Egypt - Where Civilization Began

Egyptian antique shop experience will have you holding artifacts known and famous. A statue of King Tut, or Ramses. A bust of Queen Nefeertiti. A model pyramid. This same civilization existed for more than three thousand years. It is said the people of Egypt were a happy people, and who could blame them. A famine would be rare: as there are hot African year round they can grow four crops yearly. It was only after their conquest by Alexander the Great did Egypt blossom into this larger food as the grainery of the known world.

To draw Egypt closer to Greece as a grainery for Greece and other areas under the Macedonian Greeks, Alexander had the largest city in the known world built as a water port by the Mediterranean seaport, with a stone walled harbour. Alexandria came much after the days of the pharoas, and Alexandria became respected as having the finest library, one of the fabled seven wonders of the world, weas sacked and burned by sons of Muslim. It also had the finest univdersity, and it was here the water wheel was invented.

The water wheel was invented by the brilliant mind of a young lad named Archimedes of Syracuse, in Sicily. Sicily at that time was an independent Kingdon, only falling to Rome in Archimedes old age. Greece was still a dominant force, had a large navy, and was opulently rich from its food supply role to the world. Cleopatra had a golden barge, served he meals on golden platers, and could have a feast with a ange of vegetables and fruits a Roman would never have seen. The glory of Egypt was stunning both to Julius Caesar, and in his turn Mark Antony.

After the fall of the pharoas, incursions by Syrians on horseback, came a short reign of kingdoms, until Alexander arrived around in the third century B.C. Alexander restored order, and upon his death Egypt was granted to rule by Ptomy,, one of his favorite generals. Thus was 330 B.C until just before the time of Christ, governed by the Greek Ptolmy family: Cleopatra was the last of the Ptolmy rulers ruling an independent nation for centuries more.

Coptic Christians were abudant in Eguypt after the time of Chrfist, until they were driven out or subjigated to the Muslim faith in the 700 A.D period. There are still small groups of Coptic Christians in the hhills of south Egypt and in Sudan. As Egyptians are tanned Arabs and Sudanese are black, Sudanese were often used as slaves in Egptian daily life, at least among the Egyptian upper classes. The Sudan of this area are a very handsome people so it could be heard as a refrain in Egypt by one without, oh for a Nubian bride.

The pyramids and sphynx are a fabled view into the mind set of the the amount of effort to be put into a mansion for a dead pharao. For centuries, there was a competition for each ruling pharao to want a larger pyramid than his father, and the amount of human energy put into these diverted many from more practical work such as farming. But at that the pyramids stand as a crowning achievement for mankind in any time. The spynx blends a pharoa into a crouching lion, who could lived this far north in that time.

Also known were elephants, as the Romans would trap and capture these animals and ship them in crates back to Rome for show or with the lions, fights with gladiators Most any Egyptian antiques shop would have samples of all this and more, representing the oldest civilizaion on earth.