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Egyptian religion and architecture
Egyptian religion and architecture
Ancient Egyptian culture
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Five thousand years ago, the egyptians created the earliest and most influential world’s civilizations. They invented writing and the calendar, and their the first to record history. The most impressive thing about egyptians civilizations was how long it lasted, they were around 3,000 years - 1,000 years longer than the Christian era.. The egyptians believed that when they die they would live in another world - which they imagined it to be like Egypt, and that they wanted to continue living in the same way forever.
An egyptian temple was seen as the home because it’s believed that god has a real physical needs like a human being. The temple has a sacred lake that is used for purification- ritual cleaning. As well as washing themselves twice each day and twice at night, the priests washed the gods, and poured water over temple offerings. A bronze vessel, a situla, was used to pour the water. Leopard skin identifies a man as a “sem” priest - a chief priest in charge of a funerary temple. There are different types of priest with different ranks. The egyptian name for priest was hem neter, meaning god’s servant.
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Women played an important role in temple worship as dancers, singers, and musicians.
A sistrum, a sort of rattle, was shaken by women during ceremonies for Hathor, the goddess of beauty, joy, and music. The pharaoh himself sometimes joined in their dances. The goddess Hathor, the wife of Horus, written on her temple walls declares: “The pharaoh comes to dance and sing! Mistress, see the dancing! Wife of horus, see the skipping!” Every temple has a Hall of Offerings, where tables were piled high with food, brought as daily meals for the gods and goddess. In return for the food, the gods gave life. This is symbolized by the ankh - the sign for
life. Every morning, the priests goes into the sanctuary, where the god’s statue was kept inside a bolted wooden shrine. After opening the shrine, they kiss the ground as a mark of respect. They bring the statue, undress it, and wash it with water from the temple’s sacred lake. Each day, the statue was given a new set of clothes and fresh makeup, and offered a meal from the food on the table of offerings. During religious festivals, the priests carried the god outside the temple in a procession. The egyptians believed that their pharaohs were gods living on earth. They believed that god created the world for a place of order and harmony. It was the pharaoh’s job to maintain order. Pharaohs are also chief priest and he spent most of his time performing religious ceremonies. The egyptians believed that their world worked properly, thank’s to the pharaoh’s ceremonies. For example, the sun shone, the crops grew in the fields, and life on earth continued normal. Every ancient egyptians believed in many different gods. Different gods has different roles. They believed that the god has the same characteristics as animals, such as strength, speed, or protectiveness. Most gods were represented as animals whose characteristics they share. It’s easy to get the god’s confused because there are hundreds of them in different forms, they could appear as a human, an animal, or both. Also the god’s took each other’s features and roles. The egyptians believed that death was a start of a long and dangerous journey. Before the dead person goes to the afterlife he would have to travel through the underworld or the Amduat, avoiding monsters, poisonous snakes, and lakes of fire. They have a guidebook called “Books of the Dead”, written on papyrus rolls and painted on mummy cases and tomb walls. It lists all the
Whereas, the Greek Temple’s Layout has a very simple plan with a single room. The roof of the Egyptian Temple is a flat stone. The Greek Temple’s roof is made with terracotta. The Egyptian Temple was not built to be used as a place of worship, but at the Greek Temple they worshipped outside of the temple. Some similarities
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any nation in the world. Written history of Egypt dates back to about 5,000 years, the commencement of civilization. While there is divergence in relation to Early Egyptian times, it is said that Egypt came to be around 3200 B.C., during the reign of a king by the name of Menes and unified the northern and southern cities of Egypt into one government. In 1675 B.C., Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, people from the east, bringing along the very first of chariots and horses ever to come across Egyptian soil. Approximately 175 years later in 1500 B.C., the Egyptians had gotten rid of the Hyksos and driven them out. In 1375 B.C., Amenhotep IV had become the king of Egypt. During his reign he eliminated the worship of Egyptian gods and initiated the idea of only worshipping one god. But after his death, his ideas were retired and old ways were reestablished. Egyptian supremacy then started to decline around 1000 B.C. Between 1000 B.C. and 332 B.C., Egypt was ruled by many such as the Libyans, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and Persians. In 640, Muslims conquered Egypt and founded the city of Cairo in 969 and deemed it as the capital of Egypt. For many centuries Egypt was ruled by Muslim caliphs. A prominent ruler of this period was Saladin, who battled the Christian Crusaders at the conclusion of the twelfth century. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt but was then forced to withdraw in 1801 Turkish and British armed forces. In 1805 Mohamed Ali began ruling Egypt till 1848 and great changed the country in terms of modernization and its military. During Mohamed’s conquest, he borrowed a lot of money from the French and British, which later resulted in Egypt’s coloniza...
Like the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians also believed in god and goddesses and was one of the first to develop their unique writing system called hieroglyphics. Egyptian’s also were the first to construct triangular pyramids with magnificent tombs to bury their dead pharaohs and queens. These pyramids were very comparable to the ziggurats built by the Mesopotamians. The Egyptians unlocked more access when they started using papyrus to make paper in order to communicate. They also inven...
The grandeur with which Egyptians regarded their funerary customs does not come without explanation. They delighted in tying the occurrences of the natural world with supernatural dogma, and their burial practices exemplified this deluge of religion. A special deity was even attributed to cemeteries and embalmers: Anubis (Fiero, 46). Due to this deep sense of religion, a fixation with the afterlife developed within their culture. The Egyptian afterlife, however, is not synonymous of heave, but, rather, of The Field of Reeds, a continuation of one’s life in Egypt meant “to secure and perpetuate in the afterlife the ‘good life’ enjoyed on earth” (Mark 1; “Life in Ancient Egypt” 1). The pursuit of this sacred rest-place prompted the arousal of intricate Egyptian funeral rituals.
Something I noticed after viewing several pieces of ancient Egyptian art is that a great deal of it is religious. It only takes a basic knowledge and understanding of the ancient Egyptians’ religion to know that they have numerous gods and goddesses. They are not exclusive in this way, as there are many other cultures and faiths which have multiple deities. However, the manner in which they portray their many gods through their art is very distinguishable and well-known. This could also be because of the style they use. The use of animals is one of the features that make a...
The Egyptians were very successful at just about everything they came across. As far as clothing, temples, social classes, and religion. The Egyptian religious beliefs tend to differ from many of the other religions. Since the beliefs are so different, it makes it much more interesting. They were affiliated with many deities, which made it a
Egyptians were an astounding set of people woe helped shaping their culture and the rest of the world with the lack of modernized tools. This is translated through their arts, architecture and culture, thus guiding and building the foundation for contemporary society. In terms of history, Egyptians were and still are filled with a vast amount of history which has also contributed with the development unique and diverse society. Their development of religion and culture can be dated back to ancient times and is seen through their various ways of storytelling which has been passed onto generations. These forms of storytelling can be seen ancient Egyptians mythology. Mythology played an important role in ancient Egyptian history because it provided
Ancient Egypt was a very important time in our time period. They had their own way of life. Egyptians had their own writing, burials, government, religion, cooking, and games. They were educated people with many talents. They were good with their hands and brains. Ancient Egyptians were a magnificent race of people.
Egypt was one of the first River Valley Civilizations. In Egypt there were big advances in art, math and science and also pottery. We still use the same number system and they even had fractions back in that time. During the Old Kingdom times the pyramids were built. The pyramids were tombs for the pharaohs of Egypt. These pyramids are one of the most popular historical sites in the world.
Although there are few religions that still consider the ways of the ancient Egyptian culture important, they are still out there. They are influenced every day by the history, which permeates their rituals, scriptures, and more. Furthermore, Egypt’s political influence may be outdated and not the clearest system, but it led the way for further development and refinement for future use. Without the influence of Egypt, we would not be the civilization that we are
Initially, the purpose for the temple’s existence is to worship and bring praise to the male god, Amon-Ra. It is believed by the Egyptians that it is under Amon-Ra’s instructions to build the temple as a religious sanctuary to exhilarate his great power by prayer and making offerings. Each of the temple’s features has a specific association with Amon-Ra. For instance, the bordering ram-headed sphinxes represent Amon, and in-between each of the sphinx’s paws is a statue of Amon, which symbolized protection. Over time, the temple developed a new meaning, which was to serve as a reflection of the pharaohs’ ruling as King by executing an order according to their desirable royal traditions. Some rulers chose to modify the temple while others chose to physically expand its borders.
Egyptian Art and Architecture, the buildings, paintings, sculpture, and allied arts of ancient Egypt, from prehistoric times to its conquest by the Romans in 30 bc. Egypt had the longest unified history of any civilization in the ancient Mediterranean, extending with few interruptions from about 3000 bc to the 4th century ad. The nature of the country, fertilized and united by the Nile, and its semi-isolation from outside cultural influences, produced an artistic style that changed little during this long period. Art in all its forms was devoted principally to the service of the pharaoh, who was considered a god on Earth, to the state, and to religion. From early times a belief in a life after death dictated that the dead be buried with material goods to their ensure well-being for eternity. The regular patterns of nature—the annual flooding of the Nile, the cycle of the seasons, and the progress of the Sun that brought day and night—were considered gifts from the gods to the people of Egypt. Egyptian thought, morality, and culture were rooted in a deep respect for order and balance. Change and novelty were not considered important in themselves; thus the style and representational conventions in Egyptian art that were established early in the development of that civilization continued virtually unchanged for more than 3,000 years. To the modern eye the Egyptian artistic idiom may seem stiff and static; its underlying intention, however, was not to create an image of things as they appear in reality, but rather to capture the essence of a person, animal, or object for eternity.
The ancient Egyptians were people of many firsts. They were the first people of ancient times to believe in life after death. They were the first to build in stone and to fashion the arch in stone and brick. Even before the unification of the Two Lands, the Egyptians had developed a plow and a system of writing. They were accomplished sailors and shipbuilders. They learned to chart the cosmos in order to predict the Nile flood. Their physicians prescribed healing remedies and performed surgical operations. They sculpted in stone and decorated the walls of their tombs with naturalistic murals in vibrant colors. The legacy of ancient Egypt is written in stone across the face of the country from the pyramids of Upper Egypt to the rock tombs in the Valley of the Kings to the Old Kingdom temples of Luxor and Karnak to the Ptolemaic temples of Edfu and Dendera and to the Roma...
One of the greatest cultural achievements of Ancient Egypt was undoubtedly in their architecture associated with religion.
Until today, architects and artists, draw inspiration and understanding from Ancient Egyptian art and architecture as they mastered it. The pyramids are masterpieces that bring wonders to other civilizations; they are marvel of human engineering and constructions. Also, the modern world has benefited greatly from the agricultural and irrigation techniques used by ancient Egyptians in the Nile Valley. Their success of their civilization depended heavily on their religious beliefs as it is what dominated and directed their lifestyle. To conclude, Ancient Egypt left an extraordinary imprint on the world today and many countries across the world value and houses their artifacts. The civilization of the ancient Egyptians was not civilized slip at the age of time. Ancient Egyptians civilization was a unique cultural characteristics and achievements that were authenticity. Ancient Egypt civilization has its own credibility among all civilizations, making Egypt the Mother of the World. Ancient Egypt originated in the valley, and the Nile Delta, where ancient Egyptians lived. Ancient Egypt’s cultural aspect refers to the language, worship, customs, organization to their lives, the life management, administrative affairs, their conception of the nature around them, and their dealings with their