Ch 2

I've always had a fascination with Egypt.  The pyramids have always interest me & I have a strong desire to see them in the near future.  Its hard to talk about Egypt without mentioning Egypt and the Nile river.  To this current day, its a mystery how the pyramids were constructed.  One of the theory is that slaves endured the harsh labor of construction.  I remember when I was younger  my father took me to the Discovery Museum to see a documentary "The Mysteries of Egypt".  The film started with the Nile River rushing north and fanned out to beautiful scenery.  In the film they challenged the theory of  that slave labor was used to build the pyramids.  The archaeologist said that there were not any signs of physical abuse on slaves body that would indicate abuse. That opened my fascination with Egypt even further because that gave me another angle to view things.




Although Strayer touches the subject of slavery in early civilization, he doesn't touch pyramid labor (at least yet). Strayer does touch on how the early Egyptians made an efficient lifestyle for themselves.   The Nile River was an exceptional resource for the Egyptians.  For thousands of years Egypt depended on the Nile for their agriculture.  As illustrated in the book, "Egypt, by contrast, created a more sustainable agricultural system, which lasted for thousands of years and contributed to the remarkable continuity of its civilization." (Page 82). Its amazing how a little change (in this case a big change) can have an effect on livelihood.  The Egyptians depended on the Nile to flow properly because they depended on wheat and barley.  Once the Nile went back to back with out flowing properly,  it started a domino effect in changes.  The pharaoh promised proper flooding of the Nile but nature had other plans. Since the promise of the pharaoh was broken, the Egyptians lost faith.  That's similar to our modern day society.  When our leaders don't make due of their promises, society will loose faith and stop voting or seek different leadership.