Egypt

History of Egypt
Egypt is one of the most fertile areas of Africa, and one of the most fertile of the countries around theMediterranean Sea. Because Egypt is so fertile, people came to live in Egypt earlier than in most places, probably around 40,000 years ago. At first there were not very many people, but gradually Egypt became more crowded, so there was more need for a unified government. Fora while there seem to have been two kingdoms, which we call Upper Egypt (in the south) and Lower Egypt (in the north). Around 3000 BC, at the beginning of the Bronze Age, the king of Upper Egypt conquered the king of Lower Egypt and made Egypt into one kingdom, called Egypt. People called the ruler of this new kingdom the Pharaoh.
From that time until around 525 BC, when Egypt was conquered bythePersians, we divide Egypt's history into six different time periods. In the Old Kingdom (2686-2160 BC), the Egyptians built the Pyramids as tombs for their pharaohs. Then about 2200 BC there seems to have been a change in the climate, and Egypt came apart into a bunch of smaller kingdoms. We call this the First Intermediate Period (2160-2040 BC). By 2040 BC, the pharaohs managed to pull Egyptback together again to form the Middle Kingdom (2040-1633 BC), but the Middle Kingdom pharaohs were never as powerful as the Old Kingdom pharaohs, and they didn't build pyramids anymore. Around 1800 BC, the Middle Kingdom pharaohs lost power again. We call this the Second Intermediate Period (1786-1558 BC). During the Second Intermediate Period, some people from the north called the Hyksos invadedEgypt and ruled Lower Egypt for a while. The Hyksos had horses and chariots, and soon the Egyptian army also learned to use horses and chariots. Around 1500 BC, the Egyptian pharaohs from Upper Egypt were able to push out the Hyksos and reunite Egypt into one country again as the New Kingdom (1558-1085 BC). This is the time when the Bible talks about the Jews being slaves in Egypt. At the end of theBronze Age, there was a general crisis all around the Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia. Along with the Mycenaeans and the Hittites, the Egyptian government also collapsed, leading to the Third Intermediate Period (1085-525 BC). During the Third Intermediate Period, East African kings from south of Egypt in Nubia ruled most of Egypt.
Then in 525 BC, Cambyses, the Persian King, brought an armyto Egypt and conquered Egypt, and made Egypt part of the Persian Empire. The Egyptians didn't like being part of the Persian Empire, but they weren't strong enough to break away. When Alexander conquered the Persian Empire in 332 BC, he also took over Egypt at the same time, and so Alexander's Greek successors ruled Egypt after that (332-30 BC) This time is also called the Hellenistic. TheHellenistic was the time of Cleopatra, who was a Greek woman and alsopharaoh in Egypt. After Cleopatra died, the Romans conquered Egypt and it became part of the Roman Empire for hundreds of years (30 BC-700 AD). Finally about 660 AD, invading Umayyad armies conquered Egypt and made Egypt part of the Islamic Empire which replaced the Roman Empire.

Language

The Egyptian language, which formed aseparate branch among the
family of Afro-Asiatic languages, was among the first written languages, and is known from hieroglyphic inscriptions preserved on monuments and sheets of papyrus. The Coptic language, the last stage of Egyptian, is today the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Hieroglyphs were written on peoples front doors, so that the news of the pharaoh would travelamongst everyone.
The "Koiné" dialect of the Greek language was important in Hellenistic Alexandria, and was used in the philosophy and science of that culture, and was later studied by Arabic
Arabic came to Egypt in the seventh century, and Egyptian Arabic has become today the modern speech of the country. Of the many varieties of Arabic, it is the most widely spoken second dialect, due to the...