Ancient Nile Kingdoms
Presentation created by Robert MartinezPrimary Content Source: Prentice Hall World HistoryImages as cited.
ancient-egypt.info
In ancient times, farming villages dotted the narrow band of land watered by the Nile. Beyond the rich, irrigated “Black
Land,” generally no more than 10 miles wide, lay the “Red Land,” a sun-baked
desert that stretches across North Africa.
goldhistorian.blogspot.com prntrkmt.org
Farmers took advantage of the fertile soil of the Nile Valley to grow wheat and flax,
a plant whose fibers were used for clothing.
visav.phys.uvic.ca
The Nile rises in the highlands of Ethiopia and the lakes of central Africa. Every spring, rains in this interior region send water racing down
streams that feed the Nile River. In ancient times, Egyptians eagerly awaited the annual
flood. It soaked the land with life-giving water and deposited a layer of rich silt.
cruises.about.com
People had to cooperate to control the Nile floods. They built dikes, reservoirs,
and irrigation ditches to channel the rising river and store water for the dry
season.
egy-king.blogspot.com
Ancient Egypt had two distinct regions. Upper Egypt in the south and Lower
Egypt in the north. Upper Egypt stretched from the first cataract, or
waterfall, of the Nile northward to within 100 miles of the Mediterranean.
thesoftmanias.blogspot.com
Lower Egypt covered the delta region where the
Nile empties into the Mediterranean. A
delta is a triangular area of marshland
formed by deposits of silt at the mouth
of some rivers.
franklin.ma.us
About 3100 B.C.E., Menes, the king of Upper Egypt,
united the two regions. He and his successors used
the Nile as a highway linking north and south.
They could send officials or armies to towns along the river. The Nile thus helped
make Egypt the world’s first unified state.
cardsmall.wordpress.com
The river also served as a trade route. Egyptian merchants traveled up and
down the Nile in sailboats and barges, exchanging the products of Africa, the
Middle East, and the Mediterranean
world.
britannica.com
The history of ancient Egypt is divided into three main periods, the Old
Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. Although power passed from one dynasty to another, the land
generally remained united.
tigtail.org
During the Old Kingdom, Egyptian rulers called pharaohs organized a strong, centralized state. Pharaohs claimed divine support for their rule. Egyptians believed the pharaoh was a god. The pharaoh thus had absolute power, owning, and
ruling all the land in the kingdom.
pharaohsandpyramids.blogspot.com
Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom took pride in preserving justice and order. A pharaoh
depended on a vizier, or chief minister, to supervise the business of government. Under
the vizier, various departments looked after such matters as tax collection, farming, and the
irrigation system. Thousands of scribes carried
out the vizier’s instructions.
love-egypt.com
During the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians built the majestic pyramids that still stand at Giza.
The pyramids were tombs for eternity. Because Egyptians believed in an afterlife, they
preserved the bodies of their dead rulers and provided them with everything they would need
in their new lives.
fanpop.com
To complete the pyramids, workers hauled and lifted
millions of limestone blocks, some weighing two tons or more. The builders had no iron
tools or wheeled vehicles. Workers
quarried the stones by hand, pulled them on sleds to the site, and
hoisted them up earthen ramps.
bbc.co.uk
Building a pyramid took so long that often a pharaoh would begin to build his tomb as soon as he inherited the throne.
historyonthenet.com
The pyramids suggest the strength of ancient Egyptian civilization. These costly projects required enormous planning and organization. Thousands of farmers, who
had to be fed each day, worked on the pyramids when not planting or harvesting
crops.
bbc.co.uk
Power struggles, crop failures, and the cost of the pyramids contributed to the
collapse of the Old Kingdom. After more than a century of disunity, new pharaohs reunited the land, ushering in the Middle
Kingdom.
earlyworldhistory.blogspot.com
The Middle Kingdom was a turbulent period. The Nile did not rise as regularly as it had. Corruption and rebellions were common. Still, strong rulers did organize
a large drainage project, creating vast new stretches of farmable land.
historyandcivilization
Egyptian armies occupied part of Nubia,
the gold-rich land to the south. Traders also
had greater contacts with the peoples of the
Middle East and the Mediterranean island of
Crete.
pharaonic-egy.blogspot
Catastrophe struck about 1700 B.C.E. when foreign invaders, the Hyksos,
occupied the delta region. They awed the Egyptians with their horse-drawn
chariots. In time, the Egyptians mastered this new military technology.
flickr.com
The Hyksos, in turn, were impressed by Egyptian civilization. They soon adopted
Egyptian customs, beliefs, and even names. Finally, after more than 100
years, new Egyptian leaders arose. They drove out the Hyksos and set up the New
Kingdom.
en.wikipedia.org
During the New Kingdom, powerful and ambitious pharaohs created a large empire. At
its height, the Egyptian empire reached the Euphrates River. This age of conquest brought Egypt into greater contact with southwestern
Asia as well as other parts of Africa.
media1.mweb.co.za gnosis.us.com
One monarch of the New Kingdom, Hatshepsut was a woman who exercised
all the rights of a pharaoh. From 1503 B.C.E. to 1482 B.C.E., she encouraged trade with eastern Mediterranean lands
and along the Red Sea coast of Africa.
eyelid.co.uk
The most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom was Ramses II. Between 1290 B.C.E. and 1224 B.C.E., Ramses pushed Egyptian rule
northward as far as Syria. On temples and monuments, he boasted of his conquests,
though his greatest reported victory may not actually have taken place.
s9.com
In a battle against the Hittites of Asia Minor, only the desperate bravery of Ramses himself
prevented a crushing defeat. Back home, Ramses had inscriptions carved on a
monument that made the near defeat sound
like a stunning victory.
touregypt.net
After years of fighting, the Egyptians and Hittites signed a
peace treaty, the first such document known to have
survived in history. It declared that Egypt
and the Hittites “shall be at peace and in
brotherhood forever.”en.wikipedia.org
After Ramses II, Egyptian power slowly declined. Invaders, such as the Assyrians and
Persians, conquered the Nile region. Later, Greek and Roman armies came from the north.
Each new conqueror was eager to add the
fertile Nile Valley to a growing empire.
fravahr.org
The Nile kingdom of Nubia (known also as Kush) developed to the south of
Egypt. For centuries, Egyptians traded or fought with their southern neighbor.
From Nubia, they acquired ivory, cattle, and slaves. During the new kingdom,
Egypt conquered Nubia.
en.wikipedia.org
Ramses II used gold from Nubia to pay charioteers in his army. Nubians served in Egyptian armies and left their mark on Egyptian culture. Much Egyptian art of
this period shows Nubian soldiers,
musicians, or prisoners.
abovetopsecret.com
As Egypt declined, Nubia regained its independence. In
750 B.C.E., Nubian kings marched
north, adding Egypt to their own lands. For 100 years, the
Nubian empire stretched from what
is today Sudan to
the Mediterranean. blackvikingen.blogspot.com
The Nubians saw themselves not as foreign conquerors but as restorers of Egyptian glory. They ruled Egypt like earlier pharaohs, respecting ancient
Egyptian traditions.
jandyongenesis.blogspot.com
About 650 B.C.E., Assyrians, armed with iron weapons, descended on
Egypt. They pushed the Nubians back into their original homeland, where
Nubian monarchs ruled for 1,000 years more.
ninevehmarket.com
Top Related