THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH AND THE SPHINX
The tombs of the kings
256. Egypt Ruled by Kings. For several thousand years Egypt was ruled by kings. The most famous of these rulers was a great warrior called Rameses II. He built great tombs or monuments called "pyramids." These were built out of huge blocks of stone much larger than any now used in buildings. For many years he had the common man or the slave doing this work for him.
The Bible tells us about Moses, who became a great leader among the Israelites. The Israelites were slaves to the kings of Egypt. Moses led them forth from Egypt to escape the hard tasks of one of their kings.
257. What the Egyptians Gave to Other Nations. Among the Egyptians there were great students for that early time. A few men among them studied the stars and learned about the movements of the heavenly bodies. In arithmetic they could count up to millions. They could weave cloth, cut jewels, and make most beautiful objects out of glass.
Egyptian hieroglyphics
But above all the Egyptians could write. Not as we do, of course, but they used letters, not rude pictures as seen in most early writings. Scholars have named the characters used in writing by Egyptians and other ancient peoples "hieroglyphics."
258. Babylon and Nineveh. Asia, too, had early peoples. Perhaps some of them were older than the Egyptians. There lived in southwestern Asia, in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, two mighty nations whose chief cities were Babylon and Nineveh.