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Ancient : GODS AND

Ideas That Matter Written by Robert E. Slavin and Kate Conway

Ancient EGYPT: GODS AND PHARAOHS

Written by Robert E. Slavin and Kate Conway : Gods and Pharaohs © 2014 Success for All Foundation. All rights . ISBN: 9780976785040

Developers: Robert E. Slavin, Kate Conway, Wendy Fitchett, Alli Hoge Editors: Jodie Littleton, Janet Wisner Designers: Barbara Colquitt, Devon Bouldin

Image Credits: Creative Commons Attribution—Share Alike: Captmondo (Canopic jars, pg. 16), ChrisO ( delta map, pg. 5), Guillaume Blanchard (, pg. 14), Hans Hillewaert ( stone, pg. 23), Jeff Dahl (Egyptian gods, pgs. 2 and 5), Joshua Sherurcij (Egyptian , pg. 16), Messer Woland ( complex map, pg. 18), Nina Alden Thune (Kheops pyramid, pg. 19), Titi Sitria (Offerings carrier figurine, XI, pg. 14) Shutterstock.com: AcaG, Andrei Nekrassov, Artform, Bill McKelvie, Boonsom, Bzzuspajk, Canicula Cardaf, Daboost, Dinadesign, Dudarev Mikhail, Erhan Dayi, EugenZ, Fstockfoto, javarman, Lukiyanova Natalia/frenta, Mihai Dancaescu, Vinten, pavalena, Peter Hermes Furian, pio3, rook76, Sergey Khachatryan, Vibrant Image Studio, Waj, Yu Lan © Thinkstock: © Brand X Pictures, © iStockphoto, © Photos.com

The mission of the Success for All Foundation is to develop and disseminate research-proven educational programs to ensure that all students, from all backgrounds, achieve at the highest academic levels. These programs were originally developed at Johns Hopkins University.

300 E. Joppa Road, Suite 500, Baltimore, MD 21286 phone: (800) 548-4998, ext. 2372 fax: (410) 324-4444 e-: [email protected] website: www.successforall.org TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...... 2 The Land...... 5 Pharaohs...... 8 The People...... 12 The ...... 16 Buildings...... 19 Hieroglyphs...... 22 Egypt Today...... 26 Glossary...... 29 Index...... 30 INTRODUCTION

Marhaban! That’s how you say hello in . Arabic is the language spoken today in Egypt.

Egypt is one of the oldest Thousands of years ago, Egypt believed in many other gods. in the . Many was ruled by powerful kings The built incredible languages have been spoken in called pharaohs. The ancient , , and Egypt. The religions and people’s Egyptians believed that their to honor their gods. traditions have changed too. pharaohs were gods. They also

Get to know Gods

The Egyptians had hundreds of gods. Some of the gods were part and part animal. Here are some of their most important gods.

Hathor God of the dead of God of the Goddess of love and joy motherhood Goddess of war God of writing

2 Many of the objects we use paper, they needed something to today come from ancient write with, so they invented the Egypt. The Egyptians invented ! The Egyptians also invented the first form of paper, and the toothbrush, which was called . makeup, wigs, marshmallows, It was made from reeds. and the calendar! After the Egytians invented

3 Researchers and This will take you Fact: have been on a journey through The study of studying ancient Egypt their discoveries. Let’s ancient Egypt is for many years. Much learn more about called . of what we know the land, people, and People who study about this ancient customs that shaped Egypt are called comes from the ancient Egypt. Egyptologists. and artifacts that they have studied.

4 THE LAND

A huge river called the Nile flows through the middle of Egypt.

The Nile is the longest into many smaller rivers river in the world. It runs in what is called a delta. from south to north The small rivers flow into through . At the the . north end, it breaks

Egypt is in the northeast corner of Africa. Part of Egypt is also in . It is the only country that connects the two .

Fact: was the God of the Nile. He had the head of a . Egyptians prayed to Sobek to keep them safe from when they 5 crossed the Nile. Ancient Egypt was split Egyptians could use into two zones called for farming. Nearly all Kemet and . Egyptians lived in the Kemet, or the Black Black Land. Deshret Land, was the land means the Red Land. by the Nile. Every year, The Red Land is the the Nile would flood that covers and cover the land with most of Egypt. rich dark soil that the

6 Egypt gets less than one source of transportation inch of rain per year, and trade. The Egyptians so the Egyptians relied built ships with sails on the Nile for survival. and oars to travel up The Nile gave people and down the Nile. fresh for drinking This helped them trade and bathing. It also gave with people all over the them food. They could world. The Egyptians catch that lived in took African ideas and the water. They also goods to other countries. used nets and spears to They also brought back hunt birds that flew near ideas and inventions the water’s surface. The from , the Middle Nile was also a East, and other regions.

7 PHARAOHS

Pharaohs ruled over Egypt for thousands of years. The Egyptians believed that their pharaohs were half-man and half-god.

A ritual was held when a had been on the for thirty years. The pharaoh transformed into a full god.

The pharaoh was the most powerful person in Egypt. The pharaoh owned all the land and made all the laws. The pharaoh also led Fact: In 1925, an Englishman found King the in battle against other nations. ’s . It was filled with riches and covered One of the most -known pharaohs is . He is in , silver, and jewels. sometimes called King Tut or the boy king. He ruled Egypt for nine The Egyptians believed years before he died when he was only eighteen. that they took their riches with them to the afterlife. King Tut was buried with thousands of objects, including jewelry, , and a gold throne. You can still see the riches from Tut’s tomb in , the of Egypt.

8 Nearly all were men. When a pharaoh died, his son, nephew, or grandson would become pharaoh. The queen would rule with him if the boy was too young.

One queen named wanted all the power. Hatshepsut married II, who had a son by another . Thutmose III was just a child when his father died. Hatshepsut, the boy’s stepmother, acted as pharaoh while he grew up. She was the daughter of a popular pharaoh, and the people liked her.

9 However, when pharaohs. She even Thutmose III was wore a false beard. Fact: Women in old enough to rule, She ruled for nearly ancient Egypt painted their fingernails! The Hatshepsut decided twenty-two years. color was determined to remain pharaoh. When Hatshepsut died, by a woman’s status in She made herself king. the new pharaoh took . Hatshepsut wore Everyone knew she his revenge. He had black and red, the colors was a woman, but she all references to his of royalty. dressed like the male stepmother destroyed.

You can see Hatshepsut’s feminine features, even though she is wearing a false beard.

10 ’s in Heiroglyphs

Another famous female leader and queens of Egypt respected of Egypt was Cleopatra VII. She Egyptian traditions and religion. was of Greek descent. The They dressed like pharaohs and conquered Egypt in 305 BCE. honored the Egyptian gods. Cleopatra and other Greek kings

1332–1323 BCE Tutankhamun rules

3500 BCE 3000 BCE 2500 BCE 2000 BCE 1500 BCE 1000 BCE 500 BCE 0

3100 BCE 1479–1458 51–30 BCE Upper and Lower BCE Cleopatra VII Egypt are unified. Egypt Hatshepsut rules becomes one nation. rules

11 THE PEOPLE

Jobs

Men in ancient Egypt use as food and flax were expected to to use for clothes. Fact: The Nile flooded every work to support their Other men were , year between and October. families. The women builders, artists, or Farmers abandoned their fields. When they returned, the fields were expected to take craftsmen. Children would be covered with rich, care of the homes and spent their childhoods thick soil that was ideal for children. Most men in learning the jobs that growing grains and other crops. ancient Egypt worked they would need to as farmers. They grew do as adults. wheat and to

12 There were very few took several years to schools. Only boys from learn to read and write royal or wealthy families the complicated symbols Fact: The attended school. These that the Egyptians used Egyptians used boys were taught to be to communicate. Being symbols called scribes. They studied a scribe was one of the hieroglyphs. reading and writing. It best jobs in Egypt.

13 Clothing and Dress

Egypt has a very and dry climate. Clothing in ancient Egypt was Jewelry was very The poor made their often made from linen, popular. Men and jewelry from colored which is a very light women wore brightly beads. Egyptians had fabric. Most men wore colored , many superstitions. They short or loincloths. earrings, bracelets, believed that certain Women wore simple anklets, and rings. actions could bring good dresses. Children often Jewelry was often made luck or bad luck. People did not wear clothing from gold, silver, and often wore good luck until they were about precious stones. charms on their jewelry. six years old.

14 Cleanliness was very important to the Egyptians. Many shaved their heads to protect themselves from lice. Children’s heads were shaved except for a small section of hair on the side of the head, called a side lock. Adults often wore wigs. The wigs were worn for fashion and also protected their heads from the hot sun.

15 THE AFTERLIFE

The Egyptians believed in life after death. They thought that when they died, they would go to another world and live a new life there.

Many people were buried in the The body was wrapped in long linen desert when they died. Food and bandages and then in a fancy box drink were left near the body for with jewels and gold decoration. the spirit in the afterlife. Turning a body into a mummy took Wealthy people were buried in a long time. Sometimes it took more tombs. A rich person’s body was than two months before it was ready treated with salts and spices to to be put in a tomb! It also cost a preserve it as a mummy. of money.

Fact: The Egyptians put the dead person’s stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver in special jars. They left the heart in the person’s body, and they threw away the brain. They did not think the brain was special.

16 Ancient Egyptians loved had huge tombs built for and games put in their tombs. cats. They thought they their . They Some even had carvings of were sacred animals. thought the cats would hundreds of servants to serve Some cats were even need their belongings in them after death! The tombs turned into mummies the afterlife. They had were decorated with beautiful when they died. Pharaohs carved food, animals, and statues.

17 The biggest tombs were called pyramids. These were huge triangular buildings. Many of them still stand today. Many of the royal tombs have been found in two valleys. The is home to the tombs of many of the pharaohs. Queens, princes, and princesses were buried in the .

18 BUILDINGS

The ancient Egyptians were great builders. They built huge pyramids, temples, and statues from stone.

Some buildings took decades to finish and had thousands of men working on them. The was the tallest manmade building for nearly 4,000 years. It was 481 feet tall. That’s about forty-eight stories high! It is one of the Great Wonders of the Ancient World. No one really knows exactly how it was built.

19 Fact: It takes a lot of math to build a pyramid! The ancient Egyptians did not have a system like we do today. Instead, they used symbols to count and build the pyramids.

Egyptian Heiroglyphs for

stroke heelbone coiled lotus pointed frog kneeling 1 10 flower finger 100,000 god 100 1,000 10,000 1,000,000

The Egyptians did not have symbols for each number. The number 1,234 would look like this.

20 Pharaohs built huge temples to The Egyptians often covered the walls their gods. One had columns of their buildings with stories. Some that were seventy feet tall! Another stories are told through paintings, great structure was the Great , and others are told through writing. a huge half-man, half- near the We know a lot about ancient Egypt large pyramids. because of these stories.

21 HIEROGLYPHS

Egyptians invented an advanced kind of writing called hieroglyphs.

A hieroglyph is a small picture that symbolizes a sound or idea. Some hieroglyphs looked like birds, , or . There are more than 700 hieroglyphic signs! It took many years of study for scribes to learn all the signs.

Hieroglyphs were etched into the rock walls of many buildings. Some tell about great victories in war. Others praise pharaohs and gods.

Fact: The word hieroglyph comes from two Greek words: hieros, which means holy, and glyph, which means writing.

22 For a long time during the modern era, no one knew how to read hieroglyphs. In 1799, French soldiers found the . The Rosetta Stone is a big piece of rock with a message written in three different languages. The message was written in two languages that experts could read and one in hieroglyphs. A French scholar used the other languages to figure out what the hieroglyphs meant.

23 When we read in English, we read from Which way? left to right. Hieroglyphs can be read several different ways! Sometimes Read from left to right. they are read in lines from left to right. Other times, they are read from right to left. How do you know which way to read hieroglyphs? If the symbols that look like animals, birds, or people are facing left, you read from left to right. If they are facing right, you read from right to left.

Read from right to left.

Fact: Simpler kinds of writing were used for everyday writing, but this writing was similar to cursive writing.

24 It was very important down, you would not people were written to Egyptians to have disappear after you in ovals. This kind of their name written died. were often nametag was called down somewhere. written in hieroglyphs. a . This is They believed that if The names of pharaohs King Tut’s cartouche. your name was written and other important

25 EGYPT TODAY Cairo

Egypt has been ruled by many nations and powers. Today Egypt is an independent country. Its official name is the Arab of Egypt.

Egypt is one of the biggest countries in the world. More than 83 million people live there. That’s more than all the people in , , and Greece combined!

Alexandria

26 Almost all Egyptians have tall apartment and still live in the Nile office buildings made Valley—the flat, fertile from and steel, land along the Nile like those in the United River. Some people live States. Other people in , and others live live in villages that in villages. Cities such have houses made as Cairo and from mud bricks.

West Bank Houses, Gurna

Nearly all of Egypt’s major cities are located in the Nile Valley.

27 Hieroglyphs are Like American children, no longer used to Egyptian children enjoy communicate in Egypt. playing sports, listening Arabic is the country’s to , and watching , but movies. Many movies are many people also speak made in Cairo. It English and other is sometimes called languages. Schools are the Hollywood of the the Nile. You can even times. Scientists are not just for wealthy boys . ride a through still working to uncover now, but are now open the desert. There are more of Egypt’s past. to all children. Boys Egypt is a popular tourist many to visit This fascinating country and girls are required destination. Visitors too. The museums holds many treasures yet to attend school from can tour pyramids and are filled with art and to be discovered. ages six to fourteen. take a boat cruise down objects from ancient

Fact: Soccer is one of the most popular sports in Egypt. The national soccer team is nicknamed The Pharaohs.

28 GLOSSARY

afterlife: Life after death. civilizations: Groups of people who live in a socially developed culture. climate: The average weather conditions of a place. craftsmen: Skilled workers. delta: A triangle of sand and soil at the top of a river. desert: A very dry region with little rain and few plants. Egyptologists: Scientists who study ancient Egypt. Egyptology: The study of ancient Egypt. hieroglyphs: Writing that uses pictures and symbols. mummy: Preserved body wrapped in cloth. papyrus: Paper made from the papyrus plant. pharaohs: Rulers of ancient Egypt. pyramids: Large structures with square bases and four triangular sides. ritual: Customs or traditions. sacred: Holy. scribes: Writers. tombs: Burial chambers. temples: Buildings for worship.

29 INDEX

Africa 5 Isis 2 Alexandria 26, 27 Kemet 6 Anubis 2 Mediterranean Sea 27 Arab Republic of Egypt 26 Middle East 7, 28 Asia 5 Nile River 6, 27 Australia 26 Nile Valley 6, 27 Cairo 8, 26–28 Ra 2 Canada 26 Rosetta Stone 22 Cleopatra VII 11 Sekhmet 2 Deshret 6 Sobek 5 Egypt 2–4, 6–9, 11–17, 19–21, 26–28 Thoth 2 Great Pyramid of Giza 19 Thutmose II 9 Great Sphinx 21 Thutmose III 9, 10 Great Wonders of the Tutankhamun (King Tut) 8, 11, 25 Ancient World 19 27 Greece 7, 26 Valley of the Kings 18 2 Valley of the Queens 18 Hatshepsut 9–11

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