Perhaps no other civilization has so thoroughly captured the hearts and minds of the western world as that of the Ancient Egyptians. As humankind emerged from it's early "adolescence" on the road to civilized "adulthood", Ancient Egyptian culture and society was there to lead the way. This ancient land became the known world's leader in art and architecture, science and industry, religion and philosophy. Explore how all of this was rediscovered in the 19th and 20th Centuries, millennia after her star had faded from being in the forefront to forgotten.

Forward Into the Past: The rediscovery of Ancient Egypt.
Explore the explorers of Ancient Egypt- Belzoni, Champollion, Flinders-Petrie, as they revive the dead civilization by cracking the code of the Pharoahs.

Religion and Politics: Things Never Change.
The Pharoah was God Incarnate, Amun, on earth, and as such, was the source of law; yet never subject to it. Understand the pantheon of divinities who ruled the land of the Nile. And after death? The Pharoah passed on to the Goodly West, as the God Osiris. Learn of the techniques of mummification and read about The Book of the Dead.

Architecture and Real Estate: Location, location, location.
The Old Kingdom (III-VI Dynasties, 2700-2300 BC) saw the rise in monumental funerary architecture; designed as tributes to the deceased. Trace the development of pyramid technology from Saqqara to Meidum to Giza.

Architecture and Real Estate, part 2: A shift in policy.

By the time of the New Kingdom (XVIII-XX Dynasties, 1550-1000 BC), the next world was opened up to anyone who has the sufficient coin of the realm to purchase a tomb. Mortuary temples and tomb complexes replaced the pyramid as the gateway to the underworld.

The Ptolemies: Last Gasp of a Dying Empire.
The rise of Greece in the Mediterranean gave Egypt a last chance. The Greek general Ptolemy blended the best of Egyptian and Greek worlds in the end of the 4th Century, after Alexander's death. His empire would rival that of the Syrian Greeks as they would vie for control of Palestine and the major trade routes.

© Copyright 2006, Educational Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.