Egyptian Civilization

There are very few places on the face of this planet, which fascinate us because of their sheer presence or existence. One such incredible enigma seen on the world map is the country of Egypt and even more incredible is the history of its civilization. Egypt is a large country located in the eastern part of the Sahara Desert in North Africa. The valley of the Nile is a narrow strip of fertile land stretching throughout the length of the country 600 miles from north to south. This vast country is bordered by deserts on the east-west as well as south. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the north of Egypt.

Great Pyramids

The deserts provided natural protection against foreign enemies and the early Egyptian settlers enjoyed many years of freedom from attack, during which they could build a society of their own. The river Nile was the lifeblood of ancient Egypt. Every year the river with unfailing predictability overflowed and deposited rich black soil along each Bank. This enabled farmers to raise two to three harvests each year. The Nile also provided water for irrigation and served as ancient Egypt's main transportation route. In 440 BC, the Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the “Gift of the Nile”, an expression that people use till date. 

The growth of the ancient Egyptian civilization was sparked by the religious belief that the survival of the preserved dead body was a guarantee of life beyond death. It inspired the ancient Egyptians to build magnificent temples, tombs and monuments. Historians usually divide the history of ancient Egypt into three categories: the Old Kingdom 2686 to 2200 BC; the Middle Kingdom 2200 to 1800 BC; and the New Kingdom 1600 to 1100 BC. However, the earliest known settlers in ancient Egypt dated over 5000 years ago. By 3400 BC, the villagers became a part of two main kingdoms in Egypt; Lower Egypt in the Nile Valley Delta and Upper Egypt. (see map below in today's context)

Map (not to scale)

 These two kingdoms were united in 3100 BC when King Menes of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt and founded the national capital of Memphis.The "ways of Menes", a two feet high palette dates back to 3100 BC and is perhaps the earliest record of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.  

King Menes

 It depicts the struggles of King Menes to conquer Lower Egypt where he is clubbing an enemy King. Menes also established the first Egyptian dynasty which followed a series of rulers in the same family. The reigning king was supposed to be the incarnation of the falcon-headed sky god Horus and hence divine. The Egyptian civilization thus began in 3100 BC. 

King Menas's Dynasty rulers

The first national government was established, the ox driven plough was invented and a system of writing called hieroglyphics different from the Sumerian cuneiform developed. Hieroglyphic means sacred carving; it is called so because initially, the written language was used for religious work. Hieroglyphic system uses pictorial signs to represent ideas and sounds. Each sign represents an object or an associated idea or a word with a similar sound. The Egyptians also discovered a writing surface much superior to the clay tablets of Mesopotamia called papyrus. Papyrus is the origin of the english word 'paper'.

Papyrus Hieroglyphics

 The papyrus plant was cut into strips of equal length and placed side by side. These were covered in cloth and pounded with heavy stones or mallets into smooth sheets. The papyrus was then polished to give a smooth flat surface on which scribes wrote an ink. Black ink was made by mixing soot and water and the colored ink from special colored powder. The Egyptians made Scrolls of their paper writing; however these scrolls were not as convenient to read as books. There were many different ways of writing hieroglyphs for instance they could be written from top to bottom, left to right or right to left. 

If an animal faced right you read from right to left and if it faced left you read from left to right.