21 Facts About Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was a civilization in ancient Northeast Africa, situated in the Egyptian Nile Valley in the country Egypt.

The history of ancient Egypt occurred as a series of stable kingdoms, separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods: the Old Kingdom of the Early Bronze Age, the Middle Kingdom of the Middle Bronze Age and the New Kingdom of the Late Bronze Age.

Ancient Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, ruling much of Nubia and a sizable portion of the Near East, after which it entered a period of slow decline.

Large regions of Ancient Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates.

The largest of these early cultures in upper Ancient Egypt was the Badarian culture, which probably originated in the Western Desert; it was known for its high-quality ceramics, stone tools, and its use of copper.

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Ancient Egypt began his official history with the king named "Meni", who was believed to have united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Around 1785BC, as the power of the Middle Kingdom kings weakened, a Western Asian people called the Hyksos, who had already settled in the Delta, seized control of Ancient Egypt and established their capital at Avaris, forcing the former central government to retreat to Thebes.

Ancient Egypt established a new dynasty and, in the New Kingdom that followed, the military became a central priority for the kings, who sought to expand Egypt's borders and attempted to gain mastery of the Near East.

When Tuthmosis III died in 1425BC, Ancient Egypt had an empire extending from Niya in north west Syria to the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Nubia, cementing loyalties and opening access to critical imports such as bronze and wood.

Ancient Egypt was devoted to his new religion and artistic style.

Shoshenq gained control of southern Ancient Egypt by placing his family members in important priestly positions.

The Saite kings based in the new capital of Sais witnessed a brief but spirited resurgence in the economy and culture, but in 525BC, the powerful Persians, led by Cambyses II, began their conquest of Ancient Egypt, eventually capturing the pharaoh Psamtik III at the Battle of Pelusium.

Ancient Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire in 30BC, following the defeat of Mark Antony and Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII by Octavian in the Battle of Actium.

Ancient Egypt received little rainfall, so farmers relied on the Nile to water their crops.

Ancient Egypt is rich in building and decorative stone, copper and lead ores, gold, and semiprecious stones.

Copper was the most important metal for toolmaking in ancient Egypt and was smelted in furnaces from malachite ore mined in the Sinai.

Ancient Egypt relied on trade with Anatolia for essential quantities of tin as well as supplementary supplies of copper, both metals being necessary for the manufacture of bronze.

Many stories written in demotic during the Greco-Roman period were set in previous historical eras, when Ancient Egypt was an independent nation ruled by great pharaohs such as Ramesses II.

Egyptian cuisine remained remarkably stable over time; indeed, the cuisine of modern Egypt retains some striking similarities to the cuisine of the ancients.

Architecture of ancient Egypt includes some of the most famous structures in the world: the Great Pyramids of Giza and the temples at Thebes.

In technology, medicine, and mathematics, ancient Egypt achieved a relatively high standard of productivity and sophistication.