for questions about claims based in Egypt, or limited in Egypt.
Questions tagged [egypt]
27 questions
85
votes
5 answers
How were the pyramids built?
It is claimed in many different pseudoscience publications and sites that it was impossible for the ancient Egyptian civilization to build the pyramids, because:
too much labour was needed
it was impossible to cut stone with such precision
they…
Sklivvz
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47
votes
4 answers
Is it possible to reliably examine if a girl is a virgin?
Amnesty International wants the Egyptian military to stop the practice of rounding up all the female protesters to investigate if their hymens are unbroken as a virginity check:
An Amnesty International researcher said accounts gathered from women…
Kit Sunde
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43
votes
1 answer
Was the Great Sphinx of Giza originally an Anubis?
Does Robert Temple's book The Sphinx Mystery: The Forgotten Origins of the Sanctuary of Anubis have any support in the academic community?
For those of you unfamiliar with his theory, here's a quote from his Sphinx Mystery website:
Robert Temple…
jennyfofenny
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33
votes
3 answers
Did the Hebrew exodus from Egypt ever happen?
The Book of Exodus describes a movement of the Hebrews from Egypt, through the desert, and into the Palestine/Israel region.
It also describes a number miracles, such as the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, but they are not the subject of…
Himarm
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32
votes
2 answers
Did the Ancient Egyptians use twenty-sided dice?
Ancient d20 die emerges from the ashes of time
Many centuries before Dungeons & Dragons was even a glimmer in the eye of Gary Gygax, ancient Egyptians were rolling a d20 die.
Metropolitan Museum
Twenty-sided die (icosahedron) with faces inscribed…
Wertilq
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31
votes
1 answer
Were the Egyptian pyramids wireless power stations?
This video states many claims, among others:
the pyramids were built to create "wireless electricity"
electricity was created by "aquifers" - some mechanism based on water flowing underground
"negative ions" were transferred to the ionosphere,…
Marek
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27
votes
2 answers
Did China shut down a port for one COVID-19 case and did this closure have a bigger impact than the blocking of the Suez canal?
Journalist Fabian Kretschmer claimed in a DW interview (at 1m56):
For every case you have to shut down a factory, you have to shut down a port. In May, for example, they had to shut down the Yantian port near Shenzen, and that was basically the…
Fizz
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21
votes
2 answers
Did 120,000 Egyptians die building the Suez Canal?
According to wikipedia > Gamal_Abdel_Nasser#Nationalization_of_the_Suez_Canal (current revision), on 26 July 1956, Nasser gave a speech in which he claimed 120,000 Egyptians died during the construction of the canal. The direct quote from Wikipedia…
Remi.b
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20
votes
1 answer
Is it true that 4th century Christians "destroyed all they could reach of ancient learning"?
On page 19 of Mathematics for the Nonmathematician, mathematician Morris Kline claims that:
In 313 A.D. Rome legalized Christianity and, under the emperor
Theodosius (379-395), adopted it as the official religion of the
empire. But even before…
Jayson Virissimo
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19
votes
2 answers
Do hieroglyphs in Egypt depict aircraft?
In the article, Impossible? 3,000 Year-Old Hieroglyphics Depict Modern Day Technology! Markings of the Fallen Angels?, they claim that there are aircraft depicted in 3000-year-old Egypt hieroglyphs:
Decorating an Egyptian temple wall at Abydos are…
ike
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18
votes
1 answer
Have edible jars of honey been found in thousand-year-old Egyptian tombs?
A recent xkcd contains the claim that honey has a shelf life that's so long that edible jars of honey have been found in Egyptian tombs several thousand years old.
Image taken from http://www.xkcd.com/1717/, licensed under a CC BY-NC 2.5…
E. P.
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14
votes
3 answers
Did ancient Egyptians look white?
From Rupert Murdoch's twitter account (906 retweets, 205 favorites, with a tweet criticising it getting 50 retweets and 56 favorites)
Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are
Egyptians not white? All I know are.
Do…
Andrew Grimm
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12
votes
1 answer
Were traces of cocaine found on ancient Egyptian mummies?
Apparently traces of cocaine were found on Egyptian mummies. Given that the coca plant only grew in South America prior to Columbus, could this indicate the ancient Egyptians had contact with the New World, or is there a more rational…
Monkey Tuesday
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12
votes
1 answer
Is the Eye of Horus symbol based on the human brain?
The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol and hieroglyph ().
A thread on the site International Skeptics Forum introduces a claim found on Facebook:
The following image shows the Egyptian Eye of Horus (or Eye of Ra) and how how it precisely…
edelwater
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12
votes
1 answer
Do magicians in Egypt turn sticks into snakes?
Rabbi Lawrence Keleman in his book Permission to Receive states that Egyptian magicians today (or when the study it was based on was published in 1960) do a similar stick-snake trick as in the Book of Exodus. Is this true?
A quote from the book…
Uncle
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