I was born in Egypt, the cradle of 7000-year -old civilization. Despite the fact that the Pharaohs founded a great collection of monuments all over Egypt, it was highly amazing when I first visited Luxor and Aswan, which have more than two-thirds of the whole world's monuments. Without history, there is no future and without future, there is nothing to live for. This is the great history of the Great Nation of Egypt: I fear the unknown future of Egypt right now. After President Mubarak's stepping down, many powers inside and outside Egypt will try to take over. There was a big conspiracy against Egypt and the majority of Egyptians who did not leave their homes or take part in any of the demonstrations. It seems that it was really well planned to get rid of Mubarak and his regime for so many reasons. The former minister of the interior ,and whoever was behind him,has been a part of that plot as well as Muslim Brotherhood. I hope that my country does not go into chaos and stability can be achieved as soon as possible.
The first dynasty: from c.3100 BC
The unifying of Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom is the event pointed to by the ancient Egyptians themselves as the beginning of their civilization. Lower Egypt is roughly the broad delta of the river, where it separates into many branches before flowing into the Mediterranean. Upper Egypt is the long main channel of the river itself, possibly as far upstream as boats can reach - to the first waterfall or cataract, at Aswan.
Egyptian tradition credits the uniting of Upper and Lower Egypt to a king called Menes. But that is merely a word meaning 'founder'. It is possible that the real historical figure is a ruler by the name of Narmer, who features in warlike mood on an early slate plaque. Whatever the name, the first historical dynasty is brought into being by the king or pharaoh who in about 3100 BC establishes control over the whole navigable length of the Nile. His is the first of thirty Egyptian Dynasties, spanning nearly three millennia - an example of social continuity rivalled in human history only by China.
In the early centuries, and again in the closing stages of ancient Egypt, the capital is at Memphis, near modern-day Cairo. But at the peak of Egyptian power, during the period from about 2000 to 1200 BC, the city of Thebes- several hundred kilometres up the Nile - is a place of greater importance. The pyramids remain today to show the early greatness of Memphis, in the period known as the Old Kingdom. Similarly the temples of Karnak and Luxor are witness to the extravagant wealth of Thebes during the eras described as the Middle Kingdom and the New Empire.
The Old Kingdom: c.2580-c.2130 BC
The period known as the Old Kingdom runs from the 4th to the 6th of Manetho's dynasties and begins several centuries after the unification of Egypt. During the intervening period little is known of the pharaohs except their names, deriving from stone inscriptions (from as early as the 1st dynasty the Egyptian civilization enjoys the advantages of writing, soon to be followed by a sophisticated calendar). Of some pharaohs even the names are missing.
The change to more solid evidence comes in the time of Zoser, the greatest pharaoh of the 3rd dynasty (the Old Kingdom is sometimes taken as beginning with his reign, before the 4th dynasty). A new stability is reflected in the splendour of Zoser's monument - Egypt's first stone pyramid, built at Saqqara in about 2620 BC.
Zoser's funerary example is taken to even more elaborate lengths at Giza by his successors a century later, in the 4th dynasty (c.2575-c.2465 BC). The three great pyramids at Giza are built between about 2550 and 2470 BC for Khufu, his son Khafre (probably also responsible for the sphinx) and his grandson Menkure. This is also the period when the Egyptian practice of mummification begins, aiming to preserve the body for life in the next world. The earliest known example of any part of a mummified body is the internal organs of Khufu's mother, Hetepheres. Her body itself is lost, but her innards survive within the canopic jars which play an essential part in the ritual of mummification.
The Middle Kingdom: c.2000-c.1630 BC
When stability returns, it is under the rule of a family deriving their power from middle Egypt. Mentuhotep II (also known by his throne name, Nebhepetre) wins control of the whole country in about 2000 BC. His base is Thebes, which now begins its central role in the story of ancient Egypt - though relatively little survives of Mentuhotep's own monuments in the region.
The New Kingdom: c.1540-c.1080 BC
The New Kingdom, also sometimes known as the New Empire, lasts half a millennium and provides the bulk of the art, artefacts and architecture (apart from the pyramids) for which ancient Egypt is famous. Pharaohs of the New Kingdom create at Thebes the great temples of Karnak and Luxor and are buried, on the other side of the Nile, in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.
Descendants of Thutmose: c.1525-c.1379 BC
The first powerful ruler of the New Kingdom is Thutmose I. Son of the pharaoh by a concubine, he secures the succession by marrying his fully royal half-sister. Succeeding to the throne in about 1525 BC, Thutmose vigorously extends Egypt's empire. He conquers south into Nubia as far as the fourth cataract of the Nile. In the north he reaches Syria and the Euphrates.
The challenge from Aten: c.1353-c.1336 BC
For one brief period Amen is shifted from his central position in the Egyptian pantheon. Soon after Amenhotep IV comes to the throne, in about 1353 BC, he changes his name from Amenhotep ('Amen is satisfied') to Akhenaten ('beneficial to Aten'), signifying that the new state deity is to be Aten, the disk of the sun. Six years later Akhenaten moves the court from Thebes to an entirely new capital city, some 300 miles down the Nile at a site now known as Tell el Amarna. A great temple to Aten is its central feature.
Pharaohs called Ramses: 13th-11th century BC
Ramses is the name most commonly associated in the west with the pharaohs - partly because Ramses II commissions one of the best known images of pharaonic power (the colossal seated statues of himself at Abu Simbel), but also because in the declining years of the indigenous Egyptian dynasties eight rulers in succession are given this name.
Libyans and others: 11th-8th century BC
The 21st dynasty, based in Tanis, never controls the whole of Egypt. Thebes, under the influence of powerful high priests, remains for the most part friendly but independent.
The Theban priests are more resentful of the next dynasty (the 22nd, beginning in about 950 BC). This is a dynasty of Libyans, military men who for a while win control of all Egypt through their garrisons. Their manners and beliefs are fully Egyptian, for they and their ancestors have served in Egyptian armies (they probably descend from Libyan captives brought into Egypt by Ramses III).
The Cushite Dynasty: from c.730 BC
The first incursion of the kings of Cush into Egypt occurs in about 750 BC, when Kashta conquers upper Egypt (the region north of the first cataract and Abu Simbel). But it is his son Piye, also known as Piankhi, who from about 730 BC captures cities the entire length of the Nile as far north as Memphis and receives the submission of the local rulers of the delta region.
Assyrians, Persians and a Greek: 663-332 BC
From the 7th century BC the middle east is controlled by a succession of powerful empires - Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman. Each, with the exception of Babylon, conquers Egypt. The long centuries of powerful native dynasties are now conclusively over.
The Greeks in Egypt: 332-30 BC
Alexander the Great arrives in Egypt at an early stage of his great journey of conquest. He clears out the Persian administration before moving against Persia herself.
After Alexander's death, in 323, his empire is divided among his generals. Egypt falls to Ptolemy, whose descendants will give Egypt her final dynasty - a glittering one, albeit largely Greek in flavour. Its capital is the city established by the conqueror himself, Alexandria.
The Ptolemaic inheritance: 285 BC
The central struggle of Ptolemy's reign is to establish firm and broad boundaries to his kingdom. This involves him in almost continuous warfare against other leading members of Alexander's circle. At times he holds Cyprus and even parts of mainland Greece. When the dust of conflict has settled, he is firmly in control of Egypt and has strong claims (disuputed by the Seleucid dynasty) to Palestine.
He calls himself king of Egypt from 306 BC. By the time he abdicates in 285, in favour of one of his sons, the Ptolemaic dynasty is secure.
Roman Egypt: 1st century BC - 4th century AD
The wealth of Egypt makes it the most important of Rome's overseas provinces. The Nile valley produces rich harvests of grain, much of which is shipped to Italy. The craftsmen of this ancient civilization, skilled in such difficult techniques as the manufacture of glass, produce luxury items much in demand in the capital. And the population, settled and relatively prosperous, is an easy target for a Roman poll tax.
Christian Egypt: 4th - 7th century AD
Although the sophisticated inhabitants of Egypt are now Greek in their culture, the majority of the people are indigenous Egyptians, speaking a version of the ancient Egyptian language. They are referred to by the Greeks as aigyptioi (Egyptians). From this Greek word (via an Arabic abbreviation, qubt) comes the name Copt - most often used of Coptic Christians.
Muslim North Africa: from AD 642
The Arab conquest of Egypt and North Africa begins with the arrival of an army in AD 640 in front of the Byzantine fortified town of Babylon (in the area which is now Old Cairo). The Arabs capture it after a siege and establish their own garrison town just to the east, calling it Al Fustat.
The army then moves on to Alexandria, but here the defences are sufficient to keep them at bay for fourteen months. At the end of that time a surprising treaty is signed. The Greeks of Alexandria agree to leave peacefully; the Arabs give them a year in which to do so. In the autumn of 642, the handover duly occurs. One of the richest of Byzantine provinces has been lost to the Arabs without a fight.
An increasingly nominal caliphate: from the 9th c. AD
From the 9th century the rule of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad is often, in many parts of the Muslim world, more nominal than real. In Palestine and Syria there are uprisings from supporters of the previous Umayyad dynasty, whose base was Damascus. In the rich province of Egypt, governors are increasingly unruly (as many as twenty-four are appointed and then dismissed during the 23-year caliphate of Harun al-Rashid).
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