Roar to you from the country of Egypt! We are very excited to be here as we have always wanted to visit Egypt. This is because Lion is very interested in Ancient History. He loves learning about Ancient Egypt and the pharaohs that ruled it:
Here is a pharaoh from 3000 years ago!
We saw a gold mask that belonged to a famous Pharoah called Tutenkhamun. It was put over his face when he died. It was so shiny and valuable.
Pharaohs lived a long time ago and they no longer rule Egypt but lots of their writing, stories and temples still remain. Some temples were buried under the desert sand for many thousands of years and had to be excavated and rebuilt.
Egypt is famous because it has the only remaining ‘Ancient Wonder of the World’. These are the amazing pyramids of Giza. They were built to hold the body of the pharaoh once he had died. They are huge and tremendous. Dino couldn’t speak because he was so amazed by their size and beauty. It was difficult to imagine how they were built 3000years ago long before cranes and diggers had been invented.
Next to the pyramids is a mythical creature called the Sphinx.
The Ancient Egyptians used to write using pictures. They are called hieroglyphics. Can you see them behind us?
Lots of buildings, temples and tombs were covered in hieroglyphics. These are on the temple of Dendara.
Sometimes, the hieroglyphics inside temples were painted. We thought these were beautiful. They have messages written about the gods and also the pharaoh.
Here is a website where you can write your name in hieroglyphics.
Write your name in Hieroglyphics! Click here
We visited lots of temples. Each one was impressive and dedicated to one of the many different Gods that they believed in.
This is Hathor, the goddess of love, beauty and motherhood.
This is Horus, the god of the sky and has the head of a hawk. To learn more about the different Gods click here: Find out about the different Gods
We wondered if there was a God with a lions head and a Dinos head. Can you investigate for us?
Some temples had huge statues guarding the entrances
This is the temple of a very famous Queen called Hatshepsut. It is a difficult name to say. Lots of the temples were carved into rock. Kings and Queens were buried with lots of artefacts to help them go to the ‘afterlife’. Kings were often buried with a boat to help them sail across to the afterlife.
Our favourite temple was called Abu Simbel. It had huge statues. Wow!
While we were looking at the temple at Karnak, 2 children selling papyrus pictures spotted us. They were so excited to see us. They thought Dino’s fur was so soft and that Lion needed a haircut! Cheeky! They then went back to selling their papyrus. What do you think about children working?
In Egypt, the country has had a lot of development but there are a still a lot of people who are very poor. We met some street kids who were playing football in the street. It was fun to watch them. No one supported Everton though.
We saw this lady carrying cabbages that she had just picked from the field back to her house. She must have a strong neck to carry all those cabbages!
At night we had to sleep under a Mosquito net to keep the Mosquitos away. Mosquitos like to bite and they can pass very bad diseases like malaria to you. We felt safe under the net and could see all the mozzies flying around but not able to bite us. We also have to take some special medication that stops us getting malaria. We have to take one tablet every Monday. It is a very strong medicine. We are lucky that in the UK we don’t have malaria.
We saw lots of people cooking falafel. Dino loved the taste of it. It was always crispy and even better when put into flat bread with salad. Yum. Falafel is made from chick peas.
We also ate lots of Koshery. This is bowls of macaroni, tomato, fried onion and sometimes rice. It is great food to eat after a busy day cycling.
In Egypt they also eat lots of which is rice stuffed into vegetables. Yum yum.
We cycled along a river called the River Nile. Next to the river, the land is green and plentiful. Lot of people grow crops and there are lots of trees. People pump the water from the river onto the land. However, where the water stops so does all the green plants. Away from the river, the rest of Egypt is made up of desert. Can you see in these pictures?
Egypt is a very large country but most of it’s 81million people live next to the Nile River. Can you see the Nile on the map? We cycled from Cairo all the way to Aswan. Can you find our route? Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. it has many many cars and is such a busy city.
This is the flag of Egypt.
In Egypt, people speak Arabic and they pay for things using Egyptian pounds.
We were in Egypt For Christmas, so we treated ourselves to a ride on a sail boat called a Felucca. It was very calm and relaxing.
Lots of people use the boats for fishing.
Although there are lots of taxis in the cities, lots of people do not own a car. We saw this family on a donkey going back to their home.
The traditional people who live in the desert in Egypt are called Bediouns. They were very kind and let is camp next to their house.
We spent Christmas in Egypt. It was strange to be somewhere so hot and sunny. We are used to it being very cold at Christmas time. We enjoyed opening some presents.
We hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!
big roars in 2012!
To find out more about Ancient Egypt click here:
website about Egypt: click here
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