Ancient Egypt, known for its riches, the Pharaoh Kings, the pyramids, and its hieroglyphs,
is one of the greatest civilizations to have ever existed.
For about 3,000 years, since its first unification in 3,100 BC to its final conquest by Alexander
the Great in 332 BC, Egypt was the central civilization in the ancient world.
If you’re new here, I’m Darius Cosden and this is Vlogs of Knowledge.
Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell because we do have brand new episodes
every single Wednesday.
And today, we’re talking about the Egyptian Civilization.
The first and most important thing to know and understand about this civilization is
that it lasted over 3,000 years.
And that’s not even counting the somewhere around 2,000 years of “egyptian” civilization
that pre-dates history itself.
What I mean by that is that what we call “history” is limited to the written documents that we
have discovered.
Anything before writing is technically considered pre-history.
The Egyptians were there before and after writing.
In fact, they were one of the first to discover writing in the first place.
Which goes to show just how big of a civilization they were.
30 Centuries.
That’s a lot of history to talk about.
And if you don’t believe me, well let’s look at some stats.
In 30 centuries we have 9 distinct periods, three Kingdoms, 13 different capitals, 30
dynasties, and about 170 different Pharaohs.
Each period has its own distinct characteristics, and each kingdom had its different rulers,
whom by the way, all thought it would be a cool idea to keep switching the capital around.
Safe to say that, Ancient Egypt is one big mess.
But, don’t you worry, I’m very good at taking messy things and making them simple
and easy to understand.
Let’s start with location.
Egypt is located on the African continent, just south of the Mediterranean sea.
It is very close to modern day Israel, Syria, and Iraq.
If you were to look around there in the year 3,000 BC, you’d most likely see sand in
any direction.
Egypt is in the Sahara Desert, which makes you wonder how they were able to build such
a massive civilization on sand.
Sand, and the desert would’ve been a big problem, had it not been for the Nile River.
The Nile River, most commonly referred to as the Nile, is a massive north-flowing river
that spans about 6,800 km and opens up to the Mediterranean Sea.
It’s so big, that you can even see it from space.
This river transformed the otherwise hot desert into fertile land, which allowed the early
Egyptians to build their first settlements.
Every year, the river floods in a predictable manner, which allowed people to synchronize
their agriculture with the tides of the water.
Add onto that the strong irrigation systems people built for the river specifically, and
you have everything you need to build a civilization.
By about 5500 BC, small tribes living in the Nile valley had developed into a series of
cultures showing a good understanding of agriculture and animal domestication.
Because when you find a water oasis in a desert, you can expect the local animals to have found
it too.
This is what we’d call the Pre-Dynastic Period (c. 6000-c.3150 BCE).
In that period, belief in the gods defined the then-Egyptian culture.
An early Egyptian creation myth tells the story of the god Atum who stood in the midst
of chaos before the beginning of time and spoke creation into existence.
Atum was followed by the eternal force of heka, which stands for (magic) and was personified
in the god Heka.
Heka was the main force which fuelled the universe and caused all things to function
as they did; it also gave birth to the central value of the Egyptian culture: ma’at, which
means harmony and balance.
All of the gods and all of their responsibilities went back to ma’at.
The sun rose and set as it did and the moon moved across the sky according with the balance
and order of heka and ma’at.
The entirety of Egyptian life revolved around keeping the ma’at, the balance and harmony
of society.
The Egyptian written history begins at some point between the year 3400 and 3200 BCE,
when hieroglyphic script is developed.
The Egyptians began writing things down, and just as was happening in other cultures world-wide
at the time, those small communities along the Nile became centralized and grew into
larger urban centers.
Civilization had now begun.
That’s when we enter the first historical period of Egypt: the Early Dynastic period.
Having grouped into bigger urban cities and districts, the territory was then divided
between the north and the south.
Lower and Upper Egypt.
A mysterious king by the name of “Menes” is then said to have unified the two lands,
and declared himself king and ruler of all.
However, this story is debated because we don’t have any record of any Menes that
lived during that time.
But, some historians argue that Menes may have been a name used to refer to any king
since Menes is an honorific title that translates to “he who endures”.
Nonetheless, this period marked the very first dynasty, and the establishment of Memphis,
the very first Egyptian capital.
A dynasty, for those who don’t know, is simply a lineage of rulers that trickle down,
usually from father to son.
As soon as the blood line breaks and you have somebody else who becomes a king from a different bloodline,
you can think of a different dynasty.
Trade increased significantly under the rulers of the Early Dynastic Period and elaborate
mastaba tombs, early versions of what was to become the pyramids, developed in ritual
burial practices.
And with these rituals we also got the start of mummification, where the Egyptian kings
would be mummified to preserve their bodies.
Egypt had a long-standing tradition of burying their kings and preserving their bodies.
It was believed that a king, after his death, would become the god Osiris and roam the supernatural
world.
And to help the king do that, his physical body had to be preserved as best as possible.
Then comes a period by the name of “the Old Kingdom” (c. 2613-2181 BCE).
During that period, architecture developed at an increased rate and some of the most
famous monuments in Egypt, such as the pyramids and the Great Sphinx at Giza, were constructed.
The immense size of these structures and pyramids, built with beautiful shining white limestone,
served as a message to the ancient world regarding the power and wealth of the Egyptian rulers
during this period.
They were able to build these massive structures largely due to the ridiculous amounts of gold
they possessed.
Their gold came either from mines, or for foreign conquest.
Egypt was one of the very first civilizations.
And that certainly has its advantages.
You’re able to better organize your army, conquer different territories and steal their
riches.
Plus I guess it really helps when you’re in the middle of a desert, and getting to
you can be quite impossible for enemies.
You’re very safe in a desert.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence that any structure or pyramid in Egypt was
built by slave labor.
Although slave labor was common in that era, these structures were considered public works
and used paid labor to build them.
Workers at the Giza site, which was only one of many, were given a ration of beer three
times a day, and their housing, tools, and level of health care were all taken care of.
Now, as I always say on this show, nothing lasts forever.
What follows is a brief period of instability known as “the First Intermediate Period”
where the kingdom split into two temporarily, because of independent districts breaking
off and forming their own government.
The dynasty was also split into two, and the capital moved to Hierakonopolis.
All districts were fighting for supreme control of the land until the Theban king Mentuhotep
II (c. 2061-2010 BCE) defeated the forces of Hierakonpolis and united Egypt under the
rule of his city Thebes, which became the new Egyptian capital.
Poor egyptians..
So many capitals in so little time.
Like I’m skipping over a lot of the history to keep it simple, but you can already see
the chaos and turmoil that they went through.
I mean, 13 capitals in the Egyptian civilization? That's a lot.
The stability of Mentuhotep’ rule is what ushered the next period in Egyptian history:
the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE).
The Middle Kingdom is considered Egypt’s `Classical Age’ when art and culture really
developed and Thebes became the most important and wealthiest city in the land.
The first standing army was created, the temple of Karnak was begun, and some of the greatest
art and literature of the civilization was produced.
Unfortunately, this was right about the time when the rest of the ancient world was also
catching up and Egypt was finally faced with its first serious foreign enemy: the Hyksos.
This era is known as the "Second Intermediate Period"
While the Hyksos (whose name simply means `foreign rulers’) were despised by the Egyptians,
they did introduce many improvements to the culture such as the composite bow, the horse,
and the chariot, which greatly helped the Egyptians advance.
Once again, another king arises, conquers Egypt once more, starts a new dynasty and
restores both Upper and Lower Egypt under one capital.
At least this time it’s still Thebes.
This is what started the next period: the New Kingdom (c.1570- c.1069 BCE), which is
arguably Ancient Egypt’s most well-known and most prosperous period.
There was once more a strong, central government, the title of Pharaoh was created, the valley
of the Kings was built as a substitute for king burial in the Pyramids, Egypt expanded
its borders and Ramses II became the longest ruling Pharaoh at the age of 90.
In fact, Ramses II is a very funny character.
He lived double the life of the average Egyptian commoner.
Which if you think about it, means that some Egyptians only knew one emperor throughout their entire life.
Because he outlived everyone, twice.
And when he died, some people legitimitely thought that the end of the world was coming,
which I mean, I guess I understand, because if you only know one Pharaoh throughout your entire life and
and you associate him with being divine, when he dies you're going to think the end of the world is coming.
I don't know, I thought it was funny.
What follows is unfortunately the decline of the Egyptian civilization.
The wealth and riches of the Pharaohs had attracted foreign powers, who finally were
able to venture into the dry desert to attack the Egyptians.
One of the reasons the Egyptians were able to last so long was for the very fact that
it was a huge challenge to cross the desert with a massive army.
Plus you had some divisions within the Egyptian religion, the central government, and even
the different districts.
And as is often the case, when a kingdom starts fighting with itself, it’s only a matter
of time before it starts to fall apart.
The fall of Egypt began with the Persians, who conquered it in the 6th century BC, then
came Alexander the Great, who took it from the Persians in the 4th century BC, and finally,
the Romans, who officially conquered it and made it a roman province in the year 30 BC.
But really, after the period of the New Kingdom, Egypt was no longer the same prosperous nation
it once was.
And now I pass the question onto you guys, what do you think about Ancient Egypt as a
civilization? Do you find it interesting?
Please do leave me a comment I would love to read and answer them all, and bonus points
for you if you do leave a comment you might get featured in next week’s video as a fan of the week!
As usual, I know I haven't talked about everything regarding the Egyptian civilization.
That's OK, I actually do this on purpose because I want you guys to go out and research more on your own.
Because I believe in research, and I believe in creating this show to get people educated, but also curious about a subject
to want to research more on their own. And if you guys want to do that, as always there are some links in the description where you can start!
Thank you so much for watching, thank you for being here and giving your time to this video
If you've enjoyed it please leave it a big thumbs up, make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell
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And with that being said, my name has been Darius Cosden, it's been an absolute pleasure
you can follow me on social media the links will be in the description.
And I will see you all next Wednesday.