response 1 of 26:

Apr 10 13:43 UTC 1996

I think I've found the right place... <grin>  My main fascination
with Egypt is the religion, which I admit I don't know all that
much about....  I'll get back to this and say more...

response 3 of 26:

Apr 11 01:53 UTC 1996

Or is it Re Re Re??  <grin>

Actually in a few weeks I may be better able to answer this question-
I am taking a course at U of M about Eygptian history. :)

Yay!! <anne cheers>

response 5 of 26:

Apr 11 07:39 UTC 1996

The main religion in Egypt today is Islam, and there are also some coptic
Christians. These religions came to Egypt at different times in history.

response 7 of 26:

Apr 11 19:17 UTC 1996

Tell us about them.

response 9 of 26:

Apr 12 19:35 UTC 1996

That's a little less then I have- however, I don't have the books with
me...  I'll entermore when I'm back at my apt.  where all my info was.
I do know that Sekhmet is also known as "Re's Avenger" <grin>  And
the bit about her destroying mankind... Re asked her to kill some
people and she went a little nuts with it, they had to trick her with
red beer (she thought it was blood) and she drank it all and fell into
a drunken sleep. <grin>  After that things were cool.

More later-

response 11 of 26:

Apr 13 17:50 UTC 1996

One of the books I have says that Sekhmet is "one of the oldest Neteru
known to Kemet, a strong mother, a protector and an earth Neter.  Her
priest(ess)hood served the people of Kemet as trained surgeonds and
doctors...  Like a lioness, Sekhmet is a huntress- but an appropriate
huntress, who hunts only for food and then brings it back to share with
the rest of the pride.  This concept of "appropriate action" is central
to the essence of Sekhmet- She acts only where appropriate, in 
appropriate fashion.  Her destructive vengeance is never chaotic or 
random; it is always what is necessary and it always just enough."
                _The Neteru of Kemet: An Introduction_
                                Rev. Tamara Siuda-Legan

response 13 of 26:

Apr 14 22:31 UTC 1996

For me it's a religious search... I'm very attracted to the two deities
I've mentioned and I want to learn all that I can.  The book that I
quoted is put out by a group in Chicago that researches and practices
the religion of Kemet (now called Egypt.)

response 15 of 26:

Apr 16 01:30 UTC 1996

One fascinating book I read not long ago was "Fingerprints of the Gods"
by Graham Hancock.  In this book, Hancock theorizes that the ancient
Egyptians did not have the technology to build certain monuments,
specifically the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid.  He says the 
Egyptians did not have the ability to so precisely syncronize the 
positions of the pyramids with the stars in the Big Dipper. Hancock thinks 
that there was another race of people who lived on the Earth 80,000
years ago, a super race that history has forgotten.  He points to many
unexplained phenomena, like walls with huge boulders in South America
that date back thousands of years to before the wheel was invented or
any hydraulic mechanisms that could have lifted those boulders.  LIke
those lines drawn in the ground in Peru that defy explanation.  Like
ancient records describing Caucasian-like people having been in South
America during the time of the Old Testament.  

Anyway, Hancock's idea is based on his "Crustacional Shift Theory"...
he builds a case that a great civilization once exsisted in what is
now Antartica, and parts of South America and Africa.  That during the
ice age, the crust of the earth shifted and Antartica was pushed
further south and laid waste under ice caps.  He points to the fact that 
ancient maps found in Rome in the 1400's, long before Antartica was 
discovered by europeans, were a few years ago identified positively as 
maps of what we now know to be Antartica.  Only in the last 50 years have 
we had the technology to map antartica extensively.  The maps found in 
Rome in the mid 1400's are exacting in detail and match our current 
antartica maps.

So his theory his that Earth's original race of men evolved on the 
Antartic continent before the ice age, and migrated through South America 
and Africa.  The Sphinx and The Great Pyramid and several other 
presumably man-made wonders, are the legacy of this race.  He speculates 
that this race passed on its knowledge of science and mathamatics to the 
Anceint Egyptians, who passed them on to the Ancient Greeks.  This race 
he speculates must have died out during the ice age, when the earth's 
crust shifted causing worldwide weather catastrophes.  He points out that 
the Sphinx shows evidence of thousands of years of water 
damage...unexplainable since its in the middle of the desert.  Unless the 
earth's crust shifted and the Sphinx was previously in a different climate!

Most ominously, speculation that the earth's crust shifted during the ice 
age is likely to be cyclical he says, and based on an estimation of the 
earth's age and when the ice age occurred, the next likely crustacional 
shift has been calculated to occur around 2010.  When such a shift occurs 
it will be armageddon, with unmanagemable weather catastrophes that might 
wipe out mankind.   

The key to our future, Hancock says, is not in predicting the future, but 
understanding the past, and remembering what we've forgotten.  If he's 
right, we've forgotten a large part of our history.

response 17 of 26:

Apr 16 04:37 UTC 1996

Yeah. Well, the crust did not shift during the "ice age", except a few
decameters (vertically, and locally). Hancock is another in a long line of
catastrophists, spouting variations on Atlantis, Mu, the Flood, etc. If
you would like a really interesting book about all that bunk, read
_Fantastic Archeology_, by Stephen Williams (Curator of North American
Archeology for the Peabody Museum at Harvard). He "reviews the colorful
characters and misguided theories which have excited the public and
exasperated mainstream archeologists". It was published in 1991, so
Hancock didn't make it in, being a newbie in this hocum. 

response 19 of 26:

Apr 16 14:01 UTC 1996

There is and has been for a long time moisture in the sands around
and below the Sphinx. This moisture "wicks" up into the stone from
which the Sphinx was carved, evaporates, and deposits salts. The
crystallization of the salts causes crystal wedging of the rock, making
it flake off. Hence, the erosion. The other stuff about the antiquity
of the Sphinx (beyond when it was built in ca. 3500 BC) is more
"fantastic archeology". It is interesting that people want to believe
a lot of fantastic superficial invention. I suppose it is because it
takes more mental effort to learn in detail all the historical details
that establish the history of a period or of an object.

response 21 of 26:

Apr 16 23:15 UTC 1996

I attended a lecture by Graham Hancock, whose book was a best seller and
he made the talk show rounds including Larry King a couple years ago, and
he's very detailed in his presentation.  He believes that most Egyptologists
and many archaeologists are egotistical boobs who wont accept findings made
possible by modern technology because they are full of themselves.  He
regards many of them like techies who can write code but lack the imagination
to decipher the broader meaning of their work.

He's also highly critical of the Egyptian government which he says wont 
let scientists explore a newly discovered tunnel in the great pyramid.  
His previous book was about his search for the Lost Ark of the Covenant, 
which he claims to have found being hidden in Ethiopia by the Ethiopian 
government, who fear a religious war.

response 23 of 26:

Apr 19 08:25 UTC 1996

I just received a copy of The Royal Canon of Turin, by Alan H. Gardiner.
It's a copy of the papyrus of the kings list of the Pharoahs and dynasties
of Egypt, It looks pretty fragmented, Does anyone know how many Kings the
list contains?  Ive tried to get other lists of the Pharaohs written by
Manetho's a priest of egypt, but no such luck. This copy is dated 1959,
also are there any newer copies, and under what names?  Id appriciate
the help.