Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

• Like Mesopotamia, Egypt grew out of a river valley - the Nile.

• The Nile is the longest river in the world. • It passes through the mountains of East

Africa to the Mediterranean Sea.• At the Mediterranean Sea it forms a

great delta, a triangle shaped piece of richly fertile land.

Pharaohs and Gods

• Two kingdoms - Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt - were united in 3100 B.C. under a great ruler called a pharaoh.

• Egyptians respected the pharaoh as king and worshipped the pharaoh as a god.

• Egyptians were polytheistic, meaning they had many gods.

• Most ancient religions had many gods.

Pharaohs and Gods

• The Egyptians believed in a form of life after death. • Egyptians embalmed a body

immediately after death to prepare it for the next life.• Embalming preserved a body.

Pharaohs and Gods

• Egyptians believed that a person’s soul could not exist without a body.

• The embalmed body, wrapped in long strips of linen, was called a mummy.

• Rich people’s mummies were placed in very elaborate tombs, often along with wonderful treasures.

• The biggest tombs belonged to the pharaohs and were called pyramids.

Egyptian Writing

• The ancient Egyptian system of writing is called hieroglyphics.• Hieroglyphics uses small pictures

instead of letters. • These pictures were cut into stone or

painted on walls and papyrus - a form of paper made from the papyrus plant.

Egyptian Writing

• Pharaohs used scribes to keep a record of important government business.

• The scribes used hieroglyphics to make these records.

• For centuries historians could not read the hieroglyphics.

• In the early 1800s, the Rosetta Stone was discovered and helped historians unlock the mystery.

Egyptian Writing

• The Rosetta Stone had the same message written in three languages. • Historians used the two

languages they could read to help them decipher the hieroglyphics.

Trade and Conquest

• Egypt expanded its territory as far as Mesopotamia in the north and present-day Sudan in the south. • Egypt had many trade routes. • These trade routes extended to

present-day Sudan and Uganda and across the Mediterranean to Greece.

Trade and Conquest

• As they traded goods, Egyptians shared their ideas and culture with other cultures. • Eventually the Egyptian empire

was conquered by stronger empires.