![]() Typically a pair of towers at the entrance to a temple,and first appearing in fully developed form just before 2000 BCE, the pylon (ancient Egyptian bekhenet) symbolized the mountains of the horizon (ancient Egyptian akhet, hieroglyphic) and became the physical model for them. The study of the reception of ancient Egypt in these different cultures and places is a field of scholarship in its own right, but our portal to this world will be a literal gateway: a pylon. The legacy of ancient Egypt now extends throughout every inhabited continent and can be traced from antiquity to the modern day, spreading from Africa through the Mediterranean world, the Middle East, Europe, and eventually the Americas. Over the last two millennia, in European traditions as well as in those of the Islamic world, the awesome physical presence of ancient Egyptian monuments was an expression of the equally potent wisdom they seemingly both preserved and at the same time guarded and concealed. The engagement-and occasional obsession-with ancient Egypt and the adaptation of its concepts and imagery are not confined to the forms and contents of the pyramids, temples, and tombs that have so awed tourists since classical times, but exist within the history of ideas. The monumental achievements of pharaonic culture inspired not only the later ancient Egyptians themselves, but have resonated throughout subsequent civilizations. ![]() A long prehistory with interactions among groups from far-flung territories to the west and south, and later with the northeast, forged the rich cultural traditions of pharaonic Egypt. ![]() The land of ancient Egypt-the Nile River valley and delta with the surrounding deserts-was the birthplace of a civilization that flourished for over three millennia. Denison Olmstead, Professor of Astronomy and Natural Philosophy at Yale University, July 18, 1845, at the laying of the cornerstone of the New Haven City Burial Ground (Grove Street Cemetery) gateway ![]() “Dignified and beautifully proportioned, it is symbolic of an attitude toward the dead and their part in the hereafter, expressive, but respectful and reverential, which arose in the valley of the Nile centuries before Christianity and is consequently so detached from modern creeds, prejudices or sentiments that it can appeal to any belief.” ![]()
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