Top 10 Myths About Ancient Egypt (Part I)
1. Cleopatra Was Beautiful
Cleopatra VII, the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, has always been a cultural figure, renowned for her alluring beauty. This idea has been perpetuated by everybody from Shakespeare to film director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. However, Roman coins show Cleopatra to have masculine features: a large nose, protruding chin and thin lips – not any culture’s archetype of good looks. On the other hand, she wasn’t lacking in brains; contemporary sources note Cleopatra as being charismatic and clever, as opposed to possessing physical beauty.
2.Obsessed With Death
Reading about the Ancient Egyptians with their pyramids, mummies and imposing gods, it is easy to reach the conclusion that they were preoccupied with death. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The great labor that the Egyptians took in burying each other was actually a way of glorifying life. For example, many of the illustrations that adorn the inside of tombs are celebrations of farming, hunting and fishing. Furthermore, the expensive ornaments buried with the Egyptians helped them reach the afterlife, where they continued their current job without any hardships. Mummifying was a way to keep the corpse lifelike, ready for this idealized form of everyday life. Clearly the Egyptians were obsessed with life, not death.
3. Aliens
There are some people who believe that the Egyptians were in contact with aliens. They allege that the pyramids are superhuman achievements and that some murals actually depict extraterrestrials. This is simply insulting to the legacy of the Ancient Egyptians. Whilst the Great Pyramid at Giza is mathematically astounding, its construction was not beyond the ingenious astronomers, scholars and architects of the time. And while the Great Pyramid stood as the tallest structure for almost 4000 years, that does not mean that the Egyptians were friends with aliens; it only means that no culture rivaled the Egyptians at building monuments until the 19th century. Concerning murals, the picture above speaks for itself.
4. Fully Discovered
Many believe that we have found out everything we can about Ancient Egypt, and that Egyptology is a dead and buried subject. This is simply incorrect. Fascinating discoveries are still being made daily about Ancient Egypt, shedding new light on their civilization. For instance, a “solar boat” is currently being extracted from the Great Pyramid. It is presumed that this solar boat would allow the dead Pharaohs to assist sun-god Ra in his eternal battle with Apep, demon of darkness. Every night, Ra sails his solar boat into combat with Apep and at dawn he emerges triumphant and cruises across the sky.
5. Pharaohs Killed Servants
When the Pharaohs died, their servants were not killed and entombed with them as is popularly believed, bar a few exceptions. Two Pharaohs of the First Dynasty of Egypt are known to have had their servants buried with them. The human tendency to generalize has led to the myth that this was a common occurrence amongst all of the other 300 or so Pharaohs. The later Pharaohs probably realized that their trusty servants were more useful living than dead, so they buried themselves with ‘shabtis’ instead. These were figurines that could be animated to help the Pharaohs in the afterlife.
To be continued...
