Egypt’s Golden Empire
Over 3,500 years ago, Rome was no more than a soggy marsh and the Acropolis was just an empty rock, but Egypt was on the brink of its greatest age – the New Kingdom.
There was an explosion of creativity, wealth and power in Egypt that would make it the envy of the world. After defeating the Hyksos invaders, successive Pharaohs expanded and maintained their Empire through both force and diplomacy.
In the process, they won Egypt vast amounts of gold, influence and respect. They included; Ahmose, Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep III, Akenhaten, Tutankhamen and Ramesses III. Behind the power of the Egyptian empire lay a vast wealth of natural resources.
Chief among these was the river Nile, the freeway of the ancient world, whose floodplains also provided huge expanses of fertile farming ground that kept Egypt self-sufficient and usually famine-free. Along the banks of the Nile, the humble papyrus plant was used to create a bureaucratic efficiency and cultural sophistication previously unknown to mankind.
The Warrior Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Sun
The Last Great Pharaoh
December 14th, 2009 at 05:47
How come all these Egyptian films negate the fact that this was a matriarchal society. Women were revered and had power as evidenced in the origin of Egyptian words, still spoken to this day. They were not mere figure heads with limited power as our queen is. But yet the narrator characterizes the time as a ‘mans world’ in his own patriarchial point of view. So, Queen Nefertiti dies, the whole city crumbles, I guess we know who was really in charge, and that the Pharaoh was just the figure head. What was the experiment, oh yeh, that males and females were equal. Failed miserably, without her he was nothing and worse–despised.
This film makes you wonder if one of the 3 queens mentioned owned the face that was originally carved and adorned the sphynx. Yeh, that’s right! The sphynx is a female. A lioness, the hunter.
December 14th, 2009 at 05:57
Ok. Add this to my list of the many “to watch” docs here. You forgot Cleopatra. Wasn’t she an Egyptian powerhouse too? Was she mentioned? I suppose now I’ll just have to watch this doc to answer my own questions.
December 14th, 2009 at 09:29
Cleopatra was a mistress to roman emperors, who were the real rulers, and the great Sphinx of Giza is the (male) Pharao Chephren (Khafre). The Sphinx with Chephrens face symbolise the Sungod, or the son of the Sungod. It’s the greek sphinxs that often are female.
December 22nd, 2009 at 02:34
Very good doc. series. Lucky King Tut was an outcast or his tomb would have been raided too and everything lost like the others.
January 15th, 2010 at 13:43
>Cleopatra was a mistress to roman emperors, who were the >real rulers, and the great Sphinx of Giza is the (male) >Pharao Chephren (Khafre).
You’re right about Cleopatra. (Actually there were eight Cleopatras, and the famous one is seventh.)
And yes, they have thought for long time that Sphinx of Giza is Khafre, but what I found out in Egypt was that most of the egyptologists now think the other way. And actually in Cairo museum they got an amazing statue of Khafre (its written on the statue) and the face has absolutely nothing in common with the Sphinx. That’s not the biggest issue though. The dating, erosion and other reasons now point to direction that Sphinx definitely is not Khafre.
Even more non-orthodox theories about the Sphinx is found in this documentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PotS7hPQZTU