The two articles are taken from the page:
original article, you can see pictures of the grave.
discovered a tomb full of paintings near the Pyramids of Giza. A scene sober and touching family intimacy has reappeared with the discovery of an Egyptian tomb at Giza, in probably the site of the "great city of the pyramids"
His wife shakes his shoulder with one hand, in a attitude mixture of devotion and protection of her husband, perhaps started on his journey to eternity. The scene, surely one of the most touching in its intimacy of Egyptian family, has appeared in recent weeks that the archaeologists have discovered in the area of \u200b\u200bthe pyramids of Giza, near Cairo, the tomb, belonging to Rudj-Ka, a professional "purification."
The tomb was built about 4350 years ago, during the Fifth Dynasty, and as was the case of burials of people not gifts, is decorated with relief images that depict the occupant in his daily activities: Rudj Ka-going fishing with a harpoon in the swamps, which runs through the Nile in a boat, who with his wife offers ritual gifts of bread, geese and cattle.
But not only are the images so alive and immediate, after four and a half millennia, to have aroused interest among archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities. The proximity of the tomb to the three pyramids of Giza is a further confirmation of the hypothesis that during the Old Kingdom, in the flat today on the outskirts of Cairo, "lay a large city inhabited by all those priests and lay people who occupied to keep alive the cult of the dead pharaohs, to let them continue to live, "said Zahi Hawass. A true "city of the pyramids" inhabited by hundreds of people, perhaps hundred times more during periods of construction of the three monuments. This is the first tomb discovered in the place where scientists believe that this becomes the largest concentration of priests and builders.
The burial inscriptions indicate that Rudj-Ka was a priest of the cult of the pharaoh Chephren (Dynasty IV) who reigned more than a century, between 2520 and 2494 BC and whose name is linked to the second of three Great Pyramids of Giza and probably also to the construction of the Sphinx. In particular, Rudj-Ka was a "cleansing", that the priest in charge of supervising the purification rituals performed in honor of the pharaoh, whose cult - as now seems clear - Continue for centuries after his death.
Hawass has also stressed that the tomb is unique for its architectural structure. The outside is covered by large limestone blocks that create a labyrinth path towards the main entrance to the burial. And the burial chamber was excavated in the rock, which at that place forms a small hill sloping down from the plateau where there are the three pyramids, the most suggestive evidence of an extraordinary civilization.
Historical - December 2010 - John Siniscalchi
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A painting on the wall of a newly discovered Egyptian tomb shows its occupant, Rudj-Ka (right) and his wife. According to archaeologists Rudj-Ka probably lived in ancient Egypt during the Fifth Dynasty, about 4350 years ago. The works and artifacts found in this rich tomb, discovered on a cliff near the Great Pyramid of Giza, indicates that Rudj-Ka was a priest of the funerary cult of the Pharaoh Khafre of the Fourth Dynasty, who reigned from 2558 to 2532 BC Khafre is known as the architect of the second of the three pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx gdi. During the Old Kingdom, "the death of Pharaoh was born a city around the pyramid," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities. "In this city lived priests and all those who kept alive the cult of the pharaoh." It seems that Rudj-Ka was the priest in charge of overseeing the rites of purification celebrated in honor of the deceased pharaoh.
Zahi Hawass points out the offerings of bread, geese and beef painted this picture of the broader picture of Rudj-Ka and his wife just inside the Egyptian tomb discovery. The ancient tomb, Hawass suggests, could be part of a larger cemetery complex yet to bring to light near Giza. Stresses Hawass, who is also responsible for the National Geographic Society explorer "is the first time that we find the cartouche of Khafre in this area."
Another painting in the new tomb shows Rudj-Ka intent to fish in the Nile. In the tombs of ancient Egypt were often represent these scenes of daily life activities that the occupant was hoping to play in his afterlife. "In Dynasty V and VI Nalle priests were not the high class," said Hawass. "They could have modest origins, a worker could become a priest." The painting does not mean that fishing was the activity that Rudj Ka-first place to become a priest; archaeologists stress that no grave picture shows exactly what he was doing Rudj Ka-before becoming a priest.
The entrance to the tomb of Ka-Rudj (pictured) leads to a maze of corridors built with limestone blocks. The burial complex was dug from inside a rock wall and would have to accommodate all the family of the priest. The construction of this rich tomb must have required an enormous amount of work and a lot of money, Hawass continues: "It was the quest for immortality that moved these people." In any case, Rudj-Ka could afford a costly tomb: the priests became rich once appointed. In exchange for their services, the priests received a portion of property offered to the temple.
workers' cemetery of the pyramid is located to the north of the tomb of Ka-Rudj. Discovered a decade ago, the cemetery has enabled us to understand how the construction of the Pyramids of Giza has mobilized the whole of Egyptian society, creating a city around the monuments. The tomb of Ka-Rudj maybe it was separate from that of workers because of his priestly rank, said Hawass, who hopes that the new tomb is part of a cemetery, still digging, dedicated to the priests and the Pharaoh's court.
Workers clean up sand from artifacts discovered at the cemetery of the workers who built the pyramids. Although Hawass is convinced that this new cemetery and the grave are connected, it is also possible that the tomb of Ka-Rudj constitutes an extension of the western great necropolis of Memphis on the edge of today's city of Cairo. "The location is amazing," said Hawass. "I do not We never expected to find a grave so big in the south of the cemetery workers. "
Photographs by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic.
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