The Bread of the Builders: Ancient Aish Baladi of Imhotep’s Egypt
The Bread of the Builders: Ancient Aish Baladi of Imhotep’s Egypt The Bread of the Builders: Ancient Aish Baladi of Imhotep’s Egypt The flatbread that fed farmers, healers, pyramid builders—and perhaps Imhotep himself Aish Baladi—Egypt’s ancient whole-grain flatbread—is one of the oldest continually eaten foods in the world. More than 4,600 years ago, during the life of Imhotep , people throughout the Nile Valley baked this bread daily using ground emmer wheat, water, salt, and natural yeast from the air. This is the bread that nourished farmers, architects, midwives, royalty, and pyramid builders. It is the foundation food of ancient African science: a simple mixture of earth, water, heat, and time transformed into life-sustaining nourishment. To explore Imhotep’s story and how he shaped African science and cosmology, read the companion article on Eternal First Words: Imhotep: The Mind That Built the First Beginning . Fo...