The Egypt of the first pharaohs
Three thousand-year-old B.C., the Egyptian kings lived in unequaled luxury and refinement. Sculptures, paintings, objects... In the beginning there was the Nile. An immense river, sprung for the large lakes at the heart of Africa and in the mountains of Ethiopia. Each year - in second half of our July - water descended south and flooded the narrow plain in full desert, bringing sediment torn off on its way. When water was withdrew, sowing could start, pigs trampled seeds to insert in the ground, and the herds once again took their place on the pastures. So, in this luxuriante oasis between the Sahara and Arabia, during more than three millenia, the kings accumulated richnesses, built fabulous monuments, told their sumptuous life on the walls of the temples and the tombs. Multiplying works which fascinate, till this day, visitors from all over the world. The most brilliant period is the oldest, that of the first recorded dynasties. This third millenium before Jesus-Christ, where the Pharaons were embalmed in pyramids several hundred meters hight surrounded by temples, monumental alleys, basins and ports. It is not only the time of gigantesque, but also when royal workshops produced the most perfect statues, and when stone, pottery and metal craftmandship reached it highest levels. The whole country awaited the saving floods. It seems unnessessary to reminds us that Egypt is a gift of the Nile. However it was only in the last century that the double origin of the river, Lake Victoria and the high plateaus of Ethiopia were discovered, and that we started to understand the workings of this giant river which makes the desert flower. On these heights, when the snow melts, the current descended towards the north ; the Mediterranean. Without this impressive rising, whose origin remained a mystery to Egyptians, this country would be just one large band of stones and dust between the Maghreb and the Middle East. Each year, the same ceremony was repeated: the entire country, Pharaoh and priests at the head, awaited the river to burst it’s banks, on the graduated steps which were used as reference marks. The flood was a salutary goddess, Hâpi, which flooded the banks and the plains of Nubie in the Mediterranean, and arrived at the foot of the gebels, limestones cliffs which bordered the deserts. These great arid spaces (khaset) represented the country of thirst, anguish, deadly scorpions and evil spirits. From the submerged land , only some hillocks could be seen: which in the Egyptian religion, represented the perfect image of creation.