ANCIENT EGYPT

PROJECT BY
HARSH SHA
YEAR 3
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ALL ABOUT THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egypt was one of the greatest and most powerful civilizations in the history of the
world. It lasted for over 3000 years from 3150 BC to 30 BC.

The Nile River The civilization of Ancient Egypt was located along the Nile River in
northeast Africa. The Nile was the source of much of the Ancient Egypt's wealth. Great
Egyptian cities grew up along the Nile as the Egyptian people became experts in irrigation
and were able to use the water from the Nile to grow rich and profitable crops. The Nile
provided food, soil, water, and transportation for the Egyptians. Great floods would come
each year and would provide fertile soil for growing food.

Writing
First, and most important, the ancient Egyptians were among the first people to develop a
system of writing. They believed it was important to write down what was happening.

The best-known of the systems of Egyptian writing (there were more than three) is the
system using hieroglyphs, a mixture of pictures and ‘glyphs’ or symbols. The sentence
above, written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs means, “The crocodile eats the King.”
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Culture
Ancient Egypt was rich in culture including government, religion, arts, and writing. The
government and religion were tied together as the leader of the government, the Pharaoh, was also
leader of the religion. Writing was also important in keeping the government running. Only scribes
could read and write and they were considered powerful people.

Pyramids and Treasure

The Pharaohs of Egypt were often buried in giant pyramids or in secret tombs. They believed that
they needed treasure to be buried with them to help them in the afterlife. As a result, archeologists
have a lot of well-preserved artifacts and tombs to examine in order to find out how the Ancient
Egyptians lived.

Major Gods and Goddesses

Ra

Ra was the sun god and the most important god to the Ancient Egyptians. Ra was drawn as a man
with a hawk head and a headdress with a sun disk. At one point Ra was combined with another god
Amun and the two made an even more powerful god, Amun-Ra. Ra was said to have created all
forms of life and was the supreme ruler of the gods.

Isis

Isis was the mother goddess. It was thought that she would protect and help people in need. She
was drawn as a woman with a headdress in the shape of a throne.

Osiris

Osiris was ruler of the underworld and god of the dead. He was the husband of Isis and father of
Horus. Osiris was drawn as a mummified man with a feathered headdress.

Horus

Horus was the god of the sky. Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris. He was drawn as a man with the
head of a hawk. The ruler of the Egyptians, Pharaoh, was thought to be the living version Horus. In
this way Pharaoh was the leader of the Egyptian religion and the people's representative to the
gods.

Thoth

Thoth was the god of knowledge. He blessed the Egyptians with writing, medicine, and
mathematics. He was also god of the moon. Thoth is drawn as a man with an Ibis bird head.
Sometimes he was represented as a baboon.
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The Pyramids
The ancient Egyptians are famous for the building of the Pyramids. The pyramids were
built as the burial places of the Egyptian kings from before the start of the Old Kingdom
until the end of the Middle Kingdom.

The Step Pyramid at Saqqara

 The Step Pyramid at Saqqara is the earliest pyramid that is still there today.
 The Step Pyramid was built in 2630 B.C.
 It was the burial place of King Djoser.
 The architect of the Step Pyramid was Imhotep.
 Imhotep was the High Priest of Ra, the sun-god. He became famous for his great wisdom
and knowledge. The Egyptians later worshipped Imhotep as a god.
 The Pyramid rose in six giant steps.
 These steps were meant as a huge stairway for King Djoser to climb up to join Ra, the
sun-god.

There are still over eighty pyramids in Egypt today. They are all more than 3000 years old.
The architects of these pyramids were very skilled in mathematics, in technical drawing,
and in knowledge of the position of the sun and stars. The pyramids were carefully
designed to be in a straight line with, for example, a certain star constellation at a certain
time of year, or sunrise on a particular day.

Some of the pyramids were built as step pyramids like the one at Saqqara, but many others
were a real pyramid shape, with sides that were smooth and sloping.
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The Great Pyramid at Giza

 The most famous of all the true pyramids is the Great Pyramid at Giza, which is the
largest

Egyptian Daily Life

Egypt is a dry, hot desert country and ancient life depended on the waters of the River Nile.
The Nile was used for:

 water to irrigate the fields;

 the main means of travelling and of transporting goods, all by boat;
 an important source of protein food when people caught fish;
 the main building material was mud brick

Houses

People lived beside the Nile and Egyptian houses were almost all built from bricks of Nile
mud. (The palaces of the Pharaohs were built from stone.) The mud was carried in baskets
from the Nile and poured into moulds. When the mud in the mould was dry, it was turned
out and left to bake in the heat of the sun.

A house built from mud bricks:

 was cool inside.

 had a flat roof so that in very hot weather people could sleep on the roofs in the cool of
the night.
 often had courtyards with walls built round them.
 Cooking was done out of doors in the courtyard.

The richer families in ancient Egypt had houses with beautiful gardens, looked after by slaves or
servants. Men went wild-fowling (hunting wild duck) in the marshes and women are shown
sitting on couches talking to each other and listening to music.
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Food

The crops and vegetables meant that even the poorer Egyptians usually ate a balanced diet.

 The staple food was bread from the grain.

 They grew onions and leeks and salad vegetables
 They grew beans and dried them so that they could be cooked and eaten throughout the
year
 They grew fruit such as figs and pomegranates.
 They caught fish from the Nile.
 They kept cattle.
 They made beer from barley and richer people drank wine made from grapes.

Clothes

 Farmers also grew flax. Linen cloth is made from flax and Egyptian clothing was
made from linen. Men wore a short linen kilt and women usually wore a linen tunic
that hung from their shoulders. Little children sometimes wore no clothes at all but
often wore jewelry round their neck.

Fun Facts about Ancient Egypt

 Egyptian men and women wore makeup.

 It was thought to have healing powers, plus it helped protect their skin from the sun.
 They used moldy bread to help with infections.
 They were one of the first civilizations to invent writing. They also used ink to write and
paper called papyrus.
 The Ancient Egyptians were scientists and mathematicians. They had numerous inventions
including ways to build buildings, medicine, cosmetics, the calendar, the plow for farming,
musical instruments, and even toothpaste.
 Ancient Egypt plays a major role in the Bible. The Israelites were held captive there as
slaves for many years. Moses helped them escape and led them to the Promised Land.
 The Pharaoh kept his hair covered. It was not to be seen by regular people.
 Cats were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt.