The Egyptian Exhibition.

The ancient Egyptians were next to the Chinese, the oldest civilisation with a very advanced society. I always used to be fascinated by the ancient culture, particularly their hieroglyphs because they resemble the Chinese writing system very much. Actually, I think the Egyptian writing system started off in the same way as the Chinese writing system did. A system of characters drawn to represent their real life counter-parts.

Something else which amazed me about the Egyptians, is their ability to be ahead of their time with their ingenuity. The pyramids for example were some of their most amazing creations, simply because of their grand scale and the engineering required to complete them would have been unheard of at the time, and yet they accomplished it.

Since the Egyptians were around near the beginning of human civilisation, they were also one of the earliest civilisations to have any real concrete notion of theology and the worship of gods. The stories of each of their gods are well documented and form the basis of many other religions today.

Take a look at the writing on the wall. To me, as a Chinese person, I appreciate this a lot as this is very similar to the early oracle bone script used approximately 3 to 4 thousand years ago.

But you have to remember, that ancient Egypt spans from as early as 3000 BC! That is simply astonishing.

What's more astonishing is that a lot of their history is documented in this way, carved or etched into stone on the walls.

Actually, papyrus was invented in Egypt and represents some of the earliest forms of paper. It wouldn't be until about 100 BC that proper paper was invented in China which made writing a whole lot easier.

The star of the show in all Egyptian exhibitions is always the Mummy. These had significant meaning to the Egyptian people as they believed it was the way to move from the life they lived, to the next life. They went through rigorous procedures after death to preserve their body as best as possible. Perhaps the most famous process is the embalming or mummification.

This involved removing all the moisture from the body and leaving a dried form that would not easily decay. In their religion, it was important to preserve the dead body in the life like manner because they would be using it in their next life. The result of course is that we get to see remarkably well preserved bodies of some of the most notable Egyptians thousands of years after they died.