The Nile is one of the most important parts of Egypt to date. The river is 6695 km long and runs through the countries of Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt. The Nile has two main streams that are much smaller, these streams are called the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The history of the Nile is very important as around 5000 years ago the ancient Egyptians relied on the Nile as a source of fresh water, food, and transportation. During the inundation season which was during august the Nile almost always flooded which was a good and bad thing. However, nowadays the Nile does not flood anymore since in 1970 the Aswan high dam was built which allowed the flood water to be used as water for homes. The Nile provided things like freshwater for drinking, beer making, cooking, washing items and irrigation. Lots of wildlife lived in the river such as fish, birds, frogs, crocodiles, eels, hippopotamus and snakes.
The climate in Egypt was a very hot and dry as it laid in the hottest desert in the world, the Sahara Desert. Due to having this large desert Egypt inhabited some animals which include gazelles’ hares and foxes. Minerals, Rocks, and metals were also somethings that ancient Egyptians sourced from the desert to help construct things like the pyramids, houses, weapons, and tombs. The desert was also used in a positive economic way as by trading these objects money was made or new items were purchased. Due to the hot weather conditions the Egyptians lived an outdoors lifestyle, people did most things outside. The things ancient Egyptians did outside included cooking and sleeping which was most commonly done on the roof of the house. Due to the sandy desert sometimes when there was wind the sand could blow up to people and commonly cause eye infections. Two different areas of Egypt were constructed due to the Nile River, there was the red land and the black land. The red land was where it all desert, not near the Nile and hardly anyone lived here. Then there was the black land, which was right near to the Nile River, the land was fertile and covered in rich, dark soil. This is where most people lived so they could have access to necessities.
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Many weapons used as fighting tools were also used when farming. For example, a spear could kill an animal to eat but could also kill an enemy soldier. Axes were used to chop up bodies and spears were used to chase down and kill men. Hunting sticks were useful when you wanted to kill a bird that’s in the air. The mace which is a heavy stick object with a heavy and powerful steelhead and many other weapons were important to the ancient Egyptian religion. Weapons were used when fighting and when fighting the Nile was used to get places quickl
Mummification was the process of persevering a body for it to go to the afterlife. Mummification was a big part of the ancient Egyptian spiritual beliefs and traditions. The whole point of mummification is to send a soul to the afterlife so it can live on there. This process was firstly a special hooked tool used to remove bits of the brain through the nostrils. The organs were removed by cutting the left side of the abdomen open with an embalmer knife and put into a canopic jar. All organs were removed and placed into canopic jars. After this, the corpse would be wrapped up placed in a coffin or wooden box then stored in a tomb. In the coffin, the corpse would have with it everything it needed for the afterlife. When the corpse was ready to go into the tomb before it went in a priest would perform some rituals. Such as the opening of the mouth ceremony was with an axe-like tool the priest would touch all the head openings of the body. Which was thought to wake up the dead person senses. To reach the afterlife, it was said that magic spells and prayers had to be recited to guide them through any dangers. These spells and prayers were read from a book called the book of the dead, a copy of this book was often buried with everyone. Egyptians were buried with the good they thought they needed for the afterlife which sometimes included clothing, jewellery, pots/vases, furniture, wigs, tools/weapons, chariots, boats, food and even sometimes real servants.
Merchants boats were used to move traded goods to markets or move goods ready to be traded to a different part of the Nile. These boats also transported huge stones blocks that were used to help build and construct the pyramids. Used to get food small fishing boats were made from bundles of papyrus reeds. Pleasure boats moved traveling people up and down the river and were also used as funeral boats to carry the coffin with a pharaoh in it to its tomb. The Nile was an important part of boats because without the water boats couldn’t be in use and sources wouldn’t be in access to the ancient Egyptians.
The ancient Egyptian form and language of writing were called hieroglyphics. But in saying this only about 1% of Egyptians knew how to read and write and these people were usually always men. The people who called read and wright were highly respected in society and were known as scribes. Hieroglyphics included over 750 different symbols but as years past Egyptians developed a smaller and simpler alphabet, which was used for everyday writing and was easy to use. This writing was a small and specific picture, sign or symbol used as a form of writing.
King Tutankhamun is one of the most well-known pharaohs of all time and one of the most studied people ever. He was only 9 when he became pharaoh in 1332 BCE and died at the young age of 19. He did not live long enough to do something life-changing, but it did make the citizens of Egypt only believe in one god which was Aten. He also restored lots of priests, festivals and temples. Despite living a short life his tomb is significant has it is the only tomb to date that hasn’t been broken into or stolen from by robbers. His tomb contains 5300 pieces of evidence of life and burial ceremonies. But still to this day, nobody knows how he died but there are lots of potential theories about what could have happened.
The two gods we have chosen to discuss are Isis and Osiris who are husband and wife. Isis is a protective goddess who uses magical spells to help the people in need. Her headdress was in the shape of a throne and a sun disk with the horns of a cow. She was the mother of Horus. She is often seen with her son on her lap and she is associated with thrones because her lap was the first throne Horus sat on. Osiris was the God of the dead and ruler of the underworld. Osiris was the husband of Isis and He too was the father of Horus. He looked like a mummified man wearing a white cone headdress with feathers. He was also the God of resurrection and fertility, in fact, ancient Egyptians supposedly thought that Osiris give them on of their most important crops, barley. A large temple was built to honour him.
Pharaohs were very high up on the social hierarchy and were known as kings or gods. They had lots of money and were considered the highest priest in Egypt, they also kept everything in balance. The pharaoh was almost always a man and was the head or ruler of Egypt. They were respected so much when people meet them, they had to get on their knees and kiss the ground as a sign of respect. As they were very wealthy the owned all the land and all the resources within it. The pharaoh wanted people to pay high tax which could be paid with grain or other crops. Not only did they have power they had many important jobs to do, which some were made by law and others by religion. Pharaohs had different outfits compared to everyone else they wore a crown that showed their position as ruler and different coloured crowns meant different parts of Egypt they ruled. They wore a gold cobra headpiece that represents power, a fake beard made from goats’ fur and a very jewelled collar that means wealth. A whip was also held to show they had power over everyone, a crook symbolized that he was a shepherd and the animal tail the wore meant they were strong.
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