Download The Nile Valley

The Nile
Valley
The Nile Valley
The Land of
the Nile
World’s longest river
Empties into Med. Sea
Lower Egypt – at Nile’s mouth – the delta
Delta =
piece of land formed by soil
deposits at mouth of river
Upper Egypt – higher land to the south – narrow
fertile Nile Valley
Cataracts – 6 waterfalls in southern part of Nile
The Nile Valley
The Land of
the Nile
Arid = dry
Nile cuts across arid Sahara desert
Heavy rains in mountains at Nile’s source
Yearly flooding
deposits silt = fertile soil
By 4000 BC farming villages lined Nile from delta
to 1st cataract
Nile River
Nile River – 1st Cataract
Controlling
the River
To control water, Egyptians developed
irrigation systems
Also dams built to control yearly flooding
Stored in ponds for later use
Population increased along river
Gov’t began to control farming and
irrigation
Authority based on ability to provide water
for crops
Surplus crops stored and used to feed
laborers on public works projects
=
Couldn’t predict flooding – when, how much
A Source of
Religion
To find order in their world, they created stories
to explain events in nature
Polytheistic
gods and goddesses controlled specific parts
of nature
Ra – sun god – one of most important
Thought sun was born each morning and died
each night
Cycle led to belief in an afterlife for people
Ra
Sun god
A Source of
Religion
Hapi – god of the flood
Festivals held to honor Hapi – hoping he
would reward with good harvests
Horus – the sky god
Osiris – god of the next world
Each city had 1 or more special god or
goddess
Thebes became powerful city, so belief
in their god – Amon – grew
Eventually Amon and Ra combined to
become Amon-Ra – the most powerful
god.
Hapi – god of
flooding
Horus – god of
the sky
Osiris – god of
the next world
Toward
Civilzation
By 3100 BC, developing an advanced
civilization
Built temples
Stone tombs to bury rulers
Writing
Pottery painted with scenes from daily lives
Mined copper for tool making
Mined gold for decorative art
Surplus made of of this possible
Toward
Civilzation
Wheat ground to flour – bread became
main part of diet
Trade began across Sinai Penninsula
Egypt
southwestern Asia
Trade along Nile – highway – so became
expert ship builders
First used reeds for boats – then wood from
what is now Lebanon for sailing ships
Sailing ships made travel up the Nile
possible
Entire Nile – except for cataracts of Nubia –
could be traveled.
Toward
Civilzation
Trade and travel led to towns growing to
cities
Some cities became trade centers
By 3100 BC – Egypt had 2 kingdoms
Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt
The Big Idea:
Just like in Mesopotamia –
a water source
people settled and farmed
surplus
trade
larger cities
Farming
spreads
throughout
Mesopotamia
4000 BC
Farming along
Nile
City-states
develop in
Sumer
3000 BC
Upper and
Lower Egypt
Kingdoms
form (Old
Kingdom)
Hammurabi’s
Code written
2000 BC
Middle
Kingdom
begins