Egyptian belly dance offers an authenticity and continuity of culture that one will not find in American style. Each dance has its own unique qualities. Egyptian belly dance is an authentic ethnic dance in movement and spirit. The dance and dancer are the physical manifestation of and visual compliment to the exotic music they accompany. Egyptian belly dance was among the first styles to be witnessed by Westerners.
The exact origin of this dance form is actively debated among dance enthusiasts, especially given the limited academic research on the topic. Much of the research in this area has been done by dancers attempting to understand their dance's origins. Wherever it began, the dance has a long history in African and the Middle East. Despite the restrictions in Islam regarding portraying humans in paintings, there are several depictions of dancers throughout the pre-Islamic and Islamic world.
Because the most popular venue for the dance remains night clubs, it is this version, rather than the more traditional folk or social versions that remain the most popular. The costume now associated Egyptian belly dance is called the bedlah in Arabic (meaning "suit") and was adopted by dancers in Egypt in the 1930s. From there it spread to other countries in the region. It owes its creation to the harem fantasy productions of vaudeville, burlesque and Hollywood during the turn of the last century, rather than to actual authentic Middle Eastern dress.
Most of the basic steps and techniques used in belly dance consist of circular motions isolated in one part of the body; for example, a circle parallel to the floor isolated in the hips or shoulders. This is a very intriguing action especially when accents using "pop and lock" technique where a dancer either shimmies or makes a striking motion in her shoulders or hips. Additionally, exhibits of flexibility and rolling one's belly muscles, balancing various props like baskets, swords or canes, and dancing with chiffon or silk veils are commonly used to enhance the mystery of the dance.
Dancers typically balance swords and other props, or did snake and folk line-dances. Their costuming was and still is distinctive with black and silver asuit fabric and facial drawings to simulate tribal tattoos. Dancers may also use a length of fabric like silk or chiffon during one part of the dance sequence. In truth costumes change from place to place and from time to time if you study the development of belly dancing.

In the Pharaonic times, the temples, royal cemeteries, and royal palaces included workshops where specialized craftsmen worked making furniture, jewelry, glass, metals, and other products. Egyptian tombs show vivid scenes and figures portraying various groups of craftsmen performing their handicrafts, such as carpenters and weavers in workshops. Museums around the world are full of various products made by those ingenious craftsmen. For 4,000 years, Egyptian crafts have generated various types of small arts with different styles and artistic tastes, which were known worldwide. Egyptians were skillful in engraving all kinds of metals with ornamented shapes and adorning them with semiprecious stones and colored glass. They were also proficient in woodworking, creating different kinds of furniture, which were often gold-plated and adorned with precious stones for the royal palaces.Glass vessels of the Pharaonic period were made around a pre-made template. The glass-blowing technique was not used until the Roman era. In the Islamic age, the glass industry and the making of oriels and arabesque, which is the engraving in wood by making complex geometric and artistic shapes, were also popular. Different kinds of transparent and colored glass vessels are still kept, even very small ones were made in great detail with various monuments drawn on them. Weaving was a popular art that flourished notably in the Coptic culture and continued in the Islamic age as high-class Islamic carpets became widespread.The multitude of craftsmen with their innovative techniques allowed for their artistic experience to be passed from one generation to another. They were divided into groups; each group had an elected Head, who managed its affairs and settled any disputes among its members. Egypt's districts had specified areas for craftsmen, goldsmiths, and coppersmiths. It is probable that the Egyptian artist was educated and trained by his father at an early age. The young child helped the workgroup in which his father worked to learn the rules of the craft. That was the case in Egypt until the Islamic age. However, in the Ottoman age, Egypt lost most of its craftsmen and artisans, as the skillful artisans were forced to move to Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire. Subsequently, Egypt witnessed a period of stagnation in art that lasted until the beginning of the modern times.

The humanities are the branches of learning that investigate human constructs and concerns, rather than natural processes or social relationships. The humanities include philosophy, language, literature, art, and history. From earliest times, the Egyptians produced great cultural achievements, which they strove to refine and pass down to successive generations.During the Old Kingdom, the ancient Egyptians developed the artistic styles and motifs that they would continue to use for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians recorded their daily activities and religious beliefs in texts and scenes on the walls of temples and tombs. Education was important to the ancient Egyptians; they taught children reading, writing, literature, and mathematics. Old Kingdom literature tended to be in a format called "wisdom literature," which taught a proper code of conduct. By the Middle Kingdom, scribes were recruited to write literary works in praise of the pharaoh. "The Story of Sinuhe," an adventurous tale of an official who flees Egypt after the murder of his king, was studied by children centuries later. Poems and songs have been found dating from the New Kingdom, even a text called "A Literary Controversy," in which one scholar promotes his own knowledge and criticizes the learning of a rival. The Greco-Roman era, especially under the early generations of Ptolemaic leadership, saw a flowering of the arts and humanities in Alexandria. Poets, philosophers, and other great scholars traveled to the great Library of Alexandria where they could consult a multitude of texts and debate their theories. Scholars were invited to live and carry out their work in the nearby Museum. The education of children, including girls, continued to be important for the upper classes.Under the Coptics, particularly after the rule of Constantine, writing became an effective way to spread the new religion and educate the converts. As monasteries specialized in the production of books, the art of illumination, beautiful and detailed colored illustrations of Biblical scenes and saints, reached a high point. Free from the persecution they faced under the Romans, Christian scholars were able to meet and debate philosophical and theological ideas.Education, literature, and intellectual activity continued to be highly valued under the Muslims, especially during the Fatimid and Ayyubid eras. Students were educated in madrassas, schools associated with a mosque, some of which achieved world renown. Sultans and princes vied for the honor of hosting scholarly gatherings in their homes. Calligraphy, a beautiful and stylized manner of writing Arabic, became an important artistic achievement as writers strove for the script to be worthy of expressing Allah's message to Mohammed. In addition to beautiful copies of the Qur'an, extensive encyclopedias in a variety of subjects from medicine, geography, history, and social customs were produced in the Islamic era. The Muslim's interest in a variety of topics led them to translate many earlier Greek and Latin texts into Arabic.

Statues were among the most important features of Egyptian arts. A statue had an essential function in the tomb throughout Pharaonic times, which was to enable the spirit to identify the features of the deceased person so that it could find him in the hereafter. Throughout the Old, Intermediate, and New Kingdoms, the art of sculpture flourished and produced a number of statues of different types. Egyptians used the size of their sculptures to show the social order. The pharaoh was larger than life-size, sometimes weighing hundreds of tons. Scribes and court officials were life-size, and servants and peasants, although made with high precision, were small, usually less than 50 centimeters. These statues exhibited the servant in various attitudes of working. Also, the shawabti statues, a few centimeters high, were like servants that are called by the master in the hereafter to perform the tasks he needs. There were 365 such shawabti statues, representing the days of the year.A basic feature of Egyptian sculpture was the Pharaonic Needles, made through utilizing high architectural technology, as the needle was cut from a single stone block. Needles were among the most prominent elements of ancient architecture, usually located on both sides of entrances to temples. Columns had a special status in Egyptian temples in the Pharaonic and Greek eras. A column consists of three parts: the base, body, and crown. Columns were either square or rounded. Crowns took different shapes similar to flowers and plants, such as the palm tree and the lotus plant. A common shape was that of a woven basket with an ornamental plant shape or grape vines inside.In the Greco-Roman era, Romans discovered many types of marble in the Red Sea mountains, which they used extensively in sculpture and construction. Movement and dress folds became evident in sculptural style. Several statues, particularly of kings and gods, have been found apart from their heads. A special type of sculpture emerged during that era, known as terracotta, which are small statues made of pottery with heights ranging between 5 and 20 centimeters. Large numbers of statues were found representing animals, such as a vulture, cat, hippopotamus, monkey, bull, lion, and dog, as well as human figures.The Coptic culture only focused on two particular types of sculpture. The first type is the tombstone, which is a plate of limestone whose upper part is often shaped like a triangle with drawings. The tombstone bears the portrait of the deceased and date of death. The second type of sculpture is the cornice, which is a carved decorative element above or below walls and used for decoration of churches and abbeys. They usually had plant or animal ornamentations and in special cases, human figures. Since the sixth century AD, the cross appeared in the middle.Sculpture played a small role in Islamic culture, since Islam rejected all aspects of the previous pagan religions. Therefore, only a few statues from that time period were found; these were not carved, but made out of templates. Most of these small statues were of small animals, such as a rabbit or gazelle.

The art of drawing and relief inscription flourished in ancient Egypt, as evidenced on the walls of temples and tombs. The artist dealt with the wall as a painting surface and tried to utilize all available spaces. This was not the work of a single artist, since the ancient Egyptian painting work was generally done in three stages. Various categories of artists participated, each with his own area of expertise. In the first stage, the basic primary lines that shape the features of the figure were drawn. In the second phase, coloring was done, starting with the wider areas and progressing to the details of the painting. Then the final phase was drawing fine lines and showing details.We can generally say that there were no distinctions between drawing, painting, and inscription. Even if we can differentiate inscriptions into two types, namely carving and engraving, either one of these two methods had to be preceded by drawing to make the original design of the figure and determine its basic lines. The coloring method used colored pastes to fill in the spaces in the drawing. The Egyptian artist often used color-fixing materials to prolong the life of colors.Because art was related to religious architecture, the artist took interest in portraying gods, glorifying them through presenting various types of offerings and recording prayers and recitations. At the same time, he portrayed different aspects of daily life that the deceased person may enjoy in his tomb and carry with him to the hereafter. Such scenes were not specific events or special moments of significance to the deceased, but were general scenes representing activities such as agriculture, hunting, herding, playing, or quarreling. In portraying people, the artist adopted the law of ratios, which remained in use until the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The artist divided the surface into equal squares on which he drew the general lines of the human body. According to certain ratios between the body parts, he filled in the squares until his work was completed. It was found that portraying the profile view was an ideal way to present all parts of the body. However, profiling was not a fixed rule. The need to show all details often necessitated the portrayal of the front view. In some cases, the artist combined both methods, for example, by drawing the head in profile, the shoulders in front view, and the lower part in a side view. In the Greco-Roman era, the link between these arts and religion continued. One of the most important features of Hellenistic art was the inscription of religious and mythical subjects on coffins. In addition, portrayal of human faces, similar to current portrait art, was one of the most significant additions in common use in that era. Also in use were the masks of mummies and colored funeral masks, which are portraits of the deceased person. These were placed directly on the face of the deceased, representing the actual features of that person, so that the spirit could identify the body. In many cases, coffins were made in the form of the deceased person.In the third century AD, an icon representing the person was hung in his house until his death, when it was then fixed to his coffin. Such icons disappeared after the fourth century AD, but appeared again in the sixth century. The beginning of Coptic portrait art can be traced back to the second century AD, starting in the tombs of early Christians. At first, the portrayed subjects were not directly related to the new religion, but Bible stories and symbolic themes gradually appeared until Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary were clearly and directly portrayed.Portraits can be divided into three types, according to the method adopted. The tempera method, which was utilized since the Pharaonic era, used sticky materials such as glue or egg white to provide colors with thickness. The encaustic method is a Greek method introduced to Egypt in the Greco-Roman era and it spread to Greek cities such as Alexandria, Faiyum, and Shaikh Ebada. It was based on mixing colors with wax and in some cases, a small amount of oil was added, which gave the drawing a glossy appearance to look like oil paintings. This method remained in use until the eleventh century. The third method is the fresco, utilizing water colors. It is a simple method based on mixing colors directly with water without any other medium. The colors are applied to the wall before it dries, so that both would dry together. This method appeared in the Christian era, although it did not last for long. Oil painting as we know today, which is a cheaper and easier method, did not appear until the Byzantine era.

Egypt has provided humanity with a rich treasure of various types of architecture. It is among the most creative of the world's countries in this art, both in quality and quantity. Architectural works in ancient Egyptian civilization can generally be divided into two types according to the materials used for construction. The first type is the un-burnt bricks, which were used for building Egyptian houses throughout the Pharaonic, Hellenistic, Coptic, and Islamic civilizations, extending even to modern times in Egyptian villages. The second type is stone architecture. Egypt had a large wealth of stones that included basalt, limestone, alabaster, granite, and others. Quarrying for these stones was supervised by the government, because the work required organized missions to live close to quarry locations until the required work was completed. Then the workers would return with their product required for construction. Many tools that were used for quarrying and building include hammers, axes, balances, measures, angles, half-circles, mason's levels, building triangles, and tools for leveling walls.Since the Pharaonic era, architectural design was essential before any construction work began. Several examples of architectural designs were found on pieces of pottery or stone. As a result of continuous construction activities through the ages, Egypt had specialized craftsmen skilled in construction work and its complex techniques. Construction crafts were passed from one generation to the next. Through the ages, these generations have provided the world with varied and unique forms of architecture; the most significant of which were state-sponsored projects, such as royal tombs. Attention to royal tombs started in the early times of Egyptian civilization, especially since it was endowed with a unique architecture in the Old and Middle Kingdoms, namely the Egyptian Pyramids of which there are about 110. In addition to tombs, places of worship had special attention in Egypt, for which the state devoted the best materials, architects, and artists. The land of Egypt still has Pharaonic and Greek temples, as well as historical churches and mosques.Along with religious and funeral architecture, there was military architecture, represented by fortresses and towers, of which we have examples from the Middle Kingdom through the Islamic era. There was also architecture for multiple civil purposes, which flourished in the Greek era. A prominent example was the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the third among the Great Wonders of the Ancient World, built during the rule of Ptolemy the First, but completed during the rule of Ptolemy the Second. It was 150 meters high and was used to guide ships day and night until the fifteenth century AD. Another example is the Roman Amphitheater, located in Kom El-Dekka area of Alexandria, which was discovered by a Polish mission in the early sixties of the twentieth century.Attention was given to architecture of various purposes in the Islamic era, represented by the construction of mosques, schools, fortresses, castles, palaces, and houses. In the Ayyubites era, military architecture flourished, with the construction of fortresses such as the Citadel of Salah Al-Din and the Fort of Al-Muzaffar. A new type of architecture also received attention, namely buildings for charity, such as houses for the poor and public water fountains. This type flourished in the Mamluk era, which witnessed construction of several houses, palaces, hotels, agencies, and schools, in addition to public water fountains. There is no doubt that Islamic Cairo remained a glittering architectural city until the end of the Ottoman period. It was surrounded by walls with openings for control of access, such as the gates of the city, of which only Bab El-Nasr, Bab El-Fotouh, and Bab-Zowaila still remain.

Based on the small groupings of papyri that have been found in burials, Ancient Egyptians are believed to have collected texts as part of elite possessions. Inscriptions and manuscripts also contain numerous references to groups of books as the "House of Books." There are no architectural remains for any large ancient Egyptian libraries, but they most likely would have been in the palaces and principal temples. At the Temple of Edfu, a chamber is inscribed with a catalog of books, but due to its size and location, it was probably used to house books regularly used for temple rituals.During the Ptolemaic period, Ptolemy the First Soter ordered the establishment of what became the Library of Alexandria. Demetrius of Phalerum put together the central collection for the library and Ptolemy the Second Philadelphius sponsored the completion of the work. Later kings were eager to increase the collection. Ptolemy the Third, for example, required all incoming travelers to hand in any books. If they were not already part of the library, the books would be kept while the owners received cheap copies. At its peak, the Library probably held around 700,000 scrolls, equivalent to 100-125,000 printed bound books. By the mid-third century BC, the original building became too small and about 42,800 copies and incomplete manuscripts were moved to the Serapeum. Nearly 40,000 books in the Library of Alexandria were burned in fires resulting from the conflicts between Caesar and Cleopatra the Seventh in 48 BC. Although Antony compensated the queen with 200,000 scrolls from Pergamum, the Library of Alexandria was destroyed sometime by the end of the third century BC during the power struggles of the Roman Empire. The Serapeum, or "Daughter Library," was judged to support pagan doctrine and destroyed by Theophilus, the Bishop of Alexandria, based on a decree by Theodosius in 391 AD that forbade all non-Christian religions.The Christian population in Egypt had access to the civic libraries established during the Ptolemaic and Roman times and church libraries, often located in monasteries. The library in the White Monastery of Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite at Sohag might have been the greatest in Coptic Egypt, but it is now scattered. Hundreds of parchment and papyrus fragments have been found at the site of the monastery of Saint Apollo, which also might have housed a library.The Muslims were great book collectors and libraries flourished under Islam, which promoted institutions of learning. In Egypt, and especially Cairo, large schools and mosques held libraries that were accessible to scholars in addition to the private libraries maintained by princes, nobles, and merchants. Each library had a catalog of its collection and employees who performed the job of the present-day librarian, in addition to scribes, book binders, and book handlers. In AH 395 (AD 1004), the Fatimid ruler Al-Hakim established an institute of learning called the Dar al-ilm, or House of Knowledge. He donated books on a wide range of subjects, encouraged scholars to teach there, and funded a support staff and furnishings. By the eleventh century, this research foundation was said to have held over one million volumes. In a fate similar to the Library of Alexandria, it was destroyed during the period of instability brought on by the invasions of the Crusaders and Mongols.