Egypt

Overview
Egypt was a theocracy since its birth. The gods had the final say, and the Pharaoh was thought to be a god incarnate, and he ordered the Egyptian people to build pyramids, temples, to make weapons, etc. If you did anything that was considered sacrilegious by the Pharaoh or the gods, then you were immediately killed. Egypt also has a very dry climate. Their main source of water, trade, and transportation was the Nile river. The Nile was a calm flowing predictable river, unlike the destructive and unpredictable Tigris and Euphrates. This led to a strong and prosperous Egyptian economy because they would not lose any crop to the river, they would know when to harvest. Egypt, although, was very isolated from the other civilizations of the world, so it did not develop new technologies and ideas, but it had less conflict. Egypt's society did not change much from its birth because of the aforementioned reasons. The pharaohs and priests were at the top of the hierarchy because they were believed to be the ones closest to the gods. The landowners came next, and then the peasants. The slaves were at the bottom of the hierarcy. Their main writing system was hieroglyphics, a combination of symbols and pictures to explain stories and the happenings of nature.

Egypt had the Nile river for water, which provided Egypt with fertile land, calm floods, and natural protection from the surrounding desert by means of the river valley. The Nile was Egypt's steady source of water, and Egypt did not have to deal with water shortages compared to other civilizations. They used hieroglyphics for writing and recording.The slavery population in Egypt was high, and most of the people in Egypt were farmers working for landowners. The pharaoh ruled the state.

**Egypt's governing structure:**
-pharoah ruled government because he was known as incarnate of go -pharoah had complete control over legal system -everything the pharoah did was considered correct no matter what

**Climate and Geography:**
-arid climate, limited rainfall -had an isolated location-they were safe from conflict and attack -stagnation -depended on Nile river -Nile had pleasant, predictable floods unlike Tigris and Euphrates

**Social structure:**

 * Social pyramid:**

1.Pharoah Nobles, wealthy landowners, preists, soldiers at top as well

2. Farmers and Artists were middle class Peasants and Serfs were at the bottom. Serf-if farmed another man's land.

Overall, Egypt's social system was fixed and hereditary

Religion/Philosophy:
-Polytheistic -believed in afterlife: it was believed the afterlife was only for upper class, but gradually the afterlife democratized