1. Ancient Egypt
“The Gift of the Nile”

2. Location Northeast Africa Located along the Nile River
South of the Mediterranean Sea

4. Time Period
Three eras define Ancient Egypt – the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom.
During the Old Kingdom….
5000 BCE people began farming along the Nile
3100 BCE Egypt unites and becomes a massive empire
2600 BCE pyramids are built

5. Land Along the Nile
The climate in Egypt is dry and desert-like, not ideal for farming
Yet every year, from July – October, the river flooded and everything became swampy and muddy
The flooding turned the valley green and allowed for farming

6. The Nile – Egypt’s Super Highway
Provides water and food in the desert
Egyptians believe it was a blessing from their gods
World’s longest river
Flows for more that 4,000 miles.
Water flows from south to north and empties in the Mediterranean Sea.
River floods with rainwater and snow from nearby mountains and spreads silt.

8. Egypt’s Regions
Delta – The land to the north near the Mediterranean Sea which is especially fertile because the river branches and divides
Lower Egypt – Northern Egypt where the Delta is located, it is called Lower Egypt because the Nile flows from South to North
Upper Egypt – Southern Egypt, the landscape is defined by stone cliff and desert sands.
Upper and Lower Egypt were 600 miles apart. To go from one to the other would take a month by foot and two weeks by boat.

10. Agriculture
In October, when the flooded land started to dry farmers planted
wheat,barley
cucumbers, lettuce, onions, beans
flax – a plant used to make cloth
Farmers used irrigation systems to bring water to their crops.
Farmers were able to produce more food than they needed because the land was so fertile. They used the surplus to trade

11. Flax Plant
Irrigation
Water Channels

12. Unification Upper Egypt – had king that wore a white crown
Lower Egypt – had a king that wore a red crown
During the Old Kingdom, in 3100 BCE Menes, the king of Upper Egypt, invaded and conquered North Egypt.
Menes then wore a double crown that was white a red to symbolize the unification, or coming together, of both regions.
Menes was Egypt’s first ruler, or Pharaoh.

13. Menes

14. Religion Pharaoh’s had great political and religious power.
Pharaoh’s were thought to be children of the sun god.
Egyptians believe the sun god, Ra, gave life to earth.
They also believed Pharaoh’s gave life to Egypt.
They believed both Ra and Pharaohs should be worshipped.
Egyptians were polytheistic and believed different gods had different roles.
Egyptians believed in an afterlife and they would be buried with important things that they wanted to take to the “Next World”.

15. Ra
Dead buried with possessions

16. Egypt’s Economy
Since the Pharaoh was thought to be a god, everything belonged to him.
The Pharaoh was the ruler of the economy, which means he managed how money and resources were used.
Egypt was able to thrive and be successful because farmers produced a lot of extra food that could be used for trade.
The Pharaoh collected taxes from everyone, usually in the form of food and goods.
Some had to pay tax in the form of time, which means they were forced to work to dig canals during flood season.
All of these taxes help keep the king rich.

17. Writing Egyptian system of writing is called hieroglyphics.
It consists of 800 picture signs.
Each individual sign was called a hieroglyph.
Hieroglyphs could stand for objects or letter sounds.

18. Scribes Scribes traveled throughout Egypt to keep records.
They often went into fields to record the amount of crops available.
They drafted letters and marriage contracts.
Writing was only taught to a select few, so scribes were highly respected.
Only boys could become scribes and they started to train at age 10.
Once they learned the specific hieroglyphs they learned how to prepare the papyrus, which is a reed plant that they used for paper.

19. Scribe
Papyrus Plant

20. Pyramids
Pyramids were huge stone structures used as tombs for pharaohs.
The Great Pyramid is the largest. It was built for King Khufu in 2600 BCE
It took 20 years to build. More than 100,000 people worked on it.
A huge portion of Egypt’s resources were used to built these monuments.
Food and cloth was used to feed and cloth workers, cliffs were knocked down to obtain stone to build with.