The awesome Egyptians: A peep into the pyramid

I was inspired by the pyramids and Egyptian mythology ever since I was a little girl. But it was only recently that I had the opportunity to read about it. Not a very deep read yet I was able to understand how it all worked back then during the construction of the pyramids and get to know about the Egyptian lifestyle. 

I came across the book - Horrible Histories: The Awesome Egyptians at a book fair and picked this book up as soon as seeing the title. It is a children's book but was enough to feed my curiosity. Along the length of the book, there were lots of pictures that felt as though I'm reading a comic. The book overflowed with facts about pyramids and spoke about the culture of the Egyptians. It was a bit funny to read while it didn't question anything about some of the horrible practices they followed. 

Kings and class system

It was surprising to witness the ancient Egyptians had class systems and divided people based on their occupation - just like we do today! The division back then was so distinct that the king would spend all his day being idle while the lowest class person will be engaged in some or the other physical work enough to lose all his stamina. The Egyptians were probably the first to incite protests demanding pay hike! And, a bribe is something that existed thousands of years ago in their country! Starting from the king, people were divided into many different groups based on the jobs they did. There were scribes, priests, craftsmen along with other few divisions who formed the first seven levels, the king being the top while 90% of the population were peasants. 

What we could expect

How Egypt remained isolated due to geographical conditions? How river Nile helped them to build pyramids? How did the farmers were engaged in constructing the pyramids? How casual it is to have as many wives as a king wishes? Are the pyramids really cursed? What is the connection between the pyramid's curse and the death of a few people who tried to trespass it or worked with it? want to find answers - read this book! Rather than me telling all the answers reading this book will be enriching your experience.

Pyramids

The kings built their own pyramids to serve as mausoleums to bury themselves in after their death. The kings were treated as gods by Egyptians. The bigger a king's worth is the bigger the pyramid would be. The kings poured in their treasures to build such huge pyramids as their own resting place to show their monetary value. Some pyramids and mummies still hold secrets that are difficult for experts to decode. There is a list of people provided in this book, who lost their lives after working with the pyramids and mummies. While there are other people who even after working closely with the mummies lived a longer life, the puzzle about how other's death is related to mummies remains a mystery. 

Mummies and grave robbers

They say that the Egyptians cursed their mummies in order to prevent them from grave robbers. The robbers would normally thieve off the treasures buried along with the mummies and the demand for such goods were skyrocketing at that time. Some mummies' location of burial is kept under wraps to prevent it from the robbers and experts couldn't trace it down even today. Some kings would duplicate their mummies while safeguarding the real mummies in very secret places. The Egyptians believed that the kings had an afterlife in which they would need all the treasures. The horrible thing is that in their afterlife they would also require servants so they killed them too in order to serve the king in his afterlife.

Many people have worked with pyramids - some archeologists or pyramidologists (study of pyramids) but some are lured by the riches these graves possessed. The Egyptian government has to impose a ban for exporting its mummies back then, that's how much popular it is! You would be amazed to know in what ways the mummies were later used by people, from the linen that was wound around the mummies to the actual body parts!

Whether or not this book decodes the secret of the mummies, it definitely removes some of the myths surrounding it. It tells some of the facts that I hadn't known before about mummies and Egyptians. Despite being a children's book, it didn't fail to kindle the curiosity in discovering more about the Egyptians. 

Here's the link to get the book from Amazon

https://www.amazon.in/Awesome-Egyptians-Horrible-Histories-Terry/dp/0439944031

Happy reading...!!!