Why do you think we are still so interested in the Ancient Egyptians? Do you think it's because they were so different to other ancient empires? Let us know!
I think that, as a species, we're interested in those who came before us. Not to mention that Egypt had such a sophisticated culture, whereas we typically (and mistakenly) view technological progress as constantly improving. Ancient Egypt and many societies like it disprove that idea. I'm sure there's also the 'mysticism' aspect that gets romanticized. Far off land, ancient peoples, etc..
To me, there is a certain mystique about the Egyptians - their culture seemed to be suffused with magic and the occult, which is dark and entrancing. I think of cats, serpents, eyes with thick kohl, robes, strange rituals on hot nights, divination, the beating down of the hot sun, fanning by palm leaves, the rhythm of nature with the Nile, the worship of strange gods, and a general sense of Oriental decadence, elegance and mystery, personified by Cleopatra and the many other adorned Pharaohs and empresses/queens. In terms of their mythology, the Egyptians seemed to live in a dream-world, in a kind of religious delirium. The hieroglyphics are a beautiful script, and convey a sense of impenetrability and mystery. They are the epitome of near-Eastern class and decadence. The Greeks and Romans by contrast seem to be a more 'solid' or 'daylight' civilisation - I think of stone-pillars and sentries, which are just not as intoxicating or interesting as the Egyptians, who are cloaked in mystery and elegance, though the Greeks/Romans did have instances and periods of decadence and moral decline, which I find interesting. While it may be more of a cultural image (the reality was probably much plainer), I think of Ancient Egypt as like a magic shop or a mysterious cave - full of mystery and darkness, like their entombed Pharaohs and queens. There is a blurring of life and death in Ancient Egyptian culture which resembles the modern-day love and fascination with Halloween and the underworld - there is something exciting about ghoulishness and darkness.
Yes Mesopotamian (meaning between the two river banks) had many smaller civilisations within Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian. Sumerian were contemporary of Indus Valley civilisation. They shared strong trade connections. None of the civilisation lasted as long as Egyptian. Alexander and later Ptolemy protected Egyptian culture for 300 years until Caesars invasion in 40 BCE
The Egyptians never want to leave Egypt. Even those who travel to work or study, they always come back.. Because we were all taught as kids that Egypt is heaven on earth.. its a part of our belief system which creates the Egyptian ego.
If you look at Ancient Egypt from the ancient point of view, they were really weird. In those times, apart from many kingdoms, there were also many lands which were either vacant or occupied by small tribes. In ancient Africa, Egypt had enough scope to expand. I don't know if the Masai tribes existed back then, but if they did, the Egyptians would have had tough competition with them, but since the Egyptians were more civilized, all those Wild Savannahs, Rainforests in Congo and much of Sahara would have been under Egyptian control. Because Africa was HUGE, they would have been feared all around the world, just like the Romans. Yet, they chose a peaceful path and stayed around the Nile. Even I think it's weird. No doubt Egypt had great technology which even enabled them to construct the pyramids, which is still a question mark in history. With such technology, they could have made weapons never known to the outside world and could even crush the Roman Empire. Yet, they chose to remain with their loving Nile River. I'm not sure, but maybe they had some kind of norms in their religious texts which prohibited violence. It could be true. Or maybe they had some stories, mythology or something which grandparents told to their grandchildren where a god/spirit/ghost or something punished a person for violence, which is a very common thing which took place back in those days. Talking about my country, I'm from India, and India has been a peaceful country for much of her history. At least, the kings who were actually Indian and ruled the country were; the kings who invaded India from outside and ruled over India along with the other territories in present-day China, Mongolia, Arabia, etc. weren't very peaceful. Examples are Huns, Delhi Sultans, etc. Not to favour any religious or something, but there were quite a few Muslim kings who looted and plundered India, such as Muhamad Ghazni, who plundered India just to beautify his palace in Afghanistan. Apart from that, there were many good kings. Just like you mentioned Ashoka, they were very peaceful and put their efforts in Administration, Education, spreading of Indian Ideologies to nearby empires, etc. Some examples are king Harshvardhana, Chandragupta Maurya (grandfather of Ashoka), Mughal Emperors like Babur, Humayun and Jahangir. They never focused much on warfare, which is the very reason why they fell to European powers(Mughal Emperors did focus a lot on warfare, though). So, my country is more inclined toward the Egyptian way.
Hi Julia! So on the pile from bottom to top Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art (British Museum), The Greek Vase: Art of the Story Teller (British Museum), Archaeology: The Whole Story by Paul Bahn, The Iliad and Odyssey (Cloth bound Penguin editions), Constellation Myths by Eratosthenes and Hyginus, The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus, Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod and on the top shelf is Troy: Myth and Reality (British Museum)! The one standing vertical is Manmade Wonders of the World.
I have a theory - could their lack of overall interest in conquest (apart from exceptions mentioned in the comments) be due to the surrounding deserts to the West and East (Libya and the Sinai), and the lack of natural resources or things worth conquering in those regions? For example, they traded with Punt (likely present-day Somalia) for aromatic resins and ivory, but it wasn't necessarily 'worth' conquering that land for these items alone. Trade was a peaceful alternative, and lands they traded with were perhaps not as fertile as the Nile, which supplied them for all their agricultural needs. In other words, there was simply no need to go elsewhere. The Romans, on the other hand, found great bounty in conquest. Just a thought, and I am a novice with Egyptian history, so please be nice!
Plenty on fertile lands to conquer to the south in Sudan , Ethiopia etc and Somalian kingdoms were rich. Egypt actually conquered most of Kush in sudan and Kush would conquer egypt.Egypt was invaded by desert armies such as Libyans. Maybe Egypt just wanted to mind their own business militarily for the most part
In reviewing the history of other civilizations, it appears there were many similarities to our own. It also shows the influences of those civilization had on other civilization especial Egypt and Rome.
even Rome, Chinese, and Mongol empire can build these kind pyramid. obviously not ancient egypt can. probably some very ancient civilization build them lost in time.
Well presented video, however difficult to compress 3 millennia of history in 9 mins. There is always an exception to every rule and I suspect that had Ramses The Great scored a decisive victory at Kadesh, the Egyptians would have held suzerainty over all the major realms of the Levant. One final point concerns the Hyksos. Recent research demonstrates that the takeover of Egypt was via political machinations rather than a devastating military incursion.
We, the Zapotecs, went into Khemit at 268k bce after we returned to earth and landed at Nazca and started to re establish Atlantis in SA and the Yucatan. At that time Khemit was primarily looked after and lived in by the so-called Black Race, but the way they ran it everyone was welcome there...Nubian , Khemtian, Kushite, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Nigerian are all better terms for the blacks at that time. When we went there at 268k bce we got a slight amount of understandable resistance from some of the Khemtians.. so we demonstrated that they were living in a place of our Ancient technology, by blowing up the pyramid on the top of the mountain at Abu Rowash. We wouldn't have hurt anyone, we just used tat because we were not going to use it anymore anyway. So this why there is a mixture of Khemtians and Atlantean culture is so called "Egypt"... the so called Dynastic Egyptians were nothing. They were a joke , except for a few bright spots here and there like Akhenaten or Hatshepsut, they were a coercive black magic society that used the priest class as a buffer between the lower classes and the elites.. and the lower classes were oppressed with no real hope of any upward mobility in the society due to consanguinity and fraternization laws. Whereas the Khemetians knew how to work out Technology about 20%.. the dynastic Egyptians didn't know how yo work any of it and would simply make up false story after false story of a legacy that was untrue.. like the story of Imhotep is 100% a lie... a big fat joke. A small positive consolations is though that the Ramses were concerned with race mixing with the Europeans...that was a good thing.
I don't get the conclusion out of this. They conquered stuff. And they conquered smart, why should they invade the desert or why should they invade territory disconnected to their homeland. "They didn't invade anymore than they needed to ensure their safety" what? I would say they just invaded what they could manage to hold. Thats smart though, and don't get me wrong, I love egyptian history but it's not like the egyptians had a masterplan over thousands of years how to be very polite. It's impressive how long they could defend against very strong opponents, but what they defended was also conquered before. They did not just spawn there. Its also way too much time to summerize like this in my opinion.
Thank you, Kelly. The real Ancient Egyptians (whereby I mean the pureblood ones) were minding their own business. They were a different species. Peaceful and moral. And VERY hard working (they imagined they would happily work the afterlife). They did not have the awful, aggressive gene in them like the rest of the world (including those in the Sumer region). They were not perfect but clearly superior to all others. Show me one other culture who has had something even remotely similar to Maat. They had a beautiful and moral conception of the afterlife (at least until the Followers of Horus ruined everything with their nonsense). You can tell a lot about how one is by the beliefs about afterlife (or lack thereof). If you don’t believe in one earned through moral conduct, you’re just an animal that seeks to subdue and misuse the planet and others, having a very dubious and flexible (shall we say) ‘morality’. Even under current occupation that has turned ancient spirituality into a source of baksheesh, Egypt is THE holy place on Earth, especially the Upper Egypt.
Why do you think we are still so interested in the Ancient Egyptians? Do you think it's because they were so different to other ancient empires? Let us know!
I think that, as a species, we're interested in those who came before us. Not to mention that Egypt had such a sophisticated culture, whereas we typically (and mistakenly) view technological progress as constantly improving. Ancient Egypt and many societies like it disprove that idea.
I'm sure there's also the 'mysticism' aspect that gets romanticized. Far off land, ancient peoples, etc..
@@elihinze3161 The Pyramids/Sphinx of Giza is a good example of this.
To me, there is a certain mystique about the Egyptians - their culture seemed to be suffused with magic and the occult, which is dark and entrancing. I think of cats, serpents, eyes with thick kohl, robes, strange rituals on hot nights, divination, the beating down of the hot sun, fanning by palm leaves, the rhythm of nature with the Nile, the worship of strange gods, and a general sense of Oriental decadence, elegance and mystery, personified by Cleopatra and the many other adorned Pharaohs and empresses/queens. In terms of their mythology, the Egyptians seemed to live in a dream-world, in a kind of religious delirium. The hieroglyphics are a beautiful script, and convey a sense of impenetrability and mystery. They are the epitome of near-Eastern class and decadence.
The Greeks and Romans by contrast seem to be a more 'solid' or 'daylight' civilisation - I think of stone-pillars and sentries, which are just not as intoxicating or interesting as the Egyptians, who are cloaked in mystery and elegance, though the Greeks/Romans did have instances and periods of decadence and moral decline, which I find interesting. While it may be more of a cultural image (the reality was probably much plainer), I think of Ancient Egypt as like a magic shop or a mysterious cave - full of mystery and darkness, like their entombed Pharaohs and queens. There is a blurring of life and death in Ancient Egyptian culture which resembles the modern-day love and fascination with Halloween and the underworld - there is something exciting about ghoulishness and darkness.
Excellent presentation. I often wondered why Egypt didn't go out of their way to conquer and assimilate other peoples and ciltures.
Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it. It is a very interesting concept to consider!
Outstanding video, fascinating, wonderfully explained. Great for the curious minds, essential for the students.
Loved the Prelude on the timeline of great Ancient Empires.
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!
Around 5000 BCE, the Sumerian civilisation also existed. In that regard, the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations were quite contemporary.
Yes Mesopotamian (meaning between the two river banks) had many smaller civilisations within Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian. Sumerian were contemporary of Indus Valley civilisation. They shared strong trade connections. None of the civilisation lasted as long as Egyptian. Alexander and later Ptolemy protected Egyptian culture for 300 years until Caesars invasion in 40 BCE
The Egyptians never want to leave Egypt. Even those who travel to work or study, they always come back.. Because we were all taught as kids that Egypt is heaven on earth.. its a part of our belief system which creates the Egyptian ego.
Egypt is indeed a beautiful country. Thanks for watching! 🙂
Excellent comparative history!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Now, look at the writing of which “empire” we all use today. 😉
Great video!
This is extremely interesting
Thanks for watching!
Sweet, Thanx.
If you look at Ancient Egypt from the ancient point of view, they were really weird. In those times, apart from many kingdoms, there were also many lands which were either vacant or occupied by small tribes. In ancient Africa, Egypt had enough scope to expand. I don't know if the Masai tribes existed back then, but if they did, the Egyptians would have had tough competition with them, but since the Egyptians were more civilized, all those Wild Savannahs, Rainforests in Congo and much of Sahara would have been under Egyptian control. Because Africa was HUGE, they would have been feared all around the world, just like the Romans. Yet, they chose a peaceful path and stayed around the Nile. Even I think it's weird. No doubt Egypt had great technology which even enabled them to construct the pyramids, which is still a question mark in history. With such technology, they could have made weapons never known to the outside world and could even crush the Roman Empire. Yet, they chose to remain with their loving Nile River. I'm not sure, but maybe they had some kind of norms in their religious texts which prohibited violence. It could be true. Or maybe they had some stories, mythology or something which grandparents told to their grandchildren where a god/spirit/ghost or something punished a person for violence, which is a very common thing which took place back in those days.
Talking about my country, I'm from India, and India has been a peaceful country for much of her history. At least, the kings who were actually Indian and ruled the country were; the kings who invaded India from outside and ruled over India along with the other territories in present-day China, Mongolia, Arabia, etc. weren't very peaceful. Examples are Huns, Delhi Sultans, etc. Not to favour any religious or something, but there were quite a few Muslim kings who looted and plundered India, such as Muhamad Ghazni, who plundered India just to beautify his palace in Afghanistan. Apart from that, there were many good kings. Just like you mentioned Ashoka, they were very peaceful and put their efforts in Administration, Education, spreading of Indian Ideologies to nearby empires, etc. Some examples are king Harshvardhana, Chandragupta Maurya (grandfather of Ashoka), Mughal Emperors like Babur, Humayun and Jahangir. They never focused much on warfare, which is the very reason why they fell to European powers(Mughal Emperors did focus a lot on warfare, though). So, my country is more inclined toward the Egyptian way.
Please, say the names of the books at the background! I'm intrigued. Especially the ones on the pile's top.
Hi Julia! So on the pile from bottom to top Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art (British Museum), The Greek Vase: Art of the Story Teller (British Museum), Archaeology: The Whole Story by Paul Bahn, The Iliad and Odyssey (Cloth bound Penguin editions), Constellation Myths by Eratosthenes and Hyginus, The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus, Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod and on the top shelf is Troy: Myth and Reality (British Museum)! The one standing vertical is Manmade Wonders of the World.
I have a theory - could their lack of overall interest in conquest (apart from exceptions mentioned in the comments) be due to the surrounding deserts to the West and East (Libya and the Sinai), and the lack of natural resources or things worth conquering in those regions? For example, they traded with Punt (likely present-day Somalia) for aromatic resins and ivory, but it wasn't necessarily 'worth' conquering that land for these items alone. Trade was a peaceful alternative, and lands they traded with were perhaps not as fertile as the Nile, which supplied them for all their agricultural needs. In other words, there was simply no need to go elsewhere. The Romans, on the other hand, found great bounty in conquest. Just a thought, and I am a novice with Egyptian history, so please be nice!
This is incorrect
Plenty on fertile lands to conquer to the south in Sudan , Ethiopia etc and Somalian kingdoms were rich. Egypt actually conquered most of Kush in sudan and Kush would conquer egypt.Egypt was invaded by desert armies such as Libyans. Maybe Egypt just wanted to mind their own business militarily for the most part
In reviewing the history of other civilizations, it appears there were many similarities to our own. It also shows the influences of those civilization had on other civilization especial Egypt and Rome.
even Rome, Chinese, and Mongol empire can build these kind pyramid. obviously not ancient egypt can. probably some very ancient civilization build them lost in time.
They did adopt the goddess Astarte when they adopted the chariot.
Well presented video, however difficult to compress 3 millennia of history in 9 mins. There is always an exception to every rule and I suspect that had Ramses The Great scored a decisive victory at Kadesh, the Egyptians would have held suzerainty over all the major realms of the Levant. One final point concerns the Hyksos. Recent research demonstrates that the takeover of Egypt was via political machinations rather than a devastating military incursion.
But Egypt did have a small empire, during the New Kingdom. Thutmose III expanded territory into Nubia and to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
They had their fair share of idiots. Animals. Those were NOT deserving of the throne.
i am being forced to watch this
We, the Zapotecs, went into Khemit at 268k bce after we returned to earth and landed at Nazca and started to re establish Atlantis in SA and the Yucatan. At that time Khemit was primarily looked after and lived in by the so-called Black Race, but the way they ran it everyone was welcome there...Nubian , Khemtian, Kushite, Ethiopian, Sudanese, Nigerian are all better terms for the blacks at that time. When we went there at 268k bce we got a slight amount of understandable resistance from some of the Khemtians.. so we demonstrated that they were living in a place of our Ancient technology, by blowing up the pyramid on the top of the mountain at Abu Rowash. We wouldn't have hurt anyone, we just used tat because we were not going to use it anymore anyway. So this why there is a mixture of Khemtians and Atlantean culture is so called "Egypt"... the so called Dynastic Egyptians were nothing. They were a joke , except for a few bright spots here and there like Akhenaten or Hatshepsut, they were a coercive black magic society that used the priest class as a buffer between the lower classes and the elites.. and the lower classes were oppressed with no real hope of any upward mobility in the society due to consanguinity and fraternization laws. Whereas the Khemetians knew how to work out Technology about 20%.. the dynastic Egyptians didn't know how yo work any of it and would simply make up false story after false story of a legacy that was untrue.. like the story of Imhotep is 100% a lie... a big fat joke. A small positive consolations is though that the Ramses were concerned with race mixing with the Europeans...that was a good thing.
Helo iam very interested in history. Pls inform me international scopes
Egypt realy build empire in Egypt new kingdom especially in thutmose3
I don't get the conclusion out of this. They conquered stuff. And they conquered smart, why should they invade the desert or why should they invade territory disconnected to their homeland. "They didn't invade anymore than they needed to ensure their safety" what? I would say they just invaded what they could manage to hold. Thats smart though, and don't get me wrong, I love egyptian history but it's not like the egyptians had a masterplan over thousands of years how to be very polite. It's impressive how long they could defend against very strong opponents, but what they defended was also conquered before. They did not just spawn there. Its also way too much time to summerize like this in my opinion.
Thank you, Kelly.
The real Ancient Egyptians (whereby I mean the pureblood ones) were minding their own business. They were a different species. Peaceful and moral. And VERY hard working (they imagined they would happily work the afterlife). They did not have the awful, aggressive gene in them like the rest of the world (including those in the Sumer region). They were not perfect but clearly superior to all others. Show me one other culture who has had something even remotely similar to Maat. They had a beautiful and moral conception of the afterlife (at least until the Followers of Horus ruined everything with their nonsense). You can tell a lot about how one is by the beliefs about afterlife (or lack thereof). If you don’t believe in one earned through moral conduct, you’re just an animal that seeks to subdue and misuse the planet and others, having a very dubious and flexible (shall we say) ‘morality’.
Even under current occupation that has turned ancient spirituality into a source of baksheesh, Egypt is THE holy place on Earth, especially the Upper Egypt.