Egypt is where history first emerged. It is here that we have the first pictographic record of events and persons. Hieroglyphics, the system of writing used by ancient Egyptians can be traced back to about 3200 BC. At about 3180 BC, the nations of Upper and Lower Egypt were brought under the rule of a single king titled Pharaoh. The first Pharaoh is thought to have been Menes, who set his capital at Memphis, 22 km south of Giza in today's Cairo. The Pharaohs established the systems that brought forth the highly successful Egyptian civilization.

The history of Ancient Egypt lasted for about 3,000 years. Ancient Egypt declined, was overrun and thereafter ruled by foreign powers. The Greeks and Romans who ruled after the decline were aware of the great similarity between their own gods and those of the Egyptians. They not only tolerated Egyptian religion, but also expanded existing temples and dedicated new ones to existing cults. Some of the new overlords, Alexander the Great for example, styled themselves as divine priest-kings in imitation of the Pharaohs.

Emperor Theodosius, who reigned after Christianity became the state religion in Rome, extinguished the last remnants of the living culture. The Egyptians worshipped hundreds of gods — a great offence against the monotheistic religions; whose first article of faith is that there is only one God. Theodosius decreed in AD 391that all pagan temples in the Roman Empire be closed. The Arabs, who brought Islam to Egypt in 640 AD, also had no time for deities such as Anubis the jackal, Horus the falcon god or even Amun the king of the gods...

The Nile Cruise — In the Footsteps of the Pharaohs, Andrew Muigai, Market Day, October 03, 2006.

Archaeology spoke about recent excavations and discoveries at Amarna with Barry Kemp, who has since 1977 directed the Amarna Project, which includes an expedition of the Egypt Exploration Society in association with the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt. The Amarna Project is supported by the Amarna Trust, a UK registered charity. is a Professor of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of the British Academy. His books include (2nd edition 2005), , and (forthcoming).

Q. What evidence do we have for why Akhenaten chose this place for his new capital? And because it was created from scratch, how does Amarna compare to other Ancient Egyptian cities such as Karnak, Thebes, and Memphis?

A. A series of large tablets or stelae carved in the face of the cliffs behind Amarna (and across the other side of the river) record the foundation of Amarna in Akhenaten's own words. He was simply led there by his god, the Aten. That is not a good enough reason for us; we want a more rational explanation (perhaps misguidedly). He called the place "Horizon of the Aten" and it has become fashionable to see the silhouette of the cliffs behind Amarna, cut in the middle by more than one deep valley, as a natural representation of the Egyptian hieroglyph for "horizon," but this may be modern fancy. You can find similar silhouettes at other places. He wanted his city to be on ground that had not belonged to any person or god beforehand. Amarna does seem to have met this criterion. It was also important that it was in the east, the place of sunrise. It happens to be roughly halfway between Memphis and Thebes, but we cannot know if this convenience factor contributed to his choice....

Excavating Amarna , Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, September 27, 2006.

Ankylosing spondylitis has afflicted people for centuries. St Banus [Coptic. Apa Bane] suffered from it in the 4th century AD, and Rameses II in the 12th century BC — although his stiff, painful, stooped back did not prevent Rameses from leaving his mark on both the landscape and the population of Ancient Egypt. The great pharaoh built more temples than any other Egyptian ruler and had between 90 and 160 children. His son Merenptah and an earlier pharaoh, Amenhotep II, are also thought to have had ankylosing spondylitis.

Hippocrates, who lived more than a millennium after those pharaohs, recorded the clinical differences between what we now call ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis. The arthritic features of ankylosing spondylitis were first described in medical literature in 1559, and its association with iritis and uveitis — inflammation in the eye — was noted in the 1700s, but most of its other features were not recognised until the 19th century.

It is not surprising that ankylosing spondylitis attacked more than one of the pharaoh’s family, as it is associated with a group of diseases in which the patient is HLA B27 positive...

New drugs help to lift the pharaoh’s curse, Dr Thomas Stuttaford, The Times, UK, October 02, 2006.

cf. Apa Bane Monastery near El-Minya, Jimmy Dunn, Tour Egypt, Texas, USA.

Members of the public who sell archaeological items on the internet auction site eBay.co.uk could soon find themselves on the wrong side of the law after a scheme to stem the flow of internet sales of antiquities was launched by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).

Working in partnership with eBay.co.uk a team from PAS, which is the government funded scheme that records archaeological objects found by the public, will be monitoring sales of antiquities on the auction website to ensure that sellers have the right to trade them.

By law, certain objects, such as old gold and silver coins, can only be sold if they are reported under the 1996 Treasure Act. Not only is the sale of some objects illegal says PAS, but it also means valuable insights into our past are lost forever...

Portable antiquities scheme to monitor sale of artefacts on eBay, 24 Hour Museum, UK, October 03, 2006.