Existing comment:
Egyptian Civilization:
The civilization of ancient Egypt was defined by geography. Located in northeast Africa, Egypt was isolated from the east and west by vast deserts but nurtured by the Nile, the world's longest river, which flows through a narrow valley for some 4,000 miles from the African highlands to the Mediterranean Sea.
What we call Egyptian culture emerged around 3100 BC with the unification of Upper Egypt (the southern kingdom) and Lower Egypt (the northern kingdom in the Nile Delta) under the rule of a single king, Narmer. This civilization flourished largely unchanged until the defeat of Cleopatra VII by Octavian, the founder of the Roman empire, in 30 BC. Even under the Roman empire, however, many aspects of Egyptian culture persisted until they were banned by the early Christians in the late 4th century.
Egypt's distinctive culture was both physically dependent on the annual floods of the Nile and spiritually defined by the river. Egyptian religion was based on the belief that a creator god had established a definite and unchangeable order that governs the entire universe. This order, however, was constantly threatened -- both in the sphere of human activity and in the realm of the divine -- by chaos. The aim of Egyptian culture was to preserve this order, an aim reflected in the general conservatism of Egyptian art. Although changes did occur over the course of Egyptian history, Egyptian art and culture remained distinctive and recognizable for more than 3000 years. |