Ancient Egypt Facts

When the ancient Egyptians defeated Libya around 1208 BC, Pharaoh Merneptah's soldiers collected 6,359 penises from slain Libyan warriors as battle trophies, meticulously recorded on the Great Karnak Inscription.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.

In ancient Egypt, life expectancy at birth was around 30 years—but this statistic is misleading. High infant and childhood mortality rates dragged down the average. Egyptians who survived to adulthood commonly lived into their 50s, 60s, or even 70s.

Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs that was still perfectly edible.

The Library of Alexandria held up to 700,000 scrolls. To fill it, guards searched every ship in the harbor, seized any books on board, and kept the originals. It wasn't destroyed in one fire - it died over 500 years. Less than 1% of ancient Greek writing survives. Sophocles wrote 120 plays. Only 7 made it.

The Great Pyramids of Giza were once covered in polished white limestone blocks so smooth that a knife blade could not fit between them. In sunlight they blazed like mirrors across the desert. In 1303, an earthquake loosened the casing. A sultan stripped the stones to build mosques in Cairo - and the rough stepped core we see today is what was left behind.