Egypt

Government by a God-King

• Pharaoh was all powerful, worshipped as a god and intimately connected to the major Egyptian gods and goddesses.
• Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, which they called "maat."
• Pharaohs had multiple wives, and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace.
• Women could inherit money and land and divorce their husbands, though only a tiny few ever wielded political power.

Gods, Humans, and Everlasting Life

• Gods were often portrayed with animal heads or bodies.
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife and mummified bodies to preserve them for this post-death journey
• All souls need to justify themselves in the point of death and be either sent to an after-world paradise or the jaws of a monster

The Writing of the Words of God

• Earliest Egyptian writing formed c. 3100 B.C. and were small pictures known as hieroglyphs
• Hieroglyphs represented religious words or parts of words, and most commonly adorned temples
• Hieratic script was a shorthand developed by scribes and priests
• Hieratic script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made from mashed Nile reeds
• Papyrus, the precursor to paper, was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of ancient Egypt.

Calendars and Sailboats

• Egyptian astronomers made a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles
• Due to their excellent knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for many common ailments 
• Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transport ability on the Nile

Pyramids and Temples

• The pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered in marble but the marble was later stripped off during the Muslim conquest
• The Temple of Amon at Karnak is the largest religious building in the world, also made out of huge blocks of stone
• Stone sculptures and interior painting depicting humans and gods in a series of regulated poses, often in profile and without perspective, but were highly effective.