Did You Know?

The "Did You Know?" panels reveal little-known facts about life in the ancient Near East. You will find out about the royal city of Ur, cooking in the ancient Near East, Joseph's coat, the Queen of Sheba, toys that children played with in Bible times, the "wise men," and David's deadly sling. The following "Did You Know" about camels has interesting information for both kids and adults.

Camels

Did you know that there are two kinds of camels? The Bactrian camel has two humps and lives where winters are cold, as in Mesopotamia and central Asia-the land Abram/Abraham left behind. The bigger dromedary, or Arabian camel, has one hump and thrives in warm climates such as Arabia, Egypt, and Palestine. Dromedaries have a range of colors that go from white to nearly black.

Camels have two toes, slits for nostrils (which they can close during a sandstorm), and double rows of eyelashes to keep sand from hurting their eyes. Camels store fat-not water-in the hump, which can hold as much as 80 pounds of fat. Camels use water efficiently and in cool weather can go as long as 25 days before drinking. When thirsty, camels can drink 100 quarts of water in just 10 minutes!

Despite being shorter and stockier than the dromedary, a Bactrian camel can carry heavier loads. Although a camel can carry up to 600 pounds for short distances, it does better carrying about 300 pounds. Bactrian camels can walk nearly three miles an hour. Dromedaries can walk seven to eight miles per hour for 18-hour stretches. Some dromedary camels are bred for speed and can sprint at 10 miles an hour. An able camel rider can travel 60 to 75 miles in a day.

Aside from biblical stories that mention someone riding a camel, the clearest and earliest evidence of camel riding comes from Tell el-Halaf in Mesopotamia around the tenth century B.C.

The earliest mention of camels in written records comes from an inscription of Assur-bal-Kala (1074 to 1057 B.C.) in Assyria. Authorities differ on when the camel was first tamed and used as a pack animal. There seems to be some evidence that during the first dynasty of Egypt, during the fourth millennium, camels were used. According to Genesis 12 a pharaoh gave some camels to Abram sometime during the late twenty-first century B.C.

The English word "camel" comes from the Greek and Latin word kame¯los, which comes from the Hebrew word gamal.

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