Transcript Pyramids on the Nile

Pyramids on the Nile
Chapter 2 section 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVrNV_5LhNE
First…a review
• What are the two rivers of Mesopotamia?
Tigris and Euphrates
• Was flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates
good or bad?
Good
• Who was the leader of cities during
peaceful times
priest
More review
• Who was at the top of the Sumerian social
pyramid?
Priests and kings
• Who was at the bottom?
slaves
• What was Hammurabi’s legacy?
code of laws
Geography of Egypt
• West of the Fertile Crescent in Africa, another
river makes its way to sea- the Nile in Egypt
• Nile flows northward for over 4,100 mileslongest in the world
• That’s the same distance from Chicago Illinois to
Paris France!
Nile
• River brings its water to Egypt from distant
mountains and plateaus
• Settlements sprung up on narrow strip of
land made fertile by the river
• Change from fertile soil to desert was so
abrupt that a person could stand with one
foot on each
Nile River
• Every July, rains and melting snow from
the mountains cause the Nile to rise and
spill over its banks
• Left behind is a rich deposit of fertile black
mud
• Before it could dry, peasants would
prepare fields for planting
• Cycle repeated itself every year: flood,
plant, harvest; flood, plant, harvest
Nile River
• Abundance brought
by the Nile was so
great, Egyptians
worshiped it as a god
• Greek historian
remarked Egypt was
“the gift of the Nile”
Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt
• Ancient Egyptians knew only the lower
part of the Nile- the last 750 miles before it
empties north into Mediterranean Sea
• Didn’t pass point called cataract- boulders
turning river to rapids
• Between the First Cataract and
Mediterranean lay 2 different regions:
Upper and Lower Egypt
HUH???
• Terms Upper and Lower Egypt can seem
confusing because of the location of these
regions
• Upper and lower refer to land elevation
• Region of Upper Egypt was at a high
elevation
• Lower Egypt was at a low elevation closer
to Mediterranean Sea
Nile River
• River provided transportation between Upper
and Lower Egypt
• Helped unify Egypt's villages an promote trade
• Nile was as regular as clockwork
• If floodwaters were few feet lower than usual,
amount of silt, crops, and food was reduced
• If waters were higher, water could spread
beyond fields to the mud-brick villages nearby
and destroy homes
• Deserts on both sides of the Nile acted as
natural barriers between Egypt and other
lands
• By 3200 B.C. Egyptians coming into
contact and trading with people of
Mesopotamia
• Searched for gold, ivory, cattle and granite
for massive temples and tombs
Moving goods and ideas
• Egyptians moved freely from region to region
searching for better land for farming
• Egypt blended cultures of Nile Valley people’s
and became a land of cultural, ethnic, and racial
diversity throughout its 3,000 year history
Egypt unites into a Kingdom
• By 3200 B.C. Upper and
Lower Egypt ruled by 2
different rulers
• King of Lower Egypt
wore a red crown and
king of Upper Egypt, a
white crown
• 3100 B.C. Menes, King
of upper Egypt united all
of Egypt, and created a
double crown
Menes
• Established capital, Memphis, place where
Upper and Lower Egypt meet
• Establish 1st Egyptian dynasty
Pharaohs
• To Egyptians, Kings were gods and
became known as pharaohs
• Pharaoh stood at center of religion,
government, and army
• Theocracy- ruler is a divine figure
• Believed pharaoh responsible for
kingdom’s well being, sun rising, the Nile
to flood and crops to grow
Pyramids
• Egyptians believed King ruled after his death
and tombs were bigger than palaces
• For Kings of the Old Kingdom, rested in a
structure called a pyramid
The Pyramids
• Used large supply of granite and limestone
• For the Pyramid of Giza, each block
weighed at least 2 ½ tons, some weighed
15
• Stacked more than 2 million blocks with
precision 481 ft
Do you know how heavy that is?
A car- 1 ton
whaleshark-15 tons
• Peasants forced to build pyramids when
the Nile was in flood and couldn’t farm
• Government provided food and housing
Egyptian Culture
• Egyptians were
polytheistic
• Most important gods,
Ra, the sun god and
Horus, the god of light
• Important goddess,
Isis represented ideal
mother and wife
• Egyptians believed in afterlife
• Preserved a dead body by mummificationembalming and drying the corpse to
prevent from decaying
• Placed the mummy in a tomb filled with
items the dead may need in after life
• Book, Book of the Dead provided
guidance for the afterlife
•
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/story/page2.html
• http://www.youtube.com/user/historyteach
ers#p/u/22/Jz3d5x-MUT4
Egyptian Society Pyramid
King, queen, royal family
•
Upper class
(wealthy landowners, priests, gov’t officials)
Middle class (merchants, artisans)
Lower class (large population, peasants, workers)
Women in Egypt
• Had many rights of
man
• Could propose
marriage or seek
divorce
• Wore make-up (so did
men)
• Kohl- powdered
minerals mixed with
water applied to eyes
Hieroglyphics
• Flexible writing
system
• Earliest form of
hieroglyphics picture
stood for an idea
• Changed system to
also stand for sounds
• Could be used like
letters of the alphabet
• Wrote on papyrus
reeds that grew
Science and technology
• Developed written numbers for counting,
adding, subtracting
• Developed a calendar to keep track of
floods based on a star appearing each
year before the floods
• Calendar was based on 365 days, broke it
into 12 months of 30 days
• So accurate, short of the solar year by 6
hours
Chariot Riders Invade Egypt
• Power of pharaohs decline 2180 B.C.
• 1640 B.C. Asian nomads swept into Egypt
in horse-drawn chariots by people called
Hyksos “rulers of the uplands”
• Egypt will rise again, and will be known as
the New Kingdom
•
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=walk+like+an+egyptian