The Great Pyramid's Latitude

Spend long enough on the Internet and you will likely be met with a post informing you that the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second, and the latitude of the Great Pyramid of Giza is 29.9792458°N, before inviting you to assess whether this is a coincidence or not.

But is it true, and if so, is it a coincidence?

The answer to the first question is yes. Light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum, the absolute speed limit of the universe. The latitude of the Great Pyramid of Giza is indeed 29.9792458 N – but so are a whole bunch of other places at the same latitude.  READ MORE...

BRICS is Expanding Against USA

The origins of BRICS — a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and, as of 2024, new members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates — can be traced back to a 2001 publication by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill titled ‘Building Better Global Economic BRICs’. O’Neill argued that Brazil, Russia, India and China were poised to play an increasingly significant role in the global economy.

His prediction was that by 2050, these countries would collectively account for 40 per cent of the world’s economic output. In reality, from 2012 to 2022 China alone has accounted for around a quarter of global GDP growth, and the BRICS countries together contributed over 45 per cent.

BRIC was officially launched in 2009 and was renamed BRICS in 2010 when South Africa joined the group. Since then, trade relations have clearly grown, but in a very unbalanced manner.

Most of the growth in trade has been China-centric, with the contribution from the rest of BRICS remaining quite flat until recently. The recent increase is mostly explained by India, which has experienced an acceleration in economic growth. BRICS members are increasingly intertwined with China as far as trade is concerned, but the remaining members have very few ties among themselves. Bilateral trade between BRICS members other than China remains extremely low.  READ MORE...

Record Breaking Free Divers of Egypt

Dahab, Egypt – When the countdown began, Khaled Elgammal took one final, deep breath before descending without any breathing equipment into the ocean. One minute and 29 seconds later, still holding his breath, the Egyptian athlete had free-fallen to 102 metres (335 feet) – a national record.

But for it to count, he had to reach the surface again. He turned at the bottom of the line and began his ascent – focusing on deep relaxation and the feelings of the surrounding water. In all, he had held his breath for two minutes and 50 seconds.

Elgammal is Egypt’s deepest freediver, and his remarkable achievement set a new national record at the Sharm el-Sheikh competition in October 2023.

“When I came to the surface, it was bliss. It felt amazing,” Elgammal recalls.    READ MORE...

FIVE-THOUSAND-Year-Old Wine in Egyptian Tomb

Why would you want to drink boggy old sarcophagus juice when there are more palatable tomb beverages to hand?

In the tomb of the First Dynasty Egyptian queen Meret-Neith, archaeologists have uncovered a wealth of grave goods that includes hundreds of large wine jars – some of which still sealed. These funereal riches, they say, bolster the case that she was a person of great significance, maybe even Egypt's first female pharaoh.

Meret-Neith lived some 5,000 years ago, serving as queen of Egypt some time around 2950 BCE. She was, at the very least, queen-consort and regent. She may have been a ruler in her own right – a pharaoh – but archaeologists have been unable to determine her position with certainty. The first queen known to assume the full royal titulary was Sobekneferu, a millennium later.

There is certainly evidence of Meret-Neith's importance in her tomb, at the royal necropolis of Abydos. She was buried amid the final resting places of male pharaohs, and her own tomb was of comparable size and richness. She was likely the most powerful woman of her time.  READ MORE...

FOUR-THOUSAND-Year-Old Mummy

The false door to Ptahshepses’s tomb was removed by a French archaeologist in the 19th century. Now, 160 years later, researchers have rediscovered it and found the mummy of its occupant. Image courtesy of © Archive of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles UniversityThe false door to Ptahshepses’s tomb was removed by a French archaeologist in the 19th century. Now, 160 years later, researchers have rediscovered it and found the mummy of its occupant.




A team of Czech archaeologists have rediscovered a lost tomb that belonged to an ancient Egyptian official called Ptahshepses, who lived around 4,400 years ago (during the 24th and 25th centuries BCE). The discovery even contained the mummified remains of this significant individual.

According to a statement released by the Czech Institute of Egyptology on Facebook, the lost tomb was discovered in the zone between the pyramid fields of Abusir and Saqqara, Egypt.

"It was a difficult search lasting several years,” Miroslav Barta, head of research at Abusir, explained in the statement. “Detailed satellite imagery of the area and the study of old maps led to the rediscovery of the tomb of Ptahshepses in 2022.”

Around 160 years ago, a French scholar named Auguste Mariette found this site and partially “excavated” it. Mariette extracted Ptahshepses’s false door, a symbolic doorway the Egyptians believed the deceased could use to enter and exit the tomb, and a lintel originally placed above the cult chapel. However, the tomb disappeared under the sand and was lost until now.

The artifacts recovered by Mariette are currently on display at the British Museum. The door itself provides an extensive and unique account of Ptahshepses’s career. It explains how he was educated at the court of the last Giza ruler – Menkaure (Greek "Mykerinos") – and how he later married the daughter of pharaoh Userkaf. Userkaf himself was an important figure who founded the Fifth Dynasty of Sun Kings.

“This reference itself indicates that Ptahshepses is the first known official of non-royal descent in Egyptian history who was given the privilege of marrying a royal daughter,” the Institute explained.  READ MORE...

Image courtesy of © Archive of the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the last remaining artefact in the seven wonders of the ancient world, a fascinating emblem of the ancient civilization that once ruled over Egypt. Along with the surrounding pyramids in the Giza complex, the Great Pyramid is remarkably well preserved, and has become a UNESCO World Heritage site which is under extensive protection. 

Built over 4,000 years ago, it is the largest pyramid in the world, and remained the tallest structure made by human hands for over 3,000 years, until the Eiffel Tower was constructed in Paris in 1889.

How, exactly, such a colossal structure was built has been a subject of fascination for centuries. The purpose of the Great Pyramid of Giza has also been a source of extensive study and research. Below we outline some of the most widely accepted purposes of the Great Pyramid that attracts millions of tourists every year.

Historians believe the primary role of the Great Pyramid of Giza was to act as a tomb for the great Egyptian King Khufu. Egyptians believed that their pharaohs would go on to become gods in the afterlife, but in order to prepare for a safe transition into the next world, they had to have the right burial chamber. 

King Khufu spent 27 years planning the construction of his pyramid with his cousin and vizier, the architect Hemiunu.

In its day it was the most impressive structure in the world, unlike anything anyone had seen, and its sheer scale and ingenuity seemed to represent the almighty power of the man who once ruled over the ancient kingdom, although it was more likely a demonstration of his kingdom’s wealth, which waned in subsequent generations. 

When Khufu died, his sarcophagus was placed inside the king’s chamber, deep inside the pyramid, although his remains were never found. However, his pyramid was surrounded by several satellite pyramids built for his wife and family.              TO READ MORE...

Mysteries of King Tut

It is one of the most iconic discoveries in all of archaeology—the treasure-filled tomb of the young Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, better known as King Tut. One hundred years ago today British archaeologist Howard Carter and an Egyptian excavation team found the boy king’s final resting place. Scholars have been studying the royal tomb and its owner ever since. 

From this work the broad outlines of the life and times of Tut have emerged. Many mysteries remain, however, including how the young pharaoh was related to Queen Nefertiti (herself a subject of debate), how influential he was as a ruler and how he died. Now new findings are emerging that could fill in some of the missing details. But as ever, debates rage over how to interpret them.

The key to Tut’s discovery was dogged perseverance. By November 4, 1922, Carter and his team had spent five futile years searching for an undiscovered royal tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. The prevailing wisdom said that everything the valley had to offer had already been found. Carter decided to spend what was to be his final field season digging beneath a group of huts that housed the ancient tomb builders. 

“We had almost made up our minds that we were beaten...,” he and archaeologist Arthur Cruttenden Mace wrote in The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen, their account of the expedition. “Hardly had we set hoe to ground in our last despairing effort than we made a discovery beyond our wildest dreams.”

Beneath those huts, the excavation team uncovered a step cut into the rock. Within days the team had dug out a steep staircase and a 30-foot-long passageway that ended in a door sealed with plaster and stamped with the royal necropolis seal. Carter waited to open the door until his benefactor George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, fifth earl of Carnarvon, who had funded his work in the valley for all those years, could travel to the site. 

The next day the team dug out a steep staircase and a door sealed with plaster and stamped with the royal necropolis seal. Carter waited to open the door until his benefactor George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, fifth earl of Carnarvon, who had funded his work in the valley for all those years, could travel to the site. On November 24, 1922, it was cleared to reveal a corridor, followed by a 30-foot-long passageway that ended in another door. On November 26, 1922, Carter broke open a small hole in the door and stuck a candle through, casting the first light into the chamber in nearly 3,300 years. 

The sight held him speechless as his eyes adjusted. “Details of the room emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold,” Carter wrote in The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen. He was looking into the antechamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun, a ruler who sat his throne for only around 10 years but did so at a pivotal time in Egyptian history.  READ MORE...

How The Great Pyramid Was Built

The Great Pyramid has evoked many theories about its construction. With the advent of drone photography, we get a closer look at the summit and can see amazing evidence for the methods used by builders to get megalithic blocks all the way to the top.

There is an opportunity for you to make the discovery for yourself! Watch and listen to the clues and see if you can figure it out before the reveal.

What's with the lone dark stone that stands out from the yellow limestone? Is it a different composition or was there granite used at the very top?

Do you miss the metal scaffolding that used to mark the original apex or does Khufu's pyramid look better without it?

A Branch of the Nile Reveals...

The Sphinx at the Giza Pyramids on November 20, 2019. KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Image

A 4,500-year-old architectural marvel that still baffles scientists

Researchers have uncovered a now-dried-up branch of the Nile that came right up to the great pyramid complex of Giza about 4,500 years ago.

Awesome in size, with perfect geometry, and adorned with intricate decorations, the pyramids at Giza, on the outskirts of modern Cairo, served to demonstrate the power of the pharaohs in Egypt's golden ageResearchers have uncovered a now-dried-up branch of the Nile that came right up to the great pyramid complex of Giza about 4,500 years ago.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, explain how ancient Egyptians were able to haul millions of the tons-heavy building blocks to the site of the iconic pyramids over four miles of what is now a desert landscape.

"It was impossible to build the pyramids here without this branch of the Nile," study author and geographer Hader Sheesh said, per The New York Times.       READ MORE...

Ancient Egyptian Foreign Mercenaries

A team of archaeologists from the Czech institute of Egyptology have unearthed a tomb in the Abusir necropolis, near to modern-day Cairo, Egypt.

The tomb belongs to an Egyptian dignitary named Wahibre-mery-Neith, who lived during the 26th or 27th Dynasty (5th century BC).

Inscriptions in the burial shaft describe him as a “Commander of Foreign Mercenaries”, suggesting that he supervised the mercenaries from the Aegean islands and Asia Minor.

The site was first excavated in 2021, where archaeologists found the largest ancient embalming cache in Egypt, containing 370 pottery storage jars that held materials used in the mummification of Wahibre-mery-Neith.

In the latest season of excavations, the team focused on the burial shaft and excavated 14 metres of material to a depth 6 metres below ground level. They found that the shaft was orientated east-west and measures approximately 6.5 by 3.3 metres.

At the bottom of the shaft the researchers found a double sarcophagus situated directly on a filling of sand, but discovered that the tomb had already been robbed in late antiquity during the 4th to 5th century AD (indicated by two early Coptic vessels found in the main shaft).

The outer sarcophagus is made of two massive blocks of white limestone that contains an inner sarcophagus made of basalt and is inscribed with the Book of the Dead, chapter 72, describing the resurrection of the deceased and his departure to the afterlife.  READ MORE...

Stone Blocks at Heliopolis

A joint German/Egyptian archaeological mission has discovered stone blocks from the reign of King Khufu in Heliopolis, Egypt.

Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch, the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu is generally accepted for commissioning the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The mission was excavating in the ancient city of Heliopolis, the capital of the 13th or Heliopolite Nome of Lower Egypt and a major religious centre. Archaeologists uncovered large blocks of granite in the ruins of the Sun Temple near the obelisk of Senusret I, representing the first discovery from the period of King Khufu in the Ain Shams region.

Mustafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Archaeology announced the discovery in a press release, suggesting that the stone may have been part of a building once situated at the Pyramids of Giza and later moved and repurposed during the Ramesside era (19th and 20th Dynasty).

Excavations also revealed the sarcophagi and altars from the era of Amenemhat IV, Sobekhotep IV, Ay, Seti I, Osorkon I, Takelot I, and Psamtik I, in addition to a sculptural model of quartz in the form of the Sphinx of King Amenhotep II, the base of a statue of King Amasis (Ahmose II), and the base of a colossal monkey statue of pink granite of a baboon.  READ MORE...

Ancient Civilizations Unequal

Inequality affected some ancient societies, but not all. Changes in farming – and the animals used in it – might have been a factor which caused it to spiral.

26 November 1922 marks what is arguably the most famous discovery in the history of archaeology. On that day, the British Egyptologist Howard Carter made a small hole through which he could insert a candle in the sealed doorway of Tutankhamun's burial chamber and thus lit the interior. As his eyes slowly adapted to the darkness, he was able to make out a chamber that had not been disturbed for over 3,000 years.

Tutankhamun was just an obscure pharaoh during his lifetime, and there is evidence that he was hastily buried – the second of the three nested coffins seems to have originally belonged to someone else. And yet the inner coffin, in which his mummy was discovered, is made of solid gold, weighing almost 250lbs (113kg). One can barely imagine how impressive the burials of such powerful leaders as Khufu, Thutmose III, or Rameses II must have been. Alas, they were all looted in antiquity.

But contrary to popular belief and cinematic glorification, most archaeologists would say that the search for spectacular treasures isn't their main research objective. They want to understand the daily life of past civilisations. Still, both extremes – the fabulous wealth of kings and the hardscrabble existence of common people – contribute to an understanding of what can be argued is one of the main goals of archaeology: to document and study the evolution of inequality in ancient societies. This also involves the question of how to recognise and quantify it.  READ MORE...

Stashed Inside the Pyramids

The pyramids of Giza are grand monuments, but what's inside them and the other ancient 

Egyptian pyramids? (Image credit: Ratnakorn Piyasirisorost via Getty Images)

When British archaeologist Howard Carter cracked open King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, he reported seeing "wonderful things." Tut's tomb was filled with extraordinary treasures, including the golden death mask of Tutankhamun, a golden throne and even gold sandals. But did all royal tombs in ancient Egypt have such plush grave goods?


The answer is no. While the Great Pyramid of Giza and other ancient Egyptian pyramids are incredible monuments, the burial goods inside them were likely relatively modest compared with those buried in the tombs of later pharaohs, such as Tutankhamun.


"The burials in the biggest pyramids might have looked quite simple in comparison to Tutankhamun," Wolfram Grajetzki, an honorary senior research fellow at University College London in the U.K. who has studied and written extensively about ancient Egyptian burial customs and burial goods, told Live Science in an email.

Pyramids were used as Egyptian pharaohs' tombs from the time of Djoser (reign circa 2630 B.C. to 2611 B.C.) to Ahmose I (reign circa 1550 B.C. to 1525 B.C.). Most of these pyramids were plundered centuries ago, but a few royal tombs have remained relatively intact and provide clues about their treasures, Grajetzki said.


For instance, Princess Neferuptah (who lived around 1800 B.C.) was buried in a pyramid at the site of Hawara, around 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Cairo. Her burial chamber was excavated in 1956 and "contained pottery, a set of coffins, some gilded personal adornments and a set of royal insignia that identify her with the Underworld god Osiris," Grajetzki said.


King Hor (who lived around 1750 B.C.) was buried with a similar set of objects, although he wasn't buried in a pyramid, Grajetzki said. "The body of [Hor] was wrapped in linen, the entrails placed into special containers, called canopic jars," Grajetzki said. "His face was covered with a mummy mask."  READ MORE...

The Pyramid Builders

The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. Seeking to understand how this remarkable monument was constructed has long been a source of scholarly fascination. Here we see the west side of the pyramid, with the Western Cemetery, which contained officials and retainers, visible in the foreground. PHOTO: © Mark Lehner.


We know it as the Great Pyramid. To the Ancient Egyptians it was the Akhet Khufu or Horizon of Khufu, named after the 4th Dynasty king who reigned from roughly 2633 BC to 2605 BC. By any measure, the pyramid that served as his tomb was a staggering accomplishment. Its four sides were each approximately 230m long, while the edifice incorporated some 2.3 million blocks and originally stood almost 150m high. Within lay an intricate network of chambers and passages, which showcase the skill of Egyptian masons. 

Despite the monument’s impressive statistics, though, there is one thing it is notably short of: text. Unlike some later pyramids, and the famous tombs crowding the Valley of the Kings, the interior of the Great Pyramid is not lavishly adorned with hieroglyphics. Instead, just a few graffiti naming work gangs were daubed in suitably discreet spots. Until recently, these sparse words provided the only contemporary textual glimpse of construction operations.

A decade ago, hoping to secure an eye-witness account of work on the Great Pyramid would have seemed like archaeological wishful thinking of the highest order. But then, in 2013, fragments of the earliest papyri documents ever found were recovered by an archaeological team led by Pierre Tallet, Professor of Egyptology at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. 

It speaks volumes about the scale of Khufu’s grand design that these texts, which were compiled by individuals involved with construction operations, were not found within the pyramid or even at Giza. Instead, they were recovered more than 130km away, in Egypt’s Eastern Desert near the Red Sea shore. The papyri comprise logbooks and other bureaucratic records that detail the activities of teams engaged on Khufu’s mortuary complex. 

Some of these accounts overlap in a remarkable fashion with the results of archaeological work led by Mark Lehner, President of AERA (Ancient Egypt Research Associates), at Giza. Now these two archaeologists have collaborated on a book shedding new light on one of the most renowned archaeological monuments in the world (see ‘Further reading’).  TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE...

Pyramids, Pharaohs, and Secrets

Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid-shaped stone constructions located in Egypt. 

The number of objects identified as Egyptian pyramids is about 100. Most of the pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs of the ancient and middle kingdoms. The oldest is the Pyramid of Djoser, created by the architect Imhotep between 2667-2488 BC.

Picture from pixabay.com

What are the facts about pyramids?
The most incredible Pyramid in the Giza complex is 147 meters high, with a base side of 230 meters, and took between 20 and 30 years to build. It is located about 25 kilometers southwest of Cairo, Egypt’s capital.

The Great Pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, has 2.6 million cubic meters and is greater than the two Giza colossi, the pyramids of Menkaure and Khafre. All of the pyramids are said to have been coated with gleaming limestone at one point, but this has since been removed and reused in various construction projects throughout the millennia.

Each Pyramid at Giza is part of a larger complex that includes a tomb temple and a network of interconnected pathways. The monuments are essentially the last resting sites of Egypt’s famous pharaohs.  READ MORE...

Pyramids Not Created by Aliens

Because I once made the mistake of dabbling in Egyptology, some ‘friend’ will schwack me every other week with a meme, cartoon or article about people who still believe the pyramids were built by aliens. I have longed for a handy single volume to present to these loons, full of unarguable evidence putting this business past dispute – and Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner have provided it.

In 2013 excavators in Egypt’s Eastern Desert on the Gulf of Suez uncovered the world’s most ancient harbour installation at Wadi el-Jarf. Here they unearthed a cache containing the oldest extant inscribed papyri (c.2607-5 BCE). And in that they found ‘unique and unprecedented testimony relating to one of the world’s most famous monuments’ which has inspired and perplexed visitors for almost five millennia: the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Little green men or Atlantean speculation is both a failure and an overuse of the imagination. But the pyramids, of course, are mind-boggling. For the Great Pyramid, King Khufu’s quarrymen hand-sculpted more than six hectares of rock to level the plateau and form a basic foundation, to legendary degrees of accuracy with regard to both the Earth and heavens. The block-hauling ramps alone are thought to have contained as much as 400,000 cubic metres of sand and rock – and perhaps only reached a fifth of the way up the edifice. The masons dressed precisely ‘67,127 square metres of the outer surface of the pyramid casing with copper chisels the width of an index finger’. The outer surface!

A ‘human disturbance on a geological scale’, the funerary complex of the Great Pyramid was so large that it incorporated other pyramids. The building site also contained an entire administrative city – ‘a kind of Old Kingdom Egyptian equivalent of Versailles’ – complete with an artificial inland port to take hydraulic advantage of the Nile flood.

In this book, handwritten scribal records – the ‘oldest known explicitly dated Egyptian documents’ – pick up the story of the middle-ranking inspector Merer and his 40-man naval gang. Merer was the captain of ‘Team Great’, an elite, adaptable outfit that transported the ‘grunt’ labour force and maintained the waterways around Giza, ferried limestone blocks up and down the Nile, provisioned and managed stores at the plateau and undertook expeditions to Sinai and Punt – lands, if not of milk and honey, of turquoise, myrrh and much needed copper for stone-working tools. ‘The builders of the gigantic pyramids of the 4th Dynasty must have amassed more copper... than was being accumulated anywhere else in the world.’


Interestingly, Tallet and Lehner argue that Merer and his men represented not vast slave labour, exploited by a biblical despot, but ‘the employment of a highly skilled, well-rewarded workforce’. Team Great worked in proximity to power – also performing royal guard duties and religious rituals – and were part-paid in luxury cloth. But it is also estimated that four teams like Merer’s might have spent 20 years transporting just the facing stone for the Great Pyramid.  READ MORE...

Egypt's Pyramids of Giza

An ultra-powerful scan of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza could help identify two mysterious spaces that potentially house the legendary tomb of the pharaoh. The watershed study was published last month in arXiv by University of Cornell archaeologists.

“We plan to field a telescope system that has upwards of 100 times the sensitivity of the equipment that has recently been used at the Great Pyramid,” wrote the researchers of the proposed scan, which is titled “The Exploring the Great Pyramid Mission.” They use advanced cosmic ray technology to map the internal structure of the Great Pyramid, which is Egypt’s largest pyramid and the last surviving wonder from antiquity.

The team’s research is based on a study by Scan Pyramid group, which conducted a series of scans between 2015 and 2017 that analyzed muons — cosmic particles that regularly fall on Earth — to detect any voids, Live Science reported. Muons react differently to air and stone and are therefore ideal for mapping air pockets in stone structures such as pyramids.

The scientists found two spaces, the larger of which measures 98 feet long and 20 feet high and sits above the grand gallery. Meanwhile, the smaller void is located near the citadel’s north face.

And while neither void’s function is clear, scientists speculate that the large one could lead to the secret burial chamber of the pharaoh Khufu (reign circa 2551 B.C. to 2528 B.C.), for whom the Great Pyramid was originally constructed in the 26th century B.C.

In order to peer inside the void, researchers plan to scan the area with supercharged cosmic ray muons, which are 100 times more powerful than the ones used in the prior scan.

Utilizing them will allow researchers to “image muons from nearly all angles and will, for the first time, produce a true tomographic image [three-dimensional internal images created by analyzing waves of energy] of such a large structure,” per the study.  READ MORE...

The Eastern Mediterranean Changing

Image courtesy of Aris Messinis / AFP

Earlier this month, the United States surprised Greece and its two primary partners in the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, Israel and Cyprus, by withdrawing its backing for a natural gas pipeline that would have connected them to Europe. 

The American change of heart was ostensibly justified by the need to focus on clean energy sources and that this project did not align with Europe’s green energy plan.

Instead, Washington urged the countries to consider two alternative electricity transmission projects; the EuroAfrica interconnector intended to deliver electricity from Egypt through Cyprus and then onwards to Greece and Europe via Crete, and its sister EuroAsia project that starts in Israel and connects to Europe through Cyprus. 

Both projects integrate these countries’ electricity grids with Europe’s.  The EastMed gas pipeline idea emerged after significant findings of gas deposits in the territorial waters of Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel. 

The pipeline, which would have cost an estimated $6-7 billion, was seen by many as an unrealistic project given the potential changes in the European energy consumption patterns, its sheer complexity and cost and the financing needs. Chances were that it would not get off the ground much less be completed by 2025 as projected.

The US State Department withdrew support for the project through the delivery of a non-paper – an informal manner of expressing a government’s preferences or requirement without direct attribution. Presumably the content could have been delivered orally except that Washington may have tried to avoid a situation where its message was diluted.

Even if the US may have thought it had a responsibility as part of the 3+1 mechanism of meetings with Cyprus, Greece and Israel designed to encourage regional cooperation, the fact remains that the decision to build a pipeline rests with those three countries and the Europeans and not Washington.  READ MORE...

Temple of a Million Years

Archeologists found two large sphinx statues during the restoration of a temple in Luxor, Egypt.

The "Temple of Millions of Years" was a vast funerary temple of King Amenhotep III, who ruled about 3,300 years ago. 

The limestone statues measured around 26 feet in length and depict the Pharoah in the form of a sphinx.  

Archeologists discovered two colossal sphinx statues while restoring the ancient Egyptian funerary temple of King Amenhotep III, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

King Amenhotep III was a pharaoh who ruled Egypt around 3,300 years ago when it was rich in gold and oversaw a peaceful period of prosperity and growing international power.

The limestone statues measure around 26 feet in length and depict King Amenhotep III in the form of a sphinx – a mythological creature with a lion's body and a human head – wearing a mongoose headdress, a royal beard, and a wide necklace, the ministry said.

An Egyptian-German archeological mission found the statues half-submerged in water inside the Luxor temple, known as the "Temple of Millions of Years."

The team also found three black granite busts of the goddess Sekhmet, a goddess of war also associated with healing which is often depicted as a part lion.

An Unusual Decomposition Process

A fetus previously identified in a mummified Egyptian woman has remained preserved for more than 2,000 years due to an unusual decomposition process.

In April 2021, the Warsaw Mummy Project published an article that revealed the first known case of a pregnant Ancient Egyptian mummy.

The mummy, which is housed in the National Museum in Warsaw was previously thought to be the remains of the priest Hor-Djehuti, until it was discovered in 2016 to be an embalmed woman.

A closer examination using tomographic imaging revealed that the woman was between 20-30 years old when she died and was in her 26th to 30th week of her pregnancy.

In a new study published in the “Journal of Archaeological Science”, Ożarek-Szilke, co-director of the Warsaw Mummy Project explained that the deceased was covered with natron to dry the body.

Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate (Na2CO3·10H2O, a kind of soda ash) and around 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda, NaHCO3) along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate.

During this process, the fetus was still in the uterus and essentially began too “pickle” in an acidic environment. Formic acid and other compounds (formed after death in the uterus because of various chemical processes related to decomposition) changed the Ph inside the woman’s body.

The change from alkaline to an acidic environment caused the leaching of minerals from the fetal bones, which began to dry out and mineralise. According to the researchers, the process of Egyptian mummification from a chemical point of view is the process of mineralisation of tissues that can survive for a millennia.

Ożarek-Szilke said: “These two processes explain to us why you hardly see the bones of the fetus in CT scans. You can see, for example, hands or a foot, but these are not bones, but dried tissues. The skull, which develops the fastest and is the most mineralised has been partially preserved.”