1. Ancient Egypt

2. Physical Features The Nile River: +Longest river in the world
+annually floods/ Fertile Silt is then left behind
+ Prevailing Wind – blows in a southerly direction, allowing Egyptians to sail against the current of the Nile
+Delta – triangle shaped mouth of the river
+Cataracts - rapids
*Aswan Dam – where the Nile
was dammed in the 1960’s/1970’s
at the 1st cataract

3. Historic Protections:
+Deserts – Arabian & Libyan
+Seas – Mediterranean & Red
+Cataracts/ Swamps
* Isthmus of Suez/Sinai Peninsula – these do later become an invasion route

4. Accomplishments Hieroglyphics: +600 to 700 Symbols
+ written on Papyrus (made from a reed found along the nile) and chiseled on stone
+ Scribes – professional writers

5. Cartouche – oval enclosing a (pharaoh’s) name

6. + Rosetta Stone :
Jean Champollion: French linguist who deciphers it 20 years after it’s found by Napoleon’s men in a.d. 1799
Says the same thing on it in 3
different languages, including
Hieroglyphics and Greek
*It becomes the key to re-learning
how to read the hieroglyphics

7. A famous library in Alexandria, Egypt was filled with papyrus scrolls, but was tragically burned and most of the books were lost

8. Calendar: - 12 months of 30 days - 5 days for holidays
* Based on the sun
Mathematics:
- Based on #10
*Eye of Horus
- Used fractions
* Used geometry – for resurveying fields after the annual flood and for their engineering projects

9. Medicine Mummification practices gave them knowledge of anatomy
*A limitation here was that they had the functions
of the brain and heart reversed
Doctors, respected around the region, diagnosed symptoms
and prescribed treatments for diseases
Medicine was intertwined with religion and included
knowledge of herbs, other plants, poultices, surgery, etc
but also saw the use of spells, chants, and incantations as well

10. Architecture/ Engineering:
+Irrigation Systems
+ Temples & Tombs
+ OBELISKS -
+ Sphinxes -
* Pyramids – developed from single level mastabas, to step pyramids, to the “great pyramids” of Giza

11. +Mastabas - single level tombs that later lead to the idea of pyramids

12. Located at Saqqara, 9 miles south of
Imhotep and the step pyramid: Priest/architect who designed the first pyramid, the step pyramid
Located at Saqqara, 9 miles south of
the (later) Great Pyramids of Giza

13. THE “BENT PYRAMID”
MAIDUM PYRAMID
*Other pyramids leading
up to the Great Pyramids
at Giza

14. The “Great Pyramids” on the Giza plateau
outside of Cairo

15. Great Sphinx- Face of a man (a pharoah), body of a lion

16. Art:
- Painting
- Sculpture
- Craftsmanship!
Jewelry, furniture,weaponry, etc.

17. Society + STATUS BASED ON YOUR SOCIAL CLASS
+Hereditary dynasties - the power to rule is passed down from generation to generation within the same family
+ Cosmetics & beauty
+ Games, music, feasts
+ Women’s status – relatively high for that era
Ex. Could own property & businesses, sue in court, etc.

18. Religion + Polytheistic – believed in many gods
+ Pharaoh - ruler of Egypt, considered a god, translates to “Great House”

19. + FOUR OF THE MAIN GODS INCLUDE:
Amen Re: seen as the king of the gods
Osiris: God of Nile/Underworld, judges your soul in afterlife

20. Isis: Wife of Osiris, subject of a later cult that Cleopatra worships
Anubis: God of dead/ Embalming *Jackal Headed

21. Scarab - Dung beetle, associated with the Sun and Resurrection
+ Amulets, Symbols include:
Scarab - Dung beetle, associated with the Sun and Resurrection
Ankh - symbol of Life
Wedjet – Eye of Horus

22. Bull
+ Sacred Animals include:
Cat
Falcon
Hippo
Crocodile

23. +Afterlife -Immortality - Middle coffin Innermost coffin
- Mummification -
Process of preserving the body after death
- Journey to Hall of Truth, where your soul was judged
Book of the Dead -
-Immortality -
Middle coffin
Innermost coffin
Tut’s outermost coffin

24. Canopic Jars: Internal organs were stored in these and placed in the tomb with the mummy

25. Timeline
2900 B.C. Menes:
Unites upper (vulture) and lower (cobra) Egypt, starts first hereditary dynasty (of 34 total – for over 3,000 years)

26. 2650-2180 B.C. Old Kingdom (4th – 8th Dynasties):
- Great Pyramids Built
- Declines due to growing power of nobles, civil war

27. 2040-1650 B.C. Middle Kingdom (12th -13th Dynasties):
Commoners can now be mummified (if they had the money to pay for it!)
- Pharaoh burials now in Valley of Kings (in hillside tombs)
- Canal built from Red Sea to Nile River

28. 1650- 1570 B.C. Hyksos Rule (a foreign dynasty):
Superior weapons and wheeled war chariots allow them to (cross the Isthmus of Suez and) dominate the (lower) egyptians for nearly a century

29. 1570-1100 B.C. New Kingdom or Empire
(18th – 19th Dynasties):
Hyksos overthrow (And kicked out)
Territorial expansion
(across the Sinai peninsula and southward up the Nile)
Exs. Palestine, Syria, Nubia

30. 1100’s-300’s BC Invasions & Continued Dynasties:
Ex. Nubians, Assyrians, Persians
300’s- 40’s BC Ptolemaic Dynasty (Greek):
- Descendants of Alexander the Great’s general, Ptolemy
- Cleopatra essentially the last Pharoah

31. 40’s B.C. - 500’s A.D. Roman Empire/Influence
*A.D. – Anno Domini, Latin for “year of our Lord”
A.D.700’s Islamic Influence begins
*Today – Egypt is an independent and important country in the middle east (though currently mired in turmoil & upheaval)

32. Famous Pharaohs Hatshepsut: female, rules capably for 20 yrs
Menes – unites upper & lower Egypt
Hatshepsut:
female, rules capably for 20 yrs
Amonhotep/Akenaton:
“the heretic pharaoh”, attempts unpopular shift to monotheism

33. Tutankaton/Tutankamon (Tut): (The boy king)
Returns egypt to polytheism, tomb found in 1922 by Howard Carter

34. Ramses II (The Great):
Warrior, builder, lives to 90, Hebrew oppression/story of Moses occurs during his reign
*Abu Simbel - temple moved when Nile was dammed at Aswan in 1960’s

35. Cleopatra: last pharaoh of ancient egypt
Romantically involved with julius Caesar and Marc Antony
Commits suicide with an asp (cobra) when conquered by rome