False hair has been a success in all ages. For a long time people used wigs to achieve different goals: to protect themselves from the sun, hide a bald patch or emphasize their status.
Because of the heat in Egypt, both men and women cut off their hair, but wore wigs, which appeared in the III millennium BC. Men wore short wigs. Women decorated their wigs with ribbons and multicolored threads. Pharaohs, their close associates, important officials and priests wore huge wigs made of natural hair. Landowners, warriors, merchants, peasants wore short wigs made of wool, feathers, palm or papyrus fibers, sea grass and linen threads. The wigs were fixed with beeswax. Black and dark brown wigs were common, although later orange, red, blue, green and yellow colors were used. Wigs were sprayed with aromatic oils and essences, sprinkled with flower petals and spices.
More »

Death marks the end of life. All living things go through the process of death, because it’s a natural process. Man is the only being who realizes the finiteness of his being.
Every culture has its own customs for dealing with death. Most customs include either burial or cremation of the body. Cemeteries are final resting places for the dead.
People have always been interested in what happens after death, but no one knows for certain.
In different cultures, in different parts of the world, the god of death was depicted in different ways, but all of these deities had similar features.
In the traditions and cultures of many peoples throughout the world, death is personified as a skeletal figure dressed in black.
More »

Ikebana as an art formed about six centuries ago. Compositions began to be created by masters not only in temples, but also in the palaces of the emperor and the nobility for various events.
Japanese Ikebana (literally flowers kept alive) is a lot more complex than just flower arrangement. There are many schools and Ikenobo, Sogetsu and Ohara are the most popular.
Ikenobo is the oldest school of ikebana, founded by Buddhist priest Ikenobo Senkei in the 15th century. He is thought to have created the rikka (standing flowers) style. This style was developed as a Buddhist expression of the beauty of nature. The school is based in the Rokkakudo temple in Kyoto.
More »

Archery is the sport of shooting arrows with a bow at a target. For thousands of years people used the skills of archery mostly for war and for hunting.
A bow is a long, thin piece of wood with a string stretched tightly from one end to the other. An arrow is a long, thin piece of wood, which ends in a pointed tip. There is a tail of feathers or plastic fins on the other end of the arrow. It helps the arrow fly straight.
In the 1900s archery became an Olympic event. The Summer Olympic Games feature target archery events for men and women, individually and in teams.
More »

An alphabet is a system used to represent language in written form. Each letter stands for a single spoken sound. Many languages use alphabets. In Japanese and Cherokee each symbol represents a group of sounds. In Chinese symbols represent the meaning of words, not their sounds.
People in early societies drew pictures to communicate ideas. The Phoenicians, who lived about 3,000 years ago in the Middle eastern country now called Syria, developed the first modern alphabet. However, it contained only consonants. Greek alphabet is considered the first true alphabet, because it contained both consonants and vowels. Greek alphabet is the ancestor of all modern European alphabets, including Latin. The ancient Romans developed the Latin alphabet. As the Roman Empire grew, the Latin alphabet spread throughout the empire’s vast lands.
More »

The Saxon Elector Augustus the Strong was a great lover of court entertainments, he tried to imitate the French emperor Louis XIV and ordered to build palace ensemble Zwinger for mass festivities. The word “Zwinger” does not have an exact translation, in ancient times it meant the space between the inner and outer walls of the fortress.
Construction began from the central square of Dresden, next to the Elbe River. The walls were erected near the royal castle. So, Augustus could monitor the progress of building from his windows.
At first the walls were wooden, on the four sides they were joined by tribunes. And formed an elongated platform very convenient for the knights’ tournaments. Riders, chained in armor, fought with each other. The audience was delighted.
More »

For the first time, scientists learned about Baalbek (its subsequent ancient name is Heliopolis) when they got acquainted with the Egyptian inscriptions of the epoch of Pharaoh Akhenaten. According to their assumptions, the history of this Phoenician city, which ruins have remained, goes back centuries, and most likely Baalbek was founded much earlier than two thousand years before our era. Today, the ruins of a once majestic city can be seen in the Beqaa Valley, at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, 85 km northeast of Beirut.
Originally the city was called Baal Beck in honor of the ancient Phoenicians deity Baal – the god of sun and fertility. According to legend, this deity was the patron and protector of the Phoenicians, helped them in work and battles. Men of this city knew how to speak beautifully, and women were famous for their beauty.
More »