EGYPT HOLIDAYS: EGYPTIAN HISTORY

INTRODUCING EGYPT

The History of Egypt

Egypt's history has been crucially influenced by its environment. When lack of rain forced the early nomadic inhabitants to migrate towards the Nile Valley, the fertile flood-plain gave birth to a nation that produced some of the most important achievements in human history and established a culture that would remain largely unchanged for over 3000 years.

Although the beginning of Egyptian history is generally given as 3100 BC, human activity in the Predynastic Period can be traced back many thousands of years before this date. The Sahara Desert used to be a green and fertile savannah, home to a nomadic population who hunted the wildlife they portrayed in rock drawings (petroglyphs). Archaeologists have also discovered that cattle-herders in Nabta Playa in the Western Desert built stone-circle calendars dating from 8000 BC. The way of life of these early

King Narmer's

Palette C.3J00HC

The need to organize these settlements led to the invention of the world's first form of writing - hieroglyphs. Excavations at Abydos have shown that this script was in use from around 3250 BC several centuries before the earliest writing in Mesopotamia. Further expansion meant settlements inevitably came into conflict with each other. The country polarized into two opposing kingdoms of north (Lower Egypt) and south (Upper Egypt). Around 3100 BC, the two were unified for the first time into a single state.

peoples remained much the same for This event was commemorated on

around 4000 years, but as the climate became increasingly arid, the population left the growing areas of desert Cdeshret or red land) for the banks of the river Nile where the annual flooding sustained a region of great fertility (kemet or black land). The excavation of their settlements has revealed the rapid development of a sophisticated culture of mud-

the cosmetic slate palette of King Narmer (sometimes known as Menes), found at Hierakonpolis. The palette is possibly the most important historical document from the whole of Egyptian history, recording the creation of the world's first nation state. The dramatic pose as he is about to smash the skull of his defeated foe became the standard

brick houses and workshops, together way to portray Egypt's kings

with primitive temple structures.

throughout the next 3,000 years. NEXT: ANCIENT EGYPTIANS