IN the last two articles, we were addressing the Mesopotamian and the Egyptian civilizations; we started talking about what happened just before Egypt got united under the role of King Narmer at the beginning of the third millennium BC. We saw how during this period the Egyptians had developed a common conscience, as
Henry Brestead defined it, and how they developed their beliefs, writing script and even their calendar that was used over the years with some modifications up until today.
Narmer started the first dynasty in. what is known as the Old Kingdom in which the first two dynasties are sometimes known as Early Dynasties. The capital was already established in Memphis (near Saqqara now) and it was surrounded by a white wall, hence being called the ‘White Walled City’. At that time, kings used to build their tombs using mud bricks in the form of a platform that is known now as Mastaba. With the building up of knowledge from the Predynastic time, there came a time when engineering had developed enough to start building these Mastabas with cut stones instead of mud bricks.
The master engineer and genius character of that period was Imhoteb who designed a complex that started first with a Mastaba for king Zoser, founder of the third dynasty. Then the Mastaba was enlarged and three diminishing platforms were built on top of it to form, for the first time, a ‘Four Stepped Pyramid’. Then final¬ly, the edifice was increased to have a ‘Six Stepped Pyramid’ which is now the well known Stepped Pyramid of Saqqara. The Stepped Pyramid is not only a pyramid but a Complex consisting of a pyramid surrounded by two temples representing Upper and Lower Egypt as well as many other chapels. In addition, there is a court where the King was supposed to celebrate his jubilee dur¬ing which they would race between the B shaped stands and the two ends of the court and the legend says that the King used to wres¬tle a lion. The whole complex was surrounded by a high wall to simulate the living city of Memphis.
The next dynasty (the fourth) is the most famous one; known mainly because of their building of the three pyramids of Giza. The dynasty started wilh Snefru who built the pyramids of Dahshour and Maidum. Then Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus built the pyramids of Giza successively: The great pyramid of Giza is an everlasting masterpiece of engineering; its precise ori¬entation towards the cardinal points suggests a good mastering of astronomy, its exact square base and pyramidal construction sug¬gest a good knowledge of geometry, raising building b1ocks of an average three tonnes weight to about 150 metres height reflects a good mastering of mechanics and the final construction containing about three million block reaching a total weight of about nine million tonnes, reflects a good knowledge of soil mechanics. NO’ wonder that these pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, not only that, but the only wonder still in existence.
The Ancient Egyptians of that time proved to be, not only pyra¬mid builders, but also excellent sculptors. The statue of Chephren, at the Egyptian museum is a masterpiece of an and a perfection of sculpture; its colossal size and the material used (Basalt) make it very difficult to compare with any later dated sculpture. As for Mycerinus, he left behind a set of statues in a form of triads with different couples of deities. As for Cheops we didn’t find from his time except a small statuette of seven centimetres height. The statuette was found in two parts; first, the body, then few ‘weeks later, the head. They are now put together and demonstrated at the Egyptian Museum.
