The Egyptian pyramids - Articles - Zimbio

Egypt Vacation - The Top 5 Tourist Attractions

Fri, 1 Nov 2008 12:58:55 GMT

posted by africapoint

Egypt, a country situated on the Northern part of Africa, is world renowned for its breathtaking monuments and ancient attractions.

Of great interest is that many of the attractions found in Egypt are lined up along the great River Nile and thus taking a cruise along this world's longest river gives you a rare opportunity to see the best attractions that are found in Egypt.

Because of its many attractions, Egypt gets millions of visitors who come to see the famous pyramids, temples, the great monuments found in River Nile and many other attractions.

Pyramids are no doubt the greatest Egypt vacation attraction. The kings of Egypt are believed to have built more than 80 pyramids between 2600 BC and 1500 BC, all of which are situated close to the banks of the Nile River. The purpose of these Pyramids was to preserve carefully the bodies of rulers and other prominent royal figures whose dead bodies were wrapped and preserved as mummies and placed in the pyramid.

This custom emanated from Egyptians' believe in an afterlife in which the soul returned to the body thus necessitating proper preservation of both the body and valuable objects of use in the afterlife. Below now is a summary of what i believe are the best attractions in Egypt.

1.Pyramids of Giza & The Great Sphinx

The Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza are the most popular options among the visitors. The pyramids found in Giza are believed to have been constructed over a period of eighty years using twenty thousand workers to accomplish this great feat.

The largest of them all is the Great Pyramid. This awesome structure is the oldest and is said to have been constructed as a tomb for Khufu. It was the tallest man made structure for more than 3500years at a height of 481 feet.

On the other hand, The Great Sphinx is also considered to be one of the best known monuments of Ancient Egypt.

This structure is also located in Giza and it represents the sculpture of a lion with a woman's head.

It is said to have been curved at around 2500 BC. It symbolized strength of the Pharaoh. Its measurements are as follows; body is 60m in length, 20m in height.

2.Khan al-Khalili

Khan al-Khalili is one of the largest markets in the world which attracts both local's and international tourists.

This is a great place to buy exotic perfume bottles, Arabic clothing and other souvenirs.

Bargaining has been the way of life in these bazaars since late 14th Century and it is easy to be mislead by the sweet-tongued salesmen who abound in the market.

3.Egyptian Museum of Antiquities

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities is located near to Khan al-Khalili.

This Museum has thousands of artificats in its 107 halls and the mosque boasts of the oldest university in the world established way back in AD 970.

The artifacts and exhibits found in this museum have the effect of bringing Cairo to life with ceramics, arts, calligraphy and mosaic.

4.Karnak Temple

Karnak Temple located in Luxor is another great attraction in Egypt. This is the location of the famous city of Thebes.

One peculiar feature of this temple is its countless columns, statues and sphinxes.

There is a famous rows of sphinxes at the entrance to the Karnak Temple and the most popular section of the temple is the hall called the Great Hypostyle Hall.

This hall is one of the most visited monuments in the land of Egypt.

5.Theban Necropolis

And on the West Bank of the Nile is the vast Theban Necropolis, containing some of the world's finest tombs: the Valley of the Kings; Valley of the Queens; and Tombs of the Nobles. Highlights include the Tomb of Tutankhamun; Ramses II; and the Tomb of Nefertari, reputed to be the country's finest, which is newly restored and allows only 150 visitors a day for 10 minutes.

Check out this interesting photo slide video showcasing Egypt vacation travel scenes

Previewing Expedition Week

Thu, 14 Nov 2008 11:00:00 GMT

posted by ScooterMcGavin

With its successful Shark Week, you knew it would only be a matter of time before other cable channels would be following the Discover Channel’s lead an devote a whole week to specific targets. Starting this Sunday, the National Geographic Channel launching their Expedition Week which looks to solves some of the biggest questions archeologist have been trying to solve for decades, if not centuries. Each night features a new program specifically for the event. Here is what you can expect (the new programs start at 9:00 PM unless otherwise noted:

Sunday, November 16
Unlocking the Great Pyramid: They start off the week with the best of the new programming. This is mostly because the program is narrated by the guy leading the expedition who is legitimately excited about the findings and not narrated by someone disembodied voice of your high school science teacher.

Monday, November 17
Direct From the Moon: Don’t have much on this but it looks like someone is looking to colonize the moon, if only for a month at a time. Here are a couple of pictures from the episode:

Tuesday, November 18
Shipwrecked! Captain Kidd: Here’s one that can’t wait until the next Pirates of the Caribbean. Apparently some of the pirate lore comes from Kidd, and of course there may be some hidden booty, even though he was on the British payroll.

Wednesday, November 19
The Real George Washington: Maybe the least interesting because it seems like we already know everything there is to know about the first president. And the few things that they uncover are not the interesting or that groundbreaking.

Thursday, November 20
Lost Cities of the Amazon: Put the kiddies to bed early this night because it is National Geographic in the Amazon so there is plenty of gratuitous nudity of tribal men and women and like the magazine none of it is at all sexual. But there are plenty of interesting theories of if and who huge tribe could have survived in the middle of a tropical jungle.

Friday November 21
Egypt Unwrapped: Alexander the Great’s Lost Tomb: The double feature of two Egypt programs starts at 8:00 featuring a tomb that was once a tourist attraction in the ancient world but have today’s archeologist puzzled to its whereabouts that have taken tomb seekers across Egypt and parts of Europe.

Egypt Unwrapped: Mystery of the Screaming Man: The Egypt episodes are easily the best of the bunch and here in another entertaining one. It is probably not a good sign your mummified corpse was frozen in a scream, but adding to this mysteries the lack of a name to go along with the tomb he was found in. And much like many of today’s mysteries, this one might be solved with a CAT scan.

Sunday November 23
Egypt Unwrapped: The Scorpion King: I have not much on this that airs at 8:00 but who know that the movie was based, if very, very loosely, on a real person?

Herod’s Lost Tomb: Who knew King Herod was such an accomplished architect? I guess when you are primarily know as a killer and your must impressive works don’t stand the test of time either by erosion or invaders tearing your work down. And even when you construct your own expansive tomb, apparently if you are extremely cruel to you people, they don’t honor your burial very much.

Pyramid Excavation Adventure Kit - Usborne Books Teaches Kids About the Giza Pyramids

Tue, 29 Oct 2008 15:42:00 GMT

posted by usborneactivities

Now here's a great kit to help you teach your kids about Egypt and the pyramids. Usborne is known for it's wonderful array of history books for kids. They have a whole collection of neat works on Ancient Egypt. This year Usborne came out with the Pyramid Excavation Adventure Kit. Kids love it!

Kids get to be a junior acheologist by excavating the treasures found within the Egyptian pyramids. The kit also includes the book Who Built the Pyramids? which teaches kids all about the Ancient Egyptians and how they built the pyramids.

This is a great kit for any kid interested in egypt, pyramids, and archeology. It's also a great kit to use in your home school curriculum when studying Ancient Egypt.

Other Ancient Egypt books for your kids published by Usborne Books:

Ancient Egypt Jigsaw Book

Egyptians IR

Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt

See Inside Ancient Egypt

Enjoy Your Jouney Through Time!

Tourist Guide to Egypt

Fri, 20 Sep 2008 00:18:00 GMT

posted by kamell
In this post we will mention about some facts about Egypt weather and climate, temperature, geographical location, wonderful monuments, area, Cairo hotels, the majors wonderful Egyptian cities and more.

Egypt (the gift of the Nile) enjoys with a meditteranean weatherin the summer. In the winter, it is cold sometimes with little rains in the north cities. The temperatures average between 20 or 21 degree in the morning, but in the evening it is about 7 or 8 degree, That is in the North. In the south the temperatures average between 25 or 26 degree in the morning, and in the evening about 18 degree.

Egypt area in square km about one million. The people settled in about 5 percentage of the total area. The population number is 63.4 in 2000. Egypt location in the map in the North Eastern corner of Africa. The mediteranean sea lies in the North border and the red sea in the East border. Sudan in the North border and Libya in the West border.

Egypt have more wonderful monuments from many historical ages from the pre-history to the modern age, and the pyramids is still standing to become the witness to the history circles. The most famous monuments found in Luxor, Karnak, Hawara, Aswan, Aswan, Amarna, Amarna, Abydos and Giza.

Travel guide for Cairo Hotels:

Al Nabila Cairo Hotel
Helnan Shepheard
Pyramisa Cairo
Cosmopolitan Hotel
President Hotel
Golden Tulip Hotel
Atlas Zamalek Hotel
Cairo Sheraton
Salam hotel
Gazira Sheraton hotel
Joliville hotel
Mariott Zamalek hotel
Mina house hotel
Meridian heliopolis
Nile hilton
Siyag pyramids hotel
Ramses hilton hotel
Safir Cairo in Dokki
Conrad hotel
Four seasons hotel
and more beautiful hotels

The Historical site: Immersive Archeology - Aura Lily breathes life into the architecture and culture of Ancient Egypt

Mon, 2 Sep 2008 08:45:00 GMT

posted by maftukhin

Immersive Archeology - Aura Lily breathes life into the architecture and culture of Ancient Egypt
Originally uploaded by Pathfinder LindenAura Lily has been using Second Life to recreate the artifacts and architecture of ancient Egypt. Using maps drawn by one of Napoleon's artist engineers, she's also working on an accurate recreation of temples and buildings on the island of Philae. Aura's work is simply amazing, and I think the educational potential to use Second Life as an immersive way to explore ancient architecture and culture is limitless. She has no formal training in 3d modeling, yet she has a true passion for this ancient era and has done all of this work completely on her own. Simply incredible. Visit her amazing space in Second Life and experience it firsthand!