MYTHS, SAGES AND RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT
Because there were a lot of differend believes in Egypt it's impossible to just say: this is what the ancient Egyptians believed. That's why we just write everything down in general. The arise of the world is very complicated. Some say Amun-Ra made love to him self and thats why the world started excisting. Others say Ptah just sayd: "Create the world" and there she was. In every myth is Nun, the goddess of chaos. She was an endless flood but Ma-at was her couterpart. Ma-at was the goddess of order and justice. Anyway, Amun-Ra married Mut and they were blessed with four wonderfull childs: Nut, Geb, Shu and Tefnet. Nut was the sky, Geb was the earth, Shu was the wind and Tefnet was the fire. They all worked together very well and Nut and Geb got four babys too: Osiris, Isis, Nephtys and Seth. Osiris grew up like a prince. He loved to work hard in the garden and thats why his face is green. He was the first ruler of Egypt and he told everybody how to work on the land. But Seth, his evil brother was very jealous at him so he desided to kill Osiris. He had a party and Osiris came off course. There was a contest, who fitted in a beautifull painted coffin got to keep him. Off course Osiris was the only one that could lay in the coffin. But then, all of a sudden, Seth took up the lid and put it on the coffin. Osiris couldn't breath anymore and he died. Seth threw the case in the Nile. Isis was unstoppable. She wouldn't rest before she had her brothers and husbands body back. She looked everywhere along the Nile but her brothers body was gone. The only place possible was along the banks of the Mediterranian Sea. Isis found Osiris his body in a huge tree, in the garden of a king in a foreighn country. Isis asked the king to kill the tree, but the king wouldn't listen. Thats why she became the prince his babysitter. She made all mortality in the prince disappear, but when the queen heard about this she told Isis to leave, and thats what Isis did. The little prince wanted to go with Isis, so she took the prince and the body of Osiris with her. With her magic she took care of Osiris his body. Osiris became alive again but when Isis was singing the little prince was heart broken and he jumped into the water. Osiris and Isis hid in the Delta. She made love and got a beautifull child called Horus. Horus was going to succeed his father Osiris. He could change himself into a falcon and back and he was a real good god. But one day, when Seth, his evil uncle was hunting in the Delta, Seth found them. Seth ripped the body of Osiris apart into fourteen pieces and threw them into the Nile. Isis was desperate this time. She went looking for every bodypart of Osiris, togheter with Nephtys. Nephtys was married to Seth, but after what he has done, she left him. Every bodypart of Osiris landed in a differend place in Egypt. But Isis and Nephtys found them all and put them in a coffin. On every place a bodypart was found, the people build a temple to honour Osiris. When Isis and Nephtys found every single bodypart, (except for his penis, some say) they wrapped them all together. This was the first mummy. In the mean time, Horus hid himself in the Delta. He grew up with Hathor, the cow- headed goddess. Later he married her. Horus vow vengeance against his evil uncle Seth. He looked for him everywhere and when he found him, there were some serious battles and contests. One of them was a time when Horus came to the king of the gods, Amun-Ra. The king of the gods wanted to know the future and asked it to Horus, because the right eye of Horus is the moon and the left one is the sun. Amun-Ra looked deep into Horus his eyes, but suddenly Seth appeared and ripped Horus his eye out. Now Horus wanted to kill Seth real bad and when he saw Seth in the Delta, he couldn't stop himself. Seth turned himself into a hippopotamus but Horus saw him and attacked with a golden spear. From that moment, Horus reighned Egypt. The Egyptians even believed Horus still lived on in the body of the pharao
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HISTORY
The arise of Egypt
A very long time ago, Egypt was one big oase. But this oase dried up after a lot of years, so everyone had to go to the Nile, because this was the only place where something could live. Before this, the people in Egypt were all nomads, but when the Sahara turned into a desert they started to be farmers. The Nile is every summer flooded because the high mountains in the south then start to melt. The Egyptian farmers used this to make the land fruitfull. For this reason the Egyptians had to cooporate and that's why they picked a leader. But off course the leaders wanted to have more power so they started wars against other leaders. At the end of long fighting, there were two lands, with each one leader. This was Upper and Lower Egypt. The king of Lower Egypt (thats in the south because the Nile streams to the north) won the war and became King of Upper and Lower Egypt, a title that still ran 3000 years after this. The first king of Egypt was Narmer, who's probably the same as the legendary king Menes. There's a picture of him above where he wears the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and where he smites his enemies in the body of a bull. Another symbol of Upper and Lower Egypt is the volture and the snake, or the papyrus and the reed. Narmer was the first pharao of Egypt, and he had a lot successors (there were 30 dynasties). This first period of Egypt (the first dynastie and before) is called the pre-dynastic period. People were still mumified in the hot sand with some artefacts. The first pharaos were buried in Abydos, just like Osiris.
THE OLD KINGDOM
The Old Kingdom started right after the first dynastie. This period is very famous because of the pyramids. The most imporatant rulers of this period were: Djoser, who built the first pyramid, Snefroe, who built three (bad)pyramids, Choefoe, who built the largest pyramid and his sons Chefren and Mycerinus. The first real tombs were the so-called "mastaba's." This were (huge) buildings with a flat roof and just one floor.
…
