25 Historic Facts From Egypt’s Past & Present You’ll Find Interesting

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1King Farouk of Egypt

King Farouk of Egypt

Despite his wealth, King Farouk of Egypt (1920-65) was a kleptomaniac, going so far as to steal a pocket watch from Winston Churchill. Once, having suffered a nightmare in which he was chased by an angry lion, he went to Cairo Zoo and shot all the lions in their cages.


2. Hatshepsut was the first female ruler of ancient Egypt who acted as a full pharaoh. In art, she had herself depicted as a male ruler; she wore a false beard, had her breasts reduced and de-emphasized, and her shoulders portrayed as broad and manly. She brought Egypt into a period of prosperity.


3. Cyril of Alexandria claimed that "camel" is a Greek misspelling in the phrase "it's easier for a camel to thread the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven." He claimed camel was actually "kamilos," meaning rope.


4. The Great Pyramid of Giza was once covered in highly polished white limestone before it was removed to build mosques and fortresses.


5. Egyptian pharaohs were often fat. They had high-sugar diets that were rich in bread, honey, beer, and wine. Examinations of various royal mummies show that many suffered from obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Hatshepsut, Egypt's most famous woman pharaoh, was obese and had tooth decay.


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6Egyptian men

Egyptian men

In ancient Egypt, men could take time off of work to care for menstruating wives and daughters.


7. Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley)- located in the western desert in Egypt contains the fossilized remains of whales that show their evolution from life as a land-based animal to becoming an ocean-going mammal.


8. In ancient Egypt, couples were considered married whenever they moved in together. Wedding ceremonies were reserved for the upper classes.


9. In Ancient Egypt, dwarfs were seen as people who had celestial gifts, were treated with the greatest respect and enjoyed the highest social positions.


10. There is evidence to support that Ancient Egypt had proctologists and their term for the position literally translates to "shepherd of the anus."


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11Egyptian military

Egyptian military

Egypt has compulsory military service for males, but only if they have a brother. If they have no siblings or only a sister, they are exempt.


12. In Ancient Egypt, Pharaoh Pepi II despised flies so much that he would keep naked slaves smeared with honey near him in order to keep flies away.


13. In ancient Egypt, pharaohs were always depicted in paintings and statues wearing a ceremonial prosthetic beard. Since the pharaohs were regarded as children of God, the beard also indicated divinity, and was thus worn even by female pharoahs like Hatshepsut.


14. There was a group of raider colonies in ancient Egypt who terrorized the Mediterranian coast, that has gone relatively unidentified to this day. They are collectively known as the Sea Peoples, and according to Ramesses II, no one knew how to fight against them or could withstand them.


15. In Ancient Egypt, killing a cat, even accidentally, incurred the death penalty.


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16Siwa Oasis

Siwa Oasis

The Siwa Oasis in Egypt has long practiced a tradition of homosexual relationships and marriage that Egyptian authorities have sought, with increasing success, to suppress.


17. Some workers in ancient Egypt were paid in bread and beer, with highly paid workers earning several hundred loaves of bread per day.


18. In Ancient Egypt, there was a man called the Slitter, who prepared the dead body for embalming by cutting it open and then immediately running away while everyone chased him and attacked him with stones for harming the body.


19. Menes, the first Pharaoh that ruled lower and upper Egypt was killed by a hippopotamus.


20. In ancient Egypt, Iron was known as "Ba-en-pet" meaning, "Metal of Heaven" since humans hadn't discovered the process of smelting iron ore and the only source of Iron then was through fallen meteors.


21Elite dinner

Elite dinner

In Ancient Egypt, the elite dined off meat, fruit, vegetables, and honey-sweetened cakes enhanced by the finest of wines, but the poor were limited to a more monotonous diet of bread, fish, beans, onions, and garlic washed down with a sweet, soupy beer.


22. During the building of the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, each worker got a daily ration of 4-5 liters of beer, which served as both nutrition and refreshment that was crucial to the pyramids' construction.


23. The Egyptian deity Set was once regarded as a heroic deity and protector of ancient Egypt. However, as Egypt kept getting conquered by foreign nations Set became demonized. The Greeks would later associate Set with Typhon which in turn would inspire many other demonic mythologies.


24. The first known case of Gigantism is alleged to be that of King Sa-Nakht, who ruled in Egypt in the 3rd dynasty more than 4700 years ago. His height was around 6 feet 1.6 inches (1.87m) while the average height for men around that time was 5 feet 6 inches (1.7m).


25. The Ancient Egyptian historian Manetho claimed that Moses was an Egyptian priest named Osarseph who led a colony of leper slaves and invited barbarians to destroy Egypt. After 13 years, the pharaoh Amenhotep and his son Ramses drove them out of Egypt. Osarseph then changed his name to Moses.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Poor Egiptians could not have been able to eat beans since beans are native american produce that did not get to europe and africa until the 1600’s together with the potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins and corn.

    39
    • Actually you are wrong, beans are native to many different regions of the world and they did not specifically tell what type but I believe that the Egyptians ate were fava beans. The Native American people ate groundnut, a completely different type of bean. Also you spelled Egyptian wrong.

      923

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