In the year 221 B.C.E, there was a great ruler over the Ching kingdom in China, named Shih Huang Ti. Shih was power hungry and wanted more land so he gathered his army and captured the surrounding kingdoms. As the ruler of so many kingdoms he became ‘the first emperor’ of China. Shih showed his tyranny when he burned all history books to ensure that his people and future generations would only remember him and none of the earlier rulers. He had a strong army but the fierce tribes north of China, the Mongols and the Hans, were stronger. These nomadic tribes would come into China and steal crops and animals and then destroy everything left behind.

Shih was very disturbed with these invasions, so in the year 214 B.C.E he freed prisoners and gathered workers and herds of animals. He gave all this to Meng Tien, his loyal general. Meng and the men and animals were sent north to fortify Shih’s kingdoms from invading armies. Shih planned to make a great wall by extending and enlarging preexisting walls made by previous rulers. This ‘great’ wall would serve as a barricade to keep out all tribes that w anted to invade China. It also served to separate the civilized acts of the farmers in China to the barbaric acts of the nomadic tribes. What Shih did not know was that the construction would cause many deaths and much suffering to the builders of the wall. The wall which Meng and his men created had watchtowers, forty feet tall, every two hundred yards. The purpose of these towers was to alert the defending soldiers of approaching, attacking tribes. The soldiers at the towers signaled to each other by day using smoke signals, waving flags, blowing horns, and ringing bell; by night by lighting fireworks like objects in the sky. The wall itself , was approximately fifteen hundred miles long, thirty feet high and at the base, twenty –five feet thick. It was made of the core of earth and gravel. Actually, it was two walls aligned with each other and then filled in with a stone based pounded smooth. The wall traveled over mountains and through valleys.It went from Liatun, on the coast near Korea, westward to the northern end on the yellow river, southward to Lintao to close off the north west area of the empire from the Hans. The great wall is sometimes compared to a dragon with its head in the east and its tail in the west and its winding body. The dragon in China is considered a protective sacredness rather than a destructive creature. The top of the wall is approximately thirteen feet wide so six people riding horses could ride side by side along the top. On the side of the wall there are reliefs, which are two- dimensional figures on the wall. The great wall of China took hundred of years to be totally completed and constantly maintained. As a barricade against invading armies it was very successful at keeping out unwanted people. Unfortunately, in the year 1215 AD, the Mongols came down, under the rule of Genghis Khan, and destroyed major parts of the wall. It took two years of constant fighting, but the Mongols were successful at breaking through the wall. Also, many years later, the Manchus, another strong tribe, penetrated the wall and took over parts of China. During the Ming Dynasty, (1368-1644 AD), the Great Wall was repaired by GeneralXu Da and watchtowers were added by General Qi Jiguang. Most of what tourist see today was made by these two Generals. During World War 11, the Great wall was used for the transportation of troops. The Great Wall is so huge that it is the only man made creation which can be seen from the moon.

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

Religion can be thought of as the recognition by human beings of a superhuman power that controls the universe and everything that is, was, or shall be in it. Each individual human being can consider that superhuman control power is a deity worthy of being loved; or capable of inspiring awe, obedience, and even fear. The effects of these feelings on individuals can lead to the setting up of a system of worship of the deity; and to the drawing up of a code of beliefs and conduct inspired by their religious faith. As all religion follow this, the Egyptians seem to be unique in their beliefs.

The Egyptians did not have a true religion; they had more of a collection of myths and doctrines, which evolved to suit the worshipper’s needs. Although many changes were evident in their religion, conflict between new and old concepts did not occur. However, their belief system was much more complex and elaborate than that of any other culture. A clear reason is not given, but we theorize that environmental conditions play a significant role in their authenticity.

It is a truism that the activities of people everywhere are influenced by the conditions under which they live, and religious thought is no exception to this. Before the day of mass communication, an Eskimo, living in cold climate, had no experience of any great heat generated by the sun. His idea of hell, therefore, would be a place of extremely cold. On the other hand, a man living in a hot climate can only visualize hell as an even hotter place than any with which he has ever had acquaintance with.

The Nile river plays an important part in Egyptian mythology. As the Nile flows northward through Egypt, it creates a narrow ribbon of fertile land in the midst of a great desert. The sharp contrast between the fertility along the Nile and the wasteland of the desert became a basic theme in Egyptian mythology.

The Egyptian lived in a river valley, 1200 km long from the Egypt south border at Aswan to the northern boundary on the Mediterranean, bordered in by ancient river terraces. The only fertile land was that watered by the Nile, which flowed through the valley: the rest was desert. Thus, the land in which the Egyptians lived was considered to be ‘the gift of the river’. Every year, the Nile swollen by the heavy rain that fell in Uganda and Ethiopia, where the river had its twin sources and by the melting snows of the Ethiopian mountains flooded its banks, along with it a layer of rich silt, making for an excellent farming conditions. Because of this, food would be of no great concern to them, and with trade, economic stability would be established. Stability would then allow time for complex thought and formal education. This balance would be the key to their prosperity and their religion would be based greatly on worshipping the power that allows for this balance.

Ra was the sun God of Egypt, and Hapi the God of the Nile River. As the Egyptians knew of the Sun’s great significance, they gave Ra the status that Zeus has over Olympus. Hapi, being the God of the key to Egypt’s prosperity, was also given great power. These two gods would most likely be the two most important gods of Egyptians mythology, since these deities are directly related to the two most significant elements that allowed for Egypt’s 2500-year-reign.

In addition, to aforementioned agricultural values, the afterlife was of great importance to the ancient Egyptians and few cultures devoted so much of their time and wealth to preparation for their death than they did. Presumably, this would be so because they valued their current situation intensively, and they would have hope that even after death, that they would be able to live life in continual prosperity. It is their rituals related to the afterlife that fascinates modern society, as we have made many movies, books and documentaries concerning it. They valued this to such a degree because the afterlife was conceived of as continuation of life on earth, and by following this logic, the dead man would need, in his tomb, all those necessities and luxuries which made life on earth pleasant. In addition to this, they believed that the underworld replica of their body, the ‘Ka’ would need to make a safe trip through the underworld, and because of this, many intricate procedures would be that of mummification. Anubis was the God of mummifications. The Egyptians embalming rituals were emulated from that Anubis followed when resurrecting Osiris, the god of the underworld. The embalming of the body was thought to preserve the body forever., allowing time for the ‘Ka’ to return and thus resurrection.

From their strong values in these areas, they have created a strong uniqueness which is widely acknowledged and appreciated. From our research, we are able to conclude that the Egyptians’ strong attitude towards nature and the afterlife in their worships is directly related to their location and the elements that surround them.