Ancient History Facts

The Hymn to Ninkasi, a 3,900-year-old Sumerian poem, contains the oldest known beer recipe in history.

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.

The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old!

Jericho is the oldest walled city in the world at 9,000 yrs old!

Around 300 ft uphill from the highest water level reached by the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami sits a centuries-old stone marker that warns: “Do not build your homes below this point!”

The oldest stone tools found are dated from 2.7 - 2.9 million years ago. The species that made these tools is unknown.

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

For centuries, the Gordian Knot defeated every scholar and king who tried to untie it. An oracle declared whoever solved it would rule all of Asia. Alexander the Great studied it for a moment — then drew his sword and cut straight through it.

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.

Hikers called the cops when they found a body melting out of an Alpine glacier in 1991. Police treated it as a routine mountain casualty. Carbon dating later revealed the man had been dead for 5,300 years. A decade later, X-rays found an arrowhead in his shoulder - he had bled to death in minutes.