What Makes People Tick?

Serabit el Khadim is a mountain in the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. Near it are two other peaks with names that, to those who read the Torah / Pentateuch, may sound familiar: Jebel Saniya and Jebel Ghorabi. There is a temple to the goddess Hathor on Serabit el-Khadim. After reading about the location in a fantasy fiction book that mentioned prominent archaeologist Flinders Petrie as well as the temple to Hathor, I became intrigued and wanted to learn more about this desert location. The book also mentioned the possibility that this location had been where Moses received the Ten Commandments, something that most definitely intrigued me as well. I am personally interested in the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt and enjoy learning about the period of our world's history in which this Exodus may have taken place. Unlike many, I do not believe that Rameses II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, believing it to be much more likely that the Exodus occurred around the time of Akhenaten...

The Biblical Archaeology Society reported on the 15th August 2014 that new research has found that the ancient Egyptians began mummifying their dead much longer ago than previously thought. About fifteen hundred years earlier to be exact. Reading the article inspired me to learn some more about Egyptian mummies and the mummification process. The British Museum's website explains that "the earliest ancient Egyptians buried their dead in small pits in the desert. The heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly, creating lifelike and natural 'mummies'." ( Mummification , Ancient Egypt | The British Museum) The Ancient History Encyclopedia explains that although unintentional mummification happened as far back as prehistoric times, mummification as a purposeful and ritualistic process started around 2600 B.C.E. It was a long and expensive procedure which is why mummification was first reserved solely for Pharaohs whose mummies were placed in opulen...