Top 5 Ancient Egyptian Clocks That Take You Back In Time

Famous saying “Time and Tide wait for none” goes well with everybody. In the ancient period, people do not have any means by which they could estimate the time at a particular instant. So they tried to find out some ways by which they can calculate the time. Today the ability to track the time is very easy but it was not the same during the ancient period.

Ancient Egyptian were the first one to divide the days into two equal parts. The clocks use in the history were very different from what we use nowadays. Astronomer and the priest basically require the knowledge of the exact time to complete the research or the offerings which were required to be done by them.

Here is the list of ancient Egyptian clocks which helped people to know the time at that duration of period:

1) Obelisks

Source = Archaeology-travel

Around 3,500 BCE Egyptian used the shadow of the giant big Obelisks to measure the time. Obelisks are four sided monuments which were used as a clock. The shadow which was cast on the ground could help people in the measurement of time during the day.

Each of the obelisks was built to showcase the story but they proved to be the shadow clocks. This was the very method used by the Egyptian to note the time with the shadow of the obelisks.

The shadow was also used to recognize the longest and shorted day of the year. If the shadow during the year noted to be the shortest than that day was considered as the shortest one. In the same way, when the shadow observed to be longer than the usual than the day was regarded as the longest one in the whole year. Later on, small varied versions were developed to improve the accuracy of the time.

2) Water Clocks

Source = Pinimg

Water clocks were economical and the major advantage of this clock was that it could be used at the night as well, which was not possible with the help of the obelisks. The beauty of the clock was that it requires less space and less human efforts.

The Egyptian water clock was used for two purposes. The one was to tell the time and the other was to keep track of how long a person can speak. They were the earliest timekeepers which do not depend on the celestial body to measure the time.

The unique instrument used the water in the bowl with markings to note down the time. The water used to flow at a constant rate from the orifice and get collected in the bowl. The quantity present in the bowl was enough to tell the amount of the time which has been passed. Whenever the water has altered the wheel of the clock rotates which describes that one hour is complete. There were many different instruments and models used to measure the time.

3) Sundials

Source = Cornwalls

Herodotus's invention of the sundial in 430 BCE was a huge one. Sundials were simple genomes of the ancient region. Limestone sundial was discovered in the Valley of kings in 2013 as the earliest device. The significance of this piece is that it was about thousand of years old. The sundial is made of a flattened piece of limestone with black semi circle divided into 12 sections.

Source = Timecenter

The sections of the sundial were near about 15 degrees apart. This clock was said to give the precise time when compared with other clocks. A dent in the center is used for revealing the time of the day with the help of the shadow which cast on it. Later on more advanced devices were developed which can be carried along with the people.

4) Shadow Clocks

Source = Hubstatic

Shadow clocks were modified version of the sundials. The clocks developed were small and light in weight. It was a foot long with sections in the middle. The rod had the 10 to 12 section which helped in measuring the exact time.

To tell about the time at a particular instant the rod was placed facing the east direction in the morning and west in the noon time. Wherever the shadow falls it was noted down as the time of that instance. The creative invention is known as the Shadow clock of the ancient Egypt.

5) Merkhets Clocks

Source = Sciencemuseum

This type of clock helped the Egyptian to note down the time during the night. It makes use of the pump lines called Merkhets clocks. The clock was used around 600 BC. The instruments of this clock were placed in the north south meridian aligned in the direction of the north pole star. By observing the night sky and the gazing the particular stars to cross the line created by the Merkhets they could accurately gauge the time at night. (8.1)

These inventions helped the people to know the exact time whenever they wanted to know and organize the task and manage them accordingly. Thus Time plays a very important role in everyone’s life.