The origin of ancient Egyptian civilization can be traced back at least 4 years before BC. At about the same time as Sumerians began to build city-states in the two river basins, in the middle and lower reaches of the Nile River in northern Africa, ancient Egyptians also began to build city-states of all sizes.
The Nile is located in the northeast of Africa, with a total length of more than 6,6 kilometers, which is the longest river in the world. The Nile River is formed by the confluence of three rivers: kagera river, White Nile and Blue Nile. The Nile flows from south to north and flows into the Mediterranean Sea through the flat delta downstream.
ancient Egypt was distributed in the narrow strip on both sides of the middle and lower reaches of the Nile, and spread to the Mediterranean crown near the Nile delta. Although ancient Egypt is located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa, it is an Arabian desert in the east and a mountainous area in the south. The Nile River runs through it, with waterfalls and fast-flowing water. The Sahara desert is difficult to cross in the west, and the Mediterranean coast is densely covered with shoals and reefs in the north. It is more convenient to communicate with West Asia only through the Sinai Peninsula in the northeast. The closed traffic conditions also made ancient Egypt geographically isolated, which played an important role in blocking large-scale foreign migration and invasion, maintaining the stable development of social economy and the continuity of cultural traditions.
In this land, the indigenous Berbers in Africa and the Semitic people from Arabian Peninsula gradually merged to become the residents who built the initial civilization here. The ancient Egyptians' physical characteristics are very distinct. Today, we can see them through the figures carved and drawn in ancient Egyptian temples and pyramids.
The periodic flooding of the Nile is the best gift that nature gave to the ancient Egyptians. Most parts of ancient Egypt were sunny and dry with little rain. The ancient Egyptians divided the year into three seasons, namely flood season, grain growing season and harvest season. The flood season is from July to October every year, which is the rainy season in central Africa in the upper reaches of the Nile. Abundant rain makes the Nile river carry a lot of soil and humus from the upper reaches across the valley to the lower reaches. In the delta of the lower Nile River, the branches are densely covered, the river surface is wide and the water flow is gentle. When the flood recedes, a layer of fertile silt is left around the river. Four months after the flood season is the season of growing grains, and it is the season of planting and growing crops. The ancient Egyptians planted seeds on the silt after the flood, and then waited for the harvest time. In the harvest season, it is a dry and rainless season, and people harvest mature crops from the fields without worrying about the harm of waterlogging and salinization.
The Nile brought not only fertile and moist soil, but also dense swamps and wetlands. There were fish in the water, birds in the air and animals on the ground. Fishing, catching birds and hunting were also one of the ways for ancient Egyptians to get food.
The natural changes of the Nile are in harmony with the rhythm of agricultural production, and there are few bad years caused by low water level. When the ancient Egyptians mastered the technology of digging canals and building water conservancy facilities, they built artificial water storage lakes and dams to store water when the river overflowed and irrigate after the water receded, which quickly expanded the cultivated land area and greatly improved the grain output, making it a granary along the Mediterranean coast. Good planting conditions and abundant food sources provided good material conditions for the spiritual creation of ancient Egyptians.
The Nile gave birth to a long and splendid civilization in ancient Egypt. The original country of the ancient Egyptians was a land with intertwined irrigation channels, and there were dozens of such small countries. In these small countries, there is a city centered on government agencies, palaces and temples. Cities are generally built on the main roads, with a small scale and a small population. They are a fortress surrounded by city walls. Long-term conquest and merger have formed two civilized regions, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, in the upper Nile valley and the Nile estuary delta. In the valley, cliffs can be seen, beyond which is the desert, while the Nile Delta is flat and boundless. Due to the different natural environment, different cultures and beliefs developed in upper and lower Egypt. Therefore, since ancient times, Egyptians and neighboring nationalities have called Egypt "two places", and the Nile River is the main link between the two places and the lifeblood of maintaining the integrity of Egyptian civilization.
The Nile is like a natural link, connecting the whole basin into a stable and organic whole. The gentle river of the Nile makes it very easy to sail northward, while the prevailing north and northwest winds make it effortless to return. Therefore, the Egyptians had an extremely valuable means of reliable transportation, which promoted the final unification of the whole basin area.
In 31 BC, it is said that King menes of Egypt unified the upper and lower Egypt, established the first dynasty, and made its capital in Memphis, where the wide Nile Delta and the narrow Nile Valley meet, and ancient Egypt began the dynasty period.
2. Civilization against the Pyramids
In the third century BC, Phoenician traveler Antipak listed pyramid of khufu, Hanging Gardens, Zeus Statue, Temple of Artemis, Mausoleum of Mau Solas, Colossus of Rhode Island and Alexander Lighthouse as the seven wonders of the world, which was the greatest project of mankind in the world where he walked. Today, these seven wonders have disappeared, or there are only ruins, but only the pyramids still stand through the storm of history, which makes the world full of infinite imagination and curiosity about the past of history.
pyramid of khufu is located outside Giza, 2 kilometers southwest of Cairo, the capital of Egypt today. It is the tomb of Khufu, the second Pharaoh of the fourth dynasty in ancient Egypt. Pyramid of khufu is the largest of more than 8 pyramids built in ancient Egypt. Pyramid of khufu used to be 146.59 meters high, but now it is 136.5 meters high. The four inclined planes of the tower are facing the four directions of southeast and northwest. The tower base is square, with each side more than 23 meters long. The tower body is composed of 2.3 million huge stones, the heaviest of which is more than 16 tons, and the lightest is more than 1 ton. The whole pyramid weighs more than 6 million tons. Even today, this is still a project.
after the unification of ancient Egypt, it was stable for a long time, which went through six dynasties, from the first dynasty to the sixth dynasty, about 3188 BC to 227 BC. The ancient Egyptian historian Manetto called it "the period of ancient kingdom". This is the first great era of all-round development of agriculture, handicrafts, commerce and construction in the history of ancient Egypt. During this period, the autocratic rule of monarchy based on bureaucracy was established in ancient Egypt, and pyramids appeared. After the Sixth Dynasty, the royal power declined, the Pharaoh lost control of various regions of the country, and the country began to split. The history is called "the first intermediate period", which lasted from about 227 BC to 26 BC. The divided ancient Egypt was reunified in the 11th dynasty. Since 26 BC, ancient Egypt has entered the second period of political stability, which is called the Middle Kingdom Period. Ancient Egypt moved its capital to Thebes in the 12th Dynasty, that is, Luxor in Egypt today. Bronzes began to enter the life of ancient Egyptians. Due to the improvement of national strength, their foreign influence was also expanded, and their contacts with Syria and Crete were expanded. During the 14th Dynasty around 1785 BC, the regime of ancient Egypt began to disintegrate again, and the "second intermediate period" began. During this period, Egypt was invaded by foreign countries for the first time, and the invaders were Hixos who fought by car. Hixos occupied most of northern Egypt, and since 172 BC, they have established a "rule of absence of the sun god" for more than 1 years. During this period, the ancient Egyptians learned the tactics and weapons of the Hicks. In 157 BC, Ahmed I of the 17th Dynasty expelled the Hicks from the country, reunified ancient Egypt and started the 18th Dynasty, which was called the "New Kingdom Period" from 157 BC to 17 BC. During the 18th Dynasty, ancient Egypt was powerful and frequently waged wars abroad. In the 19th century, the Battle of Kadeshi took place between ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire. After 16 years of war, Ramses II finally signed a peace treaty with Hadusil, the Hittite king. At this time, ancient Egypt has become a great empire. At its peak, it ruled from Syria in the north to the sixth waterfall of the Nile in the south, spanning North Africa and West Asia.
After the 2th dynasty in ancient Egypt, internal contradictions intensified, which led to the exhaustion of national strength. From 17 BC to 664 BC, this was the "third intermediate period" spanning five dynasties, during which it experienced the rule of Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians. From the 26th dynasty, it entered the "late ancient Egypt" and was finally occupied by the Persian Empire in 525 BC, thus ending the era of independent development of ancient Egyptian civilization. However, the history of ancient Egypt continues. The Persians established the 27th and 31st dynasties in Egypt, and the descendants of the 26th dynasty in ancient Egypt established the 28th, 29th and 3th dynasties in the resistance. In 332 BC, ancient Egypt was ruled by Alexander the Great. After Alexander's death, his Ministry occupied Egypt with Ptolemy and established the Ptolemy Dynasty. He also called himself Pharaoh, but at that time Egypt was completely under the rule of foreigners. After the rise of ancient Rome, it became a big country in the Mediterranean and Egypt was occupied by it. In the 7th century, Arabs entered Egypt, and the original civilization of ancient Egypt was replaced by Arab civilization and disappeared.
3. knowledge recorded by papyrus
papyrus, a perennial herb growing in tropical and subtropical regions, can be found in swamps, repulse bays and streams in the lower Nile Delta. Papyrus has a long straight stalk, and the ancient Egyptians used the fibers in this stalk to make paper. The ancient Egyptians also used the thin and hard stems of plants as pens for writing, and also invented ink made of water mixed with black soot and mucilage.
Religion is an important source of the emergence and development of ancient Egyptian civilization, which connects all aspects of social life and culture in ancient Egypt and forms a huge civilization network. From politics and law to life customs, from literature, architecture and art to medicine, mathematics and astronomy, religious thoughts are contained.
The ancient Egyptian countries were composed of rural communes transformed from primitive communes. Each commune had its own totem at the beginning. After the unification of the country, gods were not completely unified, but some national great gods were formed. The ancient Egyptians in the early stage of human civilization put their own life and death and natural phenomena in the hands of God, even including the technology of transforming nature and the wisdom of understanding. Many pharaohs regard themselves as the embodiment of God, who is in charge of the country under the guidance of God. The priests in the temple, on the other hand, are inspired by God to master the characters and perform the duties of recording, preserving and sorting out the documents. After the Romans ruled Egypt, the priesthood gradually died out because of limiting the privileges of temples, which is why people later had to decipher ancient Egyptian characters to re-understand ancient Egyptian culture.
The evolution of ancient Egyptian writing forms has gone through four stages: hieroglyphics, sacrificial writing, secular writing and Coptic writing. About 35 BC to 3 BC, the ancient Egyptians invented hieroglyphics developed from pictures. This kind of writing is one of the oldest written characters of human beings, and it is often engraved on the stones of tombs, monuments and temple walls of the ancient Egyptians, so it is also called "sacred writing". This is the earliest written material of ancient Egypt that we know. For the sake of practicality and convenience, the priests simplified the symbol shape of hieroglyphs and created sacrificial scripts. With the diversification of writing applications, the ancient Egyptians created a cursive form of sacrificial writing, which is called secular writing. In 3 BC, the Romans occupied Egypt and replaced the dominant position of Ptolemy dynasty. They brought a new script to the ancient Egyptians, which is a secular script composed of 24 Greek letters and 7 supplementary letters, and this is Coptic script. In 642 AD, after Arabs entered Egypt, Coptic was replaced by Arabic.
religious complex dominated all aspects of ancient Egyptian life. The ancient Egyptians believed in the theory of afterlife. Sunrise and sunset, full moon and lack of moon, the regular flooding of the Nile, and year after year's seasonal rotation all make them think that not only nature is cyclical, but also human life is a cyclical process, with life and death rotating and the soul always there. Under the control of this belief, the ancient Egyptians hoped that mummies would be used to attach the dead, and at the same time, tombs would be carefully built to enable the dead to continue their earthly lives.
The ancient Egyptians built magnificent pyramids for generations of pharaohs, and their architectural art was also reflected in the majestic temples, palaces, exquisite and tidy municipal facilities and houses.
The wisdom of the ancient Egyptians was not only manifested in the architectural art, but also they created a wealth of literary works, which included almost all the later literary styles, from imaginative myths and legends, biographical literature to show off martial arts, and teaching literature to regulate behavior, to beautiful prose stories and pious and pure poems, so ancient Egypt was also known as the birthplace of world literature. Although most of these works were written by priests or scribes, they are vivid reflections of people's spiritual life throughout ancient Egypt.
Mummification reflects the ancient Egyptians' understanding of human body structure, which is also very helpful for the ancient Egyptians to accumulate knowledge of human anatomy. The ancient Egyptians' technology of preparing drugs was famous in the world at that time. They already had an understanding of medical disciplines, and they could even use surgery to treat some diseases. All these have gone far beyond the cognitive level of primitive religion for human health and have a great influence on the origin and development of modern medicine.
The belief in God made the ancient Egyptians pay attention to astronomical phenomena. The priests in the temple faithfully recorded the astronomical events observed. They not only named the stars, but also divided them into different constellations, and made their own calendars according to the observation of the stars. They also used sundials and water clocks to measure the time of day and night, forming a relatively complete time system.
Although the ancient Egyptians believed that all their creations were the result of God's revelation, the unearthed papyrus documents showed that the knowledge of the ancient Egyptians was created by themselves, especially the priests in the temples played a great role in preserving and developing this knowledge. For example, the papyrus around 2 BC and the Erbers papyrus around 16 BC contain medical knowledge, and the accumulated knowledge of geometry and arithmetic was transcribed in a papyrus written by a priest named Amos before 16 BC.
The ancient Egyptians used their intelligence to create the greatest civilization system of their time. Its light lit up many areas along the Mediterranean coast and ignited the fire of ancient Greek civilization.