[Subjectivist]

Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany have found an eight-metre (26ft) statue submerged in groundwater in a Cairo slum that they say probably depicts revered Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.

The discovery – hailed by Egypt’s antiquities ministry on Thursday as one of the most important ever – was made near the ruins of Ramses II’s temple in the ancient city of Heliopolis, located in the eastern part of modern-day Cairo.

“Last Tuesday they called me to announce the big discovery of a colossus of a king, most probably Ramses II, made out of quartzite,” the antiquities minister, Khaled al-Anani, said at the site of the discovery.

The pharaoh, also known as Ramses the Great or Ozymandias, was the third of the 19th dynasty of Egypt and ruled for 66 years, from 1279BC to 1213BC.

He led several military expeditions and expanded the Egyptian empire to stretch from Syria in the east to Nubia (northern Sudan) in the south. His successors called him the Great Ancestor.

He led several military expeditions and expanded the Egyptian empire to stretch from Syria in the east to Nubia (northern Sudan) in the south. His successors called him the Great Ancestor.

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 1818 sonnet Ozymandias – which contained the line “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” – was written soon after the British Museum acquired a large fragment of a statue of Ramses II from the 13th century BC.

“We found the bust of the statue and the lower part of the head and now we removed the head and we found the crown and the right ear and a fragment of the right eye,” Anani said of the new discovery.

On Thursday, archaeologists, officials, local residents and news media looked on as a massive forklift pulled the statue’s head out of the water.

The joint Egyptian-German expedition also found the upper part of a life-sized limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II, Ramses II’s grandson, measuring 80cm in length.

The sun temple in Heliopolis was founded by Ramses II, lending weight to the likelihood the statue is of him, archaeologists say.

It was one of the largest temples in Egypt, almost double the size of Luxor’s Karnak, but was destroyed in Greco-Roman times.

Many of its obelisks were moved to Alexandria or to Europe and stones from the site were looted and used for building as Cairo developed.

Experts will now attempt to extract the remaining pieces of both statues before restoring them. If they are successful and the colossus is proven to depict Ramses II, it will be moved to the entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum, set to open in Giza in 2018.

The discovery was made in the working-class area of Matariya, among unfinished buildings and mud roads.

Dietrich Raue, head of the expedition’s German team, said ancient Egyptians believed Heliopolis was the place where the sun god lives, meaning it was off-limits for any royal residences.

“The sun god created the world in Heliopolis, in Matariya,” he said.

“That’s what I always tell the people here when they ask if there is anything important. According to the pharaonic belief, the world was created in Matariya.

“That means everything had to be built here. Statues, temples, obelisks, everything. But … the king never lived in Matariya, because it was the sun god living here.”

The find could be a boon for Egypt’s tourism industry, which has suffered many setbacks since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak in 2011 but remains a vital source of foreign currency.

The number of tourists visiting Egypt slumped to 9.8 million in 2011 from more than 14.7 million in 2010.

A bomb attack that brought down a Russian plane carrying 224 people from a Red Sea resort in October 2015 further hit arrivals, which dropped to 1.2 million in the first quarter of 2016 from 2.2 million a year earlier.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... und-in-mud

[Tanada]

IIRC Ramses II was in a bit of a disagreement with a fellow named Moses over the proper place of Hebrews in the social structure.

[Tanada]

National Geographic is now getting in on the reporting as well. One thing that really bugs me, every news story emphasizes this discovery is in a slum on the edge of Cairo. Compared to today Cairo was a 'small town' 3000 years ago and the site in question would have been a religious center away from the population. Egypt today has something on the order of 100 times the population it had back then, but from the stories you would think this slum had always been a part of Egyptian culture.

Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany have discovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian statue they believe could depict one of history's most famous rulers.

The likeness of what may be Pharaoh Ramses II was found submerged in groundwater in a Cairo slum.

"We found the bust of the statue and the lower part of the head and now we removed the head and we found the crown and the right ear and a fragment of the right eye," Khaled al-Anani, Egypt's antiquities minister, told Reuters.

The 26-foot statue is made of quartzite and could be up to 3,000 years old. The Antiquities Ministry in Egypt is hailing the discovery as significant. The remains lack an inscription bearing the pharaoh's name, but the discovery's proximity to a temple devoted to Ramses suggest the statue is of his likeness, the ministry says.

A limestone statue of Pharaoh Seti II, the grandson of Ramses II, was also found at the site.

The discovery was made by a joint effort between Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities and researchers from the University of Leipzig. A rising water table, industrial waste, and piling rubble have made excavation of the ancient site difficult.

Ramses II is one of the ancient world's most famous leaders. He ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 B.C., making his 60-year-long-rule one of the longest in ancient Egypt. His military exploits expanded Egypt's reach as far east as modern Syria and as far south as modern Sudan.

The growth and prosperity seen in Egypt at the time earned him the title "Ramses the Great."

Excavation will continue in Cairo and, if the remaining pieces can restore the statue, it will be erected at the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is set to open in 2018.

The neighborhood in which the statue was discovered is in the eastern part of the city and was built over the ancient city of Heliopolis. The city was so named because it served as the center of worship for the ancient Egyptian sun god Re.

Ramses was a chief worshiper of Re. He commissioned a number of temples in Heliopolis to be built for worshipping the sun god.

It's also believed Ramses II may have been the pharaoh from the biblical Book of Exodus from whom Moses demanded the release of his people.

In 2006, archaeologists discovered one of the largest sun temples in Cairo under a marketplace. It was found to house a number of statues of Ramses II weighing as much as five tons. One such statue depicted the pharaoh seated and wearing a leopard's skin, indicating that he might have served as a high priest of Re when the temple was built.

Much of what was once Heliopolis is now covered with residential buildings. Researchers believe many more remains of the ancient world lie hidden under the wider city of Cairo.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017 ... red-cairo/

[dissident]

IIRC Ramses II was in a bit of a disagreement with a fellow named Moses over the proper place of Hebrews in the social structure.

According to a PBS documentary on this issue, the archeological evidence totally disagrees with the Bible narrative. It is more than likely that the Hebrews were project managers and not some fictional slaves. Maybe there was a falling out over pay and obligations to the Egyptian state of Biblical proportions. The pyramid projects lasted decades and were public works projects not carried out by slaves but workers drawn from the Egyptian population on a draft basis.

[evilgenius]

IIRC Ramses II was in a bit of a disagreement with a fellow named Moses over the proper place of Hebrews in the social structure.

According to a PBS documentary on this issue, the archeological evidence totally disagrees with the Bible narrative. It is more than likely that the Hebrews were project managers and not some fictional slaves. Maybe there was a falling out over pay and obligations to the Egyptian state of Biblical proportions. The pyramid projects lasted decades and were public works projects not carried out by slaves but workers drawn from the Egyptian population on a draft basis.

That makes sense, if you consider that Akhenaten was Joseph. The funny thing about trying to disprove religion, though, is that there is a much more deeply buried thing you have to consider than the archeology, the way that the story keeps repeating itself. It does this in the Christian narrative, when Jesus went down to Egypt to grow up. Now, you could say that's because there are Jungian archetypes involved, but you kind of have to stretch things to apply that across the board. It almost reads like foreshadowing in a novel. No, it's not enough to prove the existence of God. It doesn't disprove it either. I've actually found that, sometimes, the very things that are supposed to disprove God point the other way. I think the point of contention isn't actually over whether God exists, but rather if He does who is He? There is a message in what being born without an understanding of what freewill is, it was Christopher Hitchens who showed me this, oddly, and somehow finding freewill in the darkness means. You can find that repetition throughout many traditions. The Hebrews don't have a corner on it.

[evilgenius]

Which is to say, freewill to me is not that I can do anything I want to simply because I want to do it. It is about developing a sense of what is right such that I will do right even if it is not in my own selfish self-interest. I understand a concept of righteousness which is beyond myself. It is something like reason, but I think a better analogy is discovering the logic behind right-of-way. Anyway, I wasn't trying to lambast anybody who disagrees with religion. Lord knows a lot of crime has been perpetrated in its name. I'm trying to tell you that, like happens in chess, there may be more to it. If there is a God then those free will arguments have to fall somewhere, as do those existence of evil though a benevolent supreme being exists arguments. If you are dealing with a higher power you will find that those things don't hold their individuality. They get swallowed up in a much more quantum dynamics kind of world.

[Tanada]

When Vice President Mike Pence visits Egypt on Wednesday, he will follow in the footsteps of countless American officials who have stopped in Cairo to laud the “strategic partnership” between the United States and Egypt.

This has become a vacuous and badly outdated talking point — the kind we both drafted during our years in the government. Mr. Pence shouldn’t pay lip service to it.

American and Egyptian interests are increasingly divergent and the relationship now has far less common purpose than it once did. Mr. Pence should make clear to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s president, that the two countries need a reset, beginning with a major reduction in American military assistance.

In addition to saving American taxpayers’ money, this would send an important message to other recipients of American aid that our support is not unconditional. It would also help to rein in an arrangement that has distorted Egyptian-American relations.

Any doubts that Egypt has ceased to be a strategic partner to the United States were eliminated with the recent preliminary Egyptian-Russian agreement to grant reciprocal access to each other’s air bases. But this is just the most recent example of profoundly unfriendly behavior by a purported friend. In Libya, Egypt has consistently provided military support to Gen. Khalifa Hifter, whose Libyan National Army has clashed with forces loyal to the internationally recognized and United States-backed government. At the United Nations Security Council, Egypt has made common cause with Russia to oppose the United States on issues from Syria to Israel/Palestine. And this year, revelations emerged of Egyptian military and economic cooperation with North Korea.
Continue reading the main story

Even where American and Egyptian goals remain aligned, Egypt struggles to promote our mutual objectives effectively. Washington has not grasped a new reality: Because of its internal decay, Egypt is no longer a regional heavyweight that can anchor America’s Middle East policy.

More at LINK

[dissident]

The Lybian faction "recognized" by Uncle Scumbag and friends happens to be aligned with Daesh, and Wahabbi Salafists in general. Uncle Scumbag has a tendency to align himself with the worst scum in the Middle East and North Africa.

Judge by Syria. Before Russia took action Daesh was expanding even though the US was supposedly actively engaging it in combat. Somehow the USA missed massive oil tanker convoys to Turkey through which Daesh was looting Syrian oil to finance itself. Turkey was the laundering agent and no sanctions were ever threatened against either Turkey or Daesh for looting and selling Syrian oil. But the USA did sanction Syrian officials. LOL.

When Russia properly targeted this Daesh financing lifeline, American officials went hysterical with bleeding heart love for the environment. Pollution from burning oil tankers is bad. Chopping off the heads of thousands of prisoners and civilians, not so bad.

Now the USA is bleating that it took out Daesh in Syria. What revisionist lying scum. America was busy bombing the Syrian army at critical points thereby allowing Daesh to take the initiative. Nevertheless, thanks to Russian assistance the Syrian forces persevered and have turned the tide on Daesh.

[kublikhan]

A new dam on the Nile could trigger a war over water unless Ethiopia can agree a deal with Egypt and Sudan. It is often said the world's next world war will be fought over water and there are few places as tense as the River Nile. Egypt and Ethiopia have a big disagreement, Sudan is in the middle, and a big geopolitical shift is being played out along the world's longest river. There's been talk about a dam on the Blue Nile for many years, but when Ethiopia started to build, the Arab Spring was underway and Egypt was distracted.

For thousands of years, and more recently buoyed by British colonialism, Egypt has wielded political influence over the Nile. But the ambition of Ethiopia is changing all that. There are few African countries with a plan to deal with the doubling of the continent's population over the next 30 years. Yet despite its political challenges and its limited freedoms, industrial parks are being built as Ethiopia seeks to transform itself into a middle-income country, and so it needs electricity.

Africa's largest hydroelectric power station and one of the world's largest dams will do that, but with 85% of the river emerging from the Ethiopian highlands, Egypt is concerned its rival has the capability to control the flow of the river. "It's one of the most important flagship projects for Ethiopia," says Seleshi Bekele, the country's Minister for Water, Irrigation and Electricity. "It's not about control of the flow, but providing opportunity for us to develop ourselves through energy development. It has a lot of benefit for the downstream countries."

And Sudan certainly welcomes it. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is just a few kilometres from the border and the pylons are already in place, waiting for the power generation to begin and for cheap, renewable power to fizz through the cables. Dams also regulate the flow of the river. At the moment the difference between high water and low water level in Sudan is 8m, and that makes its vast irrigation projects harder to manage. With the dam in place, the difference will be 2m and the flow of the river will come year-round. "For Sudan it's wonderful," says says Osama Daoud Abdellatif, the owner of the Dal Group which runs farms and irrigation projects. "It's the best thing that's happened for a long time and I think the combination of energy and regular water levels is a great blessing." He understands that Egypt is worried, as the UN predicts the country will start suffering water shortages by 2025.

Any threat to Egypt's water is considered a threat to its sovereignty. "It's very much a game changer, a new order is beginning in the whole region now. Ethiopia for the first time is combining both the physical power of being an upstream country that can in one way or another control the River Nile's flow, and the economic power of being able to construct a dam depending on its own domestic resources." And Egypt's minister of water resources and irrigation, Mohamed Abdel Aty, is extremely angry. "We are responsible for a nation of about 100 million", he says. "If the water that's coming to Egypt reduced by 2% we would lose about 200,000 acres of land. "One acre at least makes one family survive. A family in Egypt is average family size about five persons. So this means about one million will be jobless. "It is an international security issue."

Hydroelectric power stations do not consume water, but the speed with which Ethiopia fills up the dam will affect the flow downstream. They would like the water to be generating power as soon as possible, but it should take time to fill up a reservoir which is going to be bigger than Greater London and will flood the Nile for 250km (155 miles) upstream. If it is filled within three years the level of the river will be affected, but over six or seven years it won't have a major impact on water level. Negotiations between Egypt and Ethiopia are not going well. Sudan and Egypt are also at loggerheads over how much water Sudan uses - and how that amount may increase when the dam is finished.

The irony is Egypt did in the 1960s exactly what Ethiopia is doing today, when it built the Aswan High Dam. For a revolutionary post-colonial country it was a proud national achievement, and Ethiopia sees it in the same way.

The dam is impressive. After five years it is two-thirds finished - and it already crosses the river. There is nothing Egypt can do about it, except take military action which would be extreme. That is why diplomacy and collaboration are the only means of resolving this issue.

The 'water war' brewing over the new River Nile dam