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The Nile River Valley was an ideal place for civilizations to thrive in northeastern Africa.
Since ancient times, Egypt has depended on agriculture.Egypt gets very little rain. Surrounded by hot, sandy
deserts, the Nile River brought life to the people who lived by it.
The Nile is the longest river in the world. It extends more than 4,000 miles in length.
The Nile flows through a DELTA. In ancient Egypt, the delta was located in Lower Egypt, which lies to the north of Upper Egypt. Label Upper and Lower Egypt on your map.
The Nile irrigated land that stretched about 5 miles on both sides of the river.
THE NILE RIVER VALLEY
The Nile overflowed because of heavy rains in East Africa.The ancient Egyptians took advantage of this by planting
seeds after the flooding and harvesting in late summer.Wheat and barley were the most important crops but they
also grew Papyrus to make paper.Egyptians used the Nile as a means to transport goods.
However, because of the six CATARACTS, or waterfalls, it was impossible to sail directly from the Nile Delta to East Africa without taking a boat out of the water and carrying it.
THE GIVER OF LIFE
Although the Nile did flood regularly, it did not always do so in the same way. Sometimes the river overflowed. This caused crops to be destroyed, and people lost their lives.
Other times, the Nile did not flood enough and crops could not grow. The Egyptians used the food they stored from surplus harvests.
Like the Mesopotamians, they built irrigation canals to transport water to their crops.
TAKER OF LIFE
The Egyptians observed that over time the sunrise and sunset as well as the moon’s appearance changed slightly.
They used these observations to make predictions about when the Nile would flood.
A calendar was used to keep track of the number of days between the flooding cycles. The Nile would flood sometime between May and September.
CONTROLLING THE NILE
What solutions did the Egyptians come up with to deal with the flooding of the Nile?
How was the Nile the giver of life?How was the Nile the taker of life?Suppose the Egyptians had not tried to predict when the
Nile would flood. Do you think their civilization would have lasted very long? Why or why not?
THINK
Like the Sumerians, the Egyptians developed a form of writing called hieroglyphics.
Unlike cuneiform, hieroglyphics represented objects or ideas but also stood for sounds.
They could be carved into a clay or stone tablet or written on papyrus.
EGYPTIAN RECORDS
Archaeologists did not know how to read the hieroglyphics they found on Egyptian buildings and artifacts for a long time.
The discovery, and later decoding of the Rosetta Stone solved the mystery.
On the stone was a passage written in Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and a form of cursive writing.
They compared the Greek and hieroglyphics to decipher what was written.
Egyptians used at least 700 different hieroglyphic symbols
ROSETTA STONE
Egyptians were polytheistic, just like the Mesopotamians.They used stories about their gods to explain the natural
world, including the Nile.Their main god, Amon-Ra, or Ra, represented the sun.
EGYPTIAN RELIGION
Pyramids were large stone buildings that served as houses or tombs for the dead.
The Egyptians believed pharaohs remained gods after death and pyramids were palaces.
Kings were buried with their possessions because it was believed they could be carried over into the afterlife.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_JgmxVCehw
PYRAMID BUILDING
Mummification took 70 days.
First, all the organs were removed.
Then, they rubbed oils and perfumes over the body.
Next, they wrapped the body in linen bandages.
Finally, the mummy was placed in a coffin and put into a tomb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MQ5dL9cQX0
MUMMIFICATION
During the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptians went on expeditions to southwest Asia to trade goods such as wheat, gold, and linen with other peoples.
To improve transportation, they dug a canal from the Nile River to the Red Sea, which became a trade route.
The Hyksos brought new technology ideas such as chariots pulled by horses.
TRADE AND TECHNOLOGY
Nubia was a kingdom to the south of Egypt. Today it makes up the Sudan. Label Nubia on your map.
Nubia’s borders began at the first cataract on the Nile River.Because the soil was rocky, they used sturdier farming
tools.The Nubians had a written language called Meroitic.
Although similar to hieroglyphics, no one has been able to decode it.
They also built pyramids but they were much smaller and had a distinctive style.
LANDS SOUTH OF EGYPT