The Egyptians were fairly short compared to average heights today. They were about 5 feet 5 inches tall. The Egyptians had straight, black hair for the most part. They had dark eyes, usually brown, and copper-colored skin. The women typically wore wigs when they were dressing up. That's why in many paintings the Egyptians have long black hair. Just about everyone completely shaved their heads, because it was much cooler to do so. Remember, they lived very close to the desert, so it was always hot out.
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The Egyptians had large families; much larger than families today. People usually married somebody within their own family, and the Egyptians very typically married at a young age. The girls married usually at age 12, and the boys married at age 14. Usually, after an Egyptian male got married, he and his new wife still live with his parents. This is because the sons of the family would carry on the family profession.
Families often had lots of pets as well. Some typical pets were monkeys, gazelles, cats, and dogs. Cats were sacred animals to the Egyptians, and dogs were often used for hunting.
Are Egyptian families similar to your family?
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Egyptians ate lots of meats, fish, and vegetables. They also liked sweets. Click here for a recipe called Tiger Nut Sweets. For other recipes look in Recipes for Lesson Plans.
Egyptians ate mostly lentils, beans, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, leeks, garlic, fish, duck geese, oxen, dates, figs, melons, grapes, and pomegranates. They used honey for sweetening as well. How many of these things do you like to eat?
They also drank wine, beer, and milk; much like people do today.
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The Egyptian children liked to play lots of games like Leap Frog and Statues. They also played with dolls, balls, spinning tops, wooden animals, and knuckle bones. Girls often sang, and did acrobatic dances, and boys liked wrestling, athletics and gymnastics.
One thing that both children and adults liked to play was a board game called Senet or Twenty Squares. The goal was to get all of your pieces off the board, and stop your opponent from doing the same. Sticks, which were rounded on one side and flat on the other were used instead of dice. Take a look at the picture of a Senet board.
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The Egyptians lived in houses which were made out of white-washed mud bricks. Stone wasn't used to build the houses, like it was used to build temples.
Egyptian houses were not filled with furniture like our houses today. If you were rich, you had wooden chairs to sit on. If you were poor, you sat on colored mats on the floor. Also, Egyptians slept with their heads on a head rest like the picture to the left, instead of on a pillow like we do! Could that be comfortable?
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The Egyptians didn't go to school like we do today. Only the boys were taught things like math and science. They learned from "wise men" or on the "royal court" of the Pharoah. Some boys even went to boarding schools, which were attached to the temples. Depending on who you were taught by, you learned different things.
The girls didn't have any formal schooling at all. They were taught at home by the other women, house keeping skills, and reading and writing, sometimes.
How does the Egyptians' schooling compare to your schooling?
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The Egyptian men wore short kilts (they look like skirts), and the women wore shift dresses (dresses that are light and one piece). Both the kilts and the dresses were made from white linen. Eventually elaborately pleated (folded) dresses and tunics became popular. Brightly colored jewelery and wide floral collars were worn during special times, like festivals.
The women wore something called a perfume cone on top of her wig when she dressed up. The perfume cone was made up of a material that was scented, which melted during the hot day, dripping perfume over the woman's clothing and skin. As I mentioned before, the women wore wigs as well, when they were dressing up. Men sometimes wore wigs as well.
The Egyptians wore sandals as well, to protect their feet. These sandals were made of reeds or leather.
A Lesson idea
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The Egyptians certainly did invent a lot of things. If you remember, they didn't have really any of the things we have now, so they had to start from scratch and make things for themselves. For one thing they invented their written language called Hieroglyphics. They also invented their own standard of measurement called the Royal Cubit, which equals about 20 inches, the standard measurement for the United States (the Metric System is the standard of measurement for Europe).
To help them build houses, temples, and pyramids, the Egyptians invented the plumb level and the right angle. (See the picture of both to the right) The plumb level makes sure vertical (straight up and down) surfaces are correct. The right angle makes sure that the surfaces are flat. If they are, the level would bisect (cut down the middle) the right angle completely.
The Egyptians also invented lots of tools to help them during the flooding seaon of the Nile River. They developed irrigation systems which directed the water away from over-flooding certain areas, and brought water to other areas that got none.
The Egyptians also invented a calendar to tell them when the flooding season would occur, and they created mathematical formulas to determine how high the flood waters reached, as well. The irrigation systems, the calendar and the mathematical formulas helped the Egyptians survive during the flooding season, and make use of the flood waters.
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The Egyptians liked to play music. They used lots of instruments, very much like the instruments we have today. Some of these are bells, lutes, oboes, tambourines, lyres, harps, sistrums (a rattle), and castenets. See if you can learn to play one of these, just like Egyptian boys and girls do.
A Lesson Idea
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When the Egyptians did travel, they used boats, which they made out of papyrus (a plant, which Egyptians made paper out of). They did not travel often, however. They had all the comforts they needed, and imported (took in from other places) very few materials. When they would get imported goods, people from other lands often brought the materials to them. The Egyptians were somewhat afraid to travel.
The desert around them made it hard to travel through, so they often did not travel out that way. Contrary to popular belief, the Egyptians didn't start using camels to travel on until much later in history.
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