by Paul Sussman
Cartouche An elongated oval enclosing the name of a pharaoh.
Clayton, Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick British surveyor, soldier and desert explorer. Mapped large areas of the western desert in the 1920s and 1930s. Lived 1896-1962. Two other Claytons also played a prominent role in the exploration of the Gilf Kebir during the 1930s: British aviator Sir Robert Clayton-East-Clayton (1908-1932), who gave his name to the geographical formation Clayton’s Craters, and his wife Lady Dorothy Clayton-East-Clayton (1908-1933), who was the model for the Kristen Scott Thomas character in the film The English Patient.
Copt An Egyptian Christian. The Copts are one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, dating back to the first century AD when St Mark brought the Gospel to Egypt. They account for approximately 10 per cent of the population of modern Egypt. The word ‘copt’ is derived from the ancient Greek Aigyptos, which in turn comes from the ancient Egyptian hut-ka-Ptah – the House of the Spirit of Ptah.
Cuneiform Ancient Mesopotamian wedge-shaped script.
David-Neel, Alexandra French explorer, adventurer, mystic and writer, famous for her travels in Tibet and the Himilayas. In 1924 she was the first European woman to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa. Lived 1868-1969.
Dead Hang Hanging from a hold with your arms completely straight.
Deadman A climbing manoeuvre in which the climber swings his arm upwards towards a difficult hold, making contact with the hold at the very limit of his reach.
De Lancey Forth, Lieutenant-Colonel Nowell Barnard Australian soldier and desert explorer. Served with the Sudan Camel Corps from 1907 to 1916. Lived 1879-1933.
Deshret Literally, ‘red land’. The word used by ancient Egyptians to describe the arid desert to either side of the Nile.
Djed An ancient Egyptian symbol of stability depicted as a pillar surmounted by four horizontal branches. Considered to represent the backbone of the god Osiris.
Djedefre Fourth Dynasty (Old Kingdom) pharaoh, son of Khufu. Ruled c. 2528-2520 BC. His name is sometimes written Ra-djedef.
Djellaba Traditional robe worn by Egyptian men and women.
Djoser Third Dynasty (Early Dynastic) pharaoh. Ruled c. 2630-2611 BC. His Step Pyramid at Saqqara, just south of Cairo, was the world’s first monumental stone building.
Duco A cellulose nitrate bonding cement used extensively in the repair and conservation of archaeological artefacts.
Dynasty The ancient historian Manetho divided Egyptian history into thirty ruling Dynasties, and these remain the basic building blocks of Ancient Egyptian chronology. The Dynasties have subsequently been grouped into Kingdoms and Periods.
Early Dynastic The earliest period of recorded Egyptian history, when the Nile Valley was first unified as a single state. It comprises the first three dynasties of ancient Egypt and lasted c. 2920-2575 BC.
Eighteenth Dynasty The inaugural dynasty of the New Kingdom. It comprised some of Egypt’s greatest and best known pharaohs, including Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun.
El-Ahly Famous Cairo football club, founded in 1907 (by Englishman Mitchel Ince). Nicknamed the Red Devils, they have an intense and often violent rivalry with the other main Cairo football club, Zamalek. El-Ahly is Arabic for ‘national’.
El-Capitan A sheer, 910-metre granite rock face in Yosemite National Park. One of the world’s great ‘Big Wall’ climbs. It was first conquered in 1958 by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore, who pioneered a route called The Nose.
Ennead A group of nine deities (’Ennead’ comes from the Greek for ‘nine’) associated with the great sun temple at Iunu. The group consisted of Atum, Shu, Tefnet, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.
FAAAS Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Fairuz Famous female Lebanese singer. Real name Nouhad Haddad. Born 1935.
Fao Peninsula Strategically important peninsula at the southernmost tip of Iraq. Scene of bitter conflict during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988.
Fatir A type of pancake.
Fellaha (pl. fellaheen) Peasant.
FInstP Fellow of the Institute of Physics.
First Intermediate The first of the three intermediate periods that divided the three great Kingdoms of ancient Egypt. It lasted c. 2134-2040 BC and saw the fragmentation of the Egyptian state following the strong central rule of the Old Kingdom.
Free-climb To climb a route without the use of any artificial equipment to aid ascent. Ropes, pitons etc. are only used to provide protection. The opposite of aid climbing.
Freerider A climbing route up El-Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Gezira Sporting Club A 150-acre sports facility on Gezira Island in central Cairo.
Giza A desert plateau (and town) on the western edge of Cairo, site of the Pyramids, the Sphinx and numerous other archaeological remains.
Great Sand Sea A vast area of dunes covering some 300,000 square kilometres of western Egypt and eastern Libya.
Graeco-Roman The final period of ancient Egyptian history, inaugurated with Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt in 332 BC and lasting until AD 395. The final native Egyptian ruler of Egypt was Cleopatra, who died in 30 BC, after which the country was ruled directly by Rome.
Hafeez, Sayed Abd-el Egyptian footballer (midfield). Former captain of El-Ahly. Born 1977.
Hall of Two Truths The hall where, according to ancient Egyptian mythology, the deceased’s heart was weighed against the feather of Maat, or truth. If the deceased was judged to have done no evil they were allowed to join Osiris in the afterlife.
Hamas Militant Palestinian nationalist Islamic movement, founded in 1987. Hamas is both the Arabic for ‘zeal’ and a reverse acronym for ‘The Islamic Resistance Movement’.
Hamdulillah Literally, ‘Praise be to Allah’.
Hassanein Bey, Ahmed Mohammed One of the great figures in early twentieth-century Egyptian politics, culture and exploration. In 1922-23 he undertook a groundbreaking, eight-month, 2,200-mile expedition across the Sahara from Sollum on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast to el-Obeid in the Sudan, in the process discovering the hitherto unknown Jebel Uweinat and Jebel Arkenu. Lived 1889-1946.
Hatshepsut Eighteenth Dynasty (New Kingdom) queen, who ruled Egypt c. 1473-1458 BC as joint pharaoh with her stepson Tuthmosis III. Her mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor – one of the most spectacular monuments in Egypt – was the scene of a notorious massacre in 1997 when Islamic extremists killed 58 tourists and four Egyptians.
Heliopolis Literally, ‘City of the Sun’. Greek name for the ancient Egyptian temple city of Iunu.
Hezbollah Literally, ‘Party of God’. Militant Shia Islamic group based in Lebanon.
Hierakonpolis A hugely important archaeological site in Upper Egypt. Known to the ancient Egyptians as Nekhen, it was one of the earliest known urban centres in the Nile Valley, with settlement evidence dating back to 4000 BC.
Hieratic A cursive form of hieroglyphs. The ancient Egyptian equivalent of joined-up writing.
Holocene A geological epoch lasting from around 10,000 BC to the present.
Horus Ancient Egyptian god, son of Isis and Osiris. Portrayed with a human body and the head of a hawk.
Hypostyle hall A large hall with a roof supported by columns.
Imma (pl. immam) A headscarf or turban. Worn by men throughout Egypt.
Intermediate Period The three great Kingdoms of ancient Egypt were separated by three ‘intermediate periods’ during which central authority collapsed and power became localized, with no single king ruling the entire Nile Valley.
Isis Ancient Egyptian goddess. Wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. Protector of the dead.
Islamic Jihad Militant Palestinian Islamic group, founded in the late 1970s.
Iteru An ancient Egyptian unit of measurement, equivalent to approximately 10.5 km. Also the ancient Egyptian name for the Nile.
Iunu One of the three great cities of ancient Egypt, along with Mennefer (Memphis) and Waset
(Thebes/Luxor). Located in what is now northern Cairo, it was a site of huge religious significance, home to a vast temple complex dedicated to the sun god Ra-Atum.
Jihaz amn al-daoula Egypt’s state security service.
Karkaday A soft drink made from an infusion of hibiscus petals. Popular throughout Egypt.
Karnak A vast temple complex just to the north of Luxor, with buildings spanning almost 2,000 years of Egyptian history. The complex was sacred to the god Amun, although many other deities were also worshipped there.
Kemal el-Din Hussein, Prince Egyptian millionaire, royal scion and desert explorer. Discovered and named the Gilf Kebir in 1926. A monument to him still exists at the southern tip of the Gilf, erected by Ladislaus Almasy. Lived 1874-1932.
Kemet Literally, ‘black land’. The word ancient Egyptians used to denote their country. ‘Egypt,’ or Aigyptos, was used initially by the ancient Greeks and is a corruption of the Egyptian hut-ka-Ptah – House of the Spirit of Ptah.
Kenem Ancient name for the oasis of Kharga.
Khan al-Khalili A large bazaar in Cairo selling everything from jewellery to shisha pipes, gems to leatherwork.
Khasekhemwy Second Dynasty (Early Dynastic) pharaoh. Built a number of monumental structures including a huge tomb at Abydos. Died c. 2649 BC.
Khepri Ancient Egyptian god of creation, renewal, rebirth and the dawn sun. He was portrayed with a human body and the head of a scarab, or dung beetle.
Khet Ancient Egyptian unit of measurement equivalent to 52.5 metres.
Khomeini, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Iranian Shia cleric and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Supreme religious and political leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989. Lived 1900-1989.
Khufu Fourth Dynasty (Old Kingdom) pharaoh, builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Also known by the Greek version of his name, Cheops. Ruled c. 2551-2528 BC.
Kingdom The history of ancient Egypt covers almost 3,000 years, from the first appearance of a unified nation state around 3000 BC to the death of Cleopatra and the imposition of direct Roman rule in 30 BC. During this vast span of time there were three extended periods of national unity and powerful central government, known as the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms.
Kufra A large desert oasis in south-east Libya.
Late-Period As the name suggests, this was the period covering the later years of the Egyptian state, when a degree of central authority was re-established following the confusion of the Third Intermediate Period.
Lead-Line The main rope used by climbers.
Long Range Desert Goup A special operations unit of the British Army during the Second World War. Founded in 1940 by Ralph Bagnold, the group operated reconnaissance, intelligence-gathering and sabotage missions across the Sahara.
Lugal-Zagesi King of Umma, a Sumerian city-state. Ruled c. 2375-2350 BC.
Mahfouz, Naguib Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author, widely credited with bringing Arab literature to a wider international audience. Lived 1911-2006.
Majnoon Islands A strategically important area in southern Iraq, site of numerous Iraqi oil and gas fields.
Manetho A Graeco-Egyptian priest whose Aegyptiaca, or History of Egypt, is a crucial source for the study of ancient Egypt. The original work has not survived and it is only known from passages quoted by other ancient writers. Almost nothing is known about Manetho himself save that he lived in the city of Sebennytos in the Nile Delta in the third century BC.
Manshiet Nasser A district of Cairo, at the eastern extremity of the city. Home to the Zabbaleen, Cairo’s rubbish collectors. It is one of the few places in the city where you will see pigs.
Mashhad Second-largest city in Iran and one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
Meh-nsw (pl. meh-nswt) An ancient Egyptian measurement, the Royal Cubit, equivalent to 525 mm.
Midan Tahrir Literally, ‘Liberation Square’. A vast open space in central Cairo and the hub of the city.
Middle Kingdom One of the three great Kingdoms of ancient Egypt. Comprising Dynasties 11-14, it lasted c. 2040-1640 BC.
Mnevis Bull A bull worshipped at the sun temple of Iunu. Seen as the embodiment of the supreme god Ra-Atum.
Molocchia An Egyptian dish made from stewed mallow leaves. Similar to spinach.
Mubarak, Hosni President of Egypt since 1981. Born 1928. His wife, Susan, is a well-known philanthropist.
Muezzin Mosque official who summons the Islamic faithful to prayer five times daily.
Nakht An ancient Egyptian scribe whose tomb on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor is painted with beautiful scenes of Egyptian daily life, including female musicians and dancers.
Naqada A pre-dynastic culture named after the town of Naqada – ancient Nubt – where its remains were first identified (by English archaeologist Flinders Petrie). The Naqada era lasted c. 4400-3000 BC and was crucial to the development of a unified Egypt.
Nasser, Gamal Abdel Second President of Egypt, from 1956 to 1970. He was one of the leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 23 July 1952, and a key figure in twentieth-century Arab politics. Lived 1918-1970.
Necropolis Literally, ‘city of the dead’. A burial ground.
Nefertiti Great royal wife of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The name means ‘The Beautiful One has Come’.
Neith Principal royal wife – and half-sister and cousin – of the Sixth Dynasty pharaoh Pepi II. Neith is also the name of an ancient Egyptian war goddess.
Neolithic Literally, ‘new stone’. The final and most recent phase of the Stone Age era. In Egypt it lasted c. 6000-3500 BC, although there remains considerable debate about exact dating.
Newbold, Sir Douglas British explorer who travelled extensively through the Libyan desert while serving with the Sudan Political Service in the 1920s and 1930s. Lived 1894-1944.
New Kingdom The last of the three great Kingdoms of ancient Egypt. Comprising Dynasties 18-20, it lasted c. 1550-1070 BC. Some of the most famous pharaohs of Egyptian history such as Tutankhamun and Ramesses II ruled during the New Kingdom.
New Valley Governate One of the administrative/governmental regions of Egypt, covering the south-west of the country and including the oases of Kharga, Dakhla and al-Farafra, as well as the Gilf Kebir. Its capital is at Kharga.
Nine Bows The traditional enemies of ancient Egypt.
Nisu The word used by ancient Egyptians to denote a king or ruler. Pharaoh – from Per-aa, ’Great House’ – only started to be used during the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1550-1307 BC).
Nomarch Ancient Egypt was divided into forty-two nomes, or administrative districts, each presided over by a nomarch. In times of governmental collapse nomarchs often broke from central authority and ruled as lords in their own right.
The Nose A climbing route up El-Capitan in Yosemite National Park. One of, if not the most famous rock climbs in the world.
Nut Ancient Egyptian goddess of the heavens and the sky.
Old Kingdom The first of the three great Kingdoms of ancient Egypt. Comprising Dynasties 4-8, it lasted c. 2575-2134 BC. It was during the Old Kingdom that the Pyramids were built.
Omm Arabic for mother.
Osiris Ancient Egyptian god of the underworld.
Ostracon (pl. ostraca) Piece of pottery or limestone bearing an image or text. The ancient equivalent of a doodle-pad or Post-It note.
Oxyrhynchus A unique archaeological site near modern el-Bahnasa in Middle Egypt. Ancient rubbish dumps have yielded huge numbers of Greek papyri from the Late Period of Egyptian history, including previously lost or unknown fragments of ancient plays, poems and early Christian writings.
Palaeolithic Literally, ‘old stone’. The earliest phase of the Stone Age of human development, when humans were still itinerant hunter-gatherers. In Egypt it lasted c. 700,000-10,000 BC, although there remains considerable discussion on precise dating.
Pepi II Sixth Dynasty pharaoh. Last great ruler of the Old Kingdom. His full royal title was Nefer-ka-Re Pepi. Ruled c. 2246-2152 BC, the longest recorded rule of any
monarch in history.
Peret One of the three seasons into which the ancient Egyptian year was divided (the others were Akhet and Shemu). Peret was the season of planting and growth, and lasted roughly from October to February.
Petrie, William Matthew Flinders Archaeologist and Egyptologist. Worked extensively in Egypt and Palestine and established many of the basic ground rules of modern archaeology. Nicknamed ‘the father of pots’ for his interest in ancient pottery. Lived 1853-1942.
Petroglyph An image or symbol inscribed into rock.
Piastre Basic unit of Egyptian currency. A hundred piastres make one Egyptian pound.
Pitch A section of a climb between two ‘belays’ or secure anchoring points.
Piton A steel or alloy peg driven into a rock crack to provide support and protection for climbers.
Pre-dynastic The period immediately prior to the emergence of pharaonic Egypt, when the basic elements of Egyptian civilization gradually developed and coalesced.
Ptah Ancient Egyptian god of craftsmen and artisans, sacred to the city of Mennefer (Memphis). In some Egyptian mythologies he is considered the supreme creator god. Represented as mummiform figure with a beard and tight-fitting skullcap.
Pylon Monumental entrance or gateway with trapezium-shaped towers standing in front of a temple.
Ra (or Re) Ancient Egyptian sun god. The supreme deity.
Ra-Atum A conflation of the sun god Ra and the creator god Atum.
Re-Horakhty Ancient Egyptian god combining the attributes of Ra and Horus, one of the state gods of the New Kingdom. Usually depicted as a man with the head of a hawk or falcon.
Relief An image or text carved from a flat stone surface. In bas – or raised-relief the image stands out from the stone. In sunken relief it is cut into the stone.
Rohlfs, Friedrich Gerhard German geographer, adventurer and explorer. Travelled extensively in the Sahara, making a landmark south-north crossing of the Great Sand Sea in 1874. Lived 1831-1896.
