The Nile River Valley (Ancient Egypt)

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The Nile River Valley(Ancient Egypt)
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Geography of the Nile

• Fertile soil surrounds the Nile
• Predictable flooding
• Nile Delta
• Protected from the outside
• Cataracts (rapids)
• Deserts on both sides

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Religion

• Polytheistic
• Sun gods
• Atum human form
• Ra human body, head of falcon
• River and land gods
• Osiris resurrection, new life through the Nile
• Isis

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Major Egyptian Gods
Osiris
Ra
Atum
Isis
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The Old Kingdom

• _at_ 3100 B.C. King Menes united Upper and Lower
  Egypt (started dynasties)
• _at_ 2700 2200 B.C.
• Pharaohs
• Absolute power, seen as a god on earth
• Bureaucracy
• Pyramids
• Mummification
• Great Pyramid (Khufu _at_ 2540 B.C.)

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Middle Kingdom

• _at_ 2050 1652 B.C.
• Expanded territories
• Lower Nubia
• Palestine and Syria
• Pharaohs take more public role
• Ended by the invasion of the Hyksos (Asia)
• Horse-drawn chariots
• Bronze weapons

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Society and Daily Life

• Pyramid Class Structure
• Pharaoh owned all the land
• Upper class of merchants and artisans
• Family Life
• Male-dominated but women had more equal rights
  than Mesopotamia

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New Kingdom

• _at_ 1567 1085 B.C.
• Queen Hatshepsut (first female leader)
• Thutmose III invaded Syria, Palestine, Libya
• Amenhotep IV
• Monotheistic worship of Aton (sun disk)
• Destroyed old gods
• Tutankhamen restored old gods
• Ramses tried to expand again (1279 1213 B.C.)

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Writing and Education

• _at_ 3000 B.C. Egyptian priests develop
  hieroglyphics
• Created to record religious rituals
• Papyrus (paper)
• Scribes