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| Dipinti della tomba di Thutmose III, decorati con figure dal libro di Amduat ("ciò che è nell'aldilà"), ornano le pareti. diventando un enorme papiro, che avvolge la tomba. Descrivono il viaggio della barca solare verso la grotta di Sokaris. I geroglifici in corsivo sono in nero e rosso su fondo grigio e imitano il colore di una foglia di papiro, 1980. Paintings from the tomb of Thutmose III decorated with figures from the book of Amduat ("what is in the afterlife"), which adorn the walls, becoming a huge papyrus, that wraps around the tomb. They describe the journey of the solar boat to the Sokaris cave. The italic hieroglyphics are in black and red on a grey background and imitate the colour of a papyrus leaf [see further on] (© Franco Pelliccioni) |
They are photos of details, particulars, curiosities, even oddities. Most have come down to us through the millennia. Images obviously historical, even terrible, yet shamelessly erotic. Some of them allowed me to make unexpected "discoveries". In Karnak, for example, I photographed the brick, earth and mud ramp, which served to erect the First Pylon of the Temple of Amun. After more than two thousand years, today it is still in place, leaning against the walls. Because the Pylon was the last to be built by one of the many pharaohs, who helped make the temple unique in the world.
Here I will stumble upon a surprising Egyptian calendar, but I will also observe Min, the God with the "erect penis", who on a pylon receives the offer of an aphrodisiac plant. A God that I had already seen in all his “male splendour" in a bas-relief photographed in 1980 in the Temple of Luxor, while in 2007 I would have noticed that, still in the same temple, there was another bas-relief, which depicts him while he is ejaculating and the sperm is duly collected in a container. Then I will find out how the anonymous sculptor had even depicted a spermatozoon.
The book shows the reader images of ethno-anthropological, archaeological, naturally historical-religious and naturalistic value: desert and tropical landscapes, more or less famous temples, high and bas-reliefs, figures, statues, peoples, animals, including fishes of the coral reefs of Central and Northern Red Sea. Photographs in some cases even with aesthetically appreciable effects, sometimes rather amazing, not always deliberately sought by me. Like those shot in 1980 at dusk in Giza, at sunset in Esna, in the evening at the illuminated Luxor Temple. But even a face can be extremely interesting, if photographed from afar, with a powerful telephoto lens.
Speaking about numbers, the book contains 31 photos of Cairo, 20 of Giza and its pyramids, 16 of Abu Simbel's Temples, 28 of Luxor and Karnak's Temples... Another 18 photos concern the House of Millions of Years of Ramses III, the extraordinary Medinet Habu. Funerary Temple of the warrior pharaoh, located in the Western Thebes, on the left bank of the Nile. [Overall the book contains 278 photos, 275 of which are mine]
Once back in Rome, I will discover how the bas-reliefs of its First Pylon report an error of no small importance. Because with their somatic characteristics were represented African peoples subjected by Ramses. Too bad, because he had fought, instead, against the Asian ones (sic). Not only... Because, after several and prolonged researches in my library and on the Web, I ascertained that what I thought was only one of the many Egyptian archaeological finds, in reality was the table of the votive offerings to the God Amon, by the Divine Adorers, his brides, generally noblewomen and princesses.
I also included a couple of photos of one of the most extraordinary tombs of the Valley of the Kings. That of Thutmose III. I visited it in 1980. [it's the opening photo of the post].
Above all, it was difficult to reach, because it was dug high in the mountain, but inside a slit in the rock. It is possible to observe the sarcophagus and the death chamber with entirely painted walls, which become a huge papyrus, that surrounds the tomb. The hieroglyphics are taken from the Book of Amduat ("what is in the afterlife").
Before I talked about "discoveries".
Because, even if for almost sixty years I have been a researcher, not being an Egyptologist, identifying myself in the guise of a Champollion “in sixteenth”, I went through a land for me almost completely "unknown", where you can even reveal "admirable things". So, to process the captions of one of the photos, taken through "a small hole", I suddenly realized that, just a very short distance from my eyes, there were other eyes that seemed to be looking at me. They belonged to the face of Pharaoh Zoser. That is, to his life-size statue and, apparently, quite likely. Built almost 4,700 years ago in Saqqara, next to its pyramid-tomb. So that was his ka. Since then, he is always waiting to be honoured by his people. Because, in addition to moving, he can perceive, in his modest sealed chamber, thanks to the presence of two holes, the smells and the perfumes of the offerings. So, the photo, I saw on the screen, was not only curious, but even exceptional... Because that was his serdab!
My other two "discoveries" come from the Temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu.
Originally, I thought that the bas-relief photographed in Kom Ombo was one of the many observed in Egypt. Later I will learn its importance. Since it gave form and substance to the archaeological term mammisi. Representing the birth of a woman, with the new-born who, at the moment, is emerging from the mother's vagina.
As for the temple of Edfu, here a statue of the falcon God Horus protects a figure, who does not seem to enjoy too much attention on the Web. Yet the God is protecting none other than the son of Cleopatra (VII) and Julius Caesar: Caesarion. That is Ptolemy XV, the last of the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.
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| La statua del Dio falcone Horo, che si trova a sinistra dell’entrata, protegge Tolomeo XV Cesarione, l’ultimo dei faraoni dell’Antico Egitto. Dopo aver prima regnato con sua madre, la celebre Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII), regnò poi da solo, dal 44 a.C. al 30 a.C., quando venne fatto uccidere da Ottaviano Augusto. Era figlio di Giulio Cesare. This statue of the falcon God Horus, which is to the left of the entrance, protects Ptolemy XV Caesarion, the last of the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Since he first reigned with his mother, the famous Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII), then alone, from 44 BC to 30 BC, when he was killed by Octavian Augustus. He was the son of Julius Caesar (© Franco Pelliccioni) |
Da/From: IMMAGINI DALL’EGITTO IMAGES FROM EGYPT. Companion book di / of: VIAGGI IN EGITTO 1980-2009
E-Book e versione cartacea a colori di grande formato (17,78 x 25,4 cm), 171 pp, 138 note, 278 immagini (275 sono dell'A.)
E-Book and paper colour version in large format (17.78 x
25.4 cm), 171 pages, 138 notes, 278 images (275 are from the A.)
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| E-Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DCZ7D9F |
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| https://www.amazon.com/IMMAGINI-DALLEGITTO-IMAGES-EGYPT-COMPANION/dp/B08DGCFSDH/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= |
