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Leonard Woolley, an archaeologist from Britain, returned to Iraq in 1922, almost 4,000 years after the nuclear ancient catastrophe, to uncover ancient Mesopotamia.An imposing ziggurat standing out in the desert plain drew him to the nearby site of Tell el-Muqayyar, where he began excavating. As old walls, artifacts, and inscriptions were unearthed, he realized he was digging up ancient Ur-Ur of the Chaldees.Twelve years of his work were conducted through a joint expedition between the British Museum in London and the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia. For those institutions, Sir Leonard Woolley found some of the most dramatic objects and artifacts in Ur. However, what he discovered may well surpass anything ever exhibited before.In the course of removing layers of soil deposited by desert sands, the elements, and time from the ruins, the ancient city began to take shape-here were the walls, there were the harbors and canals, the residential quarters, the palace, and the Tummal, the elevated sacred area. Woolley's discovery of a cemetery dated thousands of years ago included unique 'royal' tombs discovered by digging at its edge is the find of the century.The excavations in the city's residential sections established that Ur's inhabitants followed the Sumerian custom of burying their dead right under the floors of their dwellings, where families continued to live. It was thus highly unusual to find a cemetery with as many as 1,800 graves in it. From predynastic (before Kingship began) to Seleucid times, they were concentrated mainly within the sacred precinct. The graves were buried on top of each other, burials were interred in another grave, and some graves were apparently re-interred. To date graves more accurately, Woolley's workers dug trenches of up to fifty feet deep to cut through layers.

Egypt is a land of ancient wonders. From the pyramids to the Sphinx, Egypt has been home to many great civilizations. It's also known for its temples and tombs.These ancient sites were not just places where people lived and worked; they were also places where people would worship their Gods to please them. The Egyptians believed that their gods lived in heaven on top of mountains or under oceans, so they built temples to bring them closer together with these gods."Heliopolis" is Greek, meaning "City of the Sun." the city of Heliopolis was the center of worship for the sun god, Ra. It was located in the Nile delta. The local name for this city was On or Iwn.In ancient times it was an important religious and educational center; it served as a significant temple to Ra and housed one of three Egyptian universities-the other was Memphis and Thinis-where students studied subjects like philosophy, astronomy, theology, and healing arts. The Valley of the Kings (or Theban Necropolis) is a valley in Egypt. It's where pharaohs were buried, so it's essential to the history of Egypt. There are over 60 tombs in this area, including several that have not been fully excavated yet. The Valley of the Kings is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites and is open to visitors daily!Memphis was the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. During these periods, Memphis was also the religious center of ancient Egypt. Its importance can be attributed to its strategic position along important trade routes between Upper and Lower Egypt.The city was first established by Menes (Narmer), who united Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom around 3100 BCE. He chose the site due to its strategic location on a north-south trade route connecting Thebes with Avaris; it would later serve as an important center for foreign affairs in later years as well. The city flourished under various kings during this period-namely Ahmose I, who moved his capital from Thebes to Memphis after defeating Nubia during his reign (ca 1550-1525 BCE); Thutmose III, who expanded it further upon becoming king; Hatshepsut, who established temples there while building new ones at Deir el-Bahri; Rameses II whose temple complex included four obelisks weighing over 200 tons each; Ramses III who built another temple at Medinet Habu near Aswan where he inscribed texts detailing military campaigns against Corfu Island in Crete (modern-day Greece).In ancient times, the people would worship the Gods by building a temple. It was their way of showing that they loved and respected their gods. Temples were built in honor of the god related to that place. For example, a temple for Ra (sun god) will be built close to where there is plenty of sunlight so he can shine on his followers daily. Temples usually have columns around them but only from one side; this was done because the Egyptians believed that if they built it from all four sides, it would block out some of Ra's light which could anger him and make him hurt them or even kill them! The inside temples were made with beautiful decorations like paintings on walls showing what happens after death or statues made out of stone showing how someone looks when they die peacefully (hint: very old looking).The primary purpose for building these temples was because they served three primary purposes: worshiping your god(s), learning about them (libraries were often included), and performing rituals/prayers whenever you needed something important done quickly (for example, curing sicknesses).

ANCIENT INDIA'S HINDU ORIGINThe reprimand of Lord Shiva by Brahma for harboring sexual feelings for his own daughter, Sandhya, led him to consult Daksha and his other sons about what to do. Due to his high status as a yogi and his lack of knowledge of women and passion, Shiva had little understanding of sexual feelings. Trying to make Shiva suffer from love's pangs, Brahma enlisted the help of Kama and Rati, his wife.The creation will continue to be mediocre unless Shiva indulges in sexual activity. Only Kama's power can triumph over Shiva, who is highly detached." Thus saying, Brahma requested the Kama to try his wiles on Lord Shiva. Vasanta was also created for the Kama to be his constant companion so that he could succeed in his adventures. "Kama, please try to enchant Shiva on behalf of the world. Shoot your arrows at Shiva wherever he goes to entice him to take a wife. Follow him wherever he goes, whether over mountains, through forests, or on peaks. You are the only person who can make this happen. He dislikes women and is in complete control of his own actions."With these words of the Creator in his ears, Kama, accompanied by Vasanta and the gentle breeze of Maharashtra, departed for the harsh mountains, caves, and dales in which Shiva roamed. As the seasons changed, Kama's journey continued. There was no longer a cold wind blowing against the icy peaks of the Himalayas. Instead, it was swept by a gentle Malaya breeze, fragrant with the scent of a thousand flowers. Amid all the blossoming trees, Shiva was immersed in atomic bliss, not beguiled by the beauty. Kama's sugarcane bow sent arrow after arrow flying. Rati and he both tried every trick in the book. Shiva was immune to their charm, but all living things succumbed to theirs. All living things except him were affected. Brahma returned dejectedly to the Kama after his ego had been crushed.

A fabled district is known as Heliopolis, whose ancient classical name was derived from the name of the 'City of the Sun', once stood close to the pyramids of Abusir but on the east bank of the Nile River. The obelisks that now stand in London and New York once stood in Heliopolis. As Heliopolis remains today under tarmac roads and Cairo's northern suburbs, its monuments have largely been destroyed, leaving only a standing obelisk, some reconstructed columns, and a few stone blocks. As well as the mud-brick enclosure walls mapped by Napoleon, the sphinx avenue which so impressed the first European visitors have largely disappeared. Two centuries of desultory and often rapacious digging at Heliopolis uncovered a variety of relics dating back millennia, like Memphis on the other bank of the Nile. It is not uncommon that foundations dug for new villas or apartments in the area bring up the remains of priests' tombs, the mud-brick walls of ancient houses, or a scattering of more minor artifacts from prehistoric pottery of the last native Pharaoh. Despite its millennial celebrity, Heliopolis' most famous monument has gone undiscovered. According to ancient texts, there was a tremendous pharaonic shrine at Iunu. In the 1840s, there stood at its heart a mysterious monument that marked the center of Heliopolis' cult; the eroded wall of the temple's ancient enclosure still stands in the desert.As difficult as it is to trace the architecture of Re's shrine at Heliopolis is to uncover the origins of the god Re. Tradition has tended to read the later grand complexity of Re's role in the pharaonic kingdom back into the age of the god's beginnings. There is, however, very little evidence to support this idea.

THE PYRAMID TEXTSThe king offers an offering! Anubis gives the offering! From the highlands come to thee your thousand young antelope with bowed heads. What a gift!Anubis gives this offering! Thank you for your thousand loaves! Thank you for your thousand beers! From the palace hall, you sent forth a thousand incenses! Everything pleasant in thy thousand! There are a thousand cattle in your herd! Everything thou eatest you eat in a thousand, on which thy desire is set!In addition to his work on the Berlin dictionary, Sethe's most significant contribution to Egyptology was an edition of hand-copied hieroglyphs, translations, and commentaries of all texts engraved in pyramids at the time. Sethe's edition has been the foundation of virtually every discussion of the readers of the pyramids: he is, in fact, the one who first named those texts, collectively, 'Pyramidentexten' - Pyramid Texts.For each verse of the pyramids' texts in Maspero's Les inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqarah, he provided a translation of its meaning based on his understanding of the funerary texts of later ages since there was nothing else with which to compare them. Due to their mysterious nature, Maspero's work was quite subtle, but one which he readily acknowledged was primarily based on intuition derived from extensive studies of ancient Egypt and its religion.

Literature and mythologyFrom the New Kingdom, only ten narratives survive. These stories assume that their readers have a deep understanding of Egyptian mythology.It describes a prince who is doomed to die by a snake, crocodile, or dog, as the world's oldest fairy tale. There is no ending in the story, but it is likely that the prince was saved by the spirited princess whose hand he wins in a jumping contest.. As an extended version of the Osiris myth, Truth and Lies involves a dysfunctional family of deities whose son avenges his father, Truth, and defeats Lies' enemy. The plot revolves around a son who grows up to avenge his father, Truth, and beat his enemy, Lies. Isis is lustful and heartless, whereas the hero's mother is presented as passionate and cruel.This story contains a lot of mythological themes in a semi-disguised manner. As in the story of the Two Brothers, the female characters are also evil. A woman who the gods have blessed as a wife betrays the hero by falsely accusing him of raping his brother's wife. Anubis and Bata are two brothers with the same name as two gods (Anubis and Bata).. A time when it was still possible to meet gods and monsters just beyond Egypt's borders is depicted in the story. In both the Two Brothers and another New Kingdom tale about Seth's fight with an ocean god to save Astarte, the sea tries to capture a beautiful female. Astute is included under "Deities, Themes, and Concepts" as a partially Egyptianized myth. More fragmentary accounts describe a woman who becomes a lioness and the God Heryshef recruiting a human to help him fight a divine falcon.Contendings between Horus and Seth is the most controversial story from the New Kingdom. This is the most extended narrative that survives the conflict between the two gods and its resolution. But that does not mean it should be regarded as the only or standard version of the myth. Fables consist of all their performances, as many scholars have emphasized. This text was read aloud for entertainment, hence its narrative form. In addition to telling an ancient myth, the satire contains commentary about how difficult it is to obtain justice under New Kingdom legal systems and perhaps some veiled commentaries about recent problems with royal succession.

The earliest history of Babylon is little known. Among the many cities flourishing in southern Iraq, the town first appears in texts in the third millennium BC. Until the last century of the third millennium, few references existed to Babylon; however, offerings made to the temple of Enlil in Nippur during this period (when Babylon was part of an empire ruled by Ur) suggest a city already of some size and wealth. From relative obscurity in the middle of the 18th century BC, Babylon emerged as the political center of southern Mesopotamia. It held this position almost continuously for the next 1,400 years.Near Baghdad, around 85 kilometers south of the Euphrates, is the site of Babylon. The area is located north of the great alluvial plain of southern Iraq, a landscape of silts deposited by the Tigris and Euphrates into a vast rift created by tectonic movement as the Arabian plate slips beneath the neighboring Eurasian plate. In addition to defining modern-day Iraq's northern and eastern boundaries, the Taurus and Zagros mountain ranges were created by the same collision. As a result, Mesopotamia encompasses several environmental zones, but Babylon itself is found in the flat alluvial plain in southern Iraq. In addition to containing one of the world's earliest cities3, the table is subject to several significant environmental constraints that have shaped human settlements since long before the foundation of Babylon. Rain-fed agriculture is beyond the reach of this area due to its high temperatures. Despite the little precipitation this part of Iraq receives, it is uneven and unreliable: the bulk of a season's rain can fall in a single downpour, damaging crops as severe droughts.4 Human habitation is dependent on the two great rivers, and the permanent settlement requires irrigation. Upon establishment, However, on the levees of canals, such a system could benefit from the rich alluvial soils and support highly productive agriculture. In explaining the region's early urbanization and accompanying economic development, many contend that the region's ability to produce large agricultural surpluses played a significant role, though in what way is hotly contested. Herodotus was undoubtedly impressed. As a grain-bearing country, Assyria [meaning Mesopotamia] is the richest globally, he writes in his description of the fifth century BC. Figs, grapes, olives, or other fruit trees are not grown there, but the grain fields tend to produce crops two hundredfold and three hundredfold in exceptional years. At least three inches wide are the wheat and barley blades. Millet and sesame grow to an astonishing size, as I know, but those who have not visited Babylon have refused to believe even what I have already described as its fertility. Sesame oil is the only oil they use, and date palms, most of which bear fruit, provide them with food, wine, and honey.