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Chapter/Lesson Number: Chapter 4 – Lesson 3
Lesson Title: “The Pyramid Builders”
Pages: 94 - 99
Essential Question(s): How did Egyptians put their advances to use in building powerful societies during the Old and Middle
Kingdoms?
Chapter Quote: What they built of gates and chapels now are fallen, their soul-priests and their gardeners are gone, their
headstones undiscovered in the dirt, their very graves forgotten. But their fame lives on in their papyrus rolls composed
while they were still alive; And the memory of those who wrote such books shall last to the end of time and for eternity.
- John Lawrence Foster
I. Kingdoms and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt
A. Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united
*About 3100 BC
B. History of ancient Egypt divided
1. OLD KINGDOM
a. Began about 2575 BC
b. Most pyramids built
2. MIDDLE KINGDOM
3. NEW KINGDOM
C. First DYNASTY (line of rulers from same family) began when country was unified
1. When king died one of his children usually took place as ruler
*SUCCESSION – order in which members of a royal family inherit the throne
2. More than 30 ruled ancient Egypt
D. King of Egypt became known as PHARAOH
1. Ruled from MEMPHIS (capital city of Egypt)
2. Thought of as child of gods
3. Considered a god
4. Believed if subjects honored gods their lives would be happy
*Blamed for angering gods if Egypt suffered hard time for long period
5. Could be driven from power by a rival
*Start of new dynasty
6. Religion and government not separate since thought of as a god
*Priests had lot of power in government
II. The Great Pyramid
A. PYRAMID – structure shaped like a triangle with 4 sides that meet at a point
*Built as tombs for pharaohs
B. STEP PYRAMID – type of pyramid with sides that rise like giant steps
*King Djoser’s oldest-known stone structure in world
C. PHARAOH KHUFU ordered largest pyramid ever built to show how great he was
1. Called GREAT PYRAMID
2. Each side about 760 feet long
3. Core built from 2.3 million blocks of stone
a. Cut using copper saws and chisels
*”Soft” tools made work slow and difficult
b. Teams of workers pulled stone slabs up ramps to place on pyramid
i. Drug hundreds of feet and set in place
ii. Done during season of flooding
*Stone cutters and overseers worked year-round
4. Took almost 20 years to build
5. Estimated 20,000 workers
6. City called GIZA built for workers and people who fed, clothed, and housed them
III. Grave Robbers
A. Eventually stopped building pyramids because of grave robbers
1. Stole treasure buried with pharaohs
2. Sometimes stole mummies
B. Believed if tomb was robbed the person buried there wouldn’t have happy afterlife
C. Pharaohs started having secret tombs built in VALLEY OF THE KINGS
1. Burial chambers hidden in mountains near the Nile
2. Hoped to protect bodies and treasures from robbers
D. Robbers stole treasures from almost every tomb
1. Only tomb of KING TUTANKHAMEN wasn’t robbed
a. Discovered in 1922
b. Riches found show how much wealth pharaohs spent preparing for afterlife
IV. Middle Kingdom
A. Central power of pharaohs began to break down about 2160 BC
B. Disunity, civil war, and invasions plagued Egypt for just over 100 years
1. Rise of pharaoh MENTUHOTEP II in 2055 BC brought some stability
a. Period following called MIDDLE KINGDOM
b. Reunited Egypt
C. Twelfth Dynasty of pharaohs took over after Mentuhotep around 1985 BC
1. Used military power to extend Egypt’s boundaries to south
2. Boosted agriculture
3. Trade flourished
D. Thirteenth Dynasty of pharaohs succeeded 12th Dynasty
1. Much weaker
2. People from Sinai Peninsula began to immigrate into Nile Delta
3. Group called HYKSOS invaded from Palestine and Syria
a. Conquered much of Lower Egypt
i. Had better weapons and horse-drawn chariots
*New to Egyptians
b. Eventually driven out