Antiquity, vast and richly textured, cloaks the land
of Egypt. In the dimness of prehistory, more than
THE ENDURING
LAND
A SYMBOL OF ROYALTY, this perfectly preserved amulet was among the treas-
ures found in Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb. Tutankhamen was of the 18th
Dynasty, one of the 30 dynasties of kings that ruled Egypt for 3,000 years.
10,000 years ago, man began to settle in the long
valley ribboned by the Nile. Sustained by the
life-giving river, the land prospered and, in the
fourth millennium before Christ, burst into splen-
dour under the first of the pharaohs. And in splen-
dour outstanding in the ancient world, it flourished
for 27 centuries.
Egypt was ancient even to the ancients. It was
a great nation a thousand years before the Minoans
of Crete built their palace at Knossos, about 900
years before the Israelites followed Moses out of
bondage. It flourished when tribesmen still dwelt
in huts above the Tiber. It was viewed by Greeks
and Romans of 2,000 years ago in somewhat the
same way as the ruins of Greece and Rome arc
viewed by modern man.
The great Greek historian Herodotus made a
grand tour of ancient Egypt in the fifth century
B.C. and wrote of "wonders more in number than
those of any other land and works it has to show
beyond expression great". Later writers bore him
out. Journeying the Nile, they passed the imposing
mounds of the pyramids, avenues of sphinxes,
slender obelisks. They were dwarfed by towering
images in stone and intrigued by enigmatic hiero-
glyphics covering the walls of the temples.
Modern man knows of many ancient and won-
derful civilizations, some of them of misty origin
and impressive accomplishments. What sets Egypt
apart from the others?
For one thing, Egypt was one of the earliest of
the ancient lands to weave the threads of civiliza-
tion into a truly impressive culture. More to the
point, it sustained its achievements unabated for
more than two and a half millennia—a span of ac-
complishment with few equals in the saga of hu-
manity.
Nature favoured Egypt. The early civilizations of
Mesopotamia stood on an open plain, and they
spent much of their vitality in defending them-
selves from one another. Palestine, farther west,
was largely unprotected, a prey to invaders. In Egypt
it was different. Desert barriers bordered the Valley
of the Nile and discouraged invasion; the people
lived in relative security. The scattered tribes that
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