When people think of ancient Egypt, they think
of all the famous sites that are still around to visit and see. The Pyramids at Giza are often what people
think of as they're shown in cartoons and movies and they were built over 4,500 years
ago. Many people are fascinated with ancient Egyptians
and they are often shown walking... like this, which they didn't, thank you fact robot. Let's get into some real stories about the
people that lived there for thousands of years and talk about why their civilizations lasted
so long and had a such a lasting influence. Ancient Egypt, along the Nile River, and the Nile
River was a great place for a civilization. While almost all civilizations lived along
rivers, the Nile River has some special things about it that make it especially good. The Nile river is the longest river in the
world, which not only provided water for Egyptians and also Nubians living near the southern
Nile, it helped transportation and crops, especially in the Nile delta. A delta is where a river “fans out” near
the ocean into smaller streams, which gives water to a larger area of land. The Nile River also flows north, which helped
transport stone from the south to build with, and it floods regularly, once a year bringing
silt, which is very fine soil, good for farming crops. Ancient Egypt lasted a very long time, so
before getting to the timeline of ancient Egypt, let's look at some more recent events
to compare and get a better idea of how long long ancient Egypt lasted. Here's a single block of the timeline. The Worldwide Web, which is the beginning
of the modern internet was invented about 30 years ago, which is this much on the timeline
block. The lightbulb was invented about 150 years
ago, this much on the timeline and the newspaper was invented about 400 years ago, which is
the entire block. This is the entire timeline of ancient Egypt,
and here's the block, so you have a better idea of how long it lasted. The first period of ancient Egyptian civilization,
the Predynastic Period, was much like most civilizations in the Bronze Age, people farmed
near the river, shared a common language and culture which lasted about two thousand years
from 5000-3100 BCE. The Archaic period started around 3100 BCE
when Menes founded the capital of ancient Egypt in Memphis, in the north, near the Nile
River delta. Memphis became a large, beautiful city famous
for its white walls. Menes made Pharaohs the powerful leaders of
Egypt from then on, Pharaohs were thought to be part king, part god and their families
ruled as part of their dynasty, or period of rule by the same family. After the Archaic Period, the Old Kingdom
began in 2686 BCE. The Old Kingdom's first Pharaoh, Djoser was
the first to ask for a pyramid to be built as a tomb for his body after death. It looks different than most people's ideas
of a pyramid, it's a step-pyramid. The Old Kingdom was a time of peace and good
fortune and the most famous pyramids at Giza were built under the fifth and sixth dynasties. There was a problem with building giant stone
pyramids though, it's very, very expensive. Priests gained more power towards the end
of this period and as the wealth of the kingdom declined, the Old Kingdom ended in chaos in
2181 BCE. But don't worry, the kingdom will be back. Memphis remained capital after the Old Kingdom,
and the First Intermediate Period lasted for nearly one hundred years until 2055 BCE. The First Intermediate Period had many rulers,
wars, starvation and disease. It was not a good time to live in Egypt. A Theban prince, Mentuhotep managed to gain
power of all of the kingdom and unite all of it once again, ending this period. The Middle Kingdom had powerful Pharaohs once
again and worked to regain its wealth. They captured Nubia, the civilization to the
south and expanded trade into Asia. They also continued building pyramids and
had the first female ruler of Egypt, that wasn't Cleopatra, it was Queen Sobekneferu. After her death the problem with building
new pyramids happened once again... throwing the region into chaos for almost two hundred
years, for the Second Intermediate Period, 1786-1567 BCE. But this isn't the last time you'll see the
kingdoms... The New Kingdom began when Ahmose I reunited
the kingdom in 1567 BCE. The New Kingdom established one of the world's
first great empires, conquering the Nubians and moving north into Asia's Euphrates River
valley as well. We know the most about the Pharaoh's tombs
built during this time because Tutankhamen's tomb was found almost undisturbed, and we
will talk more about him later. Once again, after about 500 years, great building
projects and invasions made the kingdom decline. The last two periods, the Third Intermediate
Period and the Late Period, were again ones of decline and unification. In the end, Greeks and Persians had built
giant empires that were bigger and more powerful than Egypt. Cleopatra, the famous Queen of Egypt was able
to keep Egypt independent for a while through diplomacy, but eventually the Romans decided
to conquer it ending its timeline in 30 BCE. One of the most famous Pharaohs was Tutankhamun
of the New Kingdom, often called King Tut. For centuries after Egypt declined, thieves
took things from the pyramids and tombs of the dead pharaohs because they often held
valuable items. Even though these things are important to
study history, they were stolen and sold. Even mummies were stolen as they were ground
up into dust and sold as medicine, which is not at all a good for anyone's health, and,
gross. Egyptologists (people who study ancient Egypt)
worked to protect the artifacts of Egypt so that they could study them. Tutankhamun is famous as his tomb was quite
small and it was discovered in 1922 almost completely untouched. Tutankhamun... I'm just going to call him King Tut as well,
became pharaoh when he was just nine years old. Because he was so young, he relied upon advisors
around him to make important decisions about leading the country, and the most important
decisions he made were about the religion. His tomb was one of the smallest because he
died at age eighteen, so he was only a pharaoh for nine years. Tombs and treatment of the dead were very
important in ancient Egypt, the pyramids, were built as tombs for pharaohs. The Egyptian Book of the Dead was a guide
on funerals and spells to protect the dead and it was written on papyrus, which was invented
in Egypt, it was like paper made from a small plant. Preservation of a person's heart and body
was important for the afterlife, people also tried to bring their stuff and even their
cats! It was believed that after they died, the
god Osiris opened the door to the afterlife. Anubus, god of the dead would guide a person
to have their heart weighed. It was thought that doing good deeds in life
would give someone a light heart, while doing bad things would make the heart heavy. Every person's heart would be weighed against
a feather, Thoth, the god of wisdom and writing and also the scribe of the gods would write
down its weight. If the heart was lighter than the feather,
the person might to go to the Land of Two Fields, if it was heavier, Ammut was quite
happy about that. Ammut was a god with a crocodile head, it
was believed if you did something really bad during your lifetime that the god Ammut would
eat you. As long as your body had also been preserved
(or mummified, made into a mummy), if your heart was lighter than a feather and if someone
had written down your name, you were off to sail on Ra, the Sun god's boat, into the Land
of Two Fields. From there your soul could both visit your
family and enjoy the afterlife. Believing this happens after death (or being
eaten by a crocodile god) also caused people people to behave pretty well. Now, if you're neither dead nor royalty in
ancient Egypt, what would your life be like? Egypt had very defined social classes, which
was very common. Royalty, Pharaohs and their families had the
highest position in ancient Egyptian society. Nobles, the most powerful people in government
after Pharaohs and priests were the next most powerful class. After them it was soldiers, artisans and scribes,
the people that wrote official documents in society. Hieroglyphic writing was learned by few people
and used for royal documents written by scribes, many people used Demotic script for everyday
writing. Hieroglyphics are understood by Egyptologists
thanks to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which translated hieroglyphics into Demotic
and Greek. Some of the first History (with a capital
'H') created in history (little 'h') was the Greeks studying Egypt, so the Greeks provided
many secondary sources on Egypt, and with the Rosetta Stone, modern Historians can read
their primary texts. Getting back to the hierarchy, farmers and
laborers were the citizens with the least social status, and slaves were at the bottom
of the hierarchy, not being considered citizens, but possessions. While the hierarchy in Egypt was similar to
many other ancient civilizations, most of its citizens enjoyed a better life than in
many other places at the time. Women had more rights, they were allowed to
own property, sign contracts and even become rulers of Egypt. Happiness was considered important for all
citizens, ma'at the idea of harmony and balance in all aspects of one's life was thought to
lighten one's heart for the afterlife and was represented by its own goddess, Ma'at. Ancient Egyptians enjoyed sports included
hockey, handball, archery and Egyptians even invented bowling! Children were taught to swim while young,
swimming was popular, and kids played many water games. Senet, a board game was also popular, which
was like the game of Life, based on playing a story of living and the afterlife. Music, dance, gymnastics, and wrestling were
also popular, and among the upper classes, hunting large or small animals was a favorite
pastime. Education in ancient Egypt for most children
was done by parents, most children grew up and did the same jobs as their parents did. Children of royalty, both boys and girls,
since women in royal families were also involved in government, would have formal schooling
in writing, math, geography, cartography (study of maps), science, ceremonial dance and music. Boys in wealthy families would go to school,
and studied what were called ‘wisdom texts’ with lessons about literacy and practical
information for careers. Many Egyptian students' families wanted important
jobs in the royal palace, the temples or army, a government job, tax collector or even practicing
medicine with priests. Middle class families might send sons for
an apprenticeship, which was learning a craft or special skill like creating jewelry, pottery,
music or weaving and for a fee, children would live with a master working for free while
they learning from them. Some boys, especially in the New Kingdom,
joined the military which was considered very important but was very hard and involved years
of training. Ancient Egypt lasted for five thousand years. In its Late Period, Egypt had expanded its
ruling further west in Africa, and north and west into Asia and the onto island of Cyprus. It was expensive and difficult to rule over
this much land, and at the same time, the Roman Empire was the most powerful in the
region and was looking to grow larger. Egypt had already adopted Greek into it's
language as ancient Greece was also very influential and Egypt became less powerful in comparison. The last ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra, knew that
Egypt's military was no match for the Romans power and formed an alliance with Julius Caesar,
Emperor of Rome, trying to keep Egypt's independence. Things didn't work out well for Caesar and
when he died, The Romans took over Egypt in 30 BCE. A civilization that lasted five thousand years
is difficult to sum up in a few minutes, and Egypt had periods of peace, wealth and power
as well as war, decline and created some of the great wonders of the ancient world. The study Egypt is what inspired the creation
of the subject of History itself. Egypt is unique for the length of time its
ancient civilization lasted, the amount of rights given to women and its influence upon
history which still fascinates people today. We hope you enjoyed our visit to Egypt and
remember kids, say no to mummy cures. Bye for now!
