Egypt

Palette of Narmer One of the earliest masterpieces from ancient Egypt, this dates from c.3100 B.C.E. On one side the pharaoh is portrayed in the white crown of Upper Egypt, defeating his enemies with the help of Horus, the falcon god. On the reverse side he leads a procession to the victorious battlefield, wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt. Narmer was one of the earliest pharaohs.

Great Temple of Rames II

Rahotep and Nofret The Egyptians enlivened many of their statues by painting them and using rock crystal for their eyes. The figures of Prince Rahotp and his wife Nfret (c. 2750 BCE) are probably the best-preserved examples. Heads and faces painted so realistically Excavators fled in terror when they discovered them in 1871.

Menkaure and Khamerernebty In Egyptian sculpture, only a few different poses were used. Male figures were usually shown seated or in a stiff walking position, with the left foot advanced. Heads were shown frontally, gazing straight ahead –in the case of authority figures such as gods or pharaohs, their faces were usually expressionless.

Akhenten Sandstone Relief In this sandstone relief (c. 1350 BCE) Akhenaten makes offerings to the sun god Aten. Akhenaten during his reign he abandoned all the old gods and decided to follow only one god, Aten the Sun god.

Queen Nefertiti Tutankhamun’s mother. Eyes are rock crystal.

King Tutankhamun Hunting Tutankhamun, He was not an important or significant pharaoh. He died when he was 18. He is famous because the treasure in his tomb was largely untouched and the richest collection of Egyptian art ever discovered and was the most spectacular archaeological find of the 20th cnetury. It was during his brief reign that the old religion was restored after Akhenaten, who was probably his father.

King Tutankhamun This death mask of the young king is made of gold inlaid with lapis lazuli and blue glass. It was positioned over the head and shoulders of the mummy before being placed inside a solid gold coffin.

The Great Pyramids of Giza Only the greatest of the pharaohs were buried inside pyramids. The grandest of these were decorated with wall paintings or relief carvings with themes ranging from agricultural and hunting scenes to banquets and dances. Their belief in an afterlife generated most of the ancient egyptian art, set in the tomb to make the journey to the afterlife easier.

Queen Hatshepsut mortuary relief The paint in this relief involved mixing pigments with honey or gum from a shrub. This one shows Horus, god of the sky and many iconic Ancient Egyptian symbols.

The Great Sphinx, Giza Khufu was 20 when he came to the throne and at once began building his “Stairway to Heaven”. Khufu was the first pharaoh who build a pyramid at Giza. The entire project took about 23 years to complete, 2,300,000 building blocks, weighing an average of 2.5 tons each (Although some weigh as much as 16 tons) were used to build the great pyramid. The length of each side of the pyramid at the base is 755 feet (230.4 m). They rise at an angle of 51 52′ to a height, originally, of 481 feet (147 m) but nowadays 451 feet (138 m). built by many tens of thousands of skilled workers rather than slaves. It is known that Khufu’s nephew Hemiunu was appointed head of construction for the Great Pyramid and that Khufu provided good food and clothing for his workers.

God Amun at Karnak Egyptian gods had animal associations that were relevant to their nature. So, the god of the sky was a bird (Horus the falcon). The gods were usually portrayed as animals or humans with animal heads. Amun was depicted as a ram, a snake, a goose and a lion, or in this case at his temple, a ram-headed sphinx.

The Book of the Dead These collections of magic spells, Books of the Dead, were designed to smooth the passage of the dead on their journey to the next world. This is an example of one of the finest versions of these texts that were produced on papyrus (an early writing material) and were lavishly illustrated with scenes of the rituals.

The Rosetta Stone Hieroglyphs were no longer used in the 4th century CE and forgotten until the Rosetta stone was discovered in Rosetta (Rashid) in 1799. It dates from 196 BCE and was written in Egyptian Demotic, Hieroglyphs, and Greek. It allowed scholars to unravel the meaning of hieroglyphic symbols.