Title: Egypt Overview
1Egypt
- Bible as History and World History I Overview PPT
2The Nile
- Giver of Life
- The Nile offered fertile lands for planting in
Egypt - It overflowed often in the spring do to heavy
rains in East Africa - After the floods would go down in summer crops
would be planted which were harvested in late
summer or early fall - This patch of fertile land was known as black
land
3Nile Taker of Life
- While flooding helped crops grow, sometimes
waters would come farther inland resulting in
mass death and crops being lost - Sometime it did not flood enough and there would
be major droughts - It is probable that in the book of Genesis with
the 7 year famine in Egypt that it came from
limited flooding - Food was stored during famines after Prime
Minister Jospeh set up this system - The Egyptians tried to keep track of when the
Nile flooded by using Calendars - The gods were usually blamed
4Inland and use of the Nile
- Past the black land was the hot, sunny dessert of
the Nile which was called the red land - In the Red land no crops could grow and no water
could be found - Therefore the Nile supported all life
- Many construction projects used the nile
- Blocks would be floated to construction sites on
rafts - Also water needed to make mud bricks were taken
out of the nile - Trade used the nile
- It was faster to go by water then by land to East
Africa - One problem was that once reaching the NIle River
Delta a boat would have to be carried - Also the river went north to south, meaning sails
were needed to return home
5Map
6Crops
- Of the most important crops was wheat and barley
as well as vegetables - Papyrus was also important, as it was used to
create paper - The Egyptians had the hieroglyphic writing system
to write with, which was acted out by priests
often (the writing would come alive)
7Writing in Egypt
- Today we know much about Egyptian history because
of Hieroglyphics - It was not until 1799, when Napoleon invaded
Egypt and found the Rosetta stone, before that we
did not know much about Egyptian history. - The stone had writing on it in Hieroglyphics but
also Greek so by translating the Greek we know
what the words meant. - We now know that there was over 700 letters
8Kingdoms of Egypt
- Prior to the Great Flood, Egypt was divided into
two kingdoms, one above the river delta and one
below - Egypt was united with 30 different dynasties
ruling after the flood and some of Noahs
ancestors moving to the fertile area - The religion of the region probably came from
that of the Sumerians
9Bible Prime Minister to Slaves
- The Bible records some areas of Egypt's history
- Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt
- He later became Prime Minister after explaining a
dream given to the Pharaoh by God about a famine
to come, probably caused by a flood or a drought - His relatives moved to Egypt so most of the
Hebrews in the world ended up being from Egypt - There became so many of them that the Pharaoh
feared a revolt and had them put into slavery
around 1845 BC - Moses a Hebrew, adopted as a child became Prince
of Egypt until he killed a slave master and went
on the run where God spoke to him from a burning
bush, Moses then returned to take his people out
of slavery around 1446 BC which with the help of
God eventually happened, and later Israel would
become a nation - During the process of Moses leading all of the
slaves out of Egypt, Egypt's army was killed in
the Red Sea and lead to Eygpt being taken over by
the Persians around 1070 BC
10Major Pharoahs
- Most of the pharaohs were men, Usually, the only
women who had important titles were priestesses.
However, there was a female pharaohQueen
Hatshepsut. - She was the daughter of King Thutmose I. He was
determined that she follow him, and he instructed
the nobles of the royal court that she would be
the next ruler. Hatshepsut became queen upon the
death of her father, about 1500 B.C. She later
took a husband, Thutmose II. - After his death, she crowned herself King
Hatshepsut and became pharaoh. During her reign,
Egypt rose to great power and wealth. It was a
golden age of peace and prosperity.
11Egypt's time periods - Because Egypts history
is so long, historians divide it into three
periods--the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and
the New Kingdom.
Period Date Highlights
Old Kingdom 2700 2200 B.C. The capital was Memphis and then Heliopolis. The great pyramids and the Sphinx, a large statue with a head of a man and body of a lion were built.
Middle Kingdom 2100 1800 B.C. Egyptian civilization reached great heights. Engineering projects such as irrigation ditches canals were built. Egypt was conquered by invaders but then recovered. There were several capitals during this era, including Thebes and Memphis.
New Kingdom 1700 1100 B.C. This era is also called the Empire, and the capital was Thebes. Egypt conquered many areas during this time. About 1100 B.C., its great power had begun to decline.
12Tomb of King Tutankhamen
- Found in 1922
- Tomb had been hidden and not robbed resulting in
us being able to learn about Egyptian culture - There was four rooms in the tomb and each of them
had the King personal possessions - These items included a chariot, a bed, etc. made
from gold and precious stones - These items were to help the King in his
afterlife - Tut took the throne at age 9 and ruled until he
died at 19, around 1350 BC
13Egyptian Accomplishments
- They made paper from the papyrus reed plant.
- They invented a calendar.
- They built the great pyramids.
- They invented the shadoof, a crane-like device
for lifting water from the Nile. - They used a loom to weave cloth for clothing.
- They invented hieroglyphics, a system of writing
using characters in the form of pictures.
14What they thought about life after death...
- Pyramids served as tombs
- The tombs served as palaces because it was
believed that the Kings ruled the underworld
after death - Because it was thought that life after death was
more important than life in the world
mummification was done over a 70 day period
carefully - The Mummification Process...
- Remove organs
- Add perfumes
- Wrap the body
15What they thought about life after death cont....
- Before Pyramids were built, the royals and upper
class used mastabas as tombs - King Zoser had a Pyramid built for himself when
he died, it started as soon as a Pharaoh became
Monarch and would not be finished until after
their death so while the Monarch was buried in
his chamber the upper levels would be built - After the chamber was sealed it was not to be
opened because a curse that had been put on the
chamber would haunt cave robber's supposedly, so
most caves were robbed after Egypt's fall to the
Romans. - Fun fact Farmers worked on the Pyramids in
flooded years
16Giza
- Began about 2600 BC
- Built for Khufu and took 20 years
17Social Life
- The Egyptians had many different jobs.
- Some were farmers and pyramid builders others
were scribes or priests. - When trade expanded during Middle Kingdom, more
people became merchants and craftspeople. This
caused a new middle class to emerge, made up of
artisans and scribes. I - In the Old Kingdom, there were two levels kings
(pharaohs) and farmers. With this new middle
class, the social class structure has changed. In
the last era it would have been similar to the
middle
18Social System
Pharoah/Royals
Nobles and Priests
Craftsmen, Artisten, Scribes, Teachers, Trained
Soldiers, Public Workers
Farmers and Unskilled workers
Slaves
19Trade
- During the Middle Kingdom, Egypts power began to
grow. By about 2040 B.C. Egypts empire had
expanded greatly. - The Egyptians had been trading with people from
other lands to the north and south. - Trade increased during this period and made the
Egyptian economy more prosperous, or profitable. - The Egyptians went on expeditions to southwest
Asia to trade goods such as wheat, gold, and
linen - To improve transportation, they dug a canal from
the Nile River to the Red Sea, which became a
trade route.
20Takeover of Egypt
- After the Rule of Ramses II, Egypt was
essentially over with as far as home rule - The country was later invaded and conquered by
Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native
Egyptians eventually drove them out and regained
control of their country - In the sixth century BC, the Achaemenid Empire
conquered Egypt. The entire Twenty-seventh
Dynasty of Egypt, from 525 BC to 402 BC, save for
Petubastis III, was an entirely Persian-ruled
period, with the Achaemenid kings being granted
the title of pharaoh.
21Takeover of Egypt cont.
- The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling
dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to
the Persians again in 343 BC after the last
native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated
in battle. - Egypt fell then to the Greek Empire after a short
period of freedom after the Achaemenid Empire had
fallen to the Greeks - Egypt would rule as a dominion of the Greek
Empire for many years with Pharaohs like
Cleopatra, though not Egyptian but Greek
22Cleopatra
- She fell in love with Mark Anthony, a high
military general in Rome - However Anthony was having a civil war in Rome
with Octavian who would eventually conquer Eygpt
and put it under his Empire where it would stay
until the Turks took over Eygpt in 641 AD - The Turks ruled until 1882 AD when the British
took over indirectly after the Turks were
weakened in the Napoleonic wars
23Vocab Review
- Hieroglyphics A form of writing based on
pictures. - Rosetta Stone A stone on which a passage was
written in three languages Greek, Egyptian
hieroglyphics, and a form of Egyptian cursive
writing. - Pyramid- A large stone building to serve as a
house for the dead. - Mummy A preserved dead body.
- Economy The way people use and manage resources.