The Pyramid of Unas is a smooth-sided pyramid built in the 24th century BC for the Egyptian pharaoh Unas, the ninth and final king of the Fifth Dynasty. Although Unas reigned for around 30 to 33 years, his pyramid is the smallest from the Old Kingdom. It was built between the complexes of Sekhemket and Djoser in North Saqqara. The pyramid's underground chambers remained unexplored until the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero gained entry in 1881. Inside, Pyramid Texts containing 283 spells for the king's afterlife were found incised into the walls of the subterranean chambers; they constitute the oldest and best-preserved corpus of religious writing from the Old Kingdom. Unas's pyramid is the oldest one in which these funerary texts have been found. Unlike the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, the Pyramid Texts were reserved for pharaohs and were not illustrated. Their function was to guide the ruler into eternal life. (Full article...).
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_of_Unas
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1863:
American Civil War: Confederate general Stonewall Jackson was wounded by friendly fire during the Battle of Chancellorsville, leading to his death by pneumonia eight days later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chancellorsville
1953:
Hussein bin Talal was enthroned as King of Jordan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_of_Jordan
1999:
Mireya Moscoso became the first woman to be elected President of Panama. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireya_Moscoso
2014:
Two mudslides in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan, killed at least 350 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Badakhshan_mudslides
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
turn turtle: 1. (intransitive) Especially of a boat or ship, or some other vehicle: to turn upside down. 2. (intransitive, figuratively) To fail; to go belly up. 3. (intransitive, surfing) To roll upside down with one's surfboard (usually a longboard) to allow a wave, especially a wave that has already broken, to pass over. 4. (intransitive, historical) To capture a turtle by turning it on to its back. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/turn_turtle
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is but one Temple in the World; and that is the Body of Man. Nothing is holier than this high form. Bending before men is a reverence done to this Revelation in the Flesh. We touch Heaven, when we lay our hand on a human body. --Novalis https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Novalis