Ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptians thought of their country as being divided into two parts: a 'black' part and a 'red' part. Both of these parts provided the Egyptians with different things .The Black part was the land that ran next to the Nile. Every year the Nile would flood and black silt would build up on the banks of this great river. This provided the Egyptians with land that they could plant crops in and farm and so, in this way, the black land symbolised the very essence of life - the ability to sustain the community.
The red land was what made up most of the country and was the name they gave to the barren deserts of Egypt. This red land provided the people with a shelter from enemies and was a source of precious metals and stones. It was a fortress when under attack as well as a means of boosting wealth with the outside world.
The ancient Egyptians are well known for the Gods and Goddesses that they worshipped and this a subject widely taught in schools around the world. Each God that the Egyptians worshipped was revered for a different reason. The Egyptian people believed that it was important to worship these gods to ensure that community continued to run smoothly. Some Gods were believed to provide the flooding of the Nile each year so that crops could grow, another was responsible for taking care of people when they died, some Gods were 'local' in that they protected a particular town or village and other Gods represented either a plant or an animal, and in this way were slightly less important.
The leader of Egypt was the Pharaoh and he was King and Ruler of Egypt. He was the representative of all the Gods on earth and was given the title of 'leader of two lands' (meaning both the lower and upper part of Egypt). He would often go into battle for Egypt and whomever he defeated in battle had to accept the Pharaoh as their leader and offer him all the most expensive and valuable possessions their land could offer him.
Ancient Egyptians are well known for the process of 'mummification'. When a person died during this time they would be buried in the desert sand. It was found that due to the heat of the desert the body would be dehydrate very quickly and a very natural and well preserved 'mummy' of the person was left behind. Gradually over time this developed further in the process of 'embalming' (where the body would be wrapped with specially treated linen) after death and then buried. In modern times, discoveries of these buried ancient Egyptians have been made by explorers and archaeologists and they are remarkably well preserved for skeletons that have been dead many thousands of years.
The period of Ancient Egypt spans more than 3 thousand years and although beliefs and values changed a lot during this time, a lot of them still exist in Egypt today.
