5 Pounds 2015, Egypt
| in Krause book | Number: B338b |
| Years of issue: | 23.04.2015 |
| 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): | 145 x 70 |
| Printer: | The Printing House of the Central Bank of Egypt |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Head of basalt Thutmosis III statue in Luxor Museum, Egypt.
Tuthmosis III basalt statue in Luxor Museum. His name on his belt in his cartouche is Men-kheper-Re; the 'Permanence-Transformation-(of)-Ra, and could be similar to: Steadfastly-[Becomeing-like]-Ra. In reality, his name is: Mn-khepr-Re(a), assuming that is the only order of the pronunciation, or reading. (With Ra, first, his name could be: "Ra's Permanent Manifestation(transformation)". (Note: Tuthmosis III became a powerful leader in the Ancient Near East because of his frequent and very succesful military campaigns into Canaan, Syria and Mesopotamia. He has often been called 'the Napoleon of Egypt.' due both to his success in battle and the short stature of his mummy.)
Year: about 1450 BC
Material: Grauwacca.
Height: 90.5 cm.
Museum: Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art.
City: Luxor.
18 dynasty. Most likely, this is one of a series of statues of the ruler, made for his festive temple "Ahmen". All of them are very high quality workmanship.
Thutmose III (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis III, Thothmes in older history works, and meaning "Thoth is born") was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 24 April 1479 BC to 11 March 1425 BC, from the age of two and until his death at age fifty-six; however, during the first 22 years of his reign, he was coregent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. While he was shown first on surviving monuments, both were assigned the usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other. Thutmose served as the head of Hatshepsut's armies. During the final two years of his reign, he appointed his son and successor, Amenhotep II, as his junior co-regent. His firstborn son and heir to the throne, Amenemhat, predeceased Thutmose III.
Becoming the sole ruling pharaoh of the kingdom after the deaths of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, he created the largest empire Egypt had ever seen; no fewer than 17 campaigns were conducted and he conquered lands from the Niya Kingdom in northern Syria to the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Nubia.
When Thutmose III died, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings, as were the rest of the kings from this period in Egypt. 
Avers:
The Mosque of Ibn Tulun (Arabic: مسجد إبن طولون, translit. Masjid Ibn Ṭūlūn) is located in Cairo, Egypt. It is the oldest mosque in the city surviving in its original form, and is the largest mosque in Cairo in terms of land area.
The mosque was commissioned by Ahmad ibn Tulun, the Turkic Abbassid governor of Egypt from 868–884 whose rule was characterized by de facto independence. The historian al-Maqrizi lists the mosque's construction start date as 876 AD, and the mosque's original inscription slab identifies the date of completion as AH 265 (878/879).
The mosque was constructed on a small hill called Gebel Yashkur, "The Hill of Thanksgiving." One local legend says that it is here that Noah's Ark came to rest after the Deluge, rather than at Mount Ararat.
The grand congregational mosque was intended to be the focal point of Ibn Tulun's capital, al-Qata'i, which served as the center of administration for the Tulunid dynasty. Originally the mosque backed onto Ibn Tulun's palace, and a door next to the minbar allowed him direct entry to the mosque. Al-Qata'i was razed in the early 10th century AD, and the mosque is the only surviving structure.
The mosque was constructed in the Samarran style common with Abbasid constructions. It is constructed around a courtyard, with one covered hall on each of the four sides, the largest being on the side of the qibla, or direction of Mecca. The original mosque had a fountain (fauwara) in the middle of the sahn, covered a gilt dome supported by ten marble columns, and round it were 16 marble columns and a marble pavement. Under the dome there was a great basin of marble 4 cubits in diameter with a jet of marble in the centre. A distinctive sabil with a high drum dome was added in the central courtyard at the end of the thirteenth century by Mamluk Sultan Lajin instead of the "fauwara".
There is significant controversy over the date of construction of the minaret, which features a helical outer staircase similar to that of the famous minaret in Samarra. It is also told that using these stairs one can climb up on a horse. Legend has it that Ibn Tulun himself was accidentally responsible for the design of the structure: supposedly while sitting with his officials, he absentmindedly wound a piece of parchment around his finger. When someone asked him what he was doing, he responded, embarrassed, that he was designing his minaret. Many of the architectural features, however, point to a later construction, in particular the way in which the minaret does not connect well with the main mosque structure, something that would have been averted had the minaret and mosque been built at the same time. Architectural historian Doris Behrens-Abouseif asserts that Sultan Lajin, who restored the mosque in 1296, was responsible for the construction of the current minaret.
Above is a strip with stylized lotus flowers.
Denominations is numerals are in top right and lower left corners, in words - on right side.
Revers:
Centered is the frieze "Hapi, the god of the river Nile, offering bounties."
With this frieze, as with the second, on this banknote, difficulties arose.
The fact is that friezes of the god Hapi are in several places in Egypt. How many exactly - I can not say yet.
The bill shows a frieze, where, at Hapi's feet, the small goat jumps. I have not found such a frieze yet. I will look further. As soon as I will find it - will immediately add to the description.
Hapi was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile in ancient Egyptian religion. The flood deposited rich silt (fertile soil) on the river's banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. Hapi was greatly celebrated among the Egyptians. Some of the titles of Hapi were "Lord of the Fish and Birds of the Marshes" and "Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation". Hapi is typically depicted as an androgynous figure with a large belly and pendulous breasts, wearing a loincloth and ceremonial false beard.
The annual flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the Arrival of Hapi. Since this flooding provided fertile soil in an area that was otherwise desert, Hapi, as its patron, symbolized fertility. He had large female breasts because he was said to bring a rich and nourishing harvest. Due to his fertile nature he was sometimes considered the "father of the gods", and was considered to be a caring father who helped to maintain the balance of the cosmos, the world or universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system. He was thought to live within a cavern at the supposed source of the Nile near Aswan. The cult of Hapi was mainly located at the First Cataract named Elephantine. His priests were involved in rituals to ensure the steady levels of flow required from the annual flood. At Elephantine the official nilometer, a measuring device, was carefully monitored to predict the level of the flood, and his priests must have been intimately concerned with its monitoring.
Hapi was not regarded as the god of the Nile itself but of the inundation event. He was also considered a "friend of Geb" the Egyptian god of the earth, and the "lord of Neper", the god of grain.
Limestone slab showing the Nile flood god Hapi. 12th Dynasty. From the foundations of the temple of Thutmose III, Koptos, Egypt. Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
Although male and wearing the false beard, Hapi was pictured with pendulous breasts and a large belly, as representations of the fertility of the Nile. He also was usually given blue or green skin, representing water. Other attributes varied, depending upon the region of Egypt in which the depictions exist. In Lower Egypt, he was adorned with papyrus plants and attended by frogs, present in the region, and symbols of it. Whereas in Upper Egypt, it was the lotus and crocodiles which were more present in the Nile, thus these were the symbols of the region, and those associated with Hapi there. Hapi often was pictured carrying offerings of food or pouring water from an amphora, but also, very rarely, was depicted as a hippopotamus. During the Nineteenth dynasty Hapi is often depicted as a pair of figures, each holding and tying together the long stem of two plants representing Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolically binding the two halves of the country around a hieroglyph meaning "union". This symbolic representation was often carved at the base of seated statues of the pharaoh.
Below, along the entire length of the banknote, one more frieze is shown, which I could not find, so far.
In some descriptions, in the network, they write about him - the frieze "Bounty of River Nile".
Through the equatorial swamps, savannah and sun-drained desert, the winding ribbon of the Nile brings fertility to the land on which one of the greatest civilizations originated. And today the life of an entire nation depends on Nil.
The Nile is one of the largest rivers in the world. Egypt owes precisely this river its history. How does the history of this country are so closely intertwined with the history of the Nile that one can even say that the Nile created Egypt.
Without experiencing the beneficial effects of the Nile spills, the soil of Egypt would have to suffer from droughts and slowly, under the influence of hot winds, turn into a lifeless desert.
But, fortunately for the Egyptians and all mankind between the Nile and the Red Sea stands the mountain range of Abyssinia, attracting rain clouds and evaporations of the Indian Ocean. When the sun enters the zenith of our northern hemisphere, tropical downpours burst with extraordinary power in this mountainous country; In just a few hours, huge streams form, tearing off large chunks of rocks and laying their own channel in gorges and valleys.
The Sobat River, the southernmost of the Nile tributaries, already has to a certain extent the character of a periodic Abyssinian stream; Blue Nile and Atbara are already completely dependent on the seasons. It is only thanks to their periodic floods that the Nile overflows its banks and fertilizes the country in all those places south of the first threshold, where this is allowed by lowering the coast.
The waters of the Nile are transparent and light, and the waters of Atbara and the Blue Nile bring from their home country a special black sediment, which the river distributes as fertilizer in layers throughout the valley. After the river re-enters its normal course, the inhabitants of Egypt have nothing more to do, how to scatter the seeds in greasy, muddy mud and wait for them to ascend.
But every medal has its downside. Of course, the Nile is an indisputable benefit for the people of Egypt, because it "creates the best food", brings to life the vegetation that feeds on animals, prepares "sacrificial offerings for all the gods", etc., but in order to become a good, the spill of the Nile must reach a height of sixteen feet, and this does not happen every year. The total sum of the conditions that produce the spill is too complicated for randomness to play here. Moreover, only three feet of shortage to the normal level in the height of water is enough and that vital picture about which the Bible speaks in the tradition of lean cows will appear on the scene.
Earlier than to bestow the gifts of the Egyptians, Neil subjected them to severe trials. The wild tribes and hordes of all colors that came to the banks of the Nile, before turning to close solidarity and enjoying the benefits of civilization, died in large numbers from hunger, poverty and disease, despite the amazing natural riches of the Nile Valley.
Maintain a constant channel in the river; spread the fertilizing system over as wide a surface as possible using irrigation canals; arrange transverse dams, forcing the water to linger for a long time over the soil and calmly precipitate its sludge; strengthen and protect sites chosen for settlement from the danger of being torn down too much; to construct devices for raising water to the places where it does not reach the spill; Finally, when the water level begins to fall, to facilitate a regular fall of water so that there are no puddles and swamps whose evaporation could contaminate the air, this is the complete program of necessary work that the ancient Egyptians had to perform in order to enjoy the natural benefits of the Nile spills. That is why the ancient Egyptians had to complete and complete the work of conquering the soil.
The necessary irrigation work arising from the physical conditions of the lower Nile valley, the fertility of which depended on the works, had such a decisive influence on the history of Egypt that it was impossible to ignore them. The system of public works, regulating and strengthening the beneficial effects of spills, forms in Ancient Egypt something harmonious, a whole, uniting the component parts with a necessary connection and combining their separate actions all over Egypt, from the thresholds of Siena (Aswan) to the sea. It is enough that one part of the overall work is not performed, so that the whole system is in danger. Let only one area upstream of the river allow its canals to fill with silt, stop caring for them, and the balance will be disturbed for all areas lying downstream, and the harvest will be ruined, perhaps in the whole country. The same vigilance is needed everywhere, it is necessary that one common direction reigns in the whole system and in its individual parts and that everyone obey the same will ... The physical-geographical conditions underlying this necessity were not limited to imposing unity on all the inhabitants of Egypt. A necessary consequence and logical result of all the physical and geographical conditions of Egypt was the condemnation of the ancient Egyptians under the yoke of despotism. No nation brought to such a great degree the obedience of the royal power, did not raise its very concept to such a height, did not recognize its divine origin behind it, like the Egyptians. This is explained, of course, by the fact that not a single nation felt such a strong need for a central will for a more rational organization of material life and for the production of all that is necessary for food. Thus, Neil played a fatal role in the folding of the political system of Egypt. Therefore, we can say about the geographical origin of absolutism and despotism in Egypt. (www.rv.org.ua .rus)
On the left are stylized lotuses and sun.
Across the whole banknote field, in the background, are lotus flowers.
Denominations in numerals are in top right corner and on left side, in words - left, at the top.
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