Discovering Egypt: 27 Fascinating Facts about the Land of Pharaohs

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.