40 Fascinating Facts About Ancient Egypt To Dig Through

What do writing, ink, make up, toothpaste, plow, advancement in medicine, door lock, calendar, the concept of a police force, and bowling have in common? They were all invented by Ancient Egyptians. And this is not even the full list of things we use today that came from Egypt.

Bandaging a mummy might appear as a very simple process but it was in fact time and material consuming. It could last anywhere between one to two weeks and required about 4,000 square feet (372 sq. meters) of linen. The family of the deceased had time to collect all this material while the deceased themselves were drying in the desert. The embalmers later stripped all the clothes into narrow bandages and used it on the mummy. Rich families would bring expensive materials and sometimes even clothing from sacred statues, while the lower class would collect old clothes and other household linens.

Jewelry was not as much a beautiful accessory in Ancient Egypt, as it was a way to make the gods like you (and thus help you and protect you). The more jewelry you wore, the more attention you would get from the gods. That’s why it was common for both men and women to wear necklaces, bracelets, heavy neck collars, rings, earrings, pendants, and special buttons. For special occasions, they would wear glamorous headdresses you can often see in ancient drawings. Of course, the wealthier a person was, the more jewelry he or she would wear every day.

When your diet includes large amounts of beer, wine, bread, and honey, it is only a matter of time when it will start showing on your physique. Combined with lack of manual labor, it resulted in obesity and poor health for many pharaohs. One of the most notable examples is Queen Hatshepsut who lived in the 15th century BC. Her sarcophagus portrayed her as slender (because who would dare say otherwise) but historians have grounds to believe she was obese and losing hair.

Science was highly respected and well-developed in Ancient Egypt. Of course, they did not possess all the knowledge we have today, but Egyptians could boast of some great mathematicians and scientists. In particular, mathematical concepts they understood and applied in practice included geometry, such as determining the surface area and volume of three-dimensional shapes useful for architectural engineering, and algebra, such as the false position method and quadratic equations.

With thousands of years of history and one of the greatest earlier civilizations, it is not surprising that modern Egypt is home to as many as seven UNESCO world heritage sites. These are: Abu Mena, Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis, Historic Cairo, Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur, Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae, Saint Catherine Area, and Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley).

Every tourist who ever visits Egypt, goes sightseeing to the pyramids in the Giza plateau. Those three huge constructions, serving as the last harbor for pharaohs Keops, Khafre, and Menkaura, while increasingly famous, are not the only pyramids Egypt can boast of. In fact, there are a total of 118 pyramids in the country.

If you imagine King Tutankhamun as this mature adult, well, that’s not exactly the truth. The great pharaoh was between eight and nine years of age when he ascended the throne, choosing the name of Nebkheperure. His reign continued for approximately nine years before he died. During this period the position of Vizier had been split between Upper and Lower Egypt.

Even though King Tutankhamun was very young when he died, he still gave life to two daughters. Both died during infancy, and their names weren’t mentioned on the coffins, that’s why they are recorded in history as mummies 317a and 317b, names that were given to them by Howard Carter during his excavation. Examinations showed that 317b had Sprengel's deformity and spina bifida. Mummy 317a was born prematurely at 5–6 months' gestation. There is no record of their mother but it is believed that it was Ankhesenamun, King Tut’s only known wife.

Sometimes servants were required to cover their body in honey to keep flies away from pharaohs. Sources speak of pharaoh Pepi II who was particularly good at making weird demands. He once ordered his servants to capture a dancing pygmy because he thought having one in his palace would be entertaining. He also would make his servants cover themselves in honey to make sure flies were attracted to them and not to him.

One thing you don’t expect from a pharaoh is a revolution, yet this is exactly what king Akhenaten did. His reign, characterized by social, political and religious upheaval, is still considered to be one of the most controversial ones in the entire history of Ancient Egypt. During a little under two decades on the throne, Akhenaten attempted a religious revolution, as he imposed new religious aspects, tried to obliterate the names and images of some of Egypt’s traditional gods, implemented a new form of architecture, overhauled its royal artistic style, and moved Egypt’s capital to a previously unoccupied site.

You don’t have to be a devoted Christian to know about the Ten Commandments and the story of Moses who received them from God. Describing this event, the Bible mentions Mount Sinai as the place where it all happened. However, in the Book of Deuteronomy the location is called Horeb. Scholars tend to believe that both these names refer to the same place.

Think that tattoos were invented by rock musicians? Pirates? Go further in time. When scientists used infrared imaging and radiocarbon dating on two Gebelein mummies, they discovered something they believe to be the earliest figural tattoos. They are still unsure what purpose or meaning the tattoos had in Ancient Egypt. The two mummies who caused the discovery date back to a period from 3351 to 3017 BC.

Egyptian pharaohs had a dual role in the country. As kings, they headed the state, made laws, collected taxes, waged wars, and oversaw all the land. By the way, according to the law, the entire land in the country belonged to the pharaoh. The other role was to guide their people as the religious leader. This implied maintaining religious harmony and participating in ceremonies. In the capacity of the religious leader pharaohs were seen as the divine intermediary between gods and humans.

You surely know about “mummy’s curse” that implies that everyone who comes near a pharaoh’s tomb or – God forbid! – opens it, will die a horrible death. The world first heard of the “curse” in 1922 when archeologists discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor. The hieroglyphics on the wall of the king’s tomb were believed to cast a curse of death on anyone around.

Ancient Egyptians are responsible for the 12-month calendar we use today. They designed a solar calendar with 365 days per year. The division was a little different from the modern calendar. There were only three seasons, each containing 120 days. Every season was further divided into four months of 30 days. In addition, there was an intercalary month of five epagomenal days treated as outside of the year proper. Initially, months were numbered within the season, but were often called by the names of their principal festivals. Months were also divided into three decades, a period of 10 days.

When you look at ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, they seem very beautiful but also incredibly difficult. Well, yes, they are, in fact, quite complicated. Combining logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, the Ancient Egyptian writing system includes around 1,000 distinct characters. If that wasn’t enough, they also had cursive hieroglyphs that were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. Many modern scripts were based on the Egyptian hieroglyphic script, some of the most prominent ones include Latin, Cyrillic (through Greek), and the Arabic script. It is also quite possible that the Brahmic family of scripts was based on hieroglyphs.

Aside from famous hieroglyphs, Egyptians had another form of writing called hieratic. Some historians believe that the concept of the written word was brought to Egypt from Mesopotamia where it was developed. Hieroglyphics, while fully Egyptian in origin, were quite labor consuming to write. That’s why, another faster script was developed. Hieratic script consisted of simplified versions of hieroglyphs, its name translated as “sacred writing”.

Geographically, Egypt has a very advantageous position. Located between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas, Egypt has had a strategic role in trade and communication for ages. The Suez Canal was constructed in the second half of the 19th century to connect both seas and allow ships to easily travel between Asia and Europe.

When modern Egypt began its planned industrialization, one of the major projects was the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Built across the Nile in the city of Aswan between 1960 and 1970, this dam is considered to be one of the largest embankment dams in the world. It allowed better control of floodings during the high water season, served as an increased water storage for irrigation, and generated electricity.