Ancient Egyptian Culture Essays Examples

Starting this course gives me one more opportunity to touch to great and mysterious history of ancient Egypt, which full of different legends and cryptic stories. For example, pyramids: how human could built it up without any special machines or equipment. Maybe it took a place for some specific procedures. Until now, the pyramid’s construction keeps secrets. Another interesting thing is hierarchy and cult of religion. Below I want to show my present knowledge about ancient culture of Egypt and at the end of the course to compare it.
Culture of Ancient Egypt came one of the first. It existed from about the end of IV millennium BC to 332 BC.
Ancient Egypt was the classic example of a river civilization, as a decisive role in its existence played Nile. Stay after mud spill serves as an excellent soil for agriculture, which was the backbone of the economy of Egypt.
The whole lifestyle of the Egyptians rested on a complex system of religious and mythological concepts and cults. Supreme deities were the gods Ra, Amon, Osiris, Pgah, Gore, Tor. Polytheism is partly explained by the fact that each region prefer to believe in its god. However, some of them used public worship. In general, the whole culture was pronounced sacred character. Egyptians initially believed that their country was created by the gods. According to Manetho, to earthly kings ruled Egypt gods, then demigods. Gods destroy the original creators of the chaos created by the world and claim it divine order and truth that constitute the universal harmony, the epitome of which is the goddess Maat. By the beginning of Dynasty V, as the establishment and strengthening of a single state, worship many gods of Egypt, and ordered some of them established a certain hierarchy. In the first place, there is the sun god Ra, or Alyun-Ra. The cult of the sun becomes a major. Care, the disappearance of the sun equivalent to the end of the world.
Along with the cult of the gods no less important role in the lives of the Egyptians played the cult of the deified and Arya - Pharaoh. King not only had an earthly father, but the heavenly father - the supreme sun god Ra. He sacrifices in special temples. We can say that the legislature of the world belonged to the heavenly gods, but law enforcement, executive power was in the hands of kings. Egyptian pharaoh embodied the center of all religious life. Pharaoh was alive at the same time, the earth god and the high priest, to submit the most important rituals that ensure the prosperity of the country. Every spring he cast into the Nile special scroll with the order of the start of the spill. After the death of the deified ruler identified with the god Osiris. Expression of the idea of ​​immortality and unlimited power over ordinary mortals Pharaoh became famous Egyptian pyramids.
Great importance for the Egyptians also had a cult of wild and domestic animals, birds, fish and insects, which indicated the deep roots of totemism in their religious views.
In the era of the Old Kingdom of Egypt for the first time experiencing a heyday. Egyptians themselves considered the era of the Old Kingdom as a golden age in the history of their culture. In the era of the Old Kingdom, it is made almost the entire complex system of worship, and among the many gods set a kind of hierarchy with the sun god Amon-Ra. A significant rise in experiencing art and culture, which formed the specific canons of art.
Leading art of the Old Kingdom was the architecture that developed in unity with other types and genres of art and gave the entire complex. The vast majority of architectural constructions was due to the funeral cult. The first of such installations was the mastaba, which was arranged over the graves of the dead in the form of sand mounds, fortified with brick or masonry wall with a sloping profile, reminiscent of a bench (Mastaba). Consistent complication mastaba and a manifold increase in its size vertically and horizontally in the end it turned into a pyramid.
The pyramids have become a symbol of ancient Egypt. In them, the idea of unlimited power and overpowering Pharaoh’s authority found the most complete embodiment. They also expressed the desire to equalize the Pharaonic gods with immortality, to overcome the time to reach eternity.
Among other monuments worthy of mention the temple of the sun god Ra in Abusir. This marvelous temple is remarkable that goes beyond the mortuary cult, and preserved to this day.
Along with the architecture in the ancient kingdom of successfully developing a sculpture. In addition to the reliefs that decorated the walls of tombs and temples, spread extensively portrait sculpture often associated with the funeral cult. The surviving works give a complete picture of the characteristics and peculiarities of Egyptian sculpture. As a rule, all the statues are located in the quiet and frozen poses, endowed with the same attributes that have the same conditional coloring: red-brown - for men, yellow - for women, black - hair, white - for clothes. Another feature of Egyptian sculpture – geometric figures: absolute symmetry, clean lines, strong balance the right and left half of the body.
Summing up my essay, I want to share some impression of my friends, who had travelled around Egypt. All of them are agree, that country is quite poor, but the most precious thing here is history, culture and pyramids. Every temple has its own spirit and style, entering it; you fully can imagine the worldview of ancient Egyptians. That is the everything, that Egyptians have and try to keep.
In my point of view, the cultural interesting issue is pantheon and its role in Egyptians everyday life. I hope this course provides me more new and useful information and little bit open up some mysteries.