Egypt lies in the north east corner of Africa. Most of Egypt is hot desert land. Through flows it the mighty river Nile. Every year, during the summer, the river overflows its banks. Fresh water and rich silt or mud is spread over the land. When the water rains away, very soft, fertile soil is left behind. And this happens year after year. In the valley f the river Nile, a great civilization arose many thousands of years ago. It was so long ago that the history of ancient Egypt reads like a fairy tale.

Ancient Egypt had king to rule over them. The Pharaoh, or king, was very powerful indeed and his word was a law. The Egyptians believed that their Pharaoh was the son of the sun God, Ra. So the Pharaoh was also worshipped like a God. All the land belonged to him. But it was his duty to see that no one starved in his land.

The priests were also very powerful. They were called the servants of God. They were very clever and knew how to read and write. So they were given charge of all accounts. This also gave them a lot of power.

The ancient Egyptians believed in a number of Gods and Goddesses. Some of them had human form. But others had the body of a man and the head of a bird or animal. Ra was the sun God and he had the head of a falcon. The Egyptians thought that Ra rode across the sky every day in a golden boat. But at night he slipped into the desert. Osiris was the God of the under world. Osiris and his wife Isis were also worshipped. The Egyptians thought that when a man dies his soul goes before Osiris to be judged.

The Egyptians believed in life after death. The soul leaves the body but may come back searching or it. So they took great pains to preserve the dead body and all the things that the dead man loved. This took a long and much money. So only the very rich could affo0rd it. First the eyes, heart, lungs and stomach were taken out. Then the body was soaked in salt water to which many spices were added. The body was then stuffed. Finally yards and yards of fine linen was used to bandage it from head to foot. The Mummy, as it is called, was placed in a wooden box which was shaped like the body and face of the dead man. Then it was kept in a special tomb called a pyramid. Even after a thousand years, these mummies have been found in good condition.

The pyramids were the tomb of kings. They were built to last for ever and ever and they have. The most famous are the three pyramids that can be still seen at Giza. The largest of them is known as the Great Pyramid and it is one of the wonders of the world. It is as large as a cricket field and as tall as a small skyscraper. Most of the work was done by human beings because the Egyptians had no machines. Even today nobody really knows how the Egyptians built the pyramids out of thousands and thousands of huge stone bocks. If you ever get a chance to travel, you must see the pyramids.

The Egyptians were one of the first people to learn how to write. At first it was only a kind of picture writing. They drew picture to show what they wanted to say.

Finally the pictures were sorted to a few lines of curves.

Hieroglyphics-Don’t be afraid of the word and don’t word and don’t try to learn the spelling. It is only the name for Egyptian writing.

The Egyptians did not have paper, but they had another very clever idea. They split a long river –reed called papyrus into strips. They pasted he strips together and wrote on these trips with a pointed reed. They used a kind of ink made of gum, water and spot.

Fashionable men and women took great care to dress well. They wore clothes of very fi9ne linen and very elegant sandals. The rich women spent a lot of time on their make-up. They darkened their eye lids, put rouge on their lips, and painted their toenails and finger nails with henna. They loved perfume and jewelry. They wore a long, black wig over their short hair because they thought it made them more beautiful.

The Egyptians built their tombs and temples to last forever. But the people themselves were conquered by the kingdom nearby and thus the mighty Egyptian civilization was destroyed.

There are some of them-plastic, paper, steel, wood and so on. But long, long go –many thousands of years ago, there was a time when man learns how to make use of stones. That period of time in history is known as the Stone Age.

Neolithic man lived during the Stone Age. In some ways, he was like Neanderthal man, but in many other ways he was different. Neanderthal man lived many thousands of years before Neolithic man.

Neolithic man looked more like a man and less like an ape. He was both a hunter and a farmer. He grew crops for food and he domesticated animals that were useful to him.

He could make fine weapons and tools out of polished and ground stone. Do you know he polished a stone? He rubbed one stone against another very hard. He then sharpened the edge off the polished stone by chipping off flakes. In this way, he made axes. He could clear the forests now and grow his crops. He also made sickles to help him cut the harvest. When he went out to hunt, he carried a bow and arrow.

Neolithic man did not live in caves like Neanderthal man but the built huts out of mud and dried bricks. He knew how to make pots and pans and he could weave baskets. He could also and weave cloth out of flax. Thus he clothed himself better than Neanderthal man.

Poor Neanderthal man could only cover himself with animal skins. Though Neolithic man was very clever, like Neanderthal man he could not read or write.

Neolithic man did not know about God but he worshipped the earth which gave him food. He worshipped the sun which gave him warmth and made the plants grow. Sometimes, he worshipped even plants and animals.

One of the places where Neolithic man lived for over a thousand years was in the south of England, which was then known as Britain. These Neolithic men are still remembered because they built Stonehenge on the plains of Wessex. Even today Stonehenge attracts thousands of tourists.

Megaliths are huge, single stones weighting many tons. Neolithic man used thousands of these megaliths to build Stonehenge. These stones were of different sizes and shapes and set up in different patterns. There were full circles, half –circles within circles and horse-shoes. There were single stones and stones balancing on others. There were big stones, bigger stones and biggest stones- all standing tall and firm.

The men of Stonehenge believe that there was magic in these patters and so they carefully planned how they should be set up. The sites were also chosen with care. Stonehenge was not built n a month or even in a year. It took hundreds of years for it to be completed.

Was stone useful to the men who built? Some of the single stones stood over the graves of important men.

Other stones were used as altars where offering were made to the sun. The priests of these early men are called druids. They used Stonehenge as their temple. Stonehenge was also used as a kind of calendar. The druids were so clever that they could tell when the seasons would change by watching the position of the sun over these stones. They knew which was the longest and the shortest day of the year.

Have you over tried to carry a large heavy stone across the garden? It is not an easy task. And yet Neolithic men were able to set up these huge stones without the help of any machines. Some of these stones weighed more than five hundred tons and these stones were brought from very far-off places. We still do not know they did this.

Stonehenge must have looked very beautiful especially in the moonlight. Hundreds of huge stones stood up proudly against the distant hills and the distant sky. No wonder the men of Stonehenge were filled with awe when they saw these megaliths.

Like India, ancient china was a land of farmers. Every year a very important ceremony was held in the temple of heaven on New Year’s Day. Even the rulers took part in this. He thought it was one of his most important duties.

The Chinese were clever enough to learn how to write even in very early times. It started as simple picture writing and slowly changed to the writing of today. At first they made simple picture by typing knots in rope of string.

The Chinese must have also found this very difficult and so they learnt to cut pictures on bamboo strips. This is why the Chinese write from top to bottom. Later the Chinese wrote important records on silk with brushes made of camel hair.

The Chinese were the earliest people to make paper out of mulberry wood shavings or linen rags. These were crushed and soaked to make a paste, then spread out and beaten to thin sheets when these dried they became paper. The Chinese had many firsts. They were also the first to invent printing. Books were printed in china long before the rest of the world learnt how.

All things made of clay are called pottery. China or porcelain is a special kind of pottery. It is glossy and light can shine through it. The Chinese first found out how to make fine porcelain and they guarded the secret for years. Useful things like cups and saucers are made of china. Beautiful things like vases and figurines are also made of china. Of course, some things can be both useful and beautiful.

Imagine a wall broad enough for a lorry to ride on, and stretching for thousands and thousands of families over ills and valleys and plains. The Great Wall of China is one of the wonders of the world like the pyramids. To the west of China roamed the fierce Tartars. There were wild horsemen who loved hunting and fighting and it was nearly impossible to defeat or capture them. In fact was said that fighting the tartars was like fighting the wind. The Great Wall of China was built by Shi Huang Ti to keep out the Tartars.

It took thousands and thousands of workers, and many, many years to build this great Wall. It was one of the greatest fears of the Chinese that they would capture and sent to work on the wall!

A word about Confucius, one of the noblest men of the ancient world, he lived about the same time as Buddha and was a great thinker. He was born into a noble family but when he was a boy, is father died and left him penniless. He had to do all sorts of humble jobs to keep in self alive. But he wanted to become a scholar and a teacher. In time wish was fulfilled and he was known far and wide as a great teacher.

But the last of his wife were sad. He was exiled by his ruler and for thirteen years he wandered the length and breadth of the country. At last, tired and weary, he returned to his hometown when he was nearly eighty-nine, only to die. But he followed his own teaching. `Do not do to others what you would not wish to be one to yourself’. He bore no man any grudge.

Here again we have to be grateful the ancient Chinese. They were the first people to make gunpowder and the first people to make fire crackers. In fact, the great space rocket of today is only an improvement on the fire arrow that the Chinese made nearly nine hundred years ago!

Nan, an ancient city known for its beauty is situated in the valley of Nan river of Northern Thailand. Nan is capital city of Nan Province, Thailand and city population consists of Laotians (Lan Changs descendants) and tribes (Thai Lue and Mlabri). The unique culture and traditions of these people such as, long boat races carried on Nan river attracts tourist around the world. The city is hidden in thick forest, but still is connected with nearest Thai cities such as Bangkok (668 km north) and Lampang (145 km northeast). The city is having proper roadways, railway lines and airways.

To travel through airways, at present there is shortage of direct flights from other parts of the world to Nan. But the scarcity has been covered with number of connecting cheap flights, which travel via Bangkok from major international airports to Nan. If you consider reaching Nan through cheap flight simply reach Bangkok from any international airport and catch a daily nonstop domestic flight. The fastest flight takes around 01: 20 to reach Nan from Bangkok. Thai Airway International (PB Air) is the only one major airway which is operating to and from flights to this city daily from Bangkok.

Nan airport, Thailand has been certified by IATA and ICAO with airline code NNT. The airports runway is 6561 ft long at an elevation of 699 ft above the sea level for easy takeoff and landing. The facilities also include efficient Instrumental Landing System and state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control System. Hence, it is a must to be visited city, when you want to travel Thailand