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ancient Egyptian pantheon were solar deity Ra (a Pharaoh was named the ‘son of
Ra’), Osiris (the god that dies and rises, ruler of the underworld), his sister-wife
Isis, son of Horus (Hor), brother and fratricide Set, Amun, Aten, Thoth. Gods
provided an orderly existence of the world based on the concept of universal

‘Maat’ (‘Truth, balance, justice’). Due to the divine and mediation of the Pharaoh
(living god) people were related to the world of gods. They needed to live
according to the rules ‘Maat’ to help the sun and other gods in their battle against

the forces of chaos in the form of universal snake Apep. After death a soul was
subject to the trial of Osiris, who was the supreme judge of the underworld. The
sins of a human were weighed on the scales of ‘Maat’. The souls with many sins

were pushed into a zone of chaos, but holy souls had an eternal life with the status
gained in this world.
In the political terms, ancient Egypt was an embodiment of the typical

oriental despotism with total power of a state, whose image was blended with a
sacred figure of a Pharaoh. The pharaoh was a living deity who was worshipped.
The ancient Egyptian state emerged in the last century BC as a result of the
conquest of semi-legendary king of Upper (Southern) Egypt Menes (Mina) of the

Lower (Northern) kingdom. At that time, hieroglyphic (sacred) and hieratic
(simplified cursive) writing systems, art canons, religious beliefs based on the cult

of the dead were formed as the main features of the Egyptian culture.
Traditionalism, conservatism and self-sufficiency of the ancient Egyptian culture
led to the unchangeable existence of the civilization for more than three millennia.
During the era of the Old Kingdom (about 2755-2255 BC) famous architect

of Pharaoh Djoser Imhotep designed the first grand royal tomb in the form of a
stepped pyramid. Under the reign of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Chephren)
and Menkaure (Mikeryna) the greatest pyramids of Egypt were erected: the height

of the pyramid of Khufu reached 146.5 meters, the length of the platform – 230 m,
it consisted of approximately 2 mln 300 thousand stone blocks weighing appx. 2,5
tons. The accuracy of fitting blocks strikes even today (one can not stick a razor

blade) that can be explained both by the skills of the architects and quality of the
stone.
For the wall paintings and reliefs (often combined into a single image) a

method of illustrating a person was commonly used: a head and limbs were painted
in a profile, while a body and eyes – in a full face. In this way artists contended
that the inner content of the image prevailed over its outer look. However, the
artists tried to accumulate the most important traits of a human nature in a single

graphical image according to the religious and mythological interpretation.
In the history of ancient Egypt the period of the Middle Kingdom (2134 –
1784 BC) was a period of difficult trials. The political disintegration of a state,

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