EgyptEgypt“The gift of the Nile”

- Herodotus, Greek histoiran, 2500 BCE

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Egypt – Geography• Running the entire length (north to

south) is the longest river in the world, The Nile (6400 km)…it is this river that gave rise to the great Egyptian civilization.

• To the east of the great river is where the Egyptians lived, to the west was for the burial of their dead.

• All of this was situated on a thin tract of land that ran along the banks of the river, for the east was the Arabian desert and the west was the Libyan desert.

• The small band of earth that was actually fertile accounts for only 3% of the surface area of Egypt

• The region the most rich in soil deposits is found in the north of the country in a triangular form at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea that stretches south for 170 km.

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Basse-Égypte

Haute-Égypte

Egypt – Geography

Fertile region170 km

http://www.encyclopedie-universelle.com/images/Egypte-carte-monasteres.jpg

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Lower Egypt7 Tributaries important for

trading

Upper EgyptNile Valley 6-20 km

In width

Deshret – Red landFrom the desert came

Protection, gold and fine gemsAs well as building materials

Kemet – Black landThis was the fertile soil on the

Banks of the Nile river that Permitted extensive agriculture

Building of the Great Pyramid, Part 1

(9:56)

The pyramids of Egypt…

Egypt – The seasons and the tools of the

trade There are three seasons along the Nile:

1. The rise of the Nile: from June to September. At this time there are many commercial activities between villages, cities, etc. by boat.

2. The fall of the Nile: from October to February. At this time fields are irrigated using canals transporting water inland as well as primitive wells (chadoufs) and seeding of the fields took place.

3. The Dry Season: from March to May. At this time, the harvest of the fields takes place…a time of abundance or famine, depending on the year.

There were a number of tools that were employed by the ancient Egyptians in their farming:

4. The spade (shovel)5. The sickle (think of the grim reaper!)6. Wooden plows (pulled by oxen)7. A well (for water)8. Canal systems for irrigation M. Bridgeo

Egypt – a long history in a few empires

• The history of ancient Egypt is many millenium, however it can be broken down easily into ‘Empires’.

• In the beginning, the Egyptian civilization was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt (and Lower Egypt was the northern territory)

• The first pharoh, Ménès, unified the two of them under one crown after a war @ 3200 BCE

• After that time, all pharaohs wore a crown of red and white (which symbolized the north and the south) whose name was the ‘the pschent’

The ancient Empire – 3200 to 2300 BCEThe Middle Empire – 2140 to 1785 BCEThe New Empire – 1580 to 1084 BCEL’Époque Saïte – 665 to 525 BCE

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