Was egypt the 1st great human civilization, or was there one before them?

Question

Was egypt the 1st great human civilization, or was there one before them?

Answer 1

the greatest in building yes

but not the FIRST civilization.

there was the assyrians, akkadians etc.

Answer 2

mesopotamia was before and there was a few before that

Answer 3

I'm not 100% sure but from watching a lot of TV shows about Egypt, they were the firsts in the a lot of things, (medicine, building out of stones, education). Many civilizations wish they could have what we have...

Answer 4

In Egypt, Mesopotamia and Sumeria civilization sprang with solid steps. The reason is that people settled near the rivers in those areas. They did not move from one place to the other looking for water. they learned how to plant and wait for the crops. They divided the year to seasons, years and months. they observed the stars and the flooding season. This led to writing their remarks. A class of priests was formed as they knew more than others how to read and write. This led to strong religious beliefs. A class of scribes was also formed. They enjoyed a high position in society, they decided he amount of taxes each person had to pay according to the crops he collected. Laws were enforced and armies were founded to defend the villages from looters and to enforce the law.

All this was like a snow ball that headed to civilizations..

Answer 5

The Sumerians came first, then the Babylonians.

Answer 6

The ancient Egyptian civilisation developed almost at the same time as did the civilisation of the Sumerians and Mesopotamians.

Like the Egyptians the Mesopotamians and Sumerians relied on rivers for establishing their agrarian culture that allowed them make the transition from a simple and nomadic hunter gatherer society to establishing small but permanent settlements c4500BCE and then both rapidly progressed to building substantial villages and then cities.

The cities of Merenptah or White Walls ,later called Memphis by the Greeks and the religious capitol On, were built around the same time within a century or so as the Sumerians began building their first city of Urak c 3500-2900BCE.

This was also the era when the Egyptians began construction of monolithic pyramids to inter their pharoah's.  

From archaeological finds it has been established that both  the civilisation of the Egyptians and that of the Sumerians and Mesopotamians were  founded and dependent on their  fresh water sources the Tigris/Euphrates and the Nile.

It was the Niles unique annual inundation pattern which annually gave more nutrients to the soil that allowed the Egyptians to continue to develop and expand.

While the rising salinity of the land and poor irrigation techniques contributed to the early end of the Mesopotamian and Sumerian civilisations at  around c 2000BCE.

There is archaeological evidence in the form of cuneiform cylinders, that the Egyptians actually expanded their trade alliances into a form of political expansionist control in the Tigris /Euphrates Valley towards the declining era of the Sumerian and Mesopotamian cultures.

This was at the time when Egypt was at its most powerful, during the successive dynasties of The New Kingdom.