How the World Began: Creation Stories From Around the Globe

Have you ever wondered how the whole world got here -- the sky, the oceans, the very first people? Long before science could answer that question, people all over the world told stories to explain it. These stories are called creation myths, and different cultures imagined the beginning of everything in wonderfully different ways.

Learn what a creation myth is. Hear how three different cultures explained the beginning of the world. Compare what these stories have in common.

In ancient Egyptian mythology, the world began as an endless, dark ocean called Nun. From this water, a hill of dry land rose up all by itself -- the very first solid ground. The sun god Ra was born on this hill and began to create everything else: the sky, the air, and eventually people, who Egyptians believed were formed from Ra's own tears.

In an old Chinese story, the universe started as a giant egg. Inside slept a giant named Pangu. When Pangu woke up and stretched, the egg cracked open: the light, clear part floated up to become the sky, and the heavy, cloudy part sank down to become the earth. Pangu stood between them, pushing the sky higher for 18,000 years so the earth and sky would never touch again.

In a Yoruba story from West Africa, the sky god Olodumare sent a god named Obatala down to shape solid land out of the watery world below, using a snail shell full of earth and a five-toed chicken to spread it out. Obatala later shaped the first people out of clay, working so carefully that every person came out a little different -- which is why, the story says, no two people look exactly alike.