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		Additional Information and Description
		This is an additional website for the   Ancient Egypt Group with a collection of posted articles, links to related websites and additional information. The articles you can see below have been written and discussed in our group. Ancient Eypt is one of the oldest culture and civilization. It is still fascinating and full of mysteries. Of course the pyramids never have been power plants, they do not contain atomic or atlantean bombs and there are not a mysterious or magical source of energy. They are just giant heaps of stones. But why did only the people in Egypt built such perfect pyramids with million tons of stone ? What was the motivation to undertake a task of this scale ? What happened before and during the old kingdom, when the pyramids were built ? Why had the pharaohs so many different and complicated names and what did they mean ? For example, most people know the egyptian Pharaos Ramesses and Tuthmose/Tuthmosis and the biblical Moses, but only a few know that Moses just means "son" of "born of". So Ramesses or Ramose means "Son of Re/Ra" and Tuthmose means "Son of Tuth/Thoth".
		Links
		Related Websites and Selected Links
		Information about Pyramids and Pyramid Texts Pyramids (Djoser's Step Pyramid, Great Pyramids of Giza, ...) Want to learn Hieroglyphs ? Reading Hieroglyphs and egyptian names Collections of Egyptian Tales and Myths Egyptian Tales and Myths Lists and Web-Sites of ancient egyptian Gods and Goddesses Gods and Goddesses Web-Pages with Tombs of Pharaohs and Egyptian Nobles Tombs Other Ancient Egypt Groups Groups and Mailing-Lists General History, Genealogy and Chronology, .. Other Links The best alternative sites .. Top 10 fringe sites Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and I have no control over availability of the linked pages. Also I am not responsible for the content and information of the Web pages found through these links. Any comments or inquiries regarding the linked Web sites are to be directed to the particular person or organization for whom the particular Web site is being operated.
		Pictures
		Pictures and Models from Ancient Cities
		Thebes/Waset/Karnak (c) 1997 Time-Life Books Saqqara (c) 2001 National Geographic Society
		Nature
		Geography, Animals and Environment
		Egypt, the country along the Nile, was like a catalyst for the development of a higher civilizaton. The Nile river was the home of dangerous animals like crocodiles and hippos, but also a plenty source of food in form of fresh fish. It was a natural highway which connected and united the different parts of the country. The fertile mud of the inundation facilitated agriculture. The long idle time during the flood and the inundation period supported common projects like building pyramids. These common projects in turn built the society.
		The water supply of the Nile was constant and high enough to enable a good life. It was fluctuating and changing enough to challenge the people from time to time. All in all it was just right, like the position of our planet in the solar system or the position of our solar system in the galaxy : If our solar system would be closer to the core of the galaxy, the amount of comets and radiation would be too high. If it would be too far away at the edge, the rate of comets would be too low. If our planet would be less/more distant to the sun, it would be too hot or too cold. The Nile river is 6670-6690 km long and one of the longest rivers in the world. It flows northward, runs through northeastern Africa and stretches from the Lake Victoria and the Murchison Falls in Uganda to the Mediterranean Sea. The word "Nile" comes from the Greek word "Neilos", which means valley or river valley. The southern part of Egypt is named "Upper Egypt" because it is upstream, closer to the source of the Nile. The northern part of Egypt including the delta is known as "Lower Egypt" because it is downstream.
		Culture
		Why Egypt is the origin of us
		Ancient Egypt was the origin of humans and human culture. Why ? The generally accepted 'out-of-Africa' theory says an african ancestral population gave rise to all populations of modern humans through a chain of migrations to the Middle East, Europe, Asia and America (see "Features of Evolution and Expansion of Modern Humans", Lev A. Zhivotovsky, Noah A. Rosenberg and Marcus W. Feldman, American Journal of Human Genetics, May 2003) As DNA studies suggest, there were at least three major waves of early human migration out of Africa. Early humans came out of Africa again and again. ( "Out of Africa again and again", Alan Templeton, Nature 416 (7 March 2002) 45-51 ) The first human anchestors left Africa around two million years ago. A second major human migration out of Africa took place between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago and a third about 100,000-70,000 years ago. There was of course also movement back into Africa from Asia. And each time they went through Egypt, which became the first melting pot of history. It was the gateway for the migrations out of africa. Humans came 'out-of-Africa' and they all went through Egypt. Egypt is the interface between the ancient and the modern world. Some people wonder why Africa did not develop a higher civilization itself. It did, since Egypt belongs to Africa. But in other parts of Africa people did not need such things as agriculture, roads and buildings. They had no need of warm clothes, stone buildings or crop cultivation. In their warm environment, they had everything they needed for their hunter-gatherer lifestyle all year round.
		Fun
		Cartoons and Jokes
		The oldest Joke of the World ?! How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women, dressed only in fishing nets, down the Nile, and tell him to go catch a fish. (Allegedly discovered from Carol Andrews from the British Museum in London on a 4600 year old papyrus roll. In fact the "joke" is based on a real story from the Westcar Papyrus. In this tale King Snefru is is advised by his chief lector-priest Djadj-em-ankh to go boating on a lake with pretty girls. The whole tale can be found here (from Lichtheim's classic book 'Ancient Egyptian Literature' Vol I, the Old and Middle Kingdoms).
		Articles
		Interesting articles, posts and messages
		This section contains articles in plain ascii-format written in and for the group. You can also use the powerful search function in the "Messages" section http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ancient_Egypt_Group/messages to find articles, posts and message for a certain topic. If you would like to see your own text here, please send me a short note.
		Jochen Fromm (Einstein702000) : Mysteries of Ancient Egypt (Adobe PDF-File) Meaning of King Names Old Kingdom - Age of the Pyramids Building a pyramid - a flow experience The first pyramid The ancient remains of the desperate struggle for eternity Why had the pharaohs so many different names ? Gold - the flesh of RA Early Civilizations Hathor and Horemhab The Sphinx Egyptian Proverbs The Egyptian Calendar Why Seth became evil .. No remains of Ma'at temples ? Alexandria and Odessa Ptolemaic Queens Maya and Egyptian Culture False Doors Ancient Egyptians - black, white or mediterranean Properties and aspects of the egyptian Gods Threatening and pleading (Utterance 270) Minoan culture and the Atlantis Myth Amduat - The book of the Underworld Sally Farouk : What's the Bibliotheca Alexandrina? Ancient sunken city under water Tamara Bower : Pita Bread Recipe Mesopotamian/Sumerian Proverbs On the Use of the Pharaonic Past in Modern Egyptian Nationalism Great Hymn to Aten Jane Richards (Isis1037) : 1st and 2nd Dynasties Ancient Egypt Death and Afterlife Egyptian Names of the Stars Nomad and urban dweller Origins of Osiris Myth Origins of Sun Worship Abdju (Abydos) Wives in Ancient Egypt The Intef Family Ancient Egyptian Queens who may have ruled as 'Kings'