what do you get when you combine
mysterious tombs massive structures and
cryptic symbols a whole lot of
exaggerations the Siamese cat is a
symbol of nobility in ancient Egypt
nobility ancient Egypt cats welcome to
watchmojo.com dispels them one by one in
today's installment we'll be counting
down the five myths about ancient Egypt
that should be mummified before we begin
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and spoiler alert none of those have
anything to do with aliens does this
lineage suggest that ramses was in fact
an extraterrestrial hybrid myth number
five Cleopatra was a great beauty
historically cultures have strongly
disagreed on the standards of beauty but
Cleopatra's looks with the stuff of
legend both in her timeline and in
centuries since her beauty was described
as unparalleled and utterly captivating
and surely she must have been to catch
the attention of both Caesar and Antony
I promise you you won't like me this way
but her face as depicted on ancient
coins had a sharp hooked nose and
arguably mannish features the Greek
historian Plutarch on her Beauty said it
was in itself not altogether
incomparable nor such as to strike those
who saw her the general consensus she
probably had an unremarkable physical
appearance but her charisma charms wit
and power made her incredibly attractive
fun fact though she ruled Egypt she was
of Macedonian descent myth number four
Napoleon and his troops shot off the
nose of the Sphinx speaking of noses how
exactly did this mythical riddle asking
beasts loose his the monuments of
ancient Egypt and marvels that have
captivated the attention of travelers
from around the globe for centuries
meaning that if you mess with them the
world does not forgive and Napoleon is a
historical figure who needs little help
inspiring dislike blame him for breaking
countless treaties reinstating slavery
in Haiti and a death of some six million
Europeans but not the Sphinx his botched
rhinoplasty job Napoleon embarked on an
Egyptian campaign in 1798 and so the
damage was attributed to him retro
actively but sketches of the Sphinx
published in 1757 already included the
missing nose a timeline other accounts
from that time can corroborate myth
number three when a pharaoh died their
servants were buried with them it just
takes a few eccentrics to tarnish the
reputation of an entire civilization
tear it down and try again but this time
don't embarrass yourselves we've all
seen it in movies and television a
pharaoh is embalmed placed in an ornate
sarcophagus and then buried in a massive
tomb worthy of their status their
servants placed their greatest
possessions around them and then the
tomb is sealed with the servants inside
listen I'm gonna square with you enough
up until the inclusion of the servants
this account of a ritualized Pharaoh
burial was accurate but most pharaohs
took small figurines with them to the
grave known as Shanti's symbolic
servants to serve them in the afterlife
only two or three ferrars from the first
dynasty insisted on bringing real
servants along but the discovery of
these specific tombs inspired
generalizations about the practice it's
a complicated political issue my son
myth number two Egyptians invented
hieroglyphs Egypt has certainly provided
modern researchers with an ample reading
material to study the form of
hieroglyphs
this pictorial language is deciphered by
jean-francois Champollion in 1820 using
the Rosetta
stone was the formal writing system of
ancient Egyptians for many years it was
considered the oldest written language
the prophecy is strange and crudely
drawn at best but there is a curious
lack of proto glyphs in Egyptian
artifacts the glyph system appears
suddenly in their history between 3400
and 3000 BCE already fully developed
contemporary scholars now believe that
this language or at least the concept of
a pictorial script was introduced to
Egypt by the Sumerians whose cuneiform
seemingly predates Egyptian hieroglyphs
according to the ancient Egyptians
however the gods Howth invented it you
know I have a theory that hieroglyphics
are really an ancient comic strip about
a character named Sphinx II myth number
one slaves built the pyramids impressive
who's building it you say again you are
now slaves or the great Pharaoh remember
do you have the Greek historian
Herodotus to thank for this myth who
first described the pyramids as slave
built around 450 BCE he was however
known to exaggerate he also claimed that
they used a work force of a hundred
thousand men when it was actually closer
to thirty thousand the construction of
pyramids was certainly back-breaking
labor but it was carried out by skilled
artisans and paid workers in the 1990s
the tombs of these workers were
discovered near the pyramids and the
respect with which they were buried was
well above the slave standards at the
time according to Mei Mazar an
archaeologist at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem the idea that Hebrew slaves
built the pyramids is a work of fiction
which Egyptologists blame Hollywood
films for popularizing
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so which of these myths did you believe
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