Egypt – The Nile River Valley - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Egypt – The Nile River Valley

Civilization developed in a river valley with fertile soil
Nile is the world’s longest river
Nile river begins in East Africa and flows 3,500 miles north towards the Mediterranean Sea

Egypt – The Nile River Valley

Nile has two main sources

White Nile flows from Lake Victoria
Blue Nile flows from modern-day Ethiopia
The two rivers meet in present day Sudan (before known as Nubia or Kush)

Nile flows through the Sahara Desert

Sahara is the largest desert in the world

Nile was difficult to travel by ship

Contained cataracts, or rocky rapids

Upper and Lower Egypt

Upper Egypt

Lower Egypt

Southern Egypt

Narrow Valley lined with cliffs

Cataracts

Upstream from Mediterranean Sea

Northern Egypt

River here is slower

River carries silt, mineral particles that make soil fertile

Contains river delta, an area of sediment deposited at the mouth of the river

Black and Red Land

Black Land (Kemet)

Red Land

Narrow strip of dark, fertile soil around banks of the Nile river

Positive: Yearly flooding left behind a layer of rich, fertile soil

Negative: Floods were unpredictable (natural disasters) and droughts (shortage of water) made crops fail.

Vast deserts on the sides of Black Land

Deadly place of hot, burning sands.

A Civilization Develops

7,000 years ago: People start growing grains around Nile river
Irrigation system produced food surplus
Farmers’ surplus crops were collected as taxes
Local rulers used surplus to buy cloth, jewelry, and luxury goods
Farmers’ surplus supported full-time artisans, who had time to perfect their skills
Cities brought together wealthy and skilled people.
Why could some Egyptians take jobs other than farming?

Egypt is in the continent of Africa.

Can you find Egypt?

The desert surrounded Egypt on the West, East, and South.

Up North, the Mediterranean Sea protected them. Egypt was allowed to evolve in its own way.

What is the name of the hot, dry and sandy land that covers most of Egypt?

SAHARA DESERT

Egyptian Religion

Believed Gods controlled everything

Ex. Flooding of the Nile river
Ex. Death of a child

Egyptians built temples and offered prayers and gifts
Early Egyptians were polytheists (hundreds)
Many Gods associated with animals

Osiris

King of the afterlife
Symbolized the yearly drought and flooding of the Nile.
Gave Egypt civilization.
Married his sister, Isis
Conspirators killed him by chopping him up into pieces
Isis, his wife, found the pieces and put him back together

Ra / Re / Amun-Ra

King of the Gods
Sun god, King of the Gods.
Hawk head with solar disk on top.
Sometimes seen as the creator of men (Egyptians called themselves "the cattle of Ra”)
Made daily journey across the sky
Died in the West each night and was reborn in the East the next day.
How could the movement of the Sun affect the beliefs of early Egyptians?

Horus

Falcon headed
The Pharaoh was his earthly embodiment.
Son of Osiris and Isis
Seth, his brother, is always trying to hurt him
His sons take care of the organs during the mummification process

Isis

Isis was the sister/wife of Osiris
May be one of the judges of the dead
Has magical powers
The purest example of the loving wife and mother

Anubis

Head of a jackal
Guides the dead to the underworld and weighs their heart (bad deeds make your heart weigh more)
Works with Osiris in the underworld
Mummification god

Ammut

“Eater of the Dead”
She stands by the scales of the hearts and eats the hearts of the wicked
Head of a crocodile, body of a leopard, hind legs of a hippo

Thoth

Moon God
Scribe (records the weight of the hearts in the underworld)
Invented writing

Bast

Cat-headed
Goddess of love and childbirth
Cats are sacred (many catswere mummified in her honor)

Bes

Protector of households, mothers, children, and childbirth
Later regarded as defender of everything good
Images were kept in homes
Tasks: killing snakes, fighting off evil spirits, aiding women in labor, protect soldiers before battle