How the Egyptians rediscovered the art of
making Papyrus paper.
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Believe it or not the papyrus plant completely died out in Egypt, as a result of the Egyptians moving over the easier to make paper, similar to the paper we all use today.

Sometime around the 10th century when invading Arabs brought with them the knowledge of making the simpler Chinese rag and wood-pulp paper, the making of papyrus gradually ceased.  As the once all important papyrus plant was not farmed it gradually became extinct in Egypt.

The Ancient Egyptians left no written records of how they made papyrus so all that could be done, was to look at ancient papyrus that had survived in the various tombs, and try to work out how they made it.

It was an Egyptian scientist and diplomat named Dr. Hassan Ragab who, in 1965 unlocked the mystery  of making papyrus paper. He reintroduced the papyrus plant into Egypt from the Sudan and Ethiopia where it grows naturally, untouched by man. In fact it grows so well that it has completely blocked many swamps in Central Africa.  He started a papyrus plantation near Cairo and revived Papyrus making around 1969. By 1973 he had developed four large papyrus plantations along the banks of the Nile and in some nearby canals.

The rest as they say is history. As you walk through the bazaars and ancient monuments of Egypt you cannot fail to see papyrus of all types and sizes offered for sale. If you take a tour children, and sometimes even adults, appear with cheap papyrus or papyrus bookmarks in plastic sleeves to try and get you to buy as you get on and off the coach. This doesn't happen quite as often as it used to as the Egyptian government has stopped them entering bus parks near to many of the well known monuments.

Ancient Papyrus offered for sale!

Would you like to own some ancient papyrus? Well the Egyptians can age their modern papyrus quite easily. Old papyrus is darker in colour, sometimes a very dark brown. In order to achieve a darker colour the thin strips of the papyrus plant are soaked for up to three weeks and when put together as a sheet of papyrus paper it is dried out over a much longer time. The skill in this is to combine the wetting and drying times to achieve the level of darkness required.