Much of the way of life, philosophy, and language as well as religion and art of Egypt has changed since the ancient period of the pharoahs but perhaps due to its favorable location and the influence of its geography, the Egyptian culture has maintained a lasting identity and character throughout a very long history.

Bordered by deserts to the west and east, by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and by the Nile to the south, the kingdom of ancient Egypt had a secure and convenient location that bolstered the growth of a complex society and culture. As a center for trade routes to and from western Asia, the Mediterranean, and central Africa, new elements were continuously introduced into Egyptian culture and made it a thriving nexus.

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The natural environment only added to the texture of the culture and the permanence of a way of life. Between July and October the annual flooding of the Nile, caused by heavy monsoon rains far south in Ethiopia, determined the rhythm of life in the Nile Valley and in the broader Nile Delta. The receding waters deposited rich sediments on the fields that would then be used for planting and harvesting. A dry season would follow, with the Nile water levels falling until the floods would rise again the next year. The Egyptians considered the annual inundation a gift of the gods, a predictable rhythm of nature that enforced confidence in the divinely regulated cycle of life and death.

To imagine what ancient Egyptians looked like we must look to works of art and the archeological record to obtain a picture of who they were. The depictions on mummy sarcophagi or the clay imagery of Egyptian rulers give glances of the physical attributes of the people and also reveal certain aspects of the culture. In accordance with the evolutionary trends of humans in their habitat, the Egyptians’ physical appearance would have been influenced by the particular conditions of the Nile Valley and their cultural artifacts would have equally been defined by the natural offerings of the region: for example, the use of Kohl, a lead ore powder, for eye make-up, light clothing made from plant fibers, such as linen and rush, and the use of copper for tools, among other things.

The historical record of the line of pharaohs that ruled in ancient Egypt is said to have begun with the rule of a king who was able to unite Lower and Upper Egypt. The name attributed to him is Menes, or also possibly the pharoah Narner (of the famed Narner Palette.) From this first pharaoh were to succeed 30 dynasties of pharaohs who would throughout their reigns introduce not only certain hierarchical systems of governing but also particular and sometimes short-lived religious cults of worship.

The typical Egyptian society under the pharaonic dynasties was hierarchically structured with levels of society ascending in importance to the ultimate power of the king (known to us through the Greek term, Pharoah.) There were phases during which the centralized power of the pharoahs was mediated by the rise of regionalism and divisions between the powers of Upper and Lower Egypt but within the power structure of the pharoanic system, the highest offices would be held by members of the royal family. Leadership would be hereditary among the elite class and with the kingship it would often be the case that a son or daughter would co-reign with the ruling parent in advent of succession. It was the case that their were, in the ancient Egyptian line of pharoahs, female regents as well as male regents.

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