Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa and it developed around the river Nile. Egypt was an agricultural state. The Egyptian turned desert patches into farmlands, irritating them with the Nile's water. The yearly flooding of the Nile enriched the soil and brought good harvests and wealth to the land. The people of ancient Egypt built mudbrick homes in villages and in country.
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Egyptian Civilization Map |
The main Egyptian god was Amon Re, the king of all gods. One important Egyptian symbol was that of the solar disk surrounded by the sacred snake. Crocodiles were sacred in the ancient Egypt, and they were even embalmed. Ibis was the sacred bird.
Egyptians used hiéroglyphic inscriptions - a writing system using picture symbols or diagrams. These diagrams were thought to have magical powers.
To preserve the magical power of their art. the Egyptians believed they must copy exactly the style handed down through the ages. This meant that most artists painted in the same way, and the people they painted all looked the same.
The Egyptians loved music and played instruments like the harp. They loved beauty and fashion; eye paint was worn both by men and women. They also used a lot of perfume and jewellery .
The Egyptian people believed that their rulers, or pharaohs, were gods, and that they would continue to work even after their death. So, they preserved the bodies of the kings through the process of mummification. Mummies were entombed and included food, gifts and provisions were kept there for the afterlife.
The pyramids were built to contain the tombs of pharaohs To avoid the theft of the treasures and tomb's profanation, the architects built a real labyrinth of false passages inside the pyramid, to confuse the thieves. The pyramids were the earliest buildings ever to be made by precisely cutting and putting together great blocks of stone. One of the most famous pyramids is the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It has 2,300,000 blocks and each block in the pyramid weighs 2.5tons.
The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC and lasted for three millennia until the conquest of Alexander the Great.
“ From The Heights Of These Pyramids, Forty Centuries Look Down Upon Us. ”— Napoleon Bonaparte.
