Please Note: The dates included here are VERY approximate, as the Ancient Egyptians had no coherent calendar as we do, and our knowledge of their dating is sketchy at best.
Third Dynasty
Imhotep lived during the reign of King Djoser, of the Third Dynasty, and is most famous for having designed Djoser’s Step Pyramid, the first known true pyramid in Ancient Egypt (picture below). His responsibilities included being the High Priest of Heliopolis and Chief Architect.
Far from having been cursed, he was revered, especially in the Late Period, when he was deified as a god of wisdom and learning, and also believed to have been a son of the god, Ptah. There is a temple dedicated to him at Philae. Imhotep’s place of burial is unknown, but most likely he was buried at Saqqara with other high officials, possibly in mastaba 3518. He lived to be an old man.
Left: A statue of the deified Imhotep, from the Late Period.
Eighteenth Dynasty
Ankhesenamun is one of the most interesting female characters of Ancient Egyptian history. She was born the daughter of the heretic king Akhenaten and his wife, the well-known Nefertiti. She was married to Tutankhamun, who was possibly her brother (picture below). However, Tutankhamun did not live past the age of 18, and so she was widowed at a young age. The two did not have any surviving children.
As a result, at the death of Tutankhamun, there was no successor. To alleviate this, Ankhesenamun wrote to the king of the Hittites, Suppiluliumas, and requested that he send her one of his sons to be king of Egypt, thereby bringing the two countries much closer. Suppiluliumas did so, but the son never arrived in Egypt, perhaps dying on the journey. Ankhesenamun was forced to marry Tutankhamun’s uncle, Ay, who thereby became the king of Egypt. Nothing further is known of Ankhesenamun, and her place of burial is unknown.
A golden throne found in Tutankhamun's tomb, depicting the young king with his wife,
Nineteenth Dynasty
Seti I was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and was greatly concerned with the strength of his kingdom. As a result, he spent much of his 15 year reign expanding the borders of Egypt, fighting many successful battles with the Libyans and Hittites. He also spent a great deal of time building monuments, including his temple at Abydos, and his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV17 (picture left). He began the construction of the Hypostyle Hall in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, one of the most spectacular pillared halls in history.
Seti was the son of Ramesses I, and father to Ramesses II, the most well-known and successful of all Egyptian pharaohs, and possibly the pharaoh spoken of in the Moses story in the Bible. Seti’s mummy has survived to the present, and is currently housed in the Cairo Museum (picture below).
The mummy of Seti I
Dynasty 0 (Predynastic)
Scorpion is one of the very first known pharaohs of Egypt, and as a result little is known of him. Most of our knowledge of him comes from the so-called Scorpion Macehead, which depicts the king performing some kind of agricultural ritual (picture below). A tomb at Abydos was discovered bearing Scorpion inscriptions, but may have belonged to another pharaoh who also used the name Scorpion. Some scholars believe that Scorpion may have been the king also known as Menes, who in later times was identified as the very first king of Egypt, and the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt.
King Scorpion from the Scorpion Mace.
Other facts
* There is no place known as Hamenaptra.
* There were NEVER pyramids at Thebes.
* King Scorpion would never have worn gold, as he is shown in the trailer, as gold was not a known substance in the early periods of Egyptian history.
I won’t even mention the other, more obvious, inconsistencies in the movie, such as the reanimation of mummies. I don’t think that there are mummies that wander around their museums, moaning and sucking the brains of the living. It would hurt tourism, for a start.
There are also no such thing as flesh-eating scarabs. Scarabs eat dung, and don’t move very fast.
Bibliography
There are many excellent histories of Ancient Egypt, but these are the ones that I mainly used in writing this page.
Peter A Clayton, "Chronicle of the Pharoaohs," London, 1994.
Nicholas Grimal, "A History of Ancient Egypt," Oxford, 1997.
Barry J. Kemp, "Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization," London, 1989.
Nicholas Reeves and Richard H Wilkinson, "The Complete Valley of the Kings," London, 1996.
Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson, "The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt," London, 1995.
Links
As yet I have been able to find few pages on either "The Mummy" or "The Mummy Returns." But I will include a link to the offical site, as this contains the trailer for the new movie, and a lot of other cool stuff. Note: You'll need Flash for this site.
"The Mummy Returns"
Krysanthemum's Other Websites
That's right, I've been doing this for too long. And every page I create seems to be about movies. Ah well, it's an obsession.
Krysanthemum's Home Patch
Interview with the Vampire Page
Contact me
If you want to write to me and comment on my page, or ask me a question, please do so by clicking below. However, I want to warn you that I am NOT an authority on anything that I have written here. Everything on this page can be found in the books listed in the bibliography, and in many others. While I'll be happy to try and help you, I am just a student who knows a bit of HTML and has a big mouth. This doesn't make me an authority on ANYTHING, trust me.
E-mail me
This page was created by Krysanthemum on the 26th January 2001. All text on this page is copyright of the author. All pictures are NOT copyright, except the Step Pyramid of Djoser photo. The author takes no responsibility for inaccuracies, inconsistencies or stupid mistakes.
"The Mummy" is one of my favorite movies, and I'm really looking forward to "The Mummy Returns," especially considering my deep interest in Egyptian History. While I enjoy the movie for its sillyness, it always slightly bothered me that it was using the names of real historical figures, with little regard to historical accuracy. I know this is typical Hollywood, but I thought it was time that the real histories of Imhotep, Ankesenamun, Seti and Scorpion were known. For starters, Imhotep and Ankhesenamun were born over a thousand years apart. While I know this is pure pickiness on my part, I decided to put this page together anyway, just to satisfy my own love of Egyptian History.
Imhotep
Approx. 2670 BCE
Right: The Step Pyramid of Djoser
Ankh-es-en-amun (Anck-sun-amun)
Approx. 1340 BCE
Ankhesenamun, who stands in front of him.
Seti I
Approx. 1290 BCE
Scorpion
Approx. 3050 BCE
The Offical Site
