1. List three of the major achievements Egypt contributed to their society. Which achievement do you believe is most significant and why?

The ancient Egyptians were known to be the first people on planet earth that starts taking recording of days and nights. Ancient Egyptians are credited with the creation of the first kind of calendar called the solar calendar. This calendar portrays the position of the earth as it rotates around the sun.

The calendar was developed mainly because of farming; they wanted to keep tabs on the annual flooding of the Nile. They had three season namely inundation, growing & harvest where each of these seasons had four months and each month comprises of 30 days. After these, to honor the Children of Gods extra five days were added in between inundation and harvest seasons making it 365 days altogether. The five days added to honor the Children of Gods were considered as religious holidays.

The Egyptians were so advanced that had the idea of calculating time as early as the 3,500BC and they invented the sun clock (sundial). The sundial made it possible to differentiate between and predict morning, afternoon and night. The oldest surviving sun clock was found in the 2013 in the Valley of the Kings. The valley of kings was the burial place of rulers from Egypt new kingdom which dates as far back as the 1,500BC.

This sundial had one day divided into 10 sections, each having two twilight hours which represented morning and evening. The equipment had a rod with twelve demarcations around it, when placed under the sun the shadow of the rod will let you know the exact time of the day.

The ancient Egyptians were also famous and well known for always trying to beautify everything that they laid their hands upon. Cosmetics and makeup can be dated as far as 4000 BC when the Egyptians used it for aesthetic and salubrious reasons. It was worn by both men and women regardless of their social status.

Kohl was the name given to the ointment in which they used to do their eye make-up. The kohl was formed by putting together malachite and galena (black ointment form by mixing soot with a lead mineral) to form a greenish pigmented substance. The kohl was applied by making use of a small stick similar the use of the eye liners that women use to apply eye make-up these days. The ancient Egyptians painted their upper eyelids and draw across a line from the corner of their eyes to outwardly to the sides.