Extinct Animals That Lived With Ancient Egyptians

Hi, it's Katrina! What if I told you the best records of extinct animals weren't found in fossils but in hieroglyphs? Long before the desert took over, the Egyptians lived alongside creatures we will never see again. We are stepping inside the tombs to see the world through their eyes, witnessing the fearsome black-maned lion, the legendary bennu heron, and the rare elephant that became the ultimate prize for royal hunters. This is the lost wildlife of the pharaohs. In the middle of the 1960s, one of the most majestic animals to live on this planet went extinct. It was called the Barbary lion, and it once inhabited the vast Maghreb region of North Africa, which happens to include Egypt. It's crazy to picture it today, but there was a time when lions rested in the shade of the pyramids. If you were an ancient Egyptian mother, you had to warn your children not to be taken away by hungry lions. In ancient times, and up until the 20th century, Barbary lions lived all the way from the Atlas Mountains to the shore of the Mediterranean. They inhabited the forests, the fringes of the Sahara, and the lowland coastal plains. Unlike other lions, these big cats didn't mind a bit of cold, which is probably why they had such massive, darkly colored manes that extended all the way down to their belly. Also, unlike other lions, these frisky felines lived in much smaller family groups, likely consisting of only the dad, the mom, and baby lions. Whereas with modern-day African lions, they stick to larger prides dominated by a single alpha male. Here's an image of one in black and white taken in the Atlas Mountains in 1925 by someone named Flandrin. The lion looks kind of lonely, doesn't it? That might be because with the arrival of guns in Egypt, hunters practically raced to see how fast they could make this ancient predator go extinct. Ironic that a few thousand years earlier, the ancestors of those who would hunt the beast to extinction worshipped it. If you had walked into the throne room of Pharaoh Ramses the Great, you may have found a Barbary lion curled up at the king's feet. There are references in Egyptian documents that claim lions were a key part of royal life. While not all pharaohs kept them as pets, Ramses the Great probably did. We know because you can see the reliefs inside the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, which show King Ramses charging the Hittite forces with his pet lion. Maybe the image is an embellishment, but it does appear that Ramses had tamed lions. Why do you think they called him Ramses the Great? Because he was secretly a lion tamer. In pre-dynastic Egypt, prior to the year 3000 BC, Egypt was a lot greener and wetter than it is today. The Nile Valley was full of wild animals and greenery, with the river itself bordered by lush savannas where gazelles and wild cattle roamed. Naturally, this was an excellent place for hungry lions. They lived here for thousands of years as human civilization slowly crawled its way out of the sand. But then, as the climate dried and the human population in Egypt exploded, the lions came into violent contact with civilization. For millions of years, there had been no farmers to take up the lion's land. But then all of a sudden, human farmers were pushing into the Nile's fertile valley and forcing the lions out into the harsh desert cliffs. It's true that the Barbary lion officially went extinct barely a century ago, but they were already considered rare by 1550 BC, in part due to simple human expansion, but also because the pharaohs couldn't stop hunting them, despite lions being holy symbols, or maybe because of it. You know the Egyptians loved their mummified animals. The Egyptians knew that female lions were the ones who did all the hunting, which is why the most powerful lion deities were ladies. They had Sekhmet, the goddess of destruction and war, and there was also Tefnut, the goddess of moisture and rain. For male lion gods, you had Mahes, son of Sekhmet. His mother represented chaotic destruction and violence, but Mahes was the god of organized war. He punished those who failed to uphold the cosmic order of things. Most Egyptian fans know about Mahes and Sekhmet, but what about Akher? Barely anyone knows about the lion god Akher, represented by a pair of lion twins facing east and west. In Egyptian lore, Akher's twin lions guarded the gate to the underworld, through which the sun god Ra passed every night at dusk. This is why so many people think that there were once two sphinxes in Giza and not just one. The Egyptians had so many lion gods and goddesses, but it didn't stop the pharaohs from riding out into the desert in their chariots to hunt them. Though keep in mind it was incredibly dangerous for the pharaohs. This wasn't like shooting a deer from a blind with a high-powered rifle while you chomp on a granola bar. A single Barbary lion was massive and ferocious, with a swipe so powerful it could kill a horse, and all the pharaoh had was a bow and arrow. Still, it was seen as a divine right for pharaohs to go and hunt them. No one took this more seriously than Pharaoh Amenhotep III, considered the greatest lion hunter of ancient Egypt. Amenhotep is known to have commissioned a series of commemorative stone scarabs, like a government releasing commemorative coins. Only these were inscribed with Amenhotep's total number of lions killed. He supposedly hunted 102 Barbary lions with his own hands during his first 10 years on the throne. The Romans were no better to the lions than the Egyptian pharaohs, stealing them from North Africa to use in cruel games in the Colosseum and other arenas across the empire. The British couldn't help but kidnap Barbary lions and keep them for their own pleasure. When workmen were digging in the old moat surrounding the Tower of London in 1937, they were shocked to uncover two very well-preserved lion skulls. In the early 2000s, scientists used carbon dating to see when they had died. It turned out that one of the lions perished around 1420 and the other around 1280. That Barbary lion skull from 1280 is the oldest lion ever found in the UK, except for wild cave lion remains from the Ice Age. The British monarchy clearly had an excellent source for exotic animals. Records show they also kept polar bears and elephants at the Tower of London. And now for the sad part I have to tell you that I've been dreading since I started. By the 19th century, bounties issued by the Turkish authorities had caused the lion population in North Africa to plummet. Then when the French took control of Algeria, they continued to issue rewards for dead lions. All across North Africa, lions were hunted mercilessly. That photo I showed you earlier is the last visual proof of a Barbary lion in the wild. However, the last known wild encounter occurred in 1942, when a lioness was killed high up in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. This female lion had climbed practically to the top of the world, but it wasn't high enough. There were some sporadic sightings up until the 1960s, but then none after that. The final nail in the coffin was probably the French-Algerian war in 1958, when the forests that may have been harboring the last few Barbary lions were burned to the ground. And on that depressing note, let's move on to something a little more cheerful. The sacred heron of ancient Egypt. You've heard of the phoenix, the great bird that dies and is reborn in flames. But did you know that the phoenix is a creature from Greek mythology? And did you know that there is an even older version from ancient Egypt known as the Benu bird? Benu was the original solar deity of Egypt, predating even Ra himself. The bird, depicted as a heron, was born in the cold, primordial waters of the before time, prior to humans or gods. Benu was created at the beginning of the universe. In Egyptian lore, this mighty bird symbolized renewal, the cycle of life and death, which of course, is kind of the same thing the phoenix symbolizes. But unlike the phoenix, the Benu bird was a real living animal. It was a heron that lived along the Nile, and the Egyptians revered it. They believed the bird was the living manifestation of the sun god's spirit. It was often shown wearing the tall ateph crown of Osiris, a symbol of divine authority. Even though it didn't have fiery wings in real life, its plumage was often described as sharing the same reddish and orange hues as the sun at dawn. The Greeks would copy these descriptions later when they came up with their own version of a resurrecting bird. There is no doubt in my mind that Benu was the inspiration behind the phoenix. The Benu bird didn't create creation, but heralded its arrival. Egyptian creation myth tells us that at the beginning of time, the Benben stone rose from the chaotic void of nothingness as the first piece of land in existence. Benu landed on it and let out a piercing cry. The cry of the bird broke the eternal silence of the void, marking the true beginning of creation. In that respect, Benu established the very rhythm of time itself and began the cosmic order that the Egyptians were so obsessed with. Plus, it was a real bird, probably. In 1979, Ella Hawke discovered the partial tibiotarsus bone from a mysterious heron who lived between 2700 and 1800 BC. It's tough to get the full scope of an animal based on one bone, but experts think it was a monster of a heron, probably bigger than the Goliath heron. Ella claimed the bird she found was the inspiration for the Benu deity of ancient Egypt, so she named it after Benu. However, like I said, there is just the one bone, so none of this is confirmed. Scientists have speculated that yes, there was a ridiculously giant heron living in ancient Egypt. They've speculated that it went extinct due to the degradation of the wetlands in Egypt and possibly overhunting as well. But the truth is that no one knows if this bird even really existed. The single partial bone isn't enough to confirm the Benu heron as a real historical species. But at least now you know where the story of the phoenix comes from. The Greeks got it from the red bird of the Egyptians. The Great Extinction of the Rhinos There is evidence that about 5000 years ago, coinciding with the rise of pre-dynastic Egypt, two species of rhinoceros vanished from North Africa. Did the Egyptians hunt them to extinction or did they disappear as part of a much larger and less human disaster? When you look into the tombs of ancient Egypt, you see animal imagery everywhere. You cannot enter an Egyptian ruin without seeing some scarab, gazelle, crocodile or monkey imagery. When you look at it from a certain perspective, you realize that all of these animal images are an immortal record of Egypt's lost wildlife. The Egyptians created statues, organ jars, chairs and millions of other objects in the likenesses of what they saw, from lions to herons. Recently, scientists used all of that artwork, along with archaeological evidence, to map the destruction of Egypt's large mammals. It's more devastating than anyone could have imagined. The man at the head of the study was Justin Yickel from the University of California. He and his team combined anecdotal reports with historical records to get a better idea of when certain animals began their decline. For example, they found the writing of Herodotus describing a thriving population of lions in Egypt 2,400 years ago. But 100 years after that, the writing of Aristotle claimed the lion population had plummeted. Taking all of this information, scientists plugged it into a computer program and added in changes in local climate to get a better understanding of the overall shift. Scientists know that 6,000 years ago, Egypt was hit by monsoons. The Sahara was covered in lakes and vegetation. It only looks so different today because Earth tilts a little bit on its axis, wobbling ever so slightly to create variations that affect local climates. Basically, the Earth is an unstable orb and we are all helpless as it spins around the sun. Anyway, during that period 6,000 years ago, scientists suspect the much greener version of Egypt was home to wildlife more similar to what you can see today in East Africa. The pre-dynastic Egyptians likely dealt with warthogs, wildebeests, and spotted hyenas. The big shift appears to have kicked off about 5,000 years ago, at the same time as the Uruk kingdom of Mesopotamia collapsed. The changing of the climate was likely the catalyst for Egyptian civilization, and I'll tell you why. The Egyptians had enjoyed living in this bountiful region full of delicious food and easy hunting, but as everything started to dry out, the people living here had to change tactics. They switched from being mobile nomads to farmers, and that was when the animals started disappearing. Giraffes, rhinos, several different species of antelope, they all vanished around this exact same time. The two types of rhinoceros I mentioned have never even been proven real. They only exist in ancient Egyptian artwork. Were they a distinct species? Maybe, but their bones have long since turned to dust in the desert heat. The disappearance of these animals was likely because as humans turned to farming, they needed more space. And as the desert grew and the green shriveled, animals had less and less space. It was a recipe for disaster. And then things got worse. After the largest mammals went extinct, or at least extinct in Egypt, the giraffes and rhinos for example, Egypt got drier. This is what they called the Dark Period, about 4,200 years ago, when Egypt became as dry as a bone. The country had depended on the annual flooding of the Nile for their agriculture, but it stopped. Not outright, but it did become inconsistent. Without the annual flood to soak the agricultural field with nutrients, crop yields dropped and famine laid its bony hand over the land. During this Dark Period, Egypt descended into chaos, starvation, and war. It was the end of the old kingdom, and the curtain call on the age of the pyramids. It was also when the African wild dogs started to disappear. Egypt's Wild Dogs If you've never seen an African wild dog before, you're welcome. These might just be the cutest wild dogs in the world, looking like a mix between a cuddly pet and a savage hyena that will bite your face off when you're sleeping. These wild dogs have been living in Africa for at least 2 million years, but may not be around much longer. At one point, there were 500,000 of dogs roaming across Africa, and now it's estimated there are only around 6,000. And their population is rapidly decreasing. Unfortunately, these dogs have been kicked out of their natural habitat by humans. They often live in the most rural and poor areas where they are killed by farmers or poachers. These days, Egypt has a whole heck of a lot more street dogs, with an estimated 15 million of them wandering the country today. They are known as Baladi dogs, and they are not related to the wild African dogs, but they do appear to be mixed-breed descendants of pets that the pharaohs had. There is major debate though over the origin of Egypt's street dogs. Some say they are a mix of more modern breeds like the Egyptian Saluki, the pharaoh hound, or the Canaan dog. Others think they are a distinct breed descended from pharaonic dogs in ancient times. But just how much did the Egyptians revere dogs in ancient times? You're probably familiar with Anubis, the deity who guided souls through the afterlife. He was depicted as a man with the head of a jackal. There weren't quite as many dog-headed gods as cat-headed. That being said, dogs clearly played a large role in Egyptian society. Tutankhamun's tomb shows the pharaoh hunting with his trusty dog. It's known that Egyptians, from the lowliest peasants to the highest of royalty, kept canines as pets. They even mummified them and had mourning periods. In ancient Egypt, the death of a dog was like the death of a human family member. People buried their pets in family tombs so that they could meet again in the afterlife. The entire family would then enter a grief period, one with a rather unique custom. They shaved their eyebrows off to show how sad they were about the dog's passing. Would you shave off your eyebrows for your dog? And should we bring back mourning periods in general? At least people would know not to bother you if you had no eyebrows, since you would be visibly mourning. In ancient Egypt, it was an extreme crime to kill a dog. If you were caught killing a dog, you yourself could potentially face a death sentence, especially if it belonged to somebody's family. But here comes the duality of the ancient Egyptians. Murdering dogs was okay, as long as they were sacrificed to Anubis. But let's go back to the heat death of Egypt. 3,000 years ago, a third aridification event occurred that brought an end to the new kingdom. Just like the collapse of the old kingdom before, a prolonged period of drought brought Egypt to its knees. The era of Tutankhamen, Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and 11 different kings with the name Ramses was brought to an end. During this time, Barbary lions vanished in the archaeological record. Prior to 3,000 years ago, lions were considered sacred and sometimes mummified, just like the dogs. But after the collapse of the old kingdom, the practice appears to have died out. A fourth and final disaster happened not in ancient times, but a mere 150 years ago. There was a huge boom in Egypt's population, combined with their rapid industrialization. Even more species disappeared, including the last Egyptian leopards and the wild boar. Today, it's believed that only eight of the original 37 large mammals are left in the country. In another century, that number could be zero. The Elephants of Egypt In ancient Egyptian, the word for elephant was Abu, which I have to say is a little weird because that's the monkey's name in Aladdin that was also briefly turned into an elephant. The Egyptians had a lot of elephants, with one species living naturally in the Nile Valley and the rest coming from neighboring nations. Unlike the other animals I told you about, Egyptian elephants vanished before the creation of Egypt itself. There is widespread evidence that the Egyptians venerated elephants prior to the first dynasty. That was back when Egypt was split in two, Upper and Lower Egypt, and ruled by rival tribes. Archaeologists have found amulets in the form of elephant heads from the pre-dynastic era. So many of these amulets that it's clear they were popular. So what the heck happened to elephant worship? The problem was that the elephants living in Egypt went extinct there during the first dynasty, so they didn't really stick around long once Egypt got up and started making civilization. The elephant that lived in Egypt was the Syrian elephant, scientific name Eliphas Maximus Acerus. It was the westernmost Asian elephant, living across the Middle East and places like Iran, Turkey, and Iraq. Scientists don't know exactly when the last one died, but probably around 700 BC. I say that because skeletal remains of the elephant have been found up until that point. If the elephant lived beyond that time, there's no evidence of it in the fossil record. As for how the elephant made it from the Middle East to Egypt, that's a topic of debate. Some believe the elephants were transported there on purpose during the Bronze Age, either to be used as beasts of burden or for warfare. They were also hunted by the pharaohs. Pharaoh Thutmose III, trying to one-up Amenhotep III's lion-killing record, is said to have hunted 120 Syrian elephants. Here's a pretty crazy fact for you. While the Egyptians were building the pyramids, there was still a population of woolly mammoths living in the Arctic. The pyramids were built around 2600 BC, and the last known mammoths went extinct around 1600 BC. Pretty crazy, right? Woolly mammoths were around for another 1000 years after the pyramids were built. Chew on that for a while. The Aurochs of the Serapium One of the most enduring mysteries of ancient Egypt is the Serapium of Saqqara. Ever since it was discovered in 1850, it has been a It only takes one look to understand why. This place is a tomb, but it's not like any other tomb in the country. Underground beneath the surface of the Saqqara Necropolis is a chamber with 24 enormous sarcophagi. They are so big they were definitely not made for humans. They could only have been made for gods, giants, or perhaps an extinct species of bull. Each of these monster coffins was somehow lowered into the tomb and then positioned inside. The mainstream theory to explain these sarcophagi is that they were part of the Apis Bull Cult. This was a religious organization that revered bulls as the sacred, living embodiment of the creator god. You know how there's only one pope at a time, and only one Dalai Lama? Well, there was only one true Apis Bull at a time in ancient Egypt. In the city of Memphis, Egyptian priests of the Apis Bull Cult kept their sacred bull in the lap of luxury. This bull lived better than all of us. He was spoiled, groomed, and offered a harem of especially selected lady cows to tend to his every desire. These bulls were given such splendid lives that they typically lived until they died of natural old age. While alive, the holy bull was considered an intermediary between humans and the gods. It was the living manifestation of Ptah, the god of creation. But when the bull died, it was thought to be a manifestation of Osiris, the god of death. Once a year, the Apis Bull became the focus of the Apis Festival. And it was weirder than you could imagine. Priests who specialized in prophecy watched the bull carefully during the festivities, searching for signs of things to come. The way the bull moved, how it snorted, its actions, where it looked, everything was interpreted as signals from the gods. Some think that when the bulls became too old and could no longer fulfill their duties, the priests would secretly drown them. But these are unconfirmed rumors. When the Apis Bull did die, there was a 60-day mourning period. I'm telling you, the Egyptians knew how to grieve. They shaved off their eyebrows for their dogs and shaved their whole heads for the death of the Apis Bull. For 60 days, they abstained from eating meat. The dead bull was then placed inside of a decorated coffin and buried. It's believed that many of these bulls ended up in the oversized sarcophagi of the Serapium. The problem with proving it is that those sarcophagi were empty. There are a whole bunch of things that don't quite add up in this dark tomb. Not least of which is that none of the alleged bull mummies have ever been found. Plus, the boxes are significantly larger than the size of ordinary bulls. Scientists claim this was to provide the Apis extra comfort. But then why didn't the pharaohs get the same treatment? Pharaohs would have considered themselves more important than an animal, but they were buried in tiny coffins that barely fit their bodies. So why give the bulls so much wiggle room? Could it be, then, that the sarcophagi of the Serapium of Saqqara was home to mummified aurochs, an extinct type of cow? Aurochs are known as the granddaddy of all cattle. Scientific name Boss primigenius, this extinct wild bull likely gave rise to every living domesticated cow in the world. Researchers think there were three main subspecies of aurochs. There was one in India, one in North Africa, and one in Europe. What separates them from modern cows is that they were giants. Have you ever walked right up to a cow, not realizing just how big cows actually are? Walking up to an auroch would be like walking up to a cow that just spent six months working out at the gym and eating too much protein powder. They stood an estimated six feet at the shoulder compared to a modern cow that stands about five feet. They're generally considered the largest herbivore still in Europe after the ice age ended. They had long legs, mighty neck muscles, and stupendous horns. Seriously, their horns were nearly four feet long. Those horns were also terrifying. They curved forward and inward, making them look a little demonic. As best as archaeologists can figure, the domestication of these giant beasts began 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia. Over the next few millennia, domesticated populations of aurochs spread into the Near East and Egypt. These original populations of domesticated aurochs led to the creation of two distinct subspecies, Boss Taurus and Boss Indicus. Today, the vast majority of cattle breeds all over the globe descend from those two groups. Scientists know the aurochs survived at least into the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar famously described aurochs as fast and powerful, saying that any hunter who managed to kill one must have been very skilled. The cattle appear in myths and literature across Germany and many parts of Europe. But then, for some crazy reason, the species began to shrink. Maybe it was due to habitat loss. Maybe smaller cattle were easier to take care of, so farmers didn't want to breed aurochs anymore. Whatever happened, the last known aurochs died in 1627 in Poland. Back in Egypt, there is no definitive evidence to show the sarcophagi ever held anything except air. Some reports claim that researchers discovered fragments of animal remains and burial materials, but there were definitely no intact mummies and no proof of giant bulls. The Egyptians would have known about aurochs and had probably bred them. I would think that if they wanted a sacred animal, they would choose the biggest and the best, which would have been aurochs. There is just no way of knowing whether this is true or not because of the empty coffins. Coffins, by the way, which should be impossible. Each one weighs between 70 and 100 tons. That's a whole heck of a lot heavier than any king's sarcophagus. The lids alone weigh 30 tons and are made from blocks of solid stone. So obviously when archaeologists found them, they were empty and open, right? Because if giant bulls had been buried in them, someone must have opened the lids and taken them out. Wrong. These sarcophagi were found sealed, with some of them needing to be blown open with gunpowder. Archaeologists were foaming at the mouth, certain they were about to find remarkable treasure. But every single box was empty. Archaeologists today say that the sarcophagi were symbolic burials, not actual graves. But that doesn't really seem to make sense. The idea that the Egyptians could get these sarcophagi in the ground but not the bones of the bulls is ridiculous. It makes you wonder if they were even coffins at all. Could these artifacts be evidence of some secret Egyptian technology? Or were they once used to hold the bones of sacred extinct beasts? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for watching! Which extinct animal would you love to see in the flesh? Be sure to let me know and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. Come back soon for more awesome discoveries. Bye!