Ancient Egypt for Kids

When people think of

ancient

Egypt, they mainly think of all the famous sites you can still visit. The Pyramids of Giza are often the first thing people think of because they are often seen in cartoons and movies and were built over 4,500 years ago. Many people are fascinated by the

ancient

Egyptians and they are often depicted... in this way, which is not entirely accurate, thanks, robot. Let's look at some true stories about the people who lived there for thousands of years and talk about why their civilizations lasted so long and why they had such a lasting impact.

Ancient Egypt was located in… Egypt, along the Nile River and the Nile River was a great place for a civilization. While almost all civilizations settled along a river, the Nile has a number of special characteristics that make it a little more special. The Nile is the longest river in the world, which supplied water not only to the Egyptians, but also to the Nubians who lived further south. The river was also a great help for transportation and farming, especially in the Nile Delta. A delta is where a river splits into smaller streams near the ocean. These currents spread water to a greater surface area of ​​land.

The Nile also flows north, which was used to transport building blocks from the south. The river also overflows once a year and deposits fertile silt on the fields. Mud is a very thin layer of mud, good for agricultural crops. Ancient Egypt lasted a long time, so before we look at the timeline, let's look at some more recent events for comparison and to get a better idea of ​​how long Ancient Egypt was on top. Here is a single block of the timeline. The World Wide Web, the beginning of the modern Internet, was invented 30 years ago, which is about that amount on the timeline.

The light bulb was invented about 150 years ago, which is equal to that amount on the timeline, and the newspaper was invented about 400 years ago, which is equal to an entire block. This is the complete timeline of ancient Egypt, and here is the timeline block. Now you have a better idea of ​​how long the Egyptian civilization lasted. The first period of ancient Egyptian civilization, the predynastic period, was not much different from most other Bronze Age civilizations, the people practiced agriculture near the river, shared a common language and culture that lasted about two thousand years, from 5000 to 3100 BC.

The Archaic period began around 3100 BC. when Menes founded the capital of ancient Egypt in Memphis, in the north, near the Nile River delta. Memphis became a large and beautiful city, famous for its white walls. Menes thereafter made the pharaohs the powerful leaders of Egypt. The pharaoh was part king, part god, and his families ruled as part of his dynasty. This is a period in which members of the same family succeeded one another in power. After the Archaic period, the Old Kingdom began in 2686 BC. Djoser was the first pharaoh of the Old Kingdom who requested that a pyramid be built as a tomb for his body after death.

It looks different than the image most people have of a pyramid, it is a step pyramid. The Old Kingdom was a time of peace and happiness and the most famous pyramids at Giza were built during the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. However, there was a problem with building giant stone pyramids. These are very expensive. The priests gained more power towards the end of this period, and as the kingdom's wealth declined, the Old Kingdom ended in chaos in 2181 BC. But don't worry, the kingdom will return. Memphis remained the capital after the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period lasted almost a hundred years until 2055 BC.

The first Intermediate Period had many rulers, wars, famines and diseases. It was not a good time to live in Egypt. Mentuhotep, a Theban prince, gained power over the entire kingdom and united the power of the entire kingdom and united everything again. This is how this period ended. The Middle Kingdom once again had powerful pharaohs and worked hard to regain its wealth. They conquered Nubia, the civilization south of Egypt, and expanded trade into Asia. They also continued to build pyramids and had the first female ruler of Egypt. This was not Cleopatra, she was Queen Sobekneferu. After her death, the problem of pyramid construction began again.

Thus, the region fell into chaos for almost two hundred years, during the Second Intermediate Period, 1786-1567 BC. But this is not the last time you will see the kingdoms... The New Kingdom began when Ahmose I gathered it in 1567 BC. The New Kingdom becomes one of the first great empires, conquers Nubia and advances north to the Asian Euphrates Valley. We know more about the tombs of the pharaohs built in this era because Tutankhamun's tomb was found almost intact, and we will talk more about him later. Once again, after about 500 years, major construction projects and invasions caused the kingdom to decline.

The last two periods, the Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period, were again ones of decline and unification. Ultimately, the Greeks and Persians founded gigantic empires that were larger and more powerful than Egypt. Cleopatra, the famous queen of Egypt, was able to keep Egypt independent for a time thanks to her clever diplomacy, but eventually the Romans conquered it and so the Egyptian era ended in 30 BC. to end. One of the most famous pharaohs was Tutankhamun, who ruled during the New Kingdom. He was often called King Tut. For centuries after the decline of Egypt, thieves took objects from the pyramids and tombs of dead pharaohs because precious and valuable objects were often found there.

These objects were important for the study of history, but they were stolen and sold. Even mummies were stolen and often reduced to dust and sold as medicine, which is not good for anyone's health. Plus, it's also just plain dirty. Egyptologists (people who study ancient Egypt) worked hard to protect Egyptian artifacts so they could study them. Tutankhamun is famous, although his tomb was quite small. It was discovered in 1922 completely intact. Tutankhamun... I'm also going to call him King Tut, he became pharaoh when he was only nine years old. Because he was so young, he depended on advisors to make important decisions about running the country, and the most important decisions he made were about religion.

His tomb was one of the smallest because he died at the age of eighteen, so he was only pharaoh for nine years. Tombs and the treatment of the dead were very important in ancient Egypt, the pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs. The Egyptian Book of the Dead was a guide to funerals and spells to protect the dead and was written on papyrus, which was invented in Egypt. It was a kind of paper made from a small plant. Preservation of the heart and body was important for the afterlife, and people always tried to take their belongings with them.

Even your cats! It was believed that after his death the god Osiris opened the door to the afterlife. Anubus, the god of the dead, guided a person to have his heart weighed. It was thought that doing good deeds in life would give one a happy heart. While bad deeds would make the heart feel heavier. Every person's heart would be weighed against a feather. Thoth, the god of wisdom and writing and also the scribe of the gods, wrote the weight of the heart. If the heart were lighter than the feather, the dead could pass into the afterlife.

If it were more difficult, Ammut was very happy. Ammut was a god with the head of a crocodile. It was believed that if you did something really bad during your life, the god Ammut would eat you. As long as your body was preserved (or mummified, turned into a mummy), your heart was lighter than a feather, and someone had written your name, you could set out on the ship of the sun god Ra. On the way to the Land of Two Fields. From there your soul could visit your family and enjoy the afterlife. The belief that this happened after death (or being eaten by a crocodile god) made people behave quite well.

Now, if you weren't dead and royalty in ancient Egypt, what would your life be like? Egypt had very defined social classes, this was very common. Royalty, pharaohs, and their families held the highest position in ancient Egyptian society. The nobility, the most powerful people in government, after the pharaohs and priests, were the next powerful class. After them were the soldiers, craftsmen and writers, the people who wrote the official documents of the society. Few people learned hieroglyphic writing and it was used for royal documents written by scribes; many people used demotic writing for everyday writing. Egyptologists understand hieroglyphs thanks to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which translated hieroglyphs into Demotic and Greek.

Part of the first History (with a capital 'G') done in History (lower case 'g') was the Greeks who studied Egypt. They provided many secondary sources about Egypt, and with the Rosetta Stone, modern historians can read their most important texts. Returning to the hierarchy, peasants and workers were the citizens with the lowest social status, and slaves were at the bottom of the hierarchy, not considered citizens, but assets. While the hierarchy in Egypt was similar to that of many other ancient civilizations, most citizens enjoyed a better life than in many other places at the time. Women had more rights, they were allowed to own property, sign contracts, and even become rulers of Egypt.

Happiness was considered important for all citizens. Ma'at, the idea of ​​harmony and balance in all aspects of life could illuminate the heart for the afterlife and was represented by her own goddess, Ma'at. The ancient Egyptians enjoyed sports such as hockey, handball, archery and even invented bowling. Children learned to swim when they were young, swimming was popular and children played many water games. The board game senet was also popular. It was like a game of life, based on a story about life and the afterlife. Music, dancing, gymnastics and wrestling were also popular, and hunting was very popular among the upper classes, both large and small.

Education in ancient Egypt came from parents, most children grew up doing the same work as their parents. Royal children, both boys and girls, because women in royal families also participated in government, would receive formal education in writing, mathematics, geography, cartography (map study), science, ceremonial dance, and music. Children from wealthy families went to school and studied what were called "wisdom texts" with literacy lessons and practical information for their careers. The families of many Egyptian students wanted important jobs in the royal palace, temples or army, a position in the government, collecting taxes or even practicing medicine with priests.

Middle-class families could send their children on an "apprenticeship," which involved learning a trade or special skill such as jewelry making, pottery, music, or weaving, and for a fee the children would live with a teacher. They worked there for free while they learned the skills. They learn from them. Some children, especially in the New Kingdom, joined the army, which was considered very important. This was a very difficult and arduous training that lasted for years. Ancient Egypt lasted five thousand years. During the Late Period, Egypt had expanded its dominion westward, towards Africa, and northward and westward, towards Asia and the island of Cyprus.

It was expensive and difficult to govern so much land and at the same time the Roman Empire was the most powerful empire in the region and they wanted to expand their empire. Egypt had also already incorporated Greek into its language because ancient Greece was very influential. Compared to these empires, Egypt became increasingly less powerful. The last ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra, knew that the Egyptian army was no match for Roman power and she formed an alliance with Julius Caesar, ruler of Rome, to try to maintain Egypt's independence. Things did not go well for Caesar and when he died, the Romans took over Egypt in 30 BC.

A civilization that lasted five thousand years is difficult to summarize in a few minutes, and Egypt had periods of peace, wealth and power as well as war, decline and built some of the greatest wonders of the ancient world. The study of Egypt inspired the very creation of History. The Egyptian Empire is unique because it existed for so long, because it gave many rights to women, and because of the influence the empire has had on history. This continues to fascinate people. We hope you enjoyed our visit to Egypt and remember

kids

, say no to mummy treatments. Goodbye for now!