THERE is a big debate between archaeologists and historians over which of the two oldest civilisations preceded the other: the Pharaonic or the Mesopotamian. In spite of this question, there are the two oldest civilisations and are considered to be the two pillars that started human recorded history about 5,000 years ago.
Upon the findings and achievements of these two civilizations were the subsequent ones like the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, Islamic and finally the Renaissance period, which led to the modern times.
These two civilisations started about 5,000 years ago, but though they were both preceded by the formation of small scattered communities that developed finally into these major civilizations, they took two different distinct paths. The Pharaonic civilisation started with scattered communities mainly around the Nile valley that were unified at one moment into Kingdoms of upper and lower Egypt; this happened during the period that we name ‘Pre-dynastic’. Then came a king of Upper Egypt called Narmer who unified the two Kingdoms into one nation known since then and up until now as Egypt. He started the first dynastic period of the Old Kingdom, which witnessed the pyramids’ builders like Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos. Due to some economic and Political difficulties, this kingdom weakened and then divided into sub-regions in what is known as the first intermediate period.
That was followed by a reunification of the country and the reestablishment of the dynastic life that is known as the Middle Kingdom. A second intermediate period of unrest then came about that that ended by the initiation of the strongest Kingdom of the Egyptian Pharaonic history, which was the New Kingdom, witnessing some eminent Pharaonic characters like Hatshepsut. Akhenaton, Tut Ankh Amun. Seti I,and Ramses II.
The New Kingdom was followed by a third intermediate period after which came a late period, a time of Egyptian history that witnessed visitors from Assyria, Persia. Libya and Nubia. Then, Egypt was invaded by Alexander the Great who started the Ptolemaic dynasty that ended with Queen Cleopatra. During all this period, Egypt stayed as one nation within its borders. Parallel to this in Mesopotamia, history started by the formation of strong cities in the south that were inhabited by the Sumerians (non-Semitic tribes). The Mesopotamian civilisation was formed by a sequence of nations one after the other. A Semitic community was formed to the north of Sumer and built a city called Akkad. The Akkadians took over Sumeria and started the Akkadian civilisation.
Later on, another city developed to the north of Akkad named Babylon that quickly came to power and took over the Akkadians to form the Babylonian civilisation. Then, another city developed to the north of Babylon named Ashur and soon they, in turn, took over the Babylonians and formed the Assyrian Empire, which was extended to include Egypt (during the late period). Then, Darius I of Persia took over Mesopotamia and Egypt together and formed the Persian Empire which reached Macedonia. Finally Alexander the Great sent them out and spread his power over the Persian Empire’s territories.
