The Nile Valley Egypts Old Kingdom The Egyptian Empire The Civilization of Kush

Location

 Egyptians relied on it for drinking water, irrigation, cooking, cleaning, transportation, fish 4,000 miles The Worlds Longest River! Large ships can only travel on the last 650 miles because of crazy rapids called cataracts

The Nile River Valley

Deserts West of the Nile is the Saharan Desert East of the Nile is the Eastern Desert

Geography

Protection Deserts, the marsh land of the delta & cataracts provided Ancient Egypt with natural barriers to fend off enemies! Waterways The Nile, the Mediterranean, & the Red Sea

 Regular flooding means less worrying about crops!

The River People

Floods left behind fertile mud that looked black

Kemet = Black Land

Irrigation meant healthy crops of wheat, barley, & flax seed

 Made from a reed plant Used to make baskets, sandals, river rafts, paper

Papyrus

 Complex writing system; had picture & sound symbols

Hieroglyphics

 Cartouche Project: Print out the blank cartouche and make a copy for each student. Have the students take the cartouche home and make the paper look old. They could do this several ways (the best is to place the cartouche paper in a deep pan, pour coffee or dark tea over it, then bake it in the oven for a few minutes). Have the students bring the cartouche back to class and then they can write their name on it in hieroglyphics. They can also add some Egyptian pictures and color it with earth tones.

Cartouche Project

 Villages grew into kingdoms Strong kingdoms took over weak kingdoms. Eventually, there were 2 large kingdoms: Lower Egypt the Nile delta Upper Egypt upriver; to the south

Upper & Lower Egypt

Their names may seem backwardsbut its called Upper and Lower because of their elevationnot because they are North or South.

WaitUpper Egypt is south & Lower Egypt is North?!

Upper Egypt- is higher in elevation

Lower Egypt (the river delta is lower in elevation)

 ~ 3100 B.C., Egypts 2 major kingdoms were combined into 1thanks, King Narmer (aka Menes MEE-neez) Capital at that time was in Memphis

A United Egypt

Narmers dynasty lasted long after his death

dynasty = a line of rulers from one family Ancient Egypt had 31 dynasties

 2600 B.C. 2300 B.C

Egypts Old Kingdom

Egypt grew & became wealthy Built cities Expanded trade Kings set up a strong government

 Powerful ruler, unlimited power

Pharaohs

Appointed officials to do their work People believed the pharaoh was the son of Re (the sun god)

 Polytheism many gods or deities

Egypts Religion

Major gods Re the sun god Hapi goddess of the Nile Isis represented loyal wife & mother; Osiriss wife; goddess of the dead Osiris Isiss husband; god of the dead

 The Book of the Dead collection of spells & prayers that Egyptians studied to obtain life after death Osiris would meet them upon death & they would have to say the spells to have life after death Wanted bodies to be preserved for afterlife (embalmed mummies)

Life after Death

Embalming = a process to preserve dead bodies

 Mountain-like tombs for pharaohs Built by slaves & farmers during Nile floods Entrance faced North

The Pyramids

Egyptian Inventions
First specialists in medicine 365-day calendar with 12 months Math - numbers based on 10 - fractions - advances in geometry

 Built in 2540 B.C

The Great Pyramid

Largest & grandest of all the pyramids

Built for King Khufu

In Giza on the west bank of the Nile