Introduction

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Along the banks of the Nile and on the margins of the Delta, many sites mark the inception of farming and the establishment of some of the world's earliest farming communities.

These sites provide invaluable evidence for the rise of a state society, an event that has initiated the basic elements of our modern condition. Within the span of a few hundred years, the Egyptians were building pyramids of gigantic proportions and at the same time laying the foundations of religion, historical knowledge, state-craft, medicine, mathematics, literature, and the arts.

Map of Ancient Egypt

Egypt was in constant contact with its neighbors in Nubia, Northeast Africa, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean world. Peaceful contacts were at times interrupted by armed conflicts. Incursions were repelled, but Egypt was eventually incorporated into the Hellenistic world to become a powerful center of knowledge and learning in classical antiquity.

He knowledge of Pharaonic Egypt was transmitted to Greece and Rome to spread through space and time to the rest of humankind. As Christianity replaced the native Egyptian religion, the Egyptians developed their own doctrines and practices. Their Christian philosophy and monastic pursuits spread outside Egypt to become an integral element of Christian thought and beliefs.

The spread of Islam brought Egypt into the fold of Islamic civilization. Egypt, together with Syria, Iraq and Persia combined the fruits of their cultural heritage in a burst of intellectual and artistic pursuits that has dramatically altered the cultural landscape of the region.

The power and vigor of this civilization was enormous. Its knowledge spread well beyond the neighboring regions of Arabia to the Far East and Central Asia, and across the Mediterranean to Spain and Italy. In Egypt, Cairo became a legendary city where scholars and artisans created a cultural legacy in all fields.

By the beginning of the sixteenth century, Egypt was covered by the tide of the Ottoman Empire. The rise of Istanbul and the politics of empiremarginalized Egypt. However, Egypt was soon to emerge as a significant power in the game of nations during the nineteenth century. The meteoric rise of Egypt as a military power under Mohamed Ali, challenging and defeating the armies of the Ottoman Empire in several battles, alarmed the European nations who were beginning to assert their powers at the expense of Turkey.

In a short span of time, Egypt altered the balance of power. The demise of the Ottomans and the colonial aspirations of England and France eventually involved Egypt in the world politics and culture of the "West". In the meantime, continued relations with Isalmic, African and Asian nations provide Egypt with vibrant specturm of cultural connections.

The Nile's Influence on Ancient Egypt

Geography of Egypt

The most famous Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt