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• 
  

• 
  Akkadian Empire
  Coordinates: 33°6′N 44°6′E / 33.1°N 44.1°E / 33.1; 44.1
  The Akkadian Empire (Akkadian ^URUAkkad KI, Hittite KUR A.GA.DÈ.KI "land of Akkad"; Biblical Hebrew אַכַּד Akkad) was an empire centered in the city of Akkad (Sumerian: Agade) and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia.
  During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).
  The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants.^{[citation needed]}
  The precise archaeological site of the city of Akkad has not yet been found.^{[citation needed]} The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû ("of or belonging to Akkad") was likely derived from this. The etymology and meaning of Akkad (written a.ga.dè^KI or URI^KI) are unknown. Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
  
  wn.com/Akkadian_Empire
• 
  Alexandria
  Alexandria (Arabic: الإسكندرية‎ Al Iskandariyya, Coptic: Ⲣⲁⲕⲟⲧⲉ Rakotə, Greek: Αλεξάνδρεια Alexándria, Koine Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ κατ' Αἴγυπτον IPA: [ɑlɛˈksɑndɾiɑ e kɑt ˈɛʝypton] "Alexandria in Egypt", Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه [eskendeˈrejːæ]) is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt's imports and exports. Alexandria is also an important tourist resort. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria). It is an important industrial centre because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.
  Alexandria was founded around a small pharaonic town c. 331 BC by Alexander the Great. It remained Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat was later absorbed into Cairo). Alexandria was known because of its Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; its library (the largest library in the ancient world); and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhacotis existed there, and during the Ptolemaic dynasty.
  
  wn.com/Alexandria
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  Boston University
  Boston University (often initialized as BU) is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers. The university is nonsectarian, but is historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church.
  BU is categorized as an RU/VH Research University (very high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. In 2009–2010, BU had research expenditures of $407.8 million, or $553 million if the research led by the Medical School faculty at Boston Medical Center is included. BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education.
  Among its faculty and alumni, BU counts 7 Nobel Prize winners, including Martin Luther King, Jr. (PhD '55); 22 Pulitzer Prize winners, and numerous^[quantify]Guggenheim and MacArthur fellows.
  The university offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees, and medical and dental degrees through 18 schools and colleges on two urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Boston's Fenway-Kenmore and Allston neighborhoods, while the Boston University Medical Campus is in Boston's South End neighborhood. BU also operates 75 study abroad programs in over 33 cities in over 20 countries and has internship opportunities in 10 different countries (including the United States and abroad).
  
  wn.com/Boston_University
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  Cairo
  Cairo ( /ˈkaɪroʊ/ KYE-roh; Arabic: القاهرة‎ al-Qāhira, literally "The Vanquisher" or "The Conqueror"), is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Located near the Nile Delta, it was founded in the year 969 A.D. making it 1,043 years old. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by the Fatimid dynasty in the 10th century AD.; but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the ancient cities of Memphis, Giza and Fustat which are nearby to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza.
  Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr (Arabic: مصر‎), the Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence. Cairo has the oldest and largest film and music industries in the Arab World, as well as the world's second-oldest institution of higher learning, al-Azhar University. Many international media, businesses, and organizations have regional headquarters in the city, and the Arab League has had its headquarters in Cairo for most of its existence.
  
  wn.com/Cairo
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  Carthage
  Carthage (Latin: Carthago or Karthago, Ancient Greek: Καρχηδών Karkhēdōn, Arabic: قرطاج Qarṭāj‎, Berber: ⴽⴰⵔⵜⴰⵊⴻⵏ Kartajen, Etruscan: *Carθaza, Modern Hebrew: קרתגו‎ Qartágo, from the Phoenician Qart-ḥadašt meaning New City (Aramaic: קרתא חדאתא, Qarta Ḥdatha), implying it was a 'new Tyre', is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC. It is currently a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia, with a population of 20,715 (2004 Census).
  The first civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic (a form of the word "Phoenician") or Carthaginian. The city of Carthage is located on the eastern side of Lake Tunis across from the centre of Tunis. According to Greek historians it was founded by Canaanite-speaking Phoenician colonists from Tyre (in modern Lebanon) under the leadership of Elissa who was renamed (Queen Dido) in Virgil's Aeneid. It became a large and rich city and thus a major power in the Mediterranean. The resulting rivalry with Syracuse, Numidia, and Rome was accompanied by several wars with respective invasions of each other's homeland.
  
  wn.com/Carthage
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  Damietta
  Damietta (Arabic: دمياط‎ Dumyāṭ), also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Cairo.
  In Ancient Egypt, the city was known as Tamiat, but it became less important in the Hellenic period after the construction of Alexandria.
  The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf as entry ports to India and the Tang Empire of China. Damietta was an important naval base during the Abbasid, Tulunid and Fatimid periods. This led to several attacks by the Byzantine Empire, most notably the sack and destruction of the city in May 853.
  Damietta was again important in the 12th and 13th centuries during the time of the Crusades. In 1169, a fleet from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with support from the Byzantine Empire, attacked the port, but it was defeated by Saladin.
  During preparations for the Fifth Crusade in 1217, it was decided that Damietta should be the focus of attack. Control of Damietta meant control of the Nile, and from there the crusaders believed they would be able to conquer Egypt. From Egypt they could then attack Palestine and recapture Jerusalem. When the port was besieged and occupied by Frisian crusaders in 1219, Francis of Assisi arrived to peaceably negotiate with the Muslim ruler. The siege devastated the population of Damietta. In October 1218 reinforcements arrived including the Legate Pelagius with the English earls Ranulf of Chester, Saer of Winchester, and William Aubigny of Arundel together with Odonel Aubigny, Robert Fitzwalter, John Lacy of Chester, William Harcourt and Oliver the illegitimate son of King John. In 1221 the Crusaders attempted to march to Cairo, but were destroyed by the combination of nature and Muslim defenses.
  
  wn.com/Damietta
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  Ebla
  Ebla (Arabic: إبلا‎, modern Tell Mardikh, Idlib Governorate, Syria) was an ancient city about 55 km (34 mi) southwest of Aleppo. It was an important city-state in two periods, first in the late third millennium BC, then again between 1800 and 1650 BC.
  The site is most famous for the Ebla tablets, an archive of about 20,000 cuneiform tablets found there, dated from around 2250 BC, written in Sumerian script to record the Eblaite language — a previously unknown language that is now the earliest attested Semitic language after the closely related Akkadian.
  In 1964, Italian archaeologists from the University of Rome La Sapienza under the direction of Paolo Matthiae began excavating at Tell Mardikh. In 1968, they recovered a statue dedicated to the goddess Ishtar bearing the name of Ibbit-Lim, a king of Ebla. That identified the city, long known from Egyptian and Akkadian inscriptions. In the next decade the team discovered a palace dating ca. 2500 – 2000 BC. About 2,500 well-preserved cuneiform tablets were discovered in the ruins. About 80% of the tablets are written using the usual Sumerian combination of logograms and phonetic signs, while the others exhibited an innovative, purely phonetic representation using Sumerian cuneiform of a previously unknown Semitic language, which was called Eblaite. Bilingual Sumerian/Eblaite vocabulary lists were found among the tablets, allowing them to be translated. Giovanni Pettinato and Mitchell Dahood believed the Eblaite language was West Semitic, however I. J. Gelb and others believed it was an East Semitic dialect, closer to the Akkadian language. Now it is commonly accepted that Eblaite is part of the East Semitic branch of Semitic, and very close to the Akkadian language.
  
  wn.com/Ebla
• 
  Egypt
  Egypt ⁱ/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر, Miṣr, Egyptian Arabic: [mɑsˤɾ] ; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, Kīmi ; Sahidic Coptic: ⲕⲏⲙⲉ, Kēme), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic:  جمهوريّة مصر العربيّة (help·info), is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Covering an area of about 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi), Egypt is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.
  Egypt is one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of its over 81 million people live near the banks of the Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi), where the only arable land is found. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in the Nile Delta.
  
  wn.com/Egypt
• 
  Egyptian Museum
  Coordinates: 30°02′52″N 31°14′00″E / 30.047778°N 31.233333°E / 30.047778; 31.233333
  The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms.
  The following information pertains to the state of the museum prior to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. The museum's Royal Mummy Room, containing 27 royal mummies from Pharaonic times, was closed on the orders of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. It was reopened, with a slightly curtailed display of New Kingdom kings and queens in 1985. Today, there are about 9 mummies displayed. One of them is the newly discovered mummy of Queen Hatshepsut.
  The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities contains many important pieces of ancient Egyptian history. It houses the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, and many treasures of King Tutankhamen. The Egyptian government established the museum, built in 1835 near the Ezbekeyah Garden. The museum soon moved to Boulaq in 1858 because the original building was getting to be too small to hold all of the artifacts. In 1855, shortly after the artifacts were moved, Duke Maximilian of Austria was given all of the artifacts. He hired a French architect to design and construct a new museum for the antiquities. The new building was to be constructed on the bank of the Nile River in Boulaq. In 1878, after the museum has been completed for some time, it suffered some irreversible damage; a flood of the Nile River caused the antiquities to be relocated to another museum, in Giza. The artifacts remained there until 1902 when they were moved, for the last time, to the current museum in Tahrir Square. During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the museum was broken into, and two mummies were reportedly destroyed. Several artifacts were also shown to have been damaged.
  
  wn.com/Egyptian_Museum
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  Gaston Maspero
  Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (June 23, 1846 – June 30, 1916) was a French Egyptologist.
  Gaston Maspero was born in Paris to parents of Lombard origin. While at school he showed a special taste for history, and by the age of fourteen he was already interested in hieroglyphic writing. It was not until his second year at the École Normale in 1867 that Maspero met fellow Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, who was in Paris as commissioner for the Egyptian section of the Exposition Universelle. Mariette gave him two newly discovered hieroglyphic texts of considerable difficulty to study, and the young self-taught scholar produced translations of them in less than a fortnight, a great feat in those days when Egyptology was still almost in its infancy. The publication of these texts in the same year established his academic reputation.
  A short time was spent in assisting a gentleman in Peru who was seeking to prove an Aryan affinity for the dialects spoken by the Indians of that country to publish his research, but in 1868 Maspero was back in France at more profitable work. In 1869 he became a teacher (répétiteur) of Egyptian language and archeology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, and in 1874 he was appointed to the chair of Champollion at the Collège de France.
  
  wn.com/Gaston_Maspero
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  Giza
  Giza (Coptic: ⲅⲓⲍⲁ Gee-zah, Arabic: الجيزة‎ Al-Ğīzah), sometimes spelt Gizah, is the third largest city in Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile River, some 20 km (12.43 mi) southwest of central Cairo. Along with Shubra El-Kheima, Cairo and Helwan, the four cities form the Province of Greater Cairo metropolis. The city of Giza is the capital of the Giza Governorate, and is located near the northeast border of this governorate in coordinates. It is located right on the banks of the River Nile. The city's population was 2,681,863 in the 2006 national census, while the governorate had 6,272,571 at the same census. Its large population makes it the second largest suburb in the world, tied with Incheon, South Korea and Quezon City, Philippines, second only to Yokohama, Japan.
  Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples. The plateau and its monuments have been recorded in the Giza Plateau Mapping Project run by Ancient Egypt Research Associates, directed by Dr. Mark Lehner. AERA's 2009 field season was recorded in a blog.
  
  wn.com/Giza
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  Giza Plateau
  The Giza Plateau (Arabic: جيزة بلاتي‎) is a plateau that is located in Giza, Egypt. The famous Giza Necropolis is located in this geographical area, which is characterized by a sandy, desert climate and terrain with little vegetation.
  The plateau and its monuments have been recorded in the Giza Plateau Mapping Project run by Ancient Egypt Research Associates, directed by Dr. Mark Lehner. AERA's 2009 field season was recorded in a blog.
  Coordinates: 29°58′34″N 31°07′58″E / 29.97611°N 31.13278°E / 29.97611; 31.13278
  
  wn.com/Giza_Plateau
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  Great Sphinx of Giza
  The Great Sphinx of Giza (Arabic: أبو الهول‎ Abū al Hūl, English: The Terrifying One), commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx (a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head) that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt.
  It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 BC).
  The Great Sphinx is one of the world's largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it, such as who its face was modeled after, when it was built, and by whom, are still debated. These questions have resulted in the popular idea of the "Riddle of the Sphinx," although this phrase should not be confused with the original Greek legend of the Riddle of the Sphinx.
  
  wn.com/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza
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  Rosetta
  Coordinates: 31°24′N 30°25′E / 31.4°N 30.417°E / 31.4; 30.417
  Rosetta (Arabic: رشيد‎ Rašīd, French: Rosette) is a port city on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. It is located 65 km (40 mi) east of Alexandria, in Beheira governorate. It was founded around AD 800.
  With the decline of Alexandria following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, Rashid boomed, only to wane in importance after Alexandria's revival. During the 19th century it was a popular British tourist destination, known for its charming Ottoman mansions, citrus groves and cleanliness.
  The town of Rashid came to be known in the West as Rosette (Rosetta), the name by which it was referred to by the French during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt. Rosetta gave its name to the Rosetta Stone (French: Pierre de Rosette) which was found by French soldiers at the nearby Fort Julien in 1799.
  Rosetta is the modern representative of the ancient Bolbitine, which lay a little farther north. In the Middle Ages Rosetta was a place of considerable commercial importance, and it continued to flourish until the construction of the Mahmudiyeh Canal and the improvement of the harbour at Alexandria diverted most of its trade to the latter city.
  
  wn.com/Rosetta
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  Troy
  Coordinates: 39°57′27″N 26°14′20″E / 39.9575°N 26.23889°E / 39.9575; 26.23889
  Troy (Ancient Greek: Ἴλιον, Ilion, and Τροία, Troia; Latin: Trōia and Īlium;Hittite: Wilusa or Truwisa;Turkish: Truva) was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida. It is best known for being the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer. Metrical evidence from the Iliad and the Odyssey seems to show that the name Ἴλιον (Ilion) formerly began with a digamma: Ϝίλιον (Wilion). This was later supported by the Hittite form Wilusa.
  A new city called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually during the Byzantine era.
  In 1865, English archaeologist Frank Calvert excavated trial trenches in a field he had bought from a local farmer at Hisarlık, and in 1868, Heinrich Schliemann, wealthy German businessman and archaeologist, also began excavating in the area after a chance meeting with Calvert in Çanakkale. These excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Schliemann was at first skeptical about the identification of Hissarlik with Troy, but was persuaded by Calvert and took over Calvert's excavations on the eastern half of the Hissarlik site, which was on Calvert's property. Troy VII has been identified with the Hittite Wilusa, the probable origin of the Greek Ἴλιον, and is generally (but not conclusively) identified with Homeric Troy.
  
  wn.com/Troy
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  Ugarit
  Ugarit (Ugaritic: 𐎜𐎂𐎗𐎚, ʼUgrt; Arabic: أوغاريت‎) was an ancient port city on the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland some 11 kilometres (7 mi) north of Latakia in northern Syria. Ugarit sent tribute to Egypt and maintained trade and diplomatic connections with Cyprus (then called Alashiya), documented in the archives recovered from the site and corroborated by Mycenaean and Cypriot pottery found there. The polity was at its height from ca. 1450 BC until 1200 BC.
  Though the site is thought to have been inhabited earlier, Neolithic Ugarit was already important enough to be fortified with a wall early on, perhaps by 6000 BC. Ugarit was important perhaps because it was both a port and at the entrance of the inland trade route to the Euphrates and Tigris lands.^{[citation needed]}
  The first written evidence mentioning the city comes from the nearby city of Ebla, ca. 1800 BC. Ugarit passed into the sphere of influence of Egypt, which deeply influenced its art. The earliest Ugaritic contact with Egypt (and the first exact dating of Ugaritic civilization) comes from a carnelian bead identified with the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senusret I, 1971 BC – 1926 BC. A stela and a statuette from the Egyptian pharaohs Senusret III and Amenemhet III have also been found. However, it is unclear at what time these monuments got to Ugarit. Amarna letters from Ugarit ca. 1350 BC record one letter each from Ammittamru I, Niqmaddu II, and his queen.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Ugarit

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  Akhenaten
  Akhenaten ( /ˌɑːkəˈnɑːtən/; also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton, and Khuenaten; meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV (sometimes given its Greek form, Amenophis IV, and meaning Amun is Satisfied), was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing worship centered on the Aten, which is sometimes described as monotheistic or henotheistic. An early inscription likens the Aten to the sun as compared to stars, and later official language avoids calling the Aten a god, giving the solar deity a status above mere gods.
  Akhenaten tried to bring about a departure from traditional religion, yet in the end it would not be accepted. After his death, traditional religious practice was gradually restored, and when some dozen years later rulers without clear rights of succession from the Eighteenth Dynasty founded a new dynasty, they discredited Akhenaten and his immediate successors, referring to Akhenaten himself as "the enemy" in archival records.
  
  wn.com/Akhenaten
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  Amenhotep II
  Amenhotep II (sometimes read as Amenophis II and meaning Amun is Satisfied) was the seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few military campaigns in Syria; however, he fought much less than his father, and his reign saw the effective cessation of hostilities between Egypt and Mitanni, the major kingdoms vying for power in Syria. His reign is usually dated from 1427 to 1401 BC.
  Amenhotep II was the son of Thutmose III and a minor wife of the king: Merytre-Hatshepsut. He was not, however, the firstborn son of this pharaoh; his elder brother Amenemhat, the son of the great king's chief wife Satiah, was originally the intended heir to the throne since Amenemhat was designated the 'king's eldest son" and overseer of the cattle of Amun in Year 24 of Thutmose's reign. However, between Years 24 and 35 of Thutmose III, both queen Satiah and prince Amenemhat died, which prompted the pharaoh to marry the non-royal Merytre-Hatshepsut. She would bear Thutmose III a number of children including the future Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II was born and raised in Memphis in the north, instead of in Thebes, the traditional capital. While a prince, he oversaw deliveries of wood sent to the dockyard of Peru-nūfe in Memphis, and was made the Setem, the high priest over Lower Egypt. Amenhotep has left several inscriptions touting his athletic skills while he was a leader of the army before his crowning. Amenhotep was no less athletic than his powerful father. He claims to have been able to shoot an arrow through a copper target one palm thick, and that he was able to row his ship faster and farther than two hundred members of the navy could row theirs. Accordingly some skepticism concerning the truth of his claims has been expressed among Egyptologists.
  
  wn.com/Amenhotep_II
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  André Thévet
  André de Thevet (1516 in Angoulême - November 23, 1590 in Paris) was a French Franciscan priest, explorer, cosmographer and writer who travelled to Brazil in the 16th century. He described the country, its aboriginal inhabitants and the historical episodes involved in the France Antarctique, a French settlement in Rio de Janeiro, in his book Singularities of France Antarctique.
  At ten years of age, he entered the convent of Franciscans of Angoulême. Not very much impressed by religion, he preferred to read books. He visited Italy at the same time as Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1566). In 1549, thanks to the support of John, Cardinal of Lorraine (1498-1550), he embarked in an extended exploration trip to Asia, Greece, Palestine and Egypt. He accompanied the French ambassador Gabriel de Luetz to Istanbul. Upon his return to France in 1554, he published an account of this voyage under the title of Cosmography of the Levant.
  Almost immediately after this, he set sail again as the chaplain of the fleet of vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (1510-1571) to colonize Brazil. In the New World, he collected many specimens of animals, plants and minerals, as well as aboriginal potteries and weapons.
  
  wn.com/André_Thévet
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  Athanasius Kircher
  Athanasius Kircher (1601 or 1602–1680) (sometimes erroneously spelled Kirchner) was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology, and medicine. Kircher has been compared to fellow Jesuit Roger Boscovich and to Leonardo da Vinci for his enormous range of interests, and has been honoured with the title "master of a hundred arts".
  Kircher was the most famous "decipherer" of hieroglyphs of his day, although most of his assumptions and "translations" in this field have since been disproved as nonsensical. However, he did make an early study of Egyptian hieroglyphs, correctly establishing the link between the ancient Egyptian language and the Coptic language, for which he has been considered the founder of Egyptology. He was also fascinated with Sinology, and wrote an encyclopedia of China, in which he noted the early presence of Nestorian Christians but also attempted to establish more tenuous links with Egypt and Christianity.
  
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  Auguste Mariette
  François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette (February 11, 1821 – January 19, 1881) was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, the designer of the rebuilt Egyptian Museum under Maximilian of Austria's orders when the latter had gained control of the artifacts collected to that point.
  Born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Mariette proved to be a talented draftsman and designer, and he supplemented his salary as a teacher at Douai by giving private lessons and writing on historical and archaeological subjects for local periodicals.
  Meanwhile his cousin Nestor L'Hote, the friend and fellow-traveller of Champollion, died, and the task of sorting his papers filled Mariette with a passion for Egyptology. Largely self-taught, he devoted himself to the study of hieroglyphics and Coptic. His 1847 analytic catalogue of the Egyptian Gallery of the Boulogne Museum got him a minor appointment at the Louvre Museum in 1849.
  Entrusted with a government mission for the purpose of seeking and purchasing the best Coptic, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic manuscripts for the Louvre collection so that it retained its then-supremacy over other national collections, he set out for Egypt in 1850.
  
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  Benoît de Maillet
  Benoît de Maillet (Saint-Mihiel, 12 April 1656 – Marseille, 30 January 1738) was a well-travelled French diplomat and natural historian. He was French consul general at Cairo, and overseer in the Levant. He formulated an evolutionary hypothesis to explain the origin of the earth and its contents.
  Maillet's geological observations convinced him that the earth could not have been created in an instant because the features of the crust indicate a slow development by natural processes. He also believed that creatures on the land were ultimately derived from creatures living in the seas. He believed in the natural origin of man. He estimated that the development of the earth took two billion years.
  Maillet was a nobleman of Lorraine, born into a distinguished Catholic family. He did not attend university, but he received an excellent classical education. Maillet was interested in geology and natural history, and took advantage of his travels to make observations. He was French general consul at Cairo (1692–1708), during which time he studied the Egyptian pyramids, and at Leghorn (1712–1717). He was French overseer in the Levant and the Barbarous states from 1715 until his retirement.
  
  wn.com/Benoît_de_Maillet
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  Charlton Heston
  Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes. He also is well known for his roles in the films The Greatest Show on Earth and Touch of Evil.
  Heston was also known for his political activism. In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Initially a moderate Democrat, he later supported conservative Republican policies and was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.
  Heston was born John Charles Carter, the son of Lilla (née Charlton; 1899–1994) and Russell Whitford Carter (1897–1966), a sawmill operator. Most sources state that he was born in Evanston, Illinois. Heston's autobiography, however, and some other sources place his birth in No Man's Land, Illinois, which usually refers to a then-unincorporated area now part of Wilmette, a wealthy northern suburb of Chicago. Heston said in a 1995 interview that he was not very good at remembering addresses or his early childhood.
  
  wn.com/Charlton_Heston
• Colin Reader
  Colin Reader is an English geologist with an interest in Ancient Egypt and is also secretary of The Manchester Ancient Egypt Society.
  His studies of the Sphinx have contributed to a debate on the outer fringes of archaeology regarding the date of the monument. He suggested on the basis of weathering evidence that the Sphinix is older than its commonly accepted 4th dynastic date and instead it and two other buildings on the Giza Plaeau date to the early dynastic or late predynastic period.
  Publications include A geomorphological study of the Giza necropolis with implications for the development of the site (Archaeometry 43: 1 (2001) pp149–165)
  
  
  
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  Cornelis de Bruijn
  Cornelis de Bruijn (also spelled Cornelius de Bruyn; 1652 – 1726/7) was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his observations of people, buildings, plants and animals.
  De Bruijn was born in The Hague.
  During his first tour, he visited Rome, where he became a member of the Bentvueghels with the nickname Adonis, which is how he signed the bentbrief of Abraham Genoels II. He travelled in Egypt and climbed to the top of a pyramid where he left his signature. De Bruijn made secretly drawings of Jerusalem, then part of the Ottoman Empire. His drawings of Palmyra are copies. De Bruijn reached Cyprus and stayed among the Dutch merchants in Smyrna and Constantinople. From 1684 he worked in Venice with the painter Johann Carl Loth, returning in 1693 to The Hague, where he sold his souvenirs. In 1698 he published his book with drawings, which was a success and was translated in several languages. Two examples have colored illustrations, the first color prints in history. Among his drawings were the first pictures of the interior of the Great Pyramid and Jerusalem that became known in Europe.
  
  wn.com/Cornelis_de_Bruijn
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  Djedefre
  Djedefre (also known as Radjedef) was an Egyptian pharaoh, the son and immediate successor of Khufu. The mother of Djedefre is unknown. His name means "Enduring like Re." Djedefre was the first king to use the title Son of Ra as part of his royal titulary, which is seen as an indication of the growing popularity of the cult of the solar god Ra.
  He married his (half-) sister Hetepheres II, which may have been necessary to legitimise his claims to the throne if his mother was one of Khufu's lesser wives. He also had another wife, Khentetka with whom he had (at least) three sons, Setka, Baka and Hernet, and one daughter, Neferhetepes. These children are attested to by statuary fragments found in the ruined mortuary temple adjoining the pyramid. Various fragmentary statues of Khentetka were found in this ruler's mortuary temple at Abu Rawash. Abu Rawash actually sits at an elevation higher than the rest of Giza, making it the highest, albeit not the tallest, pyramid. Some historians claim that the "pyramid" at Abu Rawash isn't even a pyramid at all; instead, it may be a "sun temple." Archaeologist Vassil Dobrev has claimed that it may not even be Djedefre's. Excavations by the French team under Michel Valloggia have recently added another potential daughter, Hetepheres, as well as a son, Nikaudjedefre, to this list.
  
  wn.com/Djedefre
• Elliot Warburton
  Bartholomew Elliott George Warburton (1810–1852), usually known as Elliot Warburton, Irish traveller and novelist, was born near Tullamore, Ireland.
  His father was Major George Warburton, Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary for Aughrim, County Galway; his mother was Anne Maria Acton of Kilmacurragh, County Wicklow. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1837. He contracted lasting friendships with Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) and AW Kinglake, author of Eothen, which he admired. He decided to give up his practice as a barrister for travel and literature.
  His first travel articles were published in the Dublin University Magazine, where the editor, Charles Lever persuaded him to make them into a book. This became his first book, The Crescent and the Cross, an account of his travels in 1843 in Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and which fairly divided public attention with Kinglake's Eothen, which appeared in the same year, 1844. Interest in England was centred in the East at the time, and Warburton had popular sympathy with Kinglake in his advocacy of the annexation of Egypt. But, apart from this consideration, the spirited narrative of Warburton's adventures and the picturesque sketches of Eastern life and character were more than sufficient to justify the success of the book. It was a huge success and went into 18 editions.
  
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  English people
  The English (from Old English: Englisc) are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, a Germanic people originally from Northern Germany who migrated to Britain.
  Historically, the English population is descended from several genetically similar peoples—the earlier Britons (or Brythons), the Germanic tribes that settled in the area, including Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, who founded what was to become England (from the Old English Englaland), and the later Danes, Normans and other groups. Following the Act of Union in 1707, in which the Kingdom of England became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain, English customs and identity became closely aligned with British customs and identity.
  
  wn.com/English_people
• Enheduanna
  Enheduanna (Akkadian: 𒂗𒃶𒁺𒀭𒈾; 2285-2250 BCE), also transliterated as Enheduana, En-hedu-ana or EnHeduAnna ("en" means High Priestess, and "hedu" means adornment, so this name translates to "high priestess adornment of the god, An"), was an Akkadian princess as well as High Priestess of the Moon god Nanna (Sin) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur. She was the first known holder of the title "En Priestess", a role of great political importance that was often held by royal daughters. Enheduanna was an aunt of Akkadian king Narām-Sîn, and she was one of the earliest women in history whose name is known.
  Regarded by literary and historical scholars as possibly the earliest known author and poet of either gender, Enheduanna served as the High Priestess during the third millennium BCE. She was appointed to the role by her father, King Sargon of Akkad. Her mother was Queen Tashlultum. Enheduanna has left behind a corpus of literary works definitively ascribed to her that include many personal devotions to the goddess Inanna and a collection of hymns known as the "Sumerian Temple Hymns" that are regarded as one of the first attempts at a systematic theology. In addition, scholars such as Hallo and Van Dijk suggest that certain texts that have not been ascribed to her may also be her works.
  
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  French people
  The French (French: Français) are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups. Within France, the French are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence.
  However, the word can also refer to people of French descent who are found in other countries, with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as Argentina (French Argentines), Brazil (French Brazilians), French West Indies (the French Caribbean people), Canada (French Canadians) and the United States (French Americans), and some of them have a French cultural identity. The United Kingdom also has a large French population, mainly in England, and due to historic relations and immigration.
  To be French, according to the first article of the Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion (sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion). According to its principles, France has devoted herself to the destiny of a proposition nation, a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live together, as defined by Ernest Renan's "plébiscite de tous les jours" ("daily referendum" on the willingness to live together, in Renan's 1882 essay "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?").
  
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  Gaston Maspero
  Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (June 23, 1846 – June 30, 1916) was a French Egyptologist.
  Gaston Maspero was born in Paris to parents of Lombard origin. While at school he showed a special taste for history, and by the age of fourteen he was already interested in hieroglyphic writing. It was not until his second year at the École Normale in 1867 that Maspero met fellow Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, who was in Paris as commissioner for the Egyptian section of the Exposition Universelle. Mariette gave him two newly discovered hieroglyphic texts of considerable difficulty to study, and the young self-taught scholar produced translations of them in less than a fortnight, a great feat in those days when Egyptology was still almost in its infancy. The publication of these texts in the same year established his academic reputation.
  A short time was spent in assisting a gentleman in Peru who was seeking to prove an Aryan affinity for the dialects spoken by the Indians of that country to publish his research, but in 1868 Maspero was back in France at more profitable work. In 1869 he became a teacher (répétiteur) of Egyptian language and archeology at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, and in 1874 he was appointed to the chair of Champollion at the Collège de France.
  
  wn.com/Gaston_Maspero
• George Sandys
  George Sandys (2 March 1577 – March 1644) was an English traveller, colonist and poet.
  He was born in Bishopsthorpe, the seventh and youngest son of Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York. He studied at St Mary Hall, Oxford, but took no degree. On his travels, which began in 1610, he first visited France; from north Italy he passed by way of Venice to Constantinople, and thence to Egypt, Mt. Sinai, Palestine, Cyprus, Sicily, Naples and Rome. His narrative, dedicated, like all his other works, to Charles (either as prince or king), was published in 1615, and formed a substantial contribution to geography and ethnology.
  He also took great interest in the earliest English colonization in America. In April 1621 he became colonial treasurer of the Virginia Company and sailed to Virginia with his niece's husband, Sir Francis Wyat, the new governor.
  When Virginia became a crown colony, Sandys was created a member of council in August 1624; he was reappointed to this post in 1626 and 1628. In 1631 he vainly applied for the secretaryship to the new special commission for the better plantation of Virginia; soon after this he returned to England for good.
  
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  Graham Hancock
  Graham Hancock (born 2 August 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past. One of the main themes running through many of his books is the possible global connection with a "mother culture" from which he believes all ancient historical civilizations sprang.
  Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hancock's formative years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in Sociology.
  As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976–1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983.
  
  wn.com/Graham_Hancock
• Henry Thomas Riley
  Henry Thomas Riley (1816–1878) was an English translator, lexicographer, and antiquary,
  Born in June 1816, he was only son of Henry Riley of Southwark, an ironmonger. He was educated at Chatham House, Ramsgate, and at Charterhouse School (1832–4). He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, but at the end of his first term migrated to Clare College where he was admitted on 17 December 1834, and elected a scholar on 24 January 1835. In 1838 he obtained a Latin essay prize. He graduated B.A. in 1840 and M.A. in 1859, after which he moved to Corpus Christi College. On 16 June 1870 he was incorporated at Exeter College, Oxford.
  Riley was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 23 November 1847, but early in life he began hack work for booksellers to make a living, by editing and translation. On the creation of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (royal warrant of April 1869) Riley was engaged as an additional inspector for England, and given the task of examining the archives of various municipal corporations, the muniments of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and the documents in the registries of various bishops and chapters.
  
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  Hyksos
  
  The Hyksos (^{[pronunciation?]}Egyptian heqa khasewet, "foreign rulers"; Greek Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς, Arabic: الملوك الرعاة, shepherd kings) were an Asiatic people who took over the eastern Nile Delta and ending the the thirteenth dynasty, initiating the Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt.
  The Hyksos first appeared in Egypt during the eleventh dynasty, began their climb to power in the thirteenth dynasty, and came out of the second intermediate period in control of Avaris and the Delta. By the fifteenth dynasty, they ruled Lower Egypt, and at the end of the seventeenth dynasty, they were expelled.
  The historian Josephus maintains that the Hyksos where in fact the children of Jacob who joined his son Joseph to escape the famine in the land of Canaan.
  There are various hypotheses as to the Hyksos ethnic identity. Most archeologists^[who?] describe the Hyksos as multi-ethnic, to include all of the peoples who occupied the emporia of the delta. Some were warlords seeking employment by the Egyptians as mercenaries. Some were unemployed agricultural workers looking for work helping produce food and resorting to banditry, theft and other crimes when they did not get it. Some were skilled tradesmen, professionals, doctors, lawyers, scribes, priests, diplomats, accountants. Some were merchants importing raw materials: timber from Byblos, semi-precious stones from as far away as Afghanistan, tin, copper, bronze, medicines for the doctors, perfumes for the wigmakers, bitumen, natron, linen, frankincense and myrrh for the mummification industry at Karnak or exporting grain and beer to as far away as Greece.
  
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  Italians
  Italians (Italian: italiani) are an ethnic group native of Southern Europe that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence (though the principle of jus sanguinis is used extensively and arguably more favorably in the Italian nationality law), and are distinguished from people of Italian descent and, historically, from ethnic Italians living in the unredeemed territories adjacent to the Italian Peninsula.
  In 2012, in addition to the 60 million Italians in Italy and 3,000 in San Marino, Italian-speaking, autonomous groups are found in neighboring countries: about 500,000 in Switzerland, a large, but undefined population in France (Nice, Corsica), and smaller groups in Slovenia and Croatia, primarily in Istria. If regarded as an ethnic group, they constitute one of the world's largest.
  Because of wide-ranging and long-lasting diaspora, about 4 and half million Italian citizens and over 70 million people of full or part Italian ancestry live outside of Italy, most notably in South America, North America, Australia and parts of Europe.
  
  wn.com/Italians
• Jean de Thévenot
  Jean de Thévenot (June 16, 1633 – November 28, 1667) was a French traveller in the East, who wrote extensively about his journeys. He was also a linguist, natural scientist and botanist.
  He was born in Paris and received his education in the Collège de Navarre. He was a nephew of Melchisédech Thévenot.
  Thévenot conceived a desire to travel from reading other travel writing, and his wealth allowed him to fulfill this desire. Leaving France in 1652, he first visited England, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. At Rome he fell in with D'Herbelot, who invited him to be his companion in a projected voyage to the Levant. D'Herbelot was detained by private affairs, but Thévenot sailed from Rome in May 1655, and, after vainly waiting five months at Malta, took passage for Constantinople alone.
  He remained in Constantinople until the following August, and then proceeded to Smyrna, the Greek islands, and finally to Egypt, landing at Alexandria on New Year's Day, 1657. He stayed for a year in Egypt, then visited Sinai, and, upon returning to Cairo, joined the Lent pilgrim caravan to Jerusalem. He visited the chief places of pilgrimage in Palestine, and, after being twice taken by corsairs, got back to Damietta by sea, and was again in Cairo in time to view the opening of the canal on the rise of the Nile (August 14, 1658).
  
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  John Anthony West
  John Anthony West (born 1 January 1932 in New York, USA) is an American Egyptologist, author, lecturer, guide and a pioneer of Sphinx water erosion hypothesis in geology. Influenced by R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, in 1993 his work with Robert M. Schoch, a geologist and associate professor of natural science at the College of General Studies at Boston University was presented by Charlton Heston in a NBC special called “The Mystery of the Sphinx” that won West an News & Documentary Emmy Award for Best Research and a nomination for Best Documentary. The documentary contends that the main type of weathering evident on the Great Sphinx (pictured) and surrounding enclosure walls could only have been caused by prolonged and extensive rainfall during the time period from 10,000 to 5000 BCE and was carved out of limestone bedrock by an ancient advanced culture (such as the Heavy Neolithic Qaraoun culture). This challenged the conventional dating of the carving of the statue circa 2500 BCE. West suggested that the Sphinx may be over twice as old as originally determined, whereas Schoch made a more conservative determination of between 5000 and 7000 BCE.
  
  wn.com/John_Anthony_West
• John Greaves
  John Greaves (1602 – 8 October 1652) was an English mathematician, astronomer and antiquary.
  He was born in Colemore, near Alresford, Hampshire. He was the eldest son of John Greaves, rector of Colemore, and Sarah Greaves. His brothers were Nicholas Greaves, Thomas Greaves and Sir Edward Greaves, physician to Charles II.
  His father ran a school for sons of the neighbouring gentry, where Greaves began his education. Aged 15, he went to Balliol College, Oxford between 1617–1621, gaining a B.A. degree. In 1624 he was the first of five newly-elected Fellows of Merton College, becoming M.A. in 1628. He began to study astronomy and oriental languages, and especially the works of the ancient eastern astronomers. In 1630 Greaves was chosen professor of geometry at Gresham College, London. Through his predecessor, Peter Turner, he later met archbishop William Laud, the chancellor of Oxford University and Visitor (patron) of Merton College. Laud was keen to make English editions of Greek and Arabic authors, and Greaves' later travels abroad involved collecting manuscripts and books for presentation to his new patron.
  
  wn.com/John_Greaves
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  John Lawson Stoddard
  John Lawson Stoddard (1850-1931) was an American writer, hymn writer and lecturer who gained popularity through his travelogues.
  Stoddard was born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1850. In 1871 he graduated from Williams College, then two years of theology at Yale Divinity School. After that he taught Latin and French at Boston Latin School. He was proud of his descent from Solomon Stoddard.
  He began traveling around the world in 1874, and published Red-Letter Days Abroad in 1884. He turned his experiences into a series of popular lectures delivered throughout North America. These lectures were periodically published in book form as John L. Stoddard's Lectures and eventually numbered ten volumes and five supplements (1897-1898). The books include numerous illustrations derived from the immense catalog of photographs taken by Stoddard, and cover every subject, from art and architecture, to archeology and natural history. The books were immensely popular in their day and many copies still survive. Later in life, Stoddard also published poetry, as well as books on religious subjects.
  
  wn.com/John_Lawson_Stoddard
• Joos van Ghistele
  Joos van Ghistele (ca. 1446 in Ghent – ca. 1525) was a Flemish nobleman who spent four years (1481-1485) travelling around in the Middle East and southern Europe, including Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Tunisia, the Levant, Egypt and the Red Sea all the way down to Aden.
  His accounts were edited by Ambrosius Zeebout Priestre and posthumously published in 1557 as Tvoyage van Mher Joos van Ghistele, with many later republications. Three editions in Ghent alone (1557, 1563, 1572) in fifteen years show that the book attained considerable popularity in Flanders.
  
  
  
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  Khafra
  Khafra^{[pronunciation?]} (Greek, Χεφρήν; Chephren) — also Khafre, sometimes known as Kefren — was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty, who had his capital at Memphis. According to some authors he was the son and successor of Khufu, but it is more commonly accepted that Djedefre was Khufu's successor and Khafra was Djedefre's. Khafra's two chief wives were Queen Meresankh III whose mastaba tomb is located at Giza and Queen Khamaerernebty I who was the mother of his successor, Menkaura. Khafre was the builder of the second largest pyramid in the Giza Necropolis complex (his is 3 metres shorter than Khufu's). Most modern egyptologists also credit him with the building of the Great Sphinx.
  Khafre was a son of king Khufu and the brother and successor of Djedefre. Khafre is thought by some to be the son of Queen Meritites I due to an inscription where he is said to honor her memory
  Kings-wife, his beloved, devoted to Horus, Mertitytes.
  King's-wife, his beloved, Mertitytes; beloved of the Favorite of
  the Two Goddesses; she who says anything whatsoever and it is done
  for her. Great in the favor of Snefr[u] ; great in the favor
  of Khuf[u] , devoted to Horus, honored under Khafre. Merti[tyt]es.[Breasted; Ancient Records]
  
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  Mamluk
  A Mamluk (Arabic: مملوك mamluk (singular), مماليك mamālīk (plural)), "owned"; also transliterated mamlouk, Turkish: Memlük, also called Kölemen; , mamluq, mamluke, mameluk, mameluke, mamaluke or marmeluke was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans or Kipchak and later Circassian and Georgian. The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior class, was of great political importance and was extraordinarily long-lived, lasting from the 9th to the 19th century AD. Over time, mamluks became a powerful military caste in various Muslim societies. Particularly in Egypt, but also in the Levant, Iraq, and India, mamluks held political and military power. In some cases, they attained the rank of sultan, while in others they held regional power as amirs or beys. Most notably, mamluk factions seized the sultanate for themselves in Egypt and Syria in a period known as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The Mamluk Sultanate famously beat back the Mongols at the Battle of Ayn Jalut and fought the Crusaders effectively driving them out from the Levant by 1291 and officially in 1302 ending the era of the Crusades.
  
  wn.com/Mamluk
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  Mark Lehner
  Mark Lehner is an American archaeologist with more than 30 years of experience excavating in Egypt. His approach, as director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), is to conduct interdisciplinary archaeological investigation. Every excavated object is examined by specialists to create an overall picture of an archaeological site—from the buildings down to the pollen spores. His international team currently runs the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, excavating and mapping the ancient city of the builders of the Giza pyramid complex, which dates to the fourth dynasty of Egypt. He discovered that Pyramid G1-a, one of the subsidiary pyramids of the Great Pyramid, belonged to Hetepheres I; it was originally thought to belong to Queen Meritites I.
  Lehner first went to Egypt as a student in the 1970s. Intrigued by the mysteries of the 'Sleeping Prophet', Edgar Cayce, Lehner "found that [my] initial notions about the ancient civilization along the Nile could not stand up to the bedrock reality of the Giza Plateau".  He turned to the scientific method of discovery in order to understand the culture better, returning some years later to complete a doctorate degree at Yale University. Lehner's 1991 dissertation was titled Archaeology of an image: The Great Sphinx of Giza.
  
  wn.com/Mark_Lehner
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  Olfert Dapper
  Olfert Dapper (c. 1635 – 29 December 1689) was a Dutch physician and writer. He wrote books about history and geography, although he never travelled outside Holland. Until today, his book Description of Africa (1668) is a key text for Africanists.
  Olfert Dapper was born in 1635 or possibly early 1636 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic. In January 1636, he was baptized in the Lutheran church in Amsterdam.
  In 1658, he registered at the University of Utrecht. After two years, he was signing himself as doctor medicinæ, but there is no evidence that he studied medicine.
  He wrote a book on the history of Amsterdam. Later he also wrote about Africa, China, India, Persia, Georgia, and Arabia, although he had not visited these exotic destinations himself. In fact, he never travelled outside Holland. His books became well-known in his own time. Translations appeared in English, French, and German.
  He died on 29 December 1689 in Amsterdam.
  To this day, Dapper's book Description of Africa Naukeurige Beschrijvinge van Africa gewesten (1668) is a key text for Africanists.
  
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  Pharaoh
  Pharaoh ( /ˈfeɪ.roʊ/ or /fɛ.roʊ/) is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace. The title of Pharaoh started being used for the king during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of the eighteenth dynasty.
  Pharaoh, meaning "Great House", originally referred to the king's palace, but by the reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1479-1425 BC) in the New Kingdom, had become a form of address for the person of the king.
  The term pharaoh ultimately was derived from a compound word represented as pr-`3, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr "house" and `3 "column". It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-`3 'Courtier of the High House', with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace itself. From the twelfth dynasty onward the word appears in a wish formula 'Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health', but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person.
  
  wn.com/Pharaoh
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  Pliny The Elder
  Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. Spending most of his spare time studying, writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, he wrote an encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all such works written subsequently. Pliny the Younger, his nephew, wrote of him in a letter to the historian Tacitus:
  Pliny is referring to the fact that Tacitus relied on his uncle's now missing work on the History of the German Wars. Pliny the Elder died on August 25, 79 AD, while attempting the rescue by ship of a friend and his family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that had just destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The prevailing wind would not allow his ship to leave the shore. His companions attributed his collapse and death to toxic fumes; but they were unaffected by the fumes, suggesting natural causes.
  
  wn.com/Pliny_The_Elder
• Rainer Stadelmann
  Dr. Rainer Stadelmann (born 24 October 1933 in Oettingen in Bayern) is a German Egyptologist. He is considered an expert of the Giza Plateau.
  After studying in Neuburg an der Donau in 1953, he studied Egyptology, Orientalism and Archeology at the University of Munich. He participated in 1955 and 1956 in the excavations of the Userkaf Solar Temple at Abusir. He continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg, where in 1960 he write his doctoral thesis on the Syrian-Palestinian deities in Egypt. He was technical assistant in Heidelberg until 1967, after which he became Scientific Director at the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, where he was director from 1989 to 1998. Since 1975, he has been honorary professor at the University of Heidelberg. He has participated in numerous excavations at Elephantine, Thebes and Dahshur, the latter of which he explored and wrote about the Bent Pyramid and the valley temple of King Sneferu. He has also opened a new exhibition at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, to celebrate forty years of archaeological work by the Japanese.
  
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  Ramesses II
  Ramesses II (c. 1303 BC – July or August 1213 BC; Egyptian: *Riʻmīsisu, alternatively transcribed as Rameses  /ˈræməsiːz/ and Ramses /ˈræmsiːz/ or /ˈræmziːz/), referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC) of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. His successors and later Egyptians called him the "Great Ancestor." Ramesses II led several military expeditions into the Levant, re-asserting Egyptian control over Canaan. He also led expeditions to the south, into Nubia, commemorated in inscriptions at Beit el-Wali and Gerf Hussein.
  At age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I. He is believed to have taken the throne in his late teens and is known to have ruled Egypt from 1279 BC to 1213 BC for 66 years and 2 months, according to both Manetho and Egypt's contemporary historical records. He was once said to have lived to be 99 years old, but it is more likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year. If he became Pharaoh in 1279 BC as most Egyptologists today believe, he would have assumed the throne on May 31, 1279 BC, based on his known accession date of III Shemu day 27. Ramesses II celebrated an unprecedented 14 sed festivals (the first held after thirty years of a pharaoh's reign, and then every three years) during his reign—more than any other pharaoh. On his death, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings; his body was later moved to a royal cache where it was discovered in 1881, and is now on display in the Cairo Museum.
  
  wn.com/Ramesses_II
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  Ramesses III
  Usimare Ramesses III (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt. He was the son of Setnakhte and Queen Tiy-Merenese. Ramesses III is believed to have reigned from March 1186 to April 1155 BCE. This is based on his known accession date of I Shemu day 26 and his death on Year 32 III Shemu day 15, for a reign of 31 years, 1 month and 19 days. (Alternate dates for this king are 1187 to 1156 BCE).
  During his long tenure in the midst of the surrounding political chaos of the Greek Dark Ages, Egypt was beset by foreign invaders (including the so-called Sea Peoples and the Libyans) and experienced the beginnings of increasing economic difficulties and internal strife which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Twentieth Dynasty. In Year 8 of his reign, the Sea Peoples, including Peleset, Denyen, Shardana, Meshwesh of the sea, and Tjekker, invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles. Although the Egyptians had a reputation as poor seamen they fought tenaciously. Rameses lined the shores with ranks of archers who kept up a continuous volley of arrows into the enemy ships when they attempted to land on the banks of the Nile. Then the Egyptian navy attacked using grappling hooks to haul in the enemy ships. In the brutal hand to hand fighting which ensued, the Sea People were utterly defeated. The Harris Papyrus state:
  
  wn.com/Ramesses_III
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  Richard Pococke
  Richard Pococke (19 November 1704 – 25 September 1765) was an English prelate and anthropologist. He was Protestant Bishop of Ossory (1756–65) and Meath (1765), both dioceses of the Church of Ireland. However, he is best known for his travel writings and diaries.
  Pococke was born in Southampton and educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, receiving a Bachelor of Law degree. His father was Rev. Richard Pococke and his mother was Elizabeth Milles, the daughter of Rev. Isaac Milles. His parents were married on 26 April 1698. Pococke's uncle, Thomas Milles, was a Professor of Greek. He was also distantly related to Edward Pococke, the English Orientalist and biblical scholar.
  His family connections meant he advanced rapidly in the church, becoming vicar-general of the diocese of Waterford and Lismore.
  He seems to have spent far more time travelling than attending to his duties as a churchman and spent 1733-36 undertaking a series of tours in Europe. Detailed accounts of his first tours (1733–34, 1736–37) survive in a set of letters he wrote to his mother (British Library, Add. Ms. 19939). The unpublished manuscript includes probably the most detailed description of Venice's "Marriage to the Sea" ceremony as well as precious information on contemporary music, especially opera. The manuscript includes From 1737-42 he visited the Near East, visiting Egypt, Jerusalem, Palestine and Greece. These travels were later published in his Description of the East of 1743 and 1745, works which were praised by Edmund Gibbon. Among other things, he was one of the European travellers to give an account of the origins of the medieval Arabic document, the Achtiname of Muhammad, which claims that the Prophet Muhammad had personally confirmed a grant of protection and other privileges to the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.
  
  wn.com/Richard_Pococke
• Robert Bauval
  Robert Bauval (born 5 March 1948 in Alexandria, Egypt) is an author, lecturer, and Ancient Egypt researcher, best known for his Orion Correlation Theory.
  Bauval was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to parents of Belgian and Maltese origins. He attended the British Boys' School in Alexandria (now El Nasr Boys' School) and the Franciscan College in Buckinghamshire, England. He left Egypt in 1967 just before the Six-Days War during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser. He has spent most of his engineering career living and working in the Middle East and Africa as a construction engineer.
  In late 1992 Bauval had been trying to obtain a translation of Hermetica by Walter Scott. He then came across a new edition printed by Solo Press with a foreword by Adrian Gilbert. Bauval contacted Gilbert after being interested in his foreword concerning a link between an Alexandrine school of Hermes Trismegistus and the pyramid builders of the Fourth dynasty of Egypt. They went on to write The Orion Mystery together, which became an international bestseller.BBC Two broadcast a documentary on Bauval's theories around the time of the book's publication. He has also co-authored three books with Graham Hancock, including a very contentious book on possible artificial structures on Mars (The Mars Mystery - 1998).
  
  wn.com/Robert_Bauval
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  Selim Hassan
  Selim Hassan (سليم حسن Arabic)(1887–1961) was an Egyptian Egyptologist. He wrote the 16-volume Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt in Arabic and supervised the excavation of many ancient Egyptian tombs under the auspices of Cairo University.
  Selim Hassan excavated in several seasons the Central Field at Giza. He found and recorded many mastabas and discovered several undisturbed tombs. The results of his excavations were published in ten volumes. From about five missions working and excavating the cemeteries at Giza his work is regarded for science the most important one. George Reisner, working at the same cemetery published only little of his results. Hermann Junker, also working at Giza, concentrated in his publication very much on architecture with long chapters better placed in articles on different subjects, but not on his finds. The publications of Selim Hassan concentrates on the find and the archaeology, including the pottery found, often only just mentioned by Junker.
  The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt is considered the definitive historical reference for Ancient Egypt. Hassan wrote it in Arabic and worked on it for most of his life. The first volume is entitled "From Prehistory to the End of the Ahnasy Era."
  
  wn.com/Selim_Hassan
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  Thutmose IV
  Thutmose IV (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis IV and meaning Thoth is Born) was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century BC. His prenomen or royal name, Menkheperure, means "Established in forms is Re."
  Dating the beginning of the reign of Thutmose IV is difficult to do with certainty because he is several generations removed from the astronomical dates which are usually used to calculate Egyptian chronologies, and the debate over the proper interpretation of these observances has not been settled. Thutmose's grandfather Thutmose III almost certainly acceded the throne in either 1504 or 1479, based upon two lunar observances during his reign. After ruling for nearly 54 years,Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV's father, took the throne and ruled for at least 26 years, but has been assigned up to 35 years in some chronological reconstructions. The currently preferred reconstruction, after analyzing all this evidence, usually comes to an accession date around 1401 BC or 1400 BC for the beginning of Thutmose IV's reign.
  
  wn.com/Thutmose_IV
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  Vincent Stochove
  Vincent Stochove or Vincent de Stochove (1610–1679) is a traveller best known for his French-language book Voyage du Levant describing his travels in the 1630s through The Levant, including Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.
  
  
  
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  Zahi Hawass
  Zahi Hawass (Arabic: زاهي حواس‎; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptian archaeologist, an Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, and the Upper Nile Valley.
  Hawass has received widespread publicity internationally, and was the subject of a reality television series in the United States, Chasing Mummies. His views and links to business ventures and the Mubarak regime have engendered controversy. In connection with the awarding of a gift shop contract at the Egyptian Museum and alleged smuggling of antiquities, he was sentenced to a prison term, which was later lifted.
  Hawass was born in Damietta, Egypt. He originally intended to become a lawyer, but then studied Greek and Roman archaeology at Alexandria University, where he obtained a B.Sc. degree. He obtained a diploma in Egyptology at the University of Cairo. In 1987 he received his PhD degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied as a Fulbright Fellow.
  
  wn.com/Zahi_Hawass
• Émile Baraize
  Émile Baraize (28 August 1874 – 15 April 1952, Cairo) was a French Egyptologist.
  In 1912 he succeeded Alessandro Barsanti as director of the director of works within the Egyptian Antiquities Service. Throughout his life, he worked to restore and rebuild several ancient buildings, especially the Great Sphinx of Giza. From 1925 to 1936 he was involved in its restoration, which involved completely clearing away the sand from it, and directed excavations around it and inside it, in search of the rooms which many 19th century Egyptologists believed lay within it. These excavations were hurried and had to be carried out with minimal equipment, but they did partially succeed in their objectives, for Baraize discovered a tunnel starting at the rump, which he explored before the entry was condemned. He ended up filling the massive fissure separating the rump from the rest of the body with cement, blocking the interior passage within and effectively preventing exploration of the upper rump tunnel and connecting passage that is believed to lead down to a burial chamber.
  
  wn.com/Émile_Baraize