Historic Buildings The original version of this book was written by Goolbai Gunasekara, Principal of the Asian International School, for students on the pre-University General English Language Training Programme conducted by the University Grants Commission. The programme was coordinated by Mrs Oranee Jansz and Prof Rajiva Wijesinha who added the exercises. Though the programme was closed down, Mrs Gunasekara kindly agreed to add more material, so that the book now covers all areas of the world and a wider range of historical periods, while more exercises have been added to develop more language competencies.
The Pyramids of Egypt 3rd to the 1st millennium BC
Everyone has seen pictures of the Pyramids. Earlier, historians thought that these large structures, so many of which can still be seen in Egypt, were only used as tombs for great kings. We have now found that pyramids had a much greater function, which will be discussed later. In fact pyramids probably had many functions. The ancient Greek Historian Herodotus called Egypt the ‘Gift of the Nile’. Even today, the Nile river is very important to Egyptians. Although there is little rain in Egypt, the flooding of the river every year makes the Nile Valley a fertile ground. This made it attractive to settlers, and so began the Egyptian Nation. Ancient Egypt was ruled by the Pharaohs. Little was known about ancient Egypt, largely because no one could understand their hieroglyphics, or picture writing. Then in 1799, when Napoleon invaded Egypt, a group of soldiers discovered, among some ruins, a stone with writing on it that they soon realized was very special. That stone is known as the Rosetta Stone, and on it were Greek letters and Egyptian hieroglyphics. A French Scholar, Jean Champollion, used this to unlock the mystery of Egyptian writing and so opened the way for the study of Egyptian History.