• Introduction
• Back In Time. . . .
• The Game People Played
• What Was In Style
• Meet The Anciant Egyptians
• Religious Life
• The Pharaohs
• Writing Is On The Wall
• Misterious Mummies
• The Power Of The Pyramids
• The Riddle Of The Sphinx
• Art Is Forever
• The Boy King
• I Am Yesterday. I Know Tomorrow.

Ancient Egyptian history covers a
 continuous period of over three thousand years. 
To put this in perspective - most modern countries
 count their histories in hundreds of years. Only 
modern China can come anywhere near this in 
terms of historical continuity.

Egyptian culture declined and disappeared nearly 
two thousand years ago. The last vestiges of the 
living culture ceased to exist in AD 391 when the 
Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I closed all pagan
 temples throughout the Roman Empire.

It was not until Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 
1798 that the wonderful artefacts of the
 Egyptians were seen in Europe and their
 ancient culture began to awaken from its
long slumber.

It all began more then 5,000 years ago
 when a great civilization came to power along the bamks 
of Nile River. The people called this land Kemet
 which means black, because the soil was so dark. 
We know it as Egypt. 
The ancient Egyptians were talented famers, architects,
craftmen, and musicians who loved nature and sporta. 
They were among the first groups of people to create
an organized religion.
Because the ancitnt Egyptians lived so long ago, you might
thinkther lives would become a mistery.but the Egyptians 
left many clues in the from of paintings, sculptures, tombs, 
and mummified bodies. And to make sure furture generations
had no trouble interpreting the clues, the ancient Egyptians
wrote about their lives in a language all their own. 

The ancient Egyptians know how to have a 
good time. They loved games - especially a boad game called  Senet 
Storytelling was also a really popular way to pass the time. 
Some of the ancient Egyptians stories have lived on to today.
Cinderella is based on a popluar ancient Egyptians
tale.
Ancient Egyptians boys spent a great deal of time playing sports -
especially wrestling and gymnastics. The girls sing, dance, and 
played with dolls.
And just in case you thought the ancient Egyptians were very
different then we are, consider this: The spent a lot of time 
watching professional wrestlers who were hired purely for
entertainment.

Egypt is a hot country. The ancient 
Egyptians had to wear light clothing in order to keep cool.
Unlike today, ancient Egyptians fashions did't change with
seasons. The same styles stayed fashionable fore centeries.
The man wore loincoths woven from cotton or liner. 
Wealthier man also wore a shirt or coat. The woman wore
tight, straight, sleeveless dresses that reached down to their
ancles. Both men and women wore sandles made from reeds
or leather.
Ancient Egyptians wore a lote of make up -- both women and
men darkened their eyebrows, and wore green paint around 
their eyes. The women often painted their lips with res ochre
and used henna to dye their fingernails yellow and orange.
Ancient Egyptians shaved their heads and wre wigs made of 
sheep's wool or human hair. The wigs weren't just to prevent 
bad hair day - they served a more practical purpose by protecting
the people from harsh sunlight

Most ancient Egyptians were famous. Each
summer there was a big flood along the valley of the Nile. This made
for a pretty dreary summer, but by the the rains end in october, the 
ground was covered by a thick layer of rich, black silt. The farmers 
grew crops such as beans, cabbages, cucumbers, barley, flax, and 
weat. The barley was used to make bread, and flax was woven to 
make clothing.
Not all Egyptians were famers. some were craftmen and artists.
After all, every village needed a coppersmith, a potter, a jeweler
( for the wealthy ), ang a weaver.
Mining was also popular profession among ancient Egyptians,
since the land was rich with copper, goad, amethyst, and 
turquoise.

The ancient Egyptians believed in families
of goads who ruled over the world. The sun god, Amen-Ra, was 
the most important god of all. But thereb were also gods who looked 
after the family, the village, and the gavernment.
The Egyptians had a strong belief in life after death. They belived 
that the afterlife would be like Egypt at its most wonderful, so 
filled their tombs with things the dead person would need throughout
eternity, such as clothing, games, food, and jewelry.

The ancient Egyptians obeyed their king, the
Pharaoh, not just because he was the political leader of the lsnd.
The ancient Egyptians worshipped the Pharaoh because they belived 
he was the son of Amen-Ra.
There were a great number of pharaohs who ruled over ancient Egyptians.
In fact there were so many that most that most are only remembered
by name - the lays they created the monuments they built disappeared 
centuries ago. The last Pharaoh ruled until 30 B.C That's when
Augustus Caesar took over, Egypt became a province of ancient
Rome.

For centuries after the fall of ancient Egypt, 
people believed that the drawings on the walls tombs were simply 
stories told in pictures.  Then in 1799, a small stone was found 
near the Egyptian town of Rosetta.  The Rosetta Stone was unique,
becasue the same message had been carved on it in several languages.
One of the languages carved on the stone was ancient Greek.
Another was ancien Egyption hieroglyphics.
Two scholars, Thomas Young and John Francois Champollion,
compared the hieroglyphs with the ancient Greek writings, and 
discovered that each "picture sign" stood for a sound.  It took John
Champollion another 20 years to completely "crack the code" of 
hieroglyphics.

Ancient Egyptians believed that after a person died,
his body would meet with his soul in the afterlife.  So they wanted to be 
sure that the dead body was in the best possible condition.  To do that,
they removed all of the internal organs except the heart, embalmed the 
body with resin or another preservative, wrapped the body tightly in strips
of cloth, and placed the body in a tightly sealed coffin.  Thanks to this
process, and to the dry air of the Egyptian desert, many Egyptian 
mummies have been preserved for more than 5,000 years.

 There is an old Arab proveb that says "Man
 fears time, and man fears the pyramids".  The giant pyramids, of
there are more than 90, have fascinated people since the time when
Pharaohs still ruled over Egypt.  In fact, there is proof that more than
3000 years ago the tourists were already visiting these remartkable structures.
One, "Ahmose, Sone of Iptah," signed his name on the Step Pyramid of
 Saqqara, and wrote that the pyramid looked "as though heaven were in it."
Scientists have dated Ahmose's "graffiti" back to the year 1600 B.C!
By then the Step Pyramid was already 1000 years old.
The pyramids were built as tombs for the Pharaohs.  But over the centuries,
grave robbers have emptied them.  We will probably never know what 
treasures these magnificent structures once held.

Imagine a creature with theb body of a lion 
and the of a man. Thet is the Sphinx. The magnificent statue, carved 
4,500 years ago, stands guard over the Great Pyramid. There are 
some who say thatSphinx's face is actually the face of King Khafre, 
the Pharaoh who ordered the statue built.
Can you answer the ancient  riddle of the Sphinx? I say! I say! What
has one voice and four feet, then two feet, and finally three feet?
The answer is a man. He crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks 
up right as an adult, and finally walks with the aid of a cane when
he is old. 

Who drew the tomb paintings? Who created 
the magnificent gold deathmask of King Tut? Who sculpted the 
majestic Sphinx? We will probably never know the answers to the 
questions. Ancient Egyptian artists rarely signed thrir artwork. But
they did design their work to last forever, as part of the nation's palaces,
tombs, and temples.

In 1922, the grave of a young, little-known
Pharaoh was uncovered by a team of archaeologists. The Pharaoh's 
name was Tutankhamen. Since he was considered a relatively 
unimportant king, his tomb was buried beneath a much larger tomb. 
Grave robbers missed Tutankhamen's tomb. When the team of 
archaeologists uncovered it, all the fabulous treasures were
intact.
"King Tut," as the boy king he came to be known, was only nine years 
old when he became pharaoh. He died before the age of 19.
Like all the Pharaohs, Tue was buried with the things he followers
believed he would need in the afterlife. Among Tut's treasures
was a great deal of scribe equipment. His followers believed thst in 
the afterlife Tut would serve as as a scribe to the sun god.
Perhaps the most frightening thing found in Tut's tomb was an
inscription on a clay tablet. It reads "Death will slay with his wings
whosoever disturbs the peace of Pharaoh".  Has the curse come true?
The leader of the archaeological expedition that uncovered Tut's tomb
lived for 17 years after his famous discovery.  But 20 people associated
with the discovery died mysteriously, shortly after the tomb was opened.

This saying from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
is written on the walls of the innermost shrine in King Tut's tomb.  It is a message 
that today's archaeolgists believe in, because it is their hope that tomorrow
they will find more information about yesterday, in the form of another tomb,
palace, or temple that has been hidden by the passage of time.

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