he most important asset with which Egypt excels above most of the countries of the world is the accumulated inherited cultural and natural wealth that it possesses. Addressing this subject, as much as it is vital to the country, is very amiable to me and that is why I decided to write a weekly column on the Egyptian Heritage with all its richness in dimensions and prospects.
Let me first explain what I mean by ‘Dimensions of the Heritage’. In order to be structured in the way we look at the diverse aspects of Egyptian Heritage, we categorize it into four dimensions. These are mainly the Historic dimension, the Geographic dimension and the thematic dimension and since we are in the information technology field, we employ technology in the service of the publishing of this categorized Heritage. In this article I will give you a quick briefing on the Historic dimension of the Egyptian Heritage.
Egypt was subject to different layers of history starting with the Prehistoric period which left its traces in some of the caves as well as in the site of Nabta Playa in the western desert. This period extended from 10,000 BC until 5000 BC.
The successive period Egyptologists identified as Predynastic period. Egypt at that time was subdivided into small communities or counties. Then we know that it was unified into two major parts; Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt until King Narmer, 3000 years BC, came to the thrown of Upper Egypt. He conquered Lower Egypt, unified the country into the nation we know up until today and started the first Egyptian dynasty.
With this started the Pharaonic period that we all know which extended successively from the year 3000 BC to the year 300 BC and incorporated three main kingdoms; the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom.
Around the year 300 BC, Egypt was invaded by Alexander the Great who initiated the Ptolemaic period. Then in year 30 BC Egypt was again occupied by Julius Cesar, annexed to the Roman Empire and Egyptians were converted with time into the Coptic religion (sect of Christianity). Ever since then, Egypt had lost the continuity of its language (the Hieroglyphics) as well as its Religion.
In 642 AC Amr Ibn el As entered Egypt with his troops and since then Egypt became part of the Arab-Islamic Empire under the rule of the Omayyads, then the Abbasids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks and finally it was annexed to the Ottoman Empire. In year 1798 Egypt was invaded by the French expedition headed by General Napoleon Bonaparte, the invasion that lasted for three years. In year 1805 Mohamed Ali was appointed governor (wali) of Egypt and consequently formed the Monarchy of Mohamed Ali Family that ruled until 1952. This is considered the modern part of the history of Egypt (the last two Centuries).
In 1952 the Egyptian army took over with what is known as the “1952 revolution” and a Republic was declared in 1954 which had witnessed four presidents up until today (Naguib, Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak).
As we can see through this quick look at the Historical dimension of the Egyptian Heritage, Egypt has lived through numerous historical periods and thus became very rich in remains from Prehistoric to Predynastic to Pharaonic to Ptolemaic to Byzantine to Coptic to Islamic and finally to Modern Eras.
