Egypt
Egypt is a country located on the northern tip of the African Continent, south of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a very old and ancient civilization. Most consider it the cradle of civilization. Ancient Egyptians discovered and invented things that we use today in the modern world. For example, Egyptians created the calendar, and redesigned the hoe into a plow (that was first pulled by men, not animals). They developed irrigation techniques and dams to protect their farms from the flooding of the Nile River. Ancient Egyptians also developed the first ideas of modern geometry that the Greeks later expanded on.
The location of Egypt made it easy for the country to become one of the most powerful in the world at one time. Egypt conquered many countries and was conquered by many countries during its time of dominance. It was first conquered by the Persians around 525 BC, then by the Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great, around 333 BC. And also by the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, in 50 BC. Despite all of its conquerers, Egypt remained the ideal place for Mediterranean people to study scientific, religious and social knowledge. It was such an ideal learning place that many Greek scholars traveled to study there. One of the most famous of all the Greek scholars, Herodotus, recognized Egypt as the cradle of civilization. He believed (though not all modern scholars agree) that Greece borrowed most of the elements of its civilization from Egypt, even elements as sacred as the names of the Greek Gods. In his Histories, Herodotus states;
"The names of nearly all the Gods came to Greece
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Even though Herodotus had strong beliefs that much
of Greek civilization was an adaption of early Egyptian culture,
not many other scholars shared his views. Another Greek scholar
named Plutarch even went so far as to refer to Herodotus as the
"father of lies". They did not believe that the
great advancements and accomplishments that came from Greece were
simply continuations of what Egyptians had begun.
To learn a little more about Egypt, click on one
of the following,
Egypt. I know from the inquiries I have made that
they
have come from abroad, and it seems most likely that
it
was from Egypt, for the names of all the Gods have
been
known in Egypt from the begining of time."