Addicted to Salt

The Egyptians were just as crazy about salt as the Chinese. Egyptians really knew their salt too, there were multiple types and they were all used for different purposes. They loved eating salted vegetables and made sauces with the salt also (much like the Chinese). They then started curing meat and eventually started preserving their bodies in salt. When a wealthy person died they were mummified. Go mummies!!! Mummies still provide interest for people, they can be studied, turned into a bazillion movies , or make scary Halloween costumes. I doubt the Egyptians ever thought their mummies would create such an interesting topic for humans thousands of years later.

Back then salt was difficult to transport across the dessert so it was made into three foot high cylinders and carried by camels. Could these salt sticks have been the first kind of lollipop? I can just imagine kids carring around their salt stick licking it until their tongues were completely pickled. I definitely think sugar lollipops are the way to go. Anyway, salt is still transported in this same way today so it must be a pretty affective method.

How were buildings made of salt? The design might have worked but wouldn't the rain have melted the salt and all of the buildings would have started collapsing. Talk about a design flaw. One cool thing about a salt house would be is if you needed a salt fix you could just start licking your wall. Wouldn't have been awful if people stole the salt from your house? You could have woken up one morning and found your entire wall missing. I hope people don't still use this ingenuity today.

This chapter was a lot more interesting because it talked about more than just salt. It covered the Egyptians and went on to tell about different cultures developing trade. I wonder what the next chapter will bring?