Welcome to Chapter Two

Where Numbers Get Weird (and Wonderful), Part One of Two

This month, we’re opening the lid on one of the most curious and surprisingly powerful parts of ancient Egyptian life: their numbers.

Not just how they counted (although, yes, they had some fascinating methods) but what their numbers meant. Because in ancient Egypt, numbers weren’t just for measuring grain or building pyramids—they were soaked in myth, magic, and meaning. Each number symbol was part of a larger story, tied to gods, time, the afterlife, and the eternal struggle to keep the world in order.

This chapter is a big one, so I’m breaking it into two parts. In Part One, we’ll explore the symbols themselves—like the coiled rope for 100, the lotus flower for 1,000, and the tadpole (yes, really) for 100,000. We'll look at how these symbols weren’t just chosen for convenience but reflected deep beliefs about nature, divinity, and cosmic structure.

Then, in Part Two, coming later this month, we’ll dig into the math behind the magic: number theory, patterns, and how Egyptians might have seen time, space, and eternity through a sacred numerical lens.

If you’ve ever wondered why the king’s chamber in the Great Pyramid measures precisely 10 by 20 cubits or what it meant when scribes wrote down 110 years as the "ideal lifespan," this chapter is for you.

Let’s decode the divine digits.