10 INSANE Facts About Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was one of the most advanced civilizations of its time,
but there’s still so much more to the one-great empire than that. In this video,
we’ll be going through 10 of the most insane facts about ancient Egypt, so let’s begin!
10. Cleopatra Wasn’t Egyptian
Cleopatra was probably Egypt’s most iconic and remembered queen, and one of the people
we associate most with ancient Egypt. However, as it turns out, Cleopatra wasn’t even Egyptian!
It all goes back to Alexander the Great. When Alexander was returning from India,
he wanted to have one last prize before making his way back to Macedonia, and that was Egypt.
He ended up conquering Egypt, founding the city of Alexandria, and becoming pharaoh.
His successor would end up being Ptolemy the 1st, one of Alexander’s companions who ended
up founding the Ptolemaic dynasty, which wasn’t Egyptian, but rather Greco-Macedonian. Cleopatra
was a part of this dynasty, and she isn’t thought to have any Egyptian ancestors at all,
making her fully Greco-Macedonian. However,
Cleopatra did more to assimilate into Egyptian culture than any Ptolemaic leader before her,
and by the end of her life, she was pretty much Egyptian in every way other than her ancestry.
9. Egyptian Men Wore Makeup
While wearing makeup is not limited to women in the 21st century, especially in the entertainment
business, for most of “beauty” history, makeup was something that was only worn by women,
and it was considered feminine by at least European societies.
However, the place where makeup was invented was ancient Egypt, and while it was a “beauty”
accessory, it was worn by both women and men. The most common form of makeup was eye makeup,
and even today, eye makeup in the style of the ancient Egyptians remains a very popular style.
Makeup was also sometimes used for ritualistic purposes as well as for health reasons.
Black makeup was thought to ward off sun rays and black magic,
and these beliefs ended up influencing the far away parts of the world such as India and China.
8. Mummies Weren’t Actually That Common
Mummies were arguably the most iconic aspect of the ancient Egyptian civilization,
but as it turns out, mummies weren’t that common in ancient Egypt.
While it’s true that there have been more mummies found in ancient Egypt than in any other region
on earth (to the point where people think it’s an exclusively Egyptian concept, when it’s not),
for 99% of the ancient Egyptian population, the mummification process was something they could
only dream of. Only the rich and powerful in ancient Egypt could afford the mummy treatment,
which was considered a compulsory part of being able to enter the afterlife.
For Egyptian commoners, the only option they had was to be buried in the sand.
Some Egyptians tried to come up with makeshift ways of mummification, such as being mummified
in clay or mud, but the “traditional” mummy was off limits to most Egyptians.
7. There Was A Labor Strike
Ancient Egypt was advanced in a lot of different ways, but did you know they were also ahead of
the game when it came to labor rights? During the rule of Rameses III, when ancient Egypt was
arguably at the absolute height of its glory, laborers who were working at a necropolis that
was commissioned by the pharaoh reportedly put down their tools and refused to work.
They wrote letters to the pharaoh, demanding a pay raise and better working conditions,
and this was accepted by the pharaoh. This event is now considered to be the oldest labor strike
in history as it took place in 1170 BCE. After this, labor strikes became increasingly common
in ancient Egypt, and working conditions and treatment also improved as a result.
6. There Were Over 2,000 Deities
The ancient Egyptian religion was extremely complex and is probably one of the most difficult
things to understand about the civilization overall. Ancient Egyptians believed in all sorts
of different deities, all of which had different responsibilities. If they needed more rain, they
prayed to Tefnut, the god of moisture, moist air, dew, and rain. If they were expecting children,
they would pray to Hathor, the goddess of the sky, of women, and of fertility and love. Some of these
deities were more significant than others, such as Osiris, the god of the underworld and death;
his wife, Isis, who resurrected Osiris to create their son Horus, the god of kingship and the sky.
Overall, there were over 2,000 deities that were worshipped by the ancient Egyptians.
5. Some Pharaohs Were Buried With Servant Models
Pharaohs were the ultimate authority in ancient Egypt. They acted as absolute dictators with
powers that were divinely given to them. As a result, they rarely ever had to do anything.
While most Egyptian rulers had an entire team of servants that would help them do everything
in their daily lives, most of them had one main servant, who was responsible for all the other
servants. In some cases, servants were allegedly killed as soon as their master would die,
so that they would be mummified and sent to the afterlife along with their masters
so that the kings, queens, and royals would continue to be served in eternal life
by their favorite servants. Many servants have been found buried alongside their masters,
and in some cases, models of those servants were buried instead of the actual servant.
4. The Pyramids Weren’t Built By Slaves
We usually have this image of ancient Egypt at the back of our heads with
slaves being forced to build the pyramids, carrying heavy blocks on their backs,
and being chained and whipped for not getting everything right.
Well, that’s completely false. As it turns out, the workers who built the pyramids,
as well as other major structures like the Valley of the Kings and the Luxor Temple, were all paid
workers. Not only were they paid for their work, but they were also given working conditions that
are even better than today! Workers had their own houses to live in close to the construction sites,
they were fed the equivalent of prime beef, they even had beer, which, surprisingly,
was not invented in ancient Egypt. Maybe Egypt wasn’t as archaic as we all thought it was.
3. They May Have Invented Writing
Writing has a long and complicated history, historians can’t exactly agree upon where
writing was invented, but it usually boils down to two ancient civilizations,
the Egyptian civilization, and the Mesopotamian civilization.
While it’s impossible to tell which civilization did it first, they both did it independently
of each other around the same time period. Egyptian writing started out as hieroglyphs,
which were symbols and drawings that were usually based on real life objects or animals,
each symbol represented a sound that was associated with them. Eventually, these
hieroglyphs were simplified over time, becoming more and more minimal to the point where they
lost all of the features of their initial symbol and turned into, what we know now as, an alphabet.
2. There Was Monotheism
One of the most apparent things about ancient Egypt is that they had a polytheistic belief
system, with deities in the form of humans, animals, suns, moons, and all sorts of other
beings and objects. There was a deity for practically everything in ancient Egypt,
and the belief in this system was widespread among the Egyptian populace at the time.
While the Egyptians of today may almost universally believe in a monotheistic system,
did you know that there was also a time period in ancient Egypt where there was a monotheistic
system? During the rule of pharaoh Akhenaten, the pharaoh controversially abolished all deities
other than Aten, the sun deity, and worshipped him as the one true god. He officially changed the
official religion of Egypt to Atenism, but after his death, his reforms were considered heresy,
and all signs of Akhenaten’s rule were erased by the leaders who came after him,
not to be rediscovered for thousands of years.
1. There Was Gender Equality
If there’s one thing we wouldn’t expect from ancient civilizations,
it’s gender equality. Almost every single ancient civilization was an extremely patriarchal society,
and women were often subjugated citizens who had different legal rights when compared to men.
Now, ancient Egyptians did play into some of those traditional gender roles as well,
which is common even in today’s society. But legally and,
in many cases, culturally, men and women were equal in the ancient Egyptian civilization.
As we’ve seen numerous times, women could become pharaohs of the entire empire,
some women would even wear clothing that was associated with men, such as Queen Hatshepsut.
Women could work, get educated, start their own businesses, and do so much more. It seems that
there are some aspects of ancient Egypt that we can take important lessons from in today’s world.
That’s a wrap for this video! If you enjoyed it, make sure to leave
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