The Beginning Of Time

The Egyptians were the first people who created a twenty-four hour day. Time was a little bit different in those days. The night was divided up into twelve hours, which were designated by the position of stars in the sky. The day was divided into ten hours and a shadow clock was used to keep track of these hours. The twilight hours were the hours before dawn and after sunset. The Egyptians thought they were the first to invent the shadow clock, but they were mistaken. At the same time, the Chinese, Babylonians, Greeks and the Romans were using instruments to tell time. Sundials were used in some of these groups, not because they work better, just because that's how they decided to tell time. After a while, the Egyptians and other ancient societies realized that the sun rose and set in different places in the summer and winter. In fact, the sun never took the same course on any one day throughout the year! They tried everything, until they realized that if they would just put the post of the sundial in at a special angle, it would work all year.