Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt Like Mesopotamia, Egypt grew out of a river valley - the Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world. It passes through the mountains of East Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. At the Mediterranean Sea it forms a great delta, a triangle shaped piece of richly fertile land.

Pharaohs and Gods Two kingdoms - Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt - were united in 3100 B.C. under a great ruler called a pharaoh. Egyptians respected the pharaoh as king and worshipped the pharaoh as a god. Egyptians were polytheistic, meaning they had many gods. Most ancient religions had many gods.

Pharaohs and Gods The Egyptians believed in a form of life after death. Egyptians embalmed a body immediately after death to prepare it for the next life. Embalming preserved a body.

Pharaohs and Gods Egyptians believed that a person’s soul could not exist without a body. The embalmed body, wrapped in long strips of linen, was called a mummy. Rich people’s mummies were placed in very elaborate tombs, often along with wonderful treasures. The biggest tombs belonged to the pharaohs and were called pyramids.

Egyptian Writing The ancient Egyptian system of writing is called hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphics uses small pictures instead of letters. These pictures were cut into stone or painted on walls and papyrus - a form of paper made from the papyrus plant.

Egyptian Writing Pharaohs used scribes to keep a record of important government business. The scribes used hieroglyphics to make these records. For centuries historians could not read the hieroglyphics. In the early 1800s, the Rosetta Stone was discovered and helped historians unlock the mystery.

Egyptian Writing The Rosetta Stone had the same message written in three languages. Historians used the two languages they could read to help them decipher the hieroglyphics.

Trade and Conquest Egypt expanded its territory as far as Mesopotamia in the north and present-day Sudan in the south. Egypt had many trade routes. These trade routes extended to present-day Sudan and Uganda and across the Mediterranean to Greece.

Trade and Conquest As they traded goods, Egyptians shared their ideas and culture with other cultures. Eventually the Egyptian empire was conquered by stronger empires.