Transcript Egypt: The Gift of the Nile (the Nile not Denial!)

Ms. Jerome
 Without
the Nile, Egypt would be a baron
desert.
 Its waters flooded annually
 It soaked the land with life-giving water and
deposited a layer of rich silt (fine clay,
carried by running water, saturated with
nutrients)
 Flooding was PREDICTABLE!
 The Nile flows south to north!

Why is this very significant for the development
of Egypt?
 Ancient
Egypt had 2 distinct regions, Upper
(the South) and Lower Egypt (the North).
 They were divided at the first cataract
(waterfall)
DELTA
 King
Menes: credited with unifying upper and
lower Egypt at about 3100 b.c.e.
 Built a central government
 Ruled by the pharaoh – Menes being the first
 A pharaoh is a god living on earth
 Egypt operated under the rule of a pharaoh
and his bureaucracy—system of gov’t that
includes departments and levels of authority.
 As in Mesopotamia—most Egyptians were
peasants, or poor farmers
 Began
during the Old Kingdom (2660-2160
b.c.e.)
 Tombs and shrines to pharaohs
 Hatshepsut:
the first female ruler 1472
b.c.e. to 1458 b.c.e. Established trade in
the Mediterranean lands
 Thutmose III took over as pharaoh (stepson).
A great military general Thutmose III
expanded the empire to its greatest reaches
 Ramses II ruled for 66 years form 1279 to
1213.
 After
1100 b.c.e. Egyptian power slowly
declined
 Invaders such as Assyrians and Persians
conquered the Nile region
 In 332 b.c.e. the Egyptian dynasty ended as
the Greeks took control
 In 30 b.c.e. Roman armies displaced the
Greeks
 http://www.eyelid.co.uk/egyptian-
mummification.html