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Five thousand (5,000) years ago, the ancient Egyptians made their home in northern Africa, at the mouth of the Nile River, where the Nile runs into the Mediterranean Sea. Each spring, the Nile would briefly rise, swollen with melting snow from the mountains. It was easy to grow food in the rich soil the flood waters left behind. They farmed and fished and hunted. They baked breads sweetened with honey. They found waterfowl and turtle eggs along the shoreline and even enjoyed the occasional crocodile. Food was plentiful and no one went hungry. They were surrounded on two sides by desert, which helped to keep them safe from intruders, while the Nile kept their world green. The people loved their life along the Nile.

Pharaohs were the kings of ancient Egypt. A couple were woman, but most pharaohs were men. Pharaohs were the leaders of government and religion. There were about 170 pharaohs over time, but there was only one pharaoh at a time. In ancient Egypt, the people referred to a pharaoh not as "the" pharaoh, but simply Pharaoh. Pharaoh ruled everything and owned everything. Pharaoh's power was absolute. He was not worshipped. He was obeyed. The people believed if they did not obey Pharaoh, the Nile would not rise. Occasionally, over the years, the Nile did not flood. When that happened, the Nile did not deposit the new rich soil they needed to grow crops, and did not provide the clean, fresh water animals and plants needed to survive. Egypt suffered from famine and disease. Fortunately, that did not happen very often.

The ancient Egyptians believed in both science and magic. If they were ill, they might buy a magical spell from one vendor and medicine from a different vendor to solve the same problem. This often worked, although it was probably the medicine. When the ancient Greeks and then the Romans came to Egypt, they were amazed at how advanced the Egyptians were in the sciences, especially in astronomy, mathematics, and cures. The Egyptians belief in magic was an important part of daily life. They kept an eye out for omens and wore magical amulets. They bought spells in the marketplace to increase their luck, to change their fate, and to keep themselves safe.

They believed that cats were magical and that cats guarded their children from harm. Children were cherished, so cats were the most popular and precious pet in ancient Egypt. If you killed a cat, the punishment was death.

The ancient Egyptians believed in over 2,000 gods! Unlike other ancient cultures, whose gods looked like people, most Egyptian gods had animal heads. They prayed to their gods every day. Unlike other ancient civilizations, the ancient Egyptians were not afraid of their gods, not most of them anyway. If their prayers were not answered, they might give the statue of a god in the temple a little whack with a reed to let the gods know they were quite disappointed.

The temples were used for everything, for school, for gatherings, for storage, and to house guests for the night. All their temples were open for prayer, and every temple honored all their gods.

Their culture had a great deal to do with their beliefs about their life after death. To reach their afterlife, which was a real, magical place to them, they had to do thousands of good deeds in their lifetime to earn their way in. If they did not, or committed horrible crimes, they would not move on after death to their afterlife. They would instead disappear forever. So crime was very low in ancient Egypt.

One of their favorite family outings was visiting the family tomb with arms full of grave goods they had made, things they might need in their afterlife to make their eternity comfortable and fun. Some grave goods were statues of little tiny people made of clay. They believed these little clay people would magically do their chores for them in their afterlife, while their Ka, their spirit, flew off to enjoy endless, perfect days along a magical Nile River. At night, they believed their Ba, their night spirit, returned to their tomb, because even mummies need a good night's sleep. In ancient Egypt, grave robbing was considered the worse crime anyone could commit.

The ancient Egyptians went through elaborate steps to make sure their bodies were preserved after their death. Some, if they could afford it, hired hair dressers and make up artists to make their preserved bodies look as good as possible. After elaborate ceremony, including some they believed were carried out by certain gods, like the weighing of their heart to make sure they had done ample good deeds in their lifetime, their bodies were placed in their family tombs.

Besides doing good deeds, getting their tombs ready, and preparing their bodies, there was one last step they had to achieve to reach their afterlife. They had to have their name written down somewhere. If their name was not written down, their Ka and Ba would get lost and were not able to find their way back to their tomb. If that happened, they would never again be able to watch over their family or to enjoy their afterlife, the afterlife they had worked so hard to achieve. It did not matter where their name was written down, or how many times - it simply had to be written down somewhere. One Pharaoh had his name carved onto nearly every building in ancient Egypt, just to be safe.

The ancient Egyptians were fascinating people, and thanks to the movies are often misunderstood. The ancient Egyptians were not in love with death. They were in love with life! They loved it so much they wanted to live forever. They created a society based on preparing for their afterlife. They were not in a hurry to die. Rather, the opposite. But once they did die, they wanted to make sure they would live forever in a magical place, along a magical Nile, for eternity.

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