Egypt
History
Geography
Economy
Social Structure
Government
Religion
Achievements
Architecture
- Hunter-gatherers moved into the Nile Valley more than 12,000 years ago
- The Egyptians started building their empire around 5000 years ago
- These people learned how to farm by finding plants, hunted the wild animals, and fished
- Farmers in Egypt, over time, developed an irrigation system
- The system consisted of a series of canals that had directed the Nile's flow and carried the water to the fields
- 3200 BC, the villages had grown and them banded together to create the two kingdoms; Lower and Upper Egypt
- 3100 BC, Menes rose to power in Upper Egypt
- Menes wanted to unify the kingdoms, so he invaded Lower Egypt and took control
- Menes married a princess from Lower Egypt to strengthen his control over the country
- Menes is believed to be the first pharaoh, ruler, and had founded Egypt's first dynasty, rulers from the same family
- The dynasty lasted for about 200 years
- Eventually, rivals rose to challenge the first dynasty for power and the challengers took over Egypt, establishing the Second Dynasty
- 30 dynasties would rule ancient Egypt over the span of more than 2,500 years
- Old Kingdom was when the Third Dynasty rose to power
- The Third Dynasty rose to power around 2700 BC and started the Old Kingdom
- The Old Kingdom lasted for about 500 years from around 2700 to 2200 BC
- The most famous pharaoh of the Old Kingdom was Khufu
- He ruled in the 2500s BC but we know very little about his life
- The Egyptian legend says that he was a cruel ruler, but historical records say that the people who worked for him were well fed
- Even so, Khufu was famous for the monuments that were built to him
- By the end of the Old Kingdom, the power and wealth of the pharaohs had declined
- The pyramids had cost a lot of money to build and maintain
- The pharaohs could not keep up with the taxes and expenses
- So the nobles took power from the pharaoh using their government positions
- The nobles had gained enough power to challenge the pharaoh
- By about 2200 BC, the Old Kingdom had fallen, and the nobles ruled for the next 160 years
- Then around 2050 BC, a powerful pharaoh had defeated his rivals and united all of Egypt once again
- He began the Middle Kingdom that lasted from around 2050 to about 1750 BC
- But again, at the end of the Middle Kingdom, Egypt began to fall into disorder
- At about 1750 BC, a group from Southwest Asia invaded
- The group was called the Hyksos
- They had used horses, chariots and advanced weapons to conquer Lower Egypt
- They then ruled the region as pharaohs for about 200 years
- The Egyptians eventually fought back and in the mid-1500s BC, a man named Ahmose of Thebes had declared himself king
- He drove out the Hyksos and ruled all of Egypt
- Ahmose started Egypt's eighteenth dynasty and the New Kingdom
- The New Kingdom was the period that Egypt had reached the height of its power and glory
- The New Kingdom lasted from about 1550 to 1050 BC, during which conquest and trade brought wealth to the pharaohs
- Egypt ended in 500 BC, lasting from 4500 BC to 500 BC
Geography
- Geography in Egypt was a key role in the development of the civilization
- The Nile River brought life to Egypt and enabled it to thrive
- The Nile was so important that a Greek historian had called Egypt the gift of the Nile
- The Nile is the longest river in the world
- It runs over 4000 miles and begins in central Africa and runs north through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea
- Ancient Egypt stretched along the Nile at about 750 miles
- There was a fertile river valley about 13 miles wide in Upper Egypt
- There were bleak desert sands on either side of the Nile
- South of Egypt, the Nile flowed through rocky, hilly land
- This rough terrain created and caused cataracts, rapids
- The Nile divided into several branches that fanned out and flowed into the Mediterranean Sea in Lower Egypt
- The branches formed a delta, covered with swamps and marshes
- About two-thirds of Egypt's fertile farmland was located in the delta
- Little rain fell in the region
- Most of Egypt was desert because of the lack of rain
- Each year the Nile would flood from the rain that fell far to the south of Egypt
- The floods provided silt, making the land black
- Egypt had natural barriers
- The harsh and big desert was to the west
- The Mediterranean Sea was to the north
- More desert and the Red Sea was to the east
- The cataracts in the Nile were to the south
Economy
- 4500 BC, farmers living in small villages were growing wheat and barley
- Over time, the farmers developed the irrigation system that consisted of a series of canals that directed the Nile's flow and carried water to the fields
- The Nile provided an abundance of food
- The Egyptian farmers grew wheat, barley, fruits, and vegetables
- They also raised animals like sheep and cattle
- The Nile provided fish, ducks, and geese
- Wealthy farmers rose to become village leaders
Social Structure
- By the end of the Old Kingdom, there were about 2 million people in Egypt
- As the population grew, social classes developed
- At the top of Egyptian society was, of course, the pharaoh
- Below him were the upper classes that consisted of priests and key government official, and many of these priests and officials were nobles
- Next was the middle class that consisted of lesser government officials, scribes, and a few rich craftspeople
- Egypt's lower class was made of more than 80% of the population, and were farmers
- Servants and slaves were considered lower than farmers
Government
- The pharaoh was the head of the government
- The pharaoh was believed to be a god that came to Egypt to maintain order
- The pharaoh had absolute power over all the land and people in Egypt
- People did blame the pharaoh if crops didn't grow well or if disease struck
- They had also demanded that the pharaoh had to make trade profitable and prevent wars
Religion
- The Egyptians had practiced polytheism
- They built temples to the gods all over the kingdom
- The gods and goddesses were Re (or Amon-Re), Geb, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Thoth, Ptah, Anubis, Ma'at, and many more
- Ptah was the creator of the world, and was the god of creation, arts, and fertility
- Re was the king of the gods, and was the god of the wind and sun
- Isis was the goddess of magic and nature
- Osiris was the god of the afterlife, underworld, and the dead
- Horus was the god of kings, sky, war, protection, and sometimes the sun
- Thoth was the scribe of the gods and the god of knowledge, hieroglyphs, and wisdom
- Anubis was the god of the dead and embalming
- Geb was the god of the Earth
- Maat was the goddess of truth, order, and justice
- The Egyptians also believed in the afterlife
- It was believed to be a happy place
- Your ka, soul, left your body and lived on
- It would be just like a human
- The Weighing of the Heart was a belief that after you die, your heart would be weighed on scales with the feather of truth
- If your heart was heavier than the feather, than your heart will be eaten by Ammit and you would no longer exist
- If your heart was equal to the feather, you would enter the afterlife
- The burial practices were that the body had to be preserved so the ka could recognize it
- The body would be dried and wrapped in cloth
- The pyramids were the homes of the ka of the pharaohs
- The pharaoh's ka would live in the pyramid that had food brought to them every once in a while, servants with them in the afterlife, and a bed
Achievements
- The Egyptians developed a writing system called hieroglyphics
- They wrote on papyrus, paper material made of reeds, and had over 600 symbols
- Historians and archaeologists didn't know how to read hieroglyphics until 1799 when they found the Rosetta Stone, which was a stone slab inscribed with hieroglyphics
- The stone had Greek on it translated from Egyptian
- Texts from the Egyptians have survived as well, because papyrus did not decay in the dry climate
- Egypt had pyramids for the pharaohs too, and Khufu has a sphinx guarding it
- A sphinx was an imaginary creature with the body of a lion and a head of other animals or humans
- Egyptian temples also had sphinxes on either side of the entrance
- An obelisk might stand on either side of the entrance too
- An obelisk was a tall, for sided pillar that is pointed at the top
- The Egyptians also loved to paint
- Tombs of pharaohs would have paintings on the walls for decoration
- They painted on canvas, papyrus, pottery, plaster, and wood
- The pharaohs and rich people also wore jewelry made of precious stones and gold that both men and women wore
Architecture
- The pyramids were some of the most spectacular things in Egypt
- Some are still standing today
- The pyramids were the tombs of the pharaohs, and served as a home in the afterlife
- The largest pyramid is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, covering more than 13 acres at its base and stands 481 feet high
- It took more than 2 million limestone blocks to build and thousands of workers to build it
- The pyramids are a great example of Egyptian engineering
- The pyramids we think of today have smooth sides, but the Egyptians didn't start building these until about 2700 BC
- The pyramids used to be steps that were covered in limestone