King Tut & King Menes

1. King Tut & King Menes By: Sergio Gomez & Abraham Medina

2. King Menes • For a long time, Menes was considered as imaginary as the god-kings who preceded him. • Learned men called him an eponym, an ugly name which means that the people of Memphis, having forgotten who built their city, invented a builder from the city's name, and declared it the work of king named "Memphes" or "Menes." • But in this case, at least, the learned men were wrong, for lately, in that stupendous graveyard along the Nile, the tomb of Menes has been found with many interesting relics, both of him and of his ancestors.

3. King Menes & the Sphinx • Just recently too, scientists have talked of the possibility of a passage leading inside the sphinx, that most rugged and ancient of all the Egyptian monuments. • They believe the sphinx may be a religious memorial erected by Menes' orders. • So Menes was as real flesh-and-blood a person as you an I, even if there are some six or seven thousand years between him and us.

4. King Menes’ Rein • Menes's reign of Egypt from 3407 to 3346 BC was treated as the dawn of Egyptian civilization in many classical histories. • In earlier Egyptian lore he was called Ohe and Mena, "The Fighter," and then was referred to as "The Established." • He is remembered as the conqueror who first united Egypt under one rule and established the famous capital of Memphis, the seat of Egypt's unparalleled cultural achievements during the time of the Pharaohs .

5. King Menes • In the fourth century B.C., Ptolemy II Philadelphus ordered the priest Manetho to compile a complete history of Egypt for his great library at Alexandria. • Menes was the earliest man that he mentioned by name, as the first king of the First Dynasty of Upper and Lower Egypt.

6. King Menes • The "hazy outline of the general drift of events" in predynastic Egypt has been a major topic of discussion for J.Modern archaeological findings have since displaced Menes as the first name in Egyptian history, and though experts today agree that Mena is the correct name for one of the first kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. • There is some doubt that Menes was the military "Unifier of the Two Lands."

7. King Menes • Menes , fl. 3200 BC, king of ancient Egypt, of the first dynasty, the first Egyptian ruler for whom there are historical records. • According to tradition, he seems to have united the southern and northern kingdoms and to have settled on a new capital, later known as Memphis. • One theory identifies Menes with King Narmer, whose famous slate palette is in the Cairo museum.

8. King Menes • Menes left the temples and festivals of Set in place, and assumed the other gods of the north as well. • His wise actions make it clear that the worshipers of Horus had no intention of wiping out the advancements of the Set-people, but attacked in order to establish a premise for the civilizations to merge, albeit under Horus's control.

9. King Menes • It was not until the fifth king of the unified kingdom, King Semti, that the combined hieroglyph meaning "King of the South, King of the North" was put into use, indicating that the First Dynasty kings did establish their power in the north gradually, and not in a single, decisive, imperialistic step .

10. King Menes’ discovery • Many people believe that Aha was actually King Menes of Memphis. Menes was the founding king of the 1st Dynasty, and was the first king to unify Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom. • Ancient Egypt's most predominant form of civilization began with his crowning, and did not end permanently until the beginning of the Roman era, which started with Augustus Caeser. Menes founded the city of Memphis, and chose as its location an island in the Nile, so that it would be easy to defend. • He was also the founder of Crocodopolis. During his time, the Egyptian army performed raids against the Nubians in the south and expanded his sphere of influence as far as the First Cataracts.

11. Evidence of King Menes • The most famous piece of evidence concerning the "Unifier of the Two Lands" is a predynastic slate palette found among the ruins of Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) and entitled 'Narmer.' • The slate depicts a king wearing the signature White Crown of the south with a mace held over his head, preparing to club a kneeling figure wearing the Red Crown of the north.

12. Evidence of King Menes • Scholars all agree that Narmer was the king who took control of the north, but because it was traditional for Egyptian kings to be known by as many as five names, some Egyptologists are comfortable with the simple explanation that Menes and Narmer were two names used by the same man. • The complications with the archaeological record arose when a piece of ivory label was found near Thebes, bearing the first and only contemporary mention of the fabled Menes .

13. King Tut Was Found • The mummy of King Tut was found in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. • Lord Carnarvon was a rich man who owned the right to dig in the Valley of the Kings where Tutankhamun was found. • Lord Carnarvon was letting Carter dig for a king named Tutankhamun who's name Carter had read on some stone walls.

14. King Tut Was Found • Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon searched for five years for Tutankhamun in the valley of the kings yet they found nothing. • Lord Carnarvon was giving up hope after five years, so Carter offered to pay for the workers, and Lord Carnarvon agreed to this. • After four days of work under Carter's pay they found the steps leading to the entrance to the tomb. • It took Lord Carnarvon two weeks to get from England to the valley of the kings. • When Lord Carnarvon got to the scene they began futher excavation.

15. Why King Tut Was Famous • The most famous of all the kings found in the Valley of the Kings was Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut. • He died in mid-January, 1343 B.C. • It is thought that he was murdered by an official because his skull was bashed in and only a person of great importance could get near enough to harm him. • He is so famous because his tomb was in almost perfect condition. His tomb had been robbed once very soon after he was put in, but everything lost was replaced as soon as possible.

16. King Tut’s Tomb • The first room they came to was a fake and it had a hidden door that led to the main chamber. • From the main chamber two rooms split off. There was a storage room and the burial chamber where the mummy was laid. • Many people died of the so-called curse on King Tut's tomb but we no know that bacteria sealed in the tomb fed on the food in the tomb and killed the workers when it got in their lungs. • Carter to the light I was struck dumb with amazement". • A winged scarab beetle spells out the hieroglyphs " Neb, Kheperu and Re’’ which mean Tutankhamun.

17. King Tut’s Death • The suggestion caused a controversy among Egyptologists and scientists. • If he were murdered, who did it? • Was it Aye, Tutankhamen's vizier who ascended to the throne after his death and married his wife? • Or was it Horernhab, the army officer who became king after Aye’s short four-year rule? • Some archaeologists suggested that Aye and Horemhab might have shared the guilt, working in cahoots to kill the boy .

18. King Tut’s X-ray • Early this year, a new X-ray analysis cast more light on the subject, this time suggesting that Tutankhamen may have been murdered in his sleep. • The examination was conducted by a trauma specialist at Long Island University, USA, "The blow was to a protected area at the back of the head which you don't injure in an accident, someone had to sneak up from behind," said the specialist .

19. King Tut • X-rays also show a thickening of a bone in the cranium which could occur only after a build-up of blood. • This would indicate that the king might have been left bleeding for a long time before he actually died. • In short, scientists suggest that the king was most probably hit on the back of his head while asleep and that he lingered, maybe for as long as two months, before he died .

20. King Tut’s Analysis • In 1968, when the new analysis was carried out on the mummy, it was suggested that Tutankhamen was hit on the head and murdered by either Aye or Horemhab. • Tutankhamen had no enemies; on the contrary, he was loved by the priests and the population because he re-established the stale religion of Amun-Re after the religious revolution under Akhenaten, and re-opened all temples. • Moreover," Salah added, "Aye and Horemhab would have had no reason to kill Tutankhamen because he was young and did not hold much authority .

21. King Tut’s Titles • Beneath each are texts stating: 'Horemhab with gods' and El-Saghir points out that studies on both these statues reveal that they have the same physiognomy as Tutankhamen as well as evidence that the original texts were erased to inscribe the new ones. • Analysis on the faint traces of the former show some parts of Tutankhamen's titles. "And as for Aye," El-Saghir continues, "there is insufficient evidence that he is guilty. • He was the high priest and was, moreover, the one who wrote Tutankhamen's negative confession and performed his "opening of the mouth’ ceremony .

22. King Tut’s Forensic Examination • Forensic examination carried out by Egyptian experts on Tutankhamen’s mummy also have revealed that he may have been poisoned and it is now suggested that the blow to the back of the head might have happened after his death, during mummification. • "His body might have been dropped on the floor, his head hitting the flagstones; there is no trace of bleeding around the blow," say experts.

23. King Tut’s Search • In 1922 Howard Carter was exploring the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, with his friend and financial backer George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. • After a 15 year search, they opened the fabulous tomb of King Tutankhamun, the most spectacular tomb found to date, and now known as KV62.

24. King Menes found • According to Menetho, Menes founded a dynasty of eight kings from this. • Manetho gives Menes a reign of about sixty years (sixty-two years according to Africanus, sixty according to Eusebius). • His principal achievement is said to have been the foundation of Memphis, on land reclaimed from the Nile by means of the construction of an immense dike.