Shepseskaf was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt who reigned in the late 26th
to the mid–25th century BC. He was the sixth and probably last ruler
of the fourth dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. His name means "His
soul is noble". Shepseskaf might have been the son or possibly the
brother of his predecessor Menkaure. During his reign of four to seven
years, Shepseskaf completed the mortuary complex of the Pyramid of
Menkaure, the smallest of the three main pyramids of Giza, using
mudbricks. For his own tomb he abandoned the Giza necropolis and built a
mastaba, a flat-roofed rectangular structure now known as the Mastabat
al-Fir'aun, at South Saqqara. These decisions may have reflected his
short reign, a declining economy, or a power struggle between the King
and the priesthood of Ra. Alternatively, Shepseskaf may have intended
his tomb to be a pyramid, but after his death it was completed as a
mastaba.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepseskaf>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1776:
American Revolutionary War: British reinforcements brought an
end to the Patriot attempt to capture Fort Cumberland in Nova Scotia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Cumberland_%281776%29>
1890:
The National Diet of Japan (pictured in session), a bicameral
legislature modelled after both the German Reichstag and the British
Westminster system, first met in Tokyo.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Diet>
2007:
During their trial for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, Philippine
soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes mutinied and seized a
conference room in The Peninsula Manila in Makati.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Peninsula_siege>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
environ:
1. To encircle or surround (someone or something).
2. (often military) To encircle or surround (someone or something) so as
to attack from all sides; to beset.
3. (heraldry, chiefly passive, obsolete) To encircle or surround (a
heraldic element such as a charge or escutcheon (shield)).
4. To cover, enclose, or envelop (someone or something).
5. Followed by from: to hide or shield (someone or something).
6. (chiefly passive) Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around
(someone or something) to attend to or protect them.
7. (figuratively) Of a situation or state of affairs, especially danger
or trouble: to happen to and affect (someone or something).
8. (obsolete)
9. To amount to or encompass (a space).
10. To travel completely around (a place or thing); to circumnavigate.
11. (archaic except in the plural, formal, also figuratively) A
surrounding area or place (especially of an urban settlement); an
environment. [...]
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/environ>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
--Louisa May Alcott
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louisa_May_Alcott>
Show replies by date