MSN Article 2025

You might not think ancient Egyptian art has anything to do with your modern-day hustle, but here’s a twist: while pharaohs were building empires, their artists were painting athletes in motion—tussling, training, competing.

Ancient civilizations approached passing differently. While today’s embalmers use just enough preservative for a dignified farewell, the Egyptians went all in. For them, passing to the afterlife required perfect preservation. And this find near Saqqara transports the process back to its origins. A rock-cut tomb had been turned into an industrial–style embalming/mummification area. It shows how ancient Egyptian undertakers combined incredible techniques to get the job done. Mummification and embalming weren’t the same, though. Modern embalming slows decay briefly for mourning and burial, using fluid preservatives and sometimes removing organs. Mummification, however, was a second step they took, aimed at achieving permanence and stopping decay entirely. Remember us saying Egyptians went all in? Well, they did, and mummification is all the proof we need.

Cleopatra VII once ruled a kingdom where politics and divinity intertwined. Her ships sailed from glittering harbors along Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, carrying both wealth and whispers of empire. Now, more than two thousand years after her death, the sea that once bore her fleet may hold the final traces of her reign. Near the temple of Taposiris Magna—long suspected to be linked to her burial—researchers have uncovered a sunken Ptolemaic port. Its discovery breathes new life into one of history’s most enduring mysteries: where the last queen of Egypt chose to rest after her fateful alliance with Rome.

Few discoveries stop Egyptologists in their tracks, but this one did. During a routine excavation near Djoser’s Step Pyramid, archaeologists brushed aside centuries of dust and uncovered a sealed coffin containing a tightly rolled papyrus. When carefully unrolled, it stretched an astonishing 52 feet—the first full Book of the Dead papyrus uncovered in Egypt in over a hundred years. If ancient Egyptians believed words had power, these had clearly held their own. The document belonged to a man named Ahmose, possibly an official or priest, whose burial dates to around 50 BC. Despite its age, the papyrus’s hieroglyphs remain vividly inked in black and red, depicting prayers, spells, and rituals meant to guide the deceased through the afterlife. Each line echoes an ancient belief—that the soul’s journey didn’t end with passing; it simply changed form.

Four and a half millennia after Khufu’s builders sealed the Great Pyramid, scientists have slipped a tiny camera through its ancient stones and spotted something remarkable. A narrow corridor, untouched since antiquity, lies hidden above the pyramid’s main entrance. What purpose it once served remains a puzzle, but its discovery adds a new layer to Egypt’s greatest mystery. Keep reading to see how modern tech cracked an ancient secret.

Life demanded attention to every detail—tracking, hunting, crafting, and planning. These folks adapted naturally, relying on instincts honed over generations. Their existence wasn’t simple, yet they found ways to make strategy their ally.

There’s something special about an island that doesn’t try too hard. Whidbey lets its charm unfold slowly through coastal walks and quirky communities. It’s the kind of trip that feels both simple and unforgettable.

Despite popular opinions, the Middle Ages left behind objects that feel almost too extraordinary to be real. Some of their stuff even came covered in gold or carved to hold bones. But the best of the best are…

The Yakama people wanted to live in peace, but when settlers trespassed on their traditional lands a fury was unleashed that shocked the world.