Play dozens of free games, including car racing games, puzzle games, and more! And watch for special prizes during select periods.
How well do you know the Chevron Cars? Test your knowledge with our fun Quiz!
Check out our Sudoku puzzle games. New games every day, 3 levels to choose from.
View individual country flag pages which include large flag images, a map and facts about each country.
Stay informed about sale cars, new games, new toy cars, special offers, and more!
If you are reading this article, then you are reading something that someone else has written. But have you ever stopped to think that there hasn’t always been a written language? Where and when did humans first start writing? For a long time, people thought that the practice of writing began in ancient Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C.E. This land, along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is what is now modern Iraq.
About 5000 years ago a different kind of writing was going on in Egypt. Today it looks a lot like code to us, but in fact it is the way they used to write. Their writing consisted of several hundred picture signs instead of an alphabet as we know it. These picture signs are known as hieroglyphs.
Each hieroglyph is a small picture that represents a different word or idea. For instance, a set of wavy lines symbolized “water”. A circle within a circle represented the sun. A man with his hand to his mouth could be the hieroglyph for “eat”, but it could also mean “silent”.
Many of the images used in Egyptian writing were of familiar plants and animals. These hieroglyphs could be read as the plant or animal itself or as the symbol of an idea.
Here are a few of the symbols we in modern times would likely recognize, and what they meant to the ancient Egyptians:
Since we’re speaking of hieroglyphs, let’s go back in time, and take a trip to Ancient Egypt. Imagine that you are visiting this land 5,000 years ago where the kings, known as pharaohs, were believed to be gods. These pharaohs lived in palaces, and temples were built to honor them and their ancestors. These temples are the great pyramids of Egypt.
Around 2,550 B.C., King Khufu, the second pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, began building his tomb at Giza. This was the first and largest pyramid of ten that were built at Giza, and it is known as the Great Pyramid.
My name is Katep and I am the son of a scribe. My father is well educated and regarded with respect. He is a Royal Scribe at the court of the Pharaoh. The government officials require him to write their reports and sometimes their thoughts. He is often sent out into the country to record the volume of the grain harvest or to tally the Pharaoh’s herds of cattle. Other scribes become priests at the temple and they have the sacred task of writing down the magical formulas that guide the dead safely to the gates of the underworld. My father however, says that his favorite pastime is writing down the stories he remembers from his own childhood. I love to hear the tales that he reads aloud to me under the stars while the waves of the river Nile lap the shore.
Egyptian scribes like Katep’s father, had to study as long as 12 years. They learned arithmetic, reading and writing. But their writing consisted of several hundred picture signs instead of an alphabet as we know it. These picture signs are known as hieroglyphs.
Each hieroglyph is a small picture that represents a different word or idea. For instance, a set of wavy lines symbolized “water”. A circle within a circle represented the sun. A man with his hand to his mouth could be the hieroglyph for “eat”, but it could also mean “silent”.
Many of the images used in Eyptian writing were of familiar plants and animals. These hieroglyphs could be read as the plant or animal itself or as a symbol of an idea. Here are a few of the symbols we would recognize and what they meant:
If you read last week’s edition the Tribune (which we know you did), you learned all about three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Pyramids of Egypt, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon and The Statue of Zeus at Olympia. It’s now time to learn about the other four.
These four structures are just as amazing and spectacular as the first three and they all have an interesting history. We mentioned last week that you might be familiar with some of the ancient wonders but you probably have not seen any of these structures since only one still stands today.
Have you ever looked at a building or statue in awe of its size and beauty? Well, thousands of years ago, people were also impressed by amazing structures built by different civilizations.
A list of seven amazing and spectacular structures was originally compiled around the second century BC but the final and complete list was documented in the Middle Ages. This is the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. You are probably familiar with some of these structures but not all.
Do you know what is one of the largest construction projects ever completed? We’ll give you a hint…it is very long and it took hundreds of years to build. Give up? The answer is The Great Wall of China. Continue reading and learn some interesting facts about the history and construction of the Great Wall.
Did you know that you took all of the bricks and stone from just the Ming dynasty portion of the Wall, they would circle the earth at five feet high?
Below are some amazing facts about this most incredible of ancient construction projects that today is becoming a symbol of modern China.
Many historians will argue that the Ancient Greek Civilization contributed more to our modern-day civilization than any other group of people. They were a knowledgeable people, who valued intelligence and ambition as well as physical strength. They lived in a democratic society and encouraged all the people to “strive for excellence”. They made many contributions in the fields of philosophy, astrology, physics, biology and mathematics as well as contributing to the dramatic arts and sports (As you may already know-they started the Olympic Games back in 776 BC). But what about their religious beliefs? We know that that they built many beautiful temples and buildings (ex-the Parthenon and the Acropolis), but who did they worship in these great structures?
