Famine Stela

The Famine Stela is an inscription written in hieroglyphs located on Sehel Island in the Nile near Aswan in Egypt, which speaks of a seven-year period of drought and famine during the reign of the 3rd dynasty king Djoser. It is thought that the stela was inscribed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled 332 - 31 BC.DescriptionThe Famine Stela was inscribed into a natural granite cliff whose surface was cut into the rectangular shape of a stela. The inscription is written in hieroglyphs and contains 42 columns. The top part of the stela depicts three Egyptian deities: Khnum, Satet and Anuket. In front of them, Djoser faces them, carrying offerings in his outstretched hands. A broad fissure, which already was there at the time of creating the stela, goes through the middle of the rock. Some sections of the stela are damaged making a few passages of the text unreadable.The inscriptionThe story told on the stela is set in the 18th year of the reign of king Djoser. The text describes how the king is upset and worried, as the land of Egypt has been in the grip of a drought and famine for seven years, during which time the Nile has not flooded the farm lands. The text also describes how the Egyptian people are suffering as a result of the drought and that they are desperate and breaking the laws of the land. Djoser asks the priest staff under the supervision of high lector priest Imhotep for help. The king wants to know where Hapy (a river deity directly identified with the Nile) is born and which god resides at this place.