Chapter 26 - Egypt - Land of the Pharaohs

Toto made it all the way to the North Africa to the country of Egypt. In doing so I went back in time 4500 years to the time of the pharaohs. You might have heard of the pharaohs. They were the kings of ancient Egypt from before 3000 years BCE (Before Christian Era) until about 350 BCE, when the Persians, ancient Greeks, and then the Romans ruled Egypt. During the pharaohs' reign, the dynasties of ancient Egypt made some incredible temples, tombs, sphinxes and pyramids that still survive today. Seeing all these old sites brought this ancient culture to life for me.

My first stop was the famous ancient pyramids of Giza, which are just outside of Cairo, the Egyptian capital city of twenty million people. Have you ever heard of the "seven wonders of the ancient world"? Back in the year 140 BCE a Greek historian named Antipather listed seven sites that were "wonders" or amazing sights in the world at the time. The only one of those seven that still remains is the great pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

There are actually three ancient pyramids in Giza. The biggest of the three, or the "Great Pyramid," was also the first to be built. The pharaoh Khufu constructed it as his tomb in 2570 BCE. It is made from over 2,300,000 giant blocks of stone - that's some tomb! As I stood there at the base of the pyramids and looked up at this enormous structure made of so many huge stone blocks, I tried to imagine how they made it without any construction vehicles or cranes. That means each of the large blocks, which were about the size of a dining room table, had to be carved out of the quarry by hand with a chisel. Then the workers had to smooth each edge of the block so they'd fit together tightly without any concrete. Then the workers had to haul these very heavy blocks to the pyramid. Much of this was done by barge or boat when the nearby Nile River was flooded. Then once they got the block to the pyramid site, the workers had to move the block up into the proper position. I couldn't imagine the effort this took for all the blocks up at the top!

The king's son, Khafre, built the second largest pyramid as his tomb, and his son (Khufu's grandson) built the smallest pyramid as his tomb and covered it in red granite blocks. Between all three pyramids, the workers of the time must have been kept quite busy.

The Nile River was the primary source of wealth for the ancient Egyptians. It was also their main means of transport, as the rest of Egypt is basically desert and there certainly weren't roads and cars thousands of years ago. As I traveled up the Nile, I saw many more amazing sights from the time of the pharaohs.

First, they built many temples to their gods back then, since they believed in many different gods in different forms. I liked their sculptures of Horus the best, as he had the head of a falcon. Other gods had heads of crocodiles like this one, the god Sobek, who represented the might of the pharaohs.

Egyptians had a beautiful way of writing called hieroglyphics, which was made of many different symbols that represented whole words, rather than using letters to build words, as we do today. ("Hieroglyphics" comes from the Greek word "hiero," meaning "sacred" and "glyph," which means "to carve or write.") For years archaeologists and historians had no way to understand what hieroglyphics said. Then in 1799 some French soldiers discovered the Rosetta Stone in the town of Rosetta on the Mediterranean sea in the Nile River Delta. This stone was a proclamation by a Greek ruler in the year 196 BCE. The ruler wanted to be sure everyone at the time could read it, so he had the text carved into the stone in three languages:  hieroglyphics, Greek, and the local language of the time, demotic. So with this Rosetta Stone, Egyptologists (which means people who study ancient Egyptian history and culture) could translate hieroglyphics and break the mysterious code.

Most of the hieroglyphics I saw were written in the tombs of the pharaohs and nobles. This is because the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with their life after death. They believed you needed many things in your afterlife and had to pass several tests in order to live in the paradise they imagined as a sort of heaven. Knowledge was the key to passing the tests to enter into paradise; as a result, they wrote long explanations on the walls of the pharoahs' tombs as a form of examination notes. All of these study notes were painted in colorful images on the walls or carved into the stone in their local language, which was hieroglyphics.

They also filed their tombs with elaborate items they felt were necessary in their afterlife. At first, the king's tombs were pyramids like the ones in Giza. But of course everyone could see where they were, and they knew the pyramids were filled with gold and valuables. So grave robbers broke into the tombs and stole all the valuables.

So eventually the kings decided to hide their tombs underground in what is now called the "Valley of the Kings" upriver near the city of Luxor, Egypt. Eventually the grave robbers found most of these tombs, too, and stole all the wealth stored in the tombs meant to help the pharaohs in the after life. Now only the colorful paintings on the walls remain.

No one quite knew what these ancient tombs contained other than the colorful walls and some granite sarcophagi (big stone coffins usually left by the robbers in the tomb because they're so heavy). Then in 1923, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen, who died young. King Tut's tomb was dug beneath a previous pharaoh's tomb, so the grave robbers never found it, and it was left intact.

Imagine the excitement when Mr. Carter broke through the stone door placed there over 3200 years ago, put a candle and his head through the hole, and saw the tomb full of wonderful golden treasures! I saw all these items in museums in Cairo and Luxor and they are spectacular. There were golden cows, golden chariots, incredible golden beds and even sandals for the king to use in the afterlife.

The room containing his body was filled with four large wooden boxes covered in gold, each one inside the other like those Russian dolls you might see today. Then inside the last box was a casket covered in gold. Inside that was another golden casket, each containing the many symbolic jewelry and amulets and charms needed in the afterlife. They opened the last casket to find King Tut's mummy covered with a beautiful golden mask of his face made of 11 kg of solid gold with inlaid glass. I saw this mask and wondered if I had ever seen such a beautiful piece of art made of gold. Thankfully, King Tut's tomb was never discovered by the ancient grave robbers, so we know just how beautiful all the art was from that time.

All this was protecting the king's mummy, which is a dried and preserved body. This tradition started thousands of years ago, when the priests buried the ancient kings in the deserts outside of the towns and away from the River Nile. Eventually some graves were uncovered by windstorms. The priests recognized the king's bodies, since they were all dried out and preserved. The ancient Egyptians then invented a process that allowed them to dry out the bodies, leaving the skin and hair and bones intact. They believed that people needed their bodies in the afterlife, so mummifying the bodies allowed the kings' and nobles' souls to return to the bodies in the afterlife. Then the king could use all the notes on his tomb walls to pass the tests required to enter into paradise. Once in paradise they believed he could use all the things buried with him in his tomb. This included sandals, because after all, you didn't want the king to have to walk barefoot in paradise!

I saw many mummies of the pharaohs from thousands of years ago, and you could still see what the kings looked like 3000 years later. It was really incredible to see their dried-out skin and hair so many years later. The ancient Egyptians even mummified cats, like this one, to meet them in the afterlife. Who would want to be in paradise without their pets? I also saw mummified crocodiles, baboons, sheep and other animals sacred to the ancient Egyptians.

Because Egypt has been a desert for thousands of years, all these items are well-preserved in the dry climate, often covered by sand for hundreds of years. It really was like going into a time machine and seeing this four-thousand-year-old culture come to life before my eyes. It made me want to learn more about these people and their customs. I encourage you to do the same.

Travel Questions on Egypt

1. Define 'pharaoh'.
2. How many people live in the Egyptian capital of Cairo?
3. How many wonders were there in the ancient world?
4. When did Pharaoh Khufu build the Great Pyramid of Giza?
5. How many blocks did it take to build the Great Pyramid of Giza?
6. What was the name of the stone that allowed Egyptologists to translate hieroglyphics?
7. Why did the pharaohs paint so many hieroglyphics on the walls of their tomb?
8. Why were the grave robbers unable to find King Tut's tomb?
9. When did Howard Carter discover King Tut's intact tomb?
10. Name two kinds of animals the ancient Egyptians mummified for the royal tombs.
11. In how many caskets did they find King Tut's mummy?

Global Nomad Questions about Egypt:

1. Draw a picture of you working on the pyramids back in ancient Egypt.
2. If there are 2.2 lbs/kg, how many pounds of gold did King Tut's spectacular 11kg gold mask weigh?
3. Do a cybersearch on the seven wonders of the ancient world. List all seven. If you could go in a time machine to visit one of the other six, which would you see and why? Do not choose the Great Pyramid of Giza because you can still go on a plane today and see it!
4. Do a cybersearch on King Tutankhamen's tomb. Write an essay on what they discovered in the tomb and why it was such a special discovery.