The impression of ancient Egypt, the first thing that comes to mind is the pyramids, and the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor played by "Cleopatra", which makes ancient Egypt exude a luxurious and mysterious temperament. But to unveil the mystery of this ancient Egyptian civilization, we have to start from the time of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt.
A Rosetta Stone
In 1799, an unusual year, when Napoleon's expeditionary army stepped into Egypt, the French army was building fortifications in the port city of Rosetta, the soldiers dug up a stone monument, and the soldiers shouted to their superiors: "Come and see!" There is a big stone stele here. ”
"It's actually Greek!" One of his superiors, General Bushach, was more knowledgeable, and he could see at a glance that it was a valuable artifact. He read the Greek on the tablet, which was originally a tribute to the exploits of Pharaoh Ptolemy V, in 196 BC.
When Bushach looked closely at the large dark stele, there were three different scripts, the first two of which were like heavenly books, and the last of which was the Greek he was familiar with. Fortunately, the Greek text writes that the first paragraph is the holy script, and the second paragraph is his simplified form, also known as the secular body.
Due to the French War, the Great Stone Tablets were transferred to England and became the collection of the British Empire. At that time, there were many ancient Egyptian artifacts and crafts from various sources, especially the dense symbols on them, which no one recognized, and they were called "hieroglyphs".
Rosetta Stone
It is said that these scripts were used by priests and scribes in ancient Egypt, and in the sixth century AD, with the death of the last priest, these words became the book of heaven and no one could read. But one of the three scripts of the Rosetta Stone is Greek, and their meaning can be known by corresponding to the above text, but this is far from revealing an ancient script.
Therefore, the experts decided to invite the professional Egyptology expert Shang Bo liang, who was only about 30 years old at the time and had already published many books about ancient Egypt, and it was in this way that Cham bo liang also wasted decades to successfully decipher this grammar, so that the history of Egypt that was submerged in the fog gradually faded.
II. Gift from the Nile"
Ancient civilizations and ancient countries were formed by rivers, such as the Yellow River Basin in China, the Ganges River Basin in India, and the two river basins in ancient Babylon. Egypt was originally a desert area bordered by the Arabian Desert Plateau in the east and the Sahara Desert in the west, and it was the meandering nile that made it full of life.
The Nile originates at the confluence of the White Nile in central Africa and the Blue Nile in Sudan. Every year, the dry period is from February to May; the river surges out of the river bank in June and July; until November, the river gradually recedes, leaving fertile silt on both sides. This is Egypt's unique advantage, ensuring the development of agriculture, food is also sufficient, is the first place where agricultural civilization appeared.
The Nile has miraculously not changed its periodic flooding pattern for thousands of years, and each flood thickens the land on both sides of the river, which is precisely to increase the fertility of the valley and delta area and ensure agricultural production. Compared with China's Yellow River Basin, it is always flooded, and we all know the story of Dayu Zhishui. The Nile really saved the Egyptians a lot of difficulties, so the Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt "the gift of the Nile."
III. Formation of the Pyramid
When you talk about pyramids, you can't help but mention Eamonhotep, because the idea for the pyramids came from him. Eamon Hopout was the prime minister of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, proficient in medicine and architecture, and was considered the smartest man in the kingdom.
Pharaoh Zosaùsy felt that the tombs of the previous pharaohs were rectangular and did not show the majesty of the king, so he asked his prime minister, Imonhotep, to design a more magnificent and majestic cemetery for him. Receiving this heavy responsibility, the prime minister mobilized his own brain cells, on the basis of the original rectangle, superimposed a layer-by-layer ladder structure, in order to be strong, and changed the mud to stone. The cone-shaped shape of the horns on the flat desert is stable and majestic, and it is immediately favored by the pharaoh.
Since then, generations of pharaohs have been constantly perfecting on this basis, such as the largest Pyramid of Khufu we see now, the height (146.5) multiplied by a billion, that is, the distance from the earth to the sun, its height multiplied by two, ➗ the upper bottom area equal to 3.14159, which is two thousand years earlier than the Greeks who discovered pi; There are many more such pyramid mysteries, adding a lot of mystery to the ancient pyramids.
The pyramids from the ancient Egyptian civilization are the wisdom of the ancient Egyptian people, most of whom were peasants, who took advantage of the flooding of the Nile River to create this immortal miracle with simple tools and reverence for the sun god and pharaoh.
There is also a mummy that cannot be said
Mummies were also a special treatment of corpses in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians believed that people have a soul, called "card", they believe that in addition to the body, there is a soul wandering, the dead person in the underworld after being judged by Yama, the soul will return to the body, in the future will be resurrected, therefore, to protect the body. The ancient Egyptians were also very good at embalming corpses. The process is tedious and complicated, and generally only the pharaohs and noble people can enjoy the intact privileges.
Four· Double Crown Pharaoh"
The Nile Flows in the Middle of the Yellow Sand, and it also nourishes this vast expanse of land for life. As early as 6,000 BC, many prosperous small villages appeared on both sides of the Nile. Gradually developed into a small kingdom, also called "Nome". However, it is roughly divided into two parts, Upper Egypt in the south and Lower Egypt in the north. It was not until about 3000 BC that Menes, the monarch from Upper Egypt, conquered Lower Egypt and established a unified state.
The famous "Narmai Palette" records the exploits of Egypt's first pharaoh, and on one side of the slab depicts the king wearing a white crown on his head, clutching the hair of a captive in one hand, waving a scepter in the other hand, and on the other side depicting the king wearing the red crown of Egypt watching the beheaded enemy. Beginning with Menes, Pharaohs wore red and white crowns on formal occasions.
The front and back of the "Narmai Palette"
Menes not only unified Egypt, but also created a new dynasty. But the history of Egypt is not like the history of China, to remember the Xia, Shang, Zhou or Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, they are all sorted by Arabic numerals, one, two, three... but also convenient, a total of 26 dynasties.
Until the 6th century BC, after Egypt was conquered by the Persians and after the puppets were propped up, Alexander led the Greeks and the new overlord of the Mediterranean, Rome, to become the masters of Egypt, losing their sovereignty, and with the passage of time, almost lost the memory of the past, and the "age of the pharaohs" also became an ancient legend.
The Rosetta Stone is inscribed with the deeds of the Ptolemaic V dynasty, who was the seventh pharaoh and the last pharaoh by the time of Cleopatra, cleopatra. Their family was Greek, and it is said that "Cleopatra" was extremely beautiful and intelligent, and only a few people knew the Egyptian script at that time, and "Cleopatra" was the person who knew this Egyptian script.
Lift the veil of ancient Egypt, discover ancient secrets, and let people understand the history of the past. It is also necessary to wake up to the future development, we must continue to create new technologies and continue to take the pace of exploration. If you want not to fall behind, you must keep up with the pace of the times and move forward with the times.