Egypt Essays - Egyptian Mythology, Ancient Egyptian Religion

Egypt Essays - Egyptian Mythology, Ancient Egyptian Religion Egypt More than 5,000 years ago, many great civilizations flourished with great power all through out portions of Egypt and Southwest Asia. Due to their astonishing land marks (many of them still erect), to there great ability to understand sciences and math, and to their religion that is still practiced by many; The Egyptian Civilization is the best known. The Nile River Valley, and the hot, vast desert that is sprinkled with a few small oasises, was once home to these humans over 5,000 yeas ago. These Egyptians built many astonishing structures while they settled along the Nile. Many of these great structures (including the pyramids), are still standing tall and proud as ever. The huge brownish pyramids are the final resting place of the pharaohs, or kings. Today people flock from all over the world to see these great works of art. Another one of the structures that still stands is the Sphinx. The Sphinx is a statue built by the ancient Egyptians many years ago. The Summarians, the neighbors to the Egyptians, also had structures which still stand. They had Ziggurats. One of these structures that is standing today is the Khuzistan. These huge layered buildings where not tombs though. These were temples that where built to get closer to heaven. The Egyptians also developed geometry, and they had astonishing scientific knowledge for their time. They used geometry to help them build the pyramids and to restore boundaries of fields after the great flood that they had once a year. Their science knowledge about the human body allowed them to treat illnesses better than any known ancient civilization. They also had the ability to preserve bodies of the dead. This preservation is called mummification. With out this, we could not know so much about them. Their preservations of their powerful pharos allow us to see them almost as they looked 5,000 years ago. But, they weren?t the only ones to make scientific discoveries; though, they were perhaps the best ones at doing it. Summarians are thought to be the ones who invented the much needed, round wheel. Also, the Chaldeans made a calculation of the length of the year to within seven small minutes! The Egyptian religion changed many times over it?s development. Parts of the religion is still practiced by many today. Before Amenhoptop became pharaoh, the Egyptians believed in many gods, or polytheism. Amenhoptop tried to change their religion to monotheism, of believing in one main god. He did this by making the sun god, Aton, the main god. This was to try to make the priest have less power. This made the priest infuriated with Amenhoptop. When Amenhoptop died, the proceeding pharaoh, Tutankhamen (King Tutt), changed it back to polytheism. Their religion also believed that everyone had an after life. They thought that preserving the body would make the spirit happier. Before a person could go to ?heaven? he had to go to the Realm of the Dead. There he was thought to enter the Hall of the Truth. Here he must tell the god Osrisus the kind of life he had lived. If he had ever lied, murdered or been excessively proud he would be thrown to a horrible monster called ?the Eater of the dead?. If he had been good, he could live ! with the sun god and enjoy eternal happiness. This belief helped many people be good instead of evil. The Egyptian religion was very similar to the Persians?. The Persians thought that good would be rewarded and evil would be punished during an afterlife. But, the Summarians did not have a very firm belief in afterlife. The Egyptian civilization is truly the most known about. It is really a neat feeling to know that we can still see the tombs of their pharaohs, and even the pharos themselves that are preserved and look like they did when they lived. We also still have people practice their religion after 5,000 years since it?s beginning. The Egyptians were just amazing them selves.