Egypt, located in the desert area, how did it form a long civilization here?

"You not only monopolized the shipping of the whole Mediterranean with your beautiful port, huge fleet and rich products from all over the world. The offshore waters, whether the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean, are also under your control. " -"Pastoral" by Prussa Te Theoklitos

Egypt is located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa.

It faces Europe across the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected with West Asia by land; It spans the Red Sea and is closely connected with the Indian Ocean. It is the bridgehead connecting East and West Arabia and the north gate leading to the interior of Africa.

Ancient Egypt in 3000 BC

Most of Egypt's territory is in Africa, but its existence has always affected Europe and Asia.

It was the only place where East-West trade in ancient times passed, and it was also the place where Mediterranean wealth gathered.

During the Pharaoh's period, Egypt's trade with West Asia and East Africa flourished. During the Torami dynasty, Alexander was called "the bride of the Mediterranean". In the Middle Ages, the Venetians and Genoese who ruled the Mediterranean fought fiercely on this land, because they all knew that Richard, the lion-hearted king who had been annoyed by Saladin's rich military resources, said:

"The key to Jerusalem is in Cairo"

It can be said that when the world is not based on oil and steel, Egypt has long been at the forefront of leading the evolution of the world pattern.

Historians recognize that ancient Egypt is the beginning of human history. As early as 6000 BC (60 BC), ancient Egypt has developed into a large-scale civilized country.

At that time, both the Babylonian civilization in the two river basins and the Chinese civilization in the farther east were still in the early embryonic stage of civilization.

So what is the reason, or what factors contributed to the birth of ancient Egyptian civilization?

I summed up four words-unique.

Moreover, all areas where splendid ancient civilizations can be born, including China, are actually applicable.

Savings: the foundation of civilization and the remains of ancient Egyptian civilization

"Primitive people had the concept and possibility of saving and embarked on the road of civilization"-Marx

In the early days of human society, it was not easy to obtain living resources.

Generally speaking, the closer to the equator, the more suitable for early human beings to thrive because of the high temperature and abundant precipitation all the year round.

As early as 700,000 to 500,000 years ago in the Paleolithic Age, the ancestors of ancient Egyptians engaged in the production activities of collecting plants and hunting animals to maintain their own lives with the help of stone tools.

The hard life in the Paleolithic Age didn't improve until the Neolithic Age.

The great achievements of Neolithic Age are called "Neolithic Revolution", including the appearance of grinding stone tools, the invention of pottery and the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry.

The so-called Neolithic Revolution mainly refers to the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry, but the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry is also an arduous and long process. The Neolithic Age lasted about 2000 years at most in Europe or Egypt at that time.

In recent years, due to the progress of desert archaeology in western Egypt, the Saharan Neolithic culture has been discovered.

It is the earliest Neolithic culture in Egypt (about 8800 ~ 4700 BC). There is no evidence of agriculture here, but it is mainly based on the existence of herds and some pottery.

If history continues like this, the fire of ancient Egyptian civilization may not be lit. Some equatorial countries with similar latitudes and some primitive tribes were gradually discovered in the 20th century, which is the best evidence:

"It is true that the equatorial region is rich in heat and rainfall and has the most suitable conditions for animals to survive, but in fact, the place where humans can control energy in the best way is the temperate regions of Europe and East Asia, not the equatorial region." -"Dark Continent"

Because without the pressure of survival, the ancestors of ancient Egyptians might have maintained the same way of life as those primitive tribes and lasted for a long time. But fortunately, they met with challenges.

Since 4900 BC, especially since 4400 BC, the western desert has become increasingly uninhabitable due to the continuous drought, and the ancient Egyptians gradually began to migrate to the Nile Valley.

Ancient Egypt occupied about 700 miles of the Nile Delta and the Lower Nile Valley (from the mouth of the river), which was a long and narrow strip area, most of which was only 10 mile wide, and extended northward along the river to the Mediterranean Sea.

After 10 century's eastward migration, ancient Egyptian ancestors finally found a fertile land with mild climate.

Although the rainfall is scarce, there are abundant water resources provided by the Nile and desert protection on both sides. Although this water source changes with the seasons, it can maintain a long-term flow.

There are two sources of the Nile: one is located in the equatorial region, with constant rainfall, which is very stable due to the regulation of lakes and swamps, and the flow changes little in a year; The other is in Abyssinia Plateau, which is a seasonal rainfall area. At the turn of spring and summer every year, the flood goes straight to the plain, and then flows from the plain to the arid area further north.

"The Nile Valley is like a stem, the delta is like a flower, and the Fayoum Oasis is like a bud, just like a water lily"-the ancient Egyptians described the land after the unification of upper and lower Egypt.

The Nile begins to flood regularly from July to August every year, and the river overflows and flows into the fields, with a water depth of1~ 2m. After the flood season of 10 ~ 1 1 every year, the river recedes and mineral-rich impactors are deposited on the surface, just like natural fertilization year after year. The Nile valley, especially the delta, has become one of the richest areas in the world. The average thickness of river valley alluvium is 9 meters, and the average thickness of delta alluvium is 15 ~ 23 meters, which is very beneficial to plant growth.

It is this fertile soil suitable for farming that made the ancestors of ancient Egypt begin to move towards agricultural civilization. They get food by farming and harvesting regularly, instead of gathering and hunting.

The fertile land gave them extra food for the first time, that is, they began to save.

The material foundation determines the superstructure-the ancient Egyptians who can fill their stomachs, no longer have to live by "heaven" and make long-term plans began to enrich their spirit.

Religion and writing first appeared, and then the first light of civilization shone on this land.

Desert: the "Umbrella" of Civilization: Ancient Egyptian Settlements in the Origin of Assassin's Creed

"History actually originated in the desert, although incredible." -British geographer James Fair Griff

Because of the different distribution of heat and precipitation, some places on the earth's surface are suitable for human habitation, while others are not.

Desert areas, in most people's cognition, are usually located on the first page of the "list of areas unsuitable for human habitation".

The same is true, otherwise, the episodes about desert survival in Bell Grice's series "Survival in the Wilderness" will be played so much.

However, the existence of desert played a very important role in the birth of early ancient Egyptian civilization.

The lower Nile flows through limestone strata, where the river first washes out of the valley and then fills the alluvial soil brought by the flood in Upper Abyssinia.

But now in the south of Aswan (the upper reaches of the Nile), the river flows through the sandstone layer, and there are huge hard rocks below.

It's a long distance upstream from here, and there are no valleys formed by river scouring, only valleys separated by waterfalls.

In these places, perhaps one or two meters away from the river is a bare desert, with almost no grass and no colonial attraction, so southern Egypt is almost completely closed in both east and west directions.

The starting point of the Lower Nile Valley, where the ancient Egyptian civilization appeared, basically coincides with the starting point of the limestone distribution area, so its south, which existed in ancient times, will not be harassed by foreign invaders at all.

The northern part of ancient Egypt is the ocean. When people knew nothing about it at that time, the sea provided great protection like a desert-with the navigation technology at that time, the Mediterranean was like a moat.

No other place in the world has such unique conditions, which are suitable for the growth and development of early civilization.

The elegy of the ancient country: backwardness is the original sin. Hittites rushed to Pharaoh's guards in chariots.

"This is also a hotbed of many evil things. After all, within the city walls, it is too easy to be infected by power and money. If things come to this, it is no exaggeration to say that the whole city is a monument to its vanity. " -"The Origin of Assassin's Creed"

By about 3000 BC, the pharaohs of the fourth dynasty in Egypt had ruled the whole country from the first waterfall to the sea, with unprecedented development of civilization and increasingly perfect people's organizations, thus making it possible to build the Great Pyramid.

Since then, like the history of all other countries, the power of Pharaoh has obviously declined:

The primitive state machine seems to be out of date, and the power of the central government has been weakening under the rule of several dynasties.

According to the narrow terrain of the Nile Valley, the local governors of several "provinces" or vassal States are naturally divided. At the expense of Pharaoh's interests, they did not seize more and more power, and the situation that the central government was out of control became more and more serious, which greatly affected the overall progress.

Although in the improvement of agricultural irrigation methods, ancient Egypt made great progress in about 10 century. However, the invention of production and combat tools has stagnated.

As mentioned above, an overly comfortable environment is easy to make people lack enterprising mentality. Because of the fertile land and no competitors, ancient Egypt actually stayed in the Stone Age for a long time.

Until about 2500 BC (when the pyramids were built), most of the soldiers of the Pharaoh's army in ancient Egypt were only equipped with stone weapons, which were originally used for hunting.

By about 2500 BC, Egypt regained its power under the rule of the Pharaoh of the first 12 dynasty. At this time, Thebes was the center of Egypt, not Hera Criou, Indianapolis or Memphis.

Under the rule of these pharaohs, the country further prospered, the large-scale irrigation plan was realized, and the wealth increased day by day, reaching its peak in some aspects.

However, after that, ancient Egypt went into decline again. Without any formal invasion, the regime fell into the hands of Hixos, who moved to the Delta and had bronze smelting technology. Fortunately, however, most of these outer feet were assimilated by ancient Egyptian civilization. Thanks to their arrival, ancient Egyptians began to learn the technology of smelting metals.

In BC 1600, Egypt began the process of foreign conquest. The 18th dynasty pharaohs Tuthmos and Amundhotep led Egypt, and their influence continued to expand outward, reaching the mountains of Armenia in the north.

This is because the ancient Egyptians gradually found the best proportion of tin when smelting bronze, and they began to produce more advanced weapons than the original foreigners.

Ancient Egyptian weapons in the origin of Assassin's Creed

However, it was in this kind of external expansion that the traditional culture of ancient Egyptians was greatly destroyed.

Even in metal smelting technology, the ancient Egyptians independently invented iron smelting technology and possessed excellent iron weapons, but the cultural stagnation still corroded this ancient country.

Different from China's ancient civilization, with the progress of technology, the cultural field is still developing and forming an organic whole. In ancient Egypt, there was a serious dislocation in the progress of culture and technology at that time.

Later, although the Ramses dynasty was prosperous, it is worth noting that the national strength of ancient Egypt was still declining.

Summarize the emergence of non-geographical factors, including alien and alien culture, and reduce the influence of geographical conditions that have always maintained ancient Egypt and played an important role in it.

When Senna cribb, the king of the ancient Assyrian Empire (also translated as "Sinna Hrib", reigned in 705-68 BC1year) defeated the "kings of Egypt", it marked that ancient Egypt entered a stage of comprehensive recession.

Since then, Egypt has suffered many invasions and foreign domination, including Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks and Britons. Since 330 BC, Egypt has completely lost its independence.

The ancient Egyptian civilization, which had a dream start, gradually declined due to backward technology and backward cultural development. Today, "ancient Egypt" has become a thing of the past.

Although compared with ancient Egyptian civilization, Chinese civilization is more tolerant and has stood the test of time. But from another ancient civilization, we can also get some enlightenment. After all, it is full of losses and moderate benefits.