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| Saqqara: il serdab di Zoser, che si trova sul retro della sua piramide. Nonostante la statua
originale in calcare dipinto e in grandezza naturale sia esposta nel Museo Egizio, è straordinariamente
emozionante ammirarne la replica al suo interno. Attraverso i due fori, che si trovano proprio all’altezza
degli occhi del ka di Zoser. Così possiamo osservarne il viso, un vero e proprio ritratto del faraone, con la
barba posticcia e il nemes rituale sul capo, che attende di ricevere le offerte a lui destinate. Saqqara: the
serdab of Zoser, which is located on the back of his pyramid. Although the original painted and life-size
limestone statue is exhibited in the Egyptian Museum, it is extraordinarily exciting to admire its replica
inside. Through the two holes, which are located exactly at the eye level of Zoser's ka. So, we can observe
his face, a real portrait of the pharaoh, with a false beard and a ritual nemes on his head, who is waiting to
receive the offers intended for him (© Franco Pelliccioni) |
*In this post I have kept the bilingual apparatus only in the captions of the four photos
What's in the book:
At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, researches carried out between East Africa, North-East Africa, America and the Arctic had allowed to collect a rich harvest of photos, which I thought were mostly beautiful and interesting.
So much so, that I wished to make them available to the public in a photographic book, which would have ranged from Nature (environment, animals), to Ethno-Anthropology ("uses and customs" of peoples, at large).
Photographs taken since 1975, with what, at the time, was perhaps the best available equipment.
So much so, that there was who called it the Rolls Royce of cameras: a Nikon F, with various accessories, including a powerful 300mm telephoto lens.
Where I only loaded rolls of Kodak Ektachrome 35 mm slides, from 64 to 400 ISO.
After all, many of my photos already complemented the articles that I gradually published in various magazines (...).
That old idea of mine soon should have collided with the harsh reality of the Italian publishing market, even at that time particularly difficult, certainly not like today... (...)
After more than thirty years, I realize today that old project.
The Immagini dall’Egitto-Images from Egypt enrich and, in some cases, complete the rich photographic apparatus contained in the Travels in Egypt 1980-2009 (...).
Among other things, more than doubling the images, while the larger typographic format allows the reader to observe and appreciate them better.
In all my "stories", both articles and books, I have always considered essential to integrate, as much as possible, texts and images.
Here duly commented in a bilingual didactic apparatus.
I shot them, over almost thirty years, on the two banks of el-Bahr, the Nile, and on the Red Sea coast (...)
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| Dall'isola Elefantina, la Prima Cateratta e una piccola cappella tolemaica in mattoni completamente restaurata, 1980. From Elephantine island, the First Cataract and a small Ptolemaic brick chapel completely restored (© Franco Pelliccioni) |
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 (...).
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 (...).
Before I talked about "discoveries".
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| In alto, sulla montagna, si vedono le due torri di guardia romane (skopeloi), o fortini, posizionate proprio al di sopra dell’importante pozzo di Bir Da’urt. High up on the mountain, you can see the two Roman watchtowers (skopeloi), or forts, positioned just above the important Bir Da'urt well [Lungo l'antica carovaniera degli 11 giorni. Along the ancient "11 days caravan route"] (© Franco Pelliccioni) |
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 (it is the opening photo).
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) Images from Egypt, the "satellite" book of Viaggi in Egitto 1980-2009, has a dignified autonomy and can be viewed and read as a book in its own right. Since the didactic apparatus and the notes allow to understand and fully enjoy every single illustration. Leaving the reader to freely go to the personal discovery of the always fabulous East. So well represented by Egypt, since the days of the Grand Tour and the Nile cruises, on board the Cook’s ships. |
Da/From: IMMAGINI DALL’EGITTO IMAGES FROM EGYPT. Companion book di / of: VIAGGI IN EGITTO 1980-2009
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= |
