Serapeum

Serapeum

1- Located to the north east of the step pyramid.

2- The Serapeum was formed by a long underground gallery with side chambers .

3- Each containing an enormous granite Sarcophagus weighing a bout 60 tons where the bodies of mummified bulls were interred .

4- These bulls were considered to be deities and on death were therefore mummified and buried in the some way as a pharaoh portrayed as a bull with a solar disc between the horns , the center of the cult of the sacred Apis bull was in Memphis.

5- In order to be recognized as sacred , the animal had to have certain features that were known only to the priests .

6- on the death of an APIS bull , the priests sought out another animal .

7- The final choice being determined by numerous special characteristic including a white triangle on the forehead , a mark like an eagle on the neck and another in the shape of a crescent moon on its flank .

8- The word Serapeum is the Latin form of the Greek Serapeum and derives from the fact that once the Apis bull had become a divinity after death .

9- It was known as Asor Apis , which the Greeks modified into the name Serapis .

10- During the ptolemic period statues of Greek poets and philosophers including……

Plato – homer – Pindar – Heraclitus and Hesiod were placed in the open near to the Serapeum in the area known as the hemicycle .

Information
Fasting
1- every year in the month of Ramadan all Muslims fast from dawn to sundown, abstaining from food , drink and sexual relations with their spouses.
2- fasting is benefical to health, it is a method of purification and self , restraint by cutting one self from wordly comforts even for a short time.
– pilgrimage
1- To Makkah is an obligation only for those who are physically and financially able to do.
2- over 2 millions of people go to Makkah each year from every corner of the global providing a unique opportunity for those of different nations to meet one another.

3- pilgrims wear special clothes, simple garments that strip away distinctions of class and culture so that all stand equal before Allah .

مكتبة الإسكندرية القديمة The old library of Alexandria

The library sometimes called the mother library to distinguish it from smaller one which was later on established in the temple of Serapis [ serapeum] contained the largest collection of books in the ancient world.
– the Alexandria library had several disasters
The first took place during the Alex war , when Julius Caesar set fire to the fleet in the harbor and its said that fire reached the Museum library through some historians believe that it was far away from the flames.
Under the Roman rule , decline that ruin was more swift since the scientific movement in Alex was on general in the decline.

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