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How do we know about Ancient Egypt?

Tourists take photos on their phones of an Ancient Egyptian building.

We know about Ancient Egypt from tombs and statues such as the pyramids, the Great Sphinx and mummies.

Studying these items is called鈥Egyptology and the people who study them are called鈥Egyptologists. An Egyptologist is an archaeologist who specialises in Ancient Egypt.

Tourists take photos on their phones of an Ancient Egyptian building.
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Watch: What remains of Ancient Egypt?

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Take a tour around some ancient Egyptian ruins

Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 4, A photo of six pyramids. There are three small pyramids in the foreground and three big pyramids behind them. The tallest pyramid is in the middle at the back., The largest Egyptian pyramid ever built was Pharaoh Khufu鈥檚 Great Pyramid of Giza. It is the tallest pyramid that you can see in this picture. It is made from over two million stone blocks.
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The Rosetta Stone

A photo of the famous Rosetta Stone. It is a large, dark grey piece of granite with rough edges. It has inscriptions carved into it.Image source, The Trustees of the British Museum
Image caption,
This is the Rosetta Stone. It is made from granite and it has three sets of inscriptions carved into it: Demotic, Hieroglyphs and ancient Greek. The broken top and bottom edges suggest it was part of a much bigger piece of stone.

The Rosetta Stone is over three feet high and more than 2000 years old. It was discovered by the French army in 1799 and captured by the British Army and brought back to London where it has been on display at the British Museum since 1802.

A person looking at the Rosetta Stone with their hand on their chin.

The Stone helped scholars to translate the Egyptian hieroglyphs for the first time. They looked at the inscriptions (writing) on the stone which are in Ancient Greek, already a known language.

A person looking at the Rosetta Stone with their hand on their chin.
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Artefacts in the UK

In the UK we have some of the biggest collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts in the world.

Inside a museum with Ancient Egyptian artefacts.

The British Museum in London has the largest collection of Egyptian objects outside Egypt. This is because British explorers and soldiers took them during the time of the British Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Activities

Activity 1: Where can you see Ancient Egyptian artefacts today?

Click on the map to find an exhibition near you.

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Activity 2: Quiz 鈥 Remains of Ancient Egypt

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Activity 3: History Explorer game

Play this game to test your knowledge and learn even more facts about Ancient Egypt.

History Explorer: Secrets through time

History Explorer: Secrets through time: KS2 History

History Explorer: Secrets through time
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Bitesize Primary games. game

Play fun and educational primary games in science, maths, English, history, geography, art, computing and modern languages.

Bitesize Primary games
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