Imaan Hammam for Zara Swimwear | Even Stone Age Humans Loved Swimming AOC Body

Top model Imaan Hammam fronts the late February 2024 release of Zara Swimwear. The images styled by Emmanuelle Alt remind us that spring is coming in to the northern hemisphere.

The Internet and AOC both are full of articles about the health benefits of swimming. Today we note that humans have been swimming for tens of thousands of years.

Swimming Since the Stone Age

Some of the earliest examples of ancient swimmers include the frescoes in the Cave of Swimmers in Egypt, dating back to around 10,000 years ago.

These paintings in Egypt’s Al Wahat Al Dakhla Desert depict figures swimming in a naturalistic style, suggesting that swimming was already a part of human culture at that time.

Imaan Hammam Channels Ancestral Swimming Memories in Egypt

These archaeological and anthropological investigations of humans swimming make Imaan Hammam — whose Egyptian father is originally from Cairo and her Moroccan mother from Zagora — a perfect model to remind us of the ancient world’s relationship with swimming for exercise, wellness and feeling joyful.

Additionally, water holds immense symbolic significance in various global religions due to its powerful and transformative nature. In many belief systems, water is seen as a source of life and purification.

We look next at the role of water in the world’s religions.

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