Egyptian Decor

• Queen Nefertiti: Wife of Pharoah Akhenaten who abandoned multi-god worship and put the Sun god above all others. Historians suspect she co-ruled with her husband in his last few years, but was eventually disposed of by her enemies, after his death. As with all heretic pharaohs, Akhenaten and Neftertiti’s images were defaced and destroyed after their deaths. But one exquisite piece was missed. The entrancing, swan-necked image of Nefertiti, found buried in the workshop of sculptor Tutmose, in Tel Amarna in 1912, dates back to 1345B.C. Unlike most Egyptian portraits which were stiff and formal, as opposed to the lifelike work of the Greeks and Romans, this bust has highly refined features, delicate cheekbones, and a faint smile to the lips. The woman whose name meant “the beautiful (or perfect) woman has come”, is still fascinating people, more than three millennia, later.
• King Tut: The boy king who either died or was murdered, circa 1325B.C. Having been basically a puppet since he rose to the throne at the age of 7, and having died at 19, it staggered the world to see the funeral riches heaped upon this basically unknown pharaoh. His fame lies almost solely in the contents of his tomb, one of which, is the famous golden death mask. The body of King Tut was encased in three golden coffins- two of gold leafed wood, and one that was 296 lbs. of solid gold. Inside that inner coffin, lay the mummified remains of the young king, overlaid with a golden mask weighing 24 lbs. and decorated with lapis lazuli, carnelian, quartz, turquoise, obsidian, and colored glass. A well-crafted replica of this mask is a real conversation piece, mounted on a pedestal to show it to advantage. The seemingly cold, expressionless face has eyes that seem to penetrate through the viewer, and the sheer richness of the gold, along with the detailing in the headdress, make it a real focal point of any room.

• King Tut’s tomb was extremely small, and thought to originally belong to a minor official. His unexpected death meant there had been no time to build his own.
• While the press spread word of King Tut’s curse n 1922, when the tomb was opened, there was no curse. Reported inscriptions over the tomb did not exist. The closest to a “curse” was the inscription on a statue of Anubis which read "It is I who hinder the sand from choking the secret chamber. I am for the protection of the deceased." While six of the people present at the opening died within ten years, many lived to ripe old age.
• The Christian cross was developed from the ancient Egyptian symbol for life, the Ankh.
• The riddle supposedly spoken by the Sphynx, is: What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, three legs at night? The answer is: Man, who crawls as a baby, walks as an adult, and uses a cane when he grows old.
• The term pharaoh in Egyptian means “great house”.