10+ Curious Facts About Ancient Egypt You Wouldn’t Learn at School

Ancient Egyptians loved fashion.

Linen was the most common fabric in ancient Egypt because it helped with feeling comfortable in hot weather. Peasants, workers and other people of lower classes usually wore nothing but a loincloth, and slaves often worked naked. Clothes made from animal fibers such as wool and silk and were allowed to be worn only by rich Egyptians. At the same time, wool was considered impure, so it was forbidden to wear such clothes in temples. Animal skins like the leopard and the lion were worn only by the pharaohs to emphasize their high position. Both upper class men and women wore wigs. They were made from human hair and sometimes supplemented with date palm fibers.

Children didn’t wear clothes until the age of 6, but they wore various jewelry — bracelets, anklets, collars and hair accessories. In general, the Egyptians were very fond of various accessories and jewelry. Both men and women adorned themselves with earrings, bracelets, rings, and necklaces of vivid colors. By the way, silver was a rarity and was imported from Asia. Therefore, items made of silver were often considered more valuable than those made of gold.

Egyptian men, and especially Egyptian women, loved tattoos. It’s believed that the art of tattooing is older than 4,000 years. As a rule, Egyptian tattoos looked liked geometrically arranged dots and dashes and were applied to the lower part of the chest, abdomen and thighs. Typically, tattoo artists used a dark dye pigment such as black, blue, or green, with slight variations. These colors symbolized life, birth, resurrection, heaven and fertility.