Egypt ..............Nothing compares

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The ancient city of Memphis

The ancient city of Memphis has all but disappeared under the modern village of Mit Rahina. It is beleived that a temple is buried here that would rival the size ofKarnak. This was the first capital city of Egypt, the first capital in the world, the city of the great god Ptah. But it did not survive into the modern era. One of the few places to see the remnants of this ancient glory is in the open air museum in the enclosure of Ptah. This sphinx that we see here is known as the Alabaster Sphinx, it true identity lost to the ravages of time. 

Egypt

Pharonic Egypt started around 3000 B.C. At this time it became a united country under the rule of the Pharaoh Narmer. It lasted till about 300 A.D. The last Pharaoh was a Roman emperor named Garerius. So as a civilization, Ancient Egypt flourished for more then 3000 years.

. . . . .Allow me tell you a little about the land you are about to visit. It was the perfect place for one of the worlds greatest civilizations to take root and flourish. The geography around the Nile Valley provided one of the most important factors in the longevity and productivity of the culture. Surrounding the peaceful Nile valley were impenetrable obstacles that protected the Egyptians far better then any army could. To the east, invaders would have to cross mountains, desert and the Red Sea, on the west there were cliffs that gave way to a large expanse of desolate and barren desert. They were vulnerable only from the north and the south. From the north by way of the Mediterranean Sea and the Sinai Peninsula. From the south the Nile itself offered some protection in the form of cataracts or rapids in the river which made navigation difficult.

. . . . .This protection gave the Egyptians perhaps the single most important element in building a great and powerful civilization... time. Time to learn agriculture and animal husbandry. Time to develope a code of laws to live by, and deities to worship. And time to create art, a beautifully written language, music and dance.
. . . . .The Nile River, along which most of the people of Egypt lived, stretches more then 4000 miles, but the Egyptians only knew about 1000 miles of it, and that was at the height of their empire. Along the river there is a thin ribbon of land that was nourished by the annual flooding of the Nile, it is lush, and many crops were crown there. The ribbon varies from a couple miles wide in some places and nonexistent in others. The Egyptians called this place Kemet "the black land" because of the richness of the soil. This is the land where the mythological Osiris taught mankind to be civilized. 

he ancient Christian churches

efore Egypt became an Islamic state, it was a mostly Christian country with an ancient Christian heritage. It was a land where Jesus and his family were known to have traveled, and where early Apostles came to spread his word, particularly at first in Alexandria.



Most of the ancient Christian churches of Egypt, contrary to what many travelers may believe, are not located in Old, or Coptic Cairo. What makes Old Cairo special is the fact that a number of ancient churches are located in the area, making visits by tourists convenient, since most of them arrive for tours in that city.

In reality, most of the ancient Christian churches, of which only a very few recently discovered examples predate the 4th century, are located in monasteries and smaller cities throughout Egypt, though in some areas there are concentrations not to be found elsewhere. Many of these churches are built on sacred ground where it is believed that the baby Jesus and his family made stops in their journey through Egypt. Others, many of which are associated with monasteries, are more isolated, built at a time when the Christian religion was outlawed within the Roman empire, or afterwards, when there were violent conflicts between the eastern Christianity of Egypt and the western Christians who ruled Egypt (the Romans).

However, while most text points to an ancient church in Egypt being Coptic, or for example, Greek Orthodox, the earliest churches were technically neither, because Christianity in Egypt predates these slightly more modern divisions. Today, Coptic Christians, who almost by definition are Egyptian Christians (though now, for example, the Ethiopian church has been . incorporated into the Coptic faith), are dominant, but by no means the only Christians in Egypt. There are, of course, the Greeks Orthodox, along with Catholics, and various Protestants variations, among others.

Temple of Karnak

Temple of Karnak today remains the worlds largest religious structure, but what is perhaps even more interesting is that it might not have been, or indeed was probably not Egypt's largest temple. Certainly the Temple of Ptah in Memphis, though for the most part completely gone today, may have been larger. It was older, and located in what was often the capital of Egypt, and more often the administrative center of the ancient country. Other temples in the Nile Delta might have been just as large as Karnak, if not larger.
Sites such as Karnak, Dendera and Kom Ombo would most likely fall under the category of "god's mansion". They were more than religious "temples" however. While the god may certainly have been worshiped in these temples, it was also his symbolic home, if not considered his physical residence, and the functions of the temple were as much to serve his or her symbolic physical needs as they were for the god's worship. There was probably little or no "preaching" as such, or carrying the message of the god to the people by priests associated with these "temples". Rather the efforts were directed inward, towards the care of the gods.
Also, though we often make a very specific distention between mortuary temples of kings, for example, and temples such as Karnak, they were actually very similar. Kings were considered gods, and after their death, they required a "mansion" and the same attention as other gods. Both regular and mortuary temples served to keep the name of the king or god alive.