0:00:00.044,0:00:02.190 - [Narrator] In this video,[br]we are going to give ourselves 0:00:02.190,0:00:04.607 an overview of ancient Egypt, 0:00:06.015,0:00:09.527 which corresponds[br]geographically pretty closely 0:00:09.527,0:00:14.144 to the modern day state of[br]Egypt in northeast Africa. 0:00:14.144,0:00:16.906 Now the central feature[br]in both ancient Egypt 0:00:16.906,0:00:19.833 and in modern Egypt is the Nile River 0:00:19.833,0:00:22.962 that you see in blue right over here. 0:00:22.962,0:00:26.572 And the Nile River is one of[br]the great rivers of the world. 0:00:26.572,0:00:29.539 It rivals the Amazon[br]River as the longest river 0:00:29.539,0:00:32.685 and it sources the[br]tributaries of the Nile Rover 0:00:32.685,0:00:35.421 start even south of this picture 0:00:35.421,0:00:37.742 and the water flows northward 0:00:37.742,0:00:41.442 and eventually its delta[br]reaches the Mediterranean Sea. 0:00:41.442,0:00:46.012 The delta, which is where[br]a river opens into the sea, 0:00:46.012,0:00:49.505 is called a delta because,[br]as you can see, these rivers, 0:00:49.505,0:00:50.451 you can even see it from 0:00:50.451,0:00:51.627 the satellite pictures right over here, 0:00:51.627,0:00:53.593 they start branching up a bunch 0:00:53.593,0:00:56.916 and you have this upside[br]down triangular region, 0:00:56.916,0:00:58.796 which looks a little bit like 0:00:58.796,0:01:01.633 an upside down Greek letter delta, 0:01:01.633,0:01:03.716 so that's why river delta is called that. 0:01:03.716,0:01:05.305 And this one just happens[br]to be upside down. 0:01:05.305,0:01:06.552 If it was flowing the other way, 0:01:06.552,0:01:08.432 it would be a right-side-up delta. 0:01:08.432,0:01:12.126 So the Nile River, it[br]flows from, you could say, 0:01:12.126,0:01:16.126 eastern mid-Africa up[br]into the Mediterranean Sea 0:01:17.328,0:01:19.781 and because it has this northward flow, 0:01:19.781,0:01:22.953 the southern parts of[br]the river are upriver 0:01:22.953,0:01:25.680 and they are actually[br]called the Upper Nile. 0:01:25.680,0:01:26.513 So, Upper. 0:01:27.571,0:01:31.406 The Upper Nile is actually[br]south of the Lower Nile, 0:01:31.406,0:01:33.270 of the Lower Nile. 0:01:33.270,0:01:36.456 And once again, that's because[br]the Upper Nile is up river, 0:01:36.456,0:01:39.525 it's also flowing from higher elevations 0:01:39.525,0:01:40.846 to lower elevations. 0:01:40.846,0:01:45.039 So as you go south, you get to[br]higher and higher elevations. 0:01:45.039,0:01:48.683 Now, the reason why the[br]river is so important, 0:01:48.683,0:01:50.315 we studied this multiple times, 0:01:50.315,0:01:52.101 rivers are a source of fresh water, 0:01:52.101,0:01:55.339 when they flood they make[br]the surrounding soil fertile, 0:01:55.339,0:01:57.160 they're suitable for agriculture, 0:01:57.160,0:01:59.381 and the Nile Valley is[br]one of the first places 0:01:59.381,0:02:01.731 that we see agriculture emerging 0:02:01.731,0:02:04.340 during the neolithic period. 0:02:04.340,0:02:06.190 In fact, human settlement we believe 0:02:06.190,0:02:08.911 was along this Nile River Valley 0:02:08.911,0:02:12.161 as far as 6,000 BCE or 8,000 years ago, 0:02:14.321,0:02:18.272 and it might have been there[br]even further back in time. 0:02:18.272,0:02:19.781 And because you have that agriculture, 0:02:19.781,0:02:22.212 it allowed for higher[br]population densities, 0:02:22.212,0:02:24.271 which allowed for more[br]specialization of labor 0:02:24.271,0:02:26.170 and more complex societies. 0:02:26.170,0:02:28.103 It's not a coincidence[br]that some of the first, 0:02:28.103,0:02:32.464 that one of the first great[br]civilizations emerged here. 0:02:32.464,0:02:36.297 Now, the story of the[br]Nile River, or of Egypt, 0:02:37.882,0:02:40.590 and actually they are tied very closely, 0:02:40.590,0:02:43.446 even though Egypt is considered[br]a lot of this region, 0:02:43.446,0:02:47.004 most of the human population,[br]this is true even today, 0:02:47.004,0:02:51.171 is right along the river,[br]around that fertile soil, 0:02:53.107,0:02:56.815 where the agriculture actually occurs. 0:02:56.815,0:02:59.315 In fact, this was so important[br]to the ancient Egyptians 0:02:59.315,0:03:01.307 that their whole calendar, their seasons, 0:03:01.307,0:03:04.042 were based on what the[br]Nile River was doing. 0:03:04.042,0:03:05.746 They had a season called the inundation, 0:03:05.746,0:03:08.365 or the flooding of the river,[br]which makes the soil fertile. 0:03:08.365,0:03:10.138 They had a season of growth, 0:03:10.138,0:03:12.145 which is now talking about[br]the growth of the crops 0:03:12.145,0:03:14.615 and they had a season of harvest. 0:03:14.615,0:03:18.889 And so you had people in this[br]valley for thousands of years, 0:03:18.889,0:03:20.926 but when we talk about ancient Egypt, 0:03:20.926,0:03:23.895 we formally talk about[br]it as a civilization 0:03:23.895,0:03:25.895 around 3,100, 3,150 BCE. 0:03:30.346,0:03:33.205 And this is where we get to[br]our timeline right over here. 0:03:33.205,0:03:36.746 So we're talking about right[br]around there on our timeline 0:03:36.746,0:03:38.029 and the reason why this is considered 0:03:38.029,0:03:41.071 the beginning of the ancient[br]Egyptian civilization 0:03:41.071,0:03:42.658 is this is when we believe 0:03:42.658,0:03:46.954 that upper and lower[br]Egypt were first united 0:03:46.954,0:03:50.126 under the king and there's[br]different names used, 0:03:50.126,0:03:52.293 Narmer sometimes or Menes. 0:03:55.991,0:03:57.433 I'm going to mispronounce things 0:03:57.433,0:04:00.561 every now and then and I'm[br]probably doing it here as well. 0:04:00.561,0:04:04.728 And so he was the king that[br]unified upper and lower Egypt 0:04:05.713,0:04:09.609 into an empire and the[br]empire, as we will see, 0:04:09.609,0:04:11.880 which lasted thousands of years, 0:04:11.880,0:04:15.298 every one of these spaces[br]is a hundred years. 0:04:15.298,0:04:18.070 We're gonna go over huge time span, 0:04:18.070,0:04:22.118 but the ancient Egyptian[br]civilization is roughly divided 0:04:22.118,0:04:23.785 into three kingdoms. 0:04:24.673,0:04:28.719 You have the old kingdom,[br]which went from about, 0:04:28.719,0:04:31.802 right from about the 27th century BCE 0:04:34.331,0:04:37.081 up to about the 17th century BCE. 0:04:39.700,0:04:43.220 You have the middle kingdom[br]and you have the new kingdom. 0:04:43.220,0:04:46.660 And once again, this is[br]spanning right over here 0:04:46.660,0:04:49.410 over a thousand years of history. 0:04:50.339,0:04:53.521 And in between those, you have[br]these intermediate periods 0:04:53.521,0:04:56.090 where the kingdom or the empire 0:04:56.090,0:04:57.827 was a little bit more fragmented. 0:04:57.827,0:05:00.124 You have in some of these[br]intermediate periods, 0:05:00.124,0:05:02.774 you have some foreign rule. 0:05:02.774,0:05:06.191 But just to get a sense[br]of some of what happened 0:05:06.191,0:05:07.550 over this thousands of years, 0:05:07.550,0:05:09.161 and I'm kind of laughing in my head 0:05:09.161,0:05:13.490 because it's hard to cover[br]over two, 3,000 years, 0:05:13.490,0:05:15.489 in the course of just a few minutes, 0:05:15.489,0:05:17.946 but this will give you a[br]sense of what ancient Egyptian 0:05:17.946,0:05:20.437 civilization was all about. 0:05:20.437,0:05:23.587 Now the kings are referred to as pharaohs 0:05:23.587,0:05:26.779 but as we'll see that term[br]pharaoh is not really used 0:05:26.779,0:05:28.390 until we get to the new kingdom. 0:05:28.390,0:05:30.598 But I will refer to the kings as pharaohs 0:05:30.598,0:05:31.569 throughout this video, 0:05:31.569,0:05:33.871 just to say, hey these[br]are the Egyptian kings. 0:05:33.871,0:05:37.871 And the old kingdom is[br]probably most known today 0:05:39.369,0:05:41.838 in our popular culture[br]for what we most associate 0:05:41.838,0:05:45.814 with ancient Egypt and[br]that is the pyramids. 0:05:45.814,0:05:47.962 And here, right over[br]here are the pyramids, 0:05:47.962,0:05:49.733 there's the Great Pyramid of Giza, 0:05:49.733,0:05:52.766 which is near modern-day Cairo today. 0:05:52.766,0:05:56.894 This is the Sphinx and they[br]were built in that old period 0:05:56.894,0:06:01.850 under the Pharaohs Sneferu[br]and Khufu, right over here 0:06:01.850,0:06:03.850 in the 26th century BCE. 0:06:07.249,0:06:09.200 And we are still trying to[br]get a better understanding 0:06:09.200,0:06:10.833 of how this was done. 0:06:10.833,0:06:12.568 We actually now don't believe 0:06:12.568,0:06:14.644 that it was done by slave labor, 0:06:14.644,0:06:17.270 but instead it was done[br]during, you could say, 0:06:17.270,0:06:21.479 the off season by the peasants[br]as a form of taxation. 0:06:21.479,0:06:24.569 Okay, you're done planting[br]or harvesting your crops? 0:06:24.569,0:06:25.971 Well now that you have some time, 0:06:25.971,0:06:27.966 and this shows actually the[br]importance of agriculture 0:06:27.966,0:06:30.041 for freeing people up, so to speak, 0:06:30.041,0:06:33.386 why don't you help the pharaohs[br]built these massive tombs, 0:06:33.386,0:06:35.036 which I've seen various estimates 0:06:35.036,0:06:36.339 that it might have[br]taken some place between 0:06:36.339,0:06:40.877 10 and 100,000 people several[br]decades to build each. 0:06:40.877,0:06:42.701 But these are even today, 0:06:42.701,0:06:45.868 these were built over 4,500 years ago, 0:06:46.707,0:06:49.087 are some of the most iconic symbols 0:06:49.087,0:06:51.670 that humanity has ever created. 0:06:52.548,0:06:56.715 And the reason why we know[br]so much about ancient Egypt 0:06:58.547,0:07:01.368 is that we have been able[br]to decipher their writing. 0:07:01.368,0:07:03.224 It's a symbolic, they[br]have these pictographs, 0:07:03.224,0:07:05.335 these hieroglyphics, I'm sure you've heard 0:07:05.335,0:07:06.414 of the word before, 0:07:06.414,0:07:08.492 and for a while we had[br]no idea what they said. 0:07:08.492,0:07:10.683 We would see these[br]encryptions in these tombs 0:07:10.683,0:07:13.194 and we had a sense that, okay these tombs, 0:07:13.194,0:07:15.103 especially things like the pyramids 0:07:15.103,0:07:16.750 would be for these great kings, 0:07:16.750,0:07:19.522 we could tell that it[br]was a stratified society, 0:07:19.522,0:07:21.407 that nobility had better[br]tombs than others, 0:07:21.407,0:07:23.433 but we didn't really have a[br]good sense of what was going on 0:07:23.433,0:07:27.018 until we discovered this,[br]which is the Rosetta Stone, 0:07:27.018,0:07:29.325 which was discovered in 1799. 0:07:29.325,0:07:32.220 The reason why this is so valuable 0:07:32.220,0:07:33.405 is it has the same text 0:07:33.405,0:07:35.966 written in three different languages. 0:07:35.966,0:07:38.335 It has it written in the hieroglyphs 0:07:38.335,0:07:40.166 of the ancient Egyptians, 0:07:40.166,0:07:43.156 and it has it written in a[br]later script used in Egypt, 0:07:43.156,0:07:45.920 called demotic Egyptian,[br]and most importantly, 0:07:45.920,0:07:49.193 it has it also written in Greek. 0:07:49.193,0:07:52.023 And so historians were able to say, 0:07:52.023,0:07:54.756 okay, we can now start to[br]decipher what these symbols mean 0:07:54.756,0:07:57.166 because we have a translation of them 0:07:57.166,0:07:58.939 and that's why it's one[br]of the first civilizations 0:07:58.939,0:08:02.276 where we're able to put[br]the picture together. 0:08:02.276,0:08:06.275 And hieroglyphics are one of[br]the first forms of writing. 0:08:06.275,0:08:09.437 But let's now go on in our journey 0:08:09.437,0:08:13.778 through thousands of years of[br]ancient Egyptian civilization. 0:08:13.778,0:08:16.881 Between the old kingdom[br]and the middle kingdom, 0:08:16.881,0:08:18.944 you have the first intermediate period 0:08:18.944,0:08:20.461 and then you have the middle kingdom 0:08:20.461,0:08:22.471 and then you have the Hyksos, 0:08:22.471,0:08:23.626 which are Semitic people, 0:08:23.626,0:08:25.368 Semitic referring to their language 0:08:25.368,0:08:29.417 being of the same family as[br]Semitic languages like Arabic, 0:08:29.417,0:08:31.598 or Hebrew, or Aramaic. 0:08:31.598,0:08:33.288 But then you have the new kingdom, 0:08:33.288,0:08:36.455 and the new kingdom is[br]considered to be the peak 0:08:36.455,0:08:38.366 of ancient Egypt. 0:08:38.366,0:08:40.666 It's really the height[br]of their technology, 0:08:40.666,0:08:43.903 it's the height of their[br]military capability. 0:08:43.903,0:08:46.972 And there are several pharaohs[br]that are worthy of note 0:08:46.972,0:08:48.431 in the new kingdom. 0:08:48.431,0:08:51.348 The first is, he was born Amenhotep 0:08:53.002,0:08:55.794 or he was originally known[br]as Amenhotep the Fourth 0:08:55.794,0:08:58.793 and then he eventually[br]names himself Akhenaton 0:08:58.793,0:09:01.751 and Akhenaton means effective for Aton, 0:09:01.751,0:09:04.918 Aton being a significant Egyptian god. 0:09:05.969,0:09:10.468 And the reason why he changed[br]his name is he decides 0:09:10.468,0:09:13.244 that, okay we have, the[br]Egyptians have this huge 0:09:13.244,0:09:15.402 pantheon of gods. 0:09:15.402,0:09:17.905 Here is just the sum of[br]them right over here, 0:09:17.905,0:09:21.855 this is the god Osiris, often[br]associated with the afterlife 0:09:21.855,0:09:25.355 or transition, regeneration, resurrection. 0:09:26.876,0:09:30.883 You have the god Amun here[br]and his first name Amenhotep, 0:09:30.883,0:09:33.133 it means Amun is satisfied. 0:09:34.548,0:09:36.872 What is considered kind[br]of the equivalent of Zeus, 0:09:36.872,0:09:39.060 you have the god here Horace, 0:09:39.060,0:09:41.074 once again a very significant god 0:09:41.074,0:09:42.830 at different times in Egypt, 0:09:42.830,0:09:45.932 but what was interesting[br]about Amenhotep the Fourth 0:09:45.932,0:09:47.793 or Akhenaton, whichever[br]name you want to use, 0:09:47.793,0:09:51.021 is he decided, no, no, no,[br]I don't like this pantheon, 0:09:51.021,0:09:54.354 this polytheistic religion that we have, 0:09:55.839,0:09:57.509 I wanna worship one god, 0:09:57.509,0:09:59.366 and the god that he decides to worship 0:09:59.366,0:10:02.755 is really the, you could[br]consider it the sun god, 0:10:02.755,0:10:06.347 or the sun disc, and[br]its representation looks 0:10:06.347,0:10:11.134 something like this and[br]it was referred to as Aten 0:10:11.134,0:10:14.343 and so he changes his name to Akhenaton 0:10:14.343,0:10:17.011 and he actually starts to[br]try to get rid of evidence 0:10:17.011,0:10:21.485 of these other gods or to make[br]them a lot less important. 0:10:21.485,0:10:23.115 And so the reason why that's notable 0:10:23.115,0:10:25.399 is this is viewed as perhaps 0:10:25.399,0:10:27.584 one of the first attempts at monotheism, 0:10:27.584,0:10:32.569 at least within this ancient[br]Egyptian civilization. 0:10:32.569,0:10:37.008 He's also noted for giving[br]a lot of power to his wife, 0:10:37.008,0:10:38.889 to the queen, Nefertiti, 0:10:38.889,0:10:41.886 who some people say was second in command, 0:10:41.886,0:10:45.238 or even co-ruled alongside him. 0:10:45.238,0:10:47.978 Now he was also famous[br]because after his death, 0:10:47.978,0:10:52.145 eventually, his son, King Tut,[br]Tutankhamen, comes to power. 0:10:54.113,0:10:57.179 And the reason why King[br]Tut, as he's often known, 0:10:57.179,0:11:00.106 although it's Tutankhamen,[br]is known is because 0:11:00.106,0:11:04.273 we were able to find his[br]tombs in relatively good order 0:11:05.474,0:11:09.641 and so he's become a popular[br]part of the imagination. 0:11:12.064,0:11:13.726 And he's known as a child pharaoh. 0:11:13.726,0:11:15.413 He comes to power when he's very young, 0:11:15.413,0:11:19.561 he dies at 18 and so it's[br]kind of an interesting story. 0:11:19.561,0:11:23.018 Now, most prominent[br]amongst all of the pharaohs 0:11:23.018,0:11:24.994 across Egyptian history, 0:11:24.994,0:11:26.680 and this is also in the new kingdom, 0:11:26.680,0:11:29.109 comes a little bit after Tutankhamen, 0:11:29.109,0:11:30.859 is Ramses the Second. 0:11:31.703,0:11:35.870 And Ramses the Second, who[br]emerges here in the 13th century, 0:11:36.955,0:11:40.626 and he rules for most[br]of the 13th century BCE, 0:11:40.626,0:11:44.720 he represents really the[br]peak of Egypt, ancient Egypt, 0:11:44.720,0:11:46.549 as a military power. 0:11:46.549,0:11:50.068 He's famous for the Battle at Kaddish, 0:11:50.068,0:11:52.665 which is the earliest battle[br]where we actually know 0:11:52.665,0:11:55.183 what the tactics and the formations were 0:11:55.183,0:11:59.145 and it was with the also[br]significant Hittite Empire 0:11:59.145,0:12:03.312 in 1274 BCE, this is an[br]image drawn much, much later, 0:12:04.546,0:12:05.903 of the Battle of Kaddish. 0:12:05.903,0:12:06.927 The battle, we now believe, 0:12:06.927,0:12:08.434 might have been a bit of a stalemate, 0:12:08.434,0:12:10.861 Ramses the Second wasn't[br]able to capture Kaddish, 0:12:10.861,0:12:13.835 but has told us a lot[br]about military tactics 0:12:13.835,0:12:15.925 and strategy and formation of that time. 0:12:15.925,0:12:18.334 Historians today think it[br]might have been the largest 0:12:18.334,0:12:21.264 chariot battle maybe ever. 0:12:21.264,0:12:24.154 So this was a significant[br]thing that happened. 0:12:24.154,0:12:28.022 Now, eventually the new[br]kingdom does collapse, 0:12:28.022,0:12:30.777 as we get to the end of[br]the second millennium, 0:12:30.777,0:12:33.202 and then over the next[br]several hundreds of years, 0:12:33.202,0:12:35.154 we're talking about a[br]very long period of time, 0:12:35.154,0:12:38.188 it gets fragmented, you[br]have several rulers, 0:12:38.188,0:12:41.794 you have the Kushites[br]rule from the Upper Nile, 0:12:41.794,0:12:45.725 the Kushites were in this[br]area right over here. 0:12:45.725,0:12:47.625 They rule for a brief period. 0:12:47.625,0:12:50.784 The Assyrians, that's a[br]Mesopotamian civilization, 0:12:50.784,0:12:53.895 they rule for a small period of time, 0:12:53.895,0:12:56.241 and then eventually and we[br]talk about this in some detail 0:12:56.241,0:12:59.543 in other videos, you have[br]the Persians take over, 0:12:59.543,0:13:02.902 you have Cambyses, Osiris the Great's son, 0:13:02.902,0:13:06.342 he's able to rule over,[br]he's able to conquer Egypt 0:13:06.342,0:13:09.251 and Egypt becomes part of the[br]Achaemenid Empire for a while 0:13:09.251,0:13:12.611 until the conquering[br]of Alexander the Great. 0:13:12.611,0:13:14.353 And after Alexander the Great dies, 0:13:14.353,0:13:16.994 one of his generals and[br]his dynasty takes over, 0:13:16.994,0:13:20.034 Ptolemaic Egypt and now it's[br]being ruled by foreigners, 0:13:20.034,0:13:22.094 well it's been ruled by[br]foreigners for a while now, 0:13:22.094,0:13:24.138 but now it's by the Greeks 0:13:24.138,0:13:25.719 and the famous Cleopatra, 0:13:25.719,0:13:27.749 who's considered a pharaoh of Egypt, 0:13:27.749,0:13:29.612 she's actually Greek by blood, 0:13:29.612,0:13:33.068 she's actually the one[br]that seduced you could say 0:13:33.068,0:13:35.906 Julius Cesar and Marc Antony 0:13:35.906,0:13:38.422 and after Cleopatra's[br]death, more and more, 0:13:38.422,0:13:42.269 actually eventually it[br]becomes part of Rome. 0:13:42.269,0:13:44.985 So as you can see we[br]covered this enormous large 0:13:44.985,0:13:46.902 time period in history, 0:13:47.815,0:13:50.876 one of the most significant[br]civilizations in all of history, 0:13:50.876,0:13:53.450 one of the most famous[br]poems about civilizations 0:13:53.450,0:13:56.275 and rulers, about Ramses the[br]Second, the poem Ozymandias 0:13:56.275,0:13:57.792 was named after him. 0:13:57.792,0:14:00.366 You have some of the great[br]cities of the ancient world, 0:14:00.366,0:14:01.917 Thebes, which was the capital 0:14:01.917,0:14:05.462 during parts of the new[br]kingdom and the middle kingdom, 0:14:05.462,0:14:07.640 you have Memphis, which was one of the, 0:14:07.640,0:14:09.653 some people say founded by Menes 0:14:09.653,0:14:11.909 and the capital of the old kingdom. 0:14:11.909,0:14:14.862 These were all happening in ancient Egypt.