The ancient Egyptian concept of ma’at or harmony and balance in all things lay at the heart of their approach to technology. Harmony and balance could be maintained by overcoming life’s problems with human ingenuity through advances in technology. While those ancient Egyptians believed the gods gifted many great benefits to the Egyptians, an individual still had the responsibility of care for the community, the kingdom and one’s self through applying knowledge and inventiveness to advance Egyptian society. Thus their engineers, astronomers, hydrologists and scientists would have believed they were observing the will of the god’s by improving the world they had been gifted.

Consequently, the ancient Egyptians were innovators in architecture, mathematics, construction, language and writing, astronomy and medicine. While ancient Egypt is commonly associated with imposing pyramids, amazingly well-preserved mummies and fabulously powerful and wealthy pharaohs, the technology was applied in a surprisingly diverse range of sectors.

Facts About Ancient Egyptian Technology

  • The ancient Egyptians believed applying knowledge and inventiveness to advance Egyptian society through technology was doing the will of the gods
  • Ancient Egypt developed innovations in architecture, mathematics, construction, language and writing, astronomy and medicine
  • Their development of hieroglyphics ensured a rich treasure trove of information including records of major events, lists of kings, magical incarnations, construction techniques, religious rites and scenes of everyday life survived to come down to us thousands of years later
  • Using simple hydraulic engineering techniques the ancient Egyptians created a vast network of irrigation canals and channels
  • Papyrus was expensive even when mass produced and was widely traded to places such as Ancient Greece and Rome
  • Simple machines such as levers, counterweight cranes and ramps were used to build the pyramids, temples and palaces of ancient Egypt
  • The ancient Egyptians were masters of logistics and organizing their labour force sometimes for decades
  • Early forms of timekeeping devices and a calendar enabled the ancient Egyptians to track the seasons and the passage of time during both day and night
  • Heavy cargo boats were used to transport the immense stone blocks used to construct Egypt’s pyramids and temples
  • The ancient Egyptians also built seagoing vessels for trading and huge pleasure barges to entertain the pharaoh
  • They were also the first to feature stem-mounted rudders on their vessels

  • Mathematics

Ancient Egypt’s iconic Giza pyramids required an intricate knowledge of mathematics, particularly geometry. Anyone who doubts this need only to look at the collapsed pyramid at Meidum for an insight into what happens to a monumental construction project when the mathematics goes horribly wrong.

Mathematics was used in recording state inventories and commercial transactions. The ancient Egyptians even developed their own decimal system. Their numbers were based on units of 10, such as 1, 10 and 100. So, to signify 3 units, they would write the number “1” three times.