The Big ThreeWhile all past cultures have contributed to the onward march of progress, there are three highly developed historical cultures that have done even more: they have prospered. Each of the three major civilizations had phenomenally developed cultures that evolved through their writing system, their architecture, their philosophy, their government, and their religion. These three cultures ultimately set the standards for Western civilizations. For example, Washington DC could be called a modern Athens, where its architecture is almost the same and the justification for its existence is government administration. In Greece, democracy began and architecture advanced, along with disciplines such as mathematics and medicine. Above all, though, style was everything; women even wore (poisonous!) white lead makeup to impress boys and, of course, their gods (Hull 2007, 34). Ancient Greece was a major culture from about 776 BC to 323 BC. Egypt furthered the evolution of the written word through the use of hieroglyphics from 3,100 BC to 2,000 BC Finally, in ancient India religion was everything, being the home of both Buddhism and Hinduism, and some people even tried to meditate for forty-nine days like Siddhartha Gautama (Armento et al. 2003, 236 and 237). Ancient India flourished from approximately 1500 to 467 AD. These cultural traits and many others explain why these three civilizations were so highly developed for their time. Ancient Greece was innovative in construction and engineering. Their architecture was exemplified in the design of some of their structural columns, such as the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian styles. Some of the famous Greek buildings/projects include the Parthenon and the amphitheater on the Acropolis... middle of paper... they thrived with rich culture and material riches for their leaders. From the architecture of the ancient Greeks to the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians to the religions of the ancient Indians, these civilizations designed, engineered, and defined culture. Their will to provide for the wealth of their people made them strong, but their will to improve the lives of their people made them unstoppable. These cultures were highly developed. Bibliography Armento, Beverly and Jacqueline Cordova. 2003. A Message from Ancient Times. Boston:Houghton Mifflan.Crisp, Peter. 2003. Ancient Greece revealed. New York, New York: DK Publishing.Hull, Robert. 2007. Daily life. North Mankota: Seaton Publications.Sinker, Cath. 2001. Discovering History: Everyday Life in Ancient Greece. Minnesota: SmartApple Media.