the south wing of the Hall uniform. Both he and his father had made some bas relief decoration here. This was all converted to sunk relief. The cartouches of Sety I along with the earlier form of his own cartouches were all changed to the final version. By detecting all these changes, Egyptologists have been able to discover the order in which the decoration in the south wing was completed. In the south east corner of the hall, Ramesses inscriptions have been partly sheltered from sunlight and weather. Much of the original colors are preserved, giving us a partial view of the Hypostyle Hall's original brilliance. Although Ramesses II seemed to show little respect for his father Sety I by taking credit for his inscriptions in the southern wing of the Hypostyle Hall, other reliefs show this was not the case. In several reliefs Ramesses carved there, he is shown conducting the offering ritual for his deceased father who is portrayed as a deified king. Although Sety looks like any other king at first glance, he always holds an ankh-sign, the symbol of life usually carried only by the gods. The Ramesside 19th Dynasty was only a decade old when Ramesses II came to the throne. They came from a line of military officers after the old 18th Dynasty had died out. But their legitimacy might still be challenged. Just as Sety I had done by honoring Ramesses I on the west wall, Ramesses II honored Sety on the south wall. Each wanted to show that he was the son of a pharaoh, no matter how brief his father's reign had been. Only the son of a pharaoh could become pharaoh Ramesses II purifies a statue of his deified father Sety I. The ankh held by Sety I indicates that he is a god.

Net fishing in Alexandria

 

Net fishing in Alexandria

April 19, 2018Aliza

One of the great pleasures Alexandria has to offer is a morning walk on the Corniche. You can wander up and down, people-watching to your heart’s content, despite the constant flow of noisy traffic on the six-lane highway separating the seaside walkway from the rest of Alexandria.

You almost always see people fishing with incredibly long poles (I estimate they’re about 15 feet). But this morning we got to see something completely new to us: a large group of men wielding a huge net, and dragging their catch in to shore.

We stopped to watch when we saw about six men pulling on a rope that led out to sea. We had no idea what they were doing until we noticed a curving line of little red floats beyond the rope. One of the men saw us watching, and called out to Alan. He gestured eastward, saying that there was another group working with them. Sure enough, as we looked up the beach, we spotted another group, also pulling a rope. That’s when we realized the small red floats were holding a big net, and that this net was being managed not only by the onshore rope pullers, but also by two men in a small boat, way out in the water.

The men below us were enjoying the attention as we took photos and Alan chatted back and forth with them. We moved up the beach to watch what the other group was doing, then realized the two groups were beginning to move slowly towards one another to close the net.

As the two groups of men drew closer, they traded places and crossed their ropes in the water, drawing the huge net into a noose shape. Two men who’d been on the shore began to strip down, and dived into the water. One of these swimmers grabbed a net we had casually noticed before – it was gathered together, its small floats bunched like a bouquet of red flowers. The swimmer dove below the surface, and brought the smaller net up inside the large net. The second swimmer spread the net across the near end of the big noose.

As the men onshore draw the net together, one swimmer hauls the smaller net towards the big looped net.

The two swimmers stayed parallel to each other, treading water, holding the shorter net in place, as the two groups of men onshore continued to pull the big net in, drawing it together. As they pulled it in, they neatly tied off the incoming net at intervals with pieces of rope, turning it into a long bunched ponytail with decorative red bobbles.

It was wonderful watching these men working so quickly and nimbly, in a sequence and rhythm I recognized must be ages old. This method of net fishing has probably been used since people have been able to make small light boats and strong nets. At one time, the floats would have been made of glass, rather than plastic, and the onshore fishermen would have been wearing traditional loose pants rather than jeans and t-shirts. But otherwise, their methods and movements have probably been the same for centuries.

We noticed that the two swimmers were beating their palms and hands on the surface of the water in a very deliberate way as the net closed in. My guess is that the splashing was to discourage fish from swimming between the edges of the large and small nets, to keep them inside the noose.

The swimmers hold the smaller net in place as the men onshore draw the big net in.

Finally, in one swift movement, the men pulled the entire remaining net out of the water, landing it on the narrow shore. It was exhilarating to see it land, after all that effort.

Hauling in the net, swimmers trapping the fish with the smaller net.

Landing the full net.

I noticed a kind of blue perforated plastic bag at the center of the collapsed net, heaving as if it were being punched all over from the inside. I caught my breath, feeling the desperation of the trapped fish; the exhilaration of just a moment before deflated as suddenly as a punctured balloon.

Part of me wanted to look away, but I really wanted to see how good the catch was. Big plastic tubs at the ready, the men opened the net. Swift hands reached into the flashing silver heap, and scooped out perhaps two dozen large flopping fish, possibly 15 inches long. I saw one of the two swimming net-holders receive a few of the big fish; he put them in a bag and began pulling on his clothes.

Scooping out the small fish.

The man in the white hat was one of the swimmers, and the white plastic bowl holds his share of the catch.

The rest of the catch was all small fish that looked to be about the length of my hand — that, and a lot of plastic bags and other garbage, which the men quickly flung to one side.

Both Alan and I were surprised by the size of the haul. It didn’t seem like a lot of food after all that effort; we’d been watching the men, at least a dozen of them, for more than half an hour.

I jumped up on the sea wall to get a few pictures of the men emptying the net and distributing the catch. Alan, who’s a lot taller than I am, did much better with his camera, and took some of the photos I’m sharing here.

Despite my vegetarian misgivings, I was fascinated by this whole process – the first time I’d seen anything like it. And we weren’t the only ones. By the time the net came in, there was quite a crowd there with us on the Corniche: well-dressed people enjoying their Friday holiday, with enough time to stop and watch something that’s both ordinary and miraculous.

Alexandria Library

HERE ARE 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ANCIENT LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA.

1) The ancient library of Alexandria was founded by Demetrius of Phaleon, an Athenian politician who fell from power and fled to Egypt. There, he found refuge at the royal court of King Ptolemy I Soter, who ruled Egypt between 323 and 285 BCE. Impressed by the extensive knowledge and deep learning of Demetrius, Ptolemy assigned him the task of creating a library.

2) The ancient library of Alexandria was part of an institution of higher learning known as the Alexandrian Museum. The library was intended as a resource for the scholars who did research at the Museum.

3) The books at the library were divided into the following subjects: rhetoric, law, epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, medicine, mathematics, natural science, and miscellaneous. The library is believed to have housed between 200,000 and 700,000 books, divided between two library branches.

4) Book were acquired for the library through purchases at Athens and Rhodes, the two main book markets in the Ancient Mediterranean; through copying; and through confiscation.

5) One category of acquired books was called “from the ships.” Whenever a ship arrived at the harbor in Alexandria, government officials went aboard, searching for books. They brought the books they found to the library for inspection. These books were either returned immediately, or confiscated and replaced with a copy made by the library scribes.

The Rosetta Stone, created in 196 B.C.E. in Egypt and contains writing in Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian demotic script. Source: Wikipedia.

6) Books at the ancient library of Alexandria were mainly written in two languages—Greek and Egyptian, a now extinct Afro-Asian language. It is believed that the entire literary corpus of Ancient Greece was kept at the library, together with works by Aristotle, Sophocles, and Euripides, among others. The Egyptian books were books about the traditions and history of Ancient Egypt.

7) Scholars working at the Alexandrian Museum used the library to create the categorization of Ancient Egypt’s history into 30 dynasties, which is still used today when we study ancient history, as well as the first translation of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Septuagint. To this day, the Septuagint remains a crucial text in critical Bible studies.

8) The ancient library of Alexandria was destroyed on two different occasions. The original library branch was located at the royal palace at Alexandria, near the harbor. When Julius Caesar intervened in the civil war between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII, Caesar set fire to the ships in the harbor. It is believed that this fire spread to the library and completely destroyed it.

9) The second branch of the library was located inside a temple dedicated to the god Serapis. In 391 CE, Roman Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the only legal religion of Rome, and ordered all pagan temples to be destroyed. The temple of Serapis at Alexandria was completely destroyed, and with it the second branch of the library.

10) In 2002, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina opened in Alexandria. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a research library and cultural center created in commemoration of the ancient library with the intention of making Alexandria into a city of world-renowned learning again. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina houses the world’s largest digital collection of historical manuscripts as well as the largest repository of French books on the African continent.

I wasn’t much of a history buff as a kid, but the Great Library of Alexandria caught my imagination at a certain point in my childhood. Public and school libraries were important places for me, so I imagined the Great Library of Alexandria as something between a fairytale palace full of treasure rooms, each filled with more glittering rarities than the last, and the high-ceilinged, wood-panelled library at Van Nuys Junior High School.

The Biblioteca Alexandrina was opened in late 2002. When I saw the photos and read about the vast ceiling, sloped towards the Mediterranean and with specially designed windows that let light flood in without admitting any rays that could damage the books, I felt my imagination stirred exactly as it was decades earlier. But now the place was real. Someday, perhaps, I could see it.

As we walked towards the library this morning, I stopped to take pictures of wall art near the library complex.

 

 

The library’s plaza-like entrance invites the visitor to approach (despite the necessary security gates), and the entire structure slopes towards the Mediterranean, as if connecting the vast repository of human knowledge within to the world beyond the glittering sea.

When you first enter the library’s reading room, you really feel the power of the design. The vast space before you indicates wordlessly the immensity of human knowledge. Below the shelter of the sloping ceiling with its light wells, a series of terraces cascades hundreds of feet downward, each terrace holding a separate collection of books and rows of beautiful wooden tables and chairs for the people who come to read and study.

Within the vastness, the space available for reading, research and computer use feels intimate and comfortable. It’s just as I’ve always felt in the libraries I’ve loved most, when I take my chosen books to a table, and settle down for a couple of  hours of reading pleasure.

 

There’s plenty of art in the library space, and many pieces are both beautiful and imaginative. We loved the bench that’s shaped like an open book, inscribed with several Shakespeare sonnets (including Sonnet No. 12).  I also admired the busts of famous Egyptian writers.

 

It was after we left the building and went walking around the library that I got the sense of grandeur and grace I know the architects intended for the building’s exterior. I love the outside walls of the library, inscribed with many different scripts, both ancient and modern.

We ended our outing in the usual way: at a local coffee shop, sipping our drinks and watching people talking, laughing, smoking and passing the time, just as they have in Alexandria coffee shops for more than 200 years.

Alexandria: Kom el Dikka and the Roman amphitheater

 guidebook says there’s not much to see at Kom el Dikka (“mound of rubble”), but I respectfully disagree. The archaeological work is ongoing here (and has been since 1960), and you can easily spend an hour or more at Kom el Dikka, looking at the ruins of the city, the beautiful mosaics in the Villa of the Birds, or just enjoying a respite from the noise and traffic of modern Alexandria. (By the way, if you want to look up this location, there are several spellings in English transliteration. The most common alternative is Kom El Dekka.)

The Roman amphitheater here was originally discovered in 1959 when developers began to excavate for a new housing block. Now the excavated area is very large, as archaeological digging has extended far beyond the original find. The group in charge of the dig is Polish, and they’ve provided informative signboards throughout the site, which makes it very easy to imagine what this portion of the city was like from the third through the fifth centuries, CE.

The entire ancient city is well below modern street level, and it’s located in a busy section of Alexandria. When we finally navigated our way to it, we were surprised to realize that Kom el Dikka is right across from the railway station, where u’d just been to buy tickets. You really can’t see anything of the ancient city from the street, other than attractive plantings inside the surrounding fence.

Once you pay your entrance fee and go in, though, it’s like entering a different world. The amphitheater grabs your attention immediately, gleaming white below where you stand. It’s pretty nearly a complete structure, with the original elegant curve of the seating and then a couple of wings added on at different angles to either side. Though it’s a small amphitheater, it’s impressive once you’re standing at ancient-ground level, and looking up at the seating.

You’re not allowed to climb up the seats or stairs, but you can approach the amphitheater from a set of steps above it, and get a feeling for how it would have been to look down from the upper seats and watch a performance under the blue Alexandrian sky.

A series of smaller amphitheaters extends off to one side of the larger amphitheater. The signboards say that 22 smaller amphitheaters have been found so far, so this complex was actually a university, or something very like a university, with lots of lecture halls and the much larger facility for big-audience lectures. 

According to Grzegorz Majcherek, a Polish academic, this university complex could accommodate 500 to 600 students. At the time it was built (4th century AD) Alexandria was an important city, so having a major educational hub would make sense. 

Beyond the amphitheater and classrooms is a large bath complex (the red-brick structures in the second photo above), where there were apparently steam rooms and exercise rooms as well as the baths themselves. It must have been like a modern gym, where people would go to socialize with their friends while having a sauna, massage or workout. Though the scale is much smaller, it reminded me of being at UCLA in the 1970s – I’d go from a lecture to the gym, have a workout and then a shower and sauna before going to more classes or settling down to study.

Beyond the baths is a cluster of modest houses, and at one corner of the site, the remains of a large luxurious house built in the second century CE. It’s called the Villa of the Birds for the lovely mosaics of different birds that survive nearly intact – almost unbelievably, especially considering that this house was apparently remodeled four times.

I love mosaics, and these are as beautiful as mosaics we saw in Jordan a few years ago, particularly at Madaba, which is famous for its mosaics, and at the museum in Irbid. Mosaics are so delicate, it surprises me how well they seem to survive in some places. I’m guessing there must have been a really great technique for setting the tiny stones so that they could stay firmly in place.

As we made our way across the site, I’d look up every so often at the modern city surrounding us, and realize that this area is just a small piece of the Roman-era city. If you could tunnel under the apartment and commercial buildings all around the edge of this site, you’d find much, much more of centuries-old Alexandria below the cars, buses, billboards and daily life of the modern city.

Apparently Kom el Dikka also had a park, the Park of Pan, where Alexandrians could relax. Today, Kom el Dikka is still a lovely and relaxing place. Above the archaeological site itself, at modern-city street level, are beautiful plantings that turn this historic site into a peaceful retreat from urban traffic and noise. Displayed at this level are also a few large pieces of the Pharaonic city of Alexandria that have been pulled from the sea. They remind you that however old the Roman city is, there was another Alexandria that was even older, going back for centuries.