The longevity of ancient Egyptian society, some 3,500 years, was largely because they had the good fortune to live in a sunny land, well-watered by the river Nile, which was just right for growing a wide variety of vegetables and cereal crops. Throughout human history, however, your wealth dictated the access to and variety of foods available. Poor Egyptians relied on a diet of bread, beans, onions and green vegetables to stave off hunger. Where do we get our evidence? Food f

One of the more enduring popular “ myths ” is the idea that the great pyramids at Giza in northern Egypt were constructed (c. 2575 - c. 2465 BC) by a vast army of maltreated slaves. How this falsehood has flourished for centuries and even transformed popular perceptions of a historical event can be laid firmly at the feet of Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484 - c. 420 BC). Although considered to be the “ father of history ” , Herodotus was responsible for passing on a number

February 16th , 1923 : One hundred years ago today Egyptologist Howard Carter unseals Tutankhamun’s tomb. Despite the builders’ best efforts most of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were robbed of their treasures. The only one to remain untouched was that of boy king Tutankhamun, the seemingly unremarkable 11th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, who was made famous by the discovery of his intact tomb (KV 62) by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. Who found the tomb

The widely accepted view is that Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, was ethnically an olive-skinned Macedonian Greek. Some argue, however, that the 'African' queen was a black woman. Who's right? What evidence is there to know how the enigmatic queen looked?