A lot of new historical study is exploring the influence of the Egyptians on the Minoans and the influence of the Minoans on the Greeks. It's a controversial area, because it contradicts a lot of the theories of history established a long time ago.
But that was in the 1800s, which were an unfortunately racist time. Theories of scientific racism were a huge part of anthropology and archeology back then. For that reason, there was a lot of effort to tie together the histories of India and Europe, and exclude or distinguish the Indo-Aryan tradition from that of the Jewish or African peoples. Because of that, the 'common sense' belief is that Egyptians and Hebrews did not offer not much more than a few quaint ideas about religion. This 'common sense' is starting to change, when there's more and more scholarship to suggest they offered a lot of science and philosophy.
agreed. (you can skip to the bottom if you want
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i myself am starting to be convinced that it thuogh Egypt was not the mother of the west, i dont think Greece shuld have that position anymore.
back in the good ol' days of historical research in the 1800s, the often rascist views of the researchers really, i think, messed up a lot of research and skewed us from what the Egyptians, and other civiilizations, really were. the old view about the origins of Egypt was that some "white" or even Aryan peoples from the middle east suddenly poured in out of nowhere during the time when Egyptian culture was developing, way before statehood; and suddenly, when these Aryans came, Egyptians suddenly knew how to invent concepts like Pharaohs. there is more recent archaeological research that the Egyptian origns may not have come from the north, but actually from the south - excavations in what was once Nubia unearthed artifacts with clearly Egyptian symbolicism - like the boat to the stars (or whatever it is, i can't remember), pharaohs, etc. these artifacts dated to the Predynastic Period of Egypt, that is to say, Egypt before the pharaohs. if more of these artifacts are found, and are consistent, then it is possible, that if Egypt did not originate from Nubia, then at the least it had some connection.
anyhow, to add to the Egyptians amazingness, newer research shows that the Egyptians were excellent in the field of medicine, able to do even some types of primitive surgery; they had excellent knowledge of herbs; there have been some well-pronounced claims that the Egyptians may have even known of the concept of pi and various other mathematical thingies. and if the Egyptians built the pyramids and not the Atlanteans
, then surely the correlations between the Pyramids' and the stars must have shown the Egyptians had an excellent tradition in Astronomy. anyhow, even if all those new developments are not as great as they seem, and even if Atlanteans did build the Pyramids and the Sphnix, the Egyptians still have the architectural and engineering capabilities to build amazing things - Abu Simbel, huge Obelisks, the Valley of the Kings, the Mud-Brick Pyramids of the Middle Kingdom; the Egyptians even attempted to build a "Suez Canal" (and they nearly suceeded as well)! The Pharaoh Necho even sent some Phoenicians on a sailing trip that
may have sailed all aorund Africa (though this is somewhat unlikely and subject to debate)!
Even so, the poweress of the Egyptians in the Ancient World is impressive. The world they were in, that they knew of, consisted of this much - the northeastern corner of Africa (including Nubia, Kush, and Ethiopia), the Levant, Mesopotamia, parts of Persia, Asia Minor, the Balkans (including Greece), the Causacus perhaps, and maybe a link to the Indus. thgouhout all of this, the known world, Egypt was the more powerful. but this was not only during the New Kingdom, as many believe.
After the end of the New Kingdom, Egypt still shone a few more times, though it was on the decline. the Libyan pharaoh Shoshenk, possibly the Biblical Sishak (i think thats his name), sent a campaign into the Levant. a century or two later, the Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt secured a large empire in Africa, once again leading Egypt to rise to power, only to be stopped by the blood-thirsty Assyrians; after the Assyrians left Egypt in peace, the Babylonians came, but then came the reign of the last powerful native Pharaoh of Egypt - Ahmose II, who led his armies to defeat the Babylonians and conquer Cyprus and half the Levant, and to secure alliances with the Greeks to stop the impending Persians. had he not died, i am sure he would have sucessfully held out the Persian invasions, as he was an excellent general. after the Persians finally got kicked out by Alexander, the Ptolemies, came, and although they weren't technically Egyptian, i'll consider them so, just for the sake of something. the Ptolemies built the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Great Library of Alexandria... and their last, Cleopatra, so famous in history, could nearly have been master of the Mediteranean along with her lover Mark Anthony, making Egypt, not Rome, mistress of the world.
anyhow, point is, that is partly why i voted for Egypt.
