Ancient Egypt

A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of the state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond signed or spoken languages (namely, writing systems).

Civilizations are organized around densely populated settlements, divided into more or less rigid hierarchical social classes of division of labour, often with a ruling elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which engage in intensive agriculture, mining, small-scale manufacture and trade. Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over other human beings. Civilizations are characterized by elaborate agriculture, architecture, infrastructure, technological advancement, currency, taxation, regulation, and specialization of labour.

Rubrication is the addition of text in red ink to a manuscript for emphasis. Practitioners of rubrication, so-called rubricators or rubrishers, were specialized scribes who received text from the original scribe. Rubrication was one of several steps in the medieval process of manuscript making. The term comes from the Latin rubrīcāre, "to color red", the base word being ruber, "red". The practice began in pharaonic Egypt with scribes emphasizing important text, such as headings, new parts of a narrative, etc., on papyri with red ink.

The Siwa Oasis (Arabic: واحة سيوة Wāḥat Sīwah [ˈwæːħet ˈsiːwæ]) is an urban oasis in Egypt. It is situated between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of the Egypt–Libya border and 560 kilometres (350 mi) from the Egyptian capital city of Cairo. It is famed from its role in ancient Egypt as the home to an oracle of Amun, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction, giving it the ancient name Oasis of Amun-Ra, after the major Egyptian deity.

Human uses of plants include both practical uses, such as for food, clothing, and medicine, and symbolic uses, such as in art, mythology and literature. Materials derived from plants are collectively called plant products.

Edible plants have long been a source of nutrition for humans, and the reliable provision of food through agriculture and horticulture is the basis of civilization since the Neolithic Revolution. Medicinal herbs were and still remain to be the key ingredients of many traditional medicine practices, as well as being raw materials for some modern pharmaceuticals. The study of plant uses by native peoples is ethnobotany, while economic botany focuses on modern cultivated plants. Plants are also used as feedstock for many industrial products including timber, paper and textiles, as well as a wide range of chemicals.

The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from c. 2613 to c. 2498 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other countries is officially documented.

The Fourth Dynasty heralded the height of the pyramid-building age. The peaceful rule of the Third Dynasty allowed artistic expressions to flourish. Building experiments done by King Sneferu led to the evolution of mastaba tombs into the smooth-sided pyramids like those seen on the Giza Plateau. No other period in Egyptian history equaled the accomplishments achieved during the Fourth Dynasty.

Khafre or Chephren (died c. 2532 BC) was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the fourth king of the Fourth Dynasty, during the earlier half of the Old Kingdom period (c. 2700–2200 BC). He was son of the king Khufu, and succeeded his brother Djedefre to the throne.

Khafre's enormous pyramid at Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, is surpassed only by his father's (the Great Pyramid). The Great Sphinx of Giza was also built for him, according to some egyptologists, although this remains unconfirmed. Little is known about Khafre aside from the reports of Herodotus, a Greek historian who wrote 2,000 years later.

The Third Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty III) is the first dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Other dynasties of the Old Kingdom include the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth. The capital during the period of the Old Kingdom was at Memphis.

The Conventional Egyptian chronology reflects the broad scholarly consensus about the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. It places the beginning of the Old Kingdom in the 27th century BC, the beginning of the Middle Kingdom in the 21st century BC and the beginning of the New Kingdom in the mid-16th century BC.

Disagreements remain within this consensus, and various chronologies diverge by about 300 years for the Early Dynastic Period, up to 30 years in the New Kingdom, and a few years in the Late Period.

The Early Dynastic Period, also known as Archaic Period or the Thinite Period (from Thinis, the hometown of its rulers), is the era of ancient Egypt that immediately follows the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in c. 3150 BC. It is generally taken to include the First Dynasty and the Second Dynasty, lasting from the end of the archaeological culture of Naqada III until c. 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom. With the First Dynasty, the Egyptian capital moved from Thinis to Memphis, with the unified land being ruled by an Egyptian god-king. In the south, Abydos remained the major centre of ancient Egyptian religion; the hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as Egyptian art, Egyptian architecture, and many aspects of Egyptian religion, took shape during the Early Dynastic Period.

Before the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypt's history thereafter, the country came to be known as "The Two Lands" (referencing Upper and Lower Egypt). The pharaohs established a national administration and appointed royal governors, and buildings of the central government were typically open-air temples constructed of wood or sandstone. The earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs appear just before this period, though little is known of the spoken language that they represent.

The Kharga Oasis (Arabic: الخارجة al-Ḫāriǧa, pronounced [elˈxæɾɡæ]) lit. 'the outer'; Coptic: (ϯ)ⲟⲩⲁϩ ⲛ̀ϩⲏⲃ (di)wah enhib, "Oasis of Hib", (ϯ)ⲟⲩⲁϩ ⲙ̀ⲯⲟⲓ (di)wah empsoi "Oasis of Psoi") is the southernmost of Egypt's five western oases. It is located in the Western Desert, about 200 km (125 miles) to the west of the Nile valley. "Kharga" or "El Kharga" is also the name of a major town located in the oasis, the capital of New Valley Governorate. The oasis, which was known as the 'Southern Oasis' to the Ancient Egyptians, the 'outer' (he Exotero) to the Greeks and Oasis Magna to the Romans, is the largest of the oases in the Libyan desert of Egypt. It is in a depression about 160 km (100 miles) long and from 20 km (12 miles) to 80 km (50 miles) wide. Its estimated population is 87,482 as of 2023.