Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple Deir El Bahri

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

By the banks of the Nile, across the river from Thebes, a three-tiered temple was found beneath hundreds of tons of sand tens of centuries after its construction. The temple is a reflection of the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II, and was constructed alongside that eleventh-dynasty structure. However, the temple of Hatshepsut is far larger [...]

Hatshepsut Poetry : Speak to Me

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Poetry These poems are taken from Hatshepsut, Speak to Me by Ruth Whitman [Wayne SU Press, Detroit: 1992] HATSHEPSUT: When I was six my father Thutmose the First lifted me up to sit beside him on his throne of Amen.

From Abraham to David – Yahweh

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

The word Hebrew has been associated with the word Hiberu and Apiru, described in Wikipedia as ” the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources (dated, roughly, from before 2000 BC to around 1200 BC) to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent [...]

Diffusions from Mesopotamia to Egypt Hattusas Remains of Hittite capital, Hattusas Amenhotep IV Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton) Hyksos, Hittite and Hurrian Conquests

Friday, March 5th, 2010

In the mid-1700s a literate people with a Semitic language moved through Canaan, took control of some cities there, and then conquered northern Egypt. It is not known who they were, except that the Egyptians called them Hyksos (hyk khwsht), which identifies them only as foreigners. Like the Kassites, the Hyksos had horses, and they [...]

What and Where is Persepolis?

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Persepolis is the name of an archaeological ruin, part of the Achaemenid Dynasty of the Persian Empire, established by King Darius about 515 BC. The site is one of the best known archaeological ruins in the world, and probably the most important Achaemenid capital. Persepolis is located about 50 kilometers northeast of Shiraz and is [...]

The Persian Nowruz

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

By : Iraj Bashiri Introduction The oldest of Iranian traditions, Nowruz (also referred to as eyd-i sar-i sal and eyd-i sal-i now) recalls the cosmological and mythological times of Iran. Its founder is a deputy of Ahura Mazda on earth, a position that imparts to him and the celebration a spiritual dimension and a particular [...]