Pyramids on the Nile Ch 2 Section 2

The Gift of the Nile Egypt is in the middle of Desert. The Nile is LIFE – water = life. Without the Nile River THERE WOULD BE NO EGYPT! The Civilization of Egypt is the Nile River’s gift.

Delta The marshy fertile area at the mouth of a river.

Narmer / a.k.a Menes An Egyptian pharaoh (king) who united both upper and lower Egypt in about 3000 B.C. Built the Dam around Memphis – Egypt’s capital city.

Pharaoh King of Egypt – believed to be a god! Deified Pharaohs started with Djoser – worshipped as the opener of stone (First Step Pyramid made of stone)!

Theocracy A form of government in which the head of state is also the head of the religion.

Pyramid An Immense structure built to house the mummified body of the pharaoh. Pyramids were tombs.

Mummy / Mummification The Embalming and drying of a corpse to prevent it from decaying. Egyptians believed that you needed an intact body for the afterlife.

Hieroglyphics Egyptian system of writing. Used pictographs at first (~3000BC) and then symbols that meant an idea or a sound – similar to out phonetic alphabet today but more complicated.

Papyrus Egyptian writing surface made for the papyrus reeds found in the Nile Delta. Paper-Like material. BUT not officially paper.

ADD: The Rosetta Stone a stone slab found in 1799 which had a message written in 3 languages. The Greek message allowed Ancient Hieroglyphics to be deciphered (translated).

Class Notes / Video Q: How did the Nile River shape Egyptian Civilization? The Predictable Flooding of the Nile has many effects: 1) Egyptian religion saw the gods and the afterlife as positive forces in the world. 2) New Innovations: irrigation and transportation canals help Egypt become the bread basket of the Ancient World – supporting a strong economy that made Empire Building possible! $$$ = Power (making building projects possible). Menes’ Dam around the capital city of Memphis. Huge public works projects inspired later generations to try the impossible & succeed! (Outer Space, the Moon, Mars)! The Great Pyramid: needed a strong economy to make such huge building projects possible.

3. How did being surrounded by deserts benefit Egypt? Being surrounded by deserts protected Egyptian civilization from outside invaders and allowed them to develop a unique culture.

4. How did the Egyptians view the Pharaoh? As a god! He had total power and full responsibility over the kingdom. He caused the sun to rise, the river to flood, the crops to grow.

5. Why did Egyptians mummify bodies? It was their religious belief. They believed their soul would return to their bodies. The body was needed in the afterlife where it was said you would live forever in a beautiful Other World. Mummification was an expensive process but all classes in Egyptian society prepared for the afterlife.

Egyptian Religious Beliefs Polytheistic (many gods ~2,000) Examples: Amun-Re = sun god / king of the gods Anubis – god and guide of the underworld Osiris = Lord of the underworld – gave life through the Nile. Hathor: popular goddess of mothers, strength, and fury. Taweret = Hippo-headed god of Mothers during Childbirth. Believed a person’s heart was weighed at the end of life, if Anubis found a person’s heart heavy with sin their heart would be eaten by “The Devourer of Souls.” If a person was good they would live forever in a beautiful “Other World.”

6. Which of the following three natural features in ancient Egypt were the most important? The Nile River with is predictable floods = fertile soil & transportation. The First Cataract = limiting outside contact with peoples further upriver and preventing invasion. The Desert = Isolation from the outside world and barrier to invasion.

7. What impact did Egyptian religious beliefs have on the lives of Egyptians? Religion served as a reason to OBEY AUTHORITY. Egyptians believed that their soul would be judged in the afterlife by the god Anubis, if judged to be heavy with sin it would be devoured by a beast known as the Devourer of Souls! This belief meant that Egyptians had to be good and obey the laws of their society.