The Gift of the Nile Grain was scarce, and fruit was dried up. So begins an ancient legend about the Nile River. The legend tells of a time of low Niles, when Egypt had seven years of famine so the king Zoser sought the help of his adviser Imhotep. Later that night Zoser dreamed the God Khnum spoke to him and Khnum instructed him to give part of the year’s harvest. When Zoser awoke he told his people what Khnum told him and after that the years of hunger ended. The Geography of the Nile Egypt is on the northeastern coast of Africa. The Nile is Egypt’s lifeline. Six places along the Nile there are cataracts which are rapids. Most of the Nile flows in a single river, but south of Cairo it splits into delta. Droughts and Floods From the air mush of the Nile looks like a brown snake wriggling north across a vast dessert, abruptly it turns into a dessert. Egypt gets almost no rain and all around Egypt was isolated so Egypt was not invaded. In this dessert land Egyptians depended on the Nile for water and life. Floods in Egypt were more predictable then those of Mesopotamia
The River’s Gifts About 2,500 years ago, Herodotus, a Greek visitor to Ancient Egypt called this land the “gift of the Nile.” To take advantage of flooding the Egyptians built irrigation channels. Besides water, another gift of the Nile was the thick, black mud left behind in the flooding. The Nile gave other gifts as well such as food and Papyrus a long thin reed used for making stuff. The Egyptians used these gifts wisely. The Union of Two Lands Ancient Egypt had two parts, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Red and White Crowns By about 3300 B.C. both parts had kings on wore a white, pear shaped crown, the other a red boxy one. Mush knowledge of prehistoric Egypt is mixed with legend such as the legend of Menes the king of Upper Egypt whom defeated the king of Lower Egypt thus uniting both lands. The legend goes on saying that Menes designed a new crown by combing both crowns and formed the first Egyptian dynasty. Menes chose the city of Memphis as his capital. “Menes”, the legendary, might have been the real king, Narmer. Three Kingdoms History in ancient Egypt around 3000 B.C. with invention of hieroglyphic writing. The three kingdoms are Old Kingdom (2686 to 2181 B.C.), Middle Kingdom (2055 to 1650 B.C.), and New Kingdom (1570 to 1070). People of many cultures mingled in Egypt. In the 1,000 years before the Old Kingdom began, Egyptians people accomplished many thing. Lesson Two: Life in Ancient Egypt You have seen pictures of pyramids, but the picture in the book shows a picture of a Step Pyramid. Sometime in the middle of the 2600s B.C. the king began to plan for his burial. No one knows whether Imhotep planned the design in advance or thought of it as the work went along.
I Wish You Darkness · Fri Jan 12, 2007 @ 03:52am · 2 Comments |