My Teenage Life in Egypt

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Muslim Control Shortly after the religion of Islam was founded in the early 600s by the prophet Muhammad, Muslim forces conquered Egypt. Several Muslim dynasties controlled Egypt for nearly 1,000 years as part of the Ottoman Empire, which was based in Istanbul, Turkey. Surprisingly, few people outside of the general region were aware of Egypt. That changed in 1798 when the French emperor Napoleon invad- ed Egypt. One of his men, Jean-François Champollion, discovered what became known as the Rosetta Stone. This large fragment of an even larger tablet has three identical inscriptions: one in hieroglyphics , another in

a different type of Egyptianwrit- ing, while the thirdwas a formof Greek. ChampollionknewGreek so he was able to translate the hieroglyphics. That made many more people aware of Egypt and its former glory. Another important devel- opment came in 1869 when the Suez Canal opened. Before that, ships had to travel around the southern tip of Africa to get to Asia. The new canal linked the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, shortening thevoyage toAsia by thousands of miles. Thisdevel- opment proved to be especially important to the British Empire.

Visitors to the British Museum in London can see the actual Rosetta Stone on display there, taken by English forces from Napoleon.

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