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writing book set in ancient Egypt
So I am writing a fantasy book in which several Egyptian teenagers (along with a couple non Egyptians) time travel to the ancient Egyptian empire. It is going to be in 16th century BC as the Egyptian empire peaked at that time (if I am wrong correct me) and I want to know what it would look like. The vast majority of time travelers are girls and they all speak Arabic and English, so I am wondering several things:
1) how would they be able to get around in a society in which they cannot speak the language and have no integration in it other than their Egyptian heritage
2) what would the world around them look like? For example, what other civilizations would be there, and which would they come into contact to? What was going on at this time period?
*note that this is a fantasy story, I understand if this was a real scenario in which several teenagers ended up in the ancient world they'd die quickly
I thank anyone who answers in advance as I know this is a difficult thing to answer.
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As Razhie said, You are going to need to do a lot of research on your own. That is not a brush you off statement. I know because I have written a time travel fantasy where a man from early 1600s due to a fluke of nature, time travels to our current time from Wales. Later after he has married the girl who discovered and helped him acclimate to our time, they go on a honeymoon to Wales and while at an ancient site, are both transported back to his time but later than the time which he left. I did research on the computer for possible ancient sites both on east coast US and also in Wales to be more believable sites for the time travel to occur. When it came to ancient Wales, I was researching things like did they have coffee yet back then, were forks invented yet. For example, in that time, brides did not wear white gowns yet. It was only being done by royalty. I learned many things I did not know as I wrote my story and then realized, I had to research the next part before. His family had a farm in a town in ancient Wales. For the town I choose, a real town, I researched all their old photographs of what it looked like then vs today. I then placed the farm at a place where today a highway and a big round about are. I wrote of the places they visited. This book isn't published yet. I want to finish a sequel of the time travel adventures of their oldest son before I attempt to get self published. I kept lots of notes on whoat I discovered and choose to put in my story, even jotting down birthdays of characters, their ages difference due to the time difference in going back much later, coming up with geneology line to explain away a current day historian (made up) who is related to him. No one reading my story will find any discrepancies on birthdays, times or such. I got my mind confused and turned around often enough until I studied my notes. I kept a file separate from each chapter in the book that held all my notes and discoveries which I still refer back to quite often in writing the 2nd book.
Use enough real facts and things to make the story feel authentic, as if this time travel could have really happened. I even researched names and last names which were Patronymic at that time but starting to change. Good luck. Do the research though and keep good notes to yourself, even the websites you got the info or photos from so you can go back again if you need.
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I think they would encounter people we would now call Ethiopians. I seem to recall they fought each other and lots of prisoners were taken. Many of whom worked as slaves building the pyramids. Also the pyramids were really glitzy, with dead smooth and highly polished stone facings. Which were broken off and used to build much later buildings in Cairo. They were a very advanced and scientific bunch, with astronomers, architects and engineers. Pharaoh means 'The Great House' and Pharaoh's were not military or democratically elected rulers or leaders. They were not considered mere mortals at all. They were believed to be related to the gods themselves. Which is why they quite often married their sisters or brothers (to keep the lineage 'pure'). Noting that the great house was also open to women. In the same way a monarchy has Kings & Queens, and in the UK the line is still one of birthright.Just not as incestuous! Their earthly 'death' was just a transition, hence they were entombed with all their riches, furniture and effects, and even human servants and some soldiers sometimes. The pyramids were eseential to make the transition/journey. If a Pharoah failed to make the transition it would be disaster for Egypt. So pyramid-building was a serious business indeed. The sun and moon were the gods Isis & Osiris who sailed across the sky in boats. That's my entire knowledge of the Egyptians, without looking stuff up. Hope there's something of use. How about your teenagers meet up with a guy or girl who somehow ended up there too, but a good few years earlier and has learned the language and way of life? He/she acts as their guide/advisor? Good luck with the writing mate. PS...they had a braniac astronomer called Ptolemy who painstakingly charted and measured the positions of the constellations, stars and planets visible in the night sky. He spent years doing it. Almost unbelievably, all our modern space probes and radio-telescopes etc have proved his charts are deadly accurate. He thought the earth was the centre of the universe and THEY went round US, but when it comes to it, that actually makes no real difference. His charts and measurements are spot on.
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I think you're going to need to a lot of research on your own to flesh this out.
I think some scholars would put the peak of the Egyptian Empire a bit earlier, closer to 1800 BCE. The Middle Kingdom era ends by 1640 and the empire was much more divided and less powerful by that time. A large part of it was taken over by invaders from Asia.
I don't believe there would be any Arabic in Egypt at that point. The spoken language of that time has been completely lost, and Egypt at the time was a relatively isolated empire. It would be very difficult for time travellers to get around.
Start with researching the Middle Kingdom era. There were a few different cities used as the capital at that time, and you'd be able to find out more about day-to-day life in those cities, and maybe find something that would empower your characters to survive.
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