Ancient Egypt
Five thousand years ago the chain of independent city-states lining the River Nile united to form one long,
thin country ruled by one king, or Pharaoh. For almost 3000 years, Egypt remained the foremost nation in
the Mediterranean world. Then, in 332 BC, the arrival of Alexander the Great heralded the end of the
Egyptian way of life.
The unique culture was quickly buried beneath successive layers of Greek, Roman
and Arabic tradition, and all knowledge of Egypt's glorious past was lost. Only the
decaying stone monuments, their pictographic Hieroglyphic texts now unreadable,
survived as a silent witness. Some 2,000 years later, one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s
archaeologists finds the Rosetta Stone (a stone with Greek, Demotic, and
Hieroglyphic writings) allowing for the decoding of Hieroglyphics and Egyptology the study of ancient Egypt - expanded.
NILE RIVER - “River of Life”
The Egyptian’s total dependence on the River Nile as a source of water, transportation, and communication
had a deep impact on the way that the Egyptians saw the world. Parallel to the Nile on both banks of the
river runs the Black Land - the narrow strip of fertile soil that allowed the Egyptians to practice the most
efficient agriculture and irrigation in the ancient world. The Nile Delta was drained in areas, creating even
more farmland.
PYRAMID AGE
The original Pyramids of Giza, built as tombs for Pharaohs, serve as a
testament to the mathematical skill of the Egyptians, a skill that stimulated
Greek mathematicians, including Pythagoras, to perfect their work. The Great
Pyramid, built by Khufu in 2550 BC, stands an impressive 150ft tall with a slope
of 51degrees. Its sides, with an average length of 754ft, vary by less than 2in.
Higher than St Paul's Cathedral, the pyramid was aligned with amazing
accuracy almost exactly to true north.
The pyramids were built, not by the gangs of slaves (though evidence does suggest the use of slavery
throughout different eras of Egypt), but by a workforce of up to 5,000 permanent employees,
supplemented by as many as 20,000 temporary workers.
The bureaucracy that we know lay behind this operation is staggering. Not only did the workforce have to
be summoned, but administrators also had to coordinate the supplies of stone, rope, fuel and wood that
was needed to support the work.
Pyramid building would have been impossible without strong government. The Pharaoh was at the top of
the social class, followed by priests, commoners, and slaves. Egypt had professional military forces and a
bureaucracy of administrators and tax collectors. Women were literate and would often serve as
administrator. Only one woman would become Pharaoh, Hatshepsut (1479 - 1457 BC)
RAMSES AND THE HITTITE TREATY
Ramses, or Ramesses II (reigned c1279 - 1212 BC) used diplomacy, a massive building program and endless
propaganda to become the greatest pharaoh of the New Kingdom, Ancient Egypt's Golden Age.
The Egyptian empire was under threat from the Hittites, who lived in what is now Turkey. They were far
more advanced than the Egyptians. Ramesses knew perfectly well that he couldn't defeat the Hittites. He
had to cut a deal. Long negotiations led to a peace treaty with the Hittites, The Hittite Treaty, which was
cemented when Ramesses married a Hittite princess. The treaty led to years of prosperous trade.
Ramesses began a building program far greater than anything ever seen before. An entire village housed
craftsmen whose sole purpose was to build two magnificent tombs. These were carved out of mountains in
southern Egypt and were constructed for Ramesses and his first wife, Nefertari. Almost every temple in
Egypt was redecorated or rebuilt. At Karnak, the most holy of temples, a field of 134 columns were carved,
each 69 feet tall and shaped like papyrus trees. He constructed the temple, Ramesseum. At its heart was
the House of Life, a massive library dedicated to glorifying the pharaoh. It contained some 10,000 papyrus
scrolls that created an official image of Ramesses that was larger than life.
Ramesses boasted that he had fathered 80 sons and around 60 daughters. But his long life meant that
many of his children died before him and he had to train 12 sons to be crown princes.
Ramsesses died at 93 years old, an incredible age in a land where most died before they were 40. Egypt was
paralyzed with grief. Nearly all of his subjects had been born in his reign and thought the world would end
without him. In a way they were right. Less than 150 years after Ramesses died, his empire fell
RELIGION AND MEDICINE
Lacking any real scientific understanding the Egyptians answered their questions with a series of myths and
legends designed to explain the otherwise inexplicable. Some of these myths passed from Egypt to Rome,
and have had a direct effect on the development of
modern religious belief. The Egyptians believed that the
gods judged your life and that if found worth, you would
be carried across a lake of fire and your spirit would live on
in the afterlife. This led to the process of mummification
and the elaborate tombs.
Beyond the Black Land lies the inhospitable Red Land, the desert that once served as a
vast cemetery. Believing that the soul could live beyond death, the Egyptians buried their
dead in the Red Land, with all the goods they considered they would need in what they
thought of as the 'afterlife'.
The Egyptians were renowned throughout the Mediterranean world for their medical
skills, skills that were eventually passed on to the Greek and the Roman doctors. The
Egyptians were experienced in dissecting corpses because, believing that their souls
needed an earthly body, they preserved their dead as mummies.