10.
The Pyramids The Great Pyramid of Giza was built between
2550 and 2490 BC.
It's one of the biggest pyramids in the world at 481 feet (147m) high and is undoubtedly
home to many of Egypt’s most intriguing secrets.
The pyramid is over 100 feet (30m) taller than a football field is long.
To this day, we don't know exactly how it was built, for sure why it was built, or what's
hiding inside of it.
It's believed that construction only took about 30 years and that the Pyramid of Giza
is an elaborate tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu.
Khufu ruled in the 4th dynasty, and allegedly had the pyramid commissioned himself before
he died.
Most archaeologists agree every pyramid in Egypt was used as a massive grave.
But there's no way to know for sure, especially since researchers don't even know what's hiding
deep within the pyramids.
In 2017, scientists used particle physics to look inside the stone walls.
What they found was a huge void about 100 feet (30m) long.
That’s twice as long as the Hollywood sign is tall!
This giant void could be the final resting place of the great pharaoh, or it could be
something else entirely.
It's definitely a hidden chamber, but scientists don’t know how to get to it without actually
disassembling the entire pyramid. 9.
Sleeping on Stone In ancient Egypt, the sleeping arrangements
weren't as comfortable as the cozy beds we sleep in today.
This isn't exactly a secret, but it is an odd piece of history that most people don’t
know about.
Even though we've been enjoying laying our heads down on soft pillows for the past 2000
years, the ancient Egyptians preferred to sleep on something more solid.
The ancient Egyptians used something fairly similar to a pillow but made of an entirely
different material.
It was a headrest, a kind of footstool for the skull that could be made of marble, stone,
ceramic, wood, and even glass.
All kinds of different Egyptian pillows have been found in tombs, dating from between 3000
BC and 30 BC.
For 3000 years, the Egyptians used incredibly uncomfortable-looking solid headrests to sleep
on.
But back in those days, not everything was about comfort.
Because the Egyptians had their beds pretty much on the floor, the rock pillow kept their
head elevated.
This protected them from insects and other vermin crawling into their mouths or up their
noses!
Plus, because it was so hot in Egypt, having their head elevated on a curved piece of rock
allowed for air to flow underneath and keep them cool.
The Egyptians believed that the head was the part of the body where the soul lived, and
so it needed to be treated with extra care.
It wouldn't be until the Greeks and Romans came along much later that soft pillows were
invented.
And even then, the Egyptians preferred to stick with their traditional head rests.
8.
Christ and Osiris The Egyptian god Osiris was worshiped for
3000 years, give or take a couple years.
Jesus Christ and the Christian God have been worshiped for about 2000 years.
When Christianity came around, the story of Jesus Christ had a very similar story to Osiris,
one of Egypt’s most popular deities.
Just imagine how much Christianity has shaped the world as we know it, and then add an extra
1000 years of influence.
That was how huge Osiris was to the people of Egypt and the surrounding area.
Some believe that Christianity mimics the Egyptian religion so much that perhaps they’re
the same.
There are a lot of similarities between the stories of these two deities.
The birth of Osiris was supposedly heralded by three wise men, three stars in the belt
of Orion.
Osiris had many of the same teachings as Jesus.
His followers ate his flesh in the form of communion, cakes and bread.
And furthermore, Osiris was supposedly killed, then resurrected to eternal life.
Sound familiar?
In the end, the stories aren't exactly the same, but you can see how similar they are.
Some say it was the Christians who borrowed the story of Osiris, coming up with the same
basis for their religion.
While others say the similarities are nothing but coincidence.
7.
Ancient Embalming Archaeologists were recently excavating a
burial chamber near the city of Cairo.
They came across some extremely interesting information having to do with ancient Egyptian
embalmers.
Embalmers weren't just people who removed brains through noses and turned corpses into
mummies.
They were also savvy business people who could almost be compared to the used car salesman
of today.
There were different embalmers for the different people in society.
If you were a ruling pharaoh or a VIP, someone at the higher echelon of society, you were
dealing with the best of the best.
But if you were an ordinary citizen, you were dealing with a budget embalmer.
You would have to go to someone who specialized in embalming, then figure out a deal that
would fit your budget.
At this newest burial site, archaeologists found evidence that these lower-budget embalmers
used a variety of different materials depending on how much a particular person could afford.
It was basically the same thing as today.
If you’re stinking rich, you might be buried in a pricey coffin in a mausoleum.
But if you're some ordinary person off the street, you might be put in a box and thrown
into a furnace.
We now have proof that not a lot has changed in several thousand years.
This burial chamber, which was discovered near a former mummification workshop, dates
back to around 664 BC.
It shows that death has been a big-money business for at least 3000 years!
6.
The City Under the Sphinx There are some historians out there who believe
a secret city is hiding underneath the Sphinx.
The great stone Sphinx, which stands so proudly in front of the pyramids of Giza, may just
be hiding a secret entrance down into a subterranean metropolis.
Historians Malcolm Hutton and Gerry Cannon believe the Sphinx is likely the gateway to
a labyrinth, which was covered up thousands of years ago by the Egyptian authorities for
unknown reasons.
And according to these historians, the evidence goes back to 1935.
That was when a hole was allegedly discovered in the top of the Sphinx’s head.
Almost like an opening to a cellar.
But since it was found, it's disappeared.
There have also been other alleged discoveries of openings around the base of the sphinx,
but they were always covered up almost immediately after they were found.
It’s almost as if someone, or some group of people, have been purposely trying to keep
whatever might be underneath the Sphinx a secret.
These days, mainstream scientists have completely given up on the idea.
Nobody dares to smash open the bottom of the sphinx to see if it really is hiding a secret
passage.
Those who believe in such things now are considered conspiracy nuts!
What do you think is hidden under the sphinx?
Share your thoughts in the comments and remember to subscribe to the channel to show your support.
5.
Animal Mummies The ancient Egyptians may have mummified their
dead in order to help them journey into the afterlife.
But that was only one aspect of Egyptian mummification.
They also turned their favorite animals into mummies.
Researchers believe there could be up to 70 million mummified animals buried across Egypt,
with their remains hidden inside underground animal catacombs.
Just recently, a team of researchers from the Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at Manchester
Hospital used medical imaging technology to look at some of these very animal mummies.
They took about a dozen animals recovered from underground tombs and scanned them so
that they could see through the wrappings without damaging the specimens.
What they discovered is nothing short of amazing.
They scanned a variety of strange animals.
Birds, falcons, shrews, cats, and even a giant Nile crocodile.
The crocodile was actually found in a tomb with eight small crocodile babies, all of
them wrapped carefully together in traditional mummy bandages.
We still don't know why there are 70 million mummified animals scattered across Egypt.
There are a lot of theories, but nobody knows the truth behind the secret.
Some say it had something to do with Egyptian embalmers, part of a brilliant scam to sell
mummies to visitors from surrounding nations.
Others believe it was just part of the custom, and that animals were treated as sacred beings
and given all the same burial rites as a person.
4.
The Keeper of the Secret A shocking new tomb has been discovered in
Egypt, belonging to a close friend of an Egyptian pharaoh.
The tomb complex was discovered near a pyramid in Abusir, containing a grave, a small chapel,
and the remains of a statue.
On this statue researchers discovered inscriptions, which refer to a priest by the name of Kaires.
This priest was apparently the sole friend of the king and the keeper of the secret.
This is quite mysterious and we still don't have all the answers.
We don't know what secret Kaires was supposed to be the keeper of.
We are not sure exactly which pharaoh he was friends with.
Archaeologists believe it could have been Pharaoh Neferirkare, who reigned between 2446
and 2438 BC.
This is because the Kaires’s tomb complex was found near Neferirkare’s pyramid.
And to make things even more mysterious, the statue lists other important titles which
were held by this man.
Kaires was also called the overseer of all the king’s works, and the foremost of the
House of Life.
That the House of Life was mentioned is really interesting.
This place was kind of like an ancient library, which held a vast assortment of knowledge
on a wide variety of subjects.
Whoever this person was, they were important to the pharaoh.
They had access to the most mysterious knowledge available in ancient Egypt, and they held
the pharaoh’s great secret.
3.
The Mystery Schools of Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, there were schools shrouded
in great mysticism and mystery.
For over 3000 years, people from all over the world sought out these mysterious schools
to gain esoteric knowledge.
The students came for wisdom, spiritual enlightenment, and to learn magic.
Now, this may sound like some nonsense out of Harry Potter, but historians are fairly
certain these schools really existed.
They were run by magi and hierophants, spiritual leaders, and masters of the divine sciences.
They had sanctuaries all across Egypt, which attracted people from as far away as Asia.
Potential students would come to study at these schools, often hoping to learn the secrets
of immortality.
These days, we know there is no such thing as physical immortality.
But what these schools accomplished was teaching the pupils how to be more at one with themselves,
how to see the universe more clearly, and how to master their own bodies and souls.
3000 years ago, the teachers and priests would have been considered actual magicians.
But the subjects they taught, mostly, would have been science-related: alchemy, philosophy,
and mathematics.
Back then, simple science was considered somewhat magical, and in later Christian years, even
blasphemous.
The famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras allegedly spent 22 years learning from Egyptian
magi at a mystery school.
And there are some rumors that even Jesus himself visited an ancient Egyptian mystery
school in his youth, then returned to the Holy Land able to perform miracles.
2.
Secret Lives of the Egyptians In some ways, ancient Egypt may have been
more progressive than our society today.
One very specific way the Egyptians were even more tolerant than modern people was in how
they treated relationships.
Because whether a man loved a woman or a man loved a man, it was all considered natural
and was completely accepted in society.
At least, that's what the archaeological evidence tells us.
Take the case of Niankhnum and Khnumhotep, for example.
They lived during the time of the pharaoh Niuserre, who ruled in the 25th century BC.
These men each had their own family, with their own wives and their own children.
And yet they were buried together in the same tomb.
Drawings found inside their tomb show them standing extremely close to each other, with
their noses touching and almost embracing.
In ancient Egyptian art, this depiction was supposedly only ever made for lovers.
They could have been lovers or perhaps just best friends.
1.
False Doors In countless tombs discovered across ancient
Egypt, there are false doors etched into the wall, normally across from where a mummy was
placed in their sarcophagus.
These false doors have been a source of mystery and intrigue for archaeologists for decades.
It's believed that the Egyptians carved these doors to nowhere in tombs to act as a kind
of portal between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
In most cases, the false door can be found on the west wall of a funerary chapel or an
offering chamber.
This is because the Egyptians believed the land of the dead lay somewhere to the west.
In tombs where more than one person was buried, there was usually a false door for each of
them.
The Egyptians thought that after the person was entombed and when silence had fallen and
the door was sealed, the false doors would become portals.
The spirits of the dead could then rise from their bodies, walk across the tomb, and disappear
through their respective portal into the afterlife.
But what's really interesting is that these false doors were not something strictly done
in Egypt.
They originated in Mesopotamia and were even used by the Etruscans who came before the
days of the Roman Empire.
It was a fairly universal belief for many centuries that in order for the spirit of
the deceased to find everlasting life, they needed a magic door to walk through.
Otherwise, they would be stuck inside their dead bodies for eternity!
Thanks for watching!
What’s your favorite mystery of the ancient Egyptians?
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haven’t already!
See you next time, bye! :)