Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/46

22 General History of Europe finding his way through the troubles that would meet him in the next world. These guidebooks have been collected and form what is called the Egyptian "Book of the Dead." From this and the inscriptions in the chambers hidden away deep in the pyramids scholars have learned much of the Egyptian religion and of the many gods in which the people believed. Some of the leading Egyptians of the Empire finally came to believe in a single god, and one of the emperors, Ikhnaton, started a great religious reform in which he wished to substitute the idea of one god for the old belief in many. But the priests and people were too much attached to their ancient notions to accept the new gospel, and Ikhnaton perished in the attempt. He is the first distinguished religious reformer of history. 33. Later Fate of Egypt. After the Egyptian Empire had lasted nearly four hundred years, invaders from the North in- cluding many Europeans whom we left in the Stone Age came in such numbers that they put an end to the ancient power of the Pharaohs, about 1150 B.C. But we know little of how it all hap- pened. Temples and tombs continued to be built for hundreds of years after the fall of the Empire, but they are, in general, mere imitations of the earlier ones. Egyptian culture spread into other countries and greatly affected Western Asia and, later, eastern Europe. The Egyptians were the first to make great progress in industry, sculpture, painting, architecture, and govern- ment. The period of chief interest for us is that which we have sketched between the times of Menes (34006.0.)- and that of Seti I and Ramses II, whose reigns closed in 1225 B.C. So the greatness of Egypt lasted for over two thousand years. Later, Egypt was successively conquered by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks, and finally came in recent times under the control of Great Britain. We must now turn to the civilizations which grew up in Western Asia during the period of Egypt's greatness and after her decline.