When people think of ancient Egypt, they think of all the famous sites that are still there to visit and see. The pyramids at Giza are often thought of as those shown in cartoons and films and were built more than 4,500 years ago. A lot of people were fascinated with the ancient Egyptians and they are often shown walking. Let’s dive into some true stories about the people who lived there for thousands of years and talk about why their civilization lasted so long and had a lasting influence.
1. Ancient Egypt, along the Nile, and the Nile was a great place for a civilization.
While nearly all civilizations live together, the Nile has a few specials that make it so good. The Nile River is the longest river in the world, which not only provided water for the Egyptians and Nubians who lived near the southern part of the Nile, but also helped with transportation and crops, especially in the Nile delta. Delta is where rivers “flow out” of the ocean into smaller streams, which provide water to a larger area of land. The Nile also flows north, which helps carry stones from the south to build, and it floods regularly, once a year producing very fine soil, good for agriculture.
2. Ancient Egypt lasted a very long time.
It’s a block of the timeline. The Worldwide Web, which was the beginning of the modern internet was invented some 30 years ago, which has so far been in the blocks of time. Light bulbs were invented about 150 years ago, this much according to the timeline and newspapers were invented about 400 years ago, that is, whole blocks. This is the entire timeline of ancient Egypt, and here are the blocks, so you have a better idea of how long it lasted. The first period of ancient Egyptian civilization, the Predynastic Period, is very similar to most civilizations in the Bronze Age, people farming near rivers, sharing the same language and culture that lasted about two thousand years from 5000–3100 BC.
3. The Archaic period started from 3100 BC.
Memphis, then capital, is a large and beautiful city known for its white walls. Menes made Pharaoh the strong leader of Egypt since then, Pharaoh is considered part king, part god and their family ruled as part of their dynasty, or period of rule by the same family. After the Archaic Period, the Old King began in 2686 BC.
4. The Old Kingdom’s first pharaoh, Djoser, was the first to have a pyramid built as a tomb for his body after death.
This looks different from most people’s idea of a pyramid, it is a multilevel pyramid. The Old Kingdom was a time of peace and good luck and the most famous pyramids at Giza were built under the fifth and sixth dynasties. There is a problem with making large stones, they are very, very expensive. Pastors gained more power towards the end of this period and as royal wealth declined, the Old Kingdom ended in chaos in 181 BC. But don’t worry, the kingdom will return.
5. Memphis remained the capital after the Old Kingdom, and the First Intermediate Period lasted nearly a hundred years until 2055 BC.
The First Intermediate Period saw many rulers, wars, famine, and disease. This is not a good time to live in Egypt. A prince of Thebes, Mouchotep managed to rule over all the kingdoms and united them all once again, ending this period. The Middle Kingdom has a powerful Pharaoh once again and is working to regain his wealth.
6. They took Nubia, civilization to the south and expanded trade to Asia.
They also continued to build pyramids and had Egypt’s first female ruler, it was not Cleopatra, but Queen Sobekneferu. After his death, problems with the construction of a new pyramid occurred once again … turning the area into chaos for nearly two hundred years, for the Second Intermediate Period, 1786–1567 BC.
7. The New Kingdom began when Ahmose I reunited the kingdom in 1567 BC.
The New Kingdom established one of the first major empires in the world, conquering Nubia and moving north towards the Asia Euphrates River as well. We know the most about Pharaoh’s tomb built during this time because Tutankhamen’s tomb was found almost undisturbed, and we will talk more about him later. Again, after about 500 years, major building projects and invasions brought the kingdom into decline. Two periods to conquer it ends his timeline in 30 BC.
8. During the centuries after Egypt’s decline, thieves took items from the pyramids and tombs of the pharaohs who died because they often held valuables.
Although these things are important for studying history, they were stolen and sold. Even mummies are stolen when ground into dust and sold as medicine, which is absolutely not good for anyone’s health, and, it’s disgusting. Egyptian experts (people who study ancient Egypt) work to protect Egyptian artifacts so they can study them. Tutankhamun is best known for his very small tomb and was found in 1922 almost completely untouched. Tutankhamun became a pharaoh when he was only nine years old. Because he was so young, he relied on the advisors around him to make important decisions about leading the country, and the most important decisions he made were about religion. His tomb is one of the smallest as it was inhabited at the age of eighteen, so he was only a pharaoh for nine years.
9. Tombs and care for the dead were of great importance in ancient Egypt, the pyramids were built as tombs for pharaohs.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a guide to burials and spells to protect the dead and it was written on papyrus, which was found in Egypt, it was like paper made from small plants. Preservation of one’s heart and body is important for the afterlife, people also try to carry their belongings even the cat! It is believed that after they died, the god Osiris opened the door to the afterlife. Anubis, the god of death would guide someone to have their hearts weighed. The notion that doing good deeds in life will make a person lighthearted, whereas doing bad things will make his heart heavy.
Everyone’s heart will be weighed with a feather, Thoth, the god of wisdom and writing and also the scribe of the gods will lose the weight. If a heart is lighter than a feather, that person might go to the Land of Two Plots, if it is heavier, Ammut is quite happy about that.So long as your body has also been preserved (or mummified, mummified), if your heart is lighter than a feather and if someone has written your name, you set out to sail on Ra, the boat of the sun god, to the Land of the Two Planes. From there your soul can visit your family and enjoy the afterlife. Believing that this happened after death (or being hit by the crocodile god) also causes people to behave fairly well.
10. Egypt has a very clear social class, which is very common.
Nobles, Pharaohs and their families held the highest positions in ancient Egyptian society. Nobles, the most powerful people in the government after Pharaoh and clergy, were the next most powerful class. After them were soldiers, craftsmen and scribes, people who wrote official documents in society. Hieroglyphic writing was studied by very few people and was used for royal documents written by scribes, many people used the Demotic script for everyday writing.
11. The hieroglyphics were understood by Egyptologists thanks to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which translated hieroglyphs into Demotic and Greek.
Some of the first Histories (with a capital ‘H’) made in history (little ‘h’) were Greeks who studied Egypt, so the Greeks provided many secondary sources in Egypt, and with the Rosetta Stone, modern historians can read their main text . Returning to the hierarchy, peasants and laborers were citizens with the lowest social status, and slaves were at the bottom of the hierarchy, not considered citizens, but as property.
12. Although the hierarchy in Egypt was similar to that of other ancient civilizations, most of its citizens enjoyed a better life than in many other places at that time.
Women had more rights, they were allowed to own property, sign contracts, and even become rulers of Egypt. Happiness is considered important for all citizens, ma’at the idea of harmony and balance in all aspects of one’s life is considered to enlighten one’s heart for the afterlife and is represented by the goddess herself, Ma’at. The ancient Egyptians loved sports including hockey, handball, archery, and even the Egyptians invented bowling! Children are taught to swim as children, swimming is popular, and children play lots of water games. Senet is also a popular board game, which is like the game of Life, based on playing the story of life and the afterlife.