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What Did Ancient Egyptians Eat?
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Apr 28, 2025
Western civilization, descended from the Greeks, has always been fascinated by the powerful and mysterious Egyptian culture and their seemingly strange behaviors. One of the things the Greeks were particularly interested in was the Egyptian diet. In fact, the Greek historian Herodotus spent an inordinate amount of time in his writings on Egypt tracing the exact dietary patterns of the ancient empire.
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The ancient Egyptians dominated the Mediterranean for 3,000 years, from roughly 3100 BCE until
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the arrival of Alexander the Great in 332 BC. The wonders of ancient Egypt included enormous pyramids, stunning temples, and the mighty sphinx
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But if you also wonder what the people who built all that stuff were eating, well, good news
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Today, we're going to take a look at what the ancient Egyptians actually ate
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For people who lived in ancient times, honey was probably nothing short of a miracle
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It can sweeten anything, moisten any dish that it's baked with, and it never goes bad
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even when completely unpreserved. As for the ancient Egyptians, they saw honey as nothing short of sacred
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Honey and the bees who made it actually played a huge role in the religious and political life of ancient Egypt
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In fact, the bee was the official symbol of the king of the lower Egyptian empire
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But it wasn't just for the rich. Even the lower classes had some access to honey, which tells us that the Egyptians must have produced tons of honey
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The ancient Egyptians knew that beer is an intoxicant, but to them it was also a source of nutrition
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and an essential part of everyone's diet, even children. It was also prescribed for dozens of ailments
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as it was believed to confuse and expel the evil spirits that cause disease in a person's body
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But nothing demonstrates the central place beer occupied in ancient Egyptian life quite like the fact that laborers
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were often paid for their work in beer. In fact, one of the reasons we know that the pyramids were not built solely by enslaved people
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is through records that show how much beer the laborers were being paid
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Workers on the Giza Plateau, for example, were given three rations of beer every day
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as compensation for their efforts. Like many wealthy civilizations, Egypt had access to the best the ancient world had to offer
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Back then, that meant luxury products like spices. The Egyptians made wide use of spices, such as cumin, coriander, and cinnamon
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As with their other foods, each spice had a cultural or medical significance as well
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Coriander, for example, represented romantic love and was considered to be something of an aphrodisiac
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Cumin, on the other hand, was a digestive aid that was considered a sign of faithfulness
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Cinnamon was used in the embalming process because it was believed to aid in preservation It was also one of the most expensive spices Though there no conclusive evidence that proves the origins of wine in ancient Egypt
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historians believe the product was being imported to the kingdom before 3000 BCE
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and quickly became a major agricultural product. While some wine was brought in from communities in Mesopotamia and Canaan
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the ancient Egyptians also produced a wide variety of their own wines, each with specific qualities
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According to ancient Roman writers, the white Mariotic from the Alexandrian region
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was pleasant, fragrant, and diuretic. The pale and somewhat oily Taniotic was aromatic
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superior to the Mariotic, and mildly astringent. Thebaid was said to be easily digested
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and suitable for fever patients, while Sabanis, which was blended from various kinds of grapes
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was known as a laxative. Once the basic process of making wine was discovered, the Egyptians dove into winemaking
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with a lot of enthusiasm. From there, it wasn't difficult to figure out how to make wine out of
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any fruit, with sufficient sugar or starch. Palm wine, for example, was made from the fermented
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sap of palm trees. Apparently, the stuff was good for more than just drinking, as it was also used
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as a cleanser during the embalming process. The ancient Egyptian fascination with wines
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didn't stop there, though, or anywhere, really. Pomegranates, poppy seeds, carob trees
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and the fruit of the peccatry were all fermented and used to produce wine
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The ancient Egyptian moral universe was similar to many of today's religions
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in that it was premised on the idea that good deeds would be rewarded in an afterlife
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Many wealthier Egyptians would even make public displays of their charity, often by giving away bread to the poor
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The bread was understood to be a symbol of hospitality in terms of both charity and spiritual offerings
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Upon death, an ancient Egyptian's ka, which is roughly similar to the modern notion of the soul
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continued on to the afterlife. To ensure its continued existence and ease of passage
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regular food offerings would be made at the tombs of the departed. In the case of the pharaohs
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These offerings would be directed to the statues and monuments they had erected
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This was all taken so seriously that offerings were prohibited for lawbreakers and sinners as a form of legal punishment
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The ancient Egyptians considered pigs to be unclean, but that didn't stop them from raising them
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Poorer classes would eat pig fairly regularly and during the era of the New Kingdom they were quite common Records even show some local officials of the time owned as many as 1 pigs at once That a pigsty Why exactly pigs were considered unclean
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is a matter of some debate. One possible explanation is that the pig
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was one of the forms taken by the god Set, who was the god of chaos and the slayer of Osiris
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As Egyptian theology developed, Set took on a more and more evil identity
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and pigs were judged harshly on account of the association. On the other hand, it's also possible that pigs were considered unclean
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because they roll around in muck and dirt. As with most ancient societies, in Egypt, meat was a luxury most enjoyed by the rich
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While the lush Nile Delta had its fair share of game, most of the meat eaten by the ancient Egyptians was from various forms of domesticated livestock
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including sheep, goat, cow, and oryx antelopes. Meat was also used as an offering at temples and services
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If it wasn't to be served immediately, meat could be preserved in a wide variety of manners
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including brining, drying, salting, smoking, and making it into a fat and protein mixture known as hennequin
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It's difficult to summarize the attitudes of ancient Egyptians on any one subject
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because their history lasted for so long and was divided into so many periods and dynasties
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The empire consisted of many different people in vast geographical areas, and each had their
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own religious and cultural attitudes. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ancient Egyptians
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view of fish. The Nile has a vast array of aquatic life, but due to various religious
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connections between certain species of fish and certain gods, things could get complicated. For
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example, some fish were considered to be holy or unholy, clean or unclean, fit for the wealthy
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or fit only for the poor. From the Greek historian Herodotus, we know that the eel was considered sacred in the late kingdom
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as were carp, tilapia, and some species of perch. The most common form of poultry in ancient Egypt was the goose
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They were domesticated and traded in all major cities and formed an essential part of the Egyptian diet
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Duck was commonly served to both rich and poor. While they were considerably less common
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there are also records that confirm the domestication of pheasants, pigeons, and even
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ostriches. The chicken arrived relatively late to the scene in ancient Egypt. They didn't get those
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until the Ptolemaic dynasty. Onions have a rich and diverse history, both as a food and as a
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metaphor in literary and spiritual texts To the ancient Egyptians the onion was sacred While it was traded and consumed as a foodstuff it was also seen as an important metaphor with its concentric rings symbolizing
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the infinite circles of eternal life. This being the case, it's not surprising that onions were
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also involved in numerous religious and funerary rituals. They were painted on the inner walls of
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the pyramids, left on altars of the perished, and there's even evidence that the entombed
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Fairy Ramses IV had onions placed into his eye sockets as symbols of his eternal life
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Onions in the eyes. That'll make you cry. In ancient Egypt, it was customary
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to paint the best parts of a person's life on their tombs. These depictions have provided a great deal of evidence
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as to the kinds of parties wealthy Egyptians like to have. And those folks, they knew how to throw a rager
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While it's hard to know precisely what those parties were like, we do know that there was typically lavish entertainment in the forms of music, dancing
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and sometimes even acrobatics. And of course, there was always food. According to Tor Egypt
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these parties might serve rich dishes of butter and cheese, fat and fowl and beef
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flavored with rosemary, cumin, garlic, parsley, cinnamon, and mustard, and sweetened with honey, figs, and other fruits
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The controversial practice of force-feeding geese to make the delicious delicacy known as foie gras
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may have started in ancient Egypt. Actually, it's unlikely the ancient Egyptians were attempting to
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make some old world equivalent of foie gras. They force-fed cattle as well as hyenas, and most
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historians believe that they were merely trying to stimulate the production of animal fat. The
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practice spread from Egypt to Greece, then from Greece to Rome, and has remained part of European
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cooking to this very day. While we don't know for sure whether the Egyptians consumed goose liver
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the way modern foie gras eaters do, force-feeding geese was important enough to be depicted on
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numerous wall reliefs over the course of the kingdom's history. Historians and archaeologists generally cite the transition from hunting and gathering to
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agriculture as one of the earliest major turning points in the history of human civilization
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If early humans succeeded because of this transition, then it follows that the culture
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with the best access to agriculture would have an advantage when it came to building the most
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influential empire. The Nile Delta, with its incredible amounts of fish, game, fruits
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and vegetables, provided the nutrition the ancient Egyptians required to build large
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population-dense cities. This, in turn, might have led to increased specialization and then to the
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scientific, cultural, and architectural breakthroughs for which ancient Egypt is known today
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