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Southern Asia, and the Far East. In general, the oriental culture is referred to as the
one with no antique cultural roots. It is necessary to consider that political,
geographical and cultural frontiers do not often coincide. A country may belong to
the East in the cultural terms whereas it belongs to the West in the political terms;

it may be geographically situated in Asia but culturally approach Europe.
In ancient times the Middle East was abound with powerful civilizations:
Sumer, Egypt, Babylon, Phoenicia, Palestine. In socio-political terms the

distinguishing features of these civilizations were the despotic nature of the
governance, rigid centralization and monopolization of power (a kind of early
totalitarianism), personification of power of a despot (Pharaoh), sacralization

(absolute subordination of all forms of social life to the religious norms), total
domination of a state over a human. The state provided the functioning of the
irrigation systems (often on a gigantic scale like in ancient Egypt), conducted

prestigious construction works (pyramids, palaces), controlled all spheres of life,
pursued aggressive policy (conquest) and became a necessary mechanism of
cultural expansion under extensive forms of economy.

2. Culture of Ancient Egypt
The culture of ancient Egyptt – the first civilization of the Ancient East –

had all the above-mentioned features. After centuries of complete neglect it was
rediscovered by the Europeans after Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. The next step
was made when French linguist Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered
hieroglyphs in the XIXth century. The writing (in Egypt god Thoth was the

inventor of hieroglyphs) provided the safety of many texts carved in stone, written
on the walls, papyrus scrolls. These are the so-called ‘Pyramid Texts’, ‘Coffin
Texts’, ‘Book of the Dead’, ‘Harper’s Songs’, ‘Story of Sinuhe’ and others.

Together with numerous monuments of architecture, fine arts helped to clear up the
idea about the culture that had been hidden for nearly a half of a millennium.
Unique favorable natural and geographical conditions were an important

factor of the development of the Egyptian civilization. However, they also
contributed to to the isolation of the country. An immense contrast between the
lifeless desert and thriving Nile valley largely determined the outlook of the

ancient Egyptians. The soil in the valley and delta of the Nile are remarkably
fertile, and two crops were gathered during 1 year. However, this narrow strip of
fertile land is only 3.5 % of all Egypt, and the remainder is a barren desert. Even
now the Nile valley is inhabited by 99.5 % of the population. That’s why the

Egyptians called their country the ‘gift of the Nile’.
The most important part of the ancient Egyptian culture was religion that
was archaic, full of magic and totemic remnants. The most famous gods of the

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