Customer Reviews

Mysteries of Egypt: Ancient Egypt [VHS]

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The accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians leave you in awe and for good reason. Their building program was a triumph of engineering that is difficult to surpass. This tape consists of footage of their accomplishments, often redone to reflect what they probably looked like when first built. Historians provide expert commentary so that you know what is being viewed and some of the background of the people who built them.

There was one fact that I found incredible. The highest Egyptian pyramid was the tallest man-made building in the world until the nineteenth century. There is one other fact I find interesting, simply because it is in direct contradiction to what is commonly believed, largely due to the accounts in the Christian and Jewish bibles. There is no evidence that the pyramids were built with slave labor. The evidence is conclusive that the people who worked on those massive projects were hired craftsmen and laborers.

This says a great deal about the organization and productivity of the Egyptian lands under the Pharaohs. I challenge anyone to convincingly argue that any modern government could organize over 100,000 people to build such a structure over such a short period of time. Also, this meant that the workers were not otherwise engaged in the procurement of food and raises questions about the common belief that the Egyptians of that time were subsistence farmers. The surplus of food needed to feed the work crews had to come from somewhere, as obviously they could not have produced it.

I enjoyed this tape; I am now and always will be impressed by the accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians. Their state existed for thousands of years and their monuments for even longer. People of the modern age could learn a great deal about organization and efficiency from them.