Days at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo : War, weapons and commanders Edition

On the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the October 1973 war aka Yom Kippur war as well as the 200th anniversary of deciphering Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the creation of Egyptology as an independent science, here are some of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo’s ancient treasures related to war, soldiers and great military leaders.

It is an excuse to share some of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo’s treasures I was lucky enough to snap their photos in past years.

Some of those pieces have been transferred to the New National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Sharm El-Sheikh Museum, Cairo International Airport Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum “GEM” which is said to be inaugurated next month.

And we will start with the unsung heroes of Egypt’s great war history: The soldiers aka the Warriors

Egyptian Pikemen from the Middle Kingdom 

We will meet them again in the post.

Now in December 2015, I took a photo of that group of bronze swords and knives.

Bronze swords at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

 Here is also a collection of Ancient Egyptian daggers made of bronze. I found them on the second floor during then.

As a lousy photographer, I forgot to take a photo or record the info about that amazing collection.

If you know more info about them, please share it with us in the comments. 

Here is an old sword with a golden handle from predynastic Egypt.

Yes, they knew how to adorn metal with gold, to adorn weapons with gold which means those predynastic Egyptians had a more sophisticated culture than we may think.

I wonder what those glyphs on the handle meant.

Here are predynastic axe and arrows.

Predynastic arrows and axe at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

Do not know if our ancient predynastic Egyptians used them as weapons or as tools to get food.

To the old kingdom 

Here is the famous Narmer Palette, one of the oldest and earlier hieroglyphs depicting the battle to unify Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt under the role of King Narmer.

Narmer, the warrior on his famous palette 

On the palette made of green siltstone, we find King Narmer lifting a royal mace in his right hand while with his left he pulls up a kneeling captive by the hair.

The plate goes back about 31 centuries B.C. and it was found in the late 19th century at Nekhen in Modern Day Aswan governorate between Esna and Edfu in the South of Egypt.

On the other side, we find Narmer being celebrated in some sort of victory procession.

The unification of Egypt was achieved by war besides politics.

That position of Narmer beating the hell of some poor captive would be the official pose for all ancient Egyptian kings that followed him if you pay attention.

Here is an ancient dagger from the Archaic era.

Silver dagger from the Archaic era at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo

That is a silver dagger “love the handwritten labels” and it goes back to Egypt’s Archaic era which is the Early Dynastic Period that immediately follows the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

It included the first and second dynasties. It is interesting to see a silver dagger. My mythical brain says that it was used to kill ancient vampires.

Here is one of the most famous Egyptian army commanders of that era, Prince Rahotep of the Old Kingdom.

Prince Rahotep at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo

With that moustache, Rahotep reminds me of the Egyptian army officers in the 1950s and 1960s.

Son of King Sneferu and brother of King Khufu of the powerful 4th dynasty, his true fame did not come from legendary military conquests but rather his famous statue along with his beautiful wife Nofret.

Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret's statue at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

The couple statues were discovered by August Mariette. A spooky little tale that Mariette was not the first man to unearth them "as usual" but rather it was the Egyptian workers who unearthed them but they were first scared of the couple’s statues because their eyes looked so alive. 

They thought that they were alive.

To the Middle Kingdom

We are back to our warriors at the top.

Here are our Egyptian pikemen again.

Those were 40 figures for Egyptian pikemen that accompanied Prince Mesehti, the 13th ruler or Nomarch of Upper Egypt at his tomb in his eternal trip during the 11th dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. “around 2000 B.C”

Mesehti’s tomb was found in the 19th century during illegal excavation.

The 40 Egyptian pikemen were not alone in their trip with Mesehti because he took figurately speaking his Nubian Archers too as well.

Here were the 40 Nubian archers of Mesehti and you can spot the difference in skin colour.

I think that meant the Nubia was under Egyptian control then and its archers were the best that Mesehti wanted them to accompany him on his eternal trip to the other side.

You can see the Nubian archers carrying their bows in one hand and in the other hands. They wore coloured shorts, unlike their ancient Egyptian counterparts.

Mesehti was not only the ruler of Upper Egypt but he was the overseer of the ancient Egyptian deity Wepwawt, who was the god of war and was based in Assuit. I think he also was an army commander.

A side note: I think the number “40” has a significant meaning in Egyptian mythology, especially in death and that’s found its way into our modern belief system.  “40 days memorial as the soul of the deceased remains with us for 40 days”

Those soldiers were among the amazing things at the Museum because they gave you a realistic impression of how the soldiers looked during the Middle Kingdom era.

Here is the dagger of Princess Ita of the 12th dynasty.

Princess Ita's dagger at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

The daughter of King Amenehat II, the dagger was found along with other precious and beautiful items at her tomb in Dahshur besides her father’s Pyramid.

To the New Kingdom

To the New Kingdom era and its mighty kings. That era witnessed the Egyptian empire’s expansion in the old world, mostly in the Middle East.

We would start with Egypt’s greatest warrior of all time: King Thutmose III

One of King Thutmose III's sphinxes at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo's garden

Here is one of the red granite sphinxes of King Thutmose III at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo’s garden.

One of King Thutmose III's sphinxes at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo's garden

King Thutmose III of the 18th dynasty was a great commander who expanded Egypt into the North controlling Canaan and Syria.

The second red granite sphinx of King Thutmose III 

Here is the second sphinx in the garden of the museum. 

To the chariots of ancient Egyptians 

Yuya's war chariot at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

That chariot was a present from Amenhotep III to his father-in-law Yuya.

A highly respectable advisor to the famous ancient King of the 18th dynasty, Yuya did not use the chariot in his time and that way its wood is good till now as if it were new.

Yuya's war chariot at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

To Yuya’s most famous great-grandson, King Tutankhamun who achieved world fame in the 20th century that put him on the same stage as Egypt’s greatest warrior kings.

A drawing on a box depicting King Tut on a war chariot fighting off Egypt’s enemies at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo before its transfer to the Grand Egyptian Museum.

King Tut, the warrior leading Egypt's armies against Egypt's enemies on a box
at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

The original chariot of King Tut was transferred from his tomb in Luxor to the Egyptian Military Museum in the 1980s. It was moved in 2018 to the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Here was the beautifully and carefully hand-painted box’s side.

King Tut as two sphinxes crashing Egypt's enemies on that box once upon a time
at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

King Tut was depicted as two sphinxes crashing the Ancient Nubian enemies then.

Here was one of King Tut’s ceremonial wooden shields and check that design carefully

King Tut's shield, again he was a sphinx crashing 
Egypt's enemies at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

It depicted him as a sphinx crushing his Nubian enemies while being protected by the Ancient Egyptian deities Ra and Horus. The Ancient Nubians were causing a lot of trouble during his reign.

King Tut got several shields including those two too.

King Tut's unseen shields were on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo
in November 2018

The shields showed him as a crowned pharaoh on his throne.

Those two shields were made of wood covered with gesso and gold leaf and were first displayed to the public at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in November 2017. “Yes, that’s me in the reflection and I am sorry for that”

And King Tut’s famous dagger came from outer space for real.

King Tut's dagger at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo

According to Egyptian and Italian researchers, that dagger was made of a meteorite that fell near Marsa Matrouh. 

And into the age of the great 19th dynasty of the Ramessids that witnessed the peak of the Ancient Egyptian Empire and its expansion in the Levant in the New Kingdom.

The entrance of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo's first floor 
got about 4 or 3 or 2 Ramessids Kings

At the main entrance of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, you are surrounded by four kings who are considered great army commanders from the Ramessids standing high since the inauguration of the Museum as far as I know.

Needless to say, there is an endless count of Ramessids statues in the Egyptian Museum to the level that you find one in the bathroom. “Sorry not sorry”

Here is the Statue of King Ramses II in the garden of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo receiving visitors.

King Ramses II's statue at the Egyptian Museum 
of Cairo's garden 

A great military commander that expanded the Egyptian empire in the Levant and Syria up to the Hattie Empire's borders. We are saying here about modern-day Turkey, folks here in ancient times.  

The peak of his achievements I believe was the battle of Kadesh. That battle yielded not only a victory "each side claimed victory in their literature" but in the world's oldest surviving peace treaty. 

Here is another statue of King Ramses II inside the Egyptian Museum of Cairo at the entrance.

Another King Ramses II statue at the entrance of 
the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

It is called the Silver treaty and it took 16 years of fighting between the ancient Egyptians and Hittites to realize peace was the way. 

Personally, I do not think it is the first peace treaty but rather the oldest surviving.

The concept of Peace or treaty seemed familiar to both Civilizations.

Here is another statue of the great king again at the entrance of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo made of granite. That statue has an interesting story that we will leave for another post 

Another Ramses II statue at the entrance of the Egyptian
Museum of Cairo 

There is not any shortage of Ramses II or his dynasty’s statues at the museum as I hinted.

Moving to Ramses II’s son directly, here is the famous or infamous “whatever you like” the Merneptah Stele.

Mernptah stele 

The stele made of granite mostly recounts the great victory of the 4th ruler of the 19th Dynasty over the ancient Libyans and their allies but its fame is for another reason. 

Merneptah stele or Israel stele allegedly includes the only mention of “Israel” or the “Israelites” in the Ancient Egyptian literature found in Egypt.

We will return to this later.

The stele was found at the Merneptah's funerary chapel in Thebes, the ancient Egyptian capital on the west bank of the Nile. Another copy of the stele was found in the 1970s at the Karnak Temple.

The stele was found in 1896 by famous Egyptologist Flinders Petrie at Luxor aka Thebes. 

I think it was too heavy because the infamous leading figure in Egyptology did not ship to the UK.

A close look at Mernptah's stele at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

Petrie and other Egyptologists then made the first translation of the stele and they believed a word in famous line 27 was referring to Israel, especially since it mentioned how the Egyptian King got rid of Israel’s seed.

The early days of archaeology especially in Iraq and Egypt in the 19th century were actually inspired and motivated by Bible and attempts to prove the old testament correct against Science and Darwin’s Evolution theory. It would be interesting to see how the Press in the UK then dealt with the discovery of this Stele. Petrie already believed it was one of his important discoveries.

Now Egyptologists say that the word was misinterpreted and it does not mention what Israel or Israelites think about. 

To the last greatest warriors of the Ramessids according to some historians: Ramses III

Ramses III statue at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo 

King Ramses III of the 20th dynasty had a very interesting life and rule. The third of his name defeated the ancient Libyans and the enigmatic Sea people in their attempts to invade Egypt twice. He fought to keep the control of Egypt on levant intact.

Nevertheless, that came with a huge economic price for Egypt and the Egyptians as usual and his rule witnessed the world-first-recorded labour strike in history.

In the end, he was assassinated by none other than his own wife along with his own harem. He was also the victim of the world-first-harem plot.

This land had seen a lot for sure.

And no worries, I will end this very long post here with a photo of the goddess of war in ancient Egypt statue.

Sekhmet statue at the Egyptian Museum of
Cairo 

Here is Sekhmet sitting calmly at the New Kingdom section of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo as the world countries continue to fight each other. 

Choosing a lioness as the goddess of war shows that ancient Egypt had very good knowledge of how fierce the lioness could be.

Happy 6th October 1973 and May Allah bless our martyrs who gave their souls to keep this old land safe since the dawn of history.