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*Includes pictures *Includes ancient accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading Africa may have given rise to the first human beings, and Egypt probably gave rise to the first great civilizations, which continue to fascinate modern societies across the globe nearly 5,000 years later. From the Library and Lighthouse of Alexandria to the Great Pyramid at Giza, the Ancient Egyptians produced several wonders of the world, revolutionized architecture and construction, created some of the world's first systems of mathematics and medicine, and established language and art that spread across the known world. With world-famous leaders like King Tut and Cleopatra, it's no wonder that today's world has so many Egyptologists. What makes the accomplishments of the Ancient Egyptians all the more remarkable is that Egypt was historically a place of great political turbulence. Its position made it both valuable and vulnerable to tribes across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and Ancient Egypt had no shortage of its own internecine warfare. Its most famous conquerors would come from Europe, with Alexander the Great laying the groundwork for the Hellenic Ptolemy line and the Romans extinguishing that line after defeating Cleopatra and driving her to suicide. One of the primary reasons why modern scholars know so much about Egyptian history is due to many monuments found up and down the Nile. Although some of the tombs built on the west bank of the Nile River have suffered a fair amount of wind damage and all of the great monuments have endured the ravages of time, they are amazingly well-preserved, thanks both to Egypt's arid climate and good workmanship. The Egyptian monument builders were truly a class above their contemporaries in terms of their trade, which was helped by the fact that they worked with the more permanent materials of sandstone and limestone, unlike Mesopotamian builders who were forced to primarily work wit