The Ancient Egyptian system of beliefs and religion is very difficult to understand, yet it carries all the abstract meanings expressed later in religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Egyptian Religion, written by Sir Wallace Budge who was the … Continued
Last week, we saw how the Ancient Egyptians, more than 5,000 years ago, created their calendar by dividing the year into 12 months of 30 days each (plus an additional 5 or 6 days of festivities) and three seasons, each … Continued
The Ancient Egyptian calendar, which dates back to before 3000 BC, is the basis of the calendar that is used in Western countries today. It is a solar-based calendar dividing the year into 365 or 366 days and 3 seasons … Continued
As we mentioned in the previous two articles, the Ancient Egyptians attained a sophisticated level of mathematical knowledge as early as 2000 BC, a date close to the building of the pyramids era. This week, we will concentrate on the … Continued
Last week, we discussed the great knowledge the Ancient Egyptians had as early as 5000 years ago. Today, there are six mathematical and scientific papyri in existence to support this. The Reisner papyrus is in a museum in Boston; the … Continued
“Kingdoms are built on knowledge and wealth; no kingdom was built on ignorance and poverty”. The famous saying of the renowned Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawki best describes why the Ancient Egyptian civilization flourished and lasted for so long. In fact, … Continued
As we saw in the last two articles, the Arabs were the world’s experts in astronomy during the Arab renaissance, between the tenth and fifteenth centuries. They left behind the hundreds of manuscripts about this science, as well as various … Continued
As we mentioned last week, about half of the stars in the Western sky maps have Arabic names transliterated into Latin characters. A good example of this are the stars in three famous constellations: the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), the … Continued
Since the dawn of history, human beings have gazed into the sky and observed the star groups, giving them names. The movement of the stars in the sky, referred to as planets, has always intrigued mankind. Interestingly, star gazing was … Continued
We saw last week how downtown Cairo was designed along the lines of the Paris of le Baron Haussmann. This part of Cairo has retained its style and flavor over time. However, if we compare the evolution of Cairo to … Continued