3. Geography of Ancient Egypt
• Nile River has fed Egyptian civilization for over
5,000 years
4. The Longest River
• Nile River
▫ Longest river
▫ Has cataracts (waterfalls)
▫ Branches into a delta (area near a river’s mouth
where the water deposits silt)
▫ Flows north to Mediterranean Sea
▫ Use to flood every summer causing silt to be
deposited along Nile’s shores
Silt was fertile & good for growing crops
5. Black Land, Red Land
• Egyptians
▫ Lived in narrow bands of land on each side of the Nile
Called black land because of fertile soil
Red land was the desert region beyond the fertile region
• Weather
▫ Always the same; 8 months sunny & hot, 4 months of
winter were sunny but cooler
• Deserts
▫ Acted out barrier to keep out enemies
• Mediterranean Coast
▫ Swampy & lacked good harbors
6. Land of Plenty
• Ibises birds
▫ Flew up from the south
▫ Egyptians knew when these birds arrived annual
flood waters would soon follow
When waters drained away crops were planted in
fertile soil
7. Agricultural Techniques
• Developed ways to control yearly flood
• Irrigation canals
▫ Dug to divert water to dry areas
• Catch basins
▫ Areas where water would pool to be used at a later
date
• Removed earth was used to make embankments to
protect areas from the flood
• Shadoof
▫ Introduced in 1600 B.C.
▫ Used to move water between the Nile and a canal, a
canal and a catch basin or a catch basin and a field
8. Egyptian Crops
• Variety of crops grown
▫ Wheat & barley were important
1st to grind wheat into flour & add yeast to make
bread
▫ Vegetables were also grown
▫ Also grew materials for their clothes
1st to weave fibers from flax plants into linen
9. Egyptian Houses
• Used bricks made of mud & straw
• Had narrow windows
• Painted walls white to reflect the sun
• Used sticks & palm branches for roofs
• Woven reed mated covered the dirt floor
• Wealthier people had fancier homes
▫ Tree-lined courtyards, pools with lotus blossoms &
fish
10. Geography Shapes Egyptian Life
• Economy depended on farming
• Also used natural resources for everyday need &
developed economic activities
11. Minin
• Mined & quarried different metals & minerals
▫ Copper: used to make tools & weapons
▫ Iron: stronger metal choice
▫ Gold: prized by Egyptians
▫ White limestone: used to build important religious
centers & artistic centers
▫ Turquoise & emeralds: precious stones used to
make jewelry
12. Fishing & Hunting
• Rafts were made to go onto the Nile
• Used nets & harpoons to catch fish
• Hippopotamuses & crocodiles
• Captured quail & nets
▫ Used boomerangs to knock down flying ducks and
deese
13. Transportation & Trade
• Sails & oars were later added to reed boats
▫ Nile became a highway
• Nile provided a surplus of food
▫ Began to trade with each other
▫ There was not money so people bartered
15. Work and Family Life
• Surplus leads to economic expansion
• Cities become centers of culture & power
▫ People learn different jobs
i.e. scribes
16. Specialized Jobs
• Complex civilizations led to new jobs
▫ Artisans: created stone or brick houses & temples;
other made pottery, mats, furniture, clothing,
sandals, or jewelry
▫ Traders: traded with other Africans; traded
Egyptian products (scrolls, linen, gold & jewelry)
for exotic woods, animal skins, & live beasts
17. Rulers & Priests
• Growth led to need for organization
• Empire divided into 42 provinces
• Army created for defense
• Jobs:
▫ Priests: highest jobs; followed rituals & cared for
temples; pleased the gods
▫ Slaves: bottom of society; most captured in war;
worked on public building projects; some were
domestic servants
18. Women & Children
• Best place to be a woman
▫ Had equal rights
• Women
▫ Care for children and home
▫ Wove clothes
▫ Worked in fields or workshops
• Children:
▫ Played w/ toys (dolls, animal figures, board games, etc.)
▫ Rough games: balls mad of leather or reeds
▫ Some went to school
▫ Most learned parents jobs
▫ Most married in their early teens
19. Pets
• Dogs
▫ Used on hunting trips
▫ Lapdogs
• Cats
▫ Favored pet
▫ Even cat goddess, Bastet
20. Expanding Knowledge
• Came from priests studying the world to find
ways to please the gods
• Because of practical discoveries
22. Math & Science
• Developed 1st geometry
▫ Surveyors used it to restore property lines
▫ Used to design royal temples & monuments
• Study of the sky allowed them to develop the 1st
calendar
23. Medicine
• Prepared bodies for burial
• Knowledge of the body helped w/ surgeries
• Penicillin
▫ Antibiotic that changed modern medicine
• Willow bark
▫ Similar to aspirin
24. Life After Death
• Positive view of life
• Not just pharaoh or nobles could look forward to
life after death
▫ Afterlife: life believed to follow death
Views of what made for a happy afterlife varied
25. Many Gods
• Polytheists
• Worshiped gods that were related to the afterlife
& to parts of nature
• Many gods were worshipped in certain areas
only
26. Making Mummies
• Bodies embalmed before they were placed in
tombs
▫ All organs removed except the heart
Organs kept & treated
▫ Body was washed & purified
▫ Body packed and covered w/ natron
Body transformed into a mummy
▫ Linen was wrapped around the mummy
▫ Whole process took about 70 days
27. Egyptian Tombs
• Tombs held everyday objects any person might
want or need
▫ Food, drink, clothing, & furniture
Living relatives were suppose to bring fresh food &
drink daily, as well as prayers for persons soul
29. The Old Kingdom
• King Narmer
▫ Legend says he united Upper & Lower Egypt
▫ Occurred in about 3100 B.C.
▫ History divided into Old, Middle, & New Kingdom
▫ Pyramids built during Old Kingdom
30. The First Dynasties
• Began when Egypt was unified
• First three before Old Kingdom
• Dynasty: a line of ruler from the same family
▫ When king died one of his children took place as
ruler
▫ Succession: order in which members of a royal
family inherit a throne
• More than 30 dynasties ruled Egypt
31. Pharaohs Rule
• Pharaoh
▫ King of Egypt
▫ Ruled from capital city of Memphis
▫ Though to be child of the gods & a god himself
▫ Happy lives = pharaoh pleased gods
▫ Suffering = pharaoh angered gods; new pharaoh
usually took over
• Religion & Government were not separate
▫ Priests had a lot of power in government
32. Kufu’s Great Pyramid
• 1st rulers
▫ Buried in an underground tomb topped by mud
bricks
• Soon mud bricks replaced w/ small pyramids
• King Djoser
▫ Built step pyramid
33. The Great Pyramid
• King Kufu
▫ Had great pyramid built
760 feet long 7 core was built from 2.3 million blocks of
stone
▫ Hard work to build pyramid
Blocks of stone cut using copper saws & chisels
Stones pulled up ramps & put in place
Farmers did heavy labor
Hauled stone during flood season
▫ Took 20 years to build
▫ 20,000 Egyptians worked on it
▫ City of Giza was built for pyramid workers & for the
people who fed, clothed, & housed them
34. Grave Robbers
• Pyramids stopped being built
▫ Pyramids drew attention to tombs; grave robbers
broke into tombs to steal treasure buried there
• Robbed Tomb
▫ Believed if tomb was robbed the person buried there
could not have a happy afterlife
• New Kingdom
▫ During this period pharaohs built secret tombs in the
Valley of the Kings
▫ Treasures, however, were stolen from almost every
tomb
▫ Only one not was that of Tutankhamen
Discovered in 1922
35. Middle Kingdom
• 2160 B.C.
▫ Central power of pharaohs began to break down
▫ Disunity, civil war, & invasion plagued Egypt for
100 years
• Mentuhotep II
▫ 2055 B.C. brought stability back to Egypt
▫ Period known as Middle Kingdom
36. Connect to Tradition
• Amenemhet I
▫ Founded 12th Dynasty in 1985 B.C.
Not a member of the royal line
Claimed ancient prophecy supported his claim to the
throne
• Prophecy of Neferti dated from the time of Snefru
(4th Dynasty pharaoh)
▫ Fortold of the coming of a king, Ameni, who would
save Egypt from chaos
• The Truth
▫ Amenemhet had this story written to connect him to
Snefru & show his kingship was meant to be
37. Strength & Prosperity
• Egypt extended boundaries with military during 12th
Dynasty
▫ Wanted to control Numbia’s resources
• 1800 B.C.
▫ Reached 2nd cataract of the Nile
▫ Built fortresses to control new territory
• Agriculture
▫ Boosted during Middle Kingdom
▫ Vast swamps were drained in area known as Faiyum
150,000 acres created
Increased food production
• The arts flourished, trade expanded, & pharaohs were
stable & orderly during the thriving 12th Dynasty
38. Decline & Overthrow
• 13th Dynasty
▫ Weaker rule
▫ Asiatics (people from Sinai Peninsula) immigrated
to eastern Nile Delta
▫ Hyksos invaded from Palestine & Syria
Conquered Lower Egypt w/ the help of better
weapons & horse-drawn chariots
Eventually drove out after 100 years in Egypt
40. A Woman Pharaoh
• Period of most powerful rulers of Egypt
• New capital city of Thebes created
• Empire expanded
• Queen Hatshepsut
▫ 1st woman pharaoh
Wife of pharaoh who died shortly after taking power
Ruled with stepson Thutmose III
Eventually declared herself only ruler
Wore a false beard reserved for pharaohs alone
41. Trade Grows
• Empire expanded through war
• Hatshepsut
▫ Used war as well as trade to expand empire
Sent traders to the Red Sea; ships brought back rare
spices, scented wood, live monkeys, and potted trees
to make incense
42. Hatshepsut’s Legacy
• Erected the obelisk
▫ Four-sided shaft with a pyramid shaped top
▫ Carved from blocks of red granite
▫ Hieroglyphs recorded her great deeds
• After ruling for 15 years Hatshepsut disappeared
▫ Died peacefully or killed by Thutmose III ?
• Thutmose III became pharaoh after her death
▫ Tried to destroy all records of her reign
Damaged temple & tomb restored by archaelogists
43. A Reforming Pharaoh
• A New Belief
▫ Akhenaton became pharaoh
Worshiped sun god Aton
Closed temples of other gods & promoted worship of
one god (1st time in Egyptian history)
Priests who served other gods lost power; feared
actions angered the old gods
New way of thinking affected art
Small steps towards realism began to appear
44. • Reform Ends
▫ New religion did not last long
3 years after Akhenaton death relative Tutankhamen
became pharaoh
Tut relied on advisors to help him rule
▫ Convinced him to reject new religion & worship old gods
45. A Powerful Pharaoh• Ramses II took throne in 1279 B.C.
▫ Reigned for 66 years
• Empire Builder
▫ Ramses the Great wanted to make Egypt powerful through war
Territory extended into African kingdom of Nubia & to eastern
rim of Mediterranean Sea where empire bordered the empire of
the Hittites
▫ Egyptian & Hittites were enemies
Ramses led army into battle against Hittites
No one won but Ramses claimed victory
Negotiated 1st known peace treaty
▫ Ramses built city of Pi-Ramses
▫ At Abu Simbel he built 4 66 foot statues of himself to guard his
temple
Wanted statues to appear god like in statues
▫ Ramses was over 90 years old at end of his reign
66 years of rule made Egypt’s gov’t stable & brought peace
46. Egypt’s Decline
• Egypt never the same after Ramses died
• Gov’t became weak
• Foreign rulers took over
• Persians conquered Egypt in 525 B.C.
• Alexander the Great took over in 332 B.C.
▫ Began 300 years of Greek rule
47. Nubia & the Kush Civilization
• When central power broke down at end of New
Kingdom separate ruling groups came to
dominate Lower & Upper Egypt
▫ Where not able to exert control in Nubia
A Nubian kingdom called Kush came to power
48. Cultural Relations Between Egypt &
Kush
• Cultural exchanges took place during the times
when Egypt controlled Nubia
▫ Art influenced by Egyptian rule
▫ Young Kushite nobles learned Egyptian language
in Egypt
Adopted customs & clothing styles
Brought back royal rituals & hieroglyphic writing
system
Egyptian pyramids also copied in Kush
49. Kush Rises to Power
• Kushite worshiped Amun
▫ Power struggle took place in western delta &
threatened Upper Egypt
▫ Rules of Thebes, center of Amun worship, invited
Kushite king Piye to defend them
Piye sailed up the Nile to Thebes where he was
declared pharaoh
Continued into Lower Egypt defeating enemies along
the way
▫ After long war he ruled all of Egypt
50. Political and Commercial Relations
with Egypt
• Piye united Egypt & Kush
• Nubia est. own dynasty
▫ Piye rule marked beginning of 25th Dynasty
Did not live in Egypt, lived in Kush capital city of
Napata
• Napata
▫ Located at head of a road to move goods by one of
Nile’s cataracts
Led to trade along the Nile
Became for the spread of Egyptian goods and
culture & other Kush trading partners
51. The Decline of Kush
• 704 B.C.
▫ Kushite Egyptain forces battled Assyrians in
Palestine
Supported ruler there who resisted Assyrian rule
▫ Assyrians iron weapons better than Kush copper
weapons
Assyrians won
▫ Sides fought off and on for years
• 671 B.C.
▫ Assyrians invaded & conquered Egypt
Ended Kushite rule in Egypt