Saturday, November 22, 2014

A fiction writer's most memorable impressions of Egypt

Adventure fiction that spans the sites of ancient Egypt - on Amazon Kindle (photos Brenda Pond)

Friday, November 21, 2014

Egyptian cat... one of our dogs, Rameses, was smitten with it.

We've had dynasties of dogs with names like Seti, Rameses, Pharoah... and now Anubis

The excitement of discovery... in Egypt and archaeology-based adventure fiction

Imagine finding this Egyptian falcon in the sands of Egypt...(my favourite British Museum replica!)


Discover the hidden secrets of ancient Egypt - Roy Lester Pond, Amazon Kindle

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Take young people to museums and the 2 THINGS THEY MOST WANT TO SEE...


The dinosaur... and the mummy


If you can still remember the frisson of gazing at both, try the tingle of mysterious adventure friction in 'The Egyptian Mythology Murders" or 'Godseed Resurrection... or other titles on this blog... or visit Roy Lester Pond on Amazon Kindle. 


Thursday, November 13, 2014

UPDATE: Ancient Egypt and Outer Space... is ancient Egypt taking over the universe?

 FURTHER UPDATE

It continues - the curious 'ancient Egyptianization' of outer space...

"Incredible Footage of OSIRIS-REx Being Launched Towards an Asteroid


NASA’s spacecraft will intercept Bennu, a small butpotentially hazardous near-Earth object..." (Observer)





UPDATE

The association continues to build... according to this recent item "Bennu... Formerly known as 1999 RQ36, the space rock was chosen by process of elimination as the destination for the UA-led OSIRIS-REx mission, which will pick up a sample of its regolith and return it to Earth for analysis. Launch is little more than two months away."





We are not the only ones to fuse ancient Egypt and outer space. 

The ancient Egyptians' built creation stories out of stellar events. 
  
The sacred Benben stone, centre-piece of the temple of Ra in Heliopolis, was in all likelihood a conical meteorite that fell to earth in Egypt, its pyramidion shape finding echoes in obelisks and in pyramids themselves. 

The ancient Egyptians prized 'iron of the sky', meteoric iron used in the making of jewellery beads, ceremonial daggers (Tutankhamun's treasure provides a famous example of this) and in the sacred adze used in the opening of the mouth ceremony.




OSIRIS-Rex, Philae and Rosetta are just two more examples, and names, in a long comet’s tail of associations between outer space and ancient Egypt.*



Think of the asteroid Apophis (the great Egyptian serpent god of outer darkness) that threw a scare into us when it was feared it might strike earth.



Think of the canonical use of sarcophagus-like sleep capsules used by distant travellers in science fiction movies, with 'Interstellar' being the latest example.



Like astronauts, mummies are bound up in elaborate white suits with masks for their journey through eternity.



Consider the Great Pyramid as the largest ever gantry for a space shot to put the pharaoh's soul into space and orbit among the imperishable circumpolar stars.



In fact you might say that ancient Egypt devised the first ‘space ship’ – a pharaoh’s barque that traveled through the heavens like the sun in a journey of millions of years.

The first 'space ship'- from ancient Egypt?




*(In one of my fictional adventure mysteries, 'THE RA VIRUS'', I build on this tradition where a meteorite bearing a deadly pathogen is suspected of being the cause of an 'Eleventh Plague of Egypt')



Amazon Kindle

Saturday, November 8, 2014

His flashlight illuminated faces of a cow eared goddess carved into the columns. “What is this place?”

New fiction - The Cleopatra Death Conspiracy


A mysteriously chosen group, they had been driven to this unknown site in Land Cruisers by night, blindfolded.
The vehicles had departed, abandoning them, and they’d been led toiling up a rocky path on a mountain or cliff face and eventually admitted via low passages into some large underground vault where voices echoed in empty space.
When the blindfolds came off, it had revealed more darkness until they reached for their flashlights. Spurts of yellow beams began washing across columns in an ancient entrance hall.
Lawrence looked around, marvelling at the sight. His flashlight illuminated faces of a cow eared goddess carved into the columns.
“What is this place?” he said in an enthralled whisper.
Here, brought to life, was the setting of every historical fantasy he had ever wanted to write, every dream he ever dared to dream, every mystery he had ever wanted to believe in.
They had been brought here on the wishes of a dead man, James Hollister.
Before he died, the rich and cancer-ridden archaeologist had invited a group of chosen individuals to this secret location in Egypt.
The lure?
The execution of his last will and testament. Hollister would bequeath to them a great secret discovery, which, if ever revealed, would electrify the world.
A group of intrigued beneficiaries.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Did Akhenaten require the use of a stick?

Amarna-style couple thought to be Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Neues Museum, Berlin

Following on from the BBC virtual autopsy program on Tutankhamun and his possible disabilities...