Tales of ancient Egyptian expeditions deep into Africa inspired both fiction writers and explorers. Legends of still existing Egyptian civilizations in a lost oasis or in a lost city in the jungle inspired British writer Henry Rider Haggard in the late 19th century to write two of the most widely read boys’ adventure books ever: …
bandits by opening its bark to protect them. Since the fourth century CE, the site has attracted large numbers of pilgrims who chip off bits of bark and bring back pieces of the balsam that grows in the spring at the foot of the tree used to make holy oil to anoint priests. Cairo’s southern …
In the 19th century, fiction novels of travel and horror became popular, and Egypt’s mysterious ruins and strange artifacts produced many new twists on these old stories. Among the first was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote The Ring of Thoth (1890) about a mummy that is brought to life. In the early 20th century, …
Perhaps the most enduring of the legends is that of a living mummy and the curse of the pharaoh. Both are supposedly deadly to archaeologists who disturb the dead. Tales of living mummies began in the New Kingdom period (1550–1070 BCE) when the story of “Santi-Khamose and the Magician” (also called “Khaemwaset and the Mummies”) …
The need to “prove” the Bible caused the birth of biblical archaeology, but the archaeological proof of the Hebrew sojourn in Egypt has yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, Hollywood has played a role in keeping the legends alive. In 1954, the film The Valley of the Kings was released by MGM Studios. Filmed in Egypt, …
The Nile River valley has produced a large number of legends that are held by the peoples living along its banks of as well as many others. Some legends were invented to explain things that were unknown, whereas others were invented to help build public support for imperial expansion. Ancient Egypt was a mystery before …
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