Egipto, Documental Sobre Una De Las Grandes Civilizaciones

The ancient Egyptians called their country Kemet, meaning the black earth, to distinguish it from the surrounding desert, or the red, the red land that occupies 90% of the country. The black earth was nothing more than the fertile silt that the Nile deposited during the annual flood up to where they could get their water. For Egyptians, that noted the arrival of the god Hapy, the god of the river, who brought him wealth and prosperity. The abundant Nile as it passes forms a vast and fertile valley. The southern area is called Upper Egypt. After a journey of 3,728 miles, the river as it approaches the sea, is divided into different arms, which the Greeks called Delta, because the resemblance to the letter of the alphabet. It is the Lower Egypt. At the East of the river lies the Eastern Desert Mountain, which descends to the Red Sea. To the west, the Western Desert, broken only by the presence of a few but precious oases. Egyptian history begins around 3100 BC, when Narmer unifies Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom and established the capital at Memphis. Around 2600 BC, the Old Kingdom begins, a period of peace and prosperity during which they built the first pyramid in Saqarah. With the Fourth Dynasty, they passed from the step pyramid to the pyramid itself, whose best examples are in Giza. By 2200 BC, Egypt begins a period of strong convulsions, in which the state is fragmented and the capital moved to Heracleopolis. A civil war breaks out between this city and Thebes, which the winner will be Mentuhotep II, a Theban crown prince. With him begins the Middle Kingdom, a period of expansion during which the administration and the army will be improved, or Nubia will be conquered, by Sesostris I. This quiet period declined with the invasion of the Hyksos, a stage known as Intermediate Period II. 
 By the year 1550 BC, again the power is transferred to Thebes. Egypt then has its peak during the New Kingdom. Thutmose is the first pharaoh that built a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. His sister, Hatshepsut, ascended to the throne and asks to build the funerary temple of Deir el-Bahari. Outside, Egypt lives glory days. Thutmose III conquered Syria, and Amenhotep III builds relationships with Babylon and Mitanni. Sethi I fight against Libyans, Syrians and Hittites, while Ramses II, the most glorious of the New Kingdom pharaohs, is confronted with the Hittites at Kadesh, in 1274 BC, and signed a peace treaty confirming their dominance. Also during the New Kingdom will happen the heresy of Adenosis IV, proclaiming as the only god of the sun god Aten and make calling himself Akhenaten, shifting the capital of el-Amarna. After his death, Tutankhamun abolished the cult and returned the capital to Thebes. The splendor of the New Empire comes to an end when Egypt was invaded by foreign peoples as the Persians, Greeks and later the Romans, who ruled until the seventh century AD. The language and culture of ancient Egypt remained forgotten for a thousand years, surrounded by a halo of mystery and romance. Over time, news from travelers about its spectacular monuments arouses a lot of curiosity. In 1798, the discovery of the Rosetta Stone enabled the deciphering of hieroglyphics and opened a door where it was shown a fascinating world. The knowledge of ancient Egypt rose due to the work of adventurers and archaeologists, who allowed, and still do, to rescue from oblivion the glorious past of Egypt, World Heritage Site. There are many places whose just the contemplation lets one appreciate, even for a moment, the splendor of the land of the pharaohs. Upriver from the Delta, we first meet Giza, a large courtyard where the three great pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure rise, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world that has survived until today. It is a funerary complex, built on the west bank of the river, as the West is where the sun sets; it was the place of death. Guarding the necropolis of Giza, remaining impassive to the vicissitudes of time and men, the face of the Sphinx. His ancient eyes, full of mystery, contemplate the rising sun on the horizon. Up the Nile, further south, we continue our journey to meet again with a sacred place, Saqarah. This is the great cemetery of the nearby capital, Memphis. The place is dominated by the large funerary complex built by the Pharaoh Zoser, and his step Pyramid, the first erected in Egypt about 2650 BC . The Nile, real backbone, now brings us to the legendary Thebes, the ancient Uaset. City of the living, solar Amun domain, the giver of life, is located on the eastern side, through which the sun rises. For his glory was built in Karnak the largest of all temples, the Ipe-isut, and for 1600 years all the pharaohs wanted to leave his mark here, extending or embellishing their buildings. Very close was the temple of Luxor, which was visited every year during the "Beautiful Feast of Opet”, the image of Amun, which held down the Nile where his marriage with the queen was held, a fact that assured the king's divine descent and his regeneration. Against Thebes, the kingdom of the sun, Amon and life, was located west of the Nile, the kingdom of Osiris, the god of death, just where the sun sets. Here, between the Nile and the mountains, many pharaohs ordered to be built a place for their afterlife, a castle of millions of years, a reminder temple to celebrate their faith. The valleys of the Kings and Queens stored in its numerous tombs, decorated with vivid colors, the secrets of its inhabitants, and since ancient times desecrated by greed and curiosity. Here was found the majestic tomb of Tutankhamun and the wonderful treasure that had to accompany the young pharaoh in the afterlife. Also at the west of the Nile, Queen Hatshepsut had built her own mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahari, in 1466 BC, known as Geser-geseru (the sublime of the sublime), from the Egyptians. Continuing the trip up the Nile, we get to Edfu, the kingdom of Horus, the falcon god. In 237 BC began the construction of his great temple on top a previous one. The temple, the largest in Egypt after Karnak, is also the best preserved, and its walls, full of inscriptions, make it a true library engraved in stone. Very close, up to the Nile, we find Kon Ombo, Sobek and Haroeri domain, the falcon-headed god and the crocodile head. The great temple that we see today was founded in the second century BC and is also one of the best preserved. 
 We are approaching the end of the trip. The construction, over the past century, of the Aswan High Dam, threatened many monuments that were at risk of being flooded. One of the most spectacular was the temple of Isis in Philae, which had to be dismantled and rebuilt, stone by stone in its current location. With building beginning in the third century BC, it was a place of worship with various shrines and tombs, in which it celebrates all the deities involved in the myth of Isis and Osiris. The last surprise of the trip we reserve for the end. Still farther south, in Upper Nubia, we find the two temples of Abu Simbel, half hidden to the exterior look until 1817. As in the case of Philae, both temples were also transferred by the construction of the Aswan dam. A modern Pharaonic work. It was necessary to section more than 1,000 blocks of stone, some of them over 30 tons of weight. The colossal statues of Ramses II guard the outside looking from the inside of the impressive building. And warn the curious that he is in the presence of something more than a man, of a divinity. Inside the sanctuary, we are shown the Pharaoh with the statues of Ptah, Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty, exhibiting this way his divine power. Overshadowed by the greatness of the great temple of Ramses II, the most modest of Hathor is not inferior in beauty. In it, Ramses was represented on the front along with his wife Nefertari, both with the same dimensions, testimony to the prestige of the queen. We have finished our trip, just an outline. Much remains to be seen and learn. Weather, enemy of mankind, has conspired to conceal the splendor of the land of the pharaohs. But the stone, tough and tenacious, resists and will continue to resist to show the glory of the country of the Nile, the people of the black earth.