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“The Wonders of Egypt”

“The Wonders of Egypt”

Last updated on: September 5, 2017 at 9:50 pm by Dan Peterson

“The Wonders of Egypt” 2017-09-05T21:50:14-06:00 Dan Peterson

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They were already many centuries old during the lifetime of Abraham. (Wikimedia Commons)

I would like to call your attention to a lecture on Wednesday evening, 6 September 2017, that will be given in the Jordan Event Center, which is located behind the Cruise Lady office at 9112 South Redwood Road, West Jordan, Utah. The lecture will run from 7 PM to 9 PM.

The speaker will be Hany Tawfik, and his subject will be “The Wonders of Egypt.”

Permit me to say a word about Hany: I believe that I’ve accompanied Cruise Lady tours to Egypt twice now, the most recent one being this past May. Both times, Hany has been the Egyptian guide who accompanied us. (Egyptian law, like Israeli law, requires that a local licensed guide accompany tour groups above a certain minimum size.)

I’m told that he served for a time as the head of the national association of Egyptian tour guides. He was also, I’m told, the guide who took President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton around the historic sites when they made an official visit to Egypt in 2009. (Whatever you think of them politically — I voted for neither of them, myself — that’s a pretty strong vote of confidence in him.)

He is a tremendous guide, one of the most knowledgeable and entertaining that I’ve ever seen. And he’s scheduled to be with us again in May 2018, when I next accompany a tour to Egypt:

Due to limited seating in the Jordan Event Center — it can hold no more, I believe, than about one hundred people — reservations are required. If you’re interested in attending, please contact Cruise Lady at 801-453-9444 or 888-707-4386 to register. There is a $5 charge per person.

It’s possible that the event is sold out. I don’t know. But, if you’re interested, please give the Cruise Lady office a call.

I’m intending to be there. I may even say a few words myself.

***

The archaeologist Howard Carter, describing the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen:

“As my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold — everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment — an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by — I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, “Can you see anything?” it was all I could do to get out the words, “Yes, wonderful things.”

***

Here are two selections from the “Great Hymn to the Aten” — that is, to the solar disk — most likely composed in the mid-fourteenth century by the monotheistic eighteenth-dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten.

First, a passage from the middle of the text, in a translation published by James B. Pritchard:

How manifold it is, what thou hast made!

They are hidden from the face (of man).

O sole god, like whom there is no other!

Thou didst create the world according to thy desire,

Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts,

Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet,

And what is on high, flying with its wings.

The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,

Thou settest every man in his place,

Thou suppliest their necessities:

Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned.

Their tongues are separate in speech,

And their natures as well;

Their skins are distinguished,

As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples.

Thou makest a Nile in the underworld,

Thou bringest forth as thou desirest

To maintain the people (of Egypt)

According as thou madest them for thyself,

The lord of all of them, wearying (himself) with them,

The lord of every land, rising for them,

The Aton of the day, great of majesty.

And now a passage from the latter part of the text, as rendered by Miriam Lichtheim:

You are in my heart,

There is no other who knows you,

Only your son, Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re [Akhenaten],

Whom you have taught your ways and your might.

[Those on] earth come from your hand as you made them.

When you have dawned they live.

When you set they die;

You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you.

All eyes are on [your] beauty until you set.

All labor ceases when you rest in the west;

When you rise you stir [everyone] for the King,

Every leg is on the move since you founded the earth.

You rouse them for your son who came from your body.

The King who lives by Maat, the Lord of the Two Lands,

Neferkheprure, Sole-one-of-Re,

The Son of Re who lives by Maat. the Lord of crowns,

Akhenaten, great in his lifetime;

(And) the great Queen whom he loves, the Lady of the Two Lands,

Nefer-nefru-Aten Nefertiti, living forever.

Portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti (d. ca. 1330 BC); Neues Museum, Berlin (Photo by Philip Pikart; Wikimedia CC public domain image)
In person, she’s even more stunningly beautiful than the photographs of the bust can convey. My wife thinks she’s a double for Audrey Hepburn.

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