10 Pounds 2017, Egypt
| in Krause book | Number: B339b |
| Years of issue: | 22.02.2017 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt: Tarek Hassan Nour El Din Amer (from 27.11.2015) |
| Serie: | 2014-2015 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 2014 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 150 x 70 |
| Printer: | The Printing House of the Central Bank of Egypt |
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Description
Watermark:
Head of the statue of Pharaoh Khafre.
Avers:
The Al-Rifa'i Mosque. On background, right is the mosaic, decorated inside the mosque.
Al-Rifa'i Mosque (Arabic: مسجد الرفاعى, transliterated also as Al-Rifai, Al-Refai, Al-Refa'i, and named in English the Royal Mosque), is located in Cairo, Egypt, in Midan al-Qal'a, adjacent to the Cairo Citadel. The building is located opposite the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan, which dates from around 1361, and was architecturally conceived as a complement to the older structure. This was part of a vast campaign by the XIX century rulers of Egypt to both associate themselves with the perceived glory of earlier periods in Egypt's Islamic history and modernize the city. The mosque was constructed next to two large public squares and off of several European style boulevards constructed around the same time.
The Al-Rifa'i Mosque was constructed in two phases over the period between 1869 and 1912 when it was finally completed. It was originally commissioned by Khushyar Hanim, the mother of the 19th century Khedive Isma'il Pasha to expand and replace the preexisting zawiya (shrine) of the medieval Islamic saint Ahmed al-Rifa'i. The zawiya was a pilgrimage site for locals who believed that the tomb had mystical healing properties. Khushayer envisioned a dual purpose for the new structure as a house for Sufi relics and a mausoleum for the royal family of Egypt. Over the course of its construction the architect, design, and purpose were changed.
The original architect was Hussein Fahri Pasha, a distant cousin in the dynasty founded by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1803. He died during the first phase of construction, and work was halted after Khedive Isma'il Pasha abdicated in 1880. Khushayar Hanim herself died in 1885, and work was not resumed until 1905 when the Khedive, Abbas II of Egypt, ordered its completion. Work was supervised by the Hungarian architect Max Herz, head of the Committee for the Conservation of Arab Monuments in Cairo.
The building itself is a melange of styles taken primarily from the Mamluk period of Egyptian history, including its dome and minaret. The building contains a large prayer hall as well as the shrines of al-Rifa'i and two other local saints, Ali Abi-Shubbak and Yahya al-Ansari.
The mosque is the resting place of Khushyar Hanim and her son Isma'il Pasha, as well as other members of Egypt's royal family, including Sultan Hussein Kamel, Sultan and King Fuad I, and King Farouk, whose body was interred here after his death in Rome in 1965. Khedive Tewfik and Khedive Abbas II Hilmi, however, are buried in Qubbat Afandina, a mausoleum built in 1894 in Cairo's Eastern Cemetery, together with other late members of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty.
The mosque served briefly as the resting place of Reza Shah of Iran, who died in exile in the Union of South Africa in 1944, and was returned to Iran after World War II. He was buried in Cairo following the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Part of the burial chamber is currently occupied by Reza Shah's son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who died in Cairo in July 1980. 
Denomination is numeral is in top right corner, in words - on right side.
Revers:
Dioric funeral statue of Pharaoh Khafra, the god Horus (in the form of a falcon) sits on the back of the throne, protecting the king with his elongated wings. The ancient kingdom, IV dynasty. Valley of the Temple of Khafra, Giza. Now located in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Khafra (also read as Khafre, Khefren and Greek: Χεφρήν Chephren) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He was the son of Khufu and the throne successor of Djedefre. According to the ancient historian Manetho, Khafra was followed by king Bikheris, but according to archaeological evidences he was rather followed by king Menkaure. Khafra was the builder of the second largest pyramid of Giza. The view held by modern Egyptology at large remains that the Great Sphinx was built in approximately 2500 BC for Khafra. There is not much known about Khafra, except the historical reports of Herodotus, writing 2,000 years after his life and who describes him as a cruel and heretic ruler, who kept the Egyptian temples closed after Khufu had sealed them.
Horus is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. These various forms may possibly be different perceptions of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with a falcon head.
The earliest recorded form of Horus is the tutelary deity of Nekhen in Upper Egypt, who is the first known national god, specifically related to the ruling pharaoh who in time came to be regarded as a manifestation of Horus in life and Osiris in death. The most commonly encountered family relationship describes Horus as the son of Isis and Osiris, and he plays a key role in the Osiris myth as Osiris's heir and the rival to Set, the murderer of Osiris. In another tradition Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife. Horus served many functions, most notably being a god of kingship and the sky.
Khafre Enthroned is a funerary statue of the Pharaoh Khafre, who reigned during the Fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt (c. 2570 BC). It is now located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The construction is made of anorthosite gneiss, (related to diorite) a valuable, extremely hard, and dark stone brought 400 miles down the Nile River from royal quarries. This highlights Khafre’s importance and power as a ruler. The statue was carved for the Pharaoh’s valley temple near the Great Sphinx, a part of the necropolis (a funerary city) used in funeral rituals. This Old Kingdom statue has an important function in Egyptian tombs as substitute abodes for the Pharaoh’s kathe life force that accompanied a person with a kind of other self. After death, the ka leaves the body into the afterlife, but still needs a place to rest: the statue.
This sculpture, depicted in-the-round (versus relief sculpture) shows Khafre seated, one of the basic formulaic types used during the Old Kingdom to show the human figure. Mummification played a huge role in the Egyptian culture, a 70-day process to ensure immortality for the pharaoh. Starting in the 3rd millennium BCE, if the pharaoh’s mummy was damaged, a ka statue was created to "ensure immortality and permanence of the deceased’s identity by providing a substitute dwelling place for the ka".
Khafre rigidly sits in his royal throne, gazing off into the distance. The pharaoh wears a linen nemes headdress, which cover most of his forehead and folds over his broad shoulders. This royal headdress depicts the uraeus, or cobra emblem, on the front along with the royal false beard attached at the end of his chiseled chin, all symbols which exemplify his royalty and divinity. Khafre wears a kilt covering his waist, revealing his idealized upper body and muscle definition. This depiction is not a portrait, but a symbol of Khafre’s power through using the artistic conventions of Egypt a flawless body, perfectly un-aged face, and ideal body proportions. The Egyptian idealized portraiture is not meant to record individualized features, but instead proclaim the divine nature of Egyptian kingship. Two stylized lions’ bodies form the throne Khafre sits on, creating a sturdy base. Lotus plants (symbolic of Upper Egypt) and papyrus plants (symbolic of Lower Egypt) grow between the legs of the throne, referring to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt which ended the Egyptian Pre-Dynastic period. The god Horus, depicted as a falcon, protects the backside of Khafre’s head with his wings, another reference to the united Egypt. Besides the striking view of the falcon (unseen from the front) resting behind Khafre's head, Khafre's feet are emplaced upon a flat platform, engraved with 9-archery bows, representing the king's and kingdom's dominance over foreign/domestic enemy tribes, the nine bows.
The symmetrical pharaoh shows no movement or change, suppressing all motion and time to create an eternal stillness; his strong build and permanent stance demonstrate no notion of time - Khafre is timeless, and his power will exist even in the afterlife. The pharaoh has an emotionless and ageless face, alluding to his non-chaotic, controlled empire and powerful leadership; the pharaoh has control over his domain. The statue is based upon compactness and solidity with few projecting parts; Khafre’s block-like body is attached to the throne to last for eternity, creating one single structure. His arms rest on his thighs, directly facing the viewer in a rigid, frontal pose. The bilaterally symmetric statue, symbolizing order and control in the pharaoh, is the same on either side of the vertical axis of the statue, only differing in Khafre’s clenched right fist. The tight profile and block-like aspect represent Khafre as a permanent being and part of the stone to keep his ka safe. Khafre will always exist, on earth and in the afterlife. The pharaoh’s sculpture can be described as absolutely frontal, utterly immobile, and perfectly calm: the characteristics of Egyptian block statue.
In order to create this sculpture in-the-round, the sculptor used the subtractive method. He began with a cube-shaped stone block of diorite. First, the sculptor drew the front, back, and two profile views of Khafre on the four vertical faces of the stone. After the sketched plans were made, the sculptor chiseled away the excess stone on all four sides until the plans came together, meeting at right angles. The last step was sculpting specific details of Khafre’s body and face, carving the falcon god Horus, and other designs on the throne. The subtractive method allows the sculptor to create a block-like look for Khafre’s ka statue, a standard for Egyptian sculpture during this time period. In addition to the subtractive method, abrasion, rubbing or grinding the surface was used to finish the product off. The diorite statue stands at a final height of five foot six inches.
Denominations in numerals are in three corners, in words - right, at the bottom.
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