The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt.

The Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza are among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt.

Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period ( c. 3150 BC to 30 BC )

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt.

In ancient Egypt and Mycenae, gold was often alloyed with copper to produce red-gold, or iron to produce a bright burgundy-gold.

His verses have not come down to us through a manuscript tradition-generations of scribes copying an author's collected works, such as delivered intact into the modern age four entire books of Pindar's odes-but haphazardly, in quotes from ancient scholars and commentators whose own works have chanced to survive, and in the tattered remnants of papyri uncovered from an ancient rubbish pile at Oxyrhynchus and other locations in Egypt: sources that modern scholars have studied and correlated exhaustively, adding little by little to the world's store of poetic fragments.

Ancient art was largely, but not entirely, based on the nine great ancient civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, China, Rome, India, the Celtic peoples, and Maya.

Its value is the insight it provides to the ancient culture of Egypt.

In Critias, Plato claims that his accounts of ancient Athens and Atlantis stem from a visit to Egypt by the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon in the 6th century BC.

In Egypt, Solon met a priest of Sais, who translated the history of ancient Athens and Atlantis, recorded on papyri in Egyptian hieroglyphs, into Greek.

Ancient Nubia shared many aspects of its mythology with ancient Egypt and there is debate about the original source of some religious concepts that the two cultures share and, whether the assimilation was from Nubia to Egypt, the reverse, or through continuing exchanges.

At one time the Kush of Nubia ruled ancient Egypt.

* Ay ( reigned c. 1323 – 1319 or 1327 – 1323 BCE ), a pharaoh of ancient Egypt

The jackal was strongly associated with cemeteries in ancient Egypt, since it was a scavenger which threatened to uncover human bodies and eat their flesh.

" Mount " Megiddo is a Tell on which ancient forts were built to guard the main highway, the Via Maris, which connected Ancient Egypt with Mesopotamia.

* Mehen, another ancient board game from Predynastic Egypt

Similar technology may have been used in ancient Ireland ( the Liath Meisicith ) and quite possibly ancient Egypt.

Boats were used between 4000 BCE and 3000 BCE in Sumer, ancient Egypt and in the Indian Ocean.

Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt.

They were deposited with the dead in ancient Egypt.

In ancient Egypt, the bee was seen to symbolize the lands of Lower Egypt, with the Pharaoh being referred to as " He of Sedge and Bee " ( the sedge representing Upper Egypt ).

Herodotus ( Histories iv. 189 ) thought he had identified the source of the ægis in Libya, which was always a distant territory of ancient magic for the Greeks:

The Younger Futhark inscription on the stone bears a commonly seen memorial dedication, but is followed by an encoded runic sequence that has been described as " mysterious ," and " an interesting magic formula which is known from all over the ancient Norse world.

Flying carpets, magic swords and spells, dragons, and ancient religious relics or objects are common elements.

The eruption of Vesuvius preserved graffiti in Pompeii, including Latin curses, magic spells, declarations of love, alphabets, political slogans and famous literary quotes, providing insight into ancient Roman street life.

The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that books on magic were invented by the Persians, with the 1st century CE writer Pliny the Elder stating that magic had been first discovered by the ancient philosopher Zoroaster around the year 6347 BC, but that it was only written down in the 5th century BC by the magician Osthanes — his claims are not however supported by modern historians.

The ancient Jewish people were also often viewed as being knowledgeable in magic, which according to legend they had learned from Moses, who himself had learned it in Egypt.

Israelite King Solomon was a Biblical figure also associated with magic and sorcery in the ancient world.

Similarly, it was commonly believed by Medieval people that other ancient figures like the poet Virgil, astronomer Ptolemy and philosopher Aristotle had been involved in magic, and grimoires claiming to have been written by them were circulated.

The Renaissance saw the continuation of interest in magic that had been found in the Mediaeval period, and in this period, there was an increased interest in Hermeticism amongst occultists and ceremonial magicians in Europe, largely fuelled by the 1471 translation of the ancient Corpus hermeticum into Latin by Marsilio Ficino ( 1433 – 1499 ).

He is for some identified as the archetype of healer ( López-Pedraza 2003 ) ... in ancient Greece he healed through magic ( McNeely 2011 ).

The teachings of the Order include Enochian magic, Christian mysticism, Qabalah, Hermeticism, the paganism of ancient Egypt, theurgy, and alchemy.

The Wiccan religion revolves around the veneration of a Horned God and a Goddess, elements of a variety of ancient mythologies, a belief in and practice of magic and sometimes the belief in reincarnation and karma.

While contemporary biomedicine has distanced itself from its ancient roots in religion and magic, many forms of traditional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine ( CAM ) continue to espouse vitalism in various guises: ' As long as life had its own secret properties, it was possible to have sciences and medicines based on those properties ' ( Grossinger 1980 ).

In this imaginary world, huge, tradition-bound empires with medieval levels of technology vie for control using magic, large standing armies, and ancient technological devices.

Modern perspectives on the theory of magic broadly follow two major views, which also correspond closely to ancient views.

Through late 14th century Old French magique, the word " magic " derives via Latin magicus from the Greek adjective magikos ( μαγικός ) used in reference to the " magical " arts of the Persian Magicians ( Greek: magoi, singular mágos, μάγος ), the Zoroastrian astrologer priests of the ancient Persian Empire.

Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of magic.

In ancient Greece magic was involved in practice of religion, medicine, and divination.

The pentagram, an ancient geometrical symbol known from many cultures, is often associated with magic.

In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.

Fundindelve was provided with a guardian, the ancient wizard Cadellin Silverbrow, and the heart of the white magic was sealed inside a jewel, the Weirdstone of Brisingamen.