Religious beliefs

Beliefs in the divine and in the afterlife were ingrained in the ancient Egyptian civilization from its inception. The pharaoh's right to rule stemmed from his connection to the gods, and he acted as a mediator between the material and spiritual realms. The Egyptian pantheon was populated by a diverse array of gods who had supernatural, though sometimes limited, powers and were called upon for help or protection. However, the gods were not always viewed as benevolent, and Egyptians believed they had to be appeased with offerings and prayers. The structure of this pantheon changed continually as new deities were promoted in the hierarchy, but priests made no effort to organize the diverse and sometimes conflicting creation myths and stories into a coherent system.
Officially, the gods were worshiped in cult temples by priests acting on the king's behalf. At the center of the temple, the cult statue of the god was placed in a shrine where the god could manifest himself. Temples were not places of public worship or congregation, and only on select feast days and celebrations would a shrine carrying the statue of the god be brought out for public worship. Normally, the god's domain was sealed off from the outside world and was only accessible to temple officials; common citizens seeking a more direct interaction with the gods could worship private statues and stelae in the home, and amulets offered continuous, personal protection against the forces of chaos.

The Ka statue provided a physical place for the Ka to manifest
After the New Kingdom, the pharaoh's connection to the divine, and thus his role as a spiritual intermediary, were de-emphasized as religious customs shifted to direct worship of the gods. As a result, priests developed a system of oracles to communicate the will of the gods directly to the people.An oracle could be a statue of the god which could be asked a yes or no question, to which it would "respond" by hidden manipulations of a priest; the priests could also pose questions to the oracle behind closed doors. Oracles became very popular for appealing legal verdicts or for justifying military actions and political decisions.
The Egyptians believed that every human being was composed of physical and spiritual parts, called aspects. In addition to the body, each person had a šwt (shadow), a ba (personality or soul), a ka (life-force), and a name. The heart, rather than the brain, was considered the seat of thoughts and emotions. After death, the spiritual aspects were released from the body and could move at will, but they required the physical remains (or a substitute, such as a statue) as a permanent home. The ultimate goal of the deceased was to rejoin his ka and ba and become one of the "blessed dead", living on as an akh, or "effective one". In order for this to happen, the deceased had to be judged worthy in a trial, in which the heart was weighed against a "feather of truth". If deemed worthy, the deceased could continue their existence on earth in spiritual form

Legal system

The head of the legal system in ancient Egypt was officially the pharaoh, who was responsible for proclaiming laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at. Though no legal codes from ancient Egypt survive, the many extant court documents of the period show that Egyptian law was based on a common-sense view of right and wrong that emphasized reaching agreements and resolving conflicts rather than strictly adhering to a complicated set of statutes.
The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all social classes except slaves, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress. Both men and women had the right to own and sell property, make contracts, marry and divorce, receive inheritance, and pursue legal disputes in court. Married couples could own property jointly and protect themselves from divorce by agreeing to marriage contracts, which stipulated the financial obligations of the husband to his wife and children should the marriage end.
Local councils of elders, known as Kenbet in the New Kingdom, were responsible for ruling in court cases involving small claims and minor disputes, although the Kenbet's ability to enforce its rulings was limited.Local Kenbets deferred serious or complicated cases involving murder, major land transactions, and tomb robbery to the Great Kenbet, over which the vizier or pharaoh presided. Plaintiffs and defendants were expected to represent themselves in legal matters and were required to swear an oath to an Egyptian deity that they had told the truth. In cases of tomb robbery or assassination plots, the state took on both the role of prosecutor and judge, and it could torture the accused with beatings to obtain a confession and the names of any co-conspirators. Whether the charges were trivial or serious, court scribes documented the complaint, testimony, and verdict of the case for future reference.
Punishment for minor crimes involved either imposition of fines, beatings, facial mutilation, or exile, depending on the severity of the offense. Serious crimes such as murder and tomb robbery were punished by execution, which was carried out by decapitation, drowning, or impaling the criminal on a stake. Punishment could also be extended to the criminal's family.
From the New Kingdom on oracles began to play a major role in the legal system, dispensing justice in both civil and criminal cases. The procedure was to ask the god a "yes" or "no" question concerning the right or wrong of an issue. The god, carried by a number of priests, rendered judgment by choosing one or the other, moving forward or backward, or pointing to one of the answers written on a piece of papyrus or an ostracon.

Medicine

Ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned in the ancient Near East for their healing skills.Medical papyri show that they performed thorough examinations and treated patients using a combination of prayers, protective amulets, and remedies derived from natural products. Wounds were treated by bandaging with raw meat, honey was used to prevent infection, and opium was used to relieve pain. Garlic and onions were used regularly to promote good health and were thought to relieve asthma symptoms. Ancient Egyptian surgeons stitched wounds, set broken bones, and amputated diseased limbs, but they recognized that some injuries were so serious that the only course of action was to "Moor [the patient] at his mooring stakes, until the period of his injury passes by..." (that is, until the patient died).

Military

The ancient Egyptian military was responsible for maintaining Egypt's domination in the ancient Near East. The military protected mining expeditions to the Sinai during the Old Kingdom and fought civil wars during the First and Second Intermediate Periods. The military was responsible for maintaining fortifications along important trade routes, such as those found at the city of Buhen on the way to Nubia. Forts also were constructed to serve as military bases, such as the fortress at Sile, which was a base of operations for expeditions to the Levant. In the New Kingdom, a series of pharaohs used the standing Egyptian army to attack and conquer Kush and parts of the Levant.
Typical military equipment included bows and arrows, spears, and round-topped shields made by stretching animal skin over a wooden frame. In the New Kingdom, the military began using chariots that were introduced by the Hyksos invaders of the Second Intermediate Period. Weapons and armor continued to improve after the adoption of bronze: shields were now made from solid wood with a bronze buckle, spears were tipped with a bronze point, and a type of scimitar made of bronze, the Khopesh, was adopted from Asian soldiers.
The Egyptian pharaoh was usually depicted in art and literature riding at the head of the army, and there is some evidence that at least a few pharaohs, such as Seqenenre Tao II and his sons, did in fact do so. Soldiers were recruited from the general population, but during, and especially after, the New Kingdom, mercenaries from Nubia, Kush, and Libya were hired to fight for Egypt while under the command of their own officers.

Trade

The ancient Egyptians engaged in trade with their foreign neighbors to obtain rare, exotic goods not found in Egypt. In the Predynastic Period, they established trade with Nubia to obtain gold and incense. They also established trade with Palestine, as evidenced by Palestinian-style oil jugs found in the burials of the First Dynasty pharaohs. By the Second Dynasty the ancient Egyptians had established trade with Byblos, a critical source of quality timber not found in Egypt. In the Fifth Dynasty, trade was established with the Land of Punt, which provided gold, aromatic resins, ebony, ivory, and wild animals such as monkeys and baboons.
Egypt relied on trade with Anatolia for essential quantities of tin as well as supplementary supplies of copper, both metals being necessary for the manufacture of bronze. The ancient Egyptians prized the blue stone lapis lazuli, which had to be imported from far-away Afghanistan. Egypt's Mediterranean trade partners also included ancient Greece and Crete, which provided, among other goods, supplies of olive oil. In exchange for its luxury imports and raw materials, Egypt mainly exported grain, gold, linen, and papyrus, in addition to other finished goods including glass and stone objects

Agriculture

A combination of several favorable geographical features contributed to the success of the ancient Egyptian culture, the most important of which was the rich fertile soil resulting from annual inundations of the Nile river. The ancient Egyptians were thus able to produce an abundance of food, allowing the population to devote more time and resources to cultural, technological, and artistic pursuits. Land management was crucial in ancient Egypt because taxes were assessed based on the amount of land a person owned.
Farming in Egypt was dependent upon the cycle of the Nile River. The Egyptians recognized three seasons in their written records: Akhet (flooding), Peret (planting), and Shemu (harvesting). The flooding season lasted from June to September, depositing on the river's banks a layer of mineral-rich silt perfect for growing crops. After the floodwaters had receded, the growing season lasted from October to February. Farmers plowed and planted seeds in the fields, which were irrigated with ditches and canals. Egypt received little rainfall, so farmers relied on the Nile to water their crops. From March to May, farmers would use sickles to harvest their crops, which would then be threshed with a flail in order to separate the straw from the grain. Winnowing would remove the chaff from the grain, and the grain would then be ground into flour, brewed to make beer, or stored for later use.
The ancient Egyptians cultivated wheat, emmer, barley, and several other cereal grains, all of which were used to make the two main food staples of bread and beer. Flax plants, uprooted before they started flowering, were grown for the fibers of their stems. These fibers were split along their length and spun into thread, which was used to weave sheets of linen and to make clothing. Papyrus growing on the banks of the Nile River was used to make paper. Vegetables and fruits were grown in garden plots, close to habitations and on higher ground, and had to be watered by hand.

Art

The ancient Egyptians produced art to serve functional purposes rather than to express creative genius. For over 3500 years, artists adhered to artistic forms that were developed during the Old Kingdom, following a strict set of principles that resisted foreign influence and internal change. These artistic standards—simple lines, shapes, and flat areas of color combined with the characteristic flat projection of figures with no indication of spatial depth—created a sense of order and balance within a composition. Because of the rigid rules that governed its highly stylized and symbolic appearance, ancient Egyptian art served its political and religious purposes with precision and clarity.
Pharaohs used reliefs carved on stelae, temple walls, and obelisks to record victories in battle, royal decrees, and religious scenes. These art forms glorified the pharaoh, recorded that ruler's version of historical events, and established the relationship between the Egyptians and their deities. Common citizens had access to pieces of funerary art, such as shabti statues and books of the dead, which they believed would protect them in the afterlife.
The ancient Egyptians made little distinction between images and text, which were intimately interwoven on tomb and temple walls, coffins, stelae, and even statues. This mentality is evident even in the earliest examples of Egyptian art, such as the Narmer Palette, where the figures being depicted may also be read as hieroglyphs.

Architecture

The architecture of ancient Egypt includes some of the most famous structures in the world: the Great Pyramids of Giza, Abu Simbel, and the temples at Thebes. All major building projects were organized and funded by the state, and they not only fulfilled religious, military, and commemorative purposes, but also reinforced the power and reputation of the pharaoh to ensure his legacy for all time. The ancient Egyptians were skilled builders with expert knowledge of basic surveying and construction techniques. Using simple but effective measuring ropes, plum bobs, and sighting instruments, architects could build large stone structures with accuracy and precision.
Most buildings in ancient Egypt, including the pharaoh's palace, were constructed from perishable materials such as mud bricks and wood and, for this reason, have not survived. Important structures such as temples and tombs were intended to last forever and were instead constructed of stone. The first large scale stone building in the world, the mortuary complex of Djoser, was built in the Third Dynasty as a stone imitation of the mud-brick and wooden structures used in daily life
Karnak temple's hypostyle halls are constructed with rows of thick columns supporting the roof beams.
The architectural elements used in Djoser's mortuary complex, including post and lintel construction of huge stone roof blocks supported by external walls and closely spaced columns, would be copied many times in Egyptian history. Decorative styles introduced in the Old Kingdom, such as the lotus and papyrus motifs, are a recurring theme in ancient Egyptian architecture
The earliest tomb architecture in ancient Egypt was the mastaba, a flat-roofed rectangular structure of mudbrick or stone built over an underground burial chamber. The mastaba was the most popular tomb among the nobility in the Old Kingdom, and the first pyramid, the step pyramid of Djoser, is actually a series of stone mastabas stacked on top of each other. The step pyramid was itself the inspiration for the first true pyramids. Pyramids were built by the pharaohs of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, but later rulers abandoned them in favor of less conspicuous rock-cut tombs. New Kingdom pharaohs built their rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and by the Third Intermediate Period, the pharaohs had abandoned building grand tomb architecture altogether.
The earliest preserved ancient Egyptian temples, dating back to the Old Kingdom, consist of single, enclosed halls with roof slabs supported by columns. The mortuary temples connected to the pyramids at Giza are examples of this early temple. During the Fifth Dynasty, pharaohs developed the sun temple, the focus of which was a squat, pyramid-shaped obelisk known as a ben-ben stone. The ben-ben stone and other temple structures were surrounded by an outer wall and connected to the Nile via a causeway terminating in a valley temple. In the New Kingdom, architects added the pylon, the open courtyard, and the enclosed hypostyle hall to the front of the temple's sanctuary. Because the common people were not allowed past the entry pylon, the deity residing in the inner sanctuary was distanced from the outside world. This type of cult temple was standardly used until the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods.

The Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was a civilization in eastern North Africa concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River that reached its greatest extent in the second millenium BC. During this period, called the new kingdom, it stretched from southern Syria in the north to as far south as Jebel Barkal, located at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in modern-day Sudan. The fluid geographic range of ancient Egypt also included, at different times, areas of the southern Levant, the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea coastline, the Sinai Peninsula, and the oases of the Western desert.
Ancient Egyptian civilization began around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. Its history is divided into a series of golden ages, known as Kingdoms, that are separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods. After the end of the last golden age, known as the New Kingdom, the civilization of ancient Egypt entered a period of slow, steady decline, during which Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign adversaries. The power of the pharaohs officially ended in 31 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered Egypt and made it a province.
The civilization of ancient Egypt was based on balanced control of natural and human resources under the leadership of the pharaoh, religious leaders, and court administrators. It was notable for many innovations: controlled irrigation of the fertile Nile Valley, mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of literature and an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions in east and central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, and finally, military ventures that defeated foreign enemies and asserted Egyptian dominance throughout the region. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of the divine pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people by means of an elaborate system of religious beliefs