Colibritany

Egypt is one of the first civilization in the Middle East. Traces of early man were found in Egypt dating back as early as 700,000 years ago. Egypt and ancient Canaan to the north probably served asthe bridges by which successive waves of humans: homo erectus, homo habilis, homo neanderthalensis and homo sapiens, evidently migrated out of Africa and into Mesopotamia and Europe. AncientEgyptians used a phonetic-pictograph writing called hieroglyphics by the Ancient Greeks. This system evolved from portrayal of pictures of objects to using stylized representation of objects to representsound combinations and compose words, to a phonetic alphabet much like our own. Ancient Egypt boasted considerable achievements in art, medicine, astronomy and literature, and was the hub of civilizationin much of the Near East and North Africa.
The unique history of ancient Egypt and visible monuments to that history helped Egyptians to preserve a distinct national consciousness, and to remain aseparate entity during the years of Arab, Mameluke and Ottoman conquest. |

| Until the conversion to Christianity, Egyptian polytheistic religion centered around the after life. Pharaohs and richEgyptians built elaborate tombs in caves or in Pyramids, decorated with elaborate art on the interior and containing jewelry and objects that would be needed in the after-life, and in some casesservants and slaves who were interred with their master. The walls of pyramids were decorated with elaborate stylized frescos such as the one at right, in which noble persons were shown as larger thanslaves, and subjects were drawn in profile. In other periods, all subjects were shown in frontal view only. The king or noble person had his or her body embalmed, wrapped in linen, and enclosed in anelaborate carved coffin as a mummy. |
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that Egypt is the gift of the Nile, meaning that it flourished on the top soil that was formed from silt brought by...