Page 59 - SYTYGIB: Ancient Egypt

If there’s one thing people associate with Egypt – apart from pyramids and mummies – it’s the River Nile. So it’s not surprising it featured strongly in children’s leisure time, with swimming, boating and river games among their favourite activities.
It must have been excellent training for swimming quickly, too. Well, wouldn’t you do the front crawl pretty speedily if you had a toothy croc or a hungry hippo snapping at your behind?
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Do you ever wish . . .
you could go to the swimming pool more often?
Well, at least when you do there are no crocodiles or hippos following you around. (And if there are, you should really tell a lifeguard.)
Sport was enjoyed by many in ancient Egypt, and not surprisingly, given the presence of the Nile, swimming was one of their favourite pastimes — although it was always necessary to keep an eye out for bitey things.
Wrestling was also big — but not the spangly-shorts-jumping-off-the-ropes kind, this was more serious. Mind you, some famous Middle Kingdom tomb paintings show boys lifting each other off the ground and even holding each other upside-down!
Inscriptions on monuments reveal that the ancient Egyptians also took part in the likes of weightlifting, long jumping, rowing, fishing and acrobatics.
Sounds like you’d be fit as a fiddle if you lived back then. Definitely no lounging around playing the games console in those days . . .
Fun and games