Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
During some eras of Egyptian history, it was taken for granted that the statue was no
mere symbol. Once the temple doors had been opened, the god himself would now reside
inside his statue. On the highest of holidays, the statue might be taken from the temple and
carried in glorious procession to the Nile, where he or she would be placed on a barge to
ride the river, thus reassuring the god and all others that he or she was part of the cosmic
flow that carried the sun god on his daily journeys. The journey began each dawn as the sun
mounted his chariot to ride through the skies; it ended at dusk when the sun dismounted
his chariot and stepped into the barge that carried him through the night on an underground
river that flowed beneath the mighty Nile.
HOW DID THE JOURNEY TO THE AFTERLIFE CHANGE OVER TIME?
The idea of a journey to an afterlife and the religious beliefs that assured the journey re-
mained constant over pharaonic Egypt's three thousand-year span. At first, it was the royal
house that sought immortality by preserving the remains of the king (pharaoh means noble
house). Then the quest was extended to aristocratic families, and a thousand or so years
into Egyptian culture, the promise of immortality was extended to all ranks of Egyptian so-
ciety.
Temples in which gods were worshipped were built and rebuilt. Local gods were el-
evated to the status of gods of the nation, and gods of the nation were sometimes cast into
dustbins of disuse. For one brief period, all the old gods were set aside, and a monotheism
rose in their place. The sun god was proclaimed singular and supreme.
WHY DID HERODOTUS CALL EGYPT THE GIFT OF THE NILE?
As the world's longest river, the Nile runs more than 4,000 miles. It has two main branches,
the White and the Blue Nile. Each has its own schedule of rise and fall. The Blue Nile rises
highest in August (an average of twenty feet at Khartoum), while the White Nile begins its
rise in April. High up in the mountains of Ethiopia, 4,000 miles from the Mediterranean
Sea, spring rains push the waters of the Nile River on their southward journey. Floodwaters
carry nutrient-rich soil, and as they spill over the riverbanks, the desert is irrigated, and the
flood plain's nutrient base is renewed.
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