What happened to the ancient Egyptians?

Child: Ancient Egypt is so different from the Egypt of today. Why did they stop building pyramids and huge statues and temples?

Abdul: Things have changed a great deal these last 700 years. My name is Abdul. This building is a mosque, built where a temple once stood.

Child: Oh, wow!

Abdul: After the birth of Jesus, most people became Christian, and forgot the ancient Egyptian religion that inspired the old temples and statues.

Then, 600 years later, Islam became the main religion.

Child: But why don’t you use hieroglyphs anymore?

Abdul: Greek and Latin have been used in Egypt for centuries as it is spoken by people in many different countries.

And since the Arab conquest, Arabic is spoken by most people here.

Child: I can’t imagine the ancient Egyptians being conquered by anyone!

Abdul: Oh, it’s happened before. You see, the pharaohs were at war with their neighbouring countries for centuries, and they didn’t always win!

Child: Oh dear.

Abdul: When Alexander of Macedon expanded his empire he conquered Egypt, and made himself pharaoh!

After he died, the descendants of his general, Ptolemy ruled for nearly 300 years!

The Ptolemaic dynasty ended with the death of Cleopatra, during the Roman conquest in 30BC which was 600 years ago.

Child: But don’t you miss all that stuff like the pharaohs and the huge statues and everything?

Abdul: Yes it was cool! But even though our religious beliefs have changed we’re still the same people.