Ancient history: Egypt. Culture, pharaohs, pyramids

An ancient history is rich and beautiful. Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem - these names are close and understandable to every person who is at least remote from the sign of the chronology of human development. Consider in this article the culture of Ancient Egypt.

How did the Egyptian state appear?

According to historians, the state entity, called Egypt, was created in North Africa, in the valley of a huge river called the Nile. This civilization belongs, along with the Indian and Chinese, to archaic agrarian cultures. The origin of Egyptian statehood is attributed to about 4-5 millennium BC.

Today there is a whole science - Egyptology, which studies Egyptian culture as a single and diverse integrity.

Historians distinguish the following stages in the development of this state:

1. Prehistinic Egypt.
2. Previously, the kingdom.
3. Ancient kingdom.
4. Middle Kingdom.
5. The new kingdom.
6. Later the kingdom.
7. The period of Ptolemy's reign.

The most ancient history: Egypt at the beginning of its historical path

State education on this earth begins with the fact that the two poles of Upper and Lower Egypt are formed. The capital of the new state is the city of Menfis. The unification of the two parts of Egypt holds the ruler of Menes. At the same time, there are also necessary institutions of statehood: a hieroglyphic letter, an army, religious cults and one's own ideology.

State blossoming period

The greatest flourishing of Egypt reached in the middle of its history. This time is usually called a dynastic period, when the throne replaced each other by the dynasty of the pharaohs.

The fact is that in Egypt, a special religious cult was created, which, in addition to the deification of the forces of nature, included the deification of the personality of the king. The power of the pharaohs was enormous, because it represented the personification of all its people on earth. Accordingly, if Pharaoh led a righteous life and was pleasing to the gods, he and his people received salvation in the afterlife.

Hence the special attention to the preservation of the bodies of the dead, because religious beliefs presupposed the resurrection of bodies. The first Egyptian pyramids began to be built just like the huge and majestic tombs of the dead pharaohs.

Which tombs are the most majestic?

Traditionally, the dead pharaohs were buried in the valley of the kings. Their bodies mummified, and with them a multitude of objects of art and life were put in a multilayered sarcophagus. However, in the middle of its history the Egyptians began to build for the pharaohs majestic tombs, known as the pyramids.

Today, the tombs of the pyramidal form of the pharaoh Joser, the rulers of Cheops and Chephren are most famous. These pyramids are majestic structures, leaving a sharp triangular end to the sky.

Until now, there are many hypotheses why they began to be built, how they were built by ancient architects and masters, why the construction of the pyramids abruptly ceased.

The secrets of the tombs attract the attention of both curious tourists and attentive scientists. Strictly speaking, it was thanks to these ancient burials that the magnificent Egyptian culture was opened to the modern world. It happened only in the century before last, when Egypt became a colony of Great Britain. It was the British scientists who were able to unearth the only untouched tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Egyptian culture: own texts

Modern Egyptology since the time before last century advanced very far. To date, there is a fairly large number of sources, thanks to which you can learn a lot about the ancient culture. Let us consider them in more detail.

The first and main source of knowledge are the Egyptian texts written in hieroglyphics. For a long time, this ancient civilization was a mystery, because the hieroglyphic letter was completely incomprehensible to Europeans. A real breakthrough in Egyptology was made by the French scientist Jean-Francois Champollion, who was able to decipher the language of the ancient people. By the way, British scientists also fought over this, but it was Champollon who came up with the idea of turning to the Coptic language, the ancient descendant of the Egyptians, who in the 1st century AD accepted Christianity and completely abandoned the pagan heritage.

Egyptian Culture: Texts Near Living Nations

The second source of knowledge about the Egyptian culture are the texts of Greek authors, as well as the writings of historians of the ancient era. However, relations between Egypt and other states were complex, therefore some of the information presented in these materials is somewhat unreliable.

Finally, the last source of information about the Egyptian culture was the texts of the Bible. The very name of the state is often found in the Holy Scriptures and other religious texts of the Jews. In particular, the mass exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt is described in detail (which is confirmed in the studies of modern scientists). It is in the Bible that the ancient civilization will in the future lose its power and become an ordinary state.

Egyptian art

The ancient Egyptian kingdom entered the history of mankind and as a state in which the greatest monuments of sculpture, architecture and painting were created. Modern museums in most cases have exactly those cultural monuments that have been preserved in ancient Egyptian tombs. All of them are associated with religious cults. In particular, sculptural images of Egyptian gods and goddesses, the souls of a deceased person, jewelry made of precious metals and amazingly beautiful pieces of furniture (carved chairs covered with gold engraved on them, etc.) are presented.

There are special Egyptian frescos that were painted with natural colors, that's why they were preserved in a dry Egyptian climate. Their primary colors are red, black, blue, white, yellow and evil. They depicted scenes from court life or religious paintings on the subject of the afterlife, which awaits every soul after death.

Sunset of Egyptian culture

During the late kingdom, the state fell into decay, so it was conquered by the Roman Empire. It happened in this way: many pharaohs were replaced on the throne. Some of them were great statesmen (such as Amenhotep III). These kings greatly expanded the boundaries of their possessions, bringing them to the territory of Syria.

Other pharaohs either did little in public affairs, or even offered radical reforms. Such a reformer was the father of Tutankhamun Akhenaten, who dreamed of creating a new religious cult of the Sun God (Ra). However, his reforms completely failed, and the state fell into decay.

The causes and consequences of the decline of Egypt

Historians associate the gradual decline of Egyptian power with two circumstances: the decline of the former religious system based on the deification of the pharaoh, as well as the clan struggle of the Egyptian elite.

The first circumstance was very serious for the state, which held on the belief that Pharaoh, as the father of the people, could bring all his subjects to immortality and God. Kings often behaved unworthily, and this was noticeable even to ordinary people. In addition, there was slander, intrigue and murder in the palaces (by the way, many Egyptologists suggest that most of the reigning pharaohs did not die by their own deaths).

The clan struggle within the Egyptian elite intensified and led to the fact that the military leaders declared themselves pharaohs and sought to rule a certain part of Egypt. This made the state weak and fragmented, therefore, vulnerable to the armies of other states.

All this led to the fact that Egypt fell under the onslaught of the troops of the young and arrogant warlord Alexander, nicknamed Macedonian. And after the early and sudden death of this great conqueror, the Egyptian state passed to one of his companions - Ptolemy.

Thus began a government alien to the Ptolemaic dynasty. The Egyptian capital was then moved to the city of Alexandria, which became famous in the centuries for its amazing library. Egypt itself from a once powerful state turned into an agricultural country, which was the supplier of food products for the ancient world.

The ancient kingdom for ever lost its independence. The last queen of the Ptolemaic family was the famous beauty Cleopatra. She committed suicide, realizing that the Roman troops were ready to take her throne from her. So Egypt turned into one of the provinces of a formidable Roman Empire.

The Importance of Ancient Egyptian Civilization

Many of our contemporaries are familiar with ancient history. Egypt occupies the first and honorable place among other states. Many tourists today come to this country not so much because of its warm climate, but for the sake of wonderful excursions to ancient places.

For the development of mankind, much is the meaning of Egyptian civilization. She showed an example of the state system. Strong and cohesive education, which possesses such social institutions as an efficient army, development of the ideological system, the system of education and upbringing, gives on the whole very positive results. The state becomes a leader among its neighbors, so it can claim a high position and gives its members a sense of relative security and confidence.

The ancient history is diverse, Egypt and its civilization is a wonderful example of the state system.

By the way, the biblical prophecy came true: with the advent of a new era, ancient civilization forever lost the status of a great power.

Later, this state underwent Arab conquest, so today Egypt is one of the Arab countries. The indigenous population, called the Copts, experiences certain discrimination due to the fact that these people are Christians living in a Muslim country.