Ancient Egypt If there is one thing the ancients have left us that interests more of us than anything else it is information about ancient Egypt. Just the Great pyramid alone could keep researchers busy for the rest of their lives. In some ways the ancient Egyptians were incredibly advanced. One has only to look at the structures they built using primitive tools. Some of them towered among the largest of the ancient world and one which is said to still be missing had over 3,000 rooms. It was a labyrinth and was said by an ancient Greek who was allowed to see it as being even more incredible than the Great pyramid. That in itself is an amazing statement. The Egyptians used techniques which are still secret to us today in some of their constructions. An example of this was presented to us in the form of the faces on some of their gigantic statues where both sides of the faces are exactly the same and sometimes this went on to rows of statues. How did the ancient Egyptians achieve perfect symmetry when chiseling out these statues and how did they build the Gaza pyramids so perfectly aligned? For decades some researchers were swearing extraterrestrials must have built them or at least helped the ancient Egyptians with the building of these pyramids. We are talking about construction which took place at least as far back as 2550 B.C. In case you don’t know what I mean, let me tell you each pyramid on the Giza plateau has its corners pointing north, south, east and west. One researcher reckons the ancient Egyptians used a method known as the Indian circle method which was known at the time. It has to do with making a sun dial with a stick in the dirt and tracing the shadow every half hour for a day. Using a piece of string correctly with two high points gives you a direction. We know how they built their temples with the giant pillars as I have discussed this many times, but for those who are new, they built them in layers. They would go up a certain height, pile up sand on that level and build the next level. They would continue this until they got to the top and then they would remove all the sand and you had a huge temple. Even though there were some other ancient races with incredible structures, the ancient Egyptians were the most consistent builders of their day and some of the very best architects and engineers around at the time. Much of this was based on their religion. It seems the ancient Egyptians were very religious and because of this and believing the pharaoh was god, they were more than glad to join it his building projects, especially when the projects were temples to the gods and pyramids. It seems the workers may have been treated pretty good. Homes near some of the construction have been found. The workers had small homes and their superiors had bigger ones, but having a home as a worker where one could live with their family helped the workers feel good about what they were doing. There was a mystical side to the ancient Egyptians. One of the things they were big on were curses. As a matter of fact, many believe the deaths which were associated to the opening of King Tut’s tomb happened because the tomb was cursed. It is true many of the people who entered that tomb died, but it had more to do with a mold which was found inside the tomb, than a curse, but some people will never be convinced of this. There is a curse designed to protect mummies. It is called the curse of the pharaohs or the mummy’s curse. It is said if a mummy is disturbed it will bring death, illness and even bad luck. Wow there must be an awful lot of cursed people around with all the mummies which have been dug up in the last hundred years. I have mentioned this before, but Egypt doesn’t have much wood or coal so when the early steam engines came to Egypt, they burned mummies as fuel. That certainly is a ghoulish thought. There was actually an educational system in ancient Egypt. Once a boy reached the age of eight years old, he was sent to school. Some of the subjects studied were reading, writing, mathematics, religion and morals, among others. Girls were educated at home. Getting educated in ancient Egypt was held in very high regard. Girls learned the homemaker skills. There was a problem however, if you were of too low a class you could not send your child to school, because there were not enough schools. Pre 1648 B.C. Egypt was so peaceful it had no military. This changed however when it was invaded by the Hyksos. After that they had to maintain an army. It is believe the first pharaoh came to power in the 31st century B.C. When we talk about dates that far back, they are hard to imagine. Egypt has been divided up by timelines, by the experts. We have the Old Kingdom which ran from 2686 B.C. to 2181 B.C. Next was the First Intermediate Period which ran from 2181 B.C. to 2055 B.C. Then there was the Middle Kingdom which ran from 2055 B.C. to 1650 B.C. Next was the Second Intermediate Period which ran from 1650 B.C. to 1550 B.C. Next was the New Kingdom which ran from 1550 B.C. to 1069 B.C. This led to the Third Intermediate Period which ran from 1069 B.C. to 664 B.C., and finally the Late Period which ran from 664 B.C. to 332 B.C. The late period was the last period ancient Egypt was ruled by native Egyptians. If you entered the ancient Egyptian court, you would have found there was a certain hierarchy there. At the top was the king, next his vizier who was very influential and was able to communicate with the gods. Next were the members of the court. There were also others there like the various priests and scribes. There were governors who were renamed nomarchs, generals and various artists, craftsmen, supervisors and even farmers. Ancient Egypt came along after prehistoric Egypt. It is truly an ancient country. Could there have been other advanced civilizations which influenced it which we know nothing about? Some believe so, but knowing how precise the record keeping was in ancient Egypt, it would be hard to imagine this happened without being recorded.
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