Tag: egypt

Scientists may have solved mystery behind Egypt’s pyramids

Scientists believe they may have solved the mystery of how 31 pyramids, including the world-famous Giza complex, were built in Egypt more than 4,000 years ago.

A research team from the University of North Carolina Wilmington has discovered that the pyramids are likely to have been built along a long-lost, ancient branch of the River Nile – which is now hidden under desert and farmland.

For many years, archaeologists have thought that ancient Egyptians must have used a nearby waterway to transport materials such as the stone blocks needed to build the pyramids on the river.

But up until now, “nobody was certain of the location, the shape, the size or proximity of this mega waterway to the actual pyramids site”, according to one of the study’s authors, Prof Eman Ghoneim.

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Curious L-Shaped Structure Found near Giza Pyramids is 4,500-Years-Old

An international team of archaeologists has stumbled upon a mysterious L-shaped structure buried within a cemetery adjacent to the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza. The structure is 4,500 years and would have been built around the same time as the pyramid.

The discovery of this ‘blank area’ and ‘anomaly’ came about through the scanning of the surface of Giza’s prestigious Western Cemetery using ground-penetrating technology. This burial site was designated for members of King Khufu’s royal family and esteemed officials, interred in mastabas, funerary tombs typical of the era.

The newfound structure is encompassed by these mastabas, all meticulously arranged in uniform alignment. Yet, curiously, no notable excavations have previously taken place within this peculiar vacant space.

Mastabas, serving as burial structures for the royal family and esteemed officers, are distinguished by their flat roofs and rectangular designs typically crafted from limestone or mudbricks. Central to their architecture is a vertical shaft connecting to an underground chamber, essential for the burial rituals and eternal resting place of the deceased.

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‘Curse’ behind King Tutankhamun’s tomb mysterious deaths finally solved, experts claim

The unsettling curse of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt has bewildered archaeologists since it’s been feared to be linked to the mysterious deaths of multiple excavators who discovered it in 1922.

However, a scientist now claims to have solved the mysteries of the infamous “Pharaoh’s Curse” more than 100 years later.

Toxic levels of radiation emanating from uranium and poisonous waste are believed to have lingered inside the tomb since it was sealed over 3,000 years ago, Ross Fellowes wrote last month in the Journal of Scientific Exploration (JSE).

The radiation level inside Tutankhamun’s tomb is so high that anyone who comes in contact with it could very likely develop a fatal dose of radiation sickness and cancer.

“Both contemporary and ancient Egypt populations are characterized by unusually high incidences of hematopoietic cancers, of bone/blood/lymph, for which a primary known cause is radiation exposure,” Fellowes wrote in his study.

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Israel knew of Hamas attack in advance – US lawmaker

Three days before Hamas’ large-scale assault on Israel, the Egyptian authorities warned their counterparts in Tel Aviv that such an operation was imminent, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul told reporters on Wednesday.

“We know that Egypt has warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” McCaul said following a closed-door intelligence briefing on Capitol Hill. 

“I don’t want to get too much into classified, but a warning was given,” McCaul continued. “I think the question was at what level.” 

The Associated Press reported on Monday that Israeli officials ignored repeated warnings from Cairo that Hamas was planning “something big.” Citing a source within Egyptian intelligence, the news agency claimed that the Israeli government felt that an attack was unlikely to come from Gaza, and would probably take place in the West Bank instead.

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Egypt’s Border Crossing With Gaza Closed Off as Palestinians Have Nowhere to Flee

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has been closed off as Palestinians have nowhere to flee amid relentless Israeli airstrikes that started in response to the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

The Israeli military on Tuesday revised a recommendation for Palestinians to “get out” of Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. “Clarification: The Rafah crossing was open yesterday, but now it is closed,” the office of spokesman Lt-Col. Richard Hecht said, according to Reuters.

The New Arab reported that Egyptian officials said the crossing was closed off indefinitely. “The crossing will be closed indefinitely, for the situation has become quite dangerous after the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has had an impact on the Egyptian side of the crossing,” an Egyptian security source told the outlet.

Another source said Egypt was trying to ensure “no attempts of infiltration by Palestinians into Egypt can take place.”

According to the Red Crescent, three Israeli airstrikes hit the Rafah border crossing within 24 hours after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege of Gaza,” which involved cutting off food, water, electricity, and fuel.

Israeli Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the head of an Israeli military agency in charge of policies in the West Bank and Gaza, said on Tuesday that Israel was turning Gaza into “hell.”

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Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored warnings of ‘something big’

Amid mounting questions about Israel’s failure to anticipate the unprecedented attack by Hamas, an Egyptian intelligence official said his country had warned the Jewish state repeatedly about “something big” happening shortly.

The official said Israeli officials had been focused on their struggles in the West Bank and played down the threat from the militant group in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is made up of supporters of West Bank settlers who have demanded a crackdown in the face of a rising tide of violence in the area over the last 18 months.

“We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” the Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press.

Israel was caught flat-footed in the lead-up to the attack by Hamas, whose terrorists broke through border barriers to launch a brazen attack that has so far killed at least 800 people and wounded over 2,000, with the numbers expected to climb.

“This is a major failure,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to  Netanyahu. “This operation actually proves that the (intelligence) abilities in Gaza were no good.”

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Democrat Senator Bob Menendez and his wife are indicted for ‘accepting $400,000 in gold bars from mob-linked New Jersey developer in return for favors – and giving Egyptian businessman highly sensitive U.S. information’

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine Arslanian have been indicted by a federal grand jury over corruption allegations in an investigation that focused on a luxury car, $400,000 in gold bars and an apartment allegedly received by Menendez and his wife.

The indictment claims the couple had an improper relationship with three New Jersey businessmen: Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, who allegedly paid the couple in exchange for Menendez to use his influence in Washington D.C. to their benefit.

The probe also looked at other bribes allegedly paid to the couple. A June 2022 raid on their home found ‘over $480,000 in cash – much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe,’ the indictment notes, adding Nadine had over $70,000 in a safe deposit box. 

The indictment accuses Menendez and his wife of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes in exchange for using the senator’s influence to protect and enrich the businessmen.

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Archeologists Discover Hundreds Of Mummies, Tunnels, And Pyramid Of Unknown Queen

Archeologists have discovered hundreds of mummies, interconnected tunnels, and even the pyramid of a previously unknown queen — 100 years after King Tut’s tomb was found. 

The historical finds were discovered at an archeological site called Saqqara in Giza, just south of Egypt’s capital of Cairo, by a team that had been working at the site for two years. Archeologists found “300 beautiful coffins” that are believed to be from the New Kingdom period, a 500-year era of prosperity in Egypt between 1550-1070 B.C. 

“The coffins have individual faces, each one unique, distinguishing between men and women, and are decorated with scenes from the Book of the Dead,” according to Egypt’s former Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass, who is working at the site. “Each coffin also has the name of the deceased,” he said. 

The researchers opened the coffins and were surprised by the good condition of many of the mummies that have been inside them for many centuries. Hawass attributed this discovery to the period in Egypt’s history when mummification techniques peaked. He also noted that some of the coffins had multiple lids and that “the most amazing coffin” had a mask of a woman that was made of solid gold. Researchers believe some of these mummies consist of King Tut’s closest advisers and generals.  

As for the pyramid of the previously unknown queen, her name was revealed to be Neith. “It is amazing to literally rewrite what we know of history, adding a new queen to our records,” Hawass said of the find. 

The area of focus for the researchers was the pyramid of another pharoah, King Teti, the first king of the sixth dynasty who is believed to have reigned for 12 years. Found near Teti’s pyramid are 22 interconnected tunnels ranging from 30 to 60 feet deep, all of them are believed to have had burials during the New Kingdom period. It was previously believed that the majority of burials in Saqqara were from the Old Kingdom period, which lasted from 2649-2130 B.C. 

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FOUR HUNDRED private jets arrived in Egypt during COP27 as climate delegates are accused of ‘hypocrisy’

Climate delegates were accused of hypocrisy after 400 private jets arrived in Egypt for COP27.

Numerous posts on social media criticised delegates for travelling by private jet to the UN climate summit.

Posts and reports included various estimates for the number of such planes bringing delegates to the gathering in the beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Climate Action Against Disinformation, a group that analyses trends in false information on social media, said in a report on Thursday that narratives of supposed ‘hypocrisy and elitism’ were one of the main focuses of climate-sceptic messages during COP27.

Egyptian sources corroborated widespread claims that some 400 private jets landed during COP27. 

Some media cited lower estimates by flight-trackers, though there may have been private flights that were not logged by monitoring services.

One misleading post in Spanish claimed there were as many as 1,500 private jets. It was accompanied by an old photograph of planes from an aviation forum in Las Vegas.

‘More than 400 private jets landed in the past few days in Egypt,’ a source close to the Egyptian aviation authorities, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Thursday.

‘There was a meeting ahead of COP27, and officials were expecting those jets and made some arrangements in Sharm el-Sheikh airport to welcome those planes.’

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THE MYSTERY OF TUTANKHAMUN’S METEORIC IRON DAGGER

IN 1922, EGYPTIAN EXCAVATORS LED BY HOWARD CARTER DISCOVERED THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMUN, AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH WHO WAS THE LAST OF HIS ROYAL FAMILY TO RULE DURING THE END OF THE 18TH DYNASTY.

Located in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile opposite Thebes (modern Luxor), the tomb, KV62, was buried in mounds of debris from the cutting of KV9 for Pharaoh Ramesses V over 150 years after Tutankhamun’s death.

The discovery caused a media frenzy, revealing 5,398 items that included: a solid gold coffin, face mask, thrones, archery bows, trumpets, a lotus chalice, two Imiut fetishes, gold toe stalls, furniture, food, wine, sandals and fresh linen underwear.

Among the artefacts were a set of iron blades that resemble the PeseshKaf, a tool used in the “opening of the mouth ceremony,” a ritual performed for the deceased to enable them to breath, speak, eat and drink in the afterlife.

One of these blades is an iron dagger with an ornamental golden sheath, expertly produced by an ancient metalsmith.

The Howard Carter Archives describes the dagger as having a finely manufactured blade made from a homogeneous metal, while the handle is made of fine gold and is decorated with cloisonné and granulation work, ending with a pommel of rock crystal. On one side of the golden sheath is a floral lily motif, while on the other is a pattern of feathers terminating with a jackal’s head.

Examples in Egypt of contemporary smelting during the 18th Dynasty to produce Iron are very rare, and likely produced low-quality iron to be forged into precious objects. As the other blades found in the tomb are relatively crude, many scholars suggest that the ornamental dagger was imported to Egypt perhaps as a royal gift from a neighbouring territory or kingdom.

Diplomatic documents (the Amarna letters), that date from the 14th century BC mention royal gifts made of iron given to the pharaohs of Egypt from before Tutankhamun’s reign. Interestingly, one of these documents notes that Tushratta, King of Mitanni, sent iron objects to Amenhotep III (possibly Tutankhamun’s grandfather), which mentions iron blades in the lists.

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