The Egyptian Civilisation

(a) The Old Kingdom

(b) The Middle Kingdom

(c) The New Kingdom

(a) Pharaoh Akhenaten

(b) Pharaoh Cheops

(a) The Great Pyramid at Giza

(b) The Sphinx

(a) Ra (The Sun God)

(b) Osiris (The God of the dead)

The Egyptian Civilization emerged in the valley of river Nile and flourished for more than 2000 years. The river Nile has proved to be such a great boon for Egypt that the Greek historian, Herodotus called Egypt, "the Gift of Nile." If the river Nile would not have been there, Egypt would have been a part of the vast Sahara desert.

The rulers of Egypt were called the Pharaohs. They were the head of the government and the administration having absolute powers.
It was believed that the Pharaoh had a direct connection to the Gods and acted as a mediator between the divine realm and the earthly world. They were believed to be the representative of God on earth and their statues adorned the temples.

Pyramids — The Pyramids were the tombs containing the mummies of Egyptians monarchs along with all kinds of precious goods. The Pyramids were huge structures made of blocks of stone. They were decorated with paintings depicting humans, animals and birds.

Sphinx — The Sphinx is a mythological figure with head of a man and the body of a lion. Sphinx is a sculpture carved out of a single stone.

The Egyptians developed the world's first solar calendar. They concluded that the year had 365 days. It was based on two things; first the average period between two successive floods in the River Nile (which was 365 days) and second, the appearance of the star, Sirius in the sky after 365 days. They then, divided the year into 12 months with each month having 30 days. Five days were added for religious festivals.

The Egyptians believed that after the death, the body and the soul live in a different way. That is why they preserved the bodies of their dead by embalming them. Such a preserved body is known as a mummy. The mummies were put in the wooden boxes, enclosed in a stone coffin and buried in tombs along with goods like clothes, food, drinks, jewellery, etc.

Architecture

1. The Egyptians built beautiful temples with pillared halls. The most famous of these temples is The Great Temple of Abu Simbel, dedicated to the Sun God and temple at Karnak. They decorated their temples with massive columns and huge statues.
2. The Egyptians also built large Pyramids to bury their dead. The pyramids were huge structures made of blocks of stone. The architectural and engineering skills of the Egyptians can be still seen from 30 large pyramids and a number of small ones which exist even today. The most famous Pyramid is The Great Pyramid at Giza near Cairo. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the world.
3. Another remarkable example of Egyptian architecture is the Sphinx. Sphinx is an Egyptian mythological sculpture carved out of a single stone having a lion's body and a human head.

Medicine

1. The Egyptians were aware of the human anatomy and one of their books provides a detailed analysis of the human circulatory systems.
2. The way by which the Egyptians used to preserve the bodies of the dead by mummification is a marvel of science. The process shown their knowledge of human body and their skill in surgery.

(a) The structure shown in the picture is The Great Pyramid. It is located at Giza near Cairo.

(b) It was built by Pharaoh Cheops (Khufu). He was the pharaoh of the Old Kingdom around 2650 BCE.

(c) The paintings on the walls of the Pyramids are a great source of information about the ancient Egyptians. The paintings depict hunting scenes, religious ceremonies, wars and battles, kings and queens, and features of everyday living.