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Chapter 4
Ancient Egypt
Lesson 1 Notes

What is the Nile River?
– It’s the longest river in the world (4132 miles)
– It runs North from Lake Victoria to the
Mediterranean Sea
– Every year, in ancient times, it flooded and
deposited fertile silt in the river valley
– The river was very important to farmers because they
needed it to irrigate their fields
– Farmers dug canals and used a shadouf to water
their crops
What is a shadouf?
Lesson 2 Notes

Land of the Pharaohs
– Pharaohs are the supreme rulers of Ancient Egypt
– Menes was the first pharaoh ever
 He unified Upper and Lower Egypt in 3100 b.c.
 To show this, he began to wear the double crown
Lower
Double
Upper
Lesson 2 Notes
Role of the Pharaoh
–All of their actions shaped the fate of Egypt
–The pharaoh was in charge of government, religion, and
economy
–Because the pharaoh was believed to be a god, all things
belonged to them
–The pharaoh gave land to government officials and traded
food & clothing for objects people made
Hieroglyphics

What are hieroglyphics?
– This system of writing was
developed in Egypt to keep
track of taxes
– Scribes were the main writers
and wrote important documents
on a paper called papyrus
– We were able to discover what
the hieroglyphics meant when
Champollion cracked the code
of the Rosetta Stone
Hieroglyphics
Pyramids

What is a pyramid?
– Pyramids are large stone structures
that serve as tombs for the pharaohs
– The Great Pyramid was built for
Khufu
– The pyramid was the Old Kingdom’s
most spectacular monument
– Because so many pharaohs built
pyramids, which was hard on the
economy, Egypt was divided again
– At the end of the Old Kingdom the
capital of Egypt was moved from
Memphis to Thebes
Lesson 3 Notes

Middle Kingdom
– During this time period, the Egyptians had contact
with other parts of the world
– Also during this time, the Hyksos invaded and took
over control of the delta region or Lower Egypt
 They introduced chariots and bronze weapons to the
Egyptians
– A pharaoh named Ahmose eventually defeated the
Hyksos and unified Egypt again
– This ended the Middle Kingdom and started the New
Kingdom
Lesson 3 Notes

New Kingdom
– During this time period, Egypt began to grow into an
empire
– The Egyptians took over land in Nubia and present day
Israel
– This resulted in more trade with other nations
– Egypt’s only major female pharaoh, Hatshepsut,
organized one of the biggest trade expeditions to a land
called Punt
– During this time period, the Egyptians made huge
advances in medicine, math, and science
Lesson 4 Notes

Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
– Society was broken into different classes
– To show how society was broken down, we’ve created a
diagram to show where people ranked called the
Egyptian Social Pyramid
Pharaoh
Government Officials
Soldiers
Scribes
Merchants
Artisans
Farmers
Slaves
Study Guide

What to study?
–
–
–
–
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The 5 major pharaohs and what they did
The role of the pharaohs
The importance of hieroglyphics
What happened in each kingdom
Understand the geography of Ancient Egypt
- Upper and Lower Egypt
- The Nile River
- Where the best farming was located