Chapter Summary
Egypt, the gift of the Nile, was the sight of one of the world’s first human civilizations. Benefitting from the life giving waters of the Nile, the Egyptians began farming at the beginning of the New Stone Age and by about 3,000 B.C. had developed a civilization that would be remarkably stable and prosperous for nearly 3,000 years.
Ancient Egypt developed a society whose achievements in art, architecture, government, religion and other human endeavors influenced the rise of Western civilization and became an essential part of Western culture. Egyptian society experienced little change; its history is characterized in five periods – the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom, separated by two Intermediate Periods. The use of the terms Old, Middle, and New, make it evident that we are describing three phases of the same history, the evolution of a single expression of an ancient society.
It is not possible to overstate the importance of Egyptian civilization to the development of Western Civilization which still uses its symbols, including the pyramid and the obelisk. The Greeks and the Romans, who together gave Western civilization its major forms and ideas, were heavily influenced by Egyptian civilization.
Greek civilization begins from contact with the Egyptians and is carried back to Egypt and the Near East by Alexander the Great. The Roman civilization, inspired by the Greek, reaches a turning point with Caesar’s conquest of Egypt. Egyptian art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and religious ideas have impacted and influenced Western culture and still hold a special fascination for Westerners. And in terms of religious thought, the theological thought of the Egyptians may have laid the foundations for all the great religions that originated in the Near East.
But Egypt was not alone in its inspiration to Western Civilization. Of equal importance was the influence of Mesopotamian civilization, the story of which is our next subject.
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