RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS ANCIENT EGYPT Essential Question What

RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS ANCIENT EGYPT

■ Essential Question: What were the important characteristics of ancient Egypt? ■ Warm-Up Question: – What did the Pharaoh Narmer create when he combined the previously independent kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt? – What does this tell you about the Egyptian Pharaohs?

Ancient Egypt’s civilization began along the Nile River in North Africa

Egypt was bordered on both sides by miles of scorching desert These natural barriers isolated Egypt and protected it from outside invasion

The Nile River’s annual floods were predictable and provided fertile soil for farming (a perfect place to start a civilization) The Nile flooded so predictably that the Egyptians designed their calendar around it Egypt has been called the “Gift of the Nile”; there would be no Egyptian civilization without the Nile

LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS Advanced Cities: Cities developed along the Nile River in “Upper Egypt” and “Lower Egypt”

LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS Ancient Egypt had a hierarchy of specialized workers –?

LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS Government : in which Government Pharaohs ruled rule Egypt is basedason religious authority is “king-gods” and were a theocracy thought tocalled control nature

LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS Government : Egyptians constructed pyramids and elaborate tombs for the pharaohs

LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS Religion: Egyptians were polytheistic and believed the gods controlled all aspects of life

Mummification Egyptians were judged by the Gods after death. Good people would live forever in a beautiful Paradise. To prepare for the afterlife, Egyptians preserved a dead person’s body by mummification

LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS Writing: Egyptian hieroglyphics were both pictograms and a phonetic alphabet

Hieroglyphics were translated using the Rosetta Stone This stone was inscribed with a decree from a pharaoh; it has three languages on it, so it provided the basis for understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics

LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS Technology: Egyptian ideas included a 365 -day calendar, geometry, astronomy, anatomy and papyrus (a paperlike material)