The exact origins of the Egyptian Empire is somewhat disputed among historians, but archaeological founds around modern Egypt suggests its culture and wealth dates as far back as 4000 B.C.. Egypt began as small settlements along the Nile, who found the common threat of the Empires in Arabia to union as a form of protection. Indeed, the Egyptian settlers also largely shared culture and language, and a united Egypt was unavoidable. Egypt is noticeable for being among the first lands rich in culture and wealth outside the Arabian peninsula, where Babylonian and Sumerian had or were flourishing at the time.
Despite Egypt's only self-importance, which lead to few direct confrontations with other countries, Egypt did eventually lead its soldiers to war against the outlying lands. Particularly the rich lands around Palestine became an issue for Egypt.
At the home front, Egypt focused on maintaining its own riches and culture, by exploring their visions of the After Life to the fullest, by building pyramids to house the remains of their Pharaohs, whom were viewed as approved by the gods. The pyramids remain the only of the Seven Wonders to be seen by any Roman that still stand to this day.
However, while skilled in mathematics and construction, the Egyptians did not develop civilisation further in terms of critical thinking. Though, perhaps most progressive was the fact that the Egyptians did not use slaves, but forced labour. Whereas slaves was owned by individuals, forced labourers were paid, but unable to quit.
In 525 B.C., Egypt fell under the Achaemenid - and later Persian - Empire, signifying Egypt's decreasing importance in the Ancient World. In 332 B.C., Egypt was freed from the Persians by Macedonia, and a meek kingdom rose in its place. But as Rome expanded its influence along the Mediterranean basin, it would not be long before Egypt was a Roman subject. It retained its own leaders until 30 B.C. when it was reconstructed into a Roman province, whose leader was appointed by the Roman Emperor.
There have never been any pharohs remains found in pyrimids, their tombs were highly ostenatious while the pyrimids are stark. The current theory is that the pyrimids were a sort of isolation chamber to communicate with gods or experience visions. When one enters the central room of a pyrimid they are cut off from all sight and sound, save for a single channel that is cut into every pyrimid and was designed to align with Sirius at certain times of the year.
Good sir, in but 4 paragraphs and apir of boobies you have summerised what I went to Uni for two years to learn. I learned, then fapped, then learned some more.
@SirJimmy: Heh, but in truth, yes. People often assumed that they were slaves, but considering the rights and privileges they had compared to slaves of other lands at the time, they were far more likely forced labour. I am not saying they were enjoying wine and grapes, but certainly better than their slave counterparts.
Nice Futurama reference by the way.
@Bobby: Short answer: Yes. However, the depth of Caesar's and Cleopatra is widely disputed, but it is known that Mark Antony committed suicide after he thought Cleopatra had already done so, when Octavian's (later Augustus) forces were invading Egypt in 30 B.C..
@ANON: True, they were never in the pyramids, but it is believed to be nearby. However, the pyramids must have been monuments to the Pharaohs as inscriptions inside the pyramids describe their life. Their bodies, however, are more likely to be in the Valley of Kings.
Strange...i thought i commented already...oh well no worries. Thanks again to Woot and Svip for all the historines! As some of you may notice by my name, Egypt has always been one of my favourite ancient civilizations! It's such a pity ancient egyptian language isn't spoken anymore.
@Svip and ANON: In only the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom were "buried" inside the pyramids. There were a lot of "false chambers" tho, to 'disuade' tomb raiders...But maybe due to the costs, and because they were such obvious spots for tomb raiders (and anyone else) it was that, during the New Kingdom, the pharaoh's decided to change their last residence to the Valley of Kings. However, even there, tomb raiders got what they wanted...only relatively small and unimportant tombs, like Tutankhamun's weren't notorious enough to be sacked.
@Djoser: Well, as a bit of language geek myself (yes, I am also into conlanging, don't blame me!), I too pity that many ancient tongues are a thing of the past. Even Old and Middle English are interesting to me (and not Early Modern English as most people seem to think Old English is; 'thou' isn't exactly an old word).
Unfortunately, we know very little about how Ancient Egyptian was spoken. The hieroglyphs offer nothing in terms of pronunciation.
@Djoser: Actually, it was not to dissuade tomb raiders. The Pharaohs and Kings thought they were above that sort of thing. The false chambers was rather to dissuade evil spirits, so that only the true gods could find them.
The Valley of Kings was not an attempt to combat a tomb raider problem, but rather because the New Kingdom's leaders did not seek the monuments of the pyramids to reflect their passing, as was deemed a principle of the Old Kingdom (and some argued its demise) and thus a thing of the past.
It was not unusual to bury monarchs close together in monarchies. A tradition that stems from before Egypt and still exists in monarchies to this day. If the Valley of Kings was truly to combat tomb raiders; it was a lousy solution.
You're right, Svip...if only we could hear the Hittites, Babylonians, Sumerians or Egyptians talking (Language geek here as well, lol). I think even when modern egyptologists 'pronounce' hieroglyphics they do it in arabic (I'm not sure of this, but that's what i suppose). Oh and if I remember well, the decimal numerical system is also egyptian legacy, right?
You are right about them using Arabic to 'pronounce' hieroglyphs, but not the decimal numeral system. The Egyptians used pretty simplistic forms of mathematics, as they did not study it as intense as say the Greeks. They only used it for construction. As such, they basically used a unary system.
The decimal system rose in Arabia between 0 A.D. and 1000 A.D., I am not sure exactly when, though. Might have to look that up.
But Svip, Egyptians were decimal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_numerals. The numbers we use today were born in India and then passed to the arabs in their route to the west.
That's also an unary system but with 'helpers'. It's very similar to the Roman system just with different symbols and positions. That being said, Romans were even less interested in mathematics than Egyptians.
Although, I've never heard that the Arabic numerals stemmed from India; not that I contest that claim, it seems to be accurate now that I look it up. But I was right about the date, the articles I found seems to claim it is from around 500 A.D..
This is awesome. I rarely see Africa covered in these sorts of tours through history. Are you going to do Sub Saharan Africa, South America, and Australia to? ( I just want to see if you can find some historical accounts of their impacts on the history of the world)
![Historines: Ancient Egypt [Commissions]](./content/583.png)
Despite Egypt's only self-importance, which lead to few direct confrontations with other countries, Egypt did eventually lead its soldiers to war against the outlying lands. Particularly the rich lands around Palestine became an issue for Egypt.
At the home front, Egypt focused on maintaining its own riches and culture, by exploring their visions of the After Life to the fullest, by building pyramids to house the remains of their Pharaohs, whom were viewed as approved by the gods. The pyramids remain the only of the Seven Wonders to be seen by any Roman that still stand to this day.
However, while skilled in mathematics and construction, the Egyptians did not develop civilisation further in terms of critical thinking. Though, perhaps most progressive was the fact that the Egyptians did not use slaves, but forced labour. Whereas slaves was owned by individuals, forced labourers were paid, but unable to quit.
In 525 B.C., Egypt fell under the Achaemenid - and later Persian - Empire, signifying Egypt's decreasing importance in the Ancient World. In 332 B.C., Egypt was freed from the Persians by Macedonia, and a meek kingdom rose in its place. But as Rome expanded its influence along the Mediterranean basin, it would not be long before Egypt was a Roman subject. It retained its own leaders until 30 B.C. when it was reconstructed into a Roman province, whose leader was appointed by the Roman Emperor.