The Union of Upper and Lower Egypt

The Union of Two Lands

Ancient Egypt had two parts: Upper and Lower Egypt

Upper Egypt (Southern Part): Stretched for 500 miles from the Nile’s first cataract northward to the beginning of the Nile Delta.

Lower Egypt (Northern Part): The Nile Delta, 100 miles long but many times wider than Upper Egypt.

Maps of Upper and Lower Egypt

Two Lands (cont.)

3300 B.C.E. both Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt had kings.

Upper Egypt’s king wore a tall, white bowling pin shaped crown.

Lower Egypt’s king wore a short, boxy, red crown with a tall spike at the back and a curlicue at the front.

Knowledge of pre-historic Egypt is mixed with legend.

The Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt

Menes: Legend or Fact?

Legend: 3100 B.C.E. Menes defeated the king of lower Egypt and declared himself the king of both Lower and Upper Egypt.

Menes designed a new crown to celebrate his victory, the double crown stood for the union of the two lands.

Menes and his family formed the first Egyptian Dynasty

Dynasty = A series of rulers from the same family Believed to establish the ancient city of Memphis

http://www.randmcnally.com/rmc/EdPub/action/showFlashGame.do?appType=IHM&flashAppName=MostPopulousCity.swf&hasIHM=true&TITLE=The%20Most%20Populous%20City%20in%20World,%203200%20B.C.-Present%20(INTERACTIVE)&OID=1073912326

Menes or Narmer

Historians believe the Menes may have been a real king possibly by the name of Narmer. Narmer is the name of the historical figure Menes is the name of the legendary king

There is strong archeological evidence for this: The Macehead of King Narmer describes the unification of Egypt

The Narmer Palette

The Macehead of King Narmer

The Combined Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt

Old Kingdom - 2600 B.C.E. – 2100 B.C.E.

During the period of the Old Kingdom Egyptian cities became centers of religion and government. Kings, priests, government officials and artisans lived there. Most Egyptians did not live in cities: They lived on large

Nile-side estates. Wealthy Landowners and artisans

Farmers who lived on the estates: Worked the land Pyramid Building Kingdom

The Sphinx

Body of a Lion, head of a man Believed to reflect the likeness of Kafre

Interactive image of Sphinx below

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/egypt/explore/sphinx.html

Pyramids

Built as burial chambers for Pharaohs Used as a tool for helping the pharaohs reach

the afterlife

Interactive tour

through Khufu’s Pyramid http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/explore/khufudeschi.html

Pyramids at Giza

Embalmment and Mummification

Egyptian Priests used various substances to preserve the bodies of important Egyptians Natron – drying agent

Why? The body needed to be recognized by the “Ka”

in order to make it safely to the afterlife.

Rosetta Stone

1799 French Soldiers, near Rosetta, a town in the Nile Delta unearthed a large Black Stone Slab.

The same passage is written on the stone in three ways: Egyptian Hieroglyphics, a form of Egyptian cursive (Demotic or Coptic) and Greek.

For 20 years scholars try to decipher the stone with no success…then…

Jean Francois Champollion Champollion knew

that part of the message was same in all three passages: It praised Pharoah Ptolemy V for gifts he had given the temples.

One day in 1822, Champllion was studying Greek and Hieroglyphics and he was able to match sounds and Hieroglyphs in the proper names Cleopatra and Ptolemy.