h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Luxor, Egypt - A1972073
Author: Gnomon - U151503

Here's a fairly large entry on Luxor in Upper Egypt.

It's good!

Can't see anything wrong at all on my first quick read of it.

There were two TV programme a few days ago about Luxor - one concerned a rather eccentric character Giovanni Belzoni, who discovered the Temple of the Kings in the 19th century. He also brought the statue of Ozimandias to Cairo, for further shipment to England. The story of Belzoni is intimately linked to the discovery of the treasures of Luxor and may be worth a scant reference.

Also, there was a short documentary on the collapse of the Old Kingdom - due likely to climate change and a dramatic and sudden drop in Nile water levels. Some hieroglyphics attest to widespread starvation.

Another thing, and this is up to you of course, was the incident there in 1998 where a large number of tourists were killed by Islamic militants.

An excellent, hugely informative entry,

Woodpigeon

Belzoni was like Indiana Jones but without the subtlety. He opened the second-biggest pyramid, by basicallly hacking into it with picks where he thought there might be an entrance. His standard tool for opening tombs was a battering ram.

Yes, he might be worth a mention.

The safety of tourists in Egypt at present and the rise or otherwise of Muslim Fundamentalism is something I don't know about and would like to.

Hi Gnomon

I'll read this later and get back to you.

BTW, I went to the Millenium Bridge the day before I read your recommendation. Shame!




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In response to Woodpigeon's prompting, I've added a section 'Is it Safe?' which describes the attacks on tourists and poses the question for the tourist himself to answer.

I've also added a short paragraph on Belzoni.

Up to your usual high standards Gnomon Great entry.

So I'm going to be picky

I'm not sure about the heading . I read that as the political structure and was then surprised to find it was about the geography of the country. Is it just my interpretation, or could it be reworded to be more accurate?

At the end of the History bit, you say that , but wasn't it Waset that was rediscovered, if Luxor is the modern city on the site of Waset, as explained in the intro?

Are there pyramids at Luxor? I wasn't sure from the description of the pyramids and their locations.

Other than that... fabulous stuff.


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Thanks for being picky, Frenchbean!

I've changed the title from 'Structure' to 'Geography'.
I've changed it to 'Waset was rediscovered'.

There are no pyramids as far south as Luxor. I've changed the reference to pyramids to say they were built along the lower stretches of the Nile.

egyptian theology is a touch more complicated than you let on, but im not sure how much it matters for the purposes of this article.

re was the sun god. so was amon-re. so was khnum. so was knhum-re. so was aten. amon, on the otherhand, was not the sun god. do you see where im going with this? also, amon-re was not always the most important god

Are you saying that Amon and Amon Re are two different gods, or just that at different times in the worship of the god, they believed different things about him?

I think it is true to say that Re was always the most important god in the Egyptian pantheon, but I'm open to correction.

Amon and Re are different gods. by a process of partial sybcretism, at some point they become associated. Amon-Re is usually seen as a separate god made of the two essenses of his components. amon and Re are still separate entities, and amon-re is both a mixture of the two and a completely new god.

Ptah is sometimes the major god. Horus is too, in earlier times. osiris is in later times. Aten is during the 18th dynasty...

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Actually, there are small pyramids almost as far south as the Aswan Dam, although they look more like the mounds of ancient North America or the various step pyramids of different cultures. You might want to mention for the sake of completeness that pyramid is obviouslly an English word. The Egyptian word was Pharoh, which eventually expanded to include the leader himself, in the same way decisions of the American government are the decisions of the White House or in the Soviet Era decisions of the Soviet government were the decisions of the Kremlin.
My girlfriend (who has done a lot of study in this area) says that Ra (or Re) was the sun god and figures like Amon-Ra were more like forms or incarnations of Ra. Aten is a bit different, since the temporary cult that sprung up around Aten and supported by Akhnaten said that Aten was actually the only god (other than the Pharoh of course). It's understandably hard to give a capsule summary of Egyptian religion since it lasted for about 3000 years and even in a relatively static culture like Egypt you can expect a certain amount of variety in that kind of period.
-MotDoc

amon-re was seen as a separate god as well as an incarnation of re. and one of amon...

Uncle Heavy, I'm thinking about what you've said. It's not that important to the entry, but I don't want to give the wrong impression, so I'll think of some way of summarising it in a couple of sentences and in it will go. But not tonight.

no, i realise that its not that important for the entry. i expect ill get around to doing an entry on egyptian theology at some point, and perhaps akhenaten as well. i just thought youd be interested

Oh please do an entry on Egyptian theology Uncle Heavy. I have been totally confused by bits of this thread, but am fascinated by all the machinations of Re/Amon etc

I look forward to it


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do bear in mind that the essay i did on it was 4299 words long, and it wasnt thorough enough according to my tutor

Yeah, but you write that in the past tense, and I'm sure that you're older and snappier now!

I'm still looking forward to it


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