pharaohs and pyramids! inside ancient egypt. history and culture ancient egyptian civilization was...

Pharaohs and Pyramids!

Inside Ancient Egypt

History and Culture

• Ancient Egyptian civilization was one of the longest in history!

• This civilization began about 3,000 BC and lasted until 300 BC.

• Can anyone figure out how long that was??• CORRECT - 2,700 years LONG!

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History and Culture continued . . .

• Today we are going to be focusing on the social world of Ancient Egypt.

• There was a very clear cut and defined social system set up in Ancient Egypt.

• This system was set up so the rich got

richer and the poor got poorer.

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Pharaohs!

• Pharaohs are rulers of Ancient Egypt.

• Even though Egyptian civilization was doing VERY WELL and was flourishing, there were many wars between villages.

• To prevent this the two largest villages, Upper and Lower Egypt joined together around 3,100 BC.




• Around this time, the FIRST pharaoh, MENES, came to rule.

• The pharaoh was the absolute ruler, which means that they controlled EVERYTHING!

• In government the pharaoh would decide how Egypt’s affairs would be run at all levels!

• The pharaoh was the first in line - THE MOST IMPORTANT

• The second in line was the VIZIER.

• The pharaoh also appointed governors called NOMARCHS who would report to the VIZIER.

• The pharaoh also appointed SCRIBES

• All of the members of the government or people who help high official positions were APPOINTED

DIRECTLY BY THE PHARAOH

Can anyone think of a reason why this might not be good? What could a problem be with the pharaoh appointing all of the high level officials?



• Pharaohs also could tax all goods.

• EVERYTHING in Ancient Egypt was considered a possession of the pharaoh.

• This means that the pharaoh could take whatever he wanted, from whoever he wanted, INCLUDING OTHER PEOPLE!


• Everything the pharaoh wanted and needed was received from the taxes.

• Taxes were also used to feed the pharaoh’s family and friends!

• Any extra (SURPLUS) of food went to the lower people, so they would get a chance to at least have a little to eat!

• Taxes were paid for with goods and services, or GOLD because money did not exist yet!



Ancient Egyptian Social Pyramid



Pyramids!

• Pyramids are HUGE stone structures built out of sandstone.

• After Ancient Egyptians were mummified they were put into their pyramids with everything they would need for the afterlife.


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Pyramids were built as a tomb for the pharaohs in the afterlife. EVERYTHING the pharaohs

owned were put into their pyramid when they died. This was done so the pharaohs could

use their things in the afterlife!

• Religion was viewed as VERY important in Ancient Egypt. The pharaoh was viewed as the child of the RA (the SUN god)

• Ancient Egyptians were POLYTHEISTIC which means that they had MANY GODS.

• The GREAT PYRAMID is the biggest pyramid in Egypt, and it was built for the Pharaoh KUFU.

• It took 20 years to built the pyramid for this pharaoh, and 100,000 people!!

• The pyramids had a huge impact on the way people made a living and the lives of the lower class in Ancient Egyptian times.

• Local governments began to rebel against forcing citizens to work on constructing these gigantic pyramids!

• The leaders in Upper Egypt decided to get a new pharaoh, and based their capital in Thebes.

• With this the Old Kingdom came to an end in 300 BC

pharaohs and pyramids! inside ancient egypt. history and culture ancient egyptian civilization was...

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