The Genius Artists and Workers

Colors from Mountain Dirt: Making Colors

Pharaonic artists didn't buy their colors from a store; they made them all by themselves in a magical way! They would climb high mountains to collect rocks with stunning natural colors. Then, they ground them up super hard until they turned into soft, fine powder. To make these colors stick to the walls, they actually mixed them with egg whites or tree sap! They made red from iron, blue from copper, and black from coal. Thanks to this magic recipe, their paintings inside the tombs are still bright and shiny today, as if they just painted them yesterday!

If you could grind up something from nature, like leaves or beautiful flowers, to make your very own color, what color would you create?

Listen