Poll Discussion: The most amazing thing about Egypt?
 

Discussion thread for the current poll!

I find the governmental systems that were put into place the most interesting.

Pyramids. :)

Government stability is amazing to me.

I put the construction of the pyramids......cause you know uow the saying goes....it is not how eypt built the pyramids it is how the pyramids built egypt.












where is my Isis Avaeter JfreyHoltz!

Stone work with no iron tools-
 

In case you did not know, here are a few of the amazing things the Egyptians did in stone that you may have forgotten about, or been unaware.

Prior to Cheops- with no iron tools.-
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestor...eppyramid1.htm
"Below ground, the Egyptians created an underground structure on a scale previously unknown, quarrying out more than 5.7 kilometers (about 3 1/2 miles) of shafts, tunnels, chambers, galleries and magazines."

Memmnon-
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/egypt/e...ansmemnon.html
"Egyptians standing by the Colossus, who give a sense of just how immense these 60-foot-tall, 1,300-ton statues really are."


Add in a few other feats such as the raising of an obelisk, the miles of tunnels in the valley of the kings, and the incredible details in life size statues (Braids & cuticles) in extremely hard stone, done without iron tools.

(Perhaps what will probably makes the Pyramids the run away favorite, is it actually encompasses elements of the other three questions. You need an incredibly organized and strong government to even attempt it. Nobody knows how they could make the angles so true, the stonework on site and extraction and shipping of tura limstone is staggaring, think about placing the capstone, and of course- it is the ultimate tribute to the afterlife.)

If you like this stuff, I highly recommend Mark Lehner's book on Pyramids.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

BTW- I never did mention that the ancient Greeks referred to the Egyptians as 'the bread eaters'- in reference to the 5lbs of bread that soldiers recieved every day. The Egyptians are said to called their land (country) the Black land, (KMT) and I believe to have called themselves the children of the Black land. I believe Chris Beatrice coined the phrase, ‘The children of the Nile.’

They had their share of assasinations, usurpers, civil wars, conquerers, tyrants, civil strife, faction/power fights, periods of chaos, iconoclasm, invasions, religious heresy/wars, revolts, rebellions. It may seem like they had stability maybe because in the end the people always had to come back to the river to survive.

This is what I find most fascinating... The power of pharoah, the economic system, a flourishing society, all in a primitive time.

:D in 4 thousand years time we will be primitive do not forget.

The most amazing thing about Egypt? The fact that we are still so fascinated by it today, for whatever reason. :D

What is amazing is you can stand and look one way and see the busy city and all you need to do is turn round and you see pyramids :cool:

Quote:
wodinoneeye
They had their share of assasinations, usurpers, civil wars, conquerers, tyrants, civil strife, faction/power fights, periods of chaos, iconoclasm, invasions, religious heresy/wars, revolts, rebellions. It may seem like they had stability maybe because in the end the people always had to come back to the river to survive.

That is stability. The kind of government, not the governors, was threatened only once by Akenhaton, who tried to subvert the political vision, but "order" was soon restored. The Pharaoh status did not change from the beginning to the end of egyptian civilization.

This has been human nature throughout history... in every civilization.

The pyramids, of course. No one has yet to figure out how they were actually built. Karnak is another awesome site. :D

I wonder that a pharaonic system can last for that long time!

But IMO the most amazing thing is that a nation like Egypt have had very high tech for that time. See what they built without machines and how creative they were... :eek: :eek:

At times the Pharaoh was little more than a puppet manipulated by one faction or another. At other times Egypt was split between upper and lower kingdoms. And at different times the Nomarchs ran their own areas independant/defiant of a distant/impotent Pharaohs control.

I suppose Feudalism in Europe for 1500 years could also be called 'stability'....

When you had available labor, you can do alot.

The Romans never mechanised (watermills/windmills) because they had slave power to do things (even though the technology existed). By the time of the DomesdayBook, England alone had 10 times as many watermills as the entire Roman empire ever had.

Remember, the majority of ordinary Egyptians at the time still lived in mudbrick buildings.

I voted for the government system as well. While the pyramids do impress me, the thought of the concept of "Pharaoh" lasting for so long without any major overhaul is truly something that astonishes the heck outta me. :D

But as Janmeryet said, it's just simply the fact that we are still facinated today by this ancient culture that makes it so darn...well...facinating.

the pyramids facinate me, just watched program showing construction techniques and believe me as an engineer myself they were outstanding and are in use today. im currently working on a £30 million contract building a head office for a leading supermarket in the u.k. and with all the technology at our disposal you still can't beat a string line and plumb bob!

I struggled between Pharaohnic system and Pyramids and finally chose the former. While the Pyramids are an incredible technological wonder, the big ones were all built during a very short period in Egyptian history. And besides, there are pyramids and other incredible ancient buildings from other cultures around the world. But no political system has been able to match that of the Egyptians in terms of longevity. The great Roman Empire at its peak lasted only a few hundred years. Other great civilizations have risen and fallen. I know there were changes and upheavals throughout the more than 3,000 years of Egyptian history, but it was basically a single culture throughout. Nothing else comes close.