Ancient Egypt: Key Terms and People w/Images

New Kingdom

(1550 BCE - 1100 BCE) Period in ancient Egyptian history characterized by strong pharaohs who conquered an empire that stretched from Nubia in the south, to the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia.

Old Kingdom

(2575 BCE - 2134 BCE) Period in ancient Egyptian history characterized by the building of the Great Pyramids at Giza.

Khufu

(ruled 2500s BC) Egyptian pharaoh, he ruled during Egypt's Old Kingdom and is known for the many monuments built to honor him.

Middle Kingdom

2050 BC. - 1800 BC.: A new dynasty reunited Egypt. Moved the capital to Thebes. Built irrigation projects and canal between NIle and Red Sea so Egytian ships could trade along coasts of Arabian Penninsula and East Africa. Expanded Egyptian territory:Nubia, Syria.

obelisk

A 4 sided stone structure with a pyramid on the top and hieroglyphics on the sides

mummy

A body preserved by chemical processes or special natural circumstances, often in the belief that the deceased will need it again in the afterlife. In ancient Egypt the bodies of people who could afford mummification underwent a complex process of removing organs, filling body cavities, dehydrating the corpse with natron, and then wrapping the body with linen bandages and enclosing it in a wooden sarcophagus.

rosetta stone

A huge stone slab inscribed with hieroglyphics, Greek, and a later form of Egyptian that allowed historians to understand Egyptian writing.

pharaoh

A king of ancient Egypt, considered a god as well as a political and military leader.

delta

A landform made of sediment that is deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake

pyramids

A massive structure with a square base and four triangular sides that meet at a point. In the Old Kingdom, were used as tombs for the pharaohs.

Sphinx

A monster with the face of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird. She posed a riddle to the citizens of Thebes and devoured the young men who could not answer it. The riddle usually given is, "What walks on four legs in the morning, on two at midday, and on three in the evening?" In Egypt it is usually seen as a huge statue with the body of a lion and a head of a man, representing the sun god Ra.

papyrus

A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. From it was produced a coarse, paperlike writing medium used by the Egyptians and many other peoples in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.

dynasty

A sequence of powerful leaders in the same family.

nobility

A small social class of elite people and families who perform political, military, and administrative duties for a ruler or king. This class had immense power and social influence over the other classes.

King Tut

A young king whose tomb was filled with jewelry, robes, burial masks, and ivory statues. These findings have helped people learn about Egypt's past, Known as the boy king because he ruled for 9 years and died before his 20th birthday

afterlife

After death the heart is weighed to the feather of truth and if it balances out then they go to afterlife. If it is heavier (with guilt) it is summoned to nothing!

hieroglyphics

An ancient Egyptian writing system in which pictures were used to represent ideas and sounds

Upper Egypt

Ancient kingdom of southern Egypt; in the mountains and it is the source of the Nile;, fertile strip with an average width of around 6 miles

engineering

Application of science and mathematics to develop useful structures and machines.

cataracts

Cataracts- areas where the water was too swift and rocky to allow boats to pass, which protected Egypt from invasion along the Nile River

Ramses the Great

Egyptian Pharaoh he expanded the kingdom and built lasting temples at Karnak, Luxor, and Abu Simbel. He is often considered one of Egypt's greatest rulers.

King Menes

Egyptian Pharaoh who united Lower Egypt (north of the Nile delta) with Upper Egypt (from Nile to first cataract as Aswan): 3100 BCE. He also established the first of many dynasties which ruled for nearly 3000 years.

canopic jars

Jars in which the ancient Egyptians preserved the internal organs of a deceased person usually for burial with the mummy.

elite

People of wealth and power

Lower Egypt

The northern region of ancient Egypt, named so because it was located downriver with the Nile's flow.

Nile River

The world's longest river, which flows northward through East Africa into the Mediterranean Sea, "Egypt has often been called the 'Gift of the Nile' because outside the valley of that great river the country is a desert. An immense, flowing ribbon of water, the Nile spans the length of the country from south to north, branching finally into an extraordinary delta as it approaches the Mediterranean. The river provides natural irrigation along its banks and invites further man-made irrigation to extend its waters to the east and west" (Spodak 65). The Nile river is a river surrounded by a fertile valley fed by the rivers silt. The valley provided a place for one of the first civilizations to be developed, with its heart at the Nile delta. Agriculture was developed along this river due to the extremely fertile conditions and lack of food in the barren deserts outside of the valley, which led to the creation of cities. Today, there are few populated areas in Egypt outside of the Nile Valley.

wheat and barley

Two most important crops grown in ancient Egypt.

trade routes

Waterways, paths, and trails that traders used to move goods for exchange from one place to another.

sarcophagus

a stone coffin (usually bearing sculpture or inscriptions)

social hierarchy pyramid

how society is divided into different classes of people; the people at the top of pyramid have more power than the people at the bottom of the pyramid

embalming

process developed by the ancient Egyptians of preserving a person's body after death

Queen Hatshepsut

ruler who increased egyptian trade. she sent traders to the kingdom of punt and traded with people in asia minor and greece.