The location
1- it’s located to the western side of the City in Carmoz district close to Pompey’s pillar .
2- It was discovered by a mere chance when a donkey drawing a cart felt in a pit led to the discovery of the tomb in 1990 .
3- The tomb dates back to the 2nd century A.D , as a unique combination between the ancient Egyptian art with the Greek and Roman Arts .
4- It was called Kom el sho2fa because the Roman supertious about eating from the same dishes , they used in cemetries so they used plates made of cheap pottery and broke it , heaps of those broken plates were found so they were called Com Al Shoqafa meaning a pile of ostracas .
5- The Tomb consists of 3 storeys cut in the rock but the lowest one is drawned by sub ,soil waters.
6- the enterance leads to a spiral staircase of 99 steps around the shaft , the staircase was used by the living relatives while the shaft was used to centralize the ascention of the mummy so that it would not break and to provide light and ventilation.
7- there are opening in the wall of the shaft to avoid the mummies from hitting the wall of the shaft .
8- while they were being lowered a rope because the mummy was fragile after being debilitated from the mummification process.
9- At the end of the spiral staircase there is a short corridor on either side of which is a niche, the top of which is decorated with an imitation of a shell , the lower part of the niche is carved as a curved seat which was used by the people to rest .
10- Around the mouth of the shaft there is a parpet from which projects 6 pillars , carrying a dome for decoration purpose. .
11- On the left hand side of the Rotunda , there is a Triclinium “ banquet room “ the walls of this room are still in rough condition “ no dressing on the walls “ its roof is supported by 4 pillars connected by 3 benches taking the shape of the “ U “ letter this room was used by the visitors of the Tomb to have their meals .
12- The reason for naming the cemetary Kom el sho2fa . because the visitors who used to eat in the triclinium used to break the plates after eating and after the tomb was cleaned up , they threw the broken pieces of the plates outside the tomb and that caused the place to be full of broken pieces of fiancé.
13- Opposite the enterance there is a flight of 91 steps which descends down to the vestibule , the beginning of the second floor.
14- At the middle of the vestibule there are 2 composite floral capital columns of Egyptian style, they are carrying a pediment top , in the middle of which there is a sun disk symbol of God Ra on either side of the pediment top there are 2 hawks representing God Horus.
these columns show mixed iconography between Egyptian and Greece art because.................
1- the composite floral capital columns are of Egyptian style from the 30th dynasty .
2- The pediment top is of Greek style which was used in Greek temples
3- the sun disk is of Egyptian style which represents The sun God Ra .
4- the 2 hawks are also of Egyptian style , representing God Horus .
15 - Near the end of the vestibule and on either side, there is arecess , the first recess contains a statue of a standing figure of a man wearing a kilt which his left leg forward , the man is shown with curly hair representing a Greek facial features .
16- The other recess contains a statue of a woman standing with her right Leg foward and she wears a long light filling transperant robe , she is shown with curly hair and Greek facial features
The style of carving of both statues are of the Greek , style because the lines of the figures are crispy but in Egyptian style the lines of figures are sharp not curved crispy.
The Egyptian Style
- At the middle of the vestibule there are 2 composite floral capital columns of Egyptian style, they are carrying a pediment top , in the middle of which there is a sun disk symbol of God Ra on either side of the pediment top there are 2 hawks representing God Horus.
these columns show mixed iconography between Egyptian and Greece art because.................- the composite floral capital columns are of Egyptian style from the 30th dynasty .
- The pediment top is of Greek style which was used in Greek temples
- the sun disk is of Egyptian style which represents The sun God Ra .
- the 2 hawks are also of Egyptian style , representing God Horus .
15 - Near the end of the vestibule and on either side, there is arecess , the first recess contains a statue of a standing figure of a man wearing a kilt which his left leg forward , the man is shown with curly hair representing a Greek facial features .
16- The other recess contains a statue of a woman standing with her right Leg foward and she wears a long light filling transperant robe , she is shown with curly hair and Greek facial features
The style of carving of both statues are of the Greek , style because the lines of the figures are crispy but in Egyptian style the lines of figures are sharp not curved crispy
17- These 2 statues show mixed iconography, the costumes of both statues [ sndyt - transperant, fight dress ] are of Egyptian style.
The standing position (( the right step of the woman was supposed to be left step )) is Egyptian style .
The curly hair in both statues are of Greek style.
The facial features are also Greek .
18 - there is a flight of steps near the end of the vestibule which leads to the third floor .
The third floor is completely drowned with water since the time of its discovery.
19- At the end of the vestibule, there is the enterance to the main burial chamber
On either side of the enterance wall , there is a round shield at the middle of which there is the face of the Medoza “ the protective Goddess of the tomb .
Medoza
- She was the maid of goddess Athena changed her into a very ugly woman whose hair was of little serpents .
- Medoza used to protect the tombs from anyone who had bad intentions towards the tomb and she used to transform that person into stone who had bad .
- At her..Also Medoza, used to have a cure for people in her blood in the right hand but the blood in her left hand was poison for people .
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