During the long reign of Psamtik I (ca. 664-610 BCE) Egypt became an independent kingdom again. He defended this independence against both the former oppressors of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the last pharaoh of the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, Tantamani. The latter was forced on the defensive and finally brought to…
The Third Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt started with the death of Ramesses XI in 1077 BCE and ended with the founding of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty by Psamtik I in 664 BCE. It was a period of over 400 years during which Egypt was either divided or ruled by Libyan…
Pharaoh Ay must have been quite old when he ascended the throne in about 1323 BCE. After his death a certain Horemheb seized power. He was both a high-ranking general and a commoner, and it was his control of the army that made his coup possible. Horemheb was also the…
During his long reign (ca. 1479-1425 BCE) pharaoh Thutmose III had turned Egypt into a superpower. Egypt was a rich kingdom thanks to its control of the goldmines of Nubia. The kingdom was able to enforce its authority from around the fifth cataract of the Nile in the south to…
The history of the New Kingdom of Egypt starts with the first pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose I (ca. 1549-1524 BCE). During his reign and that of his son Amenhotep I (ca. 1525-1506 BCE) a process of standardisation was launched for the recently reunited country. Legislation, administration, the calendar…
For Egypt, the Middle Kingdom was a new era of prosperity. Under the pharaohs of the Eleventh Dynasty Thebes (Waset) officially became the royal residence, but the first pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty decided to found a new capital elsewhere in Egypt. Deities that had originally been worshipped in the…
The Old Kingdom was ruled by the pharaohs from the Third to Sixth Dynasties.[1] In this period, which starts in the early 27th century BCE and ends in the early 22nd, Egypt’s most famous monuments were built: the pyramids. Many of these gigantic constructions – not all of them are…
Egypt is in all respects the land of the Nile. Africa’s longest river creates a narrow fertile valley between the Sahara desert in the west and the rocky terrain along the Red Sea in the east. Between 25,000 and 10,000 BCE, so in the closing stages of the late Old…
We drove to Rethymnon, a small city of some 35.000 inhabitants, on a rainy day in October. Autumn was rapidly approaching on Crete and it was chilly and wet. There was a lot of traffic in the city streets and we had to drive around for quite a while before…
A conversation about the village of Fodele could go something like this: “Ah, Fodele, that’s where the famous Cretan painter El Greco was born!” “In your dreams, Nikos, he was born in Candia, present-day Heraklion.” “Nonsense, he was born in Fodele, and we have the proof! There’s a museum at…
Comparing the palace complexes of Knossos and Phaistos is like comparing day and night. Visiting Phaistos is a completely different experience. Phaistos is about half as famous as Knossos, it is much smaller, does not draw huge crowds and little to no restoration work has been carried out here. The…
A trip to Crete is not complete without a visit to the Minoan palace complex of Knossos. The first palace here was built during the Old Palace period (1900-1700 BCE). Around 1700 BCE, this palace was destroyed, presumably by an earthquake. It was rebuilt soon afterwards. The ruins we see…
Chania is the second largest city on Crete, with a population of over 50.000 inhabitants. It is also, in my honest opinion, by far the most relaxed, charming and beautiful city on the island. We drove all the way from Ligaria near Heraklion to Chania, which is about 100 kilometres…
Heraklion is the capital of Crete. With over 170.000 inhabitants, it is also by far the largest city on the island. Although there is a lot of traffic and congestion, it is still pleasant to walk through the streets of the historical city centre, where in most places only pedestrians…
Gortys, also known as Gortyn or Gortyna, was the capital of Roman Crete. It was destroyed in the ninth century by Muslim Arab raiders and the area has been uninhabited ever since. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Italian archaeologist Federico Halbherr and his team began excavating at…
Crete, like most islands in the Mediterranean, has always been a crossroads of civilisations. It has been inhabited since at least 6000 BCE, when migrants from Anatolia in present-day Turkey crossed the sea and settled on the island. Some 3000 years later, Crete was part of an extensive naval trade…
Paphos and environs are a good spot to learn more about Cyprus’ complex history. Monuments of most of the civilisations that have been present on the island can be seen here. From the cult of the goddess Aphrodite to the Lusignan dynasty, and from the Ottoman Turks to the British…
Polis is the Greek word for ‘city’ or ‘city state’. The Polis I discuss here is a town of some 3.500 inhabitants in the northwest of Cyprus. It is also known as Polis Chrysochous, ‘city of the golden land’. The town itself is small but interesting, and further to the…
Kourion – Curium in Latin – was an important city state in Ancient Cyprus. It flourished during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, until it was almost completely destroyed by two earthquakes in the fourth century CE. A rebuilt Kourion was an easy target for Arab raiders, who destroyed the city…
Paphos in the southwest of Cyprus is known for quite a few historical treasures. It became the capital of Cyprus during the Ptolemaic period (ca. 323-58 BCE), when the island was ruled by the descendants of Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemaios. Previously, the capital had been at Salamis, but the…
