Lesson 9: The “Death of Magic” in Egypt

This wasn’t good. It really wasn’t good. Professor Montgomery “Gummy” Vance stood in his office, surrounded by piles of scrolls, notebooks and Muggle souvenirs. Each of the little plaster and plastic replicas of famous Egyptian antiquities had been enchanted by Gummy’s colleagues to create 3D hologram-like representations of the walls and doors inside Bastet’s fortress. For months the hexbreakers had tried to gain entrance to the ancient structure in Bubastis, but one by one, they fell victim to its elaborate and unusual combination of hexes, spells, traps, and riddles.

Gummy flipped through his notes yet again. ”Merlin’s beard and Herpo’s breath!” he swore in amazement. ”I need to pack.” Halfway out the door, he stopped short. A group of Hufflepuff students chatting excitedly about their plans for the holiday break passed by, reminding the professor that he had obligations at Hogwarts. A quick glance at the clock on his office wall confirmed that if he didn’t get a move on, he was going to be late for class.

A few minutes later he arrived at his classroom only slightly out of breath, to find the students already in their seats and ready to begin. Gummy took a moment to gather his thoughts. The urge to throw everything he might need into a suitcase and grab his broomstick was nearly overwhelming. Now that he knew what they faced in Bubastis, he needed to be there – whether they decided to actually open the fortress’s lower level or not. And maybe we shouldn’t. We probably shouldn’t. But it’s been so long… With an effort, he drew his thoughts back to the lesson plan and forced himself to focus.

”Why did the Ancient Egyptians stop building pyramids? Does anyone know?” Gummy looked around the room hopefully, but was met with blank looks and eyes that drifted away from his gaze, reluctant to make contact. He rolled his eyes in resignation. The students were really good kids, but at this rate their text books would still be in the “like new” condition at the end of the year. ”The Ancient Egyptians stopped building pyramids because they forgot how.”

A student in the second row burst out laughing and then looked around in confusion. “It’s a joke, right, like: why did the chicken cross the road? I mean, how can you just forget how to do something you’ve been doing for 500 years?”

”Actually, you would be surprised how easy it is for a culture to forget something like that. Other civilizations have forgotten just as much and under similar circumstances.” The Professor made a series of quick motions with his wand as if he were checking off a list. The wall beside him transformed into a blackboard and a timeline of Egyptian history appeared in white chalk.

Period	Years and Events
Old Kingdom	2804 B.C.E. - Ra emerges from the river
	2700 B.C.E. - Imhotep builds Stepped Pyramid of Djoser
	Wizards fully engaged in Muggle world.
	500 years of growth and advancement.
First Intermediary Period	2150 B.C.E. - Law prohibited witches and wizards from interacting with Muggles.
	Political chaos and civil war.
	Egypt divided in two for 136.
Middle Kingdom	2015 B.C.E. - Partial integration of wizards authorized.
	Upper and Lower Egypt reunited. Pyramid building resumes.
	264 years of united self-rule.
Second Intermediary Period	1759 B.C.E. - Ban on Interaction with Muggles.
	Egyptian society and military weakened. Foreigners invade.
	220 years under foreign rule.
New Kingdom	1539 B.C.E. - Egyptian Muggles overthrow foreign rule.
	Egypt focuses on military might, empire-bulding, and culture without overt wizarding influence. Pyramids built without magic.
	669 years of Egypt's "Golden Age".
Foreign Rule	728 B.C.E. - Nubia conquers Egypt and rules for 72 years.
	656 B.C.E. - Assyria conquers Egypt and rules for 131 years.
	525 B.C.E. - Persia conquers Egypt and rules for 193 years.
	332 B.C.E. - Greece conquers Egypt and rules for 302 years.
	30 B.C.E. - Cleopatra, last of the Greek pharaohs dies. Rome annexes Egypt.

”As you can see from the timeline, what we know of the history of Ancient Egypt begins in 2804 when Ra emerged from the river, soon to be followed by his assorted wizarding friends and relations. And while his methods were less than honorable, under him, the wizarding world and the Muggle world became one. Egypt’s population grew. The society and culture progressed.

"As I’m sure you recall from the last lesson," Gummy continued, "in 2700 B.C.E., Imhotep built the first pyramid and stone columns. For the next 500 years, Egyptian wizards and Muggle craftsmen took Imhotep’s brilliant inventions and slowly improved upon them. Pyramids became larger and no longer required the stepped feature Imhotep first conceived. Mummification improved as well, as did many aspects of Egyptian society. So, what brought that all to an end?”

Gummy moved toward the timeline and pointed to the First Intermediary Period. “Fighting between the armies of Horus and Seth had harmed many, many innocent Muggles. The followers of Isis used their healing magic to help alleviate the harm, but they could not be everywhere or bring back those who had died. Seth’s followers had been mostly reduced to bands of warriors who attacked wizards and Muggles alike wherever the two groups were working together. A horrifying incident in Lower Egypt’s delta area, convinced the leaders of Egypt’s magical community that everyone would be safer if the magical community disengaged from Muggles altogether. In 2150 B.C.E., a law went into effect that prohibited witches and wizards from interacting with Muggles.”

The Professor waited patiently for students to complete their note taking. When the scratch of quills on parchment grew silent, he continued. “The sudden withdrawal of witches and wizards created voids in the social, military and political structure. This, in turn, created political chaos and destabilized the country. Before long, Egypt had split in two with separate rulers in the North and South. This was not a good time for the region and after 136 years of social unrest and watching their Muggle neighbours struggle, the wizarding elite passed the Limited Engagement Protocol. This allowed some authorized witches and wizards to assist in the repair and reunification of Egypt which was completed in 2015 B.C.E.”

Gummy sighed and shook his head. ”The problem was that during the 136 years the wizarding community had remained separate from the Muggle community, it had done little to heal the rift in its own community. Predictably, attacks and abuse of Muggles soon followed the wizard-Muggle interaction authorized by the L.E.P. and after 264 years, the L.E.P. was repealed. Once again, over-night Egypt found itself without the aid and assistance of its magical citizens. This again destabilized the region and left Egypt vulnerable to invaders from Asia. It took the Muggles of Egypt over 200 years to free themselves from foreign occupation.” The Professor pointed to the New Kingdom on the timeline. ”The New Kingdom was all Muggle. They managed to organize themselves and build a few pyramids, too. But their time under foreign rule had brought them new military weapons and tactics. Much Egypt’s ‘Golden Age’ was focused on military might, imperialistic expansion, mysteries and closely guarded secrets.”

Professor Vance tapped the final section on the timeline titled ‘Foreign Rule’. ”Without the magical community to help pass on knowledge and strengthen the community, things fell completely apart in 728 B.C.E. It was then that the country was conquered by Nubians. From 728 B.C.E. until Cleopatra, the last pharaoh, died in 30 B.C.E., Egyptians never again regained self-rule or had a native Egyptian pharaoh on the throne. Many secrets and vast amounts of knowledge were lost in the constant upheaval and foreign oppression. And that, my dear students, is how you can forget something you spent over 500 years perfecting.”

Gummy waved his wand toward the blackboard at the front of the room and a list of neatly printed homework questions appeared. ”Please take a moment to copy down your homework assignment.”