Ah...Egypt, The land of the magnificent pyramids, the breath-taking Sphinx, the home to one of the oldest civilizations known to man, and the setting of all the horror movies associated with mummies. Here are some of the things that you might know about the ancient ‘land of the pharaohs’.
One of the first peace treaties was signed by the Ancient Egyptians Ancient Egyptians had been engaged in a two century-long tussle with the Hittite Empire over a land that is known as modern-day Syria. However, when, after a long and tiring scuffle, neither party emerged victorious, Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, and Hittite King Hattusili II signed a famous peace treaty by which they not only agreed to desist their conflict but also to aid each other in the event of an invasion by another empire. The Egyptian-Hittite treaty is one of the earliest known peace treaties to ever be signed. Their women had equal rights and freedom as their men.
Ancient Egypt had a familiar system of arranged marriage as is prevalent here in India. The husbands and the wives of a family had contrasting roles with the husbands being the families’ bread earner while the wives were responsible for the upkeep of the household. However, the women enjoyed equal rights as men and could buy and sell properties, choose any profession that they wanted to where they received equal pay as the men. They could independently raise their children and became the de-facto owner of any family business in the event of the death of the husband. As a matter of fact, their king could, in fact, be a queen.
Cleopatra was not Egyptian
This is why one should not give much credence to history as depicted in video games. Cleopatra the VIIth, the last queen of Ptolemaic Egypt, though born in Alexandria, was actually Greek. She was the descendent of Ptolemy I, a historian and a loyal companion of Alexander the Great.
They did not, in fact, ride camels
Really? Ancient Egyptians did not ride camels? I must be joking, right? Well, as a matter of fact, camels as a means of transport were not used in Egypt until much later. Conventional transport was done by donkeys and aquatic transport, by boats.
Slavery wasn’t used to build the Great Pyramids
In fact, they were built by a mix of skilled and unskilled workforce. The skilled employees were a group of 5000, permanent, and salaried men while the 20,000 unskilled labourers were employed under the Corvée system (intermittent, unsalaried labour which lasts for varied periods of time) and were paid in the form of food, shelter, and medical care.
Ancient Egypt had specialized fields of medical education.
Ancient Egypt had some of the most advanced medical education in the world with their healthcare, as is often regarded in historical documents, of the highest repute. Medical practices were generally specialized broadly into general practice, surgery, and dentistry. However, evidence of further specialization has also been uncovered like trauma surgery, gynaecology, dermatology, etc. That’s remarkable!