The discovery of the first zoo in history that existed before the pyramids and is located in Egypt
Despite being one of the oldest civilizations in the world, Egypt was actually home to an even more ancient society that existed before the Pharaohs.
Archaeologists have found something unprecedented in the city of "Herakonpolis", which is the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of the prehistoric era, and it is the first zoo in the world in ancient Egypt.
The first zoo in history, located in Egypt
Egyptian history has always attracted archaeologists from all over the world. In the mid-1880s, the western world began to explore the advanced pharaonic civilization that arose on the banks of the Nile River and attracted the largest western scholars who discovered parts of a colossal statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II.
The pharaohs unified Upper and Lower Egypt and began ruling Egypt since 3000 BC and remained in power until 343 BC and were able to engrave their names in the history books as immortal kings who crossed this part of the land, and the civilization of Egypt extends much further than that.
Since the first human settlement, it passed through the Pharaohs, where royal rule prevailed, as the American archaeologist "Renee Friedman" found in 2015 AD unprecedented remains of animals from different regions of the African continent in the Upper Egypt region, and they were revealed through the documentary film of the Smithsonian Channel entitled "Secrets". Monsters of the Pharaohs.
According to the studies and research conducted by Friedman with her research team, it was found that the existing animals were placed in their own boxes or cages and fed by humans, and this is what Friedman interpreted as the first zoo in the world dating back more than 6000 years, that is, even before the invention of writing and before the existence of Pyramids .
The research team was able to put specific dates for the times these animals lived by analyzing what they ate as their last meal, which showed that many of these animals were buried all at the same time, because the dates are almost identical.
It is strange that the animals that were kept did not die of natural causes, but it appears that they were all slaughtered and buried with their owner who died.
Standing over the tomb of one of the rulers, Friedman explained that this ruler, like other rulers present here, had with him a number of animals (a leopard, baboons, antelope, a crocodile, and an ostrich).
The animals were buried with their owner to ensure that the mystical powers of the animals would accompany the ruler to the afterlife. However, animal carcasses were not the only skeletal remains found at the site. The remains of women and children were also found.
Friedman said that after his death, the ruler took almost everything with him, which means that animals and humans accompanied the ruler to the next life.
Throughout the area, remains of colored wooden columns were found, indicating that the tombs were built in the form of wooden structures. The cemetery as a whole shows a main tomb of the ruler located in the middle surrounded by all his animals that he owned in the form of a protection belt around the ruler.
Source: websites