EGYPTIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE MODERN WORLD: FROM THE RED SEA TO THE NILE RIVER

EGYPTIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE MODERN WORLD: FROM THE RED SEA TO THE NILE RIVER

Anna Masliakova

Ph.D. in Art Criticism (St. Petersburg), Doctoral Researcher, Kyrgyz National University named after Jusup Balasagyn,

Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek

At first glance, it may seem that Egypt is nothing like Europe. There are shouting street vendors inviting customers to their shops; initially overpricing their goods, they spend plenty of time bargaining with buyers so that, for example, the price of a cat figurine goes down from twenty dollars to eighty pounds. Children play football at three in the morning and communicate fluently in English with tourists admiring the mosaics and stained glass windows of the Coptic Cathedral of Saint Shenouda in Hurghada (see Fig. 1.). Traffic in Egypt is practically unregulated, that is to say, taxis, pedestrians, lorries, donkeys and tuk-tuk drivers just keep on, disregarding the lights, and Egypt’s infamous U-turns do not improve the situation on the roads. And yet, if you look closely behind the facade of that hustle and bustle, you may see one of the most ancient cultures in the World that has a lot to learn from.

Many houses are without roofs since it almost never rains there. As a rule, all the family members live in the same edifice; each new generation builds a new floor, and it is not uncommon to see a multi-storey building with protruding fittings forming some kind of “endless columns” trying, in vain, to find their logical conclusion in capitals (see Fig. 2.). Unfortunately, it is not unusual to hear a group of tourists pointing out the unassuming clothes of the locals or the dirt on the streets. And I suppose that the main mistake of those who come to Egypt is that they begin to judge what they see by standards that are completely inapplicable there. It is like trying to read Egyptian hieroglyphs according to Arabic rules, from right to left, without paying attention to where the faces of people, animals and birds depicted on them are turned; and, as we all know, they face towards the beginning of the text (see Fig. 3.).

While travelling around Egypt, one cannot help but realize the importance of the so-called “geographical factor” in everyday life of an ordinary Egyptian [1]. It may seem that the World has become “flat” since we can fly from one continent to another within a few hours. Yet for the Egyptians actively engaged in agriculture, the natural cyclical flooding pattern of the Nile still plays a huge role. Driving from Hurghada to Luxor, one can see numerous donkeys pulling wagons, men in long white robes working in their fields or boys tending sheep. It amazes us, but people there continue to live the same way as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. Bedouins still wander from place to place, and their wealth is measured by the number of camels they own; they do not go to doctors, treat themselves with oils, and even local authorities find it rather difficult to say how many Bedouins live in the country at this or that particular moment. And I reckon that the so-called “digital nomads”, performing their occupation entirely over the internet while traveling, have a lot to learn from the Bedouins.

There is also harmony between nature and architecture, starting with the three massive terraces of the Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, the 5^th pharaoh of the 18^th Dynasty of Egypt, carved into the mountain in the Valley of the Kings (see Fig. 4.) and ending with the pavilion built on the Orange Bay Island in the so-called “wooden baroque style” and surmounted by a cupola with an oculus resembling the Pantheon in Rome, which is an integral part of the landscape of the Island (see Fig. 5.).

As we all know, on the East bank of the Nile there is the “city of the living”, where one can see the Precinct of Amun-Re – a magnificent temple complex dedicated to the Sun god – and the Great Hypostyle Hall – a forest of 134 giant sandstone columns arranged in sixteen rows between the Second and the Third Pylons (or gateways) of the temple. And, according to Farid Atiya, “Here one can grasp the concept of immortality in art though a civilization” [2, p. 312]. By the way, it seems to me that the grandeur of the Great Hypostyle Hall built during the Ramesside period is comparable to the beauty of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul erected in the 6^th century AD during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I; yet the function, and therefore the logic of the two structures in question, is quite different. In the first case, we are dealing with the monument that was used for performing religious rituals. The columns of the Great Hypostyle Hall are of various heights (the two middle rows being higher (about 20 meters) than the others in the side aisles (about 13 meters)), have papyrus-crown (or lotus-crown) capitals and are adorned with the colorful pharaonic inscriptions recently restored under the patronage of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities [3]. And in the center, where the light shined in through the small clerestory windows with gratings set high in the walls, the columns look like papyrus plants blooming in the sun (see Fig. 6.). Whereas the Basilica Cistern is a subterranean building with no windows for it was used for preserving water, and the majority of its 336 marble and granite columns supporting the cross-shaped vaults and round arches of the ceiling are of the Corinthian order.

On the whole, there are ten pylons in the Precinct of Amun-Re, and each of them was built by a different pharaoh wishing to leave his (or her) mark on history for, as King Akhtoi says in his letter to his son “This life upon earth passes: it is not long, and fortunate is he who is remembered” [2, p. 85]. For instance, the first pylon, flanked by the Avenue of Sphinxes with ram’s heads on lion’s bodies holding a figurine of the Pharaoh Ramses II between their paws, was erected by Nectanebo I (see Fig. 7.), the second one was started by Horemheb and completed by Ramses I, while the third pylon, now a total ruin, was built by Amenhotep III. Interestingly enough, the Egyptian Sphinxes with lion’s bodies and the head of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III decorating the University Embankment in St. Petersburg once stood on the West bank of the Nile, in the “city of the dead”, right in front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, not far from the so-called “Colossi of Memnon” – the twin massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III (see Fig. 8.). And when we were crossing the Nile from the East bank to the West bank, we could not help but imagine ourselves being the souls of the dead carried by Charon across the river Styx to the Underworld, as depicted by Michelangelo in his fresco “The Last Judgement”. In this regard one should also mention the boat depicted on one of the walls of the Tomb of Tyti in the Valley of the Queens, mirroring the journey of the soul from living to the afterlife (see Fig. 9.).

It is a well-known fact that there are various types of burials. For instance, the Romans preferred cremation and buried the aches in hut- (or house-) urns, whereas in St. Petersburg there are many guided tours giving tourists an opportunity to admire the beauty of the architectural décor of the traditional ground burials located there, such as, for example, the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery. As for the Egyptians, they regarded death as an important part of life, for which they began to prepare in advance. Much attention was paid to mummification, and although it has long been believed that its main purpose was to preserve a body after death, according to the recent research conducted by the scientists from the University of Manchester’s Manchester Museum, “the elaborate burial technique was actually a way to guide the deceased toward divinity” [4]. By the way, not long ago, a team of Egyptologists led by Ahmed Zikry uncovered a so-called “false door” inside Tutankhamun’s tomb which is thought to be a portal into the Egyptian “Underworld” or Duat [5]. And in the Hurghada Museum one can see a guilded cartonnage mummy mask belonging to a lady named Ammonarin (see Fig. 10.), as well as two mummies with gold chest plates, found by Dr. Zahi Hawass in Bahariya Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert in 1996, that are considered to be of a man and his wife for they were discovered next to each other and, surprisingly enough, the woman is depicted smiling.

Arguably, there are many dilapidated buildings in Egypt, not to mention the tomb raiders looting the Egyptian Royal tombs and therefore stealing our history. Moreover, many Art objects have been damaged or even destroyed during the so-called transitional periods of history. For example, during the First Intermediate Period (2181 BC – 2055 BC) indicating a transition from the Old Kingdom (“the Pyramid Age”) to the Middle Kingdom (the Period of Reunification), social situation in Egypt was very unstable. The tremendously long reign of Pepi II was a disaster for Egypt for being an old man, he was unable to control the provinces, and many of them rebelled against his rule. There was no central power, the country was in disorder, and pyramids and tombs were robbed. The fall of the Old Kingdom left a great scar on the Egyptian spirit; many of their beliefs of afterlife were in doubt in this period which was reflected in texts now known as “Pessimistic Literature”: “Everyone became a thieve. Gates, columns and walls are consumed by fire; boxes of ebony are smashed to pieces, and precious acacia-wood is chopped up. … All is in ruin” [2, p. 87]. Furthermore, lots of cultural monuments were damaged as a result of the rivalries between the rulers. Let us take as an example the statue of Ramses II, located in the Precinct of Amun-Re mentioned above, which was usurped first by King Ramses VI who had his name carved on the base of the statue, and later King Panijm added his name [2, p. 322]. And what is more, in every place on the walls and columns of the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut her features and her appellations were chiseled out and effaced by her step-son Tuthmosis III, who thus satisfied his hatred for his co-regent [2, p. 382].

At the same time, there are those who actually cherish the subtle “beauty of decay” of the ancient monuments. For instance, according to Japanese wabi-sabi (侘寂) aesthetics, an object is considered beautiful only if it has “imperfections”. And modern designers create stunning fashion collections from trash, reframing our ideas about waste [6]. After Napoleon’s campaign to Egypt in the 19^th century, many people were fascinated by Egyptian culture, and artists created lots of Art objects inspired by it. For example, in St. Petersburg there is the Egyptian Bridge flanked by the Egyptian Sphinxes made by the sculptor Pyotr Sokolov, the entrance hall of the Pavlovsk Palace is adorned with the statues of Isis and Osiris created to the design of the architect Andrey Voronikhin, and in the residence of the famous Russian painter Ilya Repin there is a temple dedicated to Isis and Osiris [7]. Unfortunately, many of the Egyptian masterpieces were transported from their state of origin to other shores, yet, it seems to me that even their absence contributes to the preservation of their memory.

To sum it up, I would like to note that we are all heirs of great cultures of the past – Rome inherited Greek traditions (suffice it to compare the Parthenon in Athens with the Maison Carrée in Nîmes), Turkey assimilated Byzantium Art, and the architectural design of the Hagia Sophia served as a model for the majority of the Turkish mosques. The Egyptian cultural impact on north-west Arabia is also difficult to underestimate [8]; and although Egyptians are not genetically Arabs (especially Egypt’s Copts who consider themselves Egyptians and of pharaonic descent, let alone the fact that the Coptic cross resembles Ankh representing eternal life (see Fig. 6.)), they may be so culturally and linguistically [9]. As for the people living in St. Petersburg, we are all “heirs” of the Emperor Peter the Great who left us as legacy the architectural masterpiece built on marshy grounds. And I do believe that our future and the future of all mankind depends on how we treat our cultural heritage.

Figure 1. Stained glass windows of the Coptic Cathedral of Saint Shenouda (Hurghada, Egypt)

Figure 2. Egyptian House with “endless columns”

Figure 3. Hieroglyphs adorning the Tomb of Amenherkhepshef in the Valley of the Queens

Figure 4. The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari, Luxor)

Figure 5. Orange Bay Island (Hurghada)

Figure 6. The Great Hypostyle Hall (Karnak)

Figure 7. The Avenue of Sphinxes (Karnak)

Figure 8. Colossi of Memnon (Luxor)

Figure 9. The Tomb of Tyti in the Valley of the Queens

Figure 10. Guilded Cartonnage of Ammonarin (Hurghada Museum)

References:

1. Marshall, T, “The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World”. London: Elliott&Thompson, 2021, 380 p.
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