Egypt
Ancient Egypt -- a land of mysteries. No other civilization has so
captured the imagination of scholars and laypeople alike. Mystery surrounds its origins, its religion and its monumental architecture: colossal temples, pyramids and the enormous Sphinx. The Egyptian pyramids are the most famous of all the ancient monuments, the only remaining wonder of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Ancient Egypt existed in a landscape of extremes, with vast expanses of arid desert bordering a narrow ribbon of wonderfully fertile land – and very little has changed to this day.
The Nile is Egypt,s lifeblood. North of Aswan it flows for 900km (560miles) through the Nile Valley until it reaches the Delta, which it traverses in a number of branches ( five during the pharaonic period) before feeding its muddy water into the Mediterranean Sea.
The silt it deposits is thick and black, inspiring the ancient Egyptians name for their country, Kemet (Black land) .
In contrast, the barren desert cliffs were seen to glow pink at dawn, so the desert was described as Deshret (Red land) .
In ancient times, the Egyptian name for the summer season was Akhet , or inundation. It was equivalent to the four months from July to October, when the great river overflowed its banks and flooded the Nile Valley and the Delta.