Egypt has left a permanent impression on the planet beyond the Nile, as the oldest country on Earth. Egypt has come a long way from what we know today, from the mysteries of the pyramids to Egyptian lore. Here are 15 unknown facts about ancient Egypt.
- For more than 1,000 years, Cairo has served as the capital of Egypt, but the government is constructing a new capital some 45 kilometers (28 miles) to the east to help relieve congestion in Cairo. Plans call for hosting the key government departments and ministries as well as foreign embassies in the yet-to-be-named city.
- Most Ancient Egyptian pyramids were constructed as tombs for pharaohs (rulers of Ancient Egypt) and their families. Till now, over 130 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt.
- The Egyptians have been fighting against the Hittite Empire for possession of land in modern-day Syria for over two centuries. The dispute gave rise to bloody engagements like the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 B.C., but neither side had emerged as a definite victor by the time of Pharaoh Ramses II. In 1259 B.C., both the Egyptians and the Hittites faced attacks from other populations. A famous peace treaty was signed by Ramses II and the Hittite King Hattusili III. This agreement resolved the dispute and decreed that, in the case of an invasion by a third country, the two kingdoms would support each other.
- A grass-grown plain scattered with trees and small lakes was the Egyptian desert and the rest of the greater Sahara Desert during the last Ice Age. Here, the Ancient Egyptians’ prehistoric ancestors hunted and gathered food. The evolving atmosphere caused temperatures to rise when the Ice Age ended. The area turned from a moist grassland into a scorching desert in a couple of centuries. Man and animals alike migrated to the Nile, which ultimately gave rise to the civilization of Ancient Egypt.
- Seven UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites are located in Egypt: Abu Mena; Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis; historic Cairo; Memphis and its Necropolis; Nubian monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; the region of Saint Catherine; and Wadi Al-Hitan, or Whale Valley, home to fossil remains of whales of the earliest and now extinct type.
- For the Egyptians, the afterlife was extremely important. They claimed that by preserving the body of a deceased person, which they did through the mummification process, their soul would live on forever in the after-life.
- While they may have been seen as inferior to men publicly and socially, Egyptian women enjoyed a great deal of legal and financial freedom. They were able to buy and sell land, serve on juries, make wills, and even enter into legal agreements. Usually, Egyptian women did not work outside the home, but those who did generally received equal pay for doing the same jobs as men.
- Egyptian women also had the right to divorce and remarry, unlike the women of ancient Greece, who were essentially owned by their husbands. It was also known for Egyptian couples to negotiate an ancient prenuptial agreement. In the event of a divorce, these contracts specified all the property and money the woman had brought into the marriage and ensured that she would be paid for it.
- The Ancient Egyptians separated their land into the black earth and the red earth. The black earth applied to the dark-colored silt left behind by the annual floods of the Nile, which made the soil suitable for agriculture and livestock. By comparison, the red earth applied to the desert’s reddish rock expanse, which was mostly dry and scarcely capable of sustaining life.
- The country is criticized by numerous international rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch, for low levels of personal freedom and the arrests and jailing of government-critical peaceful activists.
- Egyptian men and women also used to wear make-up. The eye-paint was usually green or black (made of copper) (made from lead). The Egyptians claimed that make-up also had magical healing abilities, in addition to providing protection from the sun.
- Surprisingly, little is known about Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s life, but some historians say they know how he died. Scans of the young king’s body reveal that, without his heart or his chest wall, he was embalmed. This dramatic deviation from conventional Egyptian burial practice implies that prior to his death, he may have sustained a horrific injury.
One of the possible reasons for this wound may have been a bite from a hippopotamus, according to a handful of Egyptologists. Evidence suggests that the beasts were hunted for sport by the Egyptians, and sculptures found in the tomb of King Tut also depict him in the act of throwing a harpoon. If the boy pharaoh was actually fond of dangerous game stalking, then his death may have been the result of a search gone wrong.
- The society was split into two parts by ancient Egypt, which was Upper and Lower Egypt. South of the delta, Upper Egypt referred to the Nile valley, up to the first rapids of the Nile. Lower Egypt, meanwhile, referred to the delta of the Nile, where the river drained into the Mediterranean sea.
- More than 2,000 deities were believed in by ancient Egyptians! For all, they had gods, from dangers to chores! Each had various obligations, and it was essential to worship them in order to keep life in balance.
- Instead, the ancient Egyptian priests could put prayers on those who troubled the rest of the dead, calling down misfortune. While misfortune falls on many, most archaeologists have not found themselves facing divine punishment for the work of their lives.
The so-called mummy curse is the product of ordinary fiction and the death of some high-profile archaeologists, such as Lord Carnarvon, who died shortly after opening the tomb of King Tut from blood poisoning from an infected wound. The mass media hyped it as a curse, but even with his participation, his fellow archaeologist Howard Carter never suffered from such a curse.
