History Study Notes

1. Physical Features
Egypt is located in North east Africa. Lybia to the west.
In southern Egypt it is located within the Sahara Desert.
And the Eastern side is linked with Israel, Jordan and
Saudi Arabia

The nile river flows through Egypt and is 6500

kilometres and originates from the Mountains of
Ethiopia
2. The Nile River
The Nile river was the centrepoint of ancient Egyptian
civilization. It was a source of water and food for plant
and animal life.

It was used for communication and trading. You would

sail down from Aswan, a village further up the river that
mined stone to deliver stone for temples and building. It
was easier to sail to Lower Egypt because the current
was with you

The Nile flooded every year in Ancient times and could

rise as much as 10 metres. People sheltered in tortoise
back which were mounds of earth that had built up from
countless floods. The flood would leave thick layers of
mud that created exceptional farming land for planting
grain. They were called the Black lands while the desert
was called the red lands.

For building they mixed the mud with straw to make

bricks
 The god of the nile was named hapi and they associated
him with vegetarian fish and birds. There are many
temples of hapi in the first cataract area that descends
into nile valley.
3. Pharaohs
Over 5000 years ago menes(narmar united lower and
Upper Egypt and was called lord of the two lands.

Egypts kings would then start to wear a double crown

that combined the red crown of Lower Egypt and the
White crown of Upper Egypt. They called this man
Pharoah meaning ‘great house

Pharaohs ruled for 3000 years and a women only ruled if

she was a close relative of the previous pharaoh and the
heir was too young.

Egyptians believed the Pharaoh was a descendant form

re the sun god and expected him to make sure that
 the nile flooded
 there was enough food
 the gods looked kindly on them
 egypts army was strong
 Ma’at(truth) was at the heart of every Egyptians
life
The pharaoh alone decided laws and could demand
heavy taxes of goods from wealthy egyptains because
he was the main landowner in Egypt. Sometimes he was
even viewed as a god
4. Society
 Ma’at stood for justice, truth order and balance. It was
the main idea of Egyptian Society. Even the pharaoh had
to uphold to ma’at

The pharaoh made sure all the laws were guided my

ma’at. If you didn’t follow ma’at you would have suffer
in life and the after life

Roles in society in hyraki are Pharaoh, Vizier (chief Judge

Senior officials, high priests and nobles, scribes(writers),
skilled artisans and craftspeople, peasant farmars and
worker, servants and slaves.
Housing in anient Egypt was built near the nile river,
they used sundried mud bricks mixed with straw as the
main materials. Houses had flat roofs with vents, the
Kitchen would normally be on the top floor, a veranda
to sleep and eat outdoors during a summer breeze,
window openings for light
5. Most men and womern were farmers and worked on
pharaohs land. They produced wheat and barley for
making bread and beer or flax to make linen. They also
planted beans, cucumbers, leeks and grape vines to
make wines. Additionly there were dates, figs and
pomegranates.

Farming began when the floodwaters went down again.

They dug irrigation channels between fields. This was
useful when there was dry land because they would use
a shaduf to raise the water. The channels were also used
to direct water further inland.
They used ploughs to prepare the soil then used wooden
scoops to throw grain into the air so the outer covering
was separated. Finally they herded sheeps into the fields
to press seeds into the ground. Finaly during harvest they
used sickes to cut the grain and used oxen to cursh and
separate it.
6. Egyptian Gods
The Egyptians believed gods made them, there were
hundreds of gods and goddesses who controlled their
daily lives. They could take animal form human form or
both. A person would be killed if they deliberately killed
a sacred animal.
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