As modern men living in the 21st century, we tend to take too many things for granted. We, for instance, walk into the kitchen, grab a lighter, flick it and make fire, forgetting that it took great number of centuries before the early men learnt to make fire.
In another instance, the modern man picks up a piece of paper and a pen to pen a love letter to his sweetheart. He sees that as occurring almost as natural as leaves would fall from trees. The modern man forgets that it was until a later part of his history that his ancestors learnt to write.
The paragraphs that follow will take you through a brief history of ancient Egypt, bringing before you three significant inventions to which the modern world owes the Egyptians gratitude.
The Egyptian civilization is the oldest known civilization in the history of the ancient world. It dates back to 5,500BCE and flourished along the stretch of the Nile river. The Nile river played a prominent role in the flourishing of the Egyptian civilization.
Each year, the Nile overflowed its bank, carrying water into the field of the Egyptians. This helped to keep the farmlands fertile for as long as possible before the first Shadoofs were conceived, small wonder agriculture flourished brilliantly in ancient Egypt and she would later become one of the largest suppliers of grains in the ancient world.
The abundance of food in ancient Egypt, as you would expect, allowed the Egyptians to turn their minds to more important matters - civilization. A simple definition of civilization will see it as that which occurs when men have learnt to organize themselves into a society with significant progress in art, science, architecture, etc.
But the Egyptians did not, however, make as much accelerated progress with their civilization as from the period when King Menes unified the two kingdoms of Egypt, namely the Lower and Upper Egypt, to begin the first dynasty and set the foundation of the Egyptian city of Memphis. So, in what ways do the modern world owe the ancient Egyptians gratitude for their inventions?
Perhaps, the first answer to that question should point the modern man to the invention, if you like discovery, of iron (including bronze and steel). As trivial as that invention might seem to the modern man, without it the eighteenth century industrial revolution in Europe would have merely been a figment of man's imagination.
You do not have to be told that the invention of iron made it possible for man to advance his progress in the fashioning of tools, the making of arts, and the creation of architectural structures that made urban life possible.
In short, if you've ever rode in a car, eaten with a spoon, or even stolen meat from a pot of soup, then you should be grateful to the Egyptians. These ancient Africans made a solid foundation upon which the other civilizations which came after it could effectively build.
The second answer might point to the invention of the first writing system. For thousands of years, man had wandered upon the face of the earth without the ability to write down his thoughts and observations. But the ancient Egyptians changed that with the invention around 3,000BC a writing system that is now known as the hieroglyphics.
The hieroglyphics is a pictographic writing system that uses artistic images to express esoteric ideas. It would later advance into alphabets, with consonants and vowels, that the Greeks and Romans developed to become the writing system that you're now reading.
The third and last answer might point out the invention of the first calendar. It was the Egyptians who first discovered that there are 365 days in a year, which they then divided into 12 months of 30 days each.
Not knowing what to do with the remaining 5 days, they declared it a public holiday in honour of their many gods. The Egyptians did not know, however, that there are actually 365¼ days in a year, such that an extra day is added every four years, what we now call a leap year.
Nevertheless, the modern calendar that you now look upon on your mobile phone, and upon which your bank statement is fashioned, is based upon the Egyptian calendar that was invented in 4,241B.C. It was the first event that could be precisely dated.
By the time Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332B.C, and ended the dynasty of the last Pharaoh, the once monumental Egyptian empire had become a shadow of itself, losing her splendour and glory. But one thing still endures, her contribution to the civilization of the ancient world and the comfort of the modern man.