Plenty of Nothing

Kit Kat

How did Cairo get a district named Kit Kat? Ghita Skali's The Kit Kat Project digs into it.

Nilometer

The Egyptians built stone gauges to measure the annual Nile inundation from the time of the Pharoahs until the construction of the Aswan Dam put an end to the floods. Source.

Alexander the Great as a Pharaoh

This granite statue is thought -- on the basis of its curly locks -- to represent Alexander the Great. He was ruler of Egypt from 332 to 323 BC, but he didn't spend much time there. The statue currently resides in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt.

Colossi of Memnon, 1930s

An aerial photograph of the Colossi of Memnon, taken in the 1930s. Source.

Theodosia of Constantinople

It's the feast day of Theodosia of Constantinople, who was executed after she knocked a man off a ladder while he was trying to destroy an icon of Christ. She exhibits a degree of severity that you usually associate with the iconoclasts. There's something of Michael Corleone about her. That gesture of her right hand, normally meant as a benediction, looks more like, "Hey, you just watch yourself."

This icon of the iconophile is housed at Mount Sinai Monastery, near where God told Moses, "Thou shalt not make any graven images." Watch a documentary in which a monk ruefully makes this very point.

Christian iconography developed directly out of Eastern Mediterranean pagan iconography. The Louvre has an Egyptian shroud painting in which a woman holds the same pose as Theodosia, except that she's holding an ankh in her left hand.

Boats on the Nile

Barche sul Nilo, by Beniamino Facchinelli. Source. These are feluccas with two lateen sails apiece.

Fragment of a Queen's Face

At the Met.

Fayum Portraits

It's difficult to regard Egyptian mummies with horror once you've looked at the portraits they used to attach to them.

The Oxyrhynchus Socks

The city of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt is the site of the biggest haul of ancient papyrus yet found, but it has also thrown up some other things -- like these socks. They were knit using a one-needle technique later found in Vikings burials. They have a split toe so they can be worn with sandals. You can see them at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

UBC Papyri

A couple of papyri from Roman Egypt have surfaced at the UBC Library where they have been filed away since the 1930s. Story.