View of the World (How the Ancient Egyptians Saw the World)

The ancient Egyptians reckoned the world to be a far several place from what we now know it to be. They conceived the earth was a flat platter of clay heavy on a vast sea of water from which the Nile River sprang. In this fundamental description of the world, the effects of nature were identified as divine descendants of the creator god. The god Hapi, for example, presented the Nile River. The Nile Valley's safe and foreseeable natural cycles assisted in the evolution of the Egyptian civilization. The river's annual inundation of its floodplain brought fertility to the land through water and silt; the region's perpetual sun promoted bountiful harvesting; and the dryness of the climate provided ideal checks for the safe storage of surplus crops. Because the very structure of the ancient Egyptians' civilization turned on the extended predictability of their environment, they looked to their deities to perpetuate the status quo.

Of full the deities of ancient Egypt, the goddess Maat was the most serious in perpetuating the status quo. The Egyptians considered that when the gods wrought the land of Egypt out of topsy-turvydom, Maat was created to embody truth and justness, and the basic orderly agreement of the world. Maat wast the down state of the god-created world, and whole that people had to do in order to live and fly high in the world was to honor and preserve Maat. On a national level, it was the king's province to keep Maat through daily oblations given at the temples. On an individual level, the goal of every Egyptian was to lead an right life that would allow charm into the afterlife after death.

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