Special Sub-Topic: Curious Things About Egypt Click Here To Play: Curious Things About Egypt

What was discovered in the graves of the first dynasty kings at Abydos that has never been found in the graves of subsequent dynasties?

murdered courtiers. It is believed that officials, priests and women of the royal household were sacrificed to serve their king in the afterlife.

What was the name of the king who built the first successfully completed large stone building in the world?

Djoser. This was his tomb, the Stepped Pyramid at Saqquara. He was the second king of the third dynasty. The approximate date of his reign was 2667-2648 B.C.

Since human sacrifice was not a feature of royal burials after the first dynasty, what was used to take their place?

statuettes. Starting in the Middle kingdom, these figurines called shabti or ushabti, started as crude naked figures and evolved into workers equipped with the tool of their trade and inscribed with magic spells.

Many of the shabti for sale today are fakes. These small glazed pottery figures are artificially aged with the help of what?

geese. Geese are forced to swallow the shabti and by the time it has passed through the digestive tract, the shabti looks thousands of years old. Let the buyer beware!

What labor-related issue was the first ever recorded at a village called Dier El Medina?

sit-down strike. Food had supplies had stopped coming from the temple storehouses to sustain the workers building the royal tombs. They refused to work until the vizier managed to get the flow of supplies started again.

During the Second Intermediate period, northern Egypt was occupied by invaders from western Asia. They were called what?

Hyksos. The Greek term Hyksos derives from the Egyptian name Hekau Khasut, or Rulers of Foreign Countries. The name had no intrinsic pejorative meaning as the Hyksos kings used it to refer to themselves.

What did Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th dynasty have in common with Queen Sobekkara Sobekneferu of the 12th dynasty with regard to their right to rule?

daughter of a king. Both stressed the fact they were a daughter of a king. The term queen generally meant 'great royal wife'. These two rulers adopted male royal titles and items of dress to stress the fact they were pharaohs.

This eighteenth dynasty king was famed for shooting arrows through copper targets while driving a chariot with the reins tied around his waist.

Amenhotep II. At least one art historian has suggested that his target shooting feat formed the basis for an episode in the Iliad featuring Achilles.

Pharaohs typically celebrated a sed-festival or jubilee in which they ritually renewed their kingly power. Each king usually celebrated this festival for the first time after how many years of rule?

thirty. The ritual involved the king walking(or dancing) around a temple enclosure carring a scroll representing the deed to Egypt. The king then proclaimed dominance over the land by having 'passed through it.'

The bust of Nefertiti is one of the most recognized art objects in the world. What is unique about this sculpture?

The two halves of her face are perfectly symetrical. The faces of real people are not perfectly symetrical. The reason for her perfectly symetrical likeness remains a mystery.