It gives you significantly faster monument construction.
Ancient Astronauts: Actually a cheat code in the Expansion Pack.Granted, similar concepts were documented in ancient Egypt by historians like Herodotus, but the word itself is actually a medieval Persian word that no Egyptian in any pre-Arab era would know. Bazaars as we know them would not arrive in Egypt until Arab conquests that took place hundreds of years after the latest dates in the game.The Ancient Egyptians used a three-season calendar (Ahket, Peret, and Shemu), each with four months numbered ordinally, and years were reckoned by the reign of the current Pharaoh (say, the 30th year of the reign of Ramses II). You use the Gregorian calendar, despite being in Ancient Egypt.Amusing Injuries: When working on an obelisk, stonemasons will occasionally fall off the scaffolding.The Sphinx is the most noticeable (it ends up doing a 180), and only mastabas are exempt. In our history, Octavian won the battle, and went on to become Rome's first emperor. The win condition is a victory by the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra. However, the game does revisit alternate history, as the very last mission in the game is the Battle of Actium. From then on, every Pharaoh is historical. The Cleopatra expansion quietly retcons the notion of a single dynasty holding Egypt for half a millennium, and the first mission has you building a tomb - the very first tomb - in the Valley of the Kings for Thutmose I, Ahmose's grandson from the historical Eighteenth Dynasty.At that point, the player's dynasty takes control of the throne of Egypt and holds it for the rest of the game, into what our history records as the Eighteenth Dynasty the last missions you play in the vanilla game are clearly intended to represent the exploits of Ahmose I, who reigned in the mid-sixteenth century BC. The game is more-or-less historical from the era of the Naqada culture and Thinite confederacy prior to 3000 BC until approximately 2000 BC, and the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty.Almighty Janitor: The Pharaoh will entrust the building of his new capital and eternal resting to a mere Royal Architect - simply because you (and your descendants) are just that good at city building.Added Alliterative Appeal: "To the marsh we march, for the reed we need.".Labor is taken from the workforce as a whole - shut down an industry and all those previously working there will be employed elsewhere, regardless of the nature of employment.