Ancient Egyptians are credited with many technological advancements, but a widely-circulating Facebook post says they developed something particularly impressive: Electricity.
"Past civilizations had electricity including the Egyptians," the Nov. 16 Facebook post claims. "Archeologists have always wondered why there weren't smoke marks from torches in deep Egyptian tunnels and catacombs."
The post includes three images. The image on the top left shows a modern-day electrical transformer, and the photo on the top right shows the almshouse outside the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. Beneath those images is one that shows carvings on the walls of the Temple of Hathor in Dendera, Egypt. Red circles have been drawn around aspects of each image to highlight elements of the ancient photos that are similar in appearance to the modern transformer.
But the post's claim is false. Ancient Egyptians did not have modern electricity. Egyptologists say the objects circled in these photos are religious symbols, not evidence of modern-day electric technology.
Modern-day electricity was invented in the late 19th Century, thousands of years after the ancient Egyptian civilization had ended.
Variations of this claim have been circulating online since 2013, when the History Chanel series ''Ancient Aliens'' aired an episode about the same carvings in the Temple of Hathor.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post...
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