by Dominik Slusarczyk
Pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt for thousands of years but their time ended. The military replaced them. The pharaohs were the ones who originally gave the military power. They were desperate. The country was falling apart. Giving the generals power seemed like a good idea. But the generals tasted power and decided they liked it.
The pharaohs built many amazing things during their time in power. They built the pyramids. The biggest pyramid was the tallest manmade structure for thousands of years. It was the tallest manmade structure until they made the Eiffel Tower and that didn’t happen until a couple of centuries ago. The pharaohs built vast things even though they only had poor technology.
The ancient Egyptians liked building things. Or rather the pharaohs liked building things. The people actually building the things didn’t like building at all. They were drafted into building like people today are drafted into the army. Someone comes and knocks on your door and says it is your turn to help build the pyramids. So you go. You have no choice but to go. You leave your family and your home and go to the other side of the country to build some idiot a tomb.
It was all a big dick measuring contest. The pharaohs were competing against each other. They all wanted to be the pharaoh who built the biggest pyramid. When a pyramid so vast nobody could better it was built they changed the competition and tried to build pyramids as beautiful as they could. They decorated their pyramids with beautiful art and gold and stuff. It was still a competition it’s just the rules of the competition changed.
And you would have to change it if you weren’t going to win. If your pyramid was going to be smaller you had to invent a way you could win. The pyramids were a competition to see which pharaoh was the best and lots of pharaohs built lots of pyramids.
The pharaohs built other things as well. They built temples to honour the gods. And again they tried to build them as big and as beautiful as they could. But one day they would die. Who would look after the temples after they were gone?
In the beginning people were so religious that they would never destroy anything like a temple or a tomb. But towards the end of the pharaoh’s time people started robbing tombs. They started desecrating tombs. They were getting less religious. And religion is how the pharaohs stayed in power. They told people they were chosen by the gods. And that lie worked for thousands of years. For thousands of years the common people let the pharaohs rule because they thought the gods wanted those pharaohs to rule. It is no surprise that the pharaohs’ time ended at about the same time people started robbing tombs. Religion kept the pharaohs in power so as soon as the population stopped being so religious the pharaohs lost their power.
But the religious lies worked for so long. The pharaohs ruled Egypt for thousands of years. But they had more than just religion. They were also incredibly wealthy. They had access to excessive amounts of gold. The land around the Nile was very fertile so they could grow huge amounts of crops. They hadn’t invented money yet so wealth was in things. When the pharaohs were wealthy they could pay to keep the people happy and stay in power. I mean they did go around murdering people to keep the common people in line but they used their wealth to stay in power as well. The pharaohs time ended when they ran out of money. In the last years of the pharaohs people started striking. The pharaohs were so poor they couldn’t afford to pay their employees.
So there were a number of reasons why the pharaohs lost control of Egypt. The population started being less religious so their claim to power wasn’t so important anymore. They became so poor they could not support the population anymore. So they were replaced with the army. The last few pharaohs had little power left. They spent their lives hiding in their palaces because they did not have the status they used to have. The time of the pharaohs lasted a long time but it came to an end. The gods did not want them to rule anymore.
Because that was all they had. All they had was the lie. All they had was the story that they had been chosen by the gods. The money helped but people let them rule because they thought the gods wanted them to rule. Having a lie as the basis for your power is not a good idea. It is not a good idea because it is not real. If you think fighting the king means the gods will smite you down what do you do when someone fights and the gods do not kill him? The problem with building your power on lies is when people work out the lies are lies all your power disappears.