Ancient Egypt Study Guide Answers

Part I: Importance of the Nile River and Impact of Geography Egypt is located in the continent of Africa Egypt’s northern border touches the Mediterranean Sea The Nile River is the longest river in the world. The flooding of the Nile River brought fertile soil to Egypt. Egypt’s best farmland is located in the Nile Delta. Besides the Nile River, the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Sahara Desert on either side of Egypt provided a natural barrier to protect Egypt from invasions. The Nile river was a “gift” to Egypt because it provided fertile soil to allow for good farming and also provided water for drinking, food, and transportation.

Part III: Other things to know: Egypt and Mesopotamia shared similarities. Both are river civilizations that depended on the flooding of rivers to provide them with fertile soil for farming. What one thing besides farming did Egypt’s economy rely most on? Trade with other cultures What job did most Egyptians have? farmers Scribes served an important purpose in Egypt. What was that? Scribes were responsible for recording the taxes and other governmental documents for the pharaoh. They also wrote religious texts. Why were the pyramids so important to the Egyptians? The pyramids represented the magnificence of Egypt. The pyramids also showed the importance of the pharaohs in protecting Egypt even in death.

Why was the Egyptian calendar so important? The calendar helped predict the flooding of the Nile river so that the Egyptians could best prepare their crops. Why was papyrus so important to the Egyptians? Papyrus was used to make the scrolls for Egyptian writing and was also used to make other things Egyptians used. It was also so plentiful that the Egyptians traded papyrus reeds with other people. What was the Egyptian belief about the afterlife? Egyptians believed their afterlife would be happier than their time on earth. Therefore, they viewed life on earth as a learning process and prepared well in death for the afterlife (i.e. mummification, including important goods and food in burial tomb)

Why was religion so important to the Ancient Egyptian way of life? The Egyptians believed that to be admitted to the “heavenly place” of their afterlife, you had to spend your life on earth doing good deeds to appease the gods and therefore grant your entrance into the afterlife. How did Ancient Egyptians influence modern day life? Be able to name a couple of examples. (Think about your stations) Egyptians created a calendar similar to ours, they created a writing system which other civilizations modified, and they created architecture that is still replicated today (Washington Monument is similar to the Egyptian obelisks)