The Ancient Egyptians were a fascinating race, with mysterious mummies to worshipping cats. After all these years we are still unearthing hidden secrets about this culture today. Here we make Ancient Egypt a little less mysterious with these top ten interesting facts about Ancient Egypt.

1. Top 10 Amazing
Facts About
Ancient Egypt

2. The Ancient Egyptians
were a fascinating race,
with mysterious
mummies to
worshipping cats.
After all these years we
are still unearthing
hidden secrets about
this culture today.
Here we make Ancient
Egypt a little less
mysterious with these
top ten interesting
facts about Ancient
Egypt.

3. 1
The Ancient
Egyptians were
cat crazy.

4. Yes they were! In Ancient Egypt
animals were very important and
quite often worshipped.
The most highly respected of them
all being the cat.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that
animals were incarnations of the
gods so it was popular to keep
animals as pets.
The most popular being cats but
also dogs, hawks, lions and baboons
were kept at home.
If you were caught killing or injuring
a cat in Ancient Egypt the penalties
were high, usually resulting in
death.
However the only time that this was
an exception was if there was an
overpopulation of cats and it
needed reducing.
Cats would be offered as sacrifices
to the gods and this would lower the
population.

5. 2
There was a
goddess just for
cats.

6. The Goddess Bastet,
was the
representation of
this love for cats and
she was depicted as
half cat, half woman.
It was believed that
Bastet protected the
home from evil
spirits, disease and
protected the
women and children
of the household.

7. 3
Egyptians were
some of the first
people to
mummify their
dead.

8. In Ancient Egypt, they believed that there
was an afterlife and that the only way of
reaching it safely was to follow a strict set
of procedures to prepare a dead body.
The process took around 70 days.
When a body was being prepared for
mummification, firstly the organs would
have to be removed and placed into
Canopic jars.
The next stage was to remove all moisture
from the body.
To do this they covered the body in a
powdered type of salt and let it rest for
around 35-40 days, or until all the moisture
was gone.
After cleaning all the remaining salt off,
the body would have been stuffed with
linen to plump it up again, and then it was
ready for wrapping.
The wrapping process could take up to two
weeks to complete and the family of the
deceased was expected to gather around
4,000 square feet (372 square meters) of
linen to wrap the body.
Once this was complete the mummy was
put into its coffin and then taken to a tomb
where it would rest.

9. 4
Canopic jars
were used to
store the organs
of the dead.

10. Canopic jars were used to place the
organs of a body that was being
mummified.
An organ was placed in each as a sign of
respect to Horus, the God of the Sky.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that it
would ensure that the dead would safely
reach the afterlife.
There were 4 jars; each was named and
represented one of Horus’s sons and
each was decorated to identify which
organs should go where.
The first jar was called “Imesty”, which
had a human head carved into the lid.
This jar was used for the liver.
The second jar was called “Qebehsenuf”,
which had a falcon’s head carved on it
and it carried the intestines of the
deceased.
The third jar “Hapy”, depicted the head of
a baboon, and was used to store the
lungs.
The fourth canopic jar “Duamatef” had
the head of a jackal and was used to
carry the stomach.

11. 5
The most famous
Ancient Egyptian
in the world is
Tutankhamun.

12. The most famous Ancient
Egyptian is the mummy of King
Tutankhamun. His mummified
body was discovered in the
Valley of Kings, near Luxor in
Egypt.
Howard Carter, alongside a
team of British explorers and
archeologists discovered the
mummy of Tutankhamun.
Thought to be around 3,000
years old, they found his tomb
on February 16, 1923.
Tutankhamun’s encasing was
made entirely of gold and he
was buried in the tomb
alongside over 5,000 artifacts.
These would have been items
gifted to the deceased King, to
take with him to the afterlife.

13. 6
The Rosetta
Stone was the
key to
understanding
Hieroglyphs.

14. The Rosetta Stone was
discovered in 1799 and was the
key to understanding
hieroglyphs and is on display at
The British Museum in London.
It was created 196 BC and it is a
segment of a decree issued in
Memphis, Egypt that was carved
onto the stone and written in 3
different languages.
The top and middle segments
were written in Ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphs and the bottom
segment in Ancient Greek.
By having the Greek translation,
it allowed researchers to crack
the code of understanding
hieroglyphs, which allowed us to
understand more about the
Ancient Egyptians.

15. 7
The Ancient
Egyptians
invented
toothpaste!

16. The Egyptians were invested in
their dental care and they were
the creators of the first-ever
recipe for making toothpaste.
It is believed that their food
contained a lot of grit and sand,
which would have been wearing
on the enamel on their teeth, so
experiments were carried out to
improve their dental care.
Scribes that have been found
throughout Ancient Egypt show
recipes for toothpaste making.
They would use ingredients such
as ashes, pumice, burnt
eggshells and the powder of ox
hooves to create toothpaste.
It wasn’t until the Roman
Empire came about that items
such as mint were added to give
a better flavor!

17. 8
The Egyptians
loved to play
board games.

18. Everyone loves a good board
game, but not as much as the
Ancient Egyptians.
There were two very popular
games played in Ancient Egypt,
these were Senet and Mehen.
The Senet board game is thought
to be around 5,000 years old and
the title of the game in Egyptian
translates to “game of passing”.
Mehen was another popular
board game, but it had a round
board. The word Mehen
translates to “coiled one”, and
the board resembles a coiled
snake.
It was popular to bury either or
both games with pharaohs in
their tombs, so they had
something to play in the
afterlife.

19. 9
Both men and
women wore
makeup.

20. In Ancient Egypt both men and
women wore makeup as they
believed it gave them the
protection of the Gods Horus
and Ra.
To produce the makeup they
would grind up ore elements
such as malachite into a paste
and then using tools made from
bone or wood, they would apply
it around their eyes, much like
us using eyeliner today.
They believed that wearing
makeup would give them
powers.
Years later, research has shown
that because the eyeliner would
have been lead-based, this
would have reduced the risk of
eye infections.

21. 10
Women had the
same rights as
men.

22. In Ancient Egypt women had similar rights
to men, making them stand out from other
communities around the world at the time.
Women were allowed to own property and
in court, women were legally equal to men.
Women of power would only be served by
other women and sometimes communities
of these women of power would form.
That being said, there were still some rules
and exceptions in place.
Women were not allowed to have
important roles within society unless they
married into the position via their
husbands or were related to families of
power.
There were certain jobs that were
considered to only be suitable for females,
such as weaving, dancing, singing and
becoming a professional mourner.
The Ancient Egyptians will always be a
mystical race as we continue to discover
more about their culture and worship of
Gods.
So now you have more of a window into the
life of Ancient Egyptians, why not find some
friends and challenge them to a game of
Mehen or Senet and see how they played
games.

23. For more
Facts join me
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channel
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