But when it comes to Pharaoh, what names come to mind?
Khufu, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, Rames the Great... Now that I think about it, I can only think of so much first. What about you?
For me, Egypt's history is long enough to distort my conception of the word "years." The famous Pyramid of Khufu was probably built around 2600 BC. The ancient dynasties of Egypt had existed for at least a thousand years. What is this concept? Contrast with the Chinese civilization of our country at the same time is still in the era of legends that have not left written records...
If it begins with Narmer, the first pharaoh of the First Dynasty that unified Egypt (about 3100 BC), it ends with the death of Cleopatra (30 BC). For more than three thousand years, countless pharaohs with double crowns ruled this ancient land.
The famous Narmer Palette
What we now call the word "Pharaoh" is actually a customary general term, and the pharaohs of the past referred to large houses, and it was not until the time of Thutmose III that the word pharaoh was used exclusively for the honorific title of the king. This is just like in the past, civilians could or can casually call themselves "Lian" and call their old man "Imperial Examination", but after the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was no longer possible to say so and became a special term for the royal family.
The pharaohs of Egypt wielded great power, and religiously they were revered as earthly gods. People often add the title of The good god [good god] before the title of his king, but these pharaohs who are "gods" actually have no ability at all, and most of the time because they are married and born of close relatives, they may be more than ordinary people... At the very least, these living gods also have seven passions and six desires. Of course, the legitimate gods of Egypt are not much better. The Egyptians don't have much of a historical concept, and we often find the line between myth and reality blurred.
500 years after Narmai unified Egypt, Zoser Zoser became the pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. Zossel's most famous feat in history was the construction of the first great pyramid, the Pyramid of Zossel or the Pyramid of Steps. Although the shape and scale are far from the famous Pyramid of Khufu hundreds of years later, when we see the pyramid built in the 27th century BC in the desert of Saqqara in Saqqara today, it is still a bit of a miracle of technology at that time.
What the? Why is it also called a stepped pyramid, you ask?
Pharaoh Zosaùsel had a very famous friend and assistant: Imhotep. This man, or god, is often mentioned in Egyptian mythology, he is a real person, his character is a bit like the god of craftsmen in our country, Luban, this Imhotep should be the world's first famous doctor and the first great architect, the stepped pyramid was designed and manufactured by him, this stepped pyramid is the first building built entirely of stone by mankind. His other creations are also numerous, including the water level of the Nile that we mentioned later.
The miracles he created are admirable even now, let alone in that era. Unlike the self-proclaimed pharaoh, the famous doctor and architect, "Leonardo da Vinci on the Banks of the Nile", was immediately revered as a god after his death, and he became the first technical emperor to be put on the altar. In Greek and Roman mythology he also continued to be revered under the name of the healer god Asclepius.
Imhotep holding papyrus
Perhaps because of the help of such a capable sage at his side, Pharaoh Jossell was still very willful during his tenure as pharaoh. During the nearly thirty years of his reign, he built many large-scale construction projects in the country, including fortifications and pyramids. Zosser, who was a pharaoh, estimated that he knew better the nature of the Egyptian "gods." So although he built many great buildings, they were all built for himself, and his own reputation was also prominent. The proud pharaoh never imagined building temples and altars for the gods, as had been the custom of the pharaohs in the past.
Perhaps for this reason, in his rule, the priestly class should mostly not be treated to him. Some superstitious people are also quite critical of this.
And in the tenth year of Zossel's reign, there was the famous "Seven Years of Famine". This was a major crisis in the political life of Zossel.
For seven years, the waters of the Nile did not flood every year as usual. If the waters of the Nile are not flooded, there will be no fertile land along the Nile to grow.
At first, Zossel did not care, because his good friend Imhotep had designed a very practical grain reserve base for him, and the food was still enough to eat. But the next year, the Nile still did not flood on time, and various voices began to appear among the Egyptian masses, and this winter the food was a little tight.
For the next seven years, the Nile showed no signs of flooding, and by the end of the sixth year Egypt was starving. The grain was not born, the fruit dried up, the livestock died of hunger and weakness, people began to kill each other in order to survive, the old man and the child died, and even the temples were closed because there were no sacrifices.
The people of Egypt could not bear it any longer, and led by unemployed priests from all over the world to the capital of Memphis, they gathered outside the palace of the pharaoh to pray to the living god and ask him to find a way to take them away from the threat of death. Seeing the victims surrounding the palace, Zossel realized that if he didn't do anything more, I was afraid that he, the god of this world, would soon have to go to the underworld to see Osiris.
I've been there for a long time
Although he claimed to be a god, how could he have the ability to make the Nile listen to him? So he quickly summoned his friend Imhotep to ask him for help.
Imhotep said, "Dear Pharaoh – May life, health and strength be with you!" I can't solve this problem myself. But please send me to Thebes to find the wisdom god Tort, in the temple of life in Thebes is a holy book called the Soul of the God of Ra, and perhaps the god Turther will guide me to find the answer I want in this book. "
Books are a treasure trove of knowledge, and knowledge is power, and Imholt confirms this again.
Imhotep, who had traveled to Thebes to check the materials, did not take long to return victoriously. After meeting Pharaoh, Imhotep said that he had received instructions from the god Thoth and knew the cause of the incident, saying:
"In the south of the Nile there is a small island called Elephanta, which is the origin of everything. Elephanta was the first dry land that emerged from the god Nunn, the source of the waters, at the beginning of ra's creation of all things. Ra stood on that island and pronounced the first name to open the era of the whole world. ”
"There is a cave under the rocks on The Island of Chang, which is called the Source of Life, also known as the Cave of the Double Cave, because there are two openings on each side of the Nile, and this cave is the bed of the Nile and the birthplace of all the Egyptian rivers. Every year the Nile rests and regenerates here, and every year during the flood season, when the Nile rushes out of the cave to carry the flood in all directions, the water level of Koh Chang rises to forty feet, and when the flood season ends and the flood returns to the sea, the water level of Koh Chang recedes to ten feet. The deity that lives there is called Kunum Khnemu, and you and the people of Egypt have forgotten this deity for too long. ”
Knowing the source of the matter, Pharaoh Jossel immediately announced that he would fast and pray to Kunum in the Great Temple of Memphis. It is said that Kunum appeared in front of the praying pharaoh that night, and Kunum was portrayed as a tall man with a ram's head, his curved golden horn radiating like a stream of fire in the night sky.
Koonum god of the horns
The god Kunum condemned to his face the crime of Zosser and his people in forgetting the gods, and made it clear that as long as Zosser rebuilt the great temple for him and revived the sacrifices, he would make the Nile wind and rain smooth and ripen the grain and turn Egypt into a promised land again.
All problems that can be solved with money are not problems. At dawn, Djosel arranged a trip to Elephanta, downstream of the First Waterfall, where he issued an order for a very trench:
"Here I am going to build a great temple that has never existed in Egypt, and let Imhotep design and build it with all his talents, without worrying about the cost of the cost, I will take out all my own wealth, and the cost of the project can be spent freely from the inside without a ceiling, and this temple must be more magnificent than all other temples."
"When this temple is built, it will be dedicated to the god Kunum as the eternal temple, and the area around the island will be given to Nubit (that is, the temple of Koombu kom ombo, which is now in Koombu, where the famous Horus's uncle Hamass Harmachis and the crocodile god Sobek sobek are sacrificed together) All places will be given to the god Kunum, and all the harvests of this land will be given to him, and as long as there are pharaohs in Egypt, they must protect the temple of Kunum on the sacred elephant island."
Imhotep then began to build temples on the island, and in mid-July of that year, the Nile began flooding again, and the flood brought abundant mud to both sides of the Nile, and this year Egypt ushered in a long-lost harvest, even more abundant than ever. The victims returned to farming satisfactorily, and the priests were able to return to work. Egypt regained its former prosperity, and Djosel could continue to rule Egypt with peace of mind.
When Imhotep was building this Temple of Kunum, he carved a stone at the eastern end of the temple into the Nile and marked it so that people in the future could know at a glance how high the water level of the Nile had risen this year, so that according to this, he would thank the god Kunum accordingly, and when he saw that the water level was lower than in previous years, he knew that they should hurry up and sacrifice.
Nilometer Nile water level marker in posterity paintings
The water level of this Nile river is still erected there, but Egypt has long been devoid of pharaohs, and the glorious temple of the god Kunum on Elephant Island has become a pile of rubble in the long river of history. After the Construction of the Aswan Dam, the Nile River no longer floods regularly, and the god Kunum must have been very lonely.
All the ins and outs of the story of Djoser were inscribed in sacred script by the clerks of the time on a stone tablet called the "Monument of famine," and most of the stories of the pharaohs and magicians of ancient Egypt that we know today have been carved into the stone plates to this day. Is it a myth or a historical fact? Or both.