In this exclusive video, the American University at Cairo's Salima Ikram shares the secrets of Egypt's enduring animal adoration. In the video, she explains how Egyptians believed that animals were born as gods' creatures, and that gods would enter their bodies and animate it. The sounds animals made were thought to be the secret language of the gods; thus Egyptians felt they were actually closer to divinity than themselves, and would question animals, through a priest's interpretation, on matters as mundane as inheritance or property.
Professor Salima Ikram is one of the world's leading authorities on animals in Ancient Egypt, and has published several books about the culture, which she has loved since childhood. Dr Ikram currently holds the post of Professor of Egyptology at Cairo's American University, and frequently appears in magazines and on television to discuss Egypt. She is also a grantee of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1965, Dr Ikram studies Egyptology and Archaeology at Pennsylvania's Bryn Mawr College. She then earned a M.Phil. and PhD in Egyptology at the University of Cambridge.
