Why We Once Hated Ancient Egypt (Until We Loved Them)

this video is sponsored by the great courses plus it's a service where you have instantaneous access to lectures by top professors one of these lectures actually inspired the creation of this video so stay tuned till the end of the video to find out more uh ancient Egypt you got pyramids pharaohs and even raw our favorite Sun God well shucks who wouldn't like you guys oh yeah ever since Egypt was lost to the literal sands of time there was this mysterious legacy left behind that intrigued cultures for generations who were these people it's those unanswered questions that captivated philosophers and invaders alike in my opinion the history of this fascination with Egypt is just as interesting as the history of Egypt itself so our story begins in the last era of ancient Egypt when it really died which is odd to think about Egypt lasted 3,000 years before any Greeks ever gave an opinion on it it'd be like America lasting until 5,000 776 AD and only then 3,000 years from us today would people record their opinion on the USA yes I know the Old Testament has a lot to say but I'll talk about Exodus later the story has to begin somewhere so let's start with the death of Alexander the Great why is that let's just say Alexander's Empire Plus Egypt plus death equals one of his generals now ruling Egypt the new Greek rulers controlled the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt in 300 BC they did everything they could to appear like the old Pharaoh's built temples for the old gods depicted themselves like Pharaohs of the past three millennia and even married their own siblings that's commitment for 300 years there was a Greek Egyptian hybrid ruling class that dominated Egyptian society and it remained pretty isolated from the native majority Cleopatra the seventh who was part of that class never learned the native language or left the capital city of Alexandria long story short Cleopatra dies and the Romans ruled Egypt and 30 BC much like the Greeks the like the idea of Egypt but not really the native culture itself there was even a phrase axe Africa semper Alec weed no vide or there's always something new from Africa it's symbolic of how Egypt was Rome's access to a strange world but just because Rome viewed the region as interesting the view on the culture was another story I mean look at the gulls the Britons Jews even Jesus realm wasn't the most tolerant society Egypt Rome was heavily segregated the Roman preferred Greeks were the ruling class of while majority Egyptians were simply ignored and disliked to Rome Egypt was just a weird culture who liked cats a lot when Rome fell and the Muslims invaded Europe just kind of forgot about Egypt the only stories of Egypt at all were from the Bible stories of Exodus while Moses defied the Pharaoh and led his people to freedom now imagine if you were a peasant in medieval France you've never seen a picture of the hieroglyphs or the pyramids never heard of the old kingdom or knew the only story you will ever hear of this faraway place called Egypt is in the Old Testament where they enslaved God's chosen people of course you're not going to have a fond opinion of ancient Egypt and that's what the common conception was in the Middle Ages the Pharaoh was history's greatest villain not that you'd actually know what the Pharaoh of Egypt looked like which was why drawings depicting Exodus were not the most accurate the Middle Ages didn't last forever in Egypt didn't remain depicted like that because Europeans traveled again Egypt however was still a mystery to the West the Muslim conquests pretty much split communication with the regions since the time of the Byzantines a thousand years by this time there was more knowledge about Egypt the pyramid was a popular symbol even used in the seal of the United States meaning the longevity of the new nation but a gypped itself wasn't really seen a special at the time until one man one single man opened the floodgates a enthusiastic general Napoleon Bonaparte its 1798 and France and Great Britain as usual hate each other to weaken the British Napoleon wants to hurt their economy by attacking their trade to India so he goes after Egypt long story short let's invade it goes horribly but before everybody dies the soldiers of Napoleon's army discovered a stone tablet that had both ancient Greek writing and Egyptian hieroglyphics going back a few thousand years to tommix kingdom the ruling class needed both Greek and hieroglyphic writings to govern their region so they made a tablet that had translations of words from Egyptian symbols to Greek writing this was the rosetta stone and it was the missing link that allowed people to understand finally what these symbols meant and everybody wanted to learn more and see more about Egypt except Napoleon he sailed away as a Stroup died of plague in early 19th century every western country wanted to be as grand as the ancient Egyptians it was a craze and they reflected this in their new buildings and even cities it's no coincidence Memphis the capital city of ancient Egypt located on a great river and Memphis Tennessee also located on a great river share the same name Egyptian in the early 1800s meant grandiose there were so many new buildings inspired by ancient architecture this phrase has a name Egyptian revivalism people from America to Russia romanticized Egypt as the perfect civilization to marvel at new discoveries and translations could happen at any time definitely exciting stuff by the 1880s the British Empire not the Ottomans or the French took control of Egypt while still subject to discovery ancient Egypt was no longer the trendy topic it was 80 years prior archeologists made discoveries but the general public just wasn't as interested anymore well that was until 1922 in the valley of Kings a Pharaoh's tomb was found in amazing condition while not untouched by robbers it was still a time capsule into Egyptian culture this was the tomb of King Tutankhamen made Pharaoh as a child the tomb contained the now-famous mask it was the start of a new era of Egyptian fascination however the story does stop there soon after opening the tomb Lord Carnarvon who funded the project died from infected mosquito bite following this were more deaths from the team who discovered the tomb some died from strange illnesses some from murdered many labeled this was a result of a curse from the Mummy's tomb while some but not many at all tombs were labeled with tablets reciting threats to those who disturbed the final resting place King's Tut's did not some of the deaths could be attributed to coincidence some claim infections that were unrecognizable to modern people lie dormant within the tomb either way only nine of the 50 or so people on the team died within the preceding decade it made for a good story though and mummies went from burial ritual to supernatural beasts mummies already had a bit of a negative connotation they were preserved dead bodies first and foremost and it made them pretty easy to be wary of the 1911 film The Mummy not the Boris Karloff one had the reanimation of a mummy through electricity and whatnot the 1932 The Mummy yes the berlusconi one was about a mummy who came back to life throughout the 20th century a number of films capitalized on the mystery of ancient Egypt it was a perfect region to set your mystery and/or horror film in then Cleopatra came along it was so outlandish ly expensive that even Greek box office numbers did nothing to recap for the costs effectively killing the ancient Egyptian craze in Hollywood until you know let's now talk about that in the scale of two millennia of the West's fascination with ancient Egypt is a story in itself the idea towards this lost civilization I feel can be symbolic of what our society valued at the for Rome and Greece it was just a conquest for medieval Europe it was biblical villains and for enlightened Europe it was inspiration for their own imperial ambitions but today I feel Egypt is still interesting because it will always be shrouded by mystery it's something distinct that seems to have always existed and will never be replicated again and because of that everyone around the world will be captivated by Egypt for thousands of years to come this video was inspired by a lecture which was featured in the video service the great courses plus history of ancient Egypt taught by Professor Bob Fourier here he discusses the general history of Egypt in detail throughout the three millennia of its existence you can access this and many numerous courses through the great courses plus it's a subscription on-demand video learning service with over 8,000 video lectures taught by professors in basically every field topics like history science math and even really specific and odd topics that continue to always be updated like photography courses are sometimes even hosted by National Geographic and the Smithsonian it removes the pressure of grades from college all you have to do is just watch and listen so if you want to learn more about the ancient Egyptians click on this link to get one month of unlimited access to courses and videos absolutely free just visit the great courses plus.com slash knowledge the link is provided in the description below this is Kody of knowledge hub

Channel: KnowledgeHusk

Views: 1,948,322

Keywords: Egypt, Egyptian civilization, West and Egypt, Assassin's Creed Origins, Egyptian history, ancient egypt history, egypt history, ancient egypt, egypt pyramids, alternatehistoryhub, knowledgehub egypt, knowledgehub

Id: rZSiLHDR4QU

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 26 2017