Ancient Egypt: a Very Basic Overview

Ancient Egypt is fascinating to many, with its pyramids, exotic scenery, mummies, and highly stylized artworks. The ancient Egyptian civilization is one of the most fascinating of the ancient civilizations. Ancient Egypt was a civilization in eastern North Africa concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern nation of Egypt. Ancient Egypt was divided into two regions: Upper and Lower Egypt.

Ancient Egyptians called their land "Kemet," which meant "black," after the black fertile silt-layered soil that was left behind each year during the annual innundation, when the Nile flooded the fields. Ancient Egyptian ideas about the creation of the world offer particularly valuable insights into the way these orderly, agricultural people viewed themselves and their land.

Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, the so-called "white kilt class" in reference to the bleached linen garments that served as a mark of their rank. The head of the legal system was officially the pharaoh, who was responsible for enacting laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at. In ancient Egypt, men and women were viewed equally, uncommon in those times.

The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticated, centralized society that became a cornerstone in the history of human civilization. Archaeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society and culture extended far beyond the borders of unified Egypt into prehistory. Egypt is our window to humanity's distant past and in understanding its history, we find both mankind's greatest glories and achievements, as well as his often repeated mistakes.

Ancient Egyptian history is broken into several different periods according to the dynasty of the ruling pharaoh. Its history occurred in a series of stable periods, known as kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods. Ancient Egyptian history is rich in examples of cultural continuity and cultural change. Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) that was written during the Ptolemaic era, during the third century BC.

The ancient Egyptians chose to begin their official history with a king named "Meni" (or Menes in Greek) who they believed had united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, ascended the throne around 1279 BC at the age of 18 and built more temples, erected more statues and obelisks, and sired more children than any other pharaoh in history.

After the end of the last kingdom, known as the New Kingdom, the civilization of ancient Egypt entered a period of slow, steady decline, during which Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign powers. Continur reading through this site to learn more about ancient Egypt, Egypt travel, Egyptian customs and more.