Egypt by jack d and david HORUS Egypt by jack d and david Horus was an Egyptian god, originally from Upper Egypt. In the Old Kingdom, people thought of Horus as having the head of a falcon, and his name means "falcon" in Egyptian. The Pharaoh was the human form of Horus, and then when he died, the dead Pharaoh was the human form of Osiris. More generally, Horus was a sky god,the son of the sun god, Re. He was the god of war and the god of protection against evil. A lot of people carried good luck charms in the shape of the eye of Horus, to watch out for their safety

THE GODS Ra was the most important God. He was the lord of all the gods. He was usually shown in human form with a falcon head, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the a sacred cobra. Ra sailed across the heavens in a boat called the 'Barque of Millions of Years'. At the end of each day Ra was thought to die and sailed on his night voyage through the Underworld, leaving the Moon to light the world above.

THE NILE The River Nile is about 6,670 km (4,160 miles) in length and is the longest river in Africa and in the world. Although it is generally associated with Egypt, only 22% of the Nile’s course runs through Egypt.

PYRAMIDS The pyramids are the stone tombs of Egypt's kings - the Pharaohs and one of the world's greatest historical mysteries. They have stood for thousands of years, filled with many hidden secrets: clues about what life (and death) was like in Ancient Egypt.

TOMBS Tutankhamun was probably born at Akhetaten which was the capital city of Egypt. He was born in about the year 1346 BC. His father was the pharaoh Akehenhaten. Soon after he became pharaoh, he married his teenage sister. This was a traditional Egyptian thing to do.

ROSETTA STONE Hundreds of years later, archaeologists discovered beautiful hieroglyphic writing on the walls of ancient Egyptian pyramids and tombs. The archaeologists had a problem. They knew hieroglyphics had meanings. Although lots of archaeologists could read Demotic script, there was no one left in the world who remembered what the ancient hieroglyphics meant. 

HIEROGLYPHS Egyptian hieroglyphs have been a source of mystery and fascination for thousands of years. The entire system was based on 'picture words', and was therefore complex. In fact, these picture writings baffled linguists for almost 1,400 years, before some clues were found to their meaning. The hieroglyphs took a lot of time to learn and master due to their sheer numbers. Scholars estimate that there are in excess of 700 hieroglyphs found in the Egyptian writings.

TUTANKHAMUN The most famous Egyptian pharaoh today is, without doubt, Tutankhamun. However, before the spectacular discovery of his almost intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings in November 1922, Tutankhamun was only a little known figure of the late 18th Dynasty.