The Ancient Egyptians

The Egyptians were an ancient civilization that lived on the banks of the Nile river and the area of the Nile Delta in antiquity. The Egyptians owed their prosperity to the Nile, which gave them rich, fertile lands for crops and a source of transportation. Farming in ancient Egypt went according the annual flooding of the Nile, which would cover the fields in sediment. For much of antiquity, Egypt was considered the breadbasket of the world, and many surrounding people would migrate to Egypt when famine struck their lands. Along with the riches of their own lands, the Egyptians also relied on trade with neighboring regions for rare resources like wood, ivory incense and other goods. There was also legends of trade with a land known as the land of Punt, with whom the Egyptians were fond economic allies.

Egypt is a very ancient civilization born when pharaoh Narmer united the upper and lower kingdom five thousand years ago. Somehow, the Egyptian as a civilization didn't really change that much, in their social structure, religion or culture, over the course of the millenniums. Much of Egypt's history is mostly described as being divided in three eras: the old kingdom, the middle kingdom and the new kingdom. The gaps between these eras were turbulent times marked by war, famine and political instability. The old kingdom is known for its pyramids, whose financial tolls might possibly have explained the collapse of the era. Those monuments were built by farmers employed when the floods would cover their fields with water. Their labour was payed generously and might have also been part of an elaborate corvée system. The pyramids were a mark of the high level of sophistication and structure in Egypt's government at the time.

When Egypt was reunited and stabilized with the dawning of the middle kingdom, the Egyptians as a civilization were less oriented around pyramid building and more around the building of temples and the development of art. It was marked by expansions, including an armed expedition into Nubia and the mining development of the Sinai peninsula.

After the collapse of the middle kingdom came the new kingdom. It was marked by a time of great wealth and power in Egypt. It had some of its best known Pharaohs like Ramses II, Nefertiti, Hatsheput and Tutankhamen. This area marked the point in time where Egypt formed an Empire that reached Syria. The Exodus myth from Abrahamic religion is associated with that period of Egyptian history.

After the new Kingdom, Egypt was conquered by the Persian empire, in the 6th century BC. The Persian rule lasted for roughly two hundred years until Alexander the Great dismantled the Persian Empire. When Alexander's armies reached Egypt, he was welcomed with open arms, seen as a liberator by the locals. Egypt was then included in his short lasting empire, and he founded a city in the Nile Delta which he inevitably named after himself: Alexandria. After the death of Alexander the Great, one of his generals: Ptolemy assumed control of Egypt and started Egypt's last dynasty: the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty.

The Ptolemaic dynasty lasted for three hundred years, its end marked by the rule of Cleopatra, last monarch of Egypt. Cleopatra supported, and by some accounts seduced, Roman politician Marc Antony, aiding him in his political rivalry against Octavian, who would later become Augustus, first emperor of Rome. This prompt Octavian to declare war against Cleopatra and Marc Antony. After beating Marc Antony's armies at Actium, Octavian besieged and eventually captured Alexandria, which caused Marc Antony and Cleopatra's suicide and the eventual execution of Cleopatra's son Caesarion.

After that, Egypt was annexed by the young roman Empire, and continued to be held by the roman empire until much later, when it fell to the Muslims during the middle ages.