1. Geography Egypt & Mesopotamia

2. Egypt

3. Egypt The Nile River Valley
Yearly Floods cause the river to overflow its banks making soil rich
Ancient people depended greatly on the floods.
They built reservoirs and irrigation ditches to channel water and store it for the dry season.

4. The Annual Flooding of the Nile

5. Nile Irrigation-the Shaduf

6. Egypt

7. Egypt
2 Regions
Lower Egypt (north / Delta region)
Upper Egypt (south)

8. Egypt The Sahara Desert Isolated Egypt and protected it from invasion.
VERY difficult environment!

9. Ancient Egypt periods:
Old Kingdom
Strong central governments
Led by Pharaohs
Pyramids
Middle Kingdom
Disunity created by Old Kingdom leads to new leadership
Turbulent period
New Kingdom
Plenty of trade and conquest (all the way to Mesopotamia)
Ramses II
Assyrians and Persians invaders

10. The Great Pyramids of Giza

11. Built For:
- Old Kingdom Pharaohs
- Khufu (Cheops)
- Khafre
- Menkaure
Location
West bank of Nile River
Near Cairo
HUGE complex

13. Khafre’s Pyramid
Khafre – Khufu’s son
Looks bigger than Khufu’s
Still has some limestone casing
Best preserved of the Giza pyramids
Sphinx is part of Kafre’s pyramid complex
Several images of Khafre

14. Some Famous Egyptian Pharaohs
Tutankhamon B. C. E.
Thutmose III B. C. E.
Ramses II B. C. E.

15. Ancient Egyptian Religion

16. Religion Basics Polytheistic
Gods are Anthropomorphic (human characteristics)
Religion drove their lives
Influenced nearly EVERYTHING they did.

17. Gods and Goddesses
Ancient Egyptians worshiped about 2000 different gods
Animals were considered the living images of the gods

18. Egyptian Gods & Goddesses: “The Sacred ‘Trinity’”
Osiris Isis Horus

19. Gods and Goddesses Ra (re) Sun God He was the most important God
morning.

20. Gods and Goddesses Isis Queen of Goddesses
Goddess of healing and magic, fertility
The Egyptians worshipped Isis as the perfect mother.

21. Gods and Goddesses Thoth Thoth was the god of Knowledge and writing
It was said that he gave the gift of hieroglyphics.

22. Gods and Goddesses Ma’at
Ma'at was the goddess of truth, justice and harmony.

23. Gods and Goddesses Anubis
Anubis was the god of embalming and the dead.
Jackals were often seen near graves so it was believed that Anubis watched over the dead.

24. Gods and Goddesses Horus Horus was a god of the sky.
He is the protector of the Pharaoh.
It was believed that the pharaoh was the 'living Horus'.

25. Gods and Goddesses Amun
Amun was one of the most powerful gods in ancient Egypt.
At the height of Egyptian civilization he was called the 'King of the Gods'.

26. The BOOK OF THE DEAD
Contains spells, charms, passwords and numbers to help secure easy passage to the afterlife.
Passages inscribed inside tombs to help the dead.
The weighing of the heart is considered one of the more important chapters

27. The After Life Death is not end
Before the mummy can reach the underworld it has to pass through seven gates
Then, the dead person arrives in the presence of Osiris (god of the underworld)
Osiris then performs a ceremony called the 'weighing of the heart’
The heart is placed on a balanced. Balancing the scale meant immortality
If the scale did not balance then gods would eat body and hear

28. Preparation for the Afterlife

29. Mummification Embalming the Body Wrapping
Washed the body with water from the Nile.
removed the liver, stomach, lungs and intestines …placed in canopic jars.
rituals
remove the brain
heart remains in the body
dry out the body
40 days later, washed again with Nile water the skin is the covered in oils.
Wrapping
head and neck are wrapped with linen.
fingers and toes are wrapped individually.
The arms and legs are wrapped separately
Priests read out spells while the mummy is being wrapped.
A cloth is then wrapped over the whole body
A funeral is then held for the dead person

30. Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep II 1210-1200 B. C. E.
Egyptian Mummies
Seti I B. C. E.
Ramses II B. C. E.
Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep II B. C. E.

31. Hieroglyphics The writing of the Ancient Egyptians

32. Scribes
Amenemhet
Trained to read and write
12 year education
Held in high regard by society
Kept records of EVERYTHING!
- Very important
scribe during
middle kingdom

33. Egyptian Scribe

34. Papyrus  Paper
Hieratic Scroll Piece
Papyrus Plant

35. 2 classes of hieroglyphics
Phonograms
Ideograms
Phonograms
Ideograms
Represented consonant sounds
= RS
Pictures represented objects
= owl
NO VOWELS

36. Can you figure out what this says?
Mtn vst hgh schl s lctd n hghlnds rnch clrd nt fr frm dnvr.

37. The Rosetta Stone
Discovered by the French during Napoleon’s time
Said the same thing in 3 different languages
1. Hieroglyphics (top)
2. Demotic (middle)
3. Greek (bottom)
Before this discovery no one knew what hieroglyphics said… they just guessed!

38. Hieroglyphics “Alphabet” 24 “letters” + 700 phonetic symbols