Compare and Contrast Mesopotamia and Egypt Approximately 5500 years ago four of the worlds' most prestigious ancient river civilizations had emerged. Our world has been left in astonishment and awe wondering how these civilizations were developed. Egypt and Mesopotamia were the first ancient river civilizations to create cities and their own ways of living. Political, economic, and religion played an enormous role in the development of the ancient cities. Although there is evidence of early Sumerian contact with the Egyptians, Egypt's civilization was largely self-generated and its history and cultural patterns differed from Mesopotamia.
Giza was so grand it was said that it was a staircase to the sun. Finally Ramses temple, which surpassed all of the other Pharaohs temples. All of these Pharaohs changed Egypt in the way that they lived, but these three were the ones that brought the most change through their lives and actions. Zoser was the first King of the third dynasty. During his 19 year reign he brought the end to a seven year famine, and also brought them into a golden age, and he built the step pyramid.
At the peak of the New Kingdom, Egypt consisted of around three million people, so a well organized government was necessary. Egypt's government was very influential and crutial to the way we live today They were ruled by one person with many advisors, was a theocracy, had laws, had social classes, and taxes. Ancient Egypt's government consisted of many intricate parts that shaped the Egyptian ways of life (“Ancient Egyptian Government”). The Egyptians were controlled by one king, called Pharaoh. However, the king was not always called a pharoah.
The reuniting of Egypt under one head of state (the Pharaoh) was conducted as the 18th Dynasty begun by Ahmose. He conducted military campaigns that extended Egypt’s influence and control in Northern Africa and completely eradicated the Hyksos from Ancient Egypt. This resulted in a certain wealth and prosperity for the Pharaohs that followed. According to Catharine H. Roehrig; “The New Kingdom… (Was) of political stability and economic prosperity”. Ahmose was succeeded by his son Amenhotep I as Pharaoh, at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty.
China’s government was nothing like Egypt’s. In China, in the earlier dynasties, it was all centralized, and functioned a lot like feudalism in the renaissance in Europe, or Mesopotamian city states. However as time moved on, and china began to expand, in the Zhou Dynasty the government became decentralized. However in Egypt, It remained an absolute monarchy throughout its history. Also, Chinese emperors were viewed as kingly, while the Egyptian kings, or pharaohs were seen and praised as gods.
Ahmose I, likewise a great leader and great statesmen, founded what would become the greatest and most prosperous time in Egypt’s long and tumultuous history. Ahmose I, during his reign, completed the annexation and removal of the Hyksos from the delta area, reinstated Theban rule over the entirety of Egypt and successfully promulgated Egyptian power in its formerly subject, but at that time independent, sovereign states; Nubia and Canaan. He then restructured the bureaucracy in government, reopened quarries, mines and trade routes and began imperial construction projects of a type and calibre that had not been undertaken since the time of the Middle Kingdom. This building program climaxed in the construction of the last pyramid built by native Egyptian rulers. Ahmose's reign laid the substructure underpinning the entire New Kingdom era, under which Egyptian power reached its peak, demonstrating the profound influence of Ahmose I on the establishment and consolidation of
Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I and later married her half brother Thutmose II, who then reigned for 14 years. Within a few years of his death in 1473, she had herself declared “king” by the priests of Amun, this move made her a co-ruler with Thutmose III for twenty years. Egyptian royal art did not change just because Hatshepsut was a female; her image was portrayed as a male wearing a kilt and linen headdress, occasionally even a king’s false beard. The way in which male kings were not changed to suit each individual ruler and Hatshepsut was by no means an exception the rule. The temple of Hatshepsut was positioned just north of the Middle Kingdom temple of Mentuhotep Nebhepetre in a sea of cliffs which are known as Deir el-Bahri (Su).
world’s most famous pyramids are the three great pyramid tombs at Giza in Egypt. They were built around 589 to 2503 by the three fourth-dynasty kings: Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. Ziggurats are much like Ancient Egyptian pyramids in the way they are built. They both have four sides which are meant to raise up towards the gods. However, unlike Egyptian pyramids, Ziggurats are not smooth on their exteriors.
Geographical Control * The Hyksos first appeared in Egypt c.1800 BC, during the eleventh dynasty, and began their climb to power in the thirteenth dynasty, coming out of the second intermediate period in control of Avaris and the Delta. * By about 1720 BC, they had grown strong enough, at the expense of the Middle Kingdom kings, to gain control of Avaris in the northeastern Delta. (SHOW ON MAP) * This site eventually became the capital of the Hyksos kings, but within 50 years, they had also taken control of the important Egyptian city of Memphis. (SHOW ON MAP) * The Hyksos never really ruled Egypt completely. Though the ruler of Avaris claimed to be King of Upper and Lower Egypt, we know from the discovery of burials from that may have been a result of a massive plague and records dating to the 17th Dynasty king Kamose, show that Cusae, a little further south, was actually the specific boarder point.
Horus eventually won the throne and gained kingship of Egypt. And from this point in time, all the kings of Egypt had their names in serekh’s surmounted by the Horus falcon. This was until the reign of Peribsen, who during his reign removed the Horus falcon from his serekh and replaced it with the Seth, for a change of this magnitude to have taken place; it could suggest a war or rebellion of some kind between Upper and Lower Egypt. In support of this theory the last king of the second dynasty Khasekhemwy, shows his name in a serekh surmounted by both Horus and Seth. So there is a possibility that as a result of a war, Upper and Lower Egypt were reconciled by