1. 3000 BCE<br />I arrived today in a land they call White Crown, or Upper Egypt. This foreign land is mostly desert and dry. I could see sand filled land for miles and miles. There was no sign of a city or village within walking distance. Just then I saw a group of villagers in what seemed to be a caravan. They seemed to not notice me but i tagged along anyways. They all had some sort of animal, such as a donkey or camel, to ride, so i fell behind quite a bit. <br /> When i could no longer see the distant figures I could see large buildings, coming up in a mile or so. When i got to the buildings i found no people in sight. There were only the pyramid shaped buildings, built of sand? I then began to look for entrance of some sort to lead me inside. I must have searched for hours. I looked on all three of the buildings. I realized that it was useless, so i decided to give up.<br /> I looked through my backpack and got out a thin blue blanket that I could lay on for the night. I sat my blanket at the bottom of the biggest pyramid, to sleep at for the night. I am a bit scared to be on my own with no assurance that I will soon find a village or citizens of this foreign land. I plan to start walking as soon as I a wake tomorrow. I hope to find a town or city that I could learn from. I hope to learn their routines of their daily life, and many other things.<br /> <br />3100 BCE<br />When i woke up this morning the sun was already high in the sky and heating the land. I gathered my belongings back into my backpack, careful not to leave anything. Then i began to walk away from the sun, to make it a little easier for me to travel.<br /> I walked for about ten miles, and then i could see a group of about thirty houses. It was about sunset when I approached the village I saw that the houses were made of mud bricks. I was welcomed by a small group of children, wearing clothes that i have never seen before. One of the teenagers, in the group, could understand me, and speaks a little of my language. His name is Adfo. He took me to the locals and they welcomed me and treated me well.<br /> I asked what the pyramid shaped buildings were, and they told me that they were tombs, or a place to bury people. I learned that these Egyptian people believe in karma and afterlife. They said that what you do in your present life affects your life after death. They prepare, basically, their whole lives for the afterlife. People were buried in the pyramids with their favorite possessions, slaves, and even animals.<br /> After learning so much from Adfo we were sent to retrieve water for dinner. Dinner was prepared by the women and girls of the family. For dinner we had rice, bread, and various fruits. After dinner we were given wine to drink, water for the younger kids. After dinner the women and girls cleaned up, while the boys started a game.<br /> I watched as the village boys formed to lines facing each other. The boys all held onto the boy standing in front of him. The two leaders of the lines tried to wrestle the other to the ground.<br /> When things settled down I went inside Adfo's house with him and his family. They lead me to a ‘guest room’ as we call it. It was pretty nice considering that they are the middle class, so to say.<br /> I find the customs of the Egyptians different form the ones that i am used to, and I find them interesting. I need to get some rest now; there is no telling what i am going to do tomorrow.<br />3100 BCE<br /> I was woken up by the sound of yelling, dancing and music. I went to see what the noise was about .As I followed the noise, which was on the main street that goes rite through the middle of town; I saw a large cluster of people. Everyone was dancing and had joyful expressions on their faces. There was poster sized signs hanging everywhere. There were picture like markings, called hieroglyphics, written in huge letters. Adfo had found me by then and explained that Narmer, their pharaoh, had united Upper and Lower Egypt.<br /> The people have not stopped dancing or singing since this morning. There were huge feasts and lots of drinking. The people are very excited for what this will do to their country. There will be only one pharaoh now. I wonder if they will sleep tonight or dance until the morning.<br /> Today I learned that a pharaoh is somewhat like a king. The pharaoh is the most important person in Egypt. He or she is the head of the government and are the high priest.<br />2010 BCE<br />I am now in the city of Cairo. I purchased a camel and decided to tag along with a caravan, to see more of Egypt. We mostly walked our camels, except for a few times. A few of the children that were brought along played games along the way and the parents kept a constant speed. I was told that we would camp right outside of Ciro, and enter in the morning.<br />We traveled for a full day then finally reached our stopping point, outside the new capitol. The women made dinner together, the men sat and talked together, the boys played, and the girls looked after the young children. I helped make dinner. I got to stir the rice as it was cooked over the fire. It wasn’t the most exciting job, but I was glad to help.<br />Our group made a large circle with our tents and camels, or donkeys. There was a big fire in the middle of it all. <br />30 BCE<br />Today I am exploring the city of Alexandria, Egypt. I chose this town because last night the pharaoh Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator took her own life because of being forced to marry, so that she could be pharaoh. She used an Egyptian cobra snake to kill herself.<br />Today I have only seen sad faces. Cleopatra will be buried in her tomb in five days. By speaking to people I found that she wasn’t even Egyptian. She was Macedonian Greek who descended from her father, Ptolemy XII. Cleopatra, despite what local myths say, is not very pretty, she has masculine features with a hooked shaped nose. Cleopatra has children from both Julius Cesar and Mark Anthony. Cleopatra was the only pharaoh in the Ptolemaic period who could speak Egyptian, she could also speak nine other languages as well.<br />There are people lined up outside of where she lived to bring flowers and food. As I look around I see a pharaoh who was loved by so many locals, unlike her father. I heard talk about a different kind of government style. The servants from the upper class have been spreading it around.<br />Tonight Cleopatra’s husbands will mourn her death like many others. The streets are empty and quiet as people go into their houses for the night. <br />1330 BCE<br />“Boy given the throne”, this is what I read from a sign outside of a meat shop. The streets were buzzing with rumors, and a little bit of knowledge wedged into a few conversations.<br />Tutankhaton has been given the throne by his father, Akhenaten. He is to wed his half-sister in a week and take over his father’s beliefs in one god. His father started this belief, which went against Egyptian religion that has been practiced for thousands of years. The changing of the religion is leaving Tutankhaton with angry priests and other religious people. How will Tut deal with this?<br />People are not happy about being led by a boy. Some are threatening to overthrow the boy and take over themselves. “Tut is still a boy and acts like one too. He plays board games, and doesn’t even know anything about running Egypt”, I hear an angry local say in a hushed whisper. <br />I feel sorry for Tutankhaton. He will face many problems because of his father’s actions, and being given the throne at a young age, and at such a troubling time. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets assonated.<br />1322 BCE<br />I started today by visiting the tomb of King Tut. This pyramid will be bigger than the surrounding ones. Every pharaoh wants to have the biggest tomb to show how great they were. The tomb is being built along with many other pharaohs’ tombs. King Tut is still young but the tomb will take a while to build. <br />As I walk by, careful not to be mistaken as a slave and forced to work, I see levers and ramps being used. That’s how they get the heavy bricks stacked on top of each other. There are too many workers to count. I bet almost all of them are slaves who owe the pharaoh money or crops. <br />As the sun started to go down I walked to the nearest village. I saw the citizens in the local market place start to close up their shops.<br />For dinner I had a meal that consisted mainly of rice. The nights here are hot and dry. <br />2156 BCE<br />Today I am exploring the Nile River by ship. The ship has a narrow flat bottom, it is made of reeds and wood, and is smaller than I would have imagined. There were five men who loaded and unloaded the goods at the ports. We went to three ports up the river, and I got off at the last one.<br />The men talked among themselves, I was too scared to try to speak to them because I was afraid that they wouldn’t understand me, and it would make things seem weird. So I kept to myself and enjoyed the view and what I could see. <br />The water was a light brownish color. The Nile was very calm in some places, but was also raging in others. When we stopped at ports there were a lot of people, probably waiting to take the goods to their market to sell it. The men quickly unloaded the goods and then we were on our way.<br />We stopped three times so far, we are resting at the third one we stopped at. The sun is quickly setting, but the air is still hot. One of the men must have saw me dig out my thin blanket, and handed me another blanket. I guess I will just sleep here, against the side of the boat. I plan to get off at a port tomorrow morning. I do not know how long these men will be sailing but I can’t take the constant motions of the boat swaying back and forth. The boat rides are not smooth and are hard to steer.<br />2156 BCE<br />When I woke up this morning we were already on our way upstream some more. There was a piece of wood with a fish on it sitting at my feet; I assumed that it was for me. One of the men must have gone fishing. The fish was great, or I was just really hungry. <br />At the next port we stopped at I got off of the ship, after they unloaded all of the cargo. I followed the people, carrying the goods from my ship, to a long street where booths were set up and everyone was trying to sell their stuff. The owners of the booths were shouting out things, I guess the prices and stuff like that.<br />I bought an apple from a young girl, about ten years old. Her face lit up when I over paid her. I felt good overpaying her as much as I did it looked like she could use it. I walked on the street for a while, looking at the items for sale and the prices. I didn’t want to buy too much because I only have my backpack to carry the items in.<br />1323 BCE<br />For my last day in Egypt I decided to go see the mummification process. I was watching king Tut be mummified. No one knows for sure how he died, but there are a few ideas floating around amongst commoner’s lips.<br />The first step was to take his organs out, including his brain which was pulled out through his nose. The embalmers made tiny slits in the stomach to get to the organs. They were very precise in where they cut him and what went first. <br />The next step was to fill his insides with some sort of sand. This was to keep the body from rotting to fast, and to keep him looking good in the afterlife. This took a few hours to do, with them being so careful and all. <br />No the next step was to let the body sit for a day or so. The embalmers would return in the morning to finish their work. But I could not bear to watch any longer. I have a weak stomach and have seen enough for a life time. But in my century people would have killed to be in my position to watch. I feel good about what I witnessed, but like I said it may have been too much. <br />