“The oldest water clock (Clepsydra) known to history.”
The ancient Egyptians used several means to know the time, indicating the importance of time to the ancient Egyptians. The water clock is considered one of the means to measure time specifically during the night, in order to know the times of prayers and worship services. As for the sundial, or graduated, it was used to measure time during the day because it depends on the rays of the sun. They divided both day and night into twelve hours, and it seems that the use of the water clock began in the era of Amenhotep I at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
“Discovery”
It was found in the Karnak Temple cache in good condition and is now located in the National Museum of Civilization in Fustat.
“Describe it”
The clock is attributed to King Amenhotep III. It is a vessel that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Its outer surface was decorated with intaglio carvings that were inlaid with semi-precious stones and colored glass, representing King Amenhotep III worshiping Ra-Hor-Akhty, the god of the sun, and other deities. There are also engraved scenes of the stars and celestial constellations.
"How to use"
This vessel was used in the courtyard of Amun Ra in the Karnak temples by the priests to know the time, as the vessel is inscribed on the inside with eleven points (the twelfth point is the level of the surface of the vessel), and at the bottom of it is a permeable hole, and when the vessel is filled, water leaks from it in a known and precise amount; To know the time, a person looks at the surface of the water inside at the point where the water reaches its level, where the water level constantly falls Perhaps they would dip a graduated ruler into the vessel to know the time according to its degree.
It is strange that the control points engraved inside the vessel differ according to the three seasons of the year and the twelve months, as we find that the longest time of night was during the second month of the winter months and the shortest was in the fourth month of the flood season, “Akht.”
Source: websites