Medical science has made great leaps in the last several decades, but — as "Post Mortem: Solving History's Great Medical Mysteries" by Philip A. Mackowiak, MD, MBA, FACP, reveals — some of our "modern" illnesses have been around for centuries.

Published by the American College of Physicians (ACP), "Post Mortem" endeavours to solve 12 of history's most perplexing medical mysteries:

• Whether Alexander the Great was a victim of West Nile virus...
• The cause of Pharaoh Akhenaten's bizarre appearance — the father of King Tut was described as a "humanoid praying mantis..."

, Philip A. Mackowiak, American College of Physicians, 2007.

'Post Mortem' Diagnosis: Present-Day Ailments Plagued Some of History's Great Figures, American College of Physicians via Yahoo! Finance, USA, April 02, 2007.

Ancient Egyptians built the 480-foot-high (146-meter-high) Great Pyramid of Giza from the inside out, according to a French architect.

Based on eight years of study, Jean-Pierre Houdin has created a novel three-dimensional computer simulation to present his hypothesis. He says his findings solve the mystery of how the massive monument just outside Cairo was constructed.

The 4,500-year-old tomb of Pharaoh Khufu, he concluded, was built using a ramp that spirals around the pyramid's interior 30 to 45 feet (9 to 14 meters) behind the exterior surface (see image at left).

"I am completely comfortable with this theory," Houdin said in a telephone interview from Paris. He was in the French capital on Friday to show the simulation to 400 spectators wearing 3-D goggles...

3D Unveils the Mystery of the Great Pyramid, Dassault Systemes.

Great Pyramid Built Inside Out, French Architect Says, Dan Morrison, National Geographic News, District of Columbia, USA, April 02, 2007.

Previously:

Ancient riddle of the Great Pyramid's construction is turned inside out, March 30, 2007.

Real-time 3D Helps to Finally Solve the Mystery of the Great Pyramid of Kheops!, March 30, 2007.

I also found this at YouTube: Khufu Pyramid Building Mystery in Real Time 3D

On the eve of Passover, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the story of Moses leading the Israelites through this wilderness out of slavery, Egypt’s chief archaeologist took a bus full of journalists into the North Sinai to showcase his agency's latest discovery.

It didn’t look like much — some ancient buried walls of a military fort and a few pieces of volcanic lava. The archaeologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, often promotes mummies and tombs and pharaonic antiquities that command international attention and high ticket prices. But this bleak landscape, broken only by electric pylons, excited him because it provided physical evidence of stories told in hieroglyphics. It was proof of accounts from antiquity.

That prompted a reporter to ask about the Exodus, and if the new evidence was linked in any way to the story of Passover. The archaeological discoveries roughly coincided with the timing of the Israelites’ biblical flight from Egypt and the 40 years of wandering the desert in search of the Promised Land.

“Really, it’s a myth,” Dr. Hawass said of the story of the Exodus, as he stood at the foot of a wall built during what is called the New Kingdom...

“If they get upset, I don’t care,” Dr. Hawass said. “This is my career as an archaeologist. I should tell them the truth. If the people are upset, that is not my problem...”

Did the Red Sea Part? No Evidence, Archaeologists Say, Michael Slackman, The New York Times, USA, April 03, 2007.

cf. Did the Red Sea Part? No Evidence, Archaeologists Say, Michael Slackman, International Herald Tribune, France, April 03, 2007.

Previously:

Sinai Pumice Linked to Ancient Eruption, April 03, 2007.

Just a quick reminder about this blog written by the American Robertson family on a seven month sabbatical. They have moved on from Egypt now to Greece taking in Crete, Santorini and the Greek mainland.

Marty has also posted a number of videos on YouTube: Marty Robertson such as this one entitled "Khufu's Tomb".

Journey to Ancient Civilizations, Marty Robertson, 2006 - 2007.

Previously:

Interesting Blog, February 16, 2007.

Egyptian archaeologists showed off white pumice Monday that they theorize was swept onto the northern Sinai desert by a tsunami triggered by the ancient volcanic eruption on Santorini island 530 miles away.

Traces of the solidified lava foam from the eruption have been found on the island of Crete and in southwestern Turkey, but the archaeological team now believes it also reached the Sinai site where they were digging at an ancient fort 4 miles from the Mediterranean coast.

The Santorini explosion in the 17th century B.C. was devastating. It sank most of the now-Greek island and killed more than 35,000 people of a thriving Minoan community.

The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said the discovery of the pumice would open a new field of study in Egyptology...

The archaeological team found the pumice while excavating at Tel Habuwa in the desert northeast of Qantara, a town on the Suez Canal nearly 95 miles northeast of Cairo.

They were searching for Pharaonic forts that helped protect the Nile Delta from foreign invasion, and last month they uncovered remains here of an 18th Dynasty fort with four rectangular towers built of mud bricks...

Click on the picture above for seven photographs from the Associated Press and Reuters on the Yahoo! News Archaeology & Anthropology slideshow.

The excavations are directed by Mohammed Abdel-Maksoud whose "work has demonstrated that Tell Heboua is equated with Tjaru of Dynasties 17-20, a massive Egyptian fortification guarding the East Delta and military Way of Horus across North Sinai".

Tjaru seems to also be variously know as Tjaru, Tharo, Tharu, Zarw, or Sile. Habuwa, similarly, goes by several variant spellings: Heboua, Haboua, Habuwa, Habua, Hebua.

Sinai Pumice Linked to Ancient Eruption, Katarina Kratovac, AP via The San Francisco Examiner, California, USA, April 02, 2007.

Egyptian Archaeologists Find Ancient Lava, Katarina Kratovac, AP via CBS 11, Texas, USA, April 02, 2007.

Egypt says has evidence volcano destroyed cities, Reuters, USA, April 02, 2007.

Egypt says has evidence volcano destroyed cities, Reuters, Africa, April 03, 2007.

Volcano 'destroyed cities', Reuters via News 24, South Africa, April 03, 2007.

Previously:

King of the wild frontier, August 12, 2005.

Unearthing Sinai, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No.565, December 20 - 26, 2001.