1. Ancient Egypt : The Old Kingdom
Terms to Tackle :
Old Kingdom
Khufu
Nobles
Afterlife
Mummies
Pyramids
Engineering

2. Early Egyptian Society
The Old Kingdom lasted from 2700 BC to 2200 BC.
During these years, Egyptians created a political system based on the belief that the pharaoh was both a king and a god.
My name is Khufu, and I am one of the most famous pharaohs from the Old Kingdom. I’m best known for the monuments built for me.

3. Ruled by Pharaohs
Pharaohs had absolute power and were seen by Egyptians as incredibly important.
Even though pharaohs were given a lot of respect, they were also blamed for wars, floods, and disease.
With so much responsibility and so many people to please, pharaohs hired members of their families to help.
WAR!
DISEASE!
RESPONSIBILITY!
FLOOD!
Approximately 170 pharaohs ruled Egypt between 3100 BC and Cleopatra’s reign.

4. Egyptian Social Hierarchy
The pharaoh ruled Egypt as a god.
Nobles were officials and priests who helped run the government and temples. Usually, nobles were from rich or powerful families.
Upper Class
Scribes wrote and craftspeople produced goods.
Middle Class
Egypt’s Lower Class
Egypt’s lower class was made up of farmers, laborers, servants, and slaves.

5. Religion and Egyptian Life
Relatives would also bring food and water for the “ka.”
Egyptians were very interested in what was going to happen to them in the afterlife.
Egyptians believed that everyone had a “ka,” or a life force.
When a person died, their “ka” left their bodies and became a spirit but remained at the burial site and couldn’t leave.
The “ka” had all the same needs that the person had when he or she was living.
Objects Left for the “Ka.”

6. Gods of Ancient Egypt Isis Horus Amon-Re Osiris
I judge the souls
of the dead.
Egyptians were polytheistic.
Temples were built for gods all over the kingdom.
Major gods include:
*Re, or Amon-Re, the sun god
*Osiris, the god of the underworld
*Horus, a sky god, god of the pharaohs
*Anubis, weighed each dead person’s heart
against the feather of truth. If they weighed the same amount, the person was allowed to pass to the underground.
Horus
Isis

8. Burial Practices
Peasant families buried
their dead in shallow
graves in the desert.
The dry sand preserved bodies
naturally.
Egyptians believed bodies had to be preserved so a spirit could recognize it when it returned.
So the “ka” could recognize its body, Egyptians developed a process of embalming their dead.
Embalming allowed bodies to remain preserved for many years as mummies, or specially treated bodies wrapped in cloth.
Embalming took weeks!
It was a process that only
elite could afford.

9. Burial Practices
Based on what you know,
Why do you think organs
Were kept in jars?
The body’s organs were preserved in special containers, canopic jars, and kept next to the mummies.
The body was kept in a case called a sarcophagus.

11. The Pyramids Egyptians built pyramids in which to bury their rulers.
Tens of thousands of
workers must have worked
for decades
to build the structures
Egyptians’ understanding
of engineering
made it possible to build
such outstanding structures.
Egyptians built pyramids in which to bury their rulers.
Burial in a pyramid demonstrated a ruler’s importance. The larger the pyramid, the more important the ruler.
Egyptians believed that the happier the pharaoh in the afterlife, the happier the afterlife for all Egyptians.
Engineering is the
application of
scientific knowledge
for practical
purposes.

12. The Pyramids Weren’t Built in a Day
In fact, it wasn’t even close to taking just a day. It often took approximately 20 years to build a pharaoh’s pyramid. That means that a pharaoh had to basically plan for his death 20 years before it even happened.
Not only did it take a long time to build a pyramid, it also took a long time for Egyptians to figure out how to build the pyramid. At first, pharaohs weren’t even buried in pyramids. They were simply buried in shallow graves in the desert, which did an excellent job at preserving the bodies. However, a shallow hole just wouldn’t do for someone who was considered part god.

13. Mustabas
Since a shallow hole wouldn’t do, Egyptians started to bury important people under mustabas.
This is a mustaba.

14. The Step Pyramid
The mustaba wasn’t good enough for a pharaoh name Djoser who decided he’d like something a bit fancier for the afterlife.
He started a trend that other pharaohs began to follow.
This is a step pyramid.

15. This is Sneferu’s crooked pyramid.
The Crooked Pyramid
This still wasn’t good enough, however! Khufu’s father, Sneferu, wanted a burial location that was unlike any other seen before, but it didn’t go as planned.
This is Sneferu’s crooked pyramid.

16. Khufu’s Pyramid
2.3 million stone blocks.
Each stone weighs somewhere between 2.5 tons and 15 tons.
Khufu’s pyramid is the tallest of the pyramids in Giza.

18. Take some time to recap what you learned about the Old Kingdom in a paragraph of 6-8 sentences.
Recapitulation

19. Egypt and Its Neighbors
During the Old Kingdom, Egypt began to trade with its neighbors.
Traders returned from Nubia with gold, ivory, slaves, and stone.
Traders traveled to Punt for incense and myrrh.
They traveled to Syria for wood.
Ivory is a hard white substance that is the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, and walrus.
Incense is a product that creates smoke when it is burned. It is created from many things including: woods, seeds, leaves, flowers, and barks.
Myrrh is resinous dried sap from specific trees. It was used during the embalming process and burned as incense.