Ra, Osiris, Isis, Apis, Horus, Hathor--the very names breathe
suggestions of mystery, cruelty, pomp, and power. In the sciences
and in the industrial arts the ancient Egyptians were highly
cultivated. Much Egyptian literature has come down to us, but it is
unsystematic and entirely devoid of style, being without lofty
ideas or charms. In art, however, Egypt may be placed next to
Greece, particularly in architecture.

The age of the Pyramid-builders was a brilliant one. They prove the
magnificence of the kings and the vast amount of human labor at
their disposal. The regal power at that time was very strong. The
reign of Khufu or Cheops is marked by the building of the great
pyramid. The pyramids were the tombs of kings, built in the
necropolis of Memphis, ten miles above the modern Cairo. Security
was the object as well as splendor.

As remarked by a great Egyptologist, the whole life of the Egyptian
was spent in the contemplation of death; thus the tomb became the
concrete thought. The belief of the ancient Egyptian was that so
long as his body remained intact so was his immortality; whence
arose the embalming of the great, and hence the immense structures
of stone to secure the inviolability of the entombed monarch.


The monuments have as yet yielded no account of the events which tended
to unite Egypt under the rule of one man; we can only surmise that the
feudal principalities had gradually been drawn together into two groups,
each of which formed a separate kingdom. Heliopolis became the chief
focus in the north, from which civilization radiated over the wet plain
and the marshes of the Delta.