Ancient Egypt

So for school, in year twelve, we did a topic on the new kingdom era of Egypt. I thought it was absolutely fascinating, because I'm a huge ancient history buff, and I thought it would be interesting to discuss everyone's views on the pharaohs of that time.

I read these two books, Nefertiti and the Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran (they're fantabulous, check them out), and they gave me some insight into the personalities of these pharaohs and their queens. I mean, it's not all exact but it's awesome to just imagine what everything was like then.

I had always wondered about Akhenaten and what possessed him to change an entire kingdom's religion and force everyone to worship just one god. In the books I read he was displayed as petulant and kind of like a sulky child. I thought it was really interesting, because I imagined him to be really proud and mighty. I never thought him to be a coward, the way Michelle Moran portrayed him in her book 'Nefertiti'

And then in the sequel 'The Heretic Queen' Ramesses II is shown as such a nice guy! I expected him to be really proud and commanding. He's a huge icon in Egyptian History, and I had always seen him as something as a god. To see him as a human being really makes you think...

Anyway, I just have always been fascinated by this period of time!!

The Ancient Egyptians are possibly the most interesting period of History I have ever studied. I'm in love with them, seriously. They're just amazing. I've always wanted to become an Egyptologist if I don't manage to become a Mortician, because they're just so amazing.

As for Akenhaten, I think the way that he changed everything was really strange, but I think it may also have been a success, despite the fact that he's now been nigh on obliterated from all the Egyptian records because he was so extreme.

I find it really annoying that 90% of the time, people only know about the Ancient Egyptians because of Tutankhamun and his tomb being discovered. :grr: Because it's such a fascinating time period!

I'm definately going to have to read those two books. Another one I would recommend in regards to AE fiction is "Pharoah" by Alexander Melfrezi (I think his name is) which is a very good read.

I'd definately like to talk about this! :tehe:

Ancient Egypt. :brightside:
I've always loved ancient egypt.
Everything about them facinated me, how they were so advanced and all that and oh gosh, I'm fangirling about it so much right now.

Jade; Jimmy; Joey:

I'm definately going to have to read those two books. Another one I would recommend in regards to AE fiction is "Pharoah" by Alexander Melfrezi (I think his name is) which is a very good read.

I'd definately like to talk about this! :tehe:

Thanks for the book reference! Ancient Egypt is the most fascinating time period ever. During their time of power, they had such a beautiful culture and religion that set them aside from any other kingdom in the world.

I find it annoyng, too, about Tutankhamun. I mean, he had such a short reign and didn't really have any accomplishments. I find that I'm more interested in the queens, such as Tiye, Nefertiti, Nefertari, and Ankhesepaten. They had such power! And historians firmy believe that, following the death of Akhenaten, Nefertiti changed her name as Smenkhare and ruled for a number of years.

These queens had such power over their men!

I share the Egpytian love of Cats. hehe.

I'm fascinated by Hieroglyphics and the tombs and ancient kings and queens.
I don't know alot about Ancient Egypt and i'd love to go into depth.
One of my biggest dreams is to go to the Valley of the Kings.

Exactly. They hardly talk about the females behind male power, minus the exceptions of actual female Pharoahs or Nefertiti - I thoroughly agree with the idea that she ruled after Tutankhamun. I also find some of the legends of Egypt fascinating, you know? They're just so interesting. I truly think the death of Cleopatra was the death of one of the best, if not the best civilisation known to man. I can't wait to study their medicine indepth this year for History GCSE.

Cool XD I wish I were doing history at University, but Canberra hasn't got history...

One thing I know, though, is that the Ancient Egyptians were way advanced compared to other cultures during that time. Their medicine was far advanced as was their technology.

The thing that fascinates me the most is the religion - I did a paper on religion for ancient history last year and it was totally awesome! I like the whole thing with the weighing of the heart. I mean, it's totally unrealistic but the idea is interesting.

I don't know if any of you guys and gals believe in 'magic' as such, but one thing I find really interesting about Ancient Egypt is all the tales and 'myths' that come out of it.

I heard about a team of British Scientists and Archeologists (spelt that wrong i'm sorry) that excavated a tomb in around 3000 BC. Obviously this could just be a story thats been blown out of proportion, but it's still interesting.
They went into a tomb, and a body that had been in there for thousands of years was sat huddled in the corner, barely decomposed. And the walls had scratch marks that had been made over a period of around 4 years. The body had been trying to scratch it's way out, even though it was dead when put into the tomb.

It just interested me. It's probably a loud of poop, but it's interesting no?

In Dallas, my world history class went to see King Tutkahaman at the Art Museum and it was amazing!
XD The most amazing thing was that all the artifacts were near perfect condition! I marvel that...
I don't think I've learned that much from a field trip before!

Didn't he put some kind of gas into the air of his tomb that stopped anything decomposing? Which is why some of those people that went tomb raiding died, I think.

I think I've heard that myth somewhere before actually :think:
And 99% of all artifacts are supposed to be practically the same condition as they were when buried. Which is awesome.
Their religion really interests me!

I don't know much about their religion.
I don't know what it's called or anything.
I know some of them had some of the 'mainstream' religious views, but I don't know the main religion with all the gods and stuff.

They basically believed in a hell of a lot of Gods. Thse God's all had different purposes, and you don't anger the God's in fear of not getting into the afterlife, to cut an incredibly long story short. That and I don't remember all of the details :tehe:
The reason that the Egyptians hated Akenhaten so much though was because he stopped them from worhipping Ra, the main God, and all of the others and instead only permitted the people to worhip Aten, the Sun God. However, once Akenhated died, the "other" religion was brought back. It's really complicated, but really interesting, and I don't explain it well. :grr:

Yeah. Well, in this book I read Akhenaten disliked the power that the priests of Amun-Ra had. So he changed the religion and forced the priests to relinquish a certain percentage of their treasure. In this book I read he actually killed the High Priest, but that's probably just speculation.

Anyway, Akenaten just wasn't suited to this role because he was the second son. His older brother, Tutmosis, died from an accident. Akhentaten had spent a lot of time learning about religion, especially about the Aten.

I think he was trying to do a good thing by disallowing the priests to have so much power, but this sort of change should be gradually phased in. Not just forced in.

Anyway, the citizens of Egypt weren't permitted to worship the Aten itself, because only the royal family (Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their daughters) were allowed to directly worship Aten. The people were supposed to worship Aten through Akhenaten, so this basically deified him and that might have been his intention also.

But anyhoo going back to the whole religion thing there are thousands of Ancient Egyptian deities but the chief god was Amun-Ra (Or Amun, or Ra). I mean, I know most of the main gods but once I looked up on the internet the Egyptian Gods and there are like three thousand or something. A heck of alot.

I remember reading a book about Cleopatra when I was in fifth or sixth grade written from Clepoatra's point of veiw. It was probably nearly all made up, but it was really interesting.

Lady Lazarus:

Didn't he put some kind of gas into the air of his tomb that stopped anything decomposing? Which is why some of those people that went tomb raiding died, I think.

Actually his tomb didn't appear to have been raided at all; hence why it's so famous; in life Tutankhamun hadn't lived long enough to have made much of an impression; however in death he was fascinating. The fact that his tomb was pretty much intact with everything that had been buried with him still there. Tomb raider's would have been scared off I would have thought because he died so young and the feact that there was a pretty feircesome curse written on the outside wall of the tomb.
When the tomb was opened the people who entered it first got ill because of the air; the chamber had been locked up pretty tightly for a few thousand years, so the oxygen levels were low; hence why nowadays when openinga new chamber they leave it to air first.

Nefertiti I find interesting, although I do also wonder what happened to Tutankhamun's wife.

Cleopatra is also an interesting one, that I enjoy reading about, though from what I have read she was more handsome than gorgeous; but she knew how to flirt and be attractive to a man without seeming... I don't know, advance maybe?

I do enjoy the whole Egyptian history.

I remember learning about Ancient Egypt in middle school. It was quite fascinating, to be honest.

Um. It's hard to talk about it with my friends, because all they know about Egypt is Egyptian pot. :grr:

I love Hatshepsut becuase she ruled dressed as a man. I also the the pyramids.

I adore ancient Egypt - i started learning about it in year 3! (my school was very pushy and shoved advanced knowledge down our throats!) I loved learning about it, and i'm an ancient history buff too!

I got all excited when looking through university courses - found a subject based entirely on Ancient History, and if you chose Egypt, then you could study Hiegylolyphics (spelt wrong, i know!) if you wanted. I badly wanted that course, but i didn't know if i could make a career with that. So I'm a teacher instead.

But my stepmum has a series of books based on Ramses II. It's fascinating, especially because he was seen as a direct relative to Ra. (In the books, he apparently can look straight into the sun without being blinded because of this!) I dont study Egyptian history as much as i'd like to, but i find it fascinating!

The Egyptians discoved that willowbark can be used for pain amoung other things. And it really works. It can be used for headaches, Cramps, inflammation, Weightloss etc. I saw it on the History Channel about this and started using it. I'm very impressed with this herb. Sorry about my spelling errors.