From alien sarcophagi to an Ancient Egyptian light bulb, here are 10 mysterious things
found in Egypt that no-one can explain…
10.
Mystery Heads
Finding disembodied heads underground in an Ancient Egyptian tomb sounds like something
from a horror movie.
But don’t worry, they’re not real heads.
As for what they were doing there, the jury’s still out.
The heads are a bit of a mystery to this day.
The first examples were discovered in 1894 and since then, over 30 have been located.
They were nicknamed ‘reserve heads’ because… well, they looked like a bunch of spare heads!
One theory is that they were used to replace a noggin if a tomb was broken into and plundered.
Some of them appear to have been deliberately damaged.
At first archaeologists were puzzled by missing ears and long scratches, but it’s thought
these are signs they’re old production molds.
Seems the Egyptians liked to make heads in bulk, just in case!!
Pretty weird, huh?
9.
The Giza Void
It’s amazing how even the oldest landmarks can still surprise you.
In 2017 experts were very surprised when examining the legendary Great Pyramid of Giza on the
West Bank of the Nile.
As you may know, but just in case you don’t this ancient wonder of the world was built
for Pharaoh Khufu and is the largest one of 3.
It’s 4,500 years old and 146.7 meters (481 ft) high.
Now scientists knew there were things inside the pyramids.
Rooms and burial chambers have been located, but nothing had been noticed in the Great
Pyramid for well over a century.
That all changed when an undiscovered space cropped up during an inspection.
The inspection was performed from outside the pyramid using what’s called muon radiography,
combined with thermal imaging.
The new “room” is over 30 m (100 ft) long and was spotted above a corridor inside the
structure known as the Grand Gallery.
It’s been referred to as a “void” and it’s unclear what it is exactly.
Experts are banking on robots to get in there with cameras but these are still being built.
So stay tuned, I’m sure we will be hearing something about it soon!!
8.
Kites
Mysterious lines in the Egyptian deserts have been seen from the air for around a century.
Everyone was wondering what they were!
It turns out, they’re made up of little stone walls, not very high at all, in a kite-style
formation.
Some of them are as long as 40 miles.
Even more mysterious was the fact that they lead toward a pit in the sand.
As you can imagine, the sightings were the subject of much speculation!
At first people thought they might be evidence of an alien civilization.
Or evidence of the Egyptians trying to communicate with someone in the sky!!
However by focusing on 16 of these “kites” in the Sinai Desert in Egypt, experts believe
they have the clearest explanation yet of what the lines might be.
It’s pretty grim to be honest.
The 2,000 year old walls were studied by a team from Ben-Gurion University in Israel.
They concluded the kites were used for hunting, corralling animals such as gazelle and ibexes.
The kites guided the unfortunate creatures toward the pit, where they would be slaughtered.
History is cruel, and very efficient.
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7.
King Tut’s Mummy
One of the great mysteries of Ancient Egypt is the circumstances surrounding the death
of Tutankhamun.
Howard Carter found his legendary tomb in 1922 and made him a historical superstar.
What’s maybe not as well known is that King Tut died very young, while in his teens.
As ever with archaeology, experts have to wait for technology to catch up before they
can make a judgment.
The body has been through x-rays in the 1960s and a CT scan earlier this century.
Through this analysis certain facts are known about Tut’s demise, such as missing bones,
and former injuries, yet a definitive explanation as to how he died remains a secret.
This year British researchers took a fresh look at the King’s remains and came to a
startling conclusion.
According to them the body showed possible signs of being burned!
This was down to a ceremonial layer of resin and oil that was poured onto Tut as part of
preparations for the next world.
This process is highly flammable and apparently Tut had caught fire inside the sarcophagus.
The announcement has been criticized in some quarters, with some arguing if a fire had
happened there’d be more evidence of it.
Generally people believe the young ruler suffered a fatal trauma, said to be caused by anything
from a chariot crash to a rampaging hippo!
One thing we do know about his death… it certainly wasn’t boring.
6.
Black Boxes
If you thought the Great Pyramid of Giza sounded mysterious, wait till you hear about what
was found in Memphis!
In a cave network 12 miles away from Giza, 24 big black boxes were found.
They weigh 100 tons each and are so unusual that some believe them to be alien artefacts!
That’s probably a little far-fetched so let’s look at the actual evidence.
The caves are actually part of a sacred temple that was located by French archaeologist Auguste
Mariette in 1850.
The name for the site is the ‘Serapeum of Saqqara’, or burial ground, and it’s over
3,000 years old.
It was built on the orders of Pharaoh Ramesses II.
The first part of the name, Serapeum, refers to Serapis the deity.
Serapis was often depicted as a man with a dog.
But this dog was no ordinary canine because it had 3 heads!
It’s more likely that instead of being left behind by ETs the black boxes are sarcophagi.
But what’s inside them??
The answer you’ll be surprised to hear is a load of old bull… quite literally.
You see animals were worshipped in Ancient Egypt, so it’s thought the boxes contain
the remains of mummified Apis bulls.
It’s all starting to make sense...
5.
Lost Labyrinth
In the vicinity of the Middle Egyptian city of Faiyum, 100 km (62 miles) southwest of
Cairo, there is an area known as Faiyum Oasis.
Supposedly, there lies what’s left of one of the most immense and talked-about structures
of Ancient Egypt… the mysterious Lost Labyrinth.
I say “supposedly” because up to now it hasn’t been proved.
Faiyum used to be called by another name, Crocodilopolis, which came from the Greeks.
And in case you’re wondering, yes that does have something to do with crocodiles!
In fact a crocodile was regularly worshipped there but that’s for another video...
The Labyrinth has been described by ancient writers such as Herodotus, who talked about
a huge temple-like structure with a stone slab roof.
Inside were 3,000 chambers…
3,000!…half of which were above ground and half below.
The underground chambers were reportedly accessed via a pyramid, but Herodotus didn’t go down
there.
It’s thought to have been a tribute to a group called the 12 Kings.
The description of 12 courts seems to back this up.
The Labyrinth is categorized as lost but many believe it was found in the 19th century.
In 1889 a stone plateau was discovered in the Faiyum Oasis.
Some reckon it’s the foundations of the Labyrinth, whereas others think it’s the
roof.
When the stone was scanned in later years there appeared to be a labyrinth-type network
below.
So this is the Labyrinth, right?
Could be - thing is, authorities are preventing any further exploration, fuelling enough intrigue
for a whole Pharaoh’s dynasty…!
The truth is out there… or down there?
4.
That’s a Wrap
Though people don’t know a lot about Ancient Egypt, there are certain things everybody
knows about, hopefully.
Egypt is famous for its pyramids and also the mummies.
Examples have been found of mummies that don’t look the way you’d expect.
Take this one in the Louvre museum in Paris.
It’s an exhibit in the long-established Department of Egyptian Antiquities, which
is made up of an impressive 30 rooms showcasing all manner of finds.
Believed to be male and middle class, the figure apparently dates from 305 BC - 30 BC,
otherwise known as the Ptolemaic period.
Check out the head.
It’s wrapped in a geometric square pattern, which is not what you expect from a mummy.
He makes the others look kinda boring by comparison, right?
He also has an apron round his legs and a religious casing on his feet.
We owe modern interest in Egyptology to an unlikely source…
Napoleon.
His campaign in Egypt during the late 18th century brought in experts to examine the
relics of the past, sparking something called “Egyptomania”.
This led to major displays like the one we see in the Louvre.
And of course, the British Museum.
Another great example is the Liber Linteus in the Archaeological Museum of Zagreb, Croatia.
‘Liber Linteus’ translates as ‘Linen Book’ and refers to the wrappings which
were rather unceremoniously removed when the mummy was bought as a kind of talking point
for visitors.
In the Victorian era you could purchase mummies from who knows where and have unwrapping parties.
So in this case a man bought a mummy and put her in the corner of his sitting room.
That’ll put dinner guests off their food right there.
The wrapping wasn’t properly studied till years later, when it was found to contain
words from the ancient Etruscan language.
Eventually it was discovered to be a book of rituals, though why it was being recycled
as mummy wrap is still unknown…!
3.
The Dendera Light
While we believe the light bulb is a relatively modern invention, some commentators would
dispute this.
In fact they’d go so far as to say the Ancient Egyptians had access to a power source that
gave them things like electric light way before it was officially invented!
The thinking behind this lies in The Dendera Light, a stone relief found at the Temple
of Hathor.
The Temple is part of a complex in Dendera, a small town on the West Bank of the Nile.
If you look at the Dendera Light you’ll see a couple of Egyptian men and what looks
like a giant baseball bat with a snake inside it.
This is not a baseball bat, but according to some it looks like a modern day lamp!
Some basic research shows that this isn’t what it appears to be.
The official explanation is this depicts the rising sun.
The lamp is actually a lotus flower and the snake is Semataui, who was a snake god.
Semataui is supposed to represent the sun.
As for the bulb - or bat! - shape, this is probably intended to be what’s called the
womb of Nut.
Nut was a sky goddess, so if you put these elements together it seems less and less likely
we’re checking out a source of electricity here.
Having said that, no-one knows for sure what it is and it could mean something else entirely.
Maybe this is an Ancient Egyptian baseball game, with them coming up with the sport we
know and love thousands of years earlier.
I mean, it does still kind of look like a bat!
2.Exploding Pyramid
So I just mentioned a possible power supply in ancient Egypt.
But what if I told you about another theory on this subject that takes
place on a MUCH bigger scale?
It all revolves around that classic image we associate with the time… a pyramid.
The Egyptians are famous for their pyramids but so are many other cultures from around
the world, especially in central and south America.
It seem to be a common, human experience unless you talk to someone wearing a tinfoil hat!
For some people it’s a bit of a coincidence that advanced ancient civilizations would
use the same design...
Many have seized on this to mean all the pyramids had a higher purpose, namely conducting a
vast energy and using it for… well, who knows what?
Powering an electric light I guess.
I mean I have no idea!
An example that shows maybe there was an overload of sorts is the ruined, or ‘lost pyramid’
at Abu Rawash in Egypt.
It appears that 12,000 years ago, the Abu Rawash pyramid stood at over 213 m (700 ft),
making it taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza!
That’s if you believe it was actually finished.
Archaeologists think they just never completed the work, whereas others see it as the scene
of devastation following an explosion.
Some people propose that this pyramid was conducting energy but it got a bit out of
control and exploded!!
It’s a timely reminder to always check the amps before you plug in those lamps.
1.
The Building of the Pyramids
I know, we’ve talked a lot about pyramids but this is a video about Ancient Egypt!
What did you expect?
After many, many years, the question still is, how did the pyramids get built in the
first place?
The construction of these mighty structures is a matter of ongoing debate between pros
and amateurs alike.
They’re made of enormous blocks of stone.
How did the Egyptians move them, and more importantly how did they manage to lift them
to form the pyramid shape in the first place?
Part of the puzzle may have been solved by a physics team based at the University of
Amsterdam in 2014.
The experts think an old painting from around 1900 BC holds the answer, appearing to show
the desert sand getting wetted down before objects are dragged along on a sledge by nearly
200 men.
Told you those stones were heavy!
Wet sand naturally brings down friction making pyramid building a snap.
Well not a snap exactly.
The thing that would snap is your back if you tried to lift one of those stones…But
it could explain how they were able to work on these ancient wonders!!
Thanks for watching!
Were you surprised by any of these??
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