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North
African
History
and
Culture
Early Peoples
- Chapter 21:2a -
The Greek
historian
Herodotus
once referred
to Egypt as
being “the Gift
of the Nile.”
[Image source: http://www.williston.k12.nd.us/larsen/Unit3%20Egypt/Herodot2.htm]
Satellite remotesensing image of
Egypt, showing the
Nile River Valley.
[Image source: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6539/pic.htm]
The rich
alluvial
soil of the
river and
the delta
provided
good farm
land for
the people
of Egypt.
Early Egyptians took
up farming and grew
cereal crops such as
wheat and barley.
The Nile also provided Neolithic
farmers with ducks and geese in its
marshlands and fish in its waters.
[Image source: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/pharo/html/bountfrm.htm]
[Image source: http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/pharo/html/bountfrm.htm]
Over time,
strong leaders
united these
villages into
kingdoms, or
monarchies,
each under the
unrestricted
ruled of a
powerful king.
[Image source:
http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/COSTUME1_INDEX.HTML#Plate1]
By 4000 B.C., ancient
Egypt consisted of two
large kingdoms . . .
Lower Egypt in the north,
in the Nile Delta, and . . .
[Image source: http://www.library.nwu.edu/class/history/B94/delta185.gif]
Upper Egypt in
the south, in
the Nile River
Valley.
[Image source: http://www.library.nwu.edu/class/history/B94/upegnom.gif]
King Narmer
(Menes) of
Upper Egypt
conquered
Lower Egypt
and unified the
country circa
3000 B.C.
[Image source: http://campus.northpark.edu/history//Classes/Sources/Narmar.html]
The unification
of Upper and
Lower Egypt can
be seen in the
combination of
the two crowns.
[Image source: http://www.lib.ohiostate.edu/OSU_profile/bslweb/afancient.html]
Narmer (Menes)
ruled the unified
kingdom of
Egypt from his
new capital,
Memphis, which
he built on the
border between
the two
kingdoms.
Memphis
King Narmer
(Menes)
established the
first dynasty,
or line of
rulers from
one family.
[Image source: http://campus.northpark.edu/history//Classes/Sources/Narmar.html]
Historians have organized
ancient Egyptian dynasties
into three great periods:
• Old Kingdom (2700 to 2200 B.C.)
• Middle Kingdom (2050 to 1800 B.C.)
• New Kingdom (1600 to 300 B.C.)
A strong,
centralized
national
government
developed
under the
Egyptian
pharaohs.
age source: http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/COSTUME1_INDEX.HTML#Plate1]
[Image source: http://www.unites.uqam.ca/dhist/pagesp/pagemg3.htm]
The title pharaoh
means “great house.”
Egyptian society revolved around
providing for the “great house.”
[Image source: http://www.library.nwu.edu/class/history/B94/society.gif]
Egypt was a
theocracy,
where the
pharaoh was
both the
religious and
political leader
of Egypt.
[Image source: http://www.pharaonicarts.com/ramses-horus.htm]
To honour their god-kings,
Egyptians built “houses of
eternity,” or pyramids, to
entomb their remains.
[http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp./org/orion/eng/hst/egypt/giza.html]
Egyptians
developed
one of the
earliest
systems of
writing,
known as
hieroglyphs.
The discovery
of the Rosetta
Stone in A.D.
1799 by
allowed later
scholars to
decipher
hieroglyphs.
[Image source: http://www.bcfreemasonry.com/biography/champollion_jf/rosetta.ht
Egyptian
priests worked
out a 365 day
calendar that
made it
possible to
predict the
annual
inundation.
Between
1570 and
1085 B.C.,
Egypt
expanded
its power
through
conquest.
Egypt conquered
Israel and parts
of Syria to the
northeast, and
Libya to the west.
Thutmose III
captured the
important
town of
Megiddo
which
controlled the
trade routes.
[Image source: http://www.eyelid.co.uk/k-q3.htm]
Egypt’s power began to decline when
it came into competition with sea
powers like the Phoenicians.
The Phoenicians established
a network of trading posts
and colonies throughout the
Mediterranean Basin.
[Source: World History: Patterns of Civilization (Prentice-Hall]
“Who was ever . . . like Tyre in
the midst of the sea? When
your wares came from the seas,
you satisfied many peoples;
with your great abundance and
merchandise you enriched the
kings of the earth.”
-Ezekiel 27:32b-33
Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia,
conquered Egypt in the late-300s B.C., as he
dismantled the once mighty Persian Empire.
http://1stmuse.com/frames/alex-synopsys.html#Granicus
Alexander
would build a
city in Egypt
and name it
after himself.
The Romans would later absorb Egypt into its
growing empire in the late-first century B.C.
After the Roman Empire was divided
in A.D. 395, the eastern half became
known as the Byzantine Empire.
[Image source: http://www.american.edu/dgolash/romanemp400ad5.jpg]
The Eastern Roman Empire managed to
escape many of the barbarian invasions
that threatened the stability of the West.