Download Ch - wh02hf

Chapter 2
 The Land: Its Geography and Importance
o The Nile River
 The Nile River is the second longest river at
4,160 miles
 The river runs from south to north eventually
branching into a fan shaped delta and
dumping into the Mediterranean Sea
 The ancient Egyptians built their civilization
along a 750 mile stretch
 The flow from south to north made movings
goods up land possible
 In 400 b.c. the greek historian Herodotus
described the annual cycle of months long
flooding
 Egyptian farmers worked around the floods
 Digging short canals to carry river water to
their fields
o Other Natural advantages
 Very fertile soil
 Contains deposits of granite, sandstone, and
limestone
 Egyptians used these minerals as building
materials
 The desert provided a natural protection for
invaders
 The isthmus forms a land bridge btwn Africa
and Asia
 Providing a route for trade and for the
exchange of ideas btwn the Egyptians
and their neighbors to the east
o Early Steps Toward Civilization
 Hieroglyphics- form of ancient writing
developed by nile river valley people by
about 3000 B.C.
 600 signs, symbols to represent words
and sounds
 At first they carved them into stones or
other hard materials
 Papyrus-kind of paper made by Egyptians
from stem of the papyrus plant
 Rosetta Stone- black basalt stone found in
1799 that bears an inscription in
hieroglyphics, demotic characters, and
Greek; gave the first clue deciphering
Egyptian hieroglyphics
o The Egyptian Kingdoms
 Menes- king of Upper Egypt
 Dynasty- family of rulers whose right is
hereditary
 Pharaoh- Great House Egyptian rulers title
 Led the government, served as judges,
high priests, and generals of the armies
 From 300 b.c. some 30 dynasties ruled
Egypt
Section Two
 The Achievements of Ancient Egypt
o Architecture and arts
 Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for the
pharaohs
 About 80 pyramids still stand today
 The great pyramid
 Tower above the sands of Gize
 Built in about 2600 B.C.
 Covers 480 ft high and was constructed
with more than 2 million blocks of stone
each weighing about 5,000 pounds
 Buildings were decorated with paintings of
everyday life
o Science, math, and medicine
 Egyptians realized that a bright star
appeared above the horizon rising of this star
and the next is 365 days
 The calendar had 12 moths of 30 days each
the remaining 5 days were used for holidays
and feasting
 The Egyptians used a number system based
on 10
 They used geometry to built pyramids and
rebuild fields after floods
 Made important discoveries in medicine
 Used knowledge to treat illnesses and
preserve bodies after death
 Treatments included magic spells and herbs
and medicines
 Education and Religion
 Scribes- or clerks
o The gods
 Villages had their own local god or gods
 These gods often had an animal symbol that
people considered sacred
 Sacred animals included cat, the bull, the
crocodile, and the scarab beetle
 The most important god was Amon
 Osiris who judged people after death
o The Afterlife
 At first they believed that only pharaohs had
an afterlife or life after
 the persons heart which would tell whether
the person had lied murdered or been to
proud was weighed on a great scale against a
sacred feather
 if the heart balanced the heart had told
the truth
 if it did not the heart was thrown to a
horrible monster called the Eater of the
Death
 Mummification-organs were removed from
the body which was then treated with
chemicals this process preserved the bodies
 Society and Economy
o Farming
 Farmland in Egypt was divided into large
estates
 Peasants did most of the farming using crude
hoes or wooden plows
 Wheat and barely were the chief grain
crops
 Flax was grown and then spun and woven
into linen
 Cotton was grown for clothes
 Peasants could keep part of the crop the rest
went to the pharaoh who legally owned all
the land
o Trade
 Was tightly controlled by the government
 Egyptians traded the extra food with other
people
 Caravans- groups of people traveling
together for safety over long distances
 Among the 1st people to built seagoing ships
 Egyptians sailed the Mediterranean and the
red seas and traveled the African coast