grace’s journalIf found, please return to:

24 Acacia Avenue, Warrnambool,

Victoria, Australia, Earth, The Milky Way, The known universe.

I’ve been sailing along the Nile for days now. The papyrus canoe I borrowed from a local fishermen is defiantly not suited for long trips. Oh, did I mention that I decided to travel to Ancient Egypt? I know time travel isn’t

Dear Diary,

supposed to be possible, but I found a way . I won’t write it down in the journal in case it falls into the wrong hands.Here’s a photo I took of my canoe. I know, it’s a bit shabby, but I like it.

1/06

Dear Diary,Finally! After a few days of floating along the Nile, I’ve found a village! I was sitting in my canoe when I spotted mud brick houses up ahead. I was trying to decide whether to just float up to them and make myself known, or spy on the villagers for a while,

when one of the children spotted me. She told me her name was Tawaret, and introduced her family. They asked me to stay with them for a while!

3/06

Dear Diary,The family I’m

staying with live in this village. The two daughters are named Tawaret and Kiya, the boys are Horus and Ammon, their mother’s called Nephthys, and their father’s name is Aapep. Ancient Egyptians lived in Mud-brick houses.

3/06

They were made of mud from the Nile river, which was then shaped and dried in the sun. Temples were the only buildings made completely from stone.

Dear Diary,The clothes Ancient

Egyptians wear are kind of strange. The adults wear Clothes that are almost always made of flax, and the richer the family, the more transparent they were. Men wear wrap-around skirt with a belt, while women wear full length dresses with straps.

3/06

Both wear as much gold jewellery as the can afford, and head dresses on special occasions. By the way, children up until the age of 6 don’t even wear clothes!

Dear Diary, She also showed me that ancient Egyptians get water from the Nile river.

Nephthys took me to the market today. One of the strangest things I find about Ancient Egypt is about something as simple as milk! Nephthys has just told me that it’s a prised beverage. I guess I’m not going to get any cornflakes here…

4/06

Dear Diary,

Kiya taught me some more stuff about ancient Egyptian diets today. Average Egyptian households eat three times a day, while Royal Egyptians eat five times a day!

5/06

Beer made from bread is a popular drink. Average Egyptians only eat meat on special occasions,

Dear Diary,The ancient Egyptians seem to have a god or goddess for everything!Tawaret took me to the temple to learn more about the main gods in ancient Egypt, like Ra, Horus and Osiris. I found the goddess Isis most interesting. She’s the goddess of magic.

Here’s a photo I took of the eye of Horus today. It’s a powerful symbol of the ancient Egyptian god, Horus.

7/06

Dear Diary,Tawaret has just told me that ancient Egyptians believed that temples were the homes of their gods and goddesses. Every temple is dedicated to a different one, and they are worshiped their by their own priests and priestesses.

.

7/06

Dear Diary,Priests and Priestesses weren’t just taught how to worship, they learned to defend and guard their temples, and supervise work in the temple workshops. Offerings were given to gods. The job of priest were hereditary.

7/06 In the months that they weren’t need a their temple, they lived a lot like any other average citizens.

Dear Diary,There are four ways to get around in ancient Egypt, besides walking of course. Ancient Egyptians get around on chariots, boats, donkeys and camels. The main mode of transport is boats, although not many people own them.

Nephthys told me that you either have to build one yourself, or buy one. Their mainly made out of papyrus, like my canoe.

8/06

Dear Diary,Chariots aren’t used much either, unless you needed to get somewhere in a rush. Camels on the other hand, are a completely different story. Nearly every household has one, even the family I’m staying with do. They’ve named her Nathifa,

8/06 but I think that’s too long a name for a camel, so I just call her Daisy . They keep giving me weird looks for that… There are also donkeys, but they can’t carry heavy loads, and need to be feed a lot more, unlike camels.

Dear Diary,Ancient Egyptians played a lot of sports. They didn’t have technology to entertain them, so they played sports like: Archery, Chariot Racing, Gymnastics, Swimming and heaps of different ball games.

Ancient Egyptians also enjoy sports like hunting and fishing.

9/06

Dear Diary,

Guess who snuck into school today. I did! Ancient Egyptian Children attend school between the ages 4 and 14. Boys and girls attended school together, where they learned to read, write, and do maths. Teachers used a stick to punish children. Ouch!

Children who were going to be priests, scribes or artists also learned to write in hieroglyphics.

10/06

Dear Diary, When boys turn 14,

they follow their father’s trade, which could range from working in the fields, to becoming lawyers. Girls from both rich and poor family's were stayed at home after they turned 14, were they learned how to run a household, female trades like

beer making and weaving and the arts of music and dancing. Girls got married a soon as possible after this.

10/06

Dear Diary, Okay. I’ve decided to

leave the family I’m staying with to continue my research. I want to learn about pyramids and mummification and all that, and there’s not really much of that where I am . I’ve packed up all my junk (umm… I mean valuable equipment)

and set out along the Nile in my little canoe again. I wonder how long it’ll take to get to Giza…

12/06

Dear Diary, It might take a little

longer than I thought to take to get to Giza. I may have crashed my canoe into the river bank today, just maybe! I had to walk for about 10 minutes to get to a village, but it was horrid in the heat! it I was exhausted by the time I rocked up at the village. I

managed to trade the remnants of my canoe and a couple of other things for a camel. They told me her name was Hasina. At least it’s not as hard a name to pronounce as the last camel I met.

15/06

Dear Diary, I found Giza! I’ve

figured that I must be around the Middle kingdom period, since what I know as the pyramid of Giza is still being built. It looks massive! It’s made entirely out of limestone, the original height is 146.5 metres. Anyways, enough about that.

I’m off to learn about the government and laws.

15/06

Dear Diary,Okay, so the governments in ancient Egypt is ruled almost completely by a pharaoh, and their advisors. Being a pharaoh is like being king or queen in Ancient Egypt, and the position is hereditary. Governments and religion were kind of mashed together in Ancient Egypt. The

16/06

pharaoh was said to be the human embodiment of the god Horus. Anyways, onto laws!

A painting of a pharaoh's sarcophagus I bought. Isn’t it cool?

Dear Diary,Pharaohs were the

ones who created laws in Ancient Egypt, and the ones who enforced, and punished those who broke them. The punishments for breaking laws were harsh, and were based on the idea of Ma’at. Ma’at was the concept of

peace and order. If you didn’t follow strict ruled, you could be denied access to the afterlife. The pharaoh had officials that caught criminals. They were like the police today.

17/06

Dear Diary,Ancient Egyptian art

was based heavily on their gods, lifestyles and leaders. You often see paintings of everything a pharaoh would need in the after life and pictures of gods doing their daily works. They also made beautiful and useful items to

decorate their homes. Ancient Egyptians believed that the dead went into an afterlife, and that the sarcophagus was to be a beautiful place for the body to rest.

17/06

Dear Diary,Written records of

the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known, outside of Sumerian, and written language has dated back form 3200 BCE.

18/06

Dear Diary,This will be my last

entry. I have decided to write about thing that I believed that I would have changed in ancient Egypt. I believe that the pharaohs should have spent more money taking car of their lower class people and slaves, instead of doting on the officials and rich citizens.

19/06 This is because slaves were dying working to build pyramids, and starving to death.

BibliographyStrudwick H. 2006. The

Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt. Amber Wood books

http://www.ancientnile.co.uk/nile.php

http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/arthistory/egypt.htm

http://library.thinkquest.ord/J002037F/transportation.htm http://members.tripod.com/

~ancient_egypt/ee.htmlhttp://

www.predatorturnedprey.com/Egyptian%20Names.html

http://www.wsd1.org/earlgrey/ancient.htm