Participants: David Down
Series Code: DUTP
Program Code: DUTP000002
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00:10 Welcome to Luxor where we can continue our story of Ancient
00:13 Egypt. In our last program we showed you the mighty monuments 00:18 of the pyramid age. So lets just first refresh our memory 00:22 as to how it all ended. Firstly there was the destruction 00:26 of Egypt farms and flocks by the 10 devastating plagues. 00:29 Then the annihilation if the Egyptian army in the waters 00:33 of the red sea in the Exodus. And finally the collapse of 00:37 power of the 12th dynasty. Egypt was then occupied 00:42 by the mysterious Hyksos who were later driven out of Egypt. 00:46 And the kings of the 18th dynasty ushered in a glorious 00:50 era of prosperity and power. 01:34 Well, it was probably Seqenenre of the 17th dynasty 01:38 who started the war of liberation against the Hyksos. 01:42 And how it all started is really rather ludicrous. 01:45 You wouldn't believe it. A delegation came from the Hyksos 01:50 king, away down there in the delta, some 700 kilometers away 01:54 And this delegation came up here to Luxor and said, Look, 01:58 You are digging a canal and there are hippopotami in this 02:02 canal and they are grunting at night. 02:04 Its keeping the Hypsos king awake. 02:06 Well, Seqenenre had to do something about it and so 02:09 he politely said, Alright, I'll do something. 02:12 But after they went - I can just see him turning to his 02:15 courtiers and saying, Listen you fellows, I've had it! 02:18 That's a last straw! I'm going to drive these fellows out of 02:23 the land of Egypt. And so the war of liberation started. 02:26 Well, Seqenenre was not successful. 02:28 In fact if you look at his mummy in the Cairo museum, 02:31 you'll find that it has two savage gashes in the forehead 02:35 and archaeologists have fitted a battle axe blade in there 02:38 and they find that it just fits perfectly. 02:40 Apparently he died of a battle axe wound in this war of 02:44 liberation. But he was succeeded by his son, Kamoses 02:48 and by his brother, Ahmoses and between them they successfully 02:53 drove the Hyksos out of Egypt and off the pages of history. 02:58 Well, they were followed by Amenhotep I and then Thutmosis I 03:04 Well, Thutmosis I started something new. You see, up until 03:10 this time all the previous kings had been buried in pyramids 03:13 But apparently Thutmose I decided there was no future in 03:18 that. They were being robbed and plundered anyway. 03:21 And so he started a new idea. Its a way over there on the 03:25 other side of the river Nile. And its called the 03:28 Valley of the Kings where this idea started. 03:41 Ah, this is just beautiful. I love this scenery. 03:45 I'm walking along, 6:00 in the morning along the bank of 03:49 the Nile here in Luxor. The reeds are floating down the 03:54 river. Over there, see those hills. Well, over there 04:00 is the Valley of the Kings. And that's where Thutmose I 04:05 started this new burial fashion. We're going to go 04:10 over on the ferry and finish up in the Valley of the Kings. 04:13 Right over there. 04:33 Here we are looking down on the Valley of the Kings. 04:38 And instead of building a pyramid for his burial place, 04:42 Thutmosis had his workmen chisel a hole into the side of the 04:47 valley. And there at the end of the passage he had a tomb 04:51 chamber. Now he was followed by other kings who did the same 04:54 thing and some of these tomb passages go a hundred meters 04:58 into the side of the cliff. And there are some beautiful 05:02 paintings on the walls. 05:41 At the end of the passage was tomb chamber in which was the 05:45 sarcophagus, in which the king's mummy was buried. 05:54 Well, Thutmosis I was responsible for this obelisk 05:58 that you see behind me and it stands over 21 meters high. 06:03 And if we had to accept the revised chronology, 06:07 of Dr. Manuel Villacosky, its rather interesting to notice 06:10 that Thutmosis the 1st would be contemporary with King Solomon 06:14 of Israel. Alright, if that is the case, then this passage 06:19 we find here in 1 Kings 3:1, is applicable. 06:22 It says, Now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh, 06:24 king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh's daughter. 06:27 And so Solomon would have been the son-in-law of Thutmose I. 06:32 Now, this Pharaoh gave his daughter a very unusual dowry 06:39 for her wedding. You'll never guess what it was. 06:42 But I'm going to read to you from 1 Kings 9 and verse 16 06:46 where it says, Pharaoh, King of Egypt, had gone up and taken 06:49 Gezer and burned it with fire, and killed the Canaanites who 06:53 dwelt in the city and had given it as a dowry to his daughter 06:56 Solomon's wife. Well now, if what I am saying is correct, 07:01 we should be able to find some evidence of Gezer being burned 07:05 with fire. Let's have a look at the city of Gezer and the 07:11 excavations there. It was built on this hill. And over the other 07:15 side, the archaeologists have done some excavating. 07:18 They have carved a deep trench which exposes the strata 07:22 or layers of occupation. I went there and had a good look 07:25 at the strata, and I found that there was a layer of ash there, 07:30 very heavy ash, in fact. I brought back some of the grains 07:36 of wheat that had been burnt and carbonized. 07:39 You can still distinctly see the little grains of wheat. 07:43 So Gezer was thoroughly burned. Alright, then who did it? 07:47 I took some pottery from underneath this burned stratum. 07:52 And I showed it to one of Israel's top archaeologists, 07:57 for identification. He, without hesitation, said, This comes 08:00 from the early bronze period. Now that means, in my thinking, 08:04 that this was the Canaanite occupation and above it was the 08:08 middle bronze, which I consider to be the Israelite occupation. 08:12 So here we have the evidence at Gezer that if the Canaanites 08:17 were conquered at some time, their city was burned 08:19 and above it is the evidence of Israelite occupation. 08:27 When Tutmoses I died, he was succeeded by his son Tutmoses II 08:34 But this poor guy didn't last very long, another 4 years. 08:38 Then he seems to have dropped dead. Well, he had no successor, 08:43 except his son by another wife, who was Tutmoses III. 08:48 but he was only a boy, only a child at the time. 08:52 And so the wife of Tutmoses II assumed the throne. 08:57 Her name was Queen Hatshepsut. Her statue you see here. 09:01 And Hatshepsut reigned for 21 peaceful and prosperous years 09:06 Well, she seems to have liked the job, because she started off 09:11 as a regent. But then this statue depicts her with a 09:16 queen's attire, female attire. Now, this statue here 09:20 depicts her as having male attire. You see that? 09:24 In other words, she was assuming the role, not of a queen now 09:28 but of a king, a Pharaoh. And she took all the titles of 09:31 a Pharaoh. And her statues in the Cairo museum actually 09:35 depict her as wearing a beard. For instance, this statue 09:39 and then this sphinx of her shows her with a beard. 09:43 Now, you might say, That's ridiculous, a woman wearing a 09:45 beard? But you see, the Pharaohs themselves were clean shaven. 09:49 And they simply stuck a beard on their chins for a ceremonial 09:53 occasion, and I suppose Hatshepsut figured that if the 09:56 men can do it, she can do it, too. Anyway that's what she did. 09:59 Well, Hatshepsut built some tremendous obelisks. 10:10 This one lying here is the biggest one in the land of 10:12 Egypt at the present time. It snapped in half, actually. 10:15 And this other one that is standing over here is the 10:18 largest standing obelisk in the land of Egypt in contrast with 10:21 her father's, Tutmoses over there. Her obelisk is more than 10:25 30 meters high. She was also responsible for magnificent 10:30 mortuary temple. 10:41 Well, western people today are buried in holes 10:44 in the ground like that and then they put a tombstone on top. 10:48 Well, this is Hatshepsut's tombstone. 10:52 And you call it a beautiful mortuary temple. 10:55 And I consider that she should be identified with the Queen of 11:00 Sheba. You see, it says, in 1 Kings chapter 10 and in verse 11:04 one, Now when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon 11:07 concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him 11:10 with hard questions. Well, who was this Queen of Sheba? 11:13 I don't think we should be in any doubt, myself, because Jesus 11:17 Christ identifies her. In Matthew 12 and in verse 42, 11:21 he says, Now when the Queen of the South came to hear the 11:26 wisdom of Solomon, she came from the ends of the earth 11:29 to hear the wisdom of Solomon. He calls her the Queen of the 11:32 South. Well, in Daniel chapter eleven, we have the king of the 11:36 North and the King of the South and there the King of the South 11:39 is identified as the King of Egypt. And so if the King of the 11:42 South is the King of Egypt, well then surely the Queen of the 11:44 South must be the Queen of Egypt and that is what Josephus, 11:47 the ancient historian says. He identifies her as the Queen 11:52 of Egypt and Ethiopia. Here is Hatshepsut's model and she's 11:57 seated on the birth stool. The baby will be placed here. 12:00 And she depicts herself as being born in the presence of the god. 12:04 Here's the god, Tut. Here's the god Ammon. 12:07 And here was the baby being received by the gods. 12:14 This is to establish her claim to the throne. 12:18 This segment shows Hatshepsut's expedition to the land of Tut. 12:21 You can see her soldiers with their shields standing on the 12:24 deck of the ship. See the fish underneath? And they're going 12:29 on this expedition to God's land Here are the sailors pulling on 12:33 the oars. You see the ship there? And the masts? 12:36 They're on the way to the haven of Hash. 12:39 Now up here are some trees and plants that this expedition 12:46 brought back to the area of Punt The archaeologist didn't know 12:53 where the land of Punt was so they called on the botanists 12:56 and said, Listen, you fellows, can you tell us where these 12:59 plants come from. And the botanist said, Sure we can 13:02 tell you. They come from east Africa, maybe from Somalia or 13:05 Eritrea and so the archaeologist said, Fine now we know where the 13:08 the land of Punt is. But I think there's another explanation. 13:11 Look at it this way. In 1 Kings, chapter 10, and in verse 10 13:16 it says, Then she, that is the Queen of Sheba, gave the king 13:20 120 talents of gold, spices, in precious great abundance, 13:25 precious stones, also the ships and King Solomon gave the Queen 13:29 of Sheba all she desired. Also the ships of Hiram brought 13:32 gold from Ophir and great quantities of Almug wood or 13:36 trees and precious stones from Ophir. So you see they actually 13:41 brought these things from East Africa. And when the Queen of 13:45 Sheba came there, she said, yea, I want some of them. 13:47 And so they brought them back and I think that's why they 13:49 finished up on this wall. 13:52 There was something else that impressed the Queen of Sheba, 13:56 in her visit to Solomon. It says, And when the Queen of 13:59 Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that 14:02 he had built,-that's his temple- and his entry way or his ascent 14:06 by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more 14:09 spirit in her. You see, there was something about the way 14:12 he went up to the temple that impressed her. And when you 14:16 look at this, it seems to me that she came back and said, 14:19 to her workmen, Now Look, I want a temple built like that. 14:22 This is unique, you see. There was never anything like this 14:24 before in the land of Egypt. Now, it is true that most 14:28 archaeologists identify Sheba with the city in southwest 14:32 Arabia, by the name of Marib. But for this there is no 14:35 descriptional evidence to support it. Wendell Phillips, 14:38 an American archaeologist conducted an excavation there, 14:42 Very exciting, really. and he wrote a book called, 14:44 Sheba's Buried City. Wonderful book but there's no evidence 14:48 to support this view, that the Queen of Sheba came from the 14:51 Southwest Arabia. But suddenly Queen Hatshepsut disappears from 14:56 the scene, and we suspect that her son-in-law Tutmoses III, 15:01 whose relief is seen here, knew something about it. 15:05 Because, immediately we find him going around the land of 15:09 Egypt demolishing her statues, and erasing her name from her 15:14 inscriptions. Here was a relief of Hatshepsut seated upon her 15:19 throne with her scepter in her hand. Tutmoses sent his workmen 15:23 down here and see how they chiseled it all off. 15:26 This was part of his rage to show his anger 15:30 at being held back from the throne so long. 15:33 So he became the mightiest of all the Pharaohs. 15:36 He conducted no less than 17 military campaigns. 15:39 Very successful, and he left some very fine statues of 15:43 himself. For instance there is this statue in the Luxor museum 15:47 and this very fine statue in the New York museum. 15:51 Tutmoses was also responsible for this great festal hall here 15:56 at Carnac in which the archaeologist found a very 15:59 important key list. He was also responsible for erecting 4 big 16:04 obelisks. He depicts two of them on his wall over there. 16:08 One of them has since gone to the city of London and stands on 16:14 the Thames embankment. Another has gone to New York. 16:16 Another one has gone to Istanbul. And the biggest 16:20 of them all stands in front of the churches of John Lateran 16:23 in Rome. It's 32.2 meters high and weighs 455 tons. 16:30 It's an enormous thing, the biggest obelisk ever made 16:32 in the land of Egypt. Tutmoses the 3rd whose relief you see 16:38 here, left this record of his military campaigns. 16:41 And he records here over 100 cities, each one depicted 16:47 by this oval with the form on top, cities which he conquered 16:51 in Palestine and Syria. At the top of this list there is the 16:56 city of Kadesh. Now the word Kadesh means holy or holy city. 17:01 and this could refer to Jerusalem. Now if what we're 17:05 saying is correct, this then is a record of the bible 17:09 story of Rehoboam being invaded by the Pharaoh of Egypt. 17:16 And it says here in 1 Kings 14, and verse 25, Now it happened 17:20 in the 5th year of the king Rehoboam that Shishak, king of 17:23 Egypt came up against Jerusalem and he took away the treasures 17:27 of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the kings 17:29 house. He took everything away. He also took away the gold 17:32 shields which Solomon had made. Now Tutmoses not only left a 17:37 record of the cities he conquered, but he left a record 17:41 of the loot that he took. And I want to show that. 17:44 It was on this wall that Tutmoses depicted a list of all 17:49 the loot that he took from his military campaign. 17:52 Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky who is from Jewish origin, has made a 17:56 comparison between what was in Solomon's temple, according 17:59 to the record of the book of Chronicles, and the items that 18:02 are listed here, and he claims there is a very close similarity 18:05 between those. For instance, you will notice up here the 18:08 fire pans and the bowls, the dishes. There's something up 18:13 here that looks very much like the ark of the covenant 18:16 with the poles through it by which priests carried it. 18:19 And there is an altar. It looks like a fire altar such as 18:23 would be expected in the temple in Jerusalem. And then there's 18:27 this other altar up here. Well it looks more like 7 lampstands. 18:32 that sounds a bit familiar. In particular look up there, 18:36 There are two doors. You see that? And they're golden doors. 18:40 And it says in 1 Kings chapter 6 and in verse 32, The two doors 18:46 were of olive wood and he carved on them figures of 18:48 cherubim, palm trees and open flowers overlaid them with gold. 18:52 Golden doors. And so we have golden doors up here. 19:00 Hedjkheperre Sheshenq was the founder of the Libyan 22nd 19:04 dynasty. And just around the corner here he has left a relief 19:09 which shows a list of cities that were in Palestine and 19:15 Syria and authorities have identified this list with the 19:19 cities conquered by Shishak of the bible. The list is somewhat 19:23 similar as you can see these ovals with the heads on top 19:26 similar to the list that was left by Tutmoses the 3rd. 19:29 But I don't consider this to be a valid identification. 19:32 If this really was the Shishak of the bible, what city would 19:36 you expect to find at the top of the list? Well, Jerusalem 19:39 of course. But Jerusalem is not even in this list. 19:42 Moreover authorities consider that this is not a historical 19:46 list. For some of the cities mentioned here had ceased 19:49 to exist by the time of Shishak. The Matani in particular had 19:54 been wiped out 400 years prior to this list. So I don't 19:58 consider this to be a valid identification. 20:10 Tutmoses the 3rd had transformed Egypt from a nation into an 20:15 empire by his military conquests and from then on 20:19 the tribute flowed in from the surrounding nations. 20:22 Enabling the Pharaohs of the 18th and 19th dynasties 20:26 to build such massive temples and monuments. 20:28 He was followed by Amenophis the 2nd. Amenhotep the 2nd. 20:34 And he left a rather interesting statue which is today in the 20:39 the Cairo museum. And it depicts him as a devotee of the cow 20:44 goddess Hathor. At the front end you see him under the protection 20:49 of the cow goddess and at the other end, well, he's drawing 20:53 nourishment off the grid from this deity. After Amenophis 20:58 the 2nd came Tutmoses the 4th. And he has left rather an 21:04 interesting stela between those paws of the sphinx. He records 21:09 there how he was to become the Pharaoh as the result of 21:14 a dream he had in which the sphinx appeared to him and said, 21:17 If you'll only clear the sand that's stifling me, I'll make 21:21 you the next Pharaoh. Some people have read a lot into 21:23 this and tried to make out that he was made the Pharaoh as the 21:29 result of this dream. Well, I don't consider that to be 21:32 plausible. It was simply a device the Pharaohs had 21:35 to claim the throne as a divine right. And so he simply claims 21:41 that the sphinx had appeared to him and spoke to him. 21:44 Well, he was followed by Amenophis III. Sometimes 21:48 referred to as Amenophis or Amenhotep the magnificent. 21:52 because of his tremendous building program. 21:55 And the largest statue in the Cairo museum depicts Amenophis 22:00 III, and his wife with her arm affectionately around his waist 22:05 The magnitude of his building projects can be gauged from 22:11 these two colossal statues of Amenophis llI which once stood 22:17 at the entrance of his great temple here at Luxor. 22:47 To give you some idea of the enormous magnitude of this 22:51 temple, do you see that stela away back there. Well that 22:56 marked the rear end of the temple which stretched right 22:59 forward to those two huge statues known as the 23:03 Colossi of Memnon which mark the front of the temple. 23:07 Around the other side of this statue of Amenophis is a small 23:12 statue of his mother, Mutemwiya. 23:14 And on this side is a statue of his wife, Tiye. 23:19 Now she's a bit cut down to size of course, but anyway he was 23:22 apparently very devoted to her. because she appeared in so many 23:26 statues and its a little difficult to understand why 23:29 if we go by a statue of her in the Berlin museum. 23:32 She is not exactly beautiful. But anyway maybe she had a 23:35 nice personality or something like that. Now around the side 23:40 of this statue there is a very interesting symbolism. 23:45 Can you see here two figures? And they're both of the river 23:50 god Hapi, representing upper and lower Egypt. And you notice how 23:56 they're sort of tying something together? Well, actually that's 24:00 what the river Egypt does. It binds upper and lower Egypt 24:04 together. And so this is a very fitting symbolism of the 24:07 unity of Egypt which the Pharaohs tried to obtain and the 24:11 river god Hapi binding upper and lower Egypt together. 24:20 Now we come to a really intriguing era of Egyptian 24:24 history. Following Amenophis the 3rd, came his son, 24:29 Amenophis the 4th. And this character adopted a new form of 24:33 religion. He began to worship the sun god under the form of 24:38 his god, Aten, the Sun disk. And he changed his name from 24:43 Amenophis, which included the name of the god Ammon, to 24:48 Atonaton, which incorporated the sun disk, Aton. And his 24:53 reliefs show him as worshiping this sun god. For instance 24:58 in this relief which is in the Cairo museum, we see him 25:04 standing with hands upraised, worshiping Aton 25:08 and Aton on the other hand is reaching down his arms and 25:11 extend a blessing with hands outstretched upon the Pharaoh 25:15 and his wife. Now Atonaton was a grotesque figure if we're going 25:20 to go by his statues, thick lips thin cheek, protruding belly, 25:26 thick thighs. Did he really look like this? Or was it a new art 25:33 form. There's a lot of advocates of the latter theory 25:35 actually, I can't think anyone would want to be depicted 25:38 like this unless he was really like this. It is true that the 25:43 other members of his court also adopted a similar art form 25:47 but I think that was just following the fashion. 25:50 Anyway, Atonotan had some strange statues of himself 25:54 for instance there's this one that shows him without any 25:56 clothing on. Well now, this was abnormal for a Pharaoh. 26:00 They are always modestly dressed and this has given rise to a lot 26:04 of speculation as to why this should be. Was it because 26:08 he was like this? Actually you'll notice that something 26:12 else was missing, too. And this has led to some suggestions that 26:16 he was not able to procreate. But, we do know that he had 26:21 six daughters. You might say they were adopted. 26:24 But if the Pharaoh was going to adopt any children, 26:27 you tell me, what would they be? Well, of course they'd be sons. 26:31 so its quite apparent that he was able to procreate. Well his 26:37 beautiful wife, Nefertiti, had her statue made and this head 26:42 of her is in the Berlin Museum. Its a beautiful statue. I went 26:45 to Berlin just purely and simply to see this statue and I wasn't 26:48 disappointed. And the extraordinary part is 26:52 that it depicts her as blind in the left eye. Do you see that? 26:55 Now this has led to a lot of speculation, too. Was she really 27:00 blind or didn't the artist finish his work? 27:03 Or was the statue mutilated afterward? 27:06 Well, personally I think that she did become blind 27:10 in the left eye. And that would explain why she had a separate 27:14 palace built for herself. Apparently Atonaton still loved 27:18 her but maybe he didn't want her as the retaining queen and 27:22 so not wishing to banish her, and yet not wishing to retain 27:25 her he built this separate palace for her down the 27:27 other end of the new city that he built, Akhetaten, half way 27:31 between Memphis and Thebes. Now Atonaton apparently went through 27:39 a very strange phase towards the end of his reign. And I think 27:44 that is the reason that he is depicted in that statue that I 27:47 showed you. Perhaps even as someone suggested, he developed 27:51 homosexual qualities. Whatever it was, his was an extraordinary 27:56 reign and a strange era in Egyptian history. 28:06 Atonaton was followed by his younger brother, Tutankhaton 28:10 and he reverted to the religion of Ammon. And so changed his 28:13 name to Tutankhamen. In 1922 Howard Carter made a spectacular 28:19 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. Its away down there in 28:23 the valley and later on in this series we're going to have a 28:26 full program on Tutankhaman. You want to stay around for 28:29 that. Its exciting. Tutankhamun was succeeded by Ay and then by 28:34 Horemheb who went around the land of Egypt smashing all the 28:39 statues of Atonaton and demolishing all his temples. 28:44 So this is where the archaeologists have stacked the 28:48 stones from Atonaton's smashed temple. And from the beautiful 28:54 reliefs you can see what a magnificent temple it was. 29:00 This is the way the 18th dynasty came to its end. 29:07 Ramesses the 1st is usually considered to be the 1st king of 29:13 of the 19th dynasty and he was followed by Seti the 1st 29:17 and then came Ramesses II or Ramesses the great. 29:21 And Seti and Ramesses the 2nd were responsible for this huge 29:26 hypostyle hall, 134 massive columns in this great hypostyle 29:33 hall. Ramesses was really great because he was a 29:36 compulsive builder and he also fought the famous battle of 29:41 Kadesh depicted on his reliefs. He was often rejoiced 29:45 to be able to tell about the battle of Kadesh. 29:47 And if you still don't feel like Ramesses was great, just 29:51 consider this. He had 92 sons and 106 daughters. 29:55 And if that doesn't make a man great, you tell me what does. 29:59 Well, Ramesses also was responsible for the magnificent 30:03 temple of Abu Simbel. 30:31 And there also he depicts his battle against the Hittites 30:35 at Kadesh. And we'll have more to say about them in our next 30:38 program. 30:45 But Ramesses also had made provision for his death. 30:51 This is the Ramassea which is his mortuary temple, 30:55 still in remarkably good condition, even the roof 30:58 is intact. And lying on the ground you can see a statue 31:04 of Ramesses, which is the biggest statue in the land of 31:07 Egypt. You can get an idea of the enormous size of this statue 31:15 by the shaping of the feet. 31:23 Well, Ramesses the great died of course he ruled for 67 years 31:27 and that is his mortuary temple away over there in the distance 31:31 and he was succeeded by his son, Merenptah. 31:34 Now Merenptah left a stelae which is very important 31:39 just for one word that occurs on it, the word Israel. You see 31:43 the only place in all of Egypt that the word is Israel occurs. 31:47 Now Mereneptah is not saying that he conquered Israel, 31:49 he is simply recording a historical fact. 31:52 He says Israel is destroyed, her seed is no more. And personally 31:56 I consider this refers to the Assyrian invasion of Palestine 31:59 and the exile of the 10 tribes of Israel into Assyria. 32:15 We are at the Medinet Habu, a temple of Ramesses the 3rd. 32:21 And in this relief that you see here on the wall, Ramesses has 32:27 his club lifted and he's about to bash somebody's brains out. 32:30 And he is depicting here his battle with what I referred to 32:36 the peoples of the sea. Now this battle was supposed to 32:39 have occurred around 1200 BC. But there's some awkward 32:43 anachronisms involved here by this present dating. 32:46 One is, for instance, that Ramesses the 3rd is supposed 32:51 to be repelling these peoples of the sea who swept over 32:54 Anatolia around 1200 BC and annihilated the Hittites. 32:58 But we have a relief of Shalmaneser in his obelisk 33:03 in which he refers to his battle with the Hittites. 33:06 So here you are in the 9th century BC and here's 33:10 Shalmaneser fighting the Hittites who were supposed 33:13 to have been extinguished 1200 BC, you see it just doesn't 33:16 fit. And then, too, in this gateway over here, there is 33:20 obvious a Syrian influence. And you've got to date that to the 33:24 either the 8th or the 9th century BC. So where did 33:27 Ramesses llI get this concept from? Well, you can't say that 33:31 he anticipated the Syrian influence. It is much easier 33:35 to say that Ramesses was a later date. And that's where I 33:39 think it should be. In other words, what he is depicting 33:41 here is his conflicts with the Assyrians. And that would put it 33:46 around the 8th century BC. and there is just one more thing 33:49 that's rather interesting. Ramesses llI has a palace or 33:54 had a palace down in the delta at a place called Tel Yehudah. 34:00 Now some tiles were found there if you please, and they also 34:05 showed Persian influence, by the way, but on the back of the 34:08 tiles there were some Greek letters. Now these Greek letters 34:13 were intended so that they could put the wall in the right 34:14 place, you see. But the problem is, the Greek alphabet was not 34:19 invented until 800 BC. And yet here is Ramesses supposed to be 34:24 making these tiles 1200 BC. So I think all the evidence really 34:28 points to the fact. That this is Ramesses the 3rd fighting 34:33 a battle with the Assyrians, around about the 8th century BC. 34:38 And as far as the sea peoples who were involved, well, 34:42 The Assyrians simply conscripted the Phoenician navy and used 34:47 them in their battles against the Egyptians. 35:07 Well, we're just about down to the end of the history of 35:10 ancient Egypt. We come down to the time of Pharaoh-hophra. 35:14 He's mentioned in the biblical account in Jeremiah chapter 35:16 44 and in verse 30 where it says Behold I will give Pharaohhophra 35:20 king of Egypt into the hand of of his enemies. 35:22 hophra is to be identified with Pharaoh-Apries and this Pharaoh 35:28 left rather a cute sort of an obelisk that is today perched on 35:31 the back of an elephant outside the Pantheon in Rome. 35:34 The prophets of Israel were beginning to predict the doom 35:38 of Egypt. Ezekiel 30 and verse 13 says, I will also destroy the 35:43 idols and cause the images to cease from Noph. They shall no 35:47 longer be princes from the land of Egypt. 36:06 Well, that's exactly what happened. The Persian invasion 36:09 came in the 4th century BC and Cambyses smashed this 36:14 statue of Ramesses the great here in Luxor. 36:17 The great conqueror Alexander the great came here in 332 BC 36:22 and this relief show him worshiping the god Ammon. 36:26 In the latter centuries came the Romans. Here for instance is 36:30 Diocletian's pillar down there at Alexandria. Sometimes 36:33 referred to as Pompey's pillar. In the 7th century came the 36:37 Islamic invasion and finally we come down to the present state 36:41 of the united Arab republic of Egypt. And right down to the 36:45 present time there has never been a native prince in the land 36:49 of Egypt over the last more than 2000 years. The idols have 36:53 been smashed. Everything is just as the bible says, so 36:57 it seems the bible knew what it was talking about. 37:00 What makes Egypt so exciting, I believe, is its ability 37:04 to take you back in time to the glories of its long lost past 37:09 empire, an empire that was once nearly lost to the powerful 37:14 Hittites. To find out more about this relief of Ramesses 37:18 the great fighting the Hittites we take you in our next program 37:22 to Turkey. There we'll be visiting the weird and wonderful 37:27 world of Cappidocia with its incredible underground city 37:31 and geological formations. Although they succeeded in 37:36 defeating the Egyptians, the Hittites were lost from history 37:40 for thousands of years. The scholars even denied their 37:44 very existence until recently, that is. Don't miss it. 37:49 this next exciting episode of Digging up the Past when David 37:52 reveals the dramatic story of how the Hittites were found 37:56 once again. |
Revised 2014-12-17