The lost Egyptian Sun Temple has been unearthed in one of the most important discoveries of the past 50 years
Archaeologists toiling in the Egyptian desert have made one of the most important discoveries of the past 50 years after discovering one of the four lost temples of the sun.
It is believed that the pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty erected six sun temples to supplement their pyramids.
The pharaohs built the vast pyramids as their last resting places to ensure that they became a god in the afterlife.
However, the Sun Temples took God's wish a step further, and the goal was to make the pharaoh a god while he was still alive. But while experts believe that six of the pharaohs were built by various pharaohs, modern archaeologists have found only two.
Dr. Massimiliano Nozolo, Assistant Professor of Egyptology at the Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, has spent his career trying to discover others.
Dr. Massimiliano Nozzolo, who was searching for the Lost Temples of the Sun, said: "Every king wanted a pyramid to achieve his resurrection, but this was not enough for the kings of the Fifth Dynasty."
"They wanted something more. The king built [the Temple of the Sun] to transform himself into a god. The sun god."
Ra, the sun god, was the most powerful deity in ancient Egypt and the focal point of many elaborate rituals.
Each solar temple was distinguished by a large courtyard with a tall pyramid-like obelisk perfectly aligned with the east-west axis of the sun.
This is designed so that the sun rises on the summer solstice and rises through the plaza entrance, highlighting the obelisk at dawn, with the sun setting on the other side of the temple.
Dr. Nozulu focused on one of the sun temples already known, built by King Neuser at Abu Ghuwab, who ruled for 30 years in the 25th century B.C.
Careful excavations beneath its shattered remains have revealed an ancient adobe plinth, indicating the presence of an earlier building on the site.
However, Dr. Nozulu and his colleagues, including Dr. Muhammad Othman, had no clue what this building was or whether it was sacred.
Additional laborious removal of sand and rubble revealed a two-foot-deep base of a white limestone column, meaning the building first erected on the site was "impressive," according to Dr. Nozulu.
He said, "We knew that there was something under the stone temple of Nozier, but we don't know if it was just another building stage for the same time or if it was a new temple."
"Indeed, the fact that there is such a huge entrance indicates a new building. So why isn't there another Sun Temple, one of the Lost Sun Temples?"
However, the subsequent discovery allowed the researchers to complete a jigsaw and make sure that their discovery was the Temple of the Sun, the third found and the first to be discovered half a century ago.
A cache of mud-filled beer jars, a ritual dedicated to the most sacred places, was discovered in the foundations, which was evidence, researchers say, that the ancient site was a temple.
When combined with the newly discovered architecture, academics are convinced that this proves that excavations have revealed an elusive temple.
"I now have plenty of evidence that what we're digging here is one of the lost temples of the sun," Dr. Nozulu said.
However, the creator and donor of the Sun Temple are still unknown, but he is most likely one of the mysterious rulers of the Fifth Dynasty.
Kings are superior to their ancestors.
The temples of the sun were built only by a few pharaohs as the financial distress of generations of pyramid builders began to affect the state coffers, as each king outstripped his predecessor.
Pharaoh Khufu was the last ruler to benefit from the reliable annual floods of the Nile, which provided fertile soil and abundant yields of crops which meant tax income was plentiful.
However, after Khufu, drought engulfed most of Egypt, causing the state's tax income to fall and leaving subsequent rulers financially handicapped compared to their predecessors.
As a result, later pyramids served as a shadow of earlier versions, and temples to the sun were cost-effective to ensure that the pharaohs retained their power and were still worshiped by the people despite increasing difficulties.
The third season of The Lost Treasures of Egypt will be shown on National Geographic Channel tomorrow at 7 pm, November 14, 2021.
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