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Collection
Early ancient Egypt was ruled by kings, and only from the New Kingdom period (c. 1570 - c. 1069 BCE) did the title of 'pharaoh' appear. Considered a god on earth and the supreme ruler of his people, a pharaoh was one of the most powerful rulers of any ancient civilization. In charge of everything from religion to building projects, some of the most famous names in history such as Ramesses II and Tutankhamun have left us huge pyramids, colossal stone statues, and golden coffins to admire. With great power comes great responsibility, though, and the pharaoh was expected to rule wisely, justly, and preserve the harmony, or ma'at, in his kingdom. In this collection we have some of the histories, monuments, and artworks related to the pharaohs, including the most famous and first female ruler of Egypt, Hatshepsut.
The pharaoh would officiate at religious ceremonies, choose the sites of temples, and decree what work would be done (although he could not choose priests and very rarely took part in the design of a temple). As 'Lord of the Two Lands' the pharaoh made the laws, owned all the land in Egypt, collected taxes, and made war or defended the country against aggression.
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About the Author
Mark is a full-time writer, researcher, historian, and editor. Special interests include art, architecture, and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director.
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License & Copyright
Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 28 November 2018. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.