Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Through the Nose Holes

Doodle has been fascinated with Ancient Egypt and pyramids and mummies this week. It started with a book we have been reading called
The Story of the World: History for the classical Child.
The section on King Tut is very intriguing. Then yesterday we watched a Reading Rainbow about mummies. That got her all fired up. Apparently she pictured mummies as looking just like real people. Watching Reading Rainbow showed her a real mummy for the first time. She was intrigued.
This morning for school we got on the Internet and looked at pictures of King Tut and his treasures, the pyramids and other ancient Egyptian artifacts. Think about it, real live hidden treasure in the sands of Egypt. I wonder if there are more out there we just have not found yet.
So today I'm talking about ancient Egypt. Click here for a video about King Tut and what they think killed him. Click here for more information about the process of making a mummy. Here are a few other fun facts for you.
* Female mummies have gold plated finger nails and toe nails (remind you of nail polish? We just had to paint our nails in honor of the Egyptians)
* King Tut's Tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. He started working in Egypt as an archaeologist at age 17. He found King Tut a whopping 31 years later.
* Tut became Pharaoh of Egypt at age 9 and died at age 19.
* King Tut's full name is Tutankhamen
* Archaeologists have discovered two baby girl mummies in King Tut's tomb who are thought to have been his daughters.
* King Tut's mummy was buried in 7 coffins (like nesting dolls). Each one was wood plated in gold, except the last one. It was solid gold. That was typical for Pharaohs.
* The pyramids were build for tombs for the Pharaohs.
* Solid gold statues of King Tut were found in his tomb
* The eyes of the mummies look disgusting (Doodle is helping me remember things).
* Before a mummy was made they removed the lungs and other organs and the brain was removed through the nose holes (you should have seen my children's faces when they learned that fun fact! CLASSIC!)
* King Tut has really flat feet
* Over 5,000 people visit King Tut's tomb every year (Someday, I will be one of them!)
So what fun fact have you learned today?
To see what others are talking about this First Tuesday of fall visit the lazy organizer.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How do you get them to sit still for a book or anything? Trey will NOT hold still, not even to read. Well, if he is reading it then he will. I have to say KUDOS to you.

Anonymous said...

Very neat I love Ancient Egypt also. And FYI not sure if your close to the Dallas area, but the King Tut Exhibit will be in Dallas from Oct- May. I believe children under 5 get in free. We are planning a trip.

Ice Cream said...

I LOVED covering ancient Egypt with my kids. We need to do that again.

BTW, decluttering is very painful for me too. But it feels so good once it's done. At least, that's what they tell me. =)