The Divine Ratio - Story of Phi

The Golden Ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, equals approximately 1.618. It is 0ften referred to by the letter Phi.

What is this ratio?

Dan Brown in his book De Vince Code explained how the golden ration interferes with artists work, Living creatures and Plants.

Some scientists linked it to more than 2400 years ago.

The fascination with the Golden Ratio is not confined just to mathematicians.

Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics.

Ancient Greeks studied it for its frequent appearance in Geometry. They attributed the discovery to Pythagoras.

Beginning in the Renaissance, a body of literature on the aesthetics  of the golden ratio was developed.

As a result, architects, artists, book designers, and others have been encouraged to use the golden ratio in the dimensional relationships of their works.

A geometrical analysis of the Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, reveals a consistent application of the golden ratio throughout the design, according to Boussora and Mazouz.

It is found in the overall proportion of the plan and in the dimensioning of the prayer space, the court, and the minaret. Boussora and Mazouz also examined earlier archaeological theories about the mosque, and demonstrate the geometric constructions based on the golden ratio by applying these constructions to the plan of the mosque to test their hypothesis.

Speaking about Islamic Architect, it is worth mentioning that the Quran emphasized in so many verses that God created everything in proportion, Gave wealth and power in proportion, caused rain in proportion.

Miracle of Kaaba - English Version from Erdem Cetinkaya on Vimeo.
Some Islamic scholars are trying to prove that Mecca and Kaaba are good examples of the golden proportion.

This is why scientists refer to is as the Divine Ratio.

Both Egyptian pyramids and those mathematical regular square pyramids that resemble them can be analyzed with respect to the golden ratio and other ratios.

One Egyptian pyramid is remarkably close to a "golden pyramid" – the Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as the Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu).

The golden ratio is also apparent in the organization of the sections in the music of Debussy's Reflets dans l'eau (Reflections in Water), from Images  (1st series, 1905), in which "the sequence of keys is marked out by the intervals 34, 21, 13 and 8, and the main climax sits at the phi position.

Its slope of 51° 52' is extremely close to the "golden" pyramid inclination of 51° 50' and the π-based pyramid inclination of 51° 51'; other pyramids at Giza (Chephren, 52° 20', and Mycerinus, 50° 47' are also quite close.

The height of the great pyramid is equal = 146.515 meters, and its base equals 230.363 meters.

The Pharaohs used a simple math to find that half of the base is 115.182 m and the "slant height"  is 186.369 meters.

Dividing the "slant height" 186.369m by "half base" 115.182m gives 1.6180, which is practically equal to the golden ration!

The Pharaohs bring this ratio by discovering that the earth/moon relationship is the only one in the solar system that contains this unique golden section ratio that "squares the circle. 

If the base of the great pyramid is equated with the diameter of the earth, then the radius of the moon can be generated by subtracting the radius of the earth from the height of the pyramid.

The height of the great pyramid times 2p exactly equals the perimeter of the pyramid.
This proportion results from elegant design of the pyramid with the height equal two diameters of a circle and the base equal to the circumference of the circle.
The number Pi is the mathematical constant 3.1415, with the ratio of the diameter to the distance around the circle, called the circumference.

In the pyramid it is the ratio of the height to twice the length of the base.

Whether the relationship to the golden ratio in these pyramids is by design or by accident remains controversial. Several other Egyptian pyramids are very close to the rational 3:4:5 shape.

The musicologist Roy Howat has observed that the formal boundaries of La Mer correspond exactly to the golden section.

Trezise finds the intrinsic evidence "remarkable," but cautions that no written or reported evidence suggests that Debussy consciously sought such proportions.

Also, many works of Chopin, mainly Etudes (studies) and Nocturnes, are formally based on the golden ratio. This results in the biggest climax of both musical expression and technical difficulty after about 2/3 of the piece.

Pearl Drums positions the air vents on its Masters Premium models based on the golden ratio. The company claims that this arrangement improves bass response and has applied for a patent on this innovation.


Long before the advent of digital recordings, the Babylonians and Hindus, and then Pythagoras and his followers translated music into number and geometric proportions (Durant 1939).

For example, by dividing a vibrating string into various ratios they discovered that several very pleasing musical intervals could be produced.

Hence, the ratio 1:2 was found to yield an octave, 2:3 a fifth, and 3:4 a fourth, 4:5 a major third, and 5:6 a minor third (McClain 1978).

The harmonic system utilized in the nineteenth century by various composers was based on these same ratios. Indeed, Bartok utilized these ratios in his musical compositions.

These same musical ratios, the Pythagorians discovered, also were found to have the capability of reproducing themselves. That is, the ratio can reproduce itself within itself and form a unique geometrical configuration which Pythagoras and the ancient Greeks referred as the the "golden ratio" or "golden rectangle." The gold rectangle was postulated to have divine inspirational origins. Indeed, music itself was thought by early man to be magical, whereas musicians were believed by the ancient Greeks to be "prophets favored by the Gods" (Worner, 1973).

The Golden Ratio has fascinated layman and mathematician for centuries.

It seems like magic that it turns up in such different arenas as pine cones, earth-moon and planet  relationships, the Cheops Pyramid in Egypt, the Mona Lisa  and even our DNA.
Indeed its widespread appearance shows that there is a unifying mathematical principle that is more subtle than science has thus far been able to define.

It remains a mathematical mystery or should we say .......

God's Mystery...

Sami Cherkaoui

G20 And The Common Grounds

Canada is hosting  today summits of G20 and G8 groups of leading states,  to be held in Huntsville Ontario, a resort town about 2 hours north of Toronto.

The Groups meet every year to discuss key issues in the global economy.

Every year also many protestors march in big rallies, demanding that the groups can do more to fight poverty.

Last year there were violent groups intended to disrupt the summit, seeking to highlight range of issues including global poverty, w omen's and labors' rights.

This year Canada budgeted $1 Billion for security.

This summit will be under the title " Recovery and New Beginning".


Key topics to be discussed during the summit include the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), maternal, newborn and child health, food security, aid to Africa, and accountability of international forums including the G8 itself.

As they describe themselves, the Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was established in 1999 to bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. The inaugural meeting of the G-20 took place in Berlin, on December 15-16, 1999, hosted by German and Canadian finance ministers.

Members are:
South Africa, Canada, Mexico, USA, Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, European Union, Germany, Russia, Turkey, United Kingdom and Australia.

In addition to these 20 members, the following forums and institutions, as represented by their respective chief executive officers, participate in meetings of the G-20:
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, the Chairman of the International Monetary Fund, the President of the World Bank, International Monetary and Financial Committee, the Chairman of the Development Committee.

The G-20 Summit was created as a response both to the financial crisis of 2007–2010  and to a growing recognition that key emerging countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion and governance. The G-20 Summits of heads of state or government were held in addition to the G-20 Meetings of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors who continued to meet to prepare the Heads Summits and implement their decisions.

However, and as usual. we see the leaders spell out their differences prior the summit.
Each country has different views of reforms.

USA is most worried that a series of deep budget cuts announced by European countries may delay global recovery.
Eu insist they have Common Grounds

The best expression used every year by the Groups is "We have common Grounds"

I do not really understand this expression... What is Common ... and on what Grounds.
Or ... Where are these Grounds?

Brazil and Turkey  voted no to Iran sanctions against USA, Europe, Russia and China.

China and Japan are not good on any terms.

Indonesia has its own Tsunami problems.

Canada is too shy to say no to anything.

Saudi Arabia is too pressed with its domestic and regional issues not to mention the growing threats of terrorism inside the country.

USA and Europe are at political and economic odds.

Mexico... very troubled with its drug wars.

India is over populated and most of the population under the poverty line.

Australia now has a beautiful Prime Minister.

Argentina will definitely win the Mondial.

Nothing is common this year at least except South Africa
The Ground of the Mondial World Cup

Sami Cherkaoui

Gaza. Many Sins In Your Name.

In ancient times the area was inhabited by the Philistines.

It is mentioned in the Bible as the place of Samson's death and as the burial place of one of the great-grandfathers of the Prophet Muhammad, Hashim Ibn Abd Manaf, who lived as a merchant in Gaza and died there.

The Gaza area was conquered by many dynasties, and populated by  Greeks, Romans, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and Arabs....

It was the first city in Palestine to be conquered by Arab Caliphates.
Crusaders took control of the area from Fatimids, till regained by Saladin
By the time it came under the Ottoman Empire it was but a small village.

Gaza Strip by the partition plan of the UN, was projected to become part of an independent Arab State.

It was held by Egypt in 1948, when the war started between Israel and Arab States.
Sin

Gaza strip population is about 2 million...
Live in  just 400 square kilometers..
Sin

However we have to remember that over 60% of the population, are refugees who fled to the territory as part of the 1948 Palestinian exodus after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War!
Sin

They live in about 8 refugee camps to which the UN delivers health, education and other humanitarian services.
Sin

The strip is one of the highest population densities on earth.
Sin

Most of the refugee dwellings are not connected to the sewage system and waste water flows in open channels along roads.
Sin

The 1948 Israeli Arab War!
Was it a war?
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria attacked the state of Israel, leading to fighting mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also on the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon.

Most of Arab Armies were trained by British at time of their Mandate on Palestine.
They either went late to battles or fought in wrong areas.
Sin

Egyptian army had wrecked or faked weapons.
Sin

Egypt was still under British Occupation.
Sin

Lebanese troops were little, however the only troops really penetrated strategic Israeli holds....crossed into Northern Galilee... But received higher orders not to continue fighting, thus they were stuck in the spot they have invaded, and later withdrew after an armistice agreement was reached.
Sin

As a result... Israel won...declared the State of Israel...
Palestinians were driven out from their homes and forced to flee their cities in masses..
Most of them fled to Gaza...
Sin

Gaza Strip after 1948 fell under the control of Egypt by agreement with Israel..
When Egypt lost the war in 1967 against Israel, Israel occupied Gaza.
Sin

In 1993 the Oslo peace process began with an agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to implement limited autonomy in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank town of Jericho.
Sin

The failure of the Camp David Summit (July 2000) effectively ended this process. The second Palestinian uprising, known as the al-Aqsa Intifada, has created unprecedented hardship  for Palestinians, especially those living in the more impoverished Gaza Strip.
Sin

In 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza, in an attempt to stem the fighting, and control of the territory was transferred to the Palestinians.

In 2006 Palestinians Hamas and Fatah, start their fighting against each other to win control of Gaza..
Sin

In 2007, Hamas controlled the strip.

In 2008, Israel attacked Gaza in response to Hamas rockets.
Israel invaded the strip, then pulled out after 22 days leaving more than 5000 homes, buildings and mosques completely destroyed and mre than 25000 homes heavily damaged.
Sin

After that, and till today, Gaza Strip has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt.
Sin

On 31 May 2010 Israeli naval forces seized an aid convoy of six ships known as the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", aiming to break through the blockade.

Israeli commandos raided the fleet, clashed with activists on board, killing 9 activists and wounding dozens others, then seized the ships in international waters.
The ships, their passengers and their cargoes were deviated to port of Ashdod.
Sin

Next Sunday,a  new fleet of “aid” ships is preparing to mount a fresh challenge to Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza.

Iran says the ship "Infants of Gaza" is due to sail Sunday, carrying humanitarian aid and 10- pro-Palestinian activists to Gaza, including 5 local journalists.
The ship will carry 1100 tons of relief supplies.

Two other relief ships coming from Lebanon via Cyprus, one has only women passengers on-board!!
Still can  not figure out why?
Some news are saying that Lebanese Government together with Hezbollah are trying to stop the two boats from sailing to Gaza...

Breaking the blockade by such peaceful means is a noble act.
But a protective plan is vitally required, so the lives of those people on-board are not in danger and the efforts do not go in vain.

Words of Anger, Challenge and Avenging Vows are not enough.
To the contrary, they can damage the Gaza and its people more...

And it is a big sin, that any country, or group or party or individual seek a political advantage out of any outcome emerging from this noble cause...

IT IS A BIG SIN.... to use Gaza and Gazans for any third party advantage.

Oh Gaza... How many sins in your name.

Sami Cherkaoui

Lady Gaga. Lady!? Really ?!

Every now and then, the Music World, gives us a certain character, pops it up to become famous.

Some of those characters are really Angelical, and some are sure pure Evilly.

Lady Gaga is certainly one of these devilish stars.

Certainly this does not underestimate her talents or her brilliant musics.

Definitely, these talents and musics are serving different causes, not yet clear to normal humans.

In a documentary series called The Arrival... the author describes such artists as instruments working for the Antichrist's arrival.

Perhaps...

She is left handed anyways.

But in any case the purpose of their works does not serve the music industry as much as it serves some other bad influences.

Lady Gaga, Or Stephanie Germanotta is the eldest child of a Sicilian American. She emphasizes that both her parents came from lower-class families.

Intriguing enough, she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics.

She began experimenting and taking drugs while performing neo-burlesque shows.

Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped her write some of her earlier songs, compared her vocal style to that of Freddie Mercury. Fusari helped create the moniker Gaga, after the Queen song "Radio Ga Ga". Germanotta was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read "Lady Gaga."

Having initially focused on avant-garde  and electronic dance music, Gaga found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the vintage glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her music.

Having already served as an apprentice songwriter under an internship at Famous Music Publishing, which was later acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Gaga subsequently struck a music publishing deal with Sony/ATV.

As a result, she was hired to write songs for Britney Spears and labelmates New Kids on the Block, Fergie, and the Pussycat Dolls.

While Gaga was writing at Interscope, singer-songwriter Akon recognized her vocal abilities when she sang a reference vocal for one of his tracks in studio. 

He then convinced Interscope-Geffen-A&M Chairman and CEO Jimmy Iovine to form a joint deal by having her also sign with his own label Kon Live Distribution and later called her his "franchise player."

Gaga continued her collaboration with RedOne in the studio for a week on her debut album, spawning the future singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face."

She also joined the roster of Cherrytree Records, an Interscope imprint established by producer and songwriter Martin Kierszenbaum, after co-writing four songs with Kierszenbaum including the single "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)."

The second single from The Fame Monster, "Telephone," which features R&B singer Beyoncé, became her fourth UK number-one single, while reaching the top three in Australia, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Canada and the United States.

Last March, Rob Fusari sued Gaga's production company, Mermaid Music LLC, claiming that he was entitled to a 20% share of its earnings. Gaga's lawyer, Charles Ortner, described the agreement with Fusari as "unlawful" and declined to comment.

Gaga hinted in one interview at having Systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly referred to as Lupus, which is a connective tissue disease. In an interview with Larry King, Gaga confirmed that she does not have Lupus but the results were borderline positive.

Recently, Lady Gaga announced that she has finished working on her follow up album to The Fame Monster.

She plans on revealing the album title by getting it tattooed on herself and posting photo of it online midnight New Year's Eve.

She said this on the title track: "That chorus came to me, like, I swear, I didn't even write it. I think God dropped it in my lap." She also said that her album no longer features songs about her quest for fame, like written on The Fame and The Fame Monster, but has a more "angry, perhaps political" tone.

“Why are we still talking about ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’?” she says. “It’s like, what f***ing year is it? It makes me crazy! And I have been for three years baking cakes — and now I’m going to bake a cake that has a bitter jelly. The message of the new music is now more bitter than it was before. Because the sweeter the cake, the more bitter the jelly can be.

Well this is how most become after being famous..
Philosophers, Prophets, Messengers etc...

She can be all that... but certainly she is not a Lady...

She can not be a Lady....

She has no Lady characteristics..

Now she is on the cover of Rolling Stone , inadequately clothed..
Machine Guns from her bra..
Following the cross-dressing religious imagery of her video "Algejandro", the fetiishized violence of the "Telephone" video and her awkwad performance at the Grammys.

A Russian billionaire paid a whopping 1 million dollars to star in Lady Gaga's raunchy new video Alejandro, it has emerged.

The 30-year-old man, identified only as Arkady, gets close to the US singer, 24, in a black leather coat and cap.

She is dressed as a nun.

"Yes, it was me in the clip, but I can give no further details," The Daily Star quoted him as saying.

Jerry Seinfeld - a Jew... calls her a Jerk.

Nancy Bauer, a philosophy professor thinks that Gaga needs to be a provocateur, because it pays off for her.It can provide an outlet for fans.

" The reason being provocateur seems to pay off so much is that those kinds of people seem to be speaking, at this moment in the culture, to people who are feeling otherwise entrapped. They need this kind of role model or exemplar of a certain kind".

Think again of The Arrival... and the Antichrist....

Someone wrote:
Between the middle fingers, naked nuns and skivvy-clad visits to the Yankee clubhouse, it's easy to forget that Lady Gaga actually got famous for her music.

However, may be she is a brilliant singer
A gifted song writer and composer

Or
A popular prostitute..
A talented whore...
A lucky strip girl..

But Never A Lady

Sami Cherkaoui

Facebook on your mind!

 So, what is on your mind?

A question constantly asked by Facebook when you open your Facebook page.

You can tell your friend...Your friend's friend will know...
Your friend's friend's friend will know..
And may be an old friend which you used to know and never saw for many years, see your update and take note what is in your mind.

According to what is on your mind.. this old friend can decide to contact you or not..

Some countries ban Facebook for many reasons... political or otherwise.

Some business companies ban Facebook because they do not want their employees to waste the work time in sending updates of what there are in their minds!!

Who uses Facebook?

Basically almost everyone...

It is the most used social network by worldwide active users.

Gartner Research predicts that by 2012—the end of the freaking Mayan calendar—”Facebook will lead the pack in developing the distributed, interoperable social Web through Facebook Connect and similar mechanisms.

The interoperability will be critical to survival of other social networks.
Other social networks (including Twitter) will continue to develop…However, they will all revolve around Facebook.” In other words Facebook will control the universe.
The universe may or may not include your disposable income.

Flickr asked whether Facebook is the Antichrist?

Facebook has met criticism on a range of issues.

Many advertisers removed their adverts from the site because they were being displayed on pages of controversial individuals or groups.

Facebook was and still is criticized for promoting controversial issues and it was sued several times for violation of intellectual properties.

There have been some concerns expressed regarding the use of Facebook as a means of surveillance and data mining. According to the policy, "We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile

A second clause that warranted criticism from some users reserved the right to sell users' data to private companies, stating "We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship." This clause was eventually removed... But who knows where the information collected has gone.

Third party applications have access to almost all user information and "Facebook does not screen or approve Platform Developers and cannot control how such Platform Developers use any personal information."

In May 2010 Facebook quietly implemented several changes, including a feature available before December 2009 to allow users to limit the visibility of friends lists. The changes included an option not available before to make the friends list visible to the user only ("Only me" as a "Custom" setting, although before December 2009 it had been possible to achieve the same aim by customizing the settings to exclude all individual friends from seeing the list). In practice, the functionality restored, combined with the "lists" feature, can force friends to view only the "mutual friends" of the list in which a particular friend is included. As of May 5, 2010 the Privacy Policy still indicated that the last revision was implemented on April 22, 2010.

Facebook has received criticism from users and from people outside the Facebook community about hosting pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia information. British eating disorder charity B-EAT called on all social networking sites to curb "pro-ana" (anorexia) and "pro-mia" (bulimia) pages and groups, naming MySpace and Facebook specifically.

Many critics have criticized Facebook as a possible tool for cyber-bullying, with the possibilities of anonymous profiles and the creation of groups allowing bullies to target individuals online.

In Italy, the discovery of pro-mafia groups caused an alert in the country and brought the government, after a short debate, to rapidly issue a law which will force ISPs  to deny access to entire sites in case of refused removal of illegal contents; the removal can be requested by a prosecutor in any case in which there is a suspicion that criminal speech (a defense of or incitement to crime) is published on a website.

Two interesting trends have emerged in the Facebook audience figures. First, more women use Facebook, regardless of age. Second, the site continues to see more growth with users over age 26, with the majority of the growth coming from users 35 to 44 years of age.

Some Researchers have concluded that teenage girls who spend lots of time with their friends talking about their problems on Facebook and other social network sites, are more prone to anxiety and depression than girls who do not.

Parents have almost lost their control over their children with regard to the people they move with and the intimacy they share with their friends online? The moment you display any information on the web no matter how regulated it is with the privacy settings, it simply means you are disclosing information to the whole world.
“Nothing Is Private in Facebook”

The aftermath of how the information is received, interpreted, manipulated and disclosed  all before the whole world is horrific. There is a downside that crops up when you share too much of an information on Facebook. Whether they are photos or your date of birth or may even be you day out with your friends remember, once you place it on the net people can access, save, not just for a longtime, can even end up manipulating them for personal gain.

So who uses Facebook?

Everyone
Anyone... who wants to show off, publicize, reveal secrets, make a scandal, start a fight, put an idea, make a propaganda, make a new friend, hack another person's life, spread a rumor and of course ruin his own life and the lives of others...

Last week we heard in the news that a Saudi woman beat up her husband because he was using facebook in bed.

The story took more publicity because it happened in Saudi Arabia..
Similar and worse stories happen all over every day... some we know about some we do not..

So

What is on your mind?

It seems eventually your Facebook page is always on your mind.

Sami Cherkaoui

Avaris; Venice of Ancient Egypt - Uncovered

The discovery is made by an Austrian Archeological team.

Using radar imaging technology the Archeologists were able to identify the outline of the city including streets, houses, a port, and a side arm of the River Nile passing through the city.

The city is believed to be Avaris, which was the summer capital of the Hyksos.

The outlines of the city which were shown by radar images detail streets and houses underneath the green farm fields and modern towns in Egypt's Delta, now a densely populated area.

Hyksos ruled Egypt from 1664 to 1569 BC.

They infiltrated Egypt and came to dominate the Nile valley for over a century during the Second Intermediate Period.

From their strategic capital, Avaris, these foreign rulers are credited with introducing horse-drawn chariots into Egypt and controlling the lucrative trade routes with the Near East and the Mediterranean world.

Avaris was then captured by King Ahmose I (ruled about 1570-1546 B.C.), who ended the Hyksos rule and founded the glorious 18th dynasty, which included pharaohs such as Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun.

The mission also identified one of the Nile river tributaries that passed through the city, as well as two islands, according to Irene Mueller who heads the Austrian team.

The resulting computer-generated images showed a very detailed layout, complete with houses, streets, cemeteries and palaces.

The team has also identified temples where the Hyksos worshiped the god Seth, a possible harbor area and a series of pits of different sizes whose function has not yet been determined.

Avaris was located near NOW Tel Al Dab'a in the North Eastern region of the Nile Delta.

At a certain point of time, it was a well-developed center of trade and a busy port, handling over 300 ships during a trading season.

Avaris was abandoned after the Hyksos expulsion.

In the 19th Century, Avaris came back under lights and regained its glory, when Ramesses II made it as his Capital City.

He named it PI-Ramsses Annakhtu,w his means Hose of Ramesses, Great in Victory.

Built on the banks of the Pelusiac branch of the nile and with a population of over 300,000, Pi-Ramesses  flourished for more than a century after Ramesses death and poems were written over its splendor.

The layout of the city, as shown by Ground-penetrating radar, consisted of a huge central temple, a large precinct of mansions bordering the river in the west set in a rigid grid pattern of streets and a disorderly collection of houses and workshops in the east.

The palace of Ramesses is believed to lie beneath the modern village of Qantir.

An Austrian team of archaeologists, who previously headed by Manfred Bietak, who discovered the site, found evidence of many canals and lakes and have described the city as the Venice of Egypt.

A surprising discovery in the excavated stables were small cisterns  located adjacent to each of the estimated 460 horse tether points. Using mules, which are the same size as the horses of Ramesses day, it was found a double tethered horse would naturally use the cistern as a toilet leaving the stable floor clean and dry.

According to the latest estimates Pi-Ramesses was spread over a vast area of about 18 km2 (6.9 sq mi) or around 6 km (4 mi) long by 3 km (2 mi)

This made it one of the largest cities of ancient Egypt.

The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system of mathematics, a practical and effective system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, the first known ships, Egyptian faience and glass technology, new forms of literature, and the earliest known peace treaty.

Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travellers and writers for centuries.

A new found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy, for Egypt and the world

Egypt left a lasting legacy.

Sami Cherkaoui