Facts about Egypt you wish you never knew
Tags: Facts, Egypt, History

Trophy child King Tut was likely a by- product of Inbreeding

King Tutankhamun, King of Egypt, balance of the universe, keeper of Maat, and the living Manifestation of the solar god Horus ( not a Warhammer reference ), is likely a product of incest between Pharaoh Akhenaten and one of his sisters. The Egyptians have a very good reason for this — they see themselves as the descendants of Gods, belonging to the Ra lineage, and to preserve the bloodline, they choose to marry their sisters, or first cousins, or their daughters, (and anything beyond that is strictly off limits). Which I guess worked out well for King Tut, if we can ignore the Cleft palate and club foot.

Fun Fact : King Tut went on to marry his half-sister, Ankhesenamun.

Gender Reveals

Two gods are placed alongside the pregnant women, Bes and Heqet, one described as a ugly, pudgy dwarf and the other as a frog, not the best in terms of looks, but they help to ward off evil spirits.

The average egytian (if they survived birth and childhood) might live upto 30 to 35 years, there were various ways to die — accidents during work, or fighting of an enemy, there are also evidence of maladies that could easily be treated by modern medicine and vaccination.

Now coming to the weird stuff — with an outcome of debatable accuracy (do not try this at home), wheat and barley placed in a cloth pouch, and a women suspecting she is pregnant will urinate on them everyday, if the barley sprouted it would be a boy and if wheat sprouted, its a girl.

Egyptians invented toothpaste

Egyptians invented Papyrus, black ink, plough, sickle, clocks, wigs, cosmetic makeup, surgical instruments, embalming and they also invented dental hygiene.

They made toothpaste out of ox hooves, ashes, burnt eggshells and pumice. There are manuals on how-to-brush written in papyrus. from the fourth century AD describes how to mix precise amounts of rock salt, mint, dried iris flower and grains of pepper, to form a “powder for white and perfect teeth.” (which also causes gum bleeding)

Egyptians faced a lot of oral problems mostly due to their diet — uncooked vegetables, which might have been a prime motivator behind the invention.

How they removed brain from a dead person

To the Egyptians, the heart is the centre of intelligence, the brain on the other hand was an empty mass filling the void inside the skull. But they have figured out a fracture to the skull can cause concussion.

While the embalmer takes special care to remove a heart from a body, a piece of copper is inserted up the nose, pounding through the fragile skull, until they reach the soft substance behind it.Twisting the hook up the nose until they liquefy the brain, pulling out the chunks.

One of the most popular Egytian mythology is humanity being saved by beer.

When the Sun god Re, got tired of all humanity and set out to wipe out all of humanity, he send an invite to his daughter, Hathor who transformed into his “vengeful Eye” and later into Sekhmet, a goddess depicted as a lioness. Halfway through the massacre, Re changed his mind.

But Hathor was too much into it, enthusiastically participating in the slaughter and enjoying the blood. Re, to stop his daughter had huge barrels of beer dyed red, poured onto the fields. She stopped because she was too intoxicated to do anything else.

Hence started the Festival and Drunkenness, sobriety is usually encouraged in Egytian culture, with an exception of festivities. The festival also encourages a few sexual encounters which is usually frowned upon in Egyptian culture.

Hethor once stood naked in front of her father Re while he was depressed.

And he burst out laughing and said to never be depressed again!